Chapter 182: Black and Gold

Chapter 182: Black and Gold

What do you mean? Zac asked confused.

This penniless monk gained some minor insight into the Dao of Karma from his many decades of meditation. It has given me some unique skills in this new reality of ours. Karma ties you to a location to the east. However, if you leave now you will likely fail in your goal, the monk said with a calm voice.

Zac thought it over and couldnt find any reason the old man would lie. Still, it felt like too strong a power to be able to predict the future like that, at least for someone at level 40. That felt like something that was in the realm of gods.

Why would I fail? Zac asked with some skepticism.

Because your yin and yang are currently out of balance, the old man said as he pointed at Zacs stomach.

Benefactors wound might not look as bad as this one, the Abbot continued as he pointed at his chest. But it is just as dangerous. I sense a storm inside you. Unless benefactor finds harmony, the yin outside the mountain will kill you.

Zac grimaced, very aware of the problem. The wound in his side was calm at the moment, but that was only because there was bountiful vitality in this courtyard, almost to the point that it was like being constantly healed by a purifier.

The moment he stepped out from the mountain the process of his vitality being sapped would likely restart again. As he sat and pondered in the back of the truck he made some educated guesses about his situation. The suction of his life force likely wasnt only because he was inside the Dead Zone, but because of the composition of the bead.

The Core was mainly created from the miasma of over a hundred thousand zombies along with a lot of ambient deathly energy. The opposing force was the ten purification pills along with his Dao of Vitality and Suis ministrations. However, the pills and other life-attuned energies he absorbed were far less than the total amount of miasma, to the point that at most 10% of the energy in the bead was life-based.

That meant that the absorption would likely continue even after he left the Dead Zone. His current idea was just to tough it out somehow until he found Kenzie, then hurry back to Port Atwood and hope Ogras or someone else had some idea. But perhaps the monk in front of him could provide some alternative solution.

Do you have a way to cleanse away the miasma in me? Zac asked with some hope.

Why would benefactor want to remove half of his self?

Half my what? Zac asked confused, afraid the monk had misunderstood him.

If this poor monk may be blunt, I believe benefactor has not looked at the situation from all angles, Abbot Everlasting Peace said.

Benefactor likely looks at the yin energy on the outside as something negative, akin to poison. However, this poor monk sees it as the other half of life. This poor monk sensed benefactor walk a path of life when he ascended the stairs. One might look at death as the opposite of life, but one can also see it as its shadow, the monk said.

Zac nodded in agreement, as that was basically what he based his latest insight of his Dao Seed around.

One might say that the two restrain each other, but this penniless monk believes they can also nurture each other. Perhaps benefactor doesnt need to remove the yin, but rather bolster the yang, the monk concluded.

This was honestly something Zac had thought about before. He felt that he shouldnt even be alive, but a series of coincidences had left him with this odd core, and perhaps it was a ticket for him to go further than the conventional cultivator. He knew that reaching the higher tiers of power was beyond hard, and unless one encountered a continuous stream of lucky encounters the road would likely end at E-Grade or even lower.

This gift is immeasurable, Zac said. I do not know how to repay you.

Zac was regretting not buying the second Fruit of Ascension with contribution points so that he could give it to the old monk. He still was holding one, but he was planning on giving it to his sister.

Besides, it was unclear how helpful it would be to the man in front of him. The fruit didnt really have any healing properties, and Zac suspected the old man in front of him already had improved his constitution to E-rank. It would almost be impossible not to evolve after sitting in this level of vitality for two straight months.

Benefactor does not need to repay this old man. This penniless monk only wishes that benefactor does not give up on humanity and uses his gifts for good.

Zac could only nod and mentally promise that hed find some way to make it up to the Abbot as he looked inward. There were still surges of life-attuned energy entering his bead, but it had changed quite a bit since he looked at it last.

For one it had almost doubled in size, and secondly, it wasnt pure black with some golden specks like before. It now held a much evener distribution of colors, though the black was still a majority. He guessed it would take another 12 to 15 hours before hed reach equilibrium.

More impressively there actually seemed to be fractals naturally forming on the bead, though Zac had no idea what they meant. They were extremely intricate and written in both gold and black. It seemed there was a profundity behind them that still was beyond what Zac could understand.

As the two sat and absorbed the energies from the lotus flower the two discussed various things. The old man was a cultivator, which wasnt surprising to Zac. What was surprising was that most of the monks who had spent their life in the monastery were cultivators as well. It clashed with what he knew about the randomness of who was a cultivator and who wasnt.

Zac also gained some clues as to where his sister might be. The monk knew of a large town some distance away from the edge of the Dead Zone that was a drop-off zone for Caucasian cultivators. It was called Kingsbury, and it sounded like it would take Zac roughly two days to get there if he hurried.

What was worse was that the monk mentioned that the town had gotten integrated with the New World Government a few weeks ago. Zac wasnt sure whether it was a coincidence or not, but it was cause for worry. However, he forced himself to stay put. It was as the Abbot said, rushing would only have an opposite effect.

After another 17 hours, Zac could sense that the core in his body was finally in equilibrium. He was extremely impressed with the lotus flower that the monk sat on. One single seed was able to offset the entire amount of miasma in his core, and there still was a good deal of energy left inside it.

However, when Zac made to give the seed back to the old man he refused with a shake of his head.

Keep the seed, it might come handy, the Abbot said. Remember, the heart is all.

Thank you, I will remember this, Zac said as he stood up and walked toward the door.

He took one last look at the small courtyard and the congenial old man who sat looking up at the clouds with a smile on his face.

Soon Zac was running through the woods toward Kingsbury. The rumors that the Abbot mentioned kept gnawing at him, making him unable to calm down. It felt too coincidental that the town was getting with the government just as he was about to arrive.

It all smelled like a setup to him. They were trying to lure him to Kingsbury, but what kind of plan they had was unknown. The problem was that Zac couldnt understand why the government would do something like this. They had to know that if they took his sister hostage to harm him they would put themselves square in his crosshairs.

They already knew how he dealt with things by looking at the aftermath in Greenworth. The stupidity of it all made Zac doubt whether he was just paranoid. Still, he would rather be safe than sorry, so he hurried toward the town, cutting a straight line through the forest.