Immortality by Merit and Sin Coins

Widowed young and having lost her son in her later years, Mrs. Chen gained a granddaughter and a daughter-in-law.

Her heart found solace, and she abandoned any thoughts of suicide.

Miss Yun, who lived a precarious existence in Black Water City, found a safe harbor where she could temporarily rest.

As for himself, he had gained a mortal identity, one that would keep him from being discovered by those Cultivators.

Although this picture was woven from lies.

But the three of them each got what they needed. If it weren’t for the troupe in the South Suburbs, they could have continued to live peacefully, even if their lives were impoverished.

That was why the young girl couldn’t understand.

Her childish voice, accompanied by a piercing shriek, questioned the vicious man before her, "You say I killed her, so tell me, what did I do wrong!"

’Tell me, what did I do wrong!’

"Ow! I was wrong, I was wrong! Stop hitting me... It hurts!"

After two heavier punches landed, the girl’s indignant questions turned back into aggrieved whimpers.

Her body was stiff as a board, but she still instinctively raised her arms to cover her head.

This cowardly gesture, paired with her expressionless face, was bizarrely unsettling.

...

Lin Shu still didn’t stop swinging his fists.

He wasn’t some thin-skinned young man.

’How could a few words from her possibly make him feel something like guilt?’

For one, he couldn’t even be sure if she was telling the truth.

Even if he were to grant that she was telling the truth...

...the fact that this Immortal Descendant had tried to control his mind moments earlier was also very real.

Perhaps because he had spent his youth in a quagmire fraught with danger, Lin Shu despised the feeling of losing control over his surroundings.

He narrowed his eyes, the red mist in his pupils gradually receding.

This was a sign that his Spiritual Power was running low.

Despite the girl’s fierce cries...

In reality, despite taking so many punches, her flawless face was only smudged with a bit of dirt; there wasn’t even a scratch on it.

A Middle Third Grade Qi Cultivation Immortal Technique was completely incapable of harming her.

But Lin Shu knew with absolute clarity that this meant he couldn’t afford to stop.

Setting all else aside, this Immortal Descendant most likely had no experience with Magical Combat.

Other than her incredibly tough Physique and her mind-affecting ability, she hadn’t shown any other skills.

But if he let her recover, his fate would likely be a grim one.

’So before that happens, I have to do everything I can to get her back into that "can’t get up" state she mentioned.’

’At the very least, I have to instill enough fear in her heart.’

That way, after he left, the Immortal Descendant wouldn’t dare seek revenge for a while, buying him more time to improve his Cultivation and ensure his own safety.

"Hah."

Lin Shu exhaled the hot air from his lungs. Still gripping the girl by the neck, he lifted her clean off the ground.

The last vestiges of red mist swirled in his eyes, his gaze turning cold with the indifference of someone about to finish things.

Stared at by such eyes...

The cries of pain in the courtyard suddenly became sporadic, turning into choked-back sobs.

"Don’t... don’t kill me..."

Expression finally appeared on the girl’s face. Her eyelashes trembled, and the slightest twitches of her features coalesced into an expression of absolute terror.

As a descendant of a Half-Life Immortal, her lifespan was far longer than any mortal’s, but her body was still in its youngest stage.

Aside from perceiving the world through her Spiritual Sense, she hadn’t even had a chance to open her eyes and truly see it. How could she be willing to die just like that?

"Here!"

Suddenly, a wound split open between the eyebrows of the girl, who had been completely unharmed until this moment.

A bead of blood, shimmering with a cyan light, quickly rolled down and dripped onto the hand Lin Shu had wrapped around her neck.

SIZZLE.

As the bead of blood evaporated on his skin.

A melodious cry once again rang out in Lin Shu’s mind.

At the same time, despite not having invested any Merit and Sin Coins, several notifications popped up in his vision—all of them related to the Cyan Bird Qi-Introducing Formulas!

First, its grade was promoted.

Then, perhaps because the number of Qi Absorptions is tied to an Inner Technique’s grade, the technique was promoted by a full grade, but its mastery fell from Great Success back to Minor Success.

But soon, spurred by the cry, it shattered its bottleneck once more—and then a second time!

[Qi Cultivation Seventh Grade. Cyan Bird Qi-Introducing Formulas: Perfection]

In an instant, Lin Shu’s Qi Absorption capacity skyrocketed from a mere fifteen wisps to the absolute limit for a Lower Three Grades Inner Technique.

A full thirty wisps of Spiritual Power—it had doubled!

The changes didn’t stop there.

The changes to the Inner Technique came from the cry, but the blood bead itself also contained immense Spiritual Power.

The foundational power accumulated by an Immortal Descendant shouldn’t be something a Cultivator can absorb.

But perhaps because the Cyan Bird Qi-Introducing Formulas Lin Shu cultivated had been comprehended from this very girl, the two could be loosely considered to share the same source.

The blood bead, at a ferocious speed, completely replenished his body’s Spiritual Power.

That’s right—a complete replenishment!

A strange look flashed through Lin Shu’s eyes.

After the earlier exertion, he had been down to only three wisps of Spiritual Power, but in the blink of an eye, that number had multiplied tenfold.

This feeling of utter fullness was finally enough to temporarily suppress Lin Shu’s discontent.

A grade promotion, a breakthrough, and a full replenishment of his reserves.

’How many White Jade Round Coins would all this be worth?’

Given how stingy the Merit Coin system was...

’At a minimum... it would have to be thirty or fifty of them, right?’

Lin Shu let out a long breath.

He steadied his breathing and looked again at the girl in his grasp.

After sacrificing her Essence Blood, her body began to shrink, soon becoming an infant the length of his forearm. Her ornate blouse changed along with her, transforming into a turquoise halter top.

What’s more, a snoring sound echoed in his mind.

Clearly, someone was so exhausted they had fallen fast asleep.

...

The corner of Lin Shu’s eye twitched.

’Our minds are connected? Our lives intertwined?’

Besides the snoring, he could even sense her heartbeat.

This sudden development made Lin Shu frown instinctively as he stared intently at the soundly sleeping infant in his hand.

’Whatever.’

’Whatever this is, at least I succeeded in scaring her.’

Even with this Immortal Descendant taking the beating without fighting back, he couldn’t injure her in the slightest with his current abilities.

This only showed that the gap between them was already ridiculously large.

If this had dragged on any longer, Lin Shu really would have been exhausted.

At that point, he would have been like a fish on the chopping block, utterly at her mercy.

Even though his Spiritual Power was now replenished, his mental exhaustion was very real.

The crisis was temporarily resolved.

He stood on the spot and rested for a while.

He then walked slowly toward the side room, stepping past Miss Yun, and casually tossed the Immortal Descendant onto the bed.

THUMP!

With the dull thud of a head hitting the bedframe, Lin Shu sat at the table, his eyes fixed on the flickering candlelight.

Whether the Immortal Descendant was spouting a pack of lies or not...

At least one thing she said was true.

In a place like Black Water City, a crazed, solitary old woman with a death benefit in her possession...

It would have been one thing if the Government Office had been looking after her, but once she lost that protection...

She’d be lucky to survive for three days.

As for the attitude of the Government Office...

If they were really looking after the old woman, how could the surviving family of a Purple Flood Dragon Constable who died in the line of duty be beaten to death by a nobody like Liu San from some troupe, her body left to rot without anyone so much as checking in?

To put it bluntly.

If they had paid even the slightest bit of attention, this young Immortal Descendant would never have even gotten close to Mrs. Chen.

"We can deal with her later."

Lin Shu’s expression was calm as he glanced sideways at the curvaceous woman slumped by the door. "Now, isn’t it time we talked about you?"

"I..."

A chill ran down Miss Yun’s spine.

That child just now called herself an Immortal Descendant.

Any mortal would understand what that meant.

In this world, divinity was everywhere. It was said that gods watched from just three feet above one’s head.

Immortals weren’t lifeless Clay Sculptures on an altar; they were beings who truly existed in the mortal realm, beings who held dominion over all.

They resided above the mortal plane, yet walked among its people.

Therefore, they were also called Half-Life Immortals.

As for Immortal Descendants, they were the group most closely related to the Half-Life Immortal Families, their descendants, their own flesh and blood, who acted as their agents in the mortal world to guide humanity.

And yet, faced with such a being, her benefactor’s reaction had been to slap her across the face!

Forget the Black Water Gang; even the County Magistrate from the Government Office wouldn’t dare act so rudely.

And now, after her benefactor had finished dealing with the Immortal Descendant, he had finally turned his attention to her...

Miss Yun remembered the killing intent she had sensed that afternoon, and her expression slowly darkened.