Chapter 70: Holy Light Tolerance, Lending With [anti-law]
In the exclusive small church of Rain Courtyard, Yuan Zhu met the manager here, an old man who called himself a Holy Light Temple Priest.
The other party was not like the localized white people in the city’s second hospital Holy Light Department, but a genuine Running Local old man. His hair was tied in a bun with an ordinary wooden hairpin, wearing a retro robe, with a goatee beard, quite possessing an immortal demeanor.
Inside the Western-style church, besides rows of benches for listening to doctrines, behind the innermost podium hung a huge Holy Church emblem, a large circle with an inscribed equilateral triangle.
Below the Holy Church emblem was an altar table, on which was placed the plaque of the Supreme Tai Huang Holy Light Dao Master of Miro Heaven, and a brass incense burner filled with incense ash.
Yuan Zhu was stunned, feeling like he had come to the wrong place. This Holy Church was probably taken over by some cultivation Daoist? Occupying the hall and engaging in some other heretical activities?
“What are you standing there for? Greet the temple priest when you see him?” Chen Yi pushed Yuan Zhu, signaling him to be more perceptive.
“Hello, old sir!” Yuan Zhu politely bowed at the waist to greet the old man.
The old man stroked his beard, nodded lightly without looking at Yuan Zhu, and said to Chen Yi: “What do you want coming to me? It’s almost lunchtime, don’t delay my meal.”
Chen Yi dragged Yuan Zhu forward and whispered: “Take out that letter of yours.” Then she looked at the old man, “This guy wants to join the Holy Church. This is the letter of introduction. I brought him to you to see if he’s suitable, if he has this opportunity?”
The old man glanced at the envelope handed in front of him, didn’t reach out to take it, and directly asked: “Did you bring the money?”
“Huh?” Yuan Zhu was stunned. So direct? So he asked: “How much?”
The old man didn’t expect Yuan Zhu to be so straightforward, so he looked at Chen Yi and asked: “What’s he to you? I’ll charge you 30,000 yuan. Is that okay?”
Chen Yi replied: “Not suitable at all. Let’s not haggle. Flat price, 12,500, okay? Last time, I bargained you down to 12,000. This time, to show sincerity, I added 500 for you.”
“This…” The old man looked hesitant.
Chen Yi retreated to advance: “How about this, you reduce another 1,500, and I’ll provide the sacrifice?”
“Not good! Not good! If you provide the sacrifice, it would seem like I’m not devout. It’s settled then. Young man, come with me. Let’s test if you have affinity with Tai Huang Dao Master?” The old man beckoned to Yuan Zhu, signaling him to follow.
Yuan Zhu, who hadn’t been able to interject throughout, looked at Chen Yi. You closed the deal too fast, not giving me any chance to speak. Also, is this really a place to learn Holy Light? It sounds more and more off, and this Tai Huang Dao Master sounds more and more shady.
“Let’s go, follow him. Didn’t I tell you? One of the Eight Holy Kings, Yellow Heaven Dao Master, is Tai Huang Holy Light Dao Master.” Chen Yi quietly pointed at the plaque and pushed Yuan Zhu forward.
He hurriedly lowered his head and asked softly: “Is it reliable? Why do I feel something’s off? Also, is this price too exaggerated?”
“My annual tuition is over 20,000, and after four years of graduation, I only get the most basic Supernatural Knowledge cultivation. You spend one-eighth the price to get Holy Light initiation, and you think it’s expensive? This is the internal price!”
Yuan Zhu: “But I’m a bit panicked. It doesn’t feel like learning Holy Light. They won’t extract my bones and burn Dao Bone, right?”
“What are you thinking? This is Running, New Federation, territory of Yellow Heaven old folks. Holy Church comes to preach, but has to first pay respects to Holy Light Dao Master’s turf. This is the hardest and most orthodox Dao Lineage on the West Coast! Practicing something else would make you the heretic.”
At this time, the old man’s urging voice rang out: “Hey, you two little lovebirds, what are you doing over there? Still eating lunch or not!”
“Coming, coming!” Chen Yi pulled Yuan Zhu and followed.
The old man had already taken out a row of frogs from a jar, flicked their brainstems with his knuckles at amazing speed, precise and ruthless, making the originally jumping frog frogs have their spines broken and half-paralyzed, lying on the table twitching violently.
“Come over. To enter the Holy Gate, you need to test compatibility first. Although normal people can pass, there are always some weird ones with impure bloodlines and high deviation. If you directly do Holy Light Infusion without testing, they might burn to death on the spot. I don’t mind picking up free merit, but if Security Bureau investigators sue me for negligent homicide, compensating would be troublesome.” The old man seemed to have similar experiences, full of resentment.
“There’s such a thing?” Yuan Zhu looked at his senior student, waiting for explanation.
Chen Yi: “Du Ling isn’t without aliens. Some orphans with alien mixed blood they don’t know about can’t touch Holy Light or they’ll burn to death; that’s called ‘evil bloodline’. Some have direct blood relatives who practiced other systems, carrying minor pollution in their bodies. If there’s Attribute Conflict with Holy Light, they’ll burn to death too. Don’t panic, Du Ling has special rules: if no one in three generations practiced Supernatural System, the fourth generation’s bloodline pollution is automatically cleansed to safe levels. That’s called ‘the grace of a gentleman fades in three generations, cuts off in five.'”
“What if you’re not sure if ancestors had ability users?”
The old man urged: “That’s why I’m testing you. Come, stretch out your arm, let me prick it.”
The old man held a paralyzed twitching frog in his left hand, a silver needle in his right, making Yuan Zhu extend his arm. Seeing the exaggerated scar on his inner wrist, the old man exclaimed in surprise: “Oh? Who would’ve thought, young as you are, you’re already tired of living. Practicing Holy Light for stimulation?”
“Misunderstanding, all misunderstanding. Hiss!”
Before Yuan Zhu could explain, the old man had already poked the needle into his wrist, red blood beads seeping from the needle hole. It seemed to go in over a centimeter, and it hurt a lot, not like acupuncture hitting the right acupoint, but just casually stabbing anywhere.
At this moment, the frog in the old man’s other hand suddenly croaked miserably, its eyes starting to glow from inside, like a lightbulb lit internally, illuminating its abdominal and back blood vessels clearly, eyes even spraying Holy Light outward, a foot long!
However, the frog’s illumination wasn’t strong; instead, a large amount of Holy Light condensed on the silver needle in the old man’s right hand, continuously transmitting into his arm along the needle.
Yuan Zhu clearly felt a vinegar-like stinging pain at the wound erupting in his flesh, moving along blood vessels and nerves toward his forearm, with strong stinging and Burning sensations along the way. Luckily, not too exaggerated, bearable.
[Beep beep beep…] Great Desolation Immortal Scripture timely reported ‘Pollution Warning’, then its excellent Firewall blocked it, causing no pollution.
The old man lowered his head, looking at Yuan Zhu’s inner forearm, the flesh illuminated by Holy Light, and the mapped winding blood vessel patterns, making a strange puzzled sound: “Huh…?”
Yuan Zhu hurriedly asked: “What’s wrong? Is my constitution unsuitable for Holy Light?”
Old Temple Priest: “Not really. Your body performs very normally, Holy Light color is pure, meaning no pollution in your body at all, a very excellent Holy Light embryo. However, your body seems a bit dull. I’ve injected so much Holy Light, why haven’t your capillaries shown any coloring? In those white ghosts’ terms, this is Holy Light Intolerance constitution. If you practice like this, you’d go bankrupt.”
Yuan Zhu calmed his mind and qi: “Little Spicy Stick, lower my Firewall a bit. I want to try the feeling of being polluted.”
Game Sprite: “Alright, I’ll lower it just a tiny bit. You be careful too. This is an ‘evil Pollution Source’ after all, it’ll dirty your body.”
Yuan Zhu: “Isn’t that the pollution effect I’m seeking?”
[Beep beep beep…]
Great Desolation Immortal Scripture alarmed wildly again. This time, the old man, who had switched to a second frog in his left hand, made another strange sound: “Hmm? What’s going on? How did you suddenly become tolerant?”
Yuan Zhu looked down; a patch of skin on his inner forearm now had the outermost capillaries dyed bright silver by Holy Light, with a bit of fluorescence. This was his second time being polluted by Supernatural Power after Shadow Pollution.
“Any discomfort? Especially mentally, any suppression, palpitations, heavy suffocation, impending doom, inexplicable sadness, negativity, despair, suicidal urges?”
Yuan Zhu shook his head: “No, just purely very painful.”
“That’s fine, I’m old, can’t hold the needle steady, hand keeps shaking.” The old man nodded satisfactorily. “Your constitution is fine. Get ready, come back in three days. Dismissed, I need to eat.”
The senior student obediently said beside him: “Thank you, old sir.”
The old man nodded, pulled out the silver needle, tossed it on the table. Then discarded the frog in his hand, now squeezed dry and shriveled into a dried corpse, grabbed another to ignite, starting to replenish Holy Light.
According to the senior student, the old man had condensed a Soul Crystal in his body, so just now igniting the frog didn’t use Holy Mark; he directly held the frog barehanded to emit light. So the consumed Holy Light could be replenished by the third frog, refilling the Soul Crystal’s energy.
“Since it’s registered, let’s go. Please treat me to a meal.” Chen Yi tugged at Yuan Zhu, who was still pressing his wound to stop bleeding.
Out of the church, he asked: “Why wait 3 days?”
“Of course to give you time to raise money. If you had the money today, we’d handle it this afternoon. This is Holy Church; what materials do we lack? Sacrifices that cost money outside are plentiful in the academy, can’t finish them.”
Yuan Zhu: “I have money. But is this price fair?”
Settling everything so casually, throwing out 12,500 directly, then Holy Light initiation reinforcement one-stop, too playful.
Senior student: “Whether the price is fair depends on your choice. To me, this is the most cost-effective price, not the cheapest. If you want cheap, you can insist on being a Holy Church believer for ten years, or have parents join the church ten years early. Then you can enjoy one free initiation test screening. If you outperform other competitors, you join the academy run by Holy Church for education and training; about two years, you can receive Holy Mark Ritual.”
“This costs almost nothing; Holy Church provides food. But the price is serving Holy Church for 10 years after graduation. Equivalent to Holy Church buying your time, buying your life with money… Compared to that, money settles 90% of troubles. And the more you spend, the smoother your future improvements. Even if your background isn’t clean and fails investigation, you can still become a legal monk openly. Keeping money around 10,000 is highest cost-performance. Over 15,000, it’s a loss.”
Yuan Zhu: “Legal monk? So there are illegal ones too?”
Miss nodded: “Holy Church is so big, internals mixed; fallen monks, wild illegal monks are common. And Holy Light looks holy, but is extremely dangerous domineering Supernatural Energy with high ‘fall tendency’. Wild monks getting ‘Holy Mark’ illegally, because the initial infusion Holy Light is impure (evil), are more easily tempted in later practice, choose to fall, become wanted, prioritized for Security Bureau hunt.”
Yuan Zhu: “Holy Light falls easily?”
Chen Yi: “Of course! Would you rather burn yourself as firewood, consume life, endure pain to release a little Holy Light for relief; or treat all beings as firewood, you light the fire, burn others to illuminate yourself for relief? Fallen monks burn others too much, soul distorts and twists, shifting toward Fall Seal King’s faction. Even clean-background orthodox monks fall easily. Let alone ‘fallen Holy Mark’ from illegal channels—sliding into the ditch is as easy as breathing?”
“What’s Fall Seal King?”
Senior student: “One of the Eight Holy Kings. One of eight independent Holy Light sources in Holy Light System. Fallen monks’ Holy Light naturally connects to Fall Seal King this Origin. Still Holy Light System members, but if fully fallen, soul distorts and corrupts… priority hunt targets for other Holy Church monks. Because fallen monks’ Soul Ash quality is extremely pure, comparable to Spirit Medicine. So don’t skimp, don’t casually accept unknown ‘Holy Light Infusion’.”
“Then why not expel Fall Seal King and his fallen monks from Holy Church System?”
“Nominally expellable, but essentially still under Holy Light Power System; no matter how you cut ties, can’t change it. If this world had only Holy Light System, factions could split. But outside Holy Light System, many other Power Systems; no room for Holy Light internal division. Outside full of competitors, Holy Light internals forced to stand together, pinch noses and accept.”
Yuan Zhu thought, then said: “I spent so much money reinforcing Holy Light, just to be a bit safer?”
Senior student replied: “Safety is secondary. Reinforcing Holy Light in our academy, biggest benefit is identity. Your reinforcement under our watch, handled by professional clergy, registered and submitted to Security Bureau. So you’re a legal registered ability user, can go to other Holy Church branches to find and buy Holy Seal Brands. Those wild monks lack identity, must buy Holy Seals expensively on Black Market, fewer choices. Ask other Running Holy Churches: strict review, usually charge 20,000+ fees.”
Yuan Zhu finally felt a bit balanced: “Why is the academy so cheap?”
“That’s just for you. You have this letter, considered acquaintance, internal price. Your Holy Light reinforcement is burning Garbage, worth encouraging. Outsiders start at 30,000 for academy reinforcement fees. Come on, sis earns a bit commission from this business; I’ll treat you to a feast. Right, when can you gather the fee?”
Yuan Zhu: “Tomorrow. You still offer consulting service now?”
“Of course, free, plus free lunch. Let’s go to the canteen; their red braised frog chunks are pretty good.”
“Sure, I also want to consult about Anti-Law.” As a part-time employee of Mao Mao King, Yuan Zhu was very interested in becoming an Anti-Law Demon God like Mao Mao King.
He could totally do it: burn Holy Light burning himself in Human Stance; Tiger Demon Stance for Anti-Law, matching Mao Mao King!
The two strolled slowly toward the nearest canteen. Miss commented: “Anti-Law? I don’t recommend it. Just properly cultivate this promising Holy Light profession. Anti-Law like Law is working for others. Just Law hands all achievements to Pale Great Law after death, while good Anti-Law Contract leaves you some. Anti-Law’s advantage is skyrocketing. Gain power beyond your limit in shortest time, but all at a Price.”
“That’s not right!” Yuan Zhu retorted. “Isn’t Anti-Law the opposite of Law, replacing Pale Great Law with your body, claiming Supernatural Power for yourself?”
“???” Miss was shocked, stared at him like a fool. “You mean becoming Anti-Law Demon God?”
Yuan Zhu nodded, looking at her expectantly: “Yeah!”
“But you’re just a Mortal!” She couldn’t understand how a newcomer not even initiated dared consult pros/cons of Anti-Law Demon God.
“…” Yuan Zhu realized his current identity wasn’t qualified. “Pure curiosity, want to know Anti-Law System’s pros/cons. Other systems have obvious Side Effects; what’s Anti-Law’s defect?”
Senior student: “Not a defect, but what you call ‘Anti-Law’ has a fatal flaw in my eyes: Anti-Law God Demons’ ‘Supernatural Powers’ spawned in Law mode, though 100% theirs, can’t be directly used. What’s the point of such Getting Stronger?”
“What? Anti-Law created power, can’t use yourself?”
Senior student: “Yes. Anti-Law also called ‘Demon God Lending, Anti-Law Lending’. Usually picks mortals fitting requirements, signs Contract, grants power for skyrocketing. As Price, either serve Demon God, or freely use power for anything, but regularly pay part of ‘power’ as interest…”
“Treat Supernatural Power as money; Anti-Law Demon Gods are banks, experts in lending growth, purpose lending out powers, cultivating selected Clients, making them pay higher interest, rounds of expansion. Anti-Law grown power can be huge, like a Capital Pool, 100% controlled by Anti-Law Demon God. Only issue: Anti-Law Demon God can’t directly absorb this power to Get Stronger; anything else fine.”
“Anti-Law can’t directly Get Stronger? Indirectly?”
Senior student: “Indirectly no problem. Anti-Law accumulated power so vast, whether Hiring People or reinforcing Contractors as thugs, all fine. Like rich Boss smashing money to hurt, buy killers… But power not on self, unsafe and inconvenient. The Anti-Law I mean is Contractor side: suddenly gain huge power from nothing, but need Anti-Law Contract with Demon God. Fair terms okay; harsh ones like high-interest loan, interest compounds endlessly, soul belongs to them.”
Hearing this, Yuan Zhu first disappointed—Anti-Law too constrained. But soon rallied; Anti-Law had room to operate. He thought of two solutions!
First, Tiger Demon imitates Mao Mao King, continues as Anti-Law Demon God, lends Shadow Pollution to self, to others. One, self whitewashes, freely controls Shadow Power via Anti-Law; as for Price? None, I owe Tiger Demon, let it collect debt.
On the other hand, Tiger Demon lends to others, earns Shadow Interest, accumulated assets unusable by self but inheritable by him Yuan Zhu!
Second way: he Yuan Zhu lends, replaces Tiger Demon lending Shadow Pollution. Defect: Human Body can’t use shadows, but benefit: rapidly grow via Anti-Law, earned money spent by Tiger Demon, letting Tiger Demon Get Stronger fast via ‘Shadow Interest’ he earned.
But essentially, he Yuan Zhu is true owner of this Shadow Power, 100% ownership, can counterbalance Tiger Demon.
Though he can’t brainwash himself, must guard against Great Desolation Immortal Scripture!
Tiger Demon is Immortal Scripture’s Boss Template; who knows if backdoors? If I wildly drain Tiger Demon’s Shadow Power, lend for profit growth, then feed back to Tiger Demon.
Equivalent to gradually transferring Boss Template’s Property to my name, then return to Tiger Demon, even more. Someday Immortal Scripture Old Man revives and cheats to dominate?
Heh heh, sorry, ownership is mine now!
“Can do it! This Anti-Law can be done.” Little Spicy Stick popped out too, excited. As long as it threatens Great Desolation Old Man, she’d raise both hands in approval.
