I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 489Book 2: : I’ll Just Mooch Around, Not Follow the Script

Book 2: Chapter 489: I'll Just Mooch Around, Not Follow the Script

Vol 2 Chapter 489: I'll Just Mooch Around, Not Follow the Script

Merit points were valuable;achieving great merit was no easy feat.

Zheng Fa’s goal was clear—mooch merit!

Just kidding—others might not know, but he did: the kinds of great merits that could make one a Saint were few, and none of them were within his immediate reach.

The Creation Daoist thought that simply completing a single great meritorious deed would let him sit on the cushion—what wishful thinking.

To Zheng Fa, the only viable approach was to try everything—big merit, great perseverance, great enlightenment—see which could be scraped together.

Put simply, if one needed a full one hundred points to sit on that cushion, Zheng Fa thought the most reasonable strategy was to mooch thirty or forty points of merit, scrape another thirty or forty from the other two categories, and add them up to hit the hundred. Or maybe snag thirty or forty merit first, then hunt down several heavenly meritorious deeds and keep mooching.

He didn’t even dare imagine writing a whole set of original works and mooching merits from multiple sequels to meet the cushion’s admission requirements.

After flying out of the Five Organs Pavilion, Zheng Fa wandered aimlessly, hoping to find a strong back to ride on.

But the Nine Luminaries Heaven world had already changed drastically.

When he first entered the Nine Luminaries Heaven, the little world’s area wasn’t large—more like Jiushan Realm in scope—but now, borrowing the memory of the Fusang Wood, it had returned to the Ancient Immortal Realm.

The Ancient Immortal Realm was vastly broader than today’s Xuanwei.

Zheng Fa looked up. In the distance, Mount Buzhou rose in a terrifying way;even separated by hundreds of thousands of miles he could still make out its majestic silhouette.

Mount Buzhou supported a greenish-white sky;palaces floated upon the clouds, and beautiful or terrifying great demons shot straight into the Ninth Heaven, feasting on song and dance and drinking immortal brews among the stars.

This was the Demon Court.

Beneath Mount Buzhou lay the territory of the Shaman race.

Centered on this ancestral mountain, the Shaman people occupied vast lands.

Newborn Shaman children had baby faces but bodies like little elephants;regardless of gender, they went shirtless and fought fiercely, toppling green mountains and breaking blue rivers, while the adult Shamans laughed uproariously.

Truly a favored race by nature.

Even though these were all phantoms, Zheng Fa’s eyelids twitched. He sighed inwardly: although fights between the Shaman and Demon races had grown more frequent, they still showed the composure of a natural hegemon.

To them, the world seemed like their playground.

Zheng Fa had intended to seek out the Houtu Ancestral Shaman—after all, he was familiar with opening the Reincarnation Cycle, and with his previous project experience, mooching merit wouldn’t be difficult.

The world had become so vast and the Shaman influence so great that he had taken the form of a Shaman and spent months passing through village after village, yet still couldn’t find the Houtu Ancestral Shaman.

Although some Shamans could exchange a few words with him, their spiritual intelligence was low;sometimes their sentences didn’t even connect sensibly.

When he finally reached the Houtu tribe, he realized the real problem: communication was so poor he could not determine where the Houtu Ancestral Shaman was. With only snippets overheard here and there, it was nearly impossible for Zheng Fa to track such a powerful being’s movements.

He also worried whether the Houtu Ancestral Shaman even possessed coherent consciousness.

Zheng Fa wandered the Houtu tribe for several more months without seeing so much as a single strand of the Ancestral Shaman’s hair, and his hopes began to wane.

One day, he was squatting under an earthen mound watching two Ancestral Shamans—wearing only shorts—grapple with each other when a message talisman tore through the air.

“Shi Zheng Fa? Any gains? We intend to return to the Five Organs Pavilion soon;let us exchange news.”

The Great Roc glanced at the talisman, then at the passionate, heroic figures behind him, shook his head, and flew toward the Five Organs Pavilion.

In the Five Organs Pavilion, the Golden-Winged Shaman and Bailian had not yet arrived;the eight Lu Clan members were waiting for them;only the Gu God and White Bone Demon Ancestor hadn’t appeared.

Seeing Zheng Fa arrive, the Creation Daoist showed an expectant look. “Fellow Daoist, where have you been recently? Any gains?”

Zheng Fa’s mind stirred;half true, half false, he said, “I figured the Shaman power was great and they controlled the earth, so opportunities would be abundant, so I wandered among them—but unfortunately, I found nothing.”

The eight Lu Clan members, who had been frowning, relaxed into smiles at Zheng Fa’s words.

The Creation Daoist was about to respond when he suddenly looked out and smiled: “Two fellow Daoists have arrived.”

Following his gaze, Zheng Fa saw the figures of the Gu God and White Bone Demon Ancestor outside the hall;he hadn’t noticed when they had appeared.

“You are a bit late, fellows,” the Creation Daoist nodded to them with little surprise, then looked at Zheng Fa with a consoling tone, “This poor Daoist also did not encounter any great opportunities.”

He then turned his attention to the Golden-Winged Great Peng and Bailian.

The Golden-Winged Great Peng wore a haughty expression and puffed his chest. “I have joined the Demon race.”

Zheng Fa blinked—how had the Great Peng communicated with those demons?

“The Demon race contains my Peng kin. My bloodline connects to them;our exchange is unimpeded.” Saying this, the Great Peng glanced at Zheng Fa and sneered, “I’ve also learned many of the local tongues.”

“In that case, that is indeed an opportunity for our fellow Daoist,” the Creation Daoist praised as if he hadn’t detected the Peng’s smugness. “Joining the Demon race and helping them unify the world could indeed be a great meritorious deed.”

He then turned to Bailian.

Bailian pressed his palms together, calm in expression. “This monk lacks the abilites of Great Peng. I have only attended at the side of two patriarchs, aiding in the salvation of resentful spirits and relieving the suffering of soldiers to accumulate merit.”

Zheng Fa’s heart skipped;the others looked at Bailian with surprise—after all, in Purple Heaven Palace, if anyone could be considered a patriarch of Leiyin Temple, it would only be Zhunti and Jieyin.

So everyone was mooching!

Bailian continued, “Although I learn slowly, I have some understanding of this place’s language.”

The eight Lu Clan members turned to Zheng Fa with somewhat mocking looks.

Zheng Fa kept his expression steady. He knew language wasn’t an insurmountable barrier—after all, these people were among the greats of Xuanwei’s countless practitioners.

They’d been in this place for half a year;even if they initially communicated with gestures, it wasn’t surprising they could now handle daily phrases.

The Creation Daoist asked, “What of the others?”

The Gu God and White Bone Demon Ancestor were silent for a moment before the Gu God spoke: “We’ve also been inquiring everywhere;so far little has been gained.”

Her reply sounded evasive.

The eight Lu Clan members added, “We’ve been learning the local language as well.”

The Creation Daoist shook his head. “This poor Daoist also has nothing. So it seems Grand Peng and Bailian have at least some leads.”

Those in the hall nodded slightly. The Creation Daoist then said, “Why don’t you all share what you’ve seen?”

They exchanged glances, knowing they had all returned for the same purpose—intelligence exchange.

Though they harbored ulterior motives and trusted each other little, all were united in obtaining the Hongmeng Purple Qi.

Zheng Fa thought for a moment and was first to recount what he’d heard among the Shamans. The Golden-Winged Great Peng listened intently—after all, as one who would help the Demon race unify the world, the Shaman were natural enemies.

After he finished, others shared their encounters. They naturally held things back, but Zheng Fa still listened carefully.

Then the Gu God mentioned a piece of news that made his pulse quicken:

“Nüwa has been wandering the East Sea these past years, seldom returning to the Demon Court.”

Zheng Fa’s heart surged like a tidal wave. He glanced at the others. The Creation Daoist and the rest showed interest—after all, Nüwa was one of the six Saints who could sit on the cushion and clearly a major figure in this world.

They discussed it briefly but didn’t dwell on it, merely thinking to find a chance to clash into fate.

...

Leaving the Five Organs Pavilion again, Zheng Fa flew straight toward the East Sea.

In truth, his first target was Nüwa. Unlike the mighty Houtu, Nüwa, though not alone, was lofty and detached—only nominally associated with the Demon race, making her movements difficult to track.

He had retreated to seeking Houtu as a fallback, but upon hearing Nüwa’s news from the Gu God, he changed course.

To Zheng Fa, in terms of great merit, no one in this world could compare to Nüwa!

If the legends were true, the one who truly achieved sainthood through great merit would be Nüwa alone—Houtu might only be half as meritorious.

Rubbing shoulders with Nüwa would net a bounty of merit.

The Ancient Immortal Realm was vast. From the Five Organs Pavilion to the East Sea shore took him half a year.

He spent another month near the East Sea before he finally saw Nüwa.

She walked along the shoreline, brows knotted as if wrestling with some unsolved problem.

“My lady.”

Zheng Fa landed before Nüwa and bowed.

“So it’s you.” Nüwa’s gaze was soft upon seeing him, though that crease between her brows remained. “You’ve come to see me?”

“…Yes.”

Though he still hadn’t figured out exactly what state Nüwa currently existed in, her keen perception surprised him and he dared not hide anything.

“Hm, that woman who looked a bit like the Shamans also came to see me.” Nüwa nodded.

Someone who looked like the Shamans and was female—likely the Gu God?

So the Gu God had nearly mastered the local tongue.

Zheng Fa’s mood darkened inwardly as Nüwa said, “Were you all here for the seventh cushion?”

Zheng Fa slowly looked up and found Nüwa’s gaze piercing;she seemed to know everything.

“My lady?”

Nüwa stooped to pick up a conch at her feet, examining the patterns in her palm.

“She told me many things. It seems the later generations truly no longer remember our names. You come from a place called Xuanwei.”

Hearing this, Zheng Fa inwardly cursed—the Gu God had just blurted everything out to curry favor with Nüwa.

Plainly put, the Gu God had probably seen how curious these Saints were about later times and spilled everything to win Nüwa’s favor.

This made Zheng Fa’s plan to mooch merit far more complicated.

Seeing his expression, Nüwa sighed gently. “So it is true;in later times, no one remembers us.”

“...Not no one.”

“You know me?”

“Yes.”

Zheng Fa whispered.

“That woman wanted to gain merit, so I gave her an opportunity.” Nüwa didn’t ask more;she didn’t seem particularly interested, merely gazing at the sea. “I asked her: I feel my proving-the-Dao chance is coming, but there is one question I can’t resolve—could she answer it for me?”

Zheng Fa’s heart surged. The Gu God didn’t know this—but he did: creating humans!

He felt as though he held the standard answers of the later ages and opened his mouth, ready to speak.

But Nüwa then said, “I asked her whether, having realized my Dao is in creation, she had any solution. She could not answer;she only said she did not know.”

She didn’t know that I know!

This was an open-book test;with just two simple words he could mooch a chunk of great merit!

Nüwa suddenly said, “Actually, I had long already realized—creating humans.”

...

Zheng Fa stared at her. He felt as if Nüwa were teasing him, answering herself and stealing his thunder.

Perhaps amused by his expression, Nüwa smiled lightly and shook her head. “When I saw you, I felt something stirring.”

Zheng Fa suddenly felt he understood a little.

“You are for the most part not innate Sages, nor are you Demons or Shamans,” Nüwa said, eyes drifting to the distance. “Yet you come from the future—among future cultivators your strength must be considerable...”

“There is only one explanation...” Nüwa looked at Zheng Fa with a transparency in her eyes. “You are the protagonists of the later world. Perhaps even the sole protagonists.”

... 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Zheng Fa was dumbstruck.

He had thought the memories in his head were the answers. He hadn’t expected that the moment they appeared before Nüwa, everything would be exposed before this future Saint.

They themselves were the answer!

Seeing his stunned expression, Nüwa gently shook her head and motioned for him to follow. The two walked slowly along the shore. Zheng Fa had a thousand things to say, which condensed into a single question:

“My lady, if you already knew...”

Nüwa tilted her head to look at him. “You mean why I did not create humans to become Saints?”

“Yes.”

Nüwa turned her face to the sky. “That is precisely the question I want to ask you.”

“What?”

“Why should I create humans and become a Saint?”

The more Zheng Fa listened, the more bewildered he became—he could not immediately grasp the meaning behind Nüwa’s words.

Nüwa suddenly stopped walking. “If what you know of the past is true, then I should create humans and become Saint—so what then?”

“...Then what?”

“Since I will eventually perish, what does it matter if I create humans?” Nüwa’s question struck Zheng Fa like a blow. “Or rather, is it truly right for me to create humans?”

Zheng Fa looked at Nüwa.

Her eyes were lively yet reserved;on her face, staring into the distance, was profound doubt.

This Saint, long vanished from the heavens and worlds, felt vividly alive to Zheng Fa—so much so that the arrival of Zheng Fa and the others caused her to reflect.

Those Shamans were simple-minded and could not communicate well, but this Nüwa was too clever.

He had assumed this whole illusion was scripted—that he could hold the future’s answers and speed through.

Until now, he realized it was far from that.

What he held was not a fill-in-the-blank where writing “create humans” on the line would suffice.

What faced him was a proof-question—why create humans?

As everyone knows, proof questions are the hardest.