The Sage Who Transcended Samsara

Meng Qi had yet to clearly see his surroundings when the voice of the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms rang in his ear.

“Since you have passed the Death Task, the Samsara will go on to the next level. You will encounter even more secrets and obtain more rewards. Naturally, the difficulty will also increase.”

“From this task onwards, the cost of information about the Samsara task will be lowered to 400 Karma points. There will no longer be a time limit either. You may request for information at the end of your previous task, or before the start of your current one.”

“During Samsara tasks, there will no longer be a restriction on the number of teams participating. Even if it is not a confrontational task and the others are not using Samsara talismans, you may still run into one another. You could be completing different tasks in the same world.”

…

“Reminder: After someone in the team reaches the level of Half-step Exterior Scenery, the exchange value of Refined Weapons, enlightenment period scripts, elixirs and the like will decrease to prevent them from resorting to trickery.”

The indifferent voice told Meng Qi and the others of the various changes. The corner of Meng Qi’s lips twitched. He had intended to “select” as many Refined Weapons and scripts as he wanted after he was strong enough to survive being hunted by Immensity Sea’s Exterior-level individuals… “Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms really does not want to see someone resorting to trickery.”

If the Dominator was not self-aware, Meng Qi could squeeze through some loopholes to benefit himself. However, if he were some big power, the so-called “Samsara rules” probably did not apply to him. The moment he was angered, the consequences were obvious. Hence, Meng Qi had to carefully ask about the matter concerning passing scripts on to others before exchanging them for Karma points. He could not afford to slip up.

“Are you okay?” Just as Meng Qi was in a daze, Qi Zhengyan’s inflectionless voice piped up. He was wearing green robes and had his long sword hanging from his waist. His back was ramrod straight as well, making him feel somewhat like a swordsman. However, it differed from Jiang Zhiwei’s sharpness. He appeared firm and strong, thanks to the “Book of the Chaos”.

Meng Qi smiled back. “I’m so lively and I don’t need the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms’ treatment. Do I look like I’m not okay? I’ve already left Shaolin Temple.”

“Little monk, you’ve returned to Shaolin Temple?” Jiang Zhiwei, who was donning yellow-pink robes, asked in surprise. She had just attended a birthday feast and was getting ready to head over to River East again. How had the little monk ended up in Qin prefecture?

News of the battle at the shrine had yet to spread. Even if the major sects and aristocratic families had already received it, people like Jiang Zhiwei who were roaming outside might not know of it.

Ruan Yushu looked at Meng Qi with her large eyes and coldly asked, “You’ve used your Recover Pill?”

Since she was at home, she was naturally aware of the battle that had shaken up the Di and Qin prefectures.

“Of course. If I want to kill the Shadow Cold Palm, Flame-scorching Devilman, and Soul-losing Flute in one go, I’ll need to pay a certain price for it.” Meng Qi could not repress how pleased he was with himself.

“Oh. Someone said the ‘Killing Blade’ had a tough battle at the shrine. They said he was covered in blood and resembled an Evil Lord or Vajra.” Ruan Yushu slightly nodded.

Meng Qi’s face twitched. Then he cried in shock, “How can that be? No living person saw that!”

“So it was true.” Ruan Yushu spoke as if she had just been “enlightened”.

Jiang Zhiwei was rather amused. She asked, “You killed the Shadow Cold Palm, Flame-scorching Devilman, and Soul-losing Flute in a single battle? Little monk, what exactly happened?”

Based on his short description alone, she could imagine a terrifying and intense battle.

Meng Qi briefly described the cause and result of the battle in the interest of time. However, Jiang Zhiwei was enthused all the same. Her face brightly shone, almost as if she desperately wanted to be the one who had been in that battle.

Ruan Yushu pressed her lips together. “You can come to Langya first and look for other possible reasons.”

The true meaning behind her words was that Meng Qi had been flaunting his prowess too much. Even if it concerned Shaolin Temple’s secrets that the Ruan family could not know of, she and Meng Qi could come up with reasons to request for Exterior-level individuals’ help. There was no need for him to take the risk alone.

Meng Qi gave a dry laugh. “I’ll just treat it as training.”

It was difficult to repay kindness. He would use Six Fan School as much as he could instead.

Seeing that Meng Qi was in good health, Qi Zhengyan did not say much. He simply reminded, “Let’s exchange our items for Karma points just in case.”

“Yeah. After that, let’s not be in such a rush to exchange them for other things this time. We should ask about the task’s information first, then select items specific to it,” Meng Qi quickly added.

It was their first Samsara after the Death Task, so they had to be extra careful.

“Alright.” Jiang Zhiwei and Ruan Yushu had no objections. They handed over the Qianyuan Composing Bead, Donghua’s Green Book and other items they had gained over to Meng Qi. He would exchange them together for Karma points.

Meng Qi first took out Donghua’s Green Book, which contained the formula for the “Immortality Elixir of East Pole”. He placed it in the Central Light Pillar.

“Donghua’s Green Book, exchangeable for 2000 Karma points. The formula for the ‘Immortality Elixir of East Pole’ is exchangeable for 4000 Karma points. Five of you obtained them together and will equally share the points. Each of you will still obtain 1200 Karma points.”

“‘Obtained them together and will equally share the points’ was kind of different from learning it himself and then teaching others…” Meng Qi directly asked, “If someone who was not a Samsara traveler taught Donghua’s Green Book to someone else, would it affect their Karma points?”

The Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms sounded calm. “It will be judged by whether it was intentional or not.”

He elaborated further. “If one obtained a script and passed it on to someone else instead of trading it for Karma points, the Samsara traveler who has received the script cannot exchange it for Karma points. However, he can pass it on to anyone else. Every time he passes it on to someone, the amount of Karma points that can be gained will be halved. Once the original owner intends to exchange the script for Karma points, it will be calculated based on the number of people to whom the script has been passed to at that point in time. Afterward, all Samsara travelers involved cannot pass on the script to anyone else, unless there is another medium to do so.”

“In the process, if a non-Samsara traveler is implicated, it will be judged based on the Samsara traveler’s intention. If he hints at being able to continue to pass the script on to others, once the script has been exchanged for Karma points, his Karma points will be deducted each time the knowledge is passed on to another person. If he runs out of Karma points, he will be obliterated.”

“If he does not hint at anything, there will be no consequences.”

Meng Qi had achieved a rough understanding of the rules and did not question any further. He exchanged all the items they had obtained together for Karma points, including the Space Ring. He had to be fair to prevent their team from fracturing. He would still have it in the future, anyway.

” Donghua’s Green Book plus the formula for the Immortality Elixir of East Pole… 1200 Karma points.”

“Space Ring… 1600 Karma points.”

“Qianyuan Composing Bead… 1200 Karma points.”

The total amounted to 4000 Karma points, so each of them would get 1000 points. Then, Meng Qi took out the Roaring Flame Devil Saber and the Fire Lord’s copper rings. They were his own items.

“Roaring Flame Devil Saber… 550 Karma points.”

“Fire-controlling Copper Rings… 600 Karma points.”

Jiang Zhiwei was the next. She exchanged the items she had gained for 600 Karma points and repaid everyone 80 Karma points each for her previous “Twenty-three Swords Skill”. She was left with 1360 Karma points, while Meng Qi had a total of 2230 Karma points.

Qi Zhengyan and Ruan Yushu also had their own items and scripts which they exchanged for Karma points. In the end, Qi Zhengyan had 1480 Karma points and Ruan Yushu had 1580 Karma points.

Immediately after, each of them forked out 100 Karma points in exchange for information about their task.

“The master of Skyscraping Palace is the number one evil spirit of the Heterodox. His demonic powers are extremely impressive and he rules with fear. In order to improve himself, he schemed for several years and opened a channel that connects to the Demonworld Fragment. That awakened the Primogenitor Devil that had been sleeping inside, and its awareness possessed him. He completely lost his humanity and turned into a real evil spirit by the name of ‘Skyscraping True Devil’.”

“The seven major emissaries below him also suffered from whole-body imbuing by the Devil Qi and turned into half-human, half-demon existences.”

“The eight demons wreaked havoc in the world, and the people were plunged into misery and suffering.”

“Main task: Seal the Demonic World channel within a month and stop the Primogenitor Devil from completely awakening and descending upon the world. Success will be rewarded with 100 Karma points, while failure will result in the deduction of the same amount of Karma points.”

“Hint one: Only by killing at least six of the demons and obtaining the Devil Qi crystals inside them will you be able to completely destroy the channel and seal the Demonworld Fragment.”

“Hint two: The strength of eight demons vary. For example, the Skyscraping True Devil has immense demonic power that shakes up heaven and earth, while others like the Iron Demon can only repress average things.”

“Demonworld Fragment?” Meng Qi and the others blankly stared at one another.“What did that have to do with the Demonic World that the Devil Lord had opened up? Was it a leftover shard from when he had died and the Demonic World had shattered?”

“What is a ‘Primogenitor Devil’?” Meng Qi guessed that they were in the Demonic World that the Devil Lord had opened, but who was the Primogenitor Devil? An ancient big power?

After the Demonic World had shattered in ancient times, it vanished without a trace. There were very few ancient books and records about it, so Jiang Zhiwei did not have much knowledge of it either. On the other hand, Ruan Yushu said after much thought,

“The Demonic World itself seemed to be alive. It could create and multiply its own unique evil spirits, and the origin of these evil spirits was the Primogenitor Devil. After the number of evil spirits had increased, it would fall into a deep sleep and lose its awareness as if it were dead. When evil spirits die, they return to it. Once a certain limit is reached, it’ll rouse once more and regain its memories, turning into the new ‘Primogenitor Devil’. It’s very terrifying.”

Qi Zhengyan sucked in his breath and said, “We should exchange for items that can restrain real evil spirits.”

Meng Qi’s Heaven Inflicted Pain and Buddha’s Lamp were highly effective in repressing evil spirits, as was Jiang Zhiwei’s Sword of the Sun-Penetrating Rainbow. Hence, the team intended to exchange for a very powerful item together, while Ruan Yushu and Qi Zhengyan would exchange for some items that could ward off evil spirits on top of that.

“This one’s not bad. Although you can only use it once, it’s very effective…” Qi Zhengyan suddenly pointed at an item and said as was flipping through the Exchange List.

Meng Qi looked up and over. He saw the jade-slip scroll in Qi Zhengyan’s hands state:

“Demon-subduing Pagoda, a Precious Weapon. When this pagoda falls, evil spirits on the Third Heaven of the Exterior will lose their Devil Qi and strength for five breaths. This can only be used once. Its value is 2000 Karma points.”

“It’s not a Death Task this time around, so the only Exterior-level creature would probably be the Skyscraping True Devil. One Demon-subduing Pagoda should be enough to counter a dangerous situation.” Jiang Zhiwei wrinkled her pretty nose. She did feel that the Demon-subduing Pagoda was a good choice indeed.

Meng Qi knew that they did not have enough time to look through the entire Exchange List and make a careful selection from there. Thus, he also nodded in agreement.

Since they had found a suitable item, they could not be too calculative about the amount of Karma points it cost.

After each of them paid 500 Karma points, there was a flash of light and a small seven-story pagoda with a colorful sheen to it appeared in the mist. It floated there, carrying a strong feeling of Buddhism Zen with the sound of Buddhist teachings ringing out from time to time.

Ruan Yushu placed it in her Space Ring and then spent another 600 Karma points on a “Devil-rinsing Charm”. It could prevent evil spirits from surrounding her and Devil Qi from attacking her. After that, she used 200 Karma points and exchanged it for a “Filth-extracting Pill”. If Devil Qi entered her body, she could extract and eliminate it. She saved her remaining points as a backup.

Jiang Zhiwei also exchanged Karma points for a “Filth-extracting Pill” and a “Recover Pill”. She looked on with a smile as Meng Qi and Qi Zhengyan picked out the items they wanted.

Right then, another pillar of light beamed down from above. The smoke wrapped around it, and it looked like there was a figure hidden inside.

“A newcomer?”

“Another Samsara traveler?”

Different thoughts appeared in their minds at the same time.

Meng Qi was somewhat suspicious. “How could there be a newcomer after their Death Task?”