Villain Cultivator

Chapter 591 – Heavenly Merit Usage

Sage Realm, Tainted Blood River

Minghe sat on top of a lotus treasure, which was floating on top of the tainted river. He had been listening to the announcement of Pangu, but he didn't like it.

The current game that they had been playing was about to be voided. Everything he had done up until now was just warm-up rounds for the next upcoming GAME.

"Pangu Online 2? Isn't the first one enough?"

Minghe knew the identities of the players from the first game. Although these players came from another dimension and acted the same in every timeline, their home planet was still below the sage realm.

That dimension was something that Pangu had created. In that dimension, a billion worlds with the same people, continents, and environment existed.

The sages treated them like lab rats. They existed for the sake of the Pangu Online One!

Secondly, Mu-Nyang, the King Piece of Virtuous Sage, always cut the connection between dimensions and ended the online game regardless of whoever regressors or time-travelers were.

During the early timelines, Mu-Nyang was one of the chess pieces, and he repeated his roles like the others. However, his action deviated from the norms in the past timelines, and Minghe suspected that Virtuous Sage had already told Mu-Nyang everything.

Their games were getting complicated. Minghe wasn't confident that he could continue to defeat Hongjun's alliance anymore.

And now, the new game would start soon.

'I have to do something. Sealing Devil isn't enough.'

Minghe closed his eyes and read the karma of deities and living beings. He attempted to predict the future by using the Great Dao of Blood River.

A day later, Minghe opened his eyes and frowned. He only saw the destruction of the universe. As for the final winner of the current game, he saw five faces.

The first one was Ma Moxi, the current favorite child of Heavenly Dao. Minghe estimated that he had a 30% chance of victory.

The second favorite choice was Meng Xin. The third was Mikael, aka Wang Yun's true name. Both Meng Xin and Mikael each had a 25% chance of winning.

The fourth potential winner was none other than Mu-Nyang, the champion of the Pangu Online. From a million simulations, Mu-Nyang came out on top 15% of the time.

And lastly, the dark horse who had a 5% chance of winning was an unborn child. His name was unknown, but he was deeply related to Mao Miaomiao. 

Kishin Douji, Brocell, and Devil weren't on the list!

'Not good. At this rate, those five will have too much advantage in the next game. Hongjun's alliance will trample on other sages.'

The future had changed. Minghe couldn't sit still anymore.

But before Minghe could get off his lotus platform, the voice of Pangu echoed in his mind.

'Remember, Minghe. Mao Miaomiao cannot be killed in this timeline. He shall be my King Piece in the next game.'

Minghe's expression turned ugly. 

"Lord Creator, isn't this cheating? You aren't supposed to come down and interfere with the sage's conflicts."

'This is no longer a sage's conflict. It relates to the balance of the lower worlds.'

"But why Mao Miaomiao? He's just a non-entity!"

'I created Devil and five other prototypes to maintain the universe equilibrium. Now that you have captured one of them, I have to replace Devil with his clone.'

Minghe clicked his tongue. Just now, he was blamed for his deeds, and Pangu used this pretext to intervene with their game.

"Please enlighten me, Lord Creator. What are you planning?"

'Pangu Online 2 will be the real game. Everything in the previous timelines is nothing but a demo.'

"W-What?!"

'After the next reset, I will oversee everything from the start to the end. You should prepare for the Second Player Calamity and gather your chess pieces. Nothing will be the same again.'

…

Miaomiao's Stable

Adam reminded Grand Elder Mu again, "Mao Miaomiao must live. This is the order of the sages."

The elder clicked his tongue, "What if I accidentally kill him?"

"Then, I'll destroy your soul myself."

"Pfft. How scary."

"Keep up that cocky attitude, and I'll remove your providence."

"Hahaha! You're good at bluffing, my lord."

Grand Elder Mu scoffed and vanished.

Adam tracked the Qi of the elder to make sure that he truly left. Fortunately, the trace moved from the current planet to the Black Sun.

Adam and Xie Lian let out a sigh of relief. The former turned to the latter, "Sorry for the losses of your family."

Xie Lian knelt. Xie Fan reluctantly copied her older brother's action and was puzzled by Adam's words.

"It can't be helped since this is your will. We live to fulfill your orders."

"Your mental fortitude is admirable. Well, it's about time I compensate you and your sister."

Adam fetched a marble from his spatial ring.

As soon as Xie Lian saw the marble, he recognized it, "Heavenly Merit!"

"Yes. It's yours."

"C-Can I really have this?"

"You need it the most. Merge it with your soul, and your lifespan will be increased by a million years. Then, you should be able to reconstruct your body and summon your planets again."

Xie Lian repeatedly kowtowed to Adam, "Thank you, my lord! I will never forget this gratitude! I shall dedicate my life to you and Sage Nuwa for the rest of eternity!"

Adam wryly smiled and shook his head. He turned to Xie Fan, who blankly stared at his face.

"Xie Fan, I assume."

Xie Fan had never come face-to-face with Adam. She kept staring at his face the same way a teenage girl gazed at their favorite idol.

Adam chuckled. He took out a manual and tossed it to her.

"This is my personal cultivation method and my comprehension of various Daos. Use it as a reference, but don't copy everything, or you will accidentally end up as my vessel."

"Err…" Xie Fan didn't know what to say or act in front of her clan's god.

"Relax. Treat it as a dowry gift from me."

"D-Dowry gift?!" Xie Fan's face reddened. She stuttered and was flustered in embarrassment, "But I'm not married!"

Adam frowned and turned to Xie Lian, "Haven't you told your sister?"

Xie Lian bowed his head, "I'm sorry. I haven't discussed this matter seriously yet."

"I see," Adam coughed and gazed at the little big-booba loli. "Listen, Xie Fan. Due to many circumstances, we've decided to marry you to Mao Miaomiao."

"!!!"

Smoke came out of Xie Fan's red ears.

…

Meanwhile, Miaomiao kept hiding at the bottom of the Purgatory River. He dug the ground and buried himself deep in the soil. Then, he stopped breathing.

His heart stopped beating, yet his blood continued to circulate. His Qi slowly and faintly moved, maintaining his body systems to stay alive.

After a day of hiding, he received a system notification.

<The Heavenly Dao of Zenith Heaven has protected you. Your enemy has retreated.>

Miaomiao clenched his fists, but he didn't dare to come out of the river. He continued hiding, planning to stay here for a few weeks.

While he was at it, his consciousness inside the dantian space was examining the Heavenly Merit Marble.

In Isolated Training Space, Miaomiao and the girls gathered to inspect the marble together.

Meowmeow also gave them a lecture, "Heavenly Merit has many usages, Munya. You can use it to refine a munya-grade artifact. You can consume it to become a deity and get the absolute protection perk from Heavenly Dao. You can merge it with your soul to increase your lifespan. Or, if you have a level system like me, you can merge it with your soul to increase your levels by 100, fixed-rate, Munya!"

Xu Chu raised her brows, "But from what I learned from Lilith, consuming this thing will turn you into a slave of Heavenly Dao."

Meowmeow nodded, "Correct, Munya. Nothing is free in the universe. All lifeforms are born from Heavenly Dao anyway, Munya. Why don't we serve the Heavenly Dao? Cultivators cultivate Qi from Heavenly Dao, right, Munya?

Chang'e raised her hand, "What's Munya-Grade Artifact?"

The students turned to Meowmeow. Even Miaomiao was curious.

"Munya-Grade Artifact is Munya-Grade Artifact, Munya!"

Everybody broke a sweat.

Miaomiao rephrased the question, "What's Munya-Grade? How is its quality compared to the myth-grade or divine-grade?"

"Munya-Grade is Munya-Munya, Munya!"

"English, please…"

Nya-Nya grumbled and kicked Meowmeow's butt with her reinforced tentacle. The latter yelped in pain and hopped away.

Nya-Nya explained, "Munya-Grade Artifacts only exist in our planet, Munya. Some of our craftscats inherit Lord Mu-Nyang's legacy and can make such items. A Munya-Grade Artifact can house the soul of its owner and is indestructible under the realm of Heavenly Dao, Munya! Masters of Munya-grade artifacts are pretty much unkillable under Heavenly Dao, Munya!"

"T-That's awesome," Ma Xingjuan was excited. She immediately brought out the Heavenly Merit orb that she got from Lu Fengxian's soul and gave it to Miaomiao. "Miaomiao, I have another one. Lu Fengxian's soul gave it to me."

Miaomiao gulped. He gazed at Ma Xingjuan and Nya-Nya.

"If I turn Heavenly Merit into the Munya artifact, will Heavenly Dao enslave my soul?"

"No, Munya. Only the weapon will serve the Heavenly Dao, Munya."

"I see."

Miaomiao gave the orb back to Ma Xingjuan, "Consume it and create a new planet in your dantian."

"EH?!" Ma Xingjuan was surprised, "Won't I become Heavenly Dao's slave?"

"You probably won't."

"How did you know?"

"Try asking Dion. Hey, Dion. Will Ma Xingjuan become Heavenly Dao's slave if she converts it into a planet?"

Dion's system message appeared in front of all Soul Sentinels.

<No.>

Ma Xingjuan still didn't believe it, "Are you sure?"

<I'm sure. Heavenly Dao of Zenith Heaven told me himself.>

"…Wow," Ma Xingjuan turned to Miaomiao. "Miaomiao, your system is quite omnipotent. What is her connection with Heavenly Dao?"

Miaomiao shrugged, "She said that she was born from my luck power, and my luck power comes from Heavenly Dao."

"Oh."

Xu Chu, Kang Yan, Liu Guang, and Diaochan narrowed their eyes. They spoke in unison, "Is Dion Heavenly Dao?"

"!!!"

Miaomiao never thought of that. He widened his eyes and stared at the system interface.

Dion created a smirking face emoji and replied.

<Yes and No.>

"Elaborate, please."

<I am a part of Heavenly Dao, but Heavenly Dao is not me.>

"Please don't be too sophisticated. Explain it so that everybody can understand"

<Heavenly Dao is the Law and Zenith Heaven's power that serves the creator. I only carry a fragment of the Heavenly Dao, and I can't represent Heavenly Dao itself.>

<Do you understand?>

Xu Chu and others nodded as they got the gist of it.

But Miaomiao's eyes were bloodshot. He glared at the system interface, "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?!"

<Because you were stupider than a monkey, and you never asked me.>

"…"

Ma Xingjuan had heard enough. She made her decision and swallowed the Heavenly Merit marble whole!

Then, she closed her eyes and meditated to digest and covert its power into an extra planet.

Miaomiao kept the merit orb in the system inventory for now. He sat in front of Ma Xingjuan, anticipating the result.

It was bad to use his wife as a test subject, but Miaomiao didn't have a choice.

Five years later in the dantian world, Ma Xingjuan opened her eyes. Her presence and aura were now the same as a Stellar Constellation Immortal as she had a completed planet within her soul.

"It feels nice and harmony, Miaomiao."

Miaomiao nodded and began reading Ma Xingjuan's karma.

Indeed, her karma wasn't tied to anything strange. The thin lines were the same.

"Okay. Good job, Xingjuan," Miaomiao kissed her forehead and stood up.

It was his turn to consume the Heavenly Merit.

But before he got the Heavenly Merit out, Diaochan came to him with a black katana, which she had imported into this world.

"Miaomiao, before you do anything, you should take care of Killer Queen."

Miaomiao turned around and looked at the katana.

It was full of cracks. If Miaomiao used it to hit a rock, Killer Queen might have been shattered to pieces!

"KQ?"

Miaomiao could faintly hear Killer Queen's voice, "Miaomiao, you jerk. Help me…"