Dual Cultivation God Returns-Chapter 947: Sowing Karma

There were several points in Wu Long’s story which stirred Hong Yue’s interest, like what happened to the person he was originally chasing when he caught Crooked-Step Vagrant, or the person who the fruits were stolen from after that. Wu Long gladly answered those questions which led to more stories that gradually changed the theme from one to another.

Engrossed in the stories he told, and lost in the moment, she had yet to realize it, but this was another new experience for Hong Yue.

The conversation they were having had no ’value’ by the standards she lived by her whole life. There was no real goal to it, nor was there any kind of important information exchanged in it. They weren’t debating a clash of opinions like they did before either.

It was a simple, casual talk.

The wine wasn’t strong enough to make her even tipsy, but it still allowed her to ever so slightly relax. Of course, the bigger factor in that was Wu Long’s presence. Even if she was not conscious of it, being around him began to feel comfortable and relaxing.

Thus, it was a unique state of mind brought around by a perfect combination of circumstances, which made time slip by without her notice, something she also never experienced.

Eventually, though, this special time passed.

It happened when she casually glanced at the view to the side of their table, one of the most festive and busy districts of the city stretching below with lanterns illuminating the crowded streets.

This sight reminded her of their original conversation about the current situation in the city, and this stray thought woke her up from the atmosphere. This, in turn, brought her to the realization that the talk they were having for the past hour and a half was ’strange’, at least in her mind.

She also became aware of a strange, only slightly familiar feeling she had during this time, that she didn’t really understand.

All of this brought her into a state of light confusion, causing her to be lost in thought, for a few seconds.

And then, as if woken up from that confusion, she suddenly realized Wu Long wasn’t speaking anymore, her eyes instinctively turning to him, to find him looking straight at her with a subtle smile.

"Um... I...", a flustered voice that she struggled to recognize as her own. In that split moment, she instinctively searched for a way to cover her flustered, and reached for the first random thought that came to mind to change the topic, "B-by the way, when we entered this pavilion, it seemed like you haven’t finished your thoughts about the situation in the city..."

Wu Long’s smile widened, "Not really, I already explained most of the main benefits we could get from stirring the chaotic situation. If there’s one left I didn’t mention yet, it is less of an immediate benefit and more of a chance for a ’potential’ benefit"

"Chance?", Hong Yue raised her eyebrows.

He nodded, "Yes, a chance that relies on luck, and requires some effort to be of use - it is people"

"If it’s people...", she knit her brows for a moment in thought, and then her eyes brightened with understanding, as she turned to the view of the city again, "You mean..."

"Yes, every person out there represents a potential of obtaining benefits. After all, behind each cultivator’s life is a whole story where they are the protagonist", Wu Long also turned to the view of the city.

"Stories... I guess, if you appear in the story as a benefactor to the protagonist, you could obtain their gratitude and be rewarded...", Hong Yue had a thoughtful look, never having considered being involved in the affairs of strangers as opportunities before.

"It doesn’t always mean obtaining a tangible, direct benefit. Benefits that could be obtained from getting involved with people come in a variety of shapes and forms", Wu Long nodded, "You may remember how we stumbled our way into the story of Helian Muyang in the ruins within the Sun Shadow Secret Realm. From that, not only did I obtain an Extreme Yang Physique, as a direct consequence of saving him, but later, through that connection, the entirety of the Helian Family who have joined the Eternal Duality Valley"

"I see", she instantly understood that her view of those opportunities was too narrow, and then, as if she stumbled on an unexpected thought, she paused, before asking "Is the benefit you obtained from getting involved in Ye’er and my story, her becoming your woman?"

He chuckled, "It is similar, but not the same. The underlying basic logic is the same, since that logic is the same for every human interaction, but the intent and motive is different. My involvement in the story of you twins, which is the case for the stories of all my Dao Companions, was more of a combination of lucky coincidences, paths intersecting, and impulsive, as well as emotionally driven decisions on my part. There was also, more importantly, growing attraction over time, that started from the moment we met beginning at at least curiosity, that led me to move as I did at any point in time. To be exact, my involvement with Helian Muyang was also more natural, since it is not an encounter I specifically sought out and set out to do, but did because I felt like it in the moment. I would have acted then regardless of potential benefits. I only brought up his case since it was the one you personally witnessed, which had a similar underlying logic. What I am talking about now is specifically seeking out such opportunities and therefore artificially creating a similar connection"

She took a moment to process his answer, and then clarified, "So you are saying that in addition to such things happening naturally, you could deliberately interact with someone you otherwise would not have any interactions with, specifically with the potential benefit in mind. But similarly to Helian Muyang’s case, what could be obtained is not limited to direct rewards, but could also be the person themselves giving their loyalty, even just the connection they have to someone else or an organization could prove useful..."

"Exactly, The payoff also does not necessarily follow a set timing. You could help someone today, and the result could echo only tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years after. In the cultivation world, whether it happens intentionally or naturally, we call that Sowing Karma", he added.

"Then a lot of it depends on luck, since it is unlikely you would meet all of the people you helped once you part ways in such a wide world. Doesn’t this mean a significant portion of such efforts go to waste? I guess it is not really important for a natural encounter with someone’s life story, but isn’t that a loss in the context of a calculated move?", Hong Yue furrowed her brows, coldly analyzing the probability of returns against potential costs of action.

"There is certainly quite a significant luck factor, but not in meeting again", Wu Long shook his head, "The luck involved is in whether the grace you gave is remembered by the one you gave it to, or if the life story you got involved in lasts long enough, if the protagonist’s fate is strong enough to survive, for you to meet again, since there is always a possibility that you bet on helping someone who will die not long after, or of miscalculating the benefits they could bring, or of them being an ungrateful bastard who will dismiss the help you gave after significant time passes. The way to minimize that risk is, of course, to choose carefully in the first place, but you could never be completely sure even if you study all the information available and character of the person as thoroughly as you can. That much depends on luck"

"It sounds awfully like - as long as the person’s fate is strong enough and you judged their character and potential right - you are guaranteed to someday meet them", Hong Yue’s gaze turned a bit doubtful. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Wu Long smiled, understanding her skepticism, "Sowing Karma wasn’t a randomly chosen name. Because it is widely believed that it is connected to Karmic Luck. I previously explained a few times, that the Seven Boundless Worlds as a whole, is like an enormous living and breathing organism. When I said that, I wasn’t only talking about Boundless Worlds, Stars and Worlds within them, or World Stones connecting them. All living things within, are also part of it. The flow of the world affects us just as it does the movement of stars and great currents of Spiritual Qi. We all are individually bound in the cycle of cause and effect with the entire Universe we live in. This connection is quite mysterious and profound. Though we, as a civilization have yet to understand how it works, it is essentially taken as a given that Sowing Karma, whether it is positive or negative one, creates an invisible, unknown connection between people that creates an attractive force, to at some point in future, converge toward intersecting paths again as long as their individual fates are strong enough to bring them to that point"

Hong Yue widened her eyes, since she knew he wasn’t the type of person to speak nonsense, especially when sharing his knowledge about the world.

It took her some time to process, as numerous questions and doubts filled her head. But eventually, she took a deep breath, settling her mind. She then proceeded to ask, "But then, how is this a benefit brought by the chaotic situation on this continent, wouldn’t that be the case for basically anyone you meet anywhere you are?"

"True, but there is a caveat", he nodded, "As I said before, if your goal is to obtain the payoff, you have to pick well. Normally, the overwhelming majority of those stories are of no use and can be ignored. And in most cases, the stories of people living in roughly the same locale tend to be intertwined, producing only a small number which stand out, and it is not always easy to find those few. But with a spontaneous event like this, where a lot of people from a wide array of paths and circumstances that would normally not interact with each other are suddenly attracted into a concentrated area, the probability of encountering those of interest to us sharply rises, they are also easier to spot since there are a bigger share of them"

"Then, is the criteria for the ’story’ to be of interest for Sowing Karma on purpose - the estimate of the potential benefit you or the Eternal Duality Valley could obtain?", she probed.

"In part, yes. To begin with, among the countless life stories of cultivators, most are either mundane stories, or the protagonists do not possess the character to honor the Karma you sowed. Some of them, as you guessed, won’t yield much returns for us, which wouldn’t be a problem for stories we get involved in naturally, but is not something we would seek out to Sow Karma deliberately. There is also another factor of stories not being ripe"

"Not being ripe?"

"Meaning, not currently at a stage where they present an opportunity to interact with them. Becoming involved with someone’s life story is - in a sense - all about timing and opportunity. For example, would we even know about the circumstances surrounding Helian Muyang if we didn’t encounter him at such a critical point of his life’s story? We could’ve just walked past him without ever knowing he existed, since at that time there was no danger to save him from", Wu Long slowly explained, "It is also the benefit of the chaotic situation on this continent we created with the auction, since such atmosphere is conducive to people’s stories to become ’active’, presenting opportunities for us to interfere"

"That makes sense...", Hong Yue slowly nodded, and then cast her gaze to the city view again, suddenly seeing it in a completely different perspective, "Numerous stories... each a potential, an opportunity..."

"Exciting isn’t it?", Wu Long grinned, also turning to look at the city, "Someone wants revenge against someone powerful but is unaware their intentions were already discovered, someone is forced to obey but is secretly plotting for freedom, someone is an illegitimate child ostracized but still eligible for inheritance, someone is part of collateral family with ambitions to rise over the main family’s descendants, someone is a rogue cultivator who found a lucky encounter but is not given a chance to properly study it before being chased by others..."

"Something tells me you are not just listing possible scenarios", as Hong Yue’s gaze returned to him, she noticed the look in his eyes and the way he spoke was not like he was talking about hypothetical examples.

He nodded, continuing to look at the city with interest, "As I said, the way to minimize the luck factor and risks involved in Sowing Karma is studying the ’protagonists’ and their stories as thoroughly as it is possible. Right now, the Thousand Eyes Palace operates at full capability to identify stories that interest us, and uncover as much information about them as possible. The ones I listed are just some of the potential candidates we keep an eye on. There is even a few others that reached a critical point we can interfere in while we were sitting here and talking"

"Did you judge they were not worth intervention?", she asked, somewhat surprised to hear that, while they were calmly sitting here, people of interest to Wu Long were facing a pivotal point that decided the course of their lives.

"No, though none of them were particularly promising, you never know when something unexpected could bring a much more bountiful yield, and the effort required wasn’t that grand so it wouldn’t be a loss even if none of them turn out to be a big hit. I never said I had to personally interfere in each case. The ones which already happened are those that could be handled without my involvement, they were solved by Eternal Duality Valley members of appropriate level...", Wu Long shook his head, calmly explaining, and then perked up, "Oh! Just in time, there’s one happening right now so you could see..."

As soon as his words finished, the little fox on his shoulder opened her eyes, and a scene happening in a dark corner of the city far away appeared in front of Hong Yue’s eyes. She immediately understood it was only a vision that no one else could see.

In a small, remote alley, a wounded man was down on one knee, supporting himself with his sword, looking with a look full of disbelief and anger at another one, who was flanked by four others. From the words spoken, Hong Yue instantly understood that the injured person was a Disciple of the same Cultivation Sect as the five who attacked him, the one he was glaring at was his senior disciple under the same Master, apparently jealous of the recent achievements of his junior. And at this moment, a few members of Eternal Duality Valley, seemingly passing through this valley, ’coincidentally stumbled upon’ this scene.

"See? It’s just one disciple of a not particularly powerful Sect, but if all it takes if a few Transcendent-level warriors of the War God Palace to Sow Karma, there’s not much loss to interfere even if this doesn’t lead to anything big", Wu Long chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

Hong Yue nodded silently. The conversation on this day held a lot of revelations and shocking turns for her, as well as giving her much room for thought. She was already overwhelmed, and needed time to process everything that she learned and that happened today, "Thank you for answering my questions and agreeing to share your thoughts. I took a lot of your time already, so I should probably go..."

As she was speaking, she suddenly felt a strange feeling again. A different one from before, but also new to her, ’W-what is this? Some kind of... uncertainty... but it feels a bit different...?"

Meanwhile, Wu Long replied with a smile, "I see, I enjoyed the time we spent today, Fairy Hong Yue"

"Enjoyed...", her eyes widened under the veil, ’Is that what that was when we were talking earlier...? Enjoyment? Then what is this feeling now?’

"Yes, walking around, enjoying views, eating and drinking delicious things, having a pleasant conversation, I enjoyed doing all those together with you", he nodded, and then added with a gentle, soft tone, "I hope there will be opportunity to do it again, but even if it’s not with me, I hope you do so with Ye’er. After all, now that you have left the life of a living weapon behind, it is only right to start learning how to enjoy living as a person"

In that moment, it felt to Hong Yue as if time stopped, and all the world around began melting, as her widened eyes were focused on Wu Long’s mask.