Immortal Father
Chapter 685 - 685 240 Initially Gaining Merit!_2

685: Chapter 240: Initially Gaining Merit!_2 685: Chapter 240: Initially Gaining Merit!_2 Li Dazhi exclaimed in amazement, “It actually worked?”

“Of course,” Li Ping’an smiled and raised an eyebrow, “With the help of a master in artifact refining, it’s more useful than the several years I worked on it myself.”

Li Dazhi joyfully said, “That’s great, can it be mass-produced?”

“Brother Xu is currently developing a version for mass production.

My idea is to reduce the proportion of rare materials as much as possible, ensuring that the autonomous immortal armor can have the combat power of an ordinary Primordial Immortal.”

Li Ping’an pondered for a few moments:

“At present, the cost is still somewhat expensive; producing fifty thousand sets could bankrupt the Cast Cloud Sect,” he said.

“Then we should take it slow and steady, slow and steady,” Li Dazhi said.

The little hand of the Guiling Holy Mother reached out: “Let me take a look at one!”

“Sure,” Li Ping’an thought for a moment and gave the Guiling Holy Mother a self-destructing immortal armor, and handed a ring containing seven ‘interconnected group battle formation’ prototype autonomous immortal armors to Qing Su.

Qing Su simply glanced at it before putting it away.

She wasn’t particularly interested in the art of puppetry.

“Your Majesty, we are about to enter the North Sea,” Wang Shan reminded aloud.

Li Ping’an nodded slightly, and just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard a tumult of voices in his ears.

He looked instinctively toward the southwest direction, where Dong’an City was located.

The voices sounded now near, now far:

“A temple to the Heavenly Emperor?

A temple to our Human Race’s Heavenly Emperor!”

“The Human Emperor has asked for the Human Race to support the new Heavenly Court; let’s also go in and burn some incense.”

“All the positions by the Heavenly Emperor’s side are vacant, right?

Two years from now, the Holy Mother Palace will select officials for the Heavenly Emperor, and we all have a chance!”

“This temple priest is so pretty.”

“Hey, Aunt Wang, the temple to the Heavenly Emperor outside the city is so efficacious!

I just burned incense half a day ago, and when I got home, my child’s illness was gone and his cough stopped.”

“Really?

I should also give it a try.

My daughter married into a wealthy family, and it’s been several years without any good news; I worry for her.”

“This still has to depend on fate; maybe the problem lies with your son-in-law.”

Was this the voices of all living beings heard by the statue in the temple to the Heavenly Emperor?

Li Ping’an was curious, and suddenly felt strands of strange, warm spiritual power converging into his spiritual platform.

Miraculous merit from incense offerings?

Li Ping’an looked around at everyone and mentioned he had a sense of enlightenment, then closed his eyes to carefully comprehend this power of merit.

…

Merit is divided into two kinds—incense merit and Heavenly Dao merit.

The so-called Heavenly Dao merit can be understood as a blessing bestowed by the Heavenly Dao.

In the Desolate Era mythology Li Ping’an knew of, the Three Pure Ones, the two Western ones, and Nuwa becoming saints under the Heavenly Dao required three major steps.

First, obtain the Hongmeng Purple Qi, which is akin to grasping the lifeline of the Heavenly Dao.

Second, be granted permission by the Heavenly Dao to become a saint.

Third, be endowed with great merit from the Heavenly Dao to fill in what is lacking in the Dao realm for the six saints.

Normally, it is believed that the power of merit is infinitely wondrous, helping one to break through realms and extend life span.

For ordinary people, the value of merit versus the value of karmic obstacles is typically an important reference for what path one enters in the cycle of reincarnation.

Of course, the power of merit also has its drawbacks; those who rely on merit for strength are influenced by the Heavenly Dao, or are restricted by it.

The Ancient Heavenly Court was said to have benefited from the power of merit.

For instance, Mo Linyuan was able to break through from the Taiyi Golden Immortal to the Great Luo Golden Immortal Realm by relying on the power of merit.

Therefore, he would also mock himself as a ‘false Da Luo.’

Because during the time of the Ancient Heavenly Court, without Hongjun’s uniting with the Dao, the strength of the Heavenly Dao wasn’t too strong; thus, cases of utilizing the merit of the Heavenly Dao were not too numerous, and the Heavenly Dao merit was like a fleeting vision that wasn’t widely discussed later, with scant references in the historical records of the Human Race.

Incense merit is much more common.

Just as with Xuntian Xu’s wife and daughter, who became ‘Wild Gods’ by relying on incense merit and created spiritual bodies—though they have now been legitimized.

Previously, Li Ping’an had actually considered how to negotiate with the Heavenly Dao and get involved with the Heavenly Dao merit, but he was too busy with various things and had almost forgotten about it.

The merit of the Heavenly Dao is a powerful weapon, greatly enhancing the ‘competitiveness’ of the new Heavenly Court in the eyes of Qi Cultivators.

And now, due to the Temple of the Heavenly Emperor in Dong’an City, strands of incense merit found their way to him, and Li Ping’an, somewhat curious, began to thoroughly contemplate it.

Soon, several insights crossed his mind.

The Primordial Spirit’s little figure opened its eyes from within the spiritual platform and surveyed the ‘rainbow threads’ that surrounded it.

Then, with a flick of a finger, it drew the incense merit up towards the Golden Cloud above.

The Golden Cloud trembled slightly, and the rainbow threads continuously circled within the cloud, solidifying into golden threads and some ashes.

The golden threads entirely entered the center of the Golden Cloud.

The thirty-three-layered Pagoda, which was ‘growing’ there, trembled lightly, and its progress slightly increased.

The ashes that scattered down were carefully sensed by Li Ping’an’s Primordial Spirit, who discovered that the ashes were once ‘desires of living beings’, now burned by the powers of the Heavenly Dao.

“So it is…

Heavenly Dao merit, is the incense merit devoid of the desires of living beings…” Li Ping’an thought more animatedly.

He guided a strand of the rainbow thread into the Golden Cloud, and once the thread turned golden, he drew it out, winding it around the tip of his Primordial Spirit’s finger.

After much thought, Li Ping’an still lacked the resolve to experiment directly on himself.

It wasn’t that he was fearful, he just preferred a bit of caution.

A small three-inch-long spear appeared from within Li Ping’an’s sleeve, and he infused a strand of the power of merit into the body of the spear, carefully sensing changes within it.

Indeed!

The spear gained a sharper edge, its restrictions became more stable, and while the material did not transform, it became stronger.

Even Li Ping’an faintly sensed that with enough Heavenly Dao merit, this Immortal Treasure long spear that had accompanied him for a long time could very well evolve into a Spiritual Treasure!