Chapter 121: One Hundred Thousand Merits

The existence of anything must have had its core and purpose.

Fang Cun felt that his most important task now was to figure out the core and ultimate purpose of the Celestial Merit Record!

Where exactly had it come from?

What was its operating principle?

What was the standard for distinguishing good from evil?

And… were there any bugs he could exploit?

Of course, thoroughly figuring all of this out was still a very difficult thing. His time in contact with the Celestial Merit Record was truly still short, and his knowledge about all its information wasn’t deep enough. So at this time, it was already quite good to somewhat figure out its certain patterns and temper, the initial bottom line, letting him earn enough usable Merits…

To tell the truth, back then when he grandly opened the door and let the Merit go, Fang Cun had really been worried that it might truly run away…

…

“With this Merit income from the world, cultivating the Formless Treasure Body Scripture should become possible!”

Luckily, now that he had the permission to earn Merit from the world, Fang Cun’s mood finally felt a bit lighter!

He had decided to cultivate the Formless Treasure Body Scripture!

And cultivating the Formless Treasure Body Scripture was something that demanded an enormous amount of Merits!

A normal Treasure Body was like the Five Qi Body Refining Art, the most common method in Great Xia. It needed to refine twenty-five major vessels. The Glazed Moonlit Body of the Nine Immortals Sect needed to refine thirty-six major vessels. But cultivating the Formless Treasure Body Scripture required refining a full one hundred and eight major vessels—that was over four times more than the Five Qi Body Refining Art and exactly three times more than the Glazed Moonlit Body…

This was only the number. More importantly, refining these one hundred and eight major vessels also demanded the deepest and purest Cultivation Power!

With Great Xia’s many top masters unable to grasp this scripture and considering it useless, it was not without reason.

To some extent, this scripture looked almost impossible to cultivate successfully.

Fang Cun could do it, but he wasn’t clear about that!

He once made the simplest calculation. With his talent of three inches, three tenths, and three hundredths of Innate Qi, without relying on Merits and refining step by step, refining each major vessel would need at least one month. Refining all one hundred and eight vessels would take one hundred and eight months—nearly ten years—even if nothing went wrong in between!

And the condition for spending these ten years was that his Innate Qi would keep such a pure and full state all along.

This couldn’t exist, so it was an unsolvable problem!

But having Merits made it very different.

Directly converting Merits into Innate Qi, channeling it into the body, and refining a major vessel was unlike drawing in Innate Qi bit by bit through breathing. Fang Cun only needed to continuously convert Merits and guide the Innate Qi into the meridians. He also calculated that converting Innate Qi from about one thousand Merits was enough to let him use the purest Internal Breath to refine away one major vessel!

So, by this calculation, refining all one hundred and eight major vessels would take one hundred and eight thousand Merits!

One hundred thousand!

Plus eight thousand!

Damn it…

He had eliminated demons, destroyed bandit lairs, slain Human Fiends, and got less than thirty thousand Merits, yet his hair had turned quite white.

To gather one hundred and eight thousand Merits, when would that ever happen?

Luckily, since he could earn Merits from those Rogue Cultivators, this could finally see some hope…

Earning Merits while drinking tea, listening to songs, playing hide and seek, and teasing butterflies—that was the proper way!

…

After using a bit more time to sort out some smaller matters, Fang Cun finally remembered he should go to the Academy.

Somehow, he always felt troubled, like returning to a past life and facing the start of school after summer vacation…

But no matter how lazy he felt inside, necessary things must be done. He couldn’t mess around forever in this small place, Willow Lake City. The next step had to be prepared. The students of Bai Xiang Academy were only two or three months away from the end of their three-year term. Everyone was busy running for their own future fate. Second Young Master Fang was the same and needed to plan his next step.

Combing hair, dressing, hanging the Jade Pendant, trimming eyebrows and stubble, drawing a red mole on the forehead center…

The maid took a silk brush dipped in a bit of perfume to spray some, but was strictly rejected by Fang Cun.

“Afraid this young master isn’t attracting enough butterflies?”

“Good morning, Miss Qu…”

Walking toward the second gate, he looked up and saw Qu Su’er holding two specially made heavy locks and training her power. He gave her a smile. The little girl grew shy, threw down both hammers, covered her face, ran back into the house, and the ground even shook a little.

“How come she’s so shy?”

Fang Cun shook his head helplessly. Seeing those huge heavy locks each taller than a person, he tried pulling one up.

Then he silently turned and walked away.

School was more important!

The elegant and famous carriage drove through the streets of Willow Lake City once more. Countless neighbors warmly and eagerly greeted Second Young Master Fang. A little girl selling tofu held a bowl of tofu pudding. She just stared at the carriage curtain and forgot to serve the customers. Her parents hurriedly came to advise her: “Stop looking! Second Son of the Fang Family has such weak health—half his hair is white; how could that work in the future?”

The little girl stamped her foot angrily: “What’s wrong with weakness? I think weakness is fine!”

When arriving at the Academy, he faced countless looks of awe and curiosity right away. A month ago, when Fang Cun killed someone on the street, it stirred up major discussions in Willow Lake City’s world. But in the Academy, this effect was even stronger. The Disciples all realized that the Fang Family without the eldest young master wasn’t a regular family. In their feeling, it felt more extraordinary than before…

Before, people in Willow Lake City, whether folks or Disciples, only knew the Immortal Master of the Fang Family was famous.

But how famous, they didn’t really know.

Especially as the Fang Family always stuck to the Immortal Master’s teachings—living purely, peaceably, and honestly. Even if the Second Young Master Fang was a famous trickster who often did wild stuff, he never bullied others with his family power. At most, he fought people, listened to songs in taverns, teased girls on the street… and to be fair, over half the time it was girls teasing him!

But after the eldest young master was gone and the Fang Family faced attacks, they showed a trace of their true strength, shaking the whole city.

Not just Academy Disciples, even Lao Yu, the groom who used to feed Second Young Master Fang’s horses every day, didn’t dare get close now…

After all, everyone knew Second Young Master Fang had kicked the Academy Head’s sheep—what if the Academy Head blamed him…

Seeing the scared and hesitant gazes around, Fang Cun disliked this atmosphere. So after stepping down from the carriage, he stood still for a moment and looked at the old servant, saying with a smile: “Old Yu, you snuck some horse feed again? Haven’t seen you for a month; why are you so much chubbier?”

The old servant stared blankly, then rushed over to hold the horse, laughing: “Second Young Master is teasing me again, Old Yu…”

As he led Fang Cun’s horse inside, his heart felt incredibly proud.

The grand Second Young Master Fang actually greeted me, Old Yu, first after getting off? What a big honor!

For this honor, the Academy Head had to be ignored…