To ascend, I had no choice but to create games - Chapter 117
Chapter 117:102 Chapter: The 7th Employee (First Update)!
Saying I haven’t achieved it, yet the players are indeed all pursuing merit.
But to say I have achieved it, the reason the players pursue merit is different from what I had in mind.
Some of them do it so they can change Mukuai’s clothes, some to experience more Divine Skills, and some to build bigger houses; there are not many who purely enjoy the happiness brought by doing good deeds.
Through the Dustfire, Fang Cheng saw that the Dustfire that gave birth to “The Healer” had no issues; it was all blue, but the taste just felt wrong. Submerging his consciousness into his own Primordial Spirit space, Fang Cheng stood tall upon the boundless Sea of Soul.
The Sea of Soul is also the sea of human consciousness, each person has their own Primordial Spirit, only a small portion of Cultivators can sense the Sea of Soul, but those who can enter must be of great cultivation.
In the Sea of Soul, Cultivators can clear their minds and see their true nature peeking at their own hidden thoughts, checking for the presence of things like Heart Demons.
If one’s thoughts are too numerous, the Sea of Soul will churn with turbulent waves and thoughts, making it difficult to meditate and cultivate in tranquility. Yet Fang Cheng’s cultivation was nearly at its peak, and his Sea of Soul was almost completely waveless; smooth like a mirror, stretching endlessly into the distance, joining with the horizon.
But even beneath the calm surface of the Sea of Soul, there were still thoughts in abundance, entwined with one another.
Plucking a single thought from the Sea of Soul, Fang Cheng touched it, and the thought thread transformed into a small child-like version of himself.
After saluting his original self, the thought immediately said, “No, the pursuit of merit should come from the heart, it shouldn’t be forcefully attached to external things.”
But immediately after, another thought emerged and contradicted, “Yes, doing good deeds is about the deed, not the intention, no matter their goals, they are pursuing merit.”
Another thought sprang up right away, “No, they’ve deviated from the path we set out for them, and whether you admit it or not, their final actions are that of great goodness; the path we arranged before was only minor goodness at best.” “Yes…”
“No…”
One thought after another emerged, causing the originally tranquil surface to become unsettling.
Quietly observing for a while, Fang Cheng noted more and more thoughts appearing, and the arguing intensifying.
Seeing this, he knew he hadn’t succeeded.
True success wasn’t the absence of other voices, but the gradual diminishing of voices, eventually converging into one.
But now, with more and more clamorous thoughts, it showed that his true heart was still hesitating.
Hesitation means no achievement.
Letting those thoughts return, he returned to the Mirror Universe and sighed looking at the planet of “The Healer” before him.
Walking further away, he took several stars in his hands, squeezed them to explosion then restored them, repeating the action a few times before he felt somewhat relieved.
Although he hadn’t succeeded again, overall, there was still a significant gain. The pursuit of merit can easily be replaced by the pursuit of the benefits it brings, leading players to abandon the essence and shift their focus to the latter.
But this isn’t the players’ fault; it is human nature, and they can’t be harshly judged for it.
Storing away this insight, Fang Cheng decided to cancel the rewards he originally intended to give to the players, and will only distribute them once he has found his own path.
Back on the planet of “The Healer,” Fang Cheng found that the Heavenly Tao was still there, watching over it.
Every world has its own Little Heavenly Way, responsible for all the great ways of that world, controlling the balance between the ways, to prevent any one way from becoming too strong or too weak.
The Heavenly Tao is nature itself, the embodiment of harmony; some Heavenly Tao even have their own personifications, like the Little Heavenly Way before him now.
During the last encounter, this world’s Little Heavenly Way was riddled with holes, swathed in Disease Qi; this was the result of the Disease Demon Lord’s presence, where the Tao of Disease Qi had become overly powerful.
But now, with the advent of “The Healer,” the balance of Disease Qi here has started to be rectified, and it won’t be long until the Little Heavenly Way here returns to normal.
Although still somewhat recovered, the Little Heavenly Way couldn’t speak, but upon seeing Fang Cheng’s brow loosen, it clearly let out a sigh of relief and ’ awkwardly managed a bow.
She looked no more than eleven or twelve years old, indicating she wasn’t created long ago, didn’t understand many things and wasn’t accustomed to much.
After all, it was her first time being human; after changing forms a few more times, she would get used to it.
Returning the courtesy, Fang Cheng asked, “Little Heavenly Way, do you remember how you came into being?”
The Little Heavenly Way pondered for a moment, then lifted her hair to reveal the ravines underneath.
These ravines were intricate and spread chaotically across her head.
Luckily, traces of purple were beginning to show, slowly mending these ravines.
Ravines formed by Disease Qi, the influence of Disease Qi still lingered, muddying her memory, making it hard for her to recall her own origins.
But in time, allowing “The Healer” to continue to Repel Disease, it’s believed she’ll eventually remember.
Then, she pointed to the healers below still battling and showed a troubled expression.
Fang Cheng understood why she was troubled.
Just as he didn’t like to owe cause and effect, the Heavenly Tao didn’t like owing merit.
Even though the players were a bit reckless, always engaging in new gameplay, generally, their level of accruing merit was quite impressive.
Now, because of the continual overthrow of the Demon Lord Temple and the City Lord’s rule, the players had cumulated quite a bit of merit that couldn’t be cashed in a short time, which put the Heavenly Tao in distress.
Wanting to help these players by doing something to use up some merit, but aside from indulging in risque activities, most of the players are desireless most of the time.