Wilt removed the monocle from his right eye. He had finished talking with his No. 037 clone.
The split was sixty-forty. The two Sequence 3 Mentors of Deceit would get sixty percent, while the three forces on Wilt's side would divide the remaining forty percent.
"It'll take a week for the forged documents to arrive, but that works out. I can digest some of the Potion in the meantime."
"Besides, I never intended to cooperate with the Aurora Order. I'm just using it as an excuse to secure a larger share. If I trick Lanevus afterward, I might really be able to keep the entire forty percent for myself."
Wilt planned to deceive Lanevus once the forged documents arrived. For now, he was ready to digest his Potion.
"But before acting as a Monster, I need to check on my cheat, the Key of Light!"
To keep himself from being disturbed, Wilt used the materials he had bought to construct a Wall of Spirituality. Then he began reciting the Key of Light's Honorific Name in Hermes:
"Key of Light, endless chaos, embodiment of fate!"
"Buzz!!!"
Wilt felt his spirit body rising higher and higher. It seemed that, if he wished, he could leave his body and travel somewhere else.
He closed his eyes and allowed his spirit body to ascend through the endless void. At last, he saw a pure, transcendent halo and entered it.
"I knew I could get in!"
Wilt opened his eyes and saw the familiar Buddha's land around him. A delighted expression appeared on his face, because this meant he could still use his Sefirah.
"Whoosh!"
A streak of golden light suddenly rose from the lotus pedestal beneath Wilt's feet and entered his spirit body.
A wealth of knowledge instantly appeared in Wilt's mind:
"Scripture of Deliverance from Misfortune..."
"Merit Sarira Condensation Method..."
A full ten minutes passed before Wilt finished comprehending and absorbing this knowledge.
"So these are Sefirah cultivation methods from the Western Continent's holy monk lineage."
"The Scripture of Deliverance from Misfortune uses the power of the Sefirah, the power of fate, to deliver the world from suffering. In return, fate grants a special substance commonly known as merit, those golden lights."
"And the Merit Sarira Condensation Method condenses one's merit into a sarira."
"A sarira has three uses. The first is to use it on oneself to avert calamity and gain the greatest possible luck for a short time. The second is body refinement: condensing a Golden Body of Merit to strengthen one's physique. The third is cultivating an avatar."
"An avatar?" At that thought, Wilt looked at the many stone statues below.
The closest to him were Buddhas, followed by bodhisattvas, then Wisdom Kings, and finally arhats.
"The knowledge in my mind says that when someone from the holy monk lineage dies, their sarira and avatar both enter the Buddha's land, the Key of Light..."
"So could all of these be Merit Avatars?"
Wilt decided to put the idea to the test.
"Merit Avatars are all powered by sariras, but I don't have one!"
Suddenly, the swastika sealing the Circle of Inevitability's corruption in Wilt's spirit body lit up. A sarira flew out of it, the very one he had picked up in the ruins of the Rorsted Archipelago.
Wilt: "..."
After a few seconds of silence, Wilt picked up the sarira, descended from the lotus pedestal, and walked up to an enormous Buddha statue.
Following the method in his mind, Wilt infused Spirituality into the sarira.
"Buzz!!!" The sarira emitted a dazzling light. Golden light entered the Buddha statue, but it vanished like a stone sinking into the sea, producing no response.
"Why isn't anything happening? Was I wrong?"
"Or is the Buddha statue's level too high? Maybe I should try one at a lower level?"
Wilt continued downward and came to a stone statue of a bodhisattva. He tried the same method, but there was still no response.
"No good. I'll try another!"
Unwilling to give up, Wilt went to a stone statue of a Wisdom King. He failed again.
"Was I really overthinking it? Are these actually just ordinary stone statues?"
Disappointed, he went to a stone statue of an arhat and activated the sarira in his hand.
"Whoosh!"
"Buzz!!!"
After the golden light entered the stone statue, the arhat statue suddenly shook slightly. Wilt also felt a faint connection form between himself and the statue.
"It works! These stone statues really are Merit Avatars!"
His eyes lit up with delight, and he hurriedly increased the amount of Spirituality he was feeding into it.
And that was all.
Aside from shaking more violently, nothing happened to the statue. Instead, Wilt felt a sharp pain in his head and nearly fainted. Alarmed, he hurriedly stopped.
"No good. My Sequence level is too low. I can't control these Merit Avatars at all!"
The treasure was right in front of him, but he couldn't open it. It left Wilt longing for it.
"Alas, it looks like I'll have to wait until I advance before trying again."
"But this is good news for me too. After all, it means I really can control these Merit Avatars, so my weakness in combat will be greatly reduced."
Wilt took the sarira back to the lotus pedestal and sat down cross-legged.
"I'll practice the Scripture of Deliverance from Misfortune first. When I act as a Monster tonight, I'll see if it has any special uses."
Wilt then closed his eyes and took the sarira back into his spirit body. Golden light of merit circulated through him.
Wilt began cultivating along the prescribed route of the method.
Half an hour later, Wilt was forced to leave the Key of Light because he couldn't sustain his Spirituality.
But he discovered that he could now summon the sarira on his person at will, so he spent the entire afternoon cultivating with it.
Night fell over the cemetery district on the outskirts of Tingen City.
"Thump, thump, thump... rustle... tap, tap!!"
Wilt was performing the Dance of Attraction, combining its movements and rhythm with his own Spirituality to stir the natural forces around him.
Like a combination of priest and summoner, Wilt used the Dance of Attraction to awaken and attract some of the things slumbering in the cemetery district.
"Woo, woo, woo~"
Gusts of eerie wind suddenly swept through the area. Wilt activated his Spirit Vision and saw more than a dozen translucent ghosts floating in the air.
These were all souls of ordinary people after death. Unable to enter the underworld, they could only wander the world. In time, they would either dissipate on their own, be devoured by other powerful evil spirits, or turn into evil spirits themselves and harm people, only to be discovered and destroyed by official Beyonders. That was their fated end.
Today, Wilt would use them for an experiment. He spoke to the ghosts floating in the air:
"Attach yourselves to me and let me command you. In return, once I've digested my Potion, I'll deliver you and send you into the cycle of reincarnation."
Wilt took out the sarira.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!"
More than a dozen streaks of golden light entered the ghosts. Their awareness began to return, and they were no longer unconscious.
A faint, pleased smile appeared on Wilt's face.
"Let's have a pleasant cooperation from here on!"
"Jingle, jingle!"
"Jingle, jingle!!!"
The gravekeeper opened his eyes groggily.
"Who is it? It's the middle of the night. Can't a man get some sleep?"
"La, la, la~"
"La, la, la~"
The sound of a little girl cheerfully humming a tune suddenly came from outside.
"Did someone's child lose her way?"
The gravekeeper got out of bed and opened the door.
"Ah, there's someone here!!"
He saw a little girl of seven or eight. She had an angelically sweet face, wore a pure white dress, and had her hair in twin tails. Her bare feet stood on the black earth.
When the little girl saw the gravekeeper, she came skipping toward him.
"Jingle, jingle!"
"Jingle, jingle!!"
The bells on her twin tails rang crisply through the silent cemetery.
"Uncle! Uncle!!"
The little girl came up to the gravekeeper and looked at him pitifully.
"I got carried away playing and got separated from my mom and dad. Uncle, can you help me find them?"
The gravekeeper frowned. He wasn't allowed to leave his post at night, but seeing that the little girl was about to cry, he finally agreed:
"All right, wait here a moment."
"Yay! I knew you were a really good person, Uncle!"
A smile appeared on the gravekeeper's face, and the girl's praise dispelled all the irritation he had felt at being woken up.
He went back inside, quickly put on his coat and hat, and came out again:
"Where did you get separated from your mom and dad?"
The girl pointed in the direction outside the cemetery. "Over there!"
"That's where we got separated."
The gravekeeper held out his right hand to the girl. "Come on, I'll take you to find them."
"Thank you, Uncle!"
"Hm?" The gravekeeper looked down at the girl. Her hand felt unusually cold, as if it had no warmth at all.
But he soon shook his head, assuming the weather was too cold and the little girl was chilled.
"Jingle, jingle!"
"Jingle, jingle!!"
The bells on her twin tails continued to ring through the cemetery.
The gravekeeper chuckled and thought to himself, If only I had a daughter like her.
Just then, the gravekeeper's gaze drifted involuntarily to a gravestone on his left.
"Boom!!!"
The gravekeeper's mind went blank in an instant. His body suddenly stiffened, and his face turned deathly pale, drained of all color.
He saw a black-and-white photograph on the gravestone, with three lines engraved beneath it: The sweetest child, the loveliest daughter, the purest angel!
"Gulp!" The gravekeeper's throat bobbed.
He stiffly turned his head to look at the girl whose hand he was holding. Her face was identical to the one in the photograph!
The little girl tilted her head, a puzzled expression on her face. "Uncle, why did you stop?"
"Don't you want to help me find my mom and dad anymore either?"