Leo had asked Shen Tianyi to teach him about karma and mysticism.

  Shen Tianyi tilted his head. "Tell me. What do you think karma is?"

  "Maybe something like if I do good things, I get good fortune. Evil things, I get bad juju?"

  "A simple answer. Understandable. It is what most people believe. It is also wrong."

  He settled into a more comfortable position, his voice taking on the cadence of a teacher.

  "What you describe is transaction. A merchant's understanding. You believe the Heavenly Dao sits upon a golden throne with a ledger book, tallying your virtues, subtracting your sins, dispensing rewards accordingly. Save a village, gain a talisman. Kill a man, receive a lightning bolt."

  He shook his head slowly.

  "If this were true, the wicked would prosper only briefly. The righteous would suffer only rarely. You have eyes. Look at the world. Tell me: does it function this way?"

  Leo lowered his head.

  "The Heavenly Dao is not a judge. It is not a king. It is not, in any sense you would recognize, aware. You can think of it like a formation."

  "An infinite, self-sustaining array that encompasses all existence. Every living being is a node within this formation. All are points in an endless web. With sufficient cultivation and knowledge of karma, one can see the threads connecting every living being in existence."

  "Every action you take creates a thread connecting you to other nodes. Every word, every deed, every breath. We call these threads Causal Lines. The common term is karma. Karma is connection. It is the record of your interactions with existence itself, written into the fabric of reality."

  "The ways to interact with and study karma are commonly referred to as mysticism. Most forms of mysticism are bizarre rituals performed with no understanding of the underlying theory, thus the name. Most people stumble through the dark and call themselves enlightened. So meeting me is a great fortune for you. Perhaps the two of us share deep future karma, and that karma has drawn us together today."

  "Our family has learned two primary ways karma manifests."

  "The first is Merit. Some call it Virtue. When you preserve life, maintain order, protect those weaker than yourself, you generate Merit. Merit strengthens your Dao Heart."

  "Merit is resonance, rather than a reward or payment for good behavior. Using the formation analogy, your actions align with the formation's natural flow, and the formation recognizes you as part of itself. Your mind becomes clearer. Your cultivation becomes smoother. Heart Demons cease to be a concern."

  "To speak honestly, if Heart Demons were absent from existence, there would be no way to confirm the value of a Dao Heart."

  "However Merit cannot be purchased like armor. The Heavenly Dao perceives intent."

  "If you save a drowning child because you calculated the Merit value of the action, if you weighed cost and benefit and decided virtue was profitable, your Merit will be thin. Brittle. The formation recognizes transaction. It rewards only those who act from transformed nature, from genuine alignment."

  "The second manifestation is Slaughter Qi. Some call it Wickedness. When you kill, especially indiscriminately, especially the innocent, you generate this energy. It is consequence woven into reality itself, rather than punishment delivered from above."

  "When you end a life, you sever a node from the formation. The threads connecting that node to others do not simply vanish. They recoil. They attach to you, the point of severance. You inherit the echoes of every connection that person possessed."

  "Kill a farmer. You inherit his connection to his wife, who will weep for forty years. To his children, who will grow up fatherless. To the village that will slowly starve for lack of his labor. These threads seek nothing. They desire nothing. They simply are. They wrap around your soul like iron chains, and they accumulate."

  Shen Tianyi's voice dropped lower.

  "And here is what the martial sects refuse to teach their young sword cultivators, because they fear the knowledge would make them hesitate:"

  "Slaughter Qi corrodes."

  "Given enough accumulation, it begins to overwrite you."

  "It starts slowly. You forget small things. A childhood memory. A friend's name. The face of someone you loved. You tell yourself it's natural. You are old. You have seen much. The mind releases what it does not need."

  "But it continues."

  "You lose your Dao Heart. You forget why you began cultivating. You forget who you were before you first drew your sword. You forget your own name."

  "And when the last thread of your original self has been consumed, you become what we call a Demonic Being. A creature of pure killing instinct wearing your face. Your body still walks. Your cultivation still functions. But you are gone. Erased. The Slaughter Qi has overwritten your consciousness entirely."

  "Slaughter Qi accumulates," Leo said carefully. "Can it be cleansed through sufficient Merit? What if I dedicated myself to charitable works, or I took care of their descendants..."

  "No." Shen Tianyi's response came without hesitation.

  "This is the error that has destroyed the Dao Hearts of countless cultivators. They believe karma is a ledger. Kill ten, save twenty, net positive. The mathematics of virtue. They believe they can settle this debt sometime in the future."

  "The Heavenly Dao only adds. It never subtracts. Every thread you create remains. Every ghost you generate still screams within the formation. Saving a thousand lives does not erase the hundred you took. The Merit exists alongside the Slaughter Qi. Both are real. Both are permanent. Both are yours."

  "You cannot outwork your own karma. You cannot balance the scales through sufficient virtue. The scales do not exist. There is only the accumulation of everything you have ever done, woven into the fabric of your soul forever."

  Leo's hands had closed into fists. "If you cannot erase it, if every kill stays with you forever, then anyone who has ever killed is just... waiting to become a demon? What's the point of trying to do better? What's the point of anything?"

  Shen Tianyi said, "That is the question that plagues all karma cultivators. Mysticism practitioners have attempted many methods. Transference, displacement, ritual purging. Nothing can permanently shift your karma elsewhere. We are not Saints. Avoiding Slaughter Qi entirely is impossible."

  "Most people simply do not care. They believe they can resolve Dao Heart issues when they arise, as long as they refrain from wanton slaughter and avoid becoming demons. And that approach does seem to work. As far as we know, it causes no lasting harm."

  Leo asked, "So why did you tell me this?"

  Shen Tianyi answered, "It depends on how heavily you weigh the importance of Dao Heart cultivation. My family believes it is, at the very least, significant. The fact that karma exists at all suggests it serves a purpose. We believe a stronger Dao Heart paves a longer, smoother road toward immortality. Whether you walk that road carefully or recklessly is your own affair."

  Leo asked, "But what about wars? What if I have to fight to defend my home and family?"

  Shen Tianyi answered, "I alluded to it before but you cannot transfer your karma to someone else. The great karma of a war you are dragged into is not your own karma. As long as you are not one of the great beings or forces pushing and expanding or taking advantage of the war, none of the karma is yours to bear."

  Leo thought for a moment and asked another question that had been weighing on him. "Does robbery give you bad karma?"

  Shen Tianyi laughed. "Spirit stones themselves carry no karma. But those spirit stones belonged to someone, and those people carry karma of their own. However, do not trouble yourself over it. Your little adventure will bring no great karma for you to bear."

  "But that's one reason why Profundities are so interesting. Great treasures that are ripe for the taking, from an era that has long since turned to dust. The dead can no longer form additional karma with the living."

  "You can calculate with almost complete certainty the maximum realm anyone can reach by knowing their family and spirit roots; that is the great fate that binds us all. Yet these Profundities are treasures that exist outside the calculation. They are the easiest way to change our fates, and will burden you with no new karma at all. Is that not a great opportunity?"

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  Leo asked, "So how can I tell if something brings good karma or bad karma? Is there a compass I can buy?"

  Shen Tianyi said, "You already have one. In fact, everyone has one." He pointed at Leo's heart. "It's right there."

  ---

  It took Kevin an embarrassingly long time to find the lead. Or rather, for the lead to find him.

  Kevin had tried his luck with basically every girl in the sect. Only after ruining his chances with everyone, feeling incredibly lonely and sad, did Zhou Yangmei come to him.

  Leo knew something was about to happen when Kevin texted the group excitedly, claiming he found a girl who changed his life. Leo immediately shared Yangmei's name with Tianyi, and they began observing her.

  Unfortunately for Kevin, he received far less time than Liu Heng's two weeks of love. Kevin lasted two days before he showed up in the group chat offline, moping about how all women can't be trusted.

  Extracting information from Kevin proved difficult given his devastation. Mike helped calm him down with reassurances.

  "You did a great job finding the bad guy."

  "Finding love in the Pond Gazing Sect was always impossible. You share nothing in common with them. No shared cultural background. Connecting with any girls there was never going to happen."

  Kevin begrudgingly accepted that explanation, believing the failure to be situational rather than personal. The good news was his water spirit root increased by a full forty points. An enormous profit.

  Leo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I could try the same approach. Get close to Yangmei myself. Gain the forty points."

  Tianyi stared at him for a long moment. "You wish to replicate Kevin's method?"

  "It worked, didn't it? Forty points is forty points."

  "His method," Tianyi said slowly, "was to be so thoroughly repulsive to every woman in the sect that the literal monster felt confident he posed no threat."

  Leo opened his mouth. Closed it.

  "Can you approach every eligible woman in the Pond Gazing Sect and make each one reject you? Can you project such overwhelming desperation that an ancient evil decides you are beneath suspicion?"

  Leo sighed. "Probably not."

  "Kevin possesses a rare gift. A talent honed through years of practice. Do not attempt to underestimate a true master."

  "Alright, alright. Bad idea. We'll do it the direct way. We'll crush her directly." Leo suggested

  "There is a problem with that approach as well." Tianyi's expression grew serious. "She never leaves the sect. Kevin's account indicates their entire 'relationship' occurred in public. Only when she was certain he was completely harmless did she bring him to the lake."

  "What if we just rushed in and killed her in the sect?" Leo suggested.

  Tianyi nodded slowly. "That creates its own complications. She likely possesses Nascent Soul level power. Any fight would cause collateral damage. Incur great karma."

  "We'll kidnap her first."

  "There is another concern." Tianyi's voice dropped. "I believe the sect itself is a cage. I believe the Pond Gazers plan to let us bumble around like headless flies until we trigger the Profundity. Then they will activate a hidden formation, trap everyone inside, and harvest the rewards. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware the oriole waits behind."

  Tianyi continued, "But there is a way to draw Yangmei away from the sect. We could host a funeral for Kevin."

  "A funeral. For someone who is not dead." Leo blinked. "And you believe Zhou Yangmei will simply... attend this funeral? For a man she killed, held in secret, that no one will tell her about?"

  Tianyi smiled. "Great karma exists between Zhou Yangmei and Kevin. Great karma also exists between her and the lake. By holding last rites next to the water, however fake, the karma naturally pulls them together. Water flows downhill whether you command it or not."

  Leo gave him an incredulous look.

  Tianyi smirked. "Besides, the hardest part of the plan is not drawing her out. It is how you plan on killing a Nascent Soul cultivator with a group of Qi Refinering and Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Only people with a death wish would attempt such a thing."

  "I think you're just trying to bait me into trying."

  ---

  Leo and Kevin had returned to their hideout to discuss the situation with Arthur and Mike. A map of the Pond Gazing Sect was spread over a central table weighted down by spirit stones at the corners.

  "We need to talk about what we're actually facing," Arthur said. His voice carried the weight of experience.

  "Fighting nascent soul isn't just a matter of another tier. T1 T2 T3 T4, sounds simple right? But it isn't a matter of just a little more power. This is different."

  "A Nascent Soul treasure, even a powerful one, follows predictable rules. You can deflect it. Dodge it. Counter its properties. Fighting an actual Nascent Soul cultivator is another matter entirely."

  "The domain," Mike said without looking up from his work.

  Mike was in the corner cleaning the flak cannons. They had commissioned two for Leo's Flying Aces training and were now converting it to combat mode.

  Arthur nodded. "Every Nascent Soul cultivator manifests a Domain. It's an extension of their nascent divinity, physically warping the fabric of reality. When you engage a Nascent Soul, you fight them inside their own little world."

  Leo leaned forward. "So we'd be entering her preferred environment."

  "Her rules. Her advantages." Arthur's finger traced the lake's outline. "Based on what we've learned, we can expect a water domain. That means pressure. Resistance. Possibly the inability to breathe. Definitely reduced mobility for anyone caught inside."

  "The Eclipse formations compensate for resistance. They are forbidden T4 formations." Leo said.

  "To a point. You'll still be slower inside the domain than outside it. And she'll be faster." Arthur straightened. "The key is understanding the stakes."

  Mike set down the firing mechanism. "The Pond Gazing Sect has been cultivating this Profundity for centuries. Whatever heart lies at the center of this phenomenon, they've been feeding it."

  "Now it's ripe. And they brought us in to trigger the harvest." Arthur's expression darkened. "They expect us to die in the process. They'll swoop in after, collect the fruit of our labor, and burn incense on our graves"

  "So we are just fools then?" Leo felt indignant at the idea that they were being manipulated.

  "Not if we steal the heart first." Arthur grinned. "If we kill the Nascent Soul ourselves. We can hide the heart for ourselves."

  "The flak cannons are the key," Arthur continued. "You don't have to carry this fight alone. Mike and Kevin will provide the majority of the damage output. Your job is to create openings and prevent the target from escaping toward the lake."

  Mike stood, gesturing for Leo to take a closer look. The Flak cannons were massive, their barrels thick with layered formations, their ammunition feeds connected to storage rings containing hundreds of shells.

  "Let me explain how these work," Mike said. "Standard artillery has an output limitation. Heat. The barrel warps after sustained fire, becomes inaccurate, eventually fails entirely."

  He pointed to a series of runes etched along the barrel's length. "These formations are cooling arrays. Combined with the operator constantly casting Dao Spells to vent heat, these cannons can fire as fast as the operator can cool."

  "Constant output," Leo repeated.

  Mike opened one of the ammunition feeds. Inside, shells the size of his fist sat in neat rows, each one glowing faintly with contained energy.

  "These are genuine Tier Three treasures. Single-use. Primed to self-detonate on command or proximity." He withdrew one shell and held it up to the light.

  "When this self-detonates, it sends shrapnel in every direction. The power of self detonating T3 treasures."

  Leo examined the storage rings. Hundreds of shells, genuine T3 treasures.

  "How did we afford all this?"

  Arthur grinned. "We've been digging while you were away."

  "The vast majority was acquired legitimately," Mike correctly quickly. "Tier Two and Tier Three Beast carcasses. The Eclipses make hunting remarkably easy. Having the ability to fly is just free money."

  Mike gestured at the ammunition. "This represents months of work. We've been preparing for the worst. However even though it seems like a lot, it will all run out in minutes of sustained fire"

  Arthur's grin faded, replaced by something more serious. "The Pond Gazing Sect has Gold Core elders. If they realize what we're attempting, they'll interfere. We need to kill the Profundity and seize the heart before they or Tianyi can arrive."

  "What about Tianyi?" Leo asked.

  "I don't trust him." Arthur's response was immediate. "Lets keep things in house."

  Leo nodded slowly.

  Arthur continued, "So everything we have points to finishing the fight as fast as possible. We have minutes of ammo, minutes before the Glazers come, and your Third Person Perspective lasts for five minutes."

  Five minutes. Leo had pushed the technique further in training, never against a Nascent Soul. Five minutes was optimistic.

  "Five minutes to kill a Nascent Soul." Arthur said again. "You create openings for the cannons. Mike and Kevin overwhelm the target with sustained flak damage. I'll try to slow the Nascent Soul from returning to the lake."

  "Sounds easy, but the problem is the domain." Arthur added. "Remember, if it manifests a water domain, anything inside that domain will be drowning. Get in, strike, get out. Don't linger."

  Leo stood in silence for a moment, absorbing the plan.

  Arthur produced a second map, this one hand-drawn with precise measurements. The lake's western shore dominated the center, with terrain features marked in careful detail. A red X sat fifty yards from the waterline.

  "The ambush site," Arthur said, tapping the X.

  "Opposite side of the lake from the sect. Close enough to the lake that our target will feel compelled to investigate."

  He placed a small figurine on the X.

  "Kevin's coffin goes here. Hopefully its close enough for Tianyi's voodoo karma magic to work or whatever."

  Arthur placed two more figurines forming a triangle with the coffin.

  "Leo, you log off here." He pointed to a cluster of rocks thirty yards east of the coffin.

  "Mike, here." A depression in the terrain forty yards northeast.

  "I'll be airborne, circling at altitude, watching for her approach."

  "Once Yangmei enters the kill zone, I log off and initiate the group call. Leo and Mike log back in. We materialize already in position, already surrounding her. She won't have time to establish a domain before the first strikes land."

  He traced lines from each figurine toward the coffin's position.

  "Arthur from above. Leo from the east. Mike from the northeast. Kevin rises from the coffin as the fourth point. Four directions. Simultaneous engagement."

  "And if she runs for the lake?" Leo asked.

  "Plan A is we kill her without her being able to do anything."

  Mike pulled out a smaller diagram showing the flak cannon placements.

  "This is plan B. If we aren't able to immediately eliminate her, Kevin and I will retreat to these positions once the fighting starts. We will position the flak cannons and ammo here. We can maintain overlapping fire on the engagement zone while Leo and Arthur press the attack."

  "Arthur's job is to keep her from returning to the lake."

  Leo raised an eyebrow, "Sounds impossible."

  "You actually have the hardest job Leo," Mike explained, "Someone needs to put pressure on her inside her domain. We cannot kill her just by sitting back and shooting. You need to expose her so the Flak can pierce the Domain."

  "You will need to face a giant sphere of Nascent Soul power, three tiers above your personal cultivation. And face it repeatedly to keep pressure on the enemy to prevent her from taking out our flak cannons. Even with Third Person Perspective its going to be a very difficult task."

  "Remember, if our Flak cannons go down, we cannot kill her. Even if you die, make sure that Mike and Kevin are protected. We can still beat her if you are on death cooldown. However if we lose the Flak cannons the only thing we can do is wait for our deaths."

  Leo studied the map. The plan sounded good. He didn't expect Arthur to be capable of this level of work. Where was this preparation when they went to rob the Iron Rhinoceros Sect?

  "What about Tianyi?" he asked again.

  "Tell him to stay in the sect and continue the investigation to lower Yangmei's guard." Arthur's jaw grinned. "By the time he realizes something is happening, it will already be over. One way or another."

  "And if he shows up during the fight?"

  "Then we'll all be dead and back on Earth waiting to respond." Arthur gathered the maps. "This operation succeeds through speed and violence. We hit Yangmei before she can adapt to your third person perspective. Either we kill her in five minutes, or no one does."