Chapter 68: The Way to Win Is to Lose More!

Although Old Wang said it wasn't necessary, Feng Xue still paid for a Hetian Qinghua seed stone priced at fifteen guan, adhering to the principle that you shouldn't ask for free things.

On the way home, he still pondered the several possibilities Old Wang had mentioned, but after thinking it over, none seemed particularly plausible—whether it was a great demon born from an inanimate object or a true immortal wandering the mortal world, neither seemed to have any connection to him.

It couldn't possibly be that he was a once-in-ten-thousand cultivation prodigy, could it?

Feng Xue muttered to himself as he walked home, unaware that a figure was trailing him from afar.

"As expected, this brat can't detect my tracking. He must see me face-to-face or use some kind of Heavenly Eye technique to notice anything unusual about me."

Maintaining sufficient distance, the demonic cultivator used his superior spiritual sense to lock onto Feng Xue while pondering his next move.

According to the usual logic of demonic cultivators, if someone poses a threat, you kill them—end of story. But if it involves a Breakthrough human calamity, that's another matter entirely—

Because he had to consider: is this brat himself the calamity, or is it the sect that might emerge from behind him?

The Xuan cultivation lineage always sends reinforcements when a disciple is harmed. Ordinary disciples are one thing, but this direct disciple—surrounded by a hundred-year spirit ghost and a thousand-year great demon—if he were killed, his elders would surely go mad.

Even an uninitiated disciple noticed my uniqueness. How could the initiated elders behind him, or even the ancestral masters in the Underworld, fail to track me down with near certainty?

But if I ignore it, in just two days we've already unintentionally entangled ourselves in so much interaction—it's clearly formed some karmic bond. If I let this continue, the karmic ties will only grow stronger.

The demonic cultivator recalled the experiences of past demonic elders who had weathered human calamities, and felt only helplessness. Unlike the orthodox, demonic cultivators aren't harmonious, so these experiences weren't passed down orally—most were post-mortem analyses conducted after someone survived a human calamity.

And among these successful cases, none dared claim they achieved perfection. Or rather, from a later observer's perspective, most demonic cultivators who survived their human calamities made many low-level mistakes.

Before weathering the human calamity, including himself, nearly all demonic cultivators assumed those low-level mistakes were merely the calamity's influence on fortune. But after experiencing it firsthand, this demonic cultivator gained new insight—

"Could these elders have been deliberately taking losses?"

This thought sounded absurd—after all, if you know you're undergoing a trial, deliberately making mistakes is just suicide.

But upon closer thought, it seemed to carry some merit.

The human calamity is, after all, the Dao of Humanity's obstruction against demonic cultivators during Breakthrough. But this obstruction isn't infinite—it matches the amount of evil karma you've accumulated. The evil deeds you've committed are finite, so the calamity must be finite too.

Those demonic cultivators who try to evade the human calamity often face catastrophic disasters at the last moment precisely because their evil karma hasn't been neutralized by the calamity, so it all erupts at once.

"So that's it! This is the key to surviving the human calamity!" The demonic cultivator felt a flash of spiritual insight behind his eyes—his entire mindset suddenly cleared.

Just like the principle that one crime isn't punished twice (Note ①), whether those elders acted intentionally or by accident, if they kept suffering misfortunes and taking losses during the trial, it was equivalent to already being punished by karmic retribution. Thus, when settling the human calamity, that portion would be deducted. If you cash out your karma early, the final calamity's intensity will be lower, and your chance of survival higher!

With this realization, the demonic cultivator's thinking opened up instantly. All his previous schemes and plots were utterly discarded—he now understood that the more he won now, the worse he'd lose later.

So he had to lose!

But losing had to be done skillfully—if he lost everything right at the start, it would be suicide.

Thinking this, the demonic cultivator's attention once again fixed on Feng Xue, for his instinct told him: this brat was the key to his Breakthrough—dead or alive.

…

"Mr. Feng!" As Feng Xue reached his front gate, he saw a familiar face. Already tense, his expression darkened—until he saw the man's lifespan above his head, then he relaxed slightly.

"What do you want?"

Seeing Feng Xue's displeasure, the broker's face also grew grim, but he spoke up anyway:

"Today's train was delayed—heard it was held up by bandits, but they only stole some red goods. Your fridge is fine, but the train broke down and needs to be towed back. It won't arrive until tomorrow. When are you free tomorrow?"

Feng Xue, though not particularly concerned—he'd grown used to having a fridge, but in this winter cold, it wasn't essential—knew he couldn't show goodwill now. He scowled: "I'm free tomorrow, but that kind of large appliance is delicate. If you bring me a broken one, think carefully about the consequences!"

"No way! Absolutely not! If it doesn't work, our brokerage will buy you a brand-new one ourselves! If I lie, may lightning strike me dead the moment I step outside!" As the broker spoke, he raised his right hand to swear an oath. Feng Xue didn't stop him—he watched with interest as the man finished. This made the broker break into cold sweat; only now did he remember that this man before him was apparently a master of lightning.

Internally trembling, he still forced a confident expression—everything, however, was observed from afar by the demonic cultivator.

"So he bought something big from the broker? Fridge… what's that?"

The demonic cultivator thought for a moment, then set it aside for now. He waited quietly until Feng Xue entered the house, then cast a Hidden Body Talisman and crept stealthily toward the residence.

In truth, for a "top-tier mortal" like him, using a Hidden Body Talisman was riskier than not using one—but what else could he do? If he got noticed by the great demon or spirit ghost as he approached, then chased and struck by several spells along the way—wouldn't that count as calamity?

Of course, he couldn't deliberately expose himself—even with the Hidden Body Talisman, he had to cast it properly. But he was certain that even if he suppressed his spiritual fluctuations to the minimum, he couldn't possibly escape the perception of a thousand-year great demon!

Yet…

"What's going on? Where's the great demon? Where's the spirit ghost?" The demonic cultivator, pressed against the courtyard wall, stared blankly—he couldn't comprehend how he'd gotten this close and still no one had come to beat him.

"Could they be dual-cultivating?" He recalled the strange clothing of the snake spirit from earlier, and couldn't help but imagine that. He spat inwardly, then gathered spiritual energy into his fingertip and climbed over the wall like a gecko.

Then…

"Wait, why does your spirit ghost have a Round Light Mirror? No wonder I climbed in through the window and still wasn't spotted!"

Note ①: This mechanism is easy to understand—it's like repaying a debt.

Karma is the debt you owe.

Calamity is your repayment.

The human calamity is the final due date.

The more you pay back early, the less you owe on the due date.

But if you refuse to pay until then, the full amount crashes down and you can't bear it.

This theory might sound familiar to long-time readers, because I once used it to explain the Saint Lord's stupidity in my Dragon Adventure fanfic.

Simply put, the Saint Lord couldn't just send his Shadow Troops to retrieve the Talisman, the Magic Compendium, and the Pangu Treasure Box—he deliberately sent a bunch of idiots, because only by constantly being stupid could they boost righteous energy and lower the balance's suppression of demonic energy (actually yin-yang qi), making it possible for him to resurrect when the New Year bell rang. If he succeeded too early, his yin energy would be too strong, triggering yang backlash and lowering his success rate. Of course, in reality, he still didn't suffer enough.

Conversely, Little Dragon was unlucky enough to gather all eight demonic energies, so in the end, only yin could subdue yin—forcing the Saint Lord to drag him down to hell.

PS: If you don't like this book, don't read it. Don't jump out just to get attention. If you want to discuss the plot—point out what's illogical, stupid, or flawed—go ahead, even if you're harsh. Long-time readers understand. But if you're just venting emotion, showing off, thinking you're brilliant and want to teach me how to write—go elsewhere. Don't ruin my mood here.

Lastly, about "padding": isn't laying out the setting before going paid also padding?

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(End of Chapter)