Hall of Merits

The young cultivator woke from his coma, and the first thing that met his eyes was Zhang Sheng's face. A surge of emotion rushed through him, and he tried to sit up. But pain racked every inch of his body, and with all strength drained away, he fell right back down. Just then, Wei Yuan's face appeared in his field of vision. "Don't move. Your wounds haven't been treated yet." The young cultivator looked around and caught sight of Ji Liuli, Bao Yun, and Xiaoyu. He blinked in a daze. "Why are all of you here?" "Senior Brother Sun, how did you end up in this state? It was humans who hurt you—who were they?" Zhang Sheng asked. The young cultivator was none other than Sun Yu, whom Wei Yuan had first met during the Immortal Sect Unified Examination. Wei Yuan had never expected that their next meeting would find Sun Yu chased over thousands of li, grievously wounded and clinging to life. At Zhang Sheng's question, Sun Yu recalled that nightmarish scene. His body trembled slightly as he spoke: "Master took several of us disciples on a secret journey west. She said we were escorting something over and giving us some practical experience along the way. But at the border of the Western Regions, we were ambushed. Master was surrounded by three dharma idols. Before she used a secret technique to send me away, I saw her detonate her own dharma idol with my own eyes..." Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli were both shaken. Perfected Ningxi had been renowned for years, always kind to others and exceptionally well liked. Back then, Zhang Sheng had received a gift of Liquan Powder from her, which had helped restore his Dao power. Who could have imagined she would fall just like that? "Someone betrayed the sect and leaked Master's whereabouts!" Sun Yu clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, gritting his teeth. "It was one of my fellow disciples! Once I return to the sect..." Sun Yu did not continue, calming down instead. A blood feud of this scale only needed to be carved into the heart; the calmer he seemed, the deeper it was etched. Wei Yuan said, "I captured two of the men who pursued you. Once we interrogate them thoroughly later, we should be able to figure out who they are." Sun Yu nodded, then looked down at his injuries. Countless wounds of varying sizes marked his body, but the main one was a blade cut across his chest and abdomen. It had not only severed several ribs, but had sliced into some of his internal organs as well. While fleeing for his life, Sun Yu had only had time to seal the wound crudely. Now it had been reopened, and Wei Yuan was clearing away the necrotic flesh. Hailing from the Hall of Xuanming, Sun Yu felt a vigorous life force steadily pouring into his body, causing much of the dying flesh to regrow. Astonished, he asked, "Is this life-mystic power? No, life-mystic power isn't this potent." "Jia Wood Life-Mystic. It's a trait of this domain," Wei Yuan replied. "No wonder... Hey, that cut went crooked! You're damaging the natural muscle grain!" Sun Yu instinctively began critiquing Wei Yuan's medical technique. That slice had veered off by the width of two hairs—it was simply intolerable! If Sun Yu had made a cut like that while Perfected Ningxi was still alive, he would have been scolded for days. Wei Yuan felt an immediate touch of embarrassment. He had thought his medical skills were already quite proficient. He made another cut. This time, Sun Yu could bear it no longer. He took the knife from Wei Yuan's hand, peeled back the skin of his own abdomen with one hand, and pointed with the tip of the blade with the other. "There's an extremely tiny blood vessel right here, and several meridians behind it. If you cut down like that, you're bound to sever them. See it?" Meridians were what that world of Xu Wenwu called nerves. Watching Sun Yu slice open an undamaged organ and tease out that tiny vessel just to display several meridians thinner than strands of hair, Wei Yuan felt his scalp tingle. He badly wanted to point out that this organ had been perfectly fine and uninjured. Sun Yu thrust the knife straight into his own liver. Wei Yuan was alarmed and blurted out, "Martial Uncle! We can study medicine later!" Ignoring Wei Yuan, Sun Yu drove half the blade into his liver, twisted it twice, and slowly drew it out. Balanced on the blade's tip was a tiny round bead. His face grew a shade paler as he said, "The Palace Master bestowed this on Wei Yuan, and it was what Master was escorting. She handed it to me before she died. I was afraid of losing it, so I hid it a little deeper." Zhang Sheng reached out and took the bead. "The item has arrived. Focus on treating your wounds first. Whether it's facing enemies or seeking vengeance, you have to recover before doing anything else." Sun Yu nodded, lay back down, and slowly closed his eyes. Having struggled between life and death for days, only now that he had fulfilled his master's dying charge could he finally breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to rest for a moment. By the time he woke, his wounds would probably be healed. Yet no sooner had Sun Yu closed his eyes than he snapped them open again. "... That cut went half a fen too deep. There are three blood vessels right underneath..." A moment later: "... It's just a tiny piece of dead meat, why did it take three cuts? Can't you be clean and decisive with a single stroke? Slicing like that, you'll be at it until tomorrow morning..." A moment later: "Kid, you've already severed eleven of my meridians! Did your master never take you to dissect people? Ah, right, you're not from the Hall of Xuanming, forget I said anything..." Finally: "Give me the knife! I'll do it myself!" ... Wei Yuan watched Sun Yu fall into a deep sleep, carefully pulled the blanket over him, maintained the Jia Wood Life-Mystic art, and left the room. Zhang Sheng was waiting outside. Seeing Wei Yuan emerge, he remarked, "Everyone from the Hall of Xuanming is like that. You'll get used to it. In truth, Senior Brother Sun and Perfected Ningxi are usually very good-natured people. You just can't discuss medicine with them; bring that up, and they turn into entirely different people. Next time you treat him, just knock him out cold." Zhang Sheng held out his hand. Sitting in his palm was that transparent bead, inside of which a tiny hall drifted up and down. Zhang Sheng said, "The palace bestowed this on you. See where it's best to place it. Still, to think the palace actually granted this as well... No wonder those people ambushed and killed Perfected Ningxi." "What is this?" Wei Yuan asked. "The Hall of Merits. More precisely, a sub-hall of the Hall of Merits," Zhang Sheng said. Wei Yuan took the bead and probed it with his divine sense, immediately grasping its function. The Palace of Grand Beginning's Hall of Merits had seven sub-halls in total. Along with the main hall, they constituted a single set of Dharma treasures—an authentic immortal relic. Even millions of li away, a sub-hall could be used to redeem merits. Though it could only redeem a few items after each interval and could not dispense treasures of excessive rank, it was still an incredible divine power. The sub-hall in Wei Yuan's hands was the weakest among them, currently only capable of redeeming treasures up to the early dharma idol rank. Possessing this sub-hall was equivalent to having a continuous line of reinforcements. Even if the quantity was strictly limited, its significance was immense. It was the equivalent of delivering treasures straight from the main hall into Wei Yuan's hands across millions of li—a feat only an immortal could pull off. Wei Yuan asked cautiously, "Master, this thing must be very expensive, right?" Zhang Sheng said, "Probably a bit more expensive than Qingming." Wei Yuan dared not ask further. After turning the matter over in his mind, he arrived at the original main hall and activated the bead. A tiny hall, two zhang square, manifested atop the grand hall, precisely covering Qingming below. Wei Yuan gently pushed open the hall doors and stepped inside the Hall of Merits. The interior was not large. At the far center stood a white celestial laurel tree with white-gold leaves. To the left stood a jade desk bearing a jade plaque identical in style to the ones in the main hall—though the main hall held over a hundred jade desks, while there was only one here. To the right stood an incense table flanked by candlesticks, with a four-legged tray set in the center, and above the table hung a portrait of the ancestral master. The celestial laurel tree in the center was the core of the Hall of Merits. Every three days, it would bear a fruit. If someone wished to redeem an item, this fruit would transform into that redeemed object. The jade plaque on the left was linked to the main hall, allowing one to search through all items available for exchange there. The incense table on the right served as an altar for sacrifices, accepting various offerings infused with the origin qi of heaven and earth or carrying destiny. Ji Liuli and the others also stepped into the hall. The Hall of Merits was compact, and with five people standing inside, it was already getting cramped. Just then, all of them sensed a change in the Merit Booklets they carried. With the establishment of the sub-hall, the Merit Booklets could update in real time once more. Wei Yuan took out his Merit Booklet and opened it. He saw that his merit points totaled over fifteen thousand. The Palace of Grand Beginning currently had over nine thousand nine hundred Dao Foundation cultivators, and Wei Yuan was ranked eight thousand nine hundredth. In truth, Wei Yuan's ranking was not low at all. After all, this was the grand merit board, and some Dao Foundation cultivators had been accumulating merit points for over two hundred years. Wei Yuan had spent the preceding ten years focused solely on cultivation, only truly completing his apprenticeship during the recent grand examination. That was when large sums of merits had begun pouring in, vaulting him past more than a thousand people in a single leap. Since the Merit Board had updated, Wei Yuan took the opportunity to check the others. Xiaoyu had twenty-three thousand merit points, ranked at six thousand three hundredth, while Bao Yun had twenty-nine thousand, ranked at four thousand four hundredth. Xiaoyu had also taken out his Merit Booklet and immediately searched for Wei Yuan's placement. An air of reserve instantly overtook him as he remarked, "Now that we have the Hall of Merits, redeeming anything in the future will be far more convenient. It's just that once every three days is a bit infrequent at the start. How about we take turns redeeming in order of our Merit Board rankings?" "That is only right," Wei Yuan nodded. The Hall of Merits was not meant solely for his own use; all Palace of Grand Beginning disciples in the Qingming domain could use it. Bao Yun looked out of the hall, pretending she did not know Xiaoyu. Meanwhile, Wei Yuan was flipping frantically forward through the pages, eager to see where his master and Eldest Senior Sister ranked. Right at that moment, the Merit Booklet in his hands suddenly flared with purple light. The roster blurred, and Wei Yuan's name vanished from its original spot. Seeing that purple light, Xiaoyu was seized by a terrible foreboding. He stared hard at the Merit Booklet in his own hands, and sure enough, he could no longer find Wei Yuan where he had been! He began flipping back page by page, his heart growing heavier with every turn. Meanwhile, in the booklet in Wei Yuan's hands, his name resurfaced—only now it glowed with a faint purple hue. Wei Yuan: One thousand one hundred and seventy heavenly merits, ranked one hundred and fiftieth. At this moment, Wei Yuan also spotted the names of Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli, both among the top hundred. Ji Liuli was higher, and Zhang Sheng lower. According to the regulations of the Palace of Grand Beginning, slaying the weakest dharma idol yielded five hundred heavenly merits. And on the Merit Board, once one's heavenly merits exceeded five hundred, the ranking took only heavenly merits into account, disregarding ordinary merit points altogether. Wei Yuan had previously slain a dharma idol and a Great Shaman. Though he had largely relied on the Immortal Monarch's methods, after evaluating the feat, the Hall of Merits had still awarded over half of the heavenly merits to Wei Yuan. Had anyone else held the same Immortal Monarch methods, they would never have been able to keep Xu Guanwen and the Great Shaman from getting away. Most of the heavenly merits for slaying the second Great Shaman had gone to Zhang Sheng, which was only right; nine and a half of that lizard's ten lives had been severed by Zhang Sheng, while Wei Yuan had merely delivered the finishing blow, earning an amount comparable to Ji Liuli and Bao Yun. Wei Yuan flipped to Bao Yun's profile. After this update, her heavenly merits stood at just over three hundred. The three of them had each received fifty heavenly merits for slaying the lizard Great Shaman. It seemed Bao Yun had quietly snuffed out quite a few dharma idols elsewhere. Xiaoyu had also taken part in slaying the Great Shaman, so his heavenly merits now stood at ten. Xiaoyu closed his booklet without batting an eye, saying nonchalantly, "I still have a sword waiting to be forged. I'll take my leave first." Wei Yuan called out to Xiaoyu's retreating back, "Is there anything you urgently need to exchange for? I can yield my turn to you." Xiaoyu turned a deaf ear to him, quickening his stride even further.