Karmic luck is a thing profound and subtle, the mystery of all mysteries.
Such was the description of karmic luck found in ancient Daoist canons. The Dao of karmic luck was lofty and unfathomable. Whenever ancient cultivators stumbled upon shameful or illicit strokes of fortune, they often credited them to karmic luck and virtue. The two classic maxims, "This treasure is fated to be mine," and "Treasures belong to those with virtue," had originated precisely in this manner.
Ancient scriptures and Daoist classics contained numerous works recording karmic luck. Yet out of ten authors, all ten barely understood it. In antiquity, karmic luck was even less manifest; the emergence of a child of karmic destiny was an earth-shattering event. And those so-called children of karmic destiny from ancient times would, by modern standards, possess at most eight or nine chi of luck—placing them merely in the upper-middle tier in the Palace of Grand Beginning.
Karmic luck was scarce and held in high esteem. Consequently, many ancient cultivators who possessed only a smattering of knowledge loved to pen treatises on karmic luck to show off their cultivation and etch their names into cultivation history.
Yet because they did not truly understand it and could articulate few genuine principles, they could only pad their volumes with lengthy passages—or even entire tomes—of florid rhetoric. Upon closer inspection, only a few sentences were of any use; the rest was essentially meaningless filler.
As such, among the more than seven thousand Daoist texts on karmic luck collected by the Palace of Grand Beginning, Wei Yuan finished reading them all in just three days, gleaning only a bit of knowledge regarding anecdotal lore and unofficial history.
His greatest takeaway was that those authors were far less competent than he was.
Among these texts, however, was a special one: a manuscript written in the hand of the Palace of Grand Beginning's Patriarch, detailing the Patriarch's personal insights into the Dao of karmic luck. This manuscript was naturally of extraordinary value, accessible only to the Abbey Masters and Hall Masters of the Three Abbeys and Twelve Halls. Even Scenery Command cultivators like Zhidan Sanren and Old Daoist Chuhe were unqualified to peruse it.
Virtually all high-ranking cultivators throughout the generations of the Palace of Grand Beginning had flipped through this manuscript, and almost all of them had read it only once—Suchan and Xihe being no exceptions.
At first, Wei Yuan was quite curious. But after his true body hurried back to the sect's mountain gate and spent a night reading it in the Patriarch Hall, he had no desire to read it a second time either.
The Patriarch of the Palace of Grand Beginning naturally possessed his own insights regarding karmic luck, and they were exceedingly unique.
The Patriarch believed that when karmic luck was bestowed upon oneself, its profound mysteries, miraculous encounters, and extraordinary phenomena were merely pathways. In the end, it was nothing more than making one's Dao arts more powerful and one's immortal sword slash deeper into people.
And as for the concept of "power," the Patriarch deconstructed it into a few simple metrics: speed, accuracy, elemental countering, and whether it struck vital points.
Reasoning from this, the Patriarch deemed that mediocre cultivators across the world struck vaguely and executed sloppily. Worse, they could not aim at their enemies' weak points, failing to land hits even against opponents moving at a turtle's crawl.
In such cases, the role of karmic luck became obvious: a cultivator unleashed a strike in a muddled daze, and it just happened to hit, just happened to land right on the enemy's vitals. This was called being favored by karmic luck, or colloquially known as dumb dogshit luck.
For the Patriarch, however, every strike he unleashed was executed to perfection, at full power, and plunged straight into the vital aperture. Therefore, karmic luck was utterly useless to him.
When writing this book, the Patriarch had seemingly been exceedingly busy, embroiled in non-stop, continuous warfare as he challenged a certain major power. Thus, every dozen or so pages, he would add a note at the bottom:
"Slew a child of karmic destiny today;
Killed another son of the Heavenly Dao today;
Ran into a fellow today who claimed to be favored by destiny, a son of the planes, the orthodox inheritor of heaven and earth, and the protagonist of ten thousand scriptures. He wanted to use me as a whetstone, hoping to slay me to prove his Dao and ascend the immortal gate?
Although he bragged big, he did possess some skill. It took me three sword strikes to destroy both his body and spirit, and I had to follow up with one more strike just to seal him off from reincarnation.
Since this fellow claimed to be destiny's protagonist, why didn't he reincarnate into our Human Race? Instead, he was born among the alien races. Truly absurd, nonsensical, a pearl cast before swine, maggots festering in his sea of consciousness!
Furthermore, this guy was merely in the late Scenery Command stage, yet he dared to come knocking at my door to challenge me, completely unaware that I had already cultivated to the late Dharma Idol stage! It was practically delivering himself to death! Could his karmic luck have been urging him to deliver treasures to me? How did he know I've been running short on resources lately?
From this, one can see that karmic luck isn't worth a damn!"
This was a rare instance of the Patriarch swearing in a text, showing just how sick and tired he had grown of slaying children of karmic destiny, sons of the planes, and favored ones of heaven back then.
Yet after finishing the Patriarch's manuscript, Wei Yuan felt deeply that Tianqing Hall seemed to be the true orthodox successor of the Patriarch...
Naturally, regarding the uses of karmic luck, Wei Yuan held different views from the Patriarch. Karmic luck had broad applications; it was by no means limited to combat and sword duels.
Taking Wei Yuan himself as an example: no matter how difficult a mathematical problem was, whether he actually knew how to solve it had no bearing on whether he knew the correct answer. And that was enough. Was anything more important than the answer? Wei Yuan did not think so.
Even the Umbrella Corporation, which had once dominated a minor realm, possessed the slogan: "Give me results."
Having reached the Patriarch's level, one naturally had no need for karmic luck. But vast as the world was and long as history had run, how many Patriarchs had ever existed? All other cultivators were the clumsy, slow-handed, mediocre cultivators the Patriarch spoke of, and they naturally needed karmic luck.
One could even say that so long as one was not the Patriarch, karmic luck was useful—and of immense use.
Among the past luminaries of the Palace of Grand Beginning, the Three Immortals went without saying; with little lifespan remaining, the Patriarch had gritted his teeth and forced their elevation from among several disciples. Suchan and Xihe were exceedingly proud, yet even they lacked the confidence to exempt themselves from the label of "clumsy and slow-handed." Thus, they had refused to read it a second time lest it shake their Dao hearts. As for everyone else, there was even less need to mention them.
From this manuscript, Wei Yuan also picked up on certain details. To borrow a phrase popular in Qingming today, the Patriarch was an out-and-out Human supremacist.
Moreover, the Patriarch was aloof, disconnected from the common folk, and utterly ignorant of the hardships faced by ordinary cultivators. Being his disciple was probably an agonizing ordeal.
Yet in Wei Yuan's eyes, it was precisely because of these merits of the Patriarch that he now had the opportunity to author his own treatise! This endeavor would achieve merit in the present and bring benefits for tens of thousands of years. Countless ages from now, people across numerous grotto-heavens and minor worlds would still sing Wei Yuan's name...
Thus, after returning to Ganzhou, Wei Yuan's true body continued refining the immortal mountain. Once presiding over the grand array, he was immobilized, making it the perfect opportunity to divide his divine sense to undertake this momentous task of redefining karmic luck.
To redetermine the divisions and definitions of karmic luck, he naturally needed to distinguish between its different types.
Based on Wei Yuan's years of experience, mortal karmic luck existed in massive quantities, yet its uses and effects were relatively limited, only proving useful in refining artifacts and pills or deducing the outcomes of certain events.
In terms of form, mortal karmic luck was loose and scattered, like wisps of smoke. Even if hundreds or thousands gathered in one place, their substance could hardly match a single strand of Dao Foundation karmic luck.
Dao Foundation karmic luck, on the other hand, was like suspended water droplets, floating lightly, yet a single drop was equivalent to a thousand wisps of mortal luck smoke.
Dharma Idol karmic luck was thick and viscous. If Dao Foundation karmic luck was like clear water, then Dharma Idol karmic luck was like heavy oil. Upon reaching the peak of the Dharma Idol stage, it became as dense as a solid, quite like flowing magma. A standard strand of Dharma Idol karmic luck could roughly equal over a hundred Dao Foundation strands, or a hundred thousand strands of mortal luck.
Scenery Command karmic luck belonged to yet another realm, undergoing immense transformations from the early stage to perfection. Scenery Command qi was like a jade pillar, already a solid in Wei Yuan's perception. However, by the middle stage it began to burn, and upon reaching perfection, it became a mass of burning purple qi, with only its core remaining solid.
If assessed by the essence of karmic luck, mortals occupied one tier, while the Dao Foundation and Dharma Idol stages actually belonged to the same tier—the gap between the two combined was not even as large as the difference between early and perfect Scenery Command.
Immortal karmic luck had to be considered separately. Up to now, Wei Yuan had actually acquired only two strands of immortal-grade karmic luck, both originating from the Strength Shamans.
Having classified the ranks and forms of karmic luck, what remained was qi-gazing. The key to the so-called qi-gazing naturally lay in the gazing: beyond form, there was color. In truth, what Wei Yuan was most dissatisfied with regarding the Patriarch's qi-gazing method was the color scheme.
Mortal luck was extremely loose and hardly distinct. This was the easiest to handle: white would suffice. Whether slightly denser or fainter, it was all a strand of white qi.
The middle tiers were also simple. From Dao Foundation to Scenery Command, they were designated as green, blue, and purple, respectively. As for perfect Scenery Command—where the spirit mansion was established and the true spirit awakened—it was assigned an independent sky-blue.
Finally, there was immortal qi. While establishing this, Wei Yuan suddenly thought of Molten Dragon. He had practically watched him gain the Desolate Realm's recognition, receive the authority of heaven and earth, and then march valiantly to his death, perishing alongside the Heavenly Pillar.
In fact, Molten Dragon had secretly concealed a strand of karmic luck on Wei Yuan long ago. Had Wei Yuan been able to finish reading Preliminary Exploration of the Desolate Realm, or mastered the Five Notes of the Desolate Roar, he naturally would have noticed it much earlier. Regrettably...
Only after being cloaked in the authority of the Desolate Realm—effectively occupying nearly half of a Heavenly Shaman's seat—did Wei Yuan realize in hindsight why the Desolate Realm had accepted him, a human.
As for the strand of karmic luck borrowed later from Jiumu, Wei Yuan had never known how to repay it, and thus had no plans to repay it. This actually raised another question: how had Jiumu managed to lend out karmic luck in the first place?
Traced from this origin, Wei Yuan gave a soft sigh and tapped his finger lightly. From then on, immortal-grade karmic luck was designated as translucent gold and bright crimson.
With the system classified, the final step was determining their functions. The most common use of a cultivator's karmic luck was to pursue fortune and avoid calamity, or, as the Patriarch had put it, to ensure one's strikes were timed to perfection.
In this regard, karmic luck of the same grade was effective against cultivators of the same rank, miraculously effective against lower ranks, and largely ineffective against higher ranks unless immense quantities were stacked together.
A cultivator's karmic luck was easy to understand, but immortal karmic luck was fundamentally beyond comprehension. Wei Yuan temporarily left this section blank.
There was no such thing as possessing multiple strands of immortal karmic luck; obtaining even a single strand was excruciatingly difficult. If one wished to seek a strand of immortal karmic luck, ascending to immortality oneself was probably easier.
An immortal's divine sense moved like lightning, capable of dividing into thousands of thoughts; even in a game of chess, they would not fear Wei Yuan. Thus, Wei Yuan's reputation as a national master and chess sage was only good for bullying ordinary Scenery Command cultivators; he could not rely on it to swindle karmic luck from immortals.
Mortal karmic luck was the easiest to understand: it had modest uses, but nothing tremendous. Yet once its quantity exceeded a certain threshold, inexplicable transformations arose. For instance, a hundred million strands of mortal luck could slay an immortal. When Wei Yuan had personally struck down Liumiao, he had vaguely sensed that as the endless mortal luck dissipated, it also stripped away something from Liumiao, which was what ultimately caused him to perish.
Otherwise, an immortal's body possessed no weaknesses or vital points; let alone taking a sword strike from Wei Yuan, even being minced to pieces would allow them to regenerate in the blink of an eye. But as the mortal luck faded, carrying away that tiny essence, Liumiao had fallen with absolute finality.
The same had been true for Lu Changhe and Xu Shutong; both had their final traces of life stripped away by mortal luck.
Wei Yuan did not yet understand this mechanism; he would likely comprehend it only after ascending to immortality. For now, he had to leave it blank. Yet this gap did not prevent Wei Yuan from compiling the preceding contents into a book, after which he began brainstorming a title.
And then... Wei Yuan got stuck at this very step. After coming up with several hundred names without feeling satisfied, he had no choice but to set it aside for now.
Wei Yuan also revised six fundamental Body Casting cultivation methods, replacing the Patriarch's qi-gazing portions contained within with the methods he had created. Only now could his work be considered preliminarily complete.
By this time, the karmic luck within the Splendor of the Many Realms had already transformed. Above a sea of white clouds floated an emerald-green lake, beside which bubbled a blue spiritual spring. There was also an ancient purple tree, upon whose topmost branches burned several quiet clusters of azure flames.
Wei Yuan suddenly had a peculiar thought: what did his own karmic luck look like? Once the notion arose, he could no longer rein in his curiosity.
While this might be difficult for others, for Wei Yuan it was actually quite simple.
He arrived before the statue of the Creation Immortal Venerable within the Splendor of the Many Realms. Channeling divine abilities, he cleared the surroundings and severed ties with heaven and earth. Then, he silently reflected upon his life's achievements; the more he thought about them, the more he admired himself.
In the blink of an eye, the earth quaked, and the grotto-heavens shone brightly in unison. Inside each spirit mansion, immortal light diffused, ethereal melodies faintly resonated, a shower of celestial flowers descended, and the profound mysteries of the Great Dao manifested on their own!
Beneath all these dazzling, magnificent phenomena, a beam of black light descended slowly, settling into the statue of the Creation Immortal Venerable.
Before Wei Yuan could even react in shock, his heart jolted, and his primordial spirit immediately returned to its body. At this moment, above the Lu Clan Ancestral Mountain, ten thousand li of fish-scale golden-red tribulation clouds had already gathered—the heavenly tribulation had arrived!
Chapter 1199