Chapter 855: Chapter 335: The Terrifying Law of Cause and Effect, Karmic Force
Walking into the laboratory, the Medical Fairy said:
"Beyond the two paths of flesh and soul, we’ve discovered that this world actually has a third path! The entire Nine-State Civilization is curious about it."
"Right now we’re extrapolating the future of the destiny system, projecting the state of this type of Cultivator millions, tens of millions of years from now."
Obviously, they were using Hongmeng’s computing power, and taking these Golden Mud Clones as templates to run experiments.
At this moment, these Golden Mud Clones were mutually deducting each other’s Qi Fortune, collecting data.
And under the burning of the Eye of Identification, they were being解析ed at high speed; the path of Qi Fortune was gradually becoming clear, even progressing much faster than the neighboring Celestial Destiny World.
"We’ve found something very frightening."
The Medical Fairy said, "The Soul Path has Heart Demons... the Body Path has meridian disorder and Fire and Demonic deviation... then on the Destiny path, are there any cultivation devil-barriers?"
"Our conclusion is: yes! We call them karma, Karmic Force, and Karmic Barriers!"
The Painter listened, utterly absorbed.
Even Ning Zheng, who was cultivating Firewood, had turned his gaze here, because it was closely related to him.
Seeing the Painter’s curiosity, the Medical Fairy pointed at the laboratory and said:
"First, how does one cultivate the path of Qi Fortune?"
"Soul Path Cultivators hunt some Demon Beasts, temper Soul Pearls and the like to grow their own souls."
"Body Path Cultivators hunt Demon Beasts, refine Blood and Flesh Replenishing Pills to strengthen their own bodies."
"Destiny Cultivators hunt the Qi Fortune of living beings, deduct their Destiny, and through Refinement increase their own Destiny."
"I use your Destiny to cultivate, it becomes part of my vast Destiny, while your Innate Destiny Origin is left Deficient."
Ning Zheng was slightly startled when he heard this.
But he quickly reacted.
Other people temporarily get -2, and it looks like it will recover; but in reality?"
It will slowly shave away at your upper limit of Qi Fortune; a single -2 might permanently reduce a person’s Qi Fortune Value by 0.002.
Just like how a person falls ill.
Every time you get sick it seems you recover, but in fact everyone’s physical upper limit is slowly being worn down.
Accumulate enough -2s and the upper limit will be completely deducted; equivalent to: I permanently decrease, you permanently increase, every pore of mine is soaked with your blood.
"But Low Tier Destiny Cultivators all have to have their Qi Fortune Value harvested once; the Gods take money from them and use it as cultivation consumables. When these Cultivators grow up, their innate Original Coins are missing; in the unseen, their fate is Deficient, and they must reclaim it from the Gods."
"Thus, the younger generation of Cultivators and the Gods have an unseen karmic tie between them."
"As the entire world inevitably develops, everyone becomes indebted to everyone else; the debts turn into a tangled mess... countless karmic threads link them together, karma becomes chaotic, Karmic Barriers accumulate, and a terrifying world-scale Tribulation will arrive."
The Painter listened, deep in thought.
It was indeed so.
The Qi Fortune path is, in essence, the circulation of ’money’! A Monopoly game!
When you gain more, I lose some... the entire society mutually exploits one another, forming one karmic line after another.
The world’s entropy will increase, chaos will mount, everything becoming a tangled ball of threads.
The Path of Destiny looks very powerful, almost omnipotent, but in reality... the side effects are enormous!
If they absorb too much Destiny from others, they become bound by Karmic Force, generating massive Karmic Barriers, devil-barriers, which are said to obstruct cultivation.
Those related to them by karma may even come looking for them once they grow strong.
When he was weak you stole his money; once he becomes powerful he will naturally reclaim it, settling that stretch of karma between you!
So,
The Gods who cultivate the path of Qi Fortune are destined to be chased for their debts sooner or later.
In the long run, Karmic Barriers will accumulate day by day, they will be Bound by Karmic Force, and a great Tribulation is bound to form between Heaven and earth; everyone is in karma, no one can escape.
"This path of Destiny truly conceals great horror!"
The Painter sighed inwardly:
"Unless the person you’re karmically tied to, the one you owe money, suddenly dies a violent death, in which case the debt dies with them; otherwise the karma will always remain."
The Medical Fairy nodded heavily.
If I owe you money but don’t want to repay it, and yet want to resolve this debt, what should I do?
Of course I deal with you, the creditor.
I pour concrete over you and sink you to the bottom of a river; once you’re dead, the debt is written off and doesn’t need to be repaid. This is called eliminating karma.
You can kill one or two people, but if you’ve harvested the Qi Fortune of an entire country or continent, how could you kill them all?
You can’t possibly kill everyone just to wipe out the debt, right?
Besides, I harvest Qi Fortune Value every day—if I kill them, how do I keep collecting?
They must be kept alive, that’s for sure; certain creditors are bound to rise up in the future, and of course they will come to collect.
The Painter said, "Even if the Mortal you owe money to, the one you’re karmically tied to, has no ability to collect the debt, if I deliberately plot against you and groom that Mortal who’s karmically linked to you, raising him until he’s strong enough to come collect from you, the karmic bond between you will make it impossible for you to escape! A battle is inevitable!"
The Medical Fairy was startled. "That does make sense. I can use the people who have karma with you to calculate you yourself. You’re a real genius, sir!"
The Painter really lived up to being the rumored behind‑the‑scenes final boss; his way of thinking was indeed razor sharp.
"However, we’ve also found a solution."
At this moment, the Medical Fairy beamed, "You can’t let living people owe karma on their bodies, but dead people can owe karma."
"The dead don’t come to collect debts!"
"Those Earth-bound Spirits, we keep harvesting them. So what if they die... Once they’re dead, the body dies and the debt is gone; after life and death, all karma is null."
"Once the Earth-bound Spirit is reset, it has nothing to do with you anymore! Just keep stealing its money." The Medical Fairy had obviously also thought of Ning Zheng’s early methods. Back then, Ning Zheng had pulled himself up from nothing by reaping a whole batch of Earth-bound Spirits.
"This is called cultivating the Ancestors’ Technique—karma does not fall on me!"
The Painter was utterly shocked as he listened.
Ancestors...?
The Ancestors’ Technique?
Only the Ancestors’ Technique is free from karma?
So this Qi Fortune stuff, does it mean that sucking up ancestral incense and relying on ancestral blessing is actually the strongest orthodox Path of Destiny?
The Medical Fairy looked supremely proud:
"Pen up a bunch of Old Ancestors, harvest them in bulk. Even if there’s the occasional debt collector, it’s just some awakened Ghost Kings. Sure, it’s dangerous, but way less so!"
"That’s why our Nine-State, with ancestors all over the place, is especially suited to cultivating the Path of Destiny."
"Funny when you think about it—our Nine-State cultivates three paths at once: soul, fate, and flesh. They form a tripod, each offsetting the weaknesses of the other systems!"
Clearly, reaping the Old Ancestors was the optimal solution for the Qi Fortune Path.
Reaping too many living people really does harm Heaven’s balance!
Ning Zheng fell silent at that.
He looked at his daily 3.3 billion Qi Fortune Value. I just hit a big windfall, reaped a whole world’s worth of living people, went on a revenge spending spree, buy buy buy buy—and now you’re telling me I’ve offended Heaven?
He suddenly got the feeling that a great calamity was looming.
Ning Zheng’s first thought was: I need to find a way to wipe out the debt on the other side, this being Bound by Karmic Force, or else find a Dharma Method that can counter karma.
This money really did come too fast. It felt a bit scalding to hold.
Turns out there really is no such thing as free in this world; everything has its price quietly written on it.
But Ning Zheng had no intention of paying it back. I already spent it all—why should I repay money I owed with my own skill?
Ning Zheng’s mind stirred as he looked toward the Qi Fortune Gambling Table, searching for a way to resolve Karmic Barrier.
[Karma and Evil Record, 100,000 Qi Fortune Value.]
Looking down on me?
Why is it only a measly hundred thousand?
Ning Zheng raised an eyebrow and decisively bought it.
He skimmed through it. It was an exposition on all kinds of information and knowledge about Karmic Barrier, and from it he discovered a fact.
Low Level Qi Fortune cultivators are heavy‑handed when they act. They don’t just deduct temporary Qi Fortune Value; they straight up exploit part of other people’s permanent Qi Fortune Value and graft it onto themselves.
So they seize others’ "Upper Limit Origin" to permanently increase their own "Upper Limit Origin," and that’s what creates karmic consequences.
But Ning Zheng’s Qi Fortune Gambling Table operates perfectly. It really only deducts people’s daily temporary Qi Fortune Value. It doesn’t harm your upper limit; it just temporarily transfers your Qi Fortune onto me, without hurting your source, without touching your karma.
Come to think of it, Ning Zheng’s own Qi Fortune Value was 0 to begin with.
If he really could skim off a bit of others’ permanent Qi Fortune every time and add it to himself, his permanent Qi Fortune Bar would already be sky‑high!
"So I don’t get stained by karma?"
Ning Zheng’s expression turned pensive. "Or rather, only High Tier Qi Fortune cultivators can perfectly avoid karma when shaving off Qi Fortune, without damaging others’ origin."
"But High Tier cultivators all started off as Low Tier. Which Low Tier cultivator’s method of deducting Qi Fortune isn’t crude? They all get heavily stained with Karmic Force and massive karma so they can cultivate quickly... The original accumulation of capital always reeks of blood."
"That’s why, once they cultivate to a certain level, there’s always a great Tribulation written into their fate!"
"Only after they break free of karma and reach that ultra‑high Great Power level of skimming Qi Fortune without picking up karma do they become the true top‑tier Destiny Divine Beings!"
Ning Zheng suddenly understood. Not getting stained by karma is crucial.
Once you’re stained by karma, your destiny can’t stand alone; it’s entangled with others. As a Destiny cultivator, that makes you very prone to accidents and lets others follow the threads between you and other people to calculate against you.
Which also meant... that flunky the Night Emperor, who’s currently helping him crazily shave off Qi Fortune Value, was in deep trouble.
The number one person Bound by Karmic Force!
Ning Zheng was startled. "So I was right—every insane profit has its price already marked in the dark."
"This massive windfall of mine is going to be repaid... but not by me—by the Night Emperor I completely screwed over?"
After all, the Night Emperor’s Qi Fortune‑reaping methods were extremely crude—using Golden statues and Golden Men for large‑scale harvesting. Of course that would damage a lot of people’s upper limits.
Is he going to die a horrible death soon?
Just to help Ning Zheng earn this huge fortune over these few days, he’s become Bound by Karmic Force from all directions, and the debt collectors from the Otherworld who can’t get at Ning Zheng have all come after him instead.
