Surprisingly Enough(NOT), Common Sense Is Overpowered in a Cliché Cultivation World (Patreon)

59. Ferrying Souls~

The mortality rate in this world was off the charts. It far outclassed the mortality rate compared to his previous life.

Each week, one or two disciples quietly passed away in the Pure Qi sect. This situation was not only prevalent in the Pure Qi sect but also all around the world.

In this world, where there were superpowered individuals who could refine the sun and moon and various beasts who competed with them, this high death rate was not surprising indeed.

Ning still remembered how Xiao Fan slaughtered a group of disciples like it was just another Tuesday. That was kind of brutal.

Compared to that, Ning devouring a soul was obviously not a big deal, right? Atleast he felt so.

Of course, the reason he paid so much attention to this was that after the death of these people, they left behind their souls.

The souls which he could ferry away.

So, looking at these unclaimed souls, Ning just had a single thought.

This was all free real estate.

...

So, he got to work.

[Soul Ferrying Scripture]

[Soul Ferrying Scripture]

[Soul Ferrying Scripture]

Walking around the graveyard, Ning recited the Buddhist scripture in his mind, sending the souls into the afterlife and giving them hope of reincarnation.

"Ferry away, buddy," Ning muttered, sending away the soul of a foundation-building cultivator.

The Pure Qi sect has a history of almost 300 years. In the modern world, this time was enough to pass several generations, but the sense of time in this world differed from his previous life.

A healthy Qi cultivator has a lifespan of 100 years, and a foundation-building cultivator could live up to at least 180 years.

"It's a pity that few could ever live up to their entire lifespan," Ning couldn't help but think so.

Ever since the Pure Qi sect had been established, moments of peace were few and far between. Be it the war with the other sect for ownership of spiritual veins or the beast tides that occurred at intervals, the cultivators dropped like flies.

Of course, this was very beneficial for Ning. He knew that it was very hard for him to increase his mental strength without the help of pills, so this time, he cultivated his mental strength to the brim.

So, in this entire journey, Ning was very happy. Feeling both his physical and mental state strengthened, it was hard to keep the grin on his face. 

Thankfully, Ning was alone currently in the graveyard, otherwise, he would surely spook some people with how wide his smile was considering the current location. It would be hard not to call him a deviant at that point.

...

"I ferry soul here~ 

I ferry soul there~ 

I ferry soul everywhere~ 

Well, not everywhere...

"Soul Ferrying Scripture," Ning tried to ferry a foundation-building soul, receiving strong resistance in return. He could see the golden soul try to remain with fervent passion, probably due to their strong obsession.

From these recent soul-ferrying experiences, Ning's comprehension of this ability had quite a bit. For instance, he figured out the mechanism behind the strengthening of his soul.

Ferrying souls effectively meant that he was sending these souls into reincarnation, and giving all these dead people another chance to live.

In a sense, he was saving lives out here. It was for this reason that heaven provided merit to him and strengthened his body and soul. It was an equivalent exchange.

But the souls themselves also had a role to play in this exchange. If the soul did not want to depart, then he would not get any merit from successfully ferrying the soul. Similarly, he found that the main reason he was able to harness this merit was probably due to the blessing of the deceased soul itself for giving them another try at life.

This explains why Ning could not get merit when he tried to ferry the animals he had killed directly. With how intense their resentment was, it was already good that he was not gaining any bad karma, let alone getting their blessing for killing them. This discovery also thwarted one of his nefarious plots.

Ah! How he wished he could get endless strengthening by killing just some ants instead.

But that was not meant to be.

"Another failure, huh? These souls are really too stubborn for their own good." Ning was not surprised by failing at this either. To ferry soul, if there was too much of a gap in strength unless he got their consent, he could not reincarnate them, let alone gain their merit.

It was a bummer, but it was not without its respite either.

"If I ferry everything here, then the Yin Qi would decrease drastically," Ning mumbled as he intimately felt the space around him, feeling the invisible formation surrounding the cemetery with his spiritual sense.

"Thankfully, there was no change in formation from my work." Ning narrowed his eyes.

The main function of this formation was to suppress the state of the soul to reduce the chances of giving birth to ghosts. This naturally made this place filled with Yin Qi, attracting the Yin Qi cultivators.

If he tried to ferry everything with all his strength, the formation would react in an instant due to the drastic changes in the surroundings and alert the higher-ups. So, Ning could not go overboard and try to ferry every soul lest he attract even more attention.

It hindered Ning, but he didn't feel too bad about it. He could ferry the souls present precisely due to this formation.

The effect of this formation was to slowly dissipate the soul present here so that they could return to heaven and earth in a stable manner. This method reduced the chances of giving birth to something weird and also prolonged the shelf life of the soul present here.

From Ning's experiment, he knew that normally the soul dissipates in heaven and earth after a couple of days in the case of normal animals. The higher the cultivation, the longer it would take for the soul to dissipate and return to the afterlife.

Along the way, those having excessive amounts of negative emotions and extremely strong obsessions change into ghosts and plague the people, bringing forth disaster.

So, with this formation, Ning had quite a number of souls to ferry.

Otherwise, who knew how many souls would still be left for him to ferry? Especially those decades-old foundation-building souls?

...

As the diamond mark glowed with a pure feeling, Ning recited the soul-ferrying scripture and pointed towards a golden spot in front of him.

The golden spot was obviously a soul; it slightly resembled a male cultivator, but the decades of weakening made it unclear. With the soul-ferrying scripture, the golden soul suddenly seemed to be attracted by something, as it transformed into countless light particles and vanished from sight.

In this week, Ning carefully managed the number of souls he ferried not to show any flaws. He ferried all the foundation-building experts who were on the verge of dissipating and a few strong ones.

In total, he ferried six foundation-building souls around seventy-eight qi cultivator souls, and a lot of mortal souls. He left a few recently dead souls of foundation-building souls and several qi cultivator souls in their normal soul state and didn't touch them.

While the density of the Yin Qi would decrease slightly with his handiwork, it would not drop to the point that it would alarm the higher-ups. Ning was very careful regarding this.

"Still, this trip was worth it," Ning thought with a smile.

Not only did it strengthen his soul and body, but he also had a deeper insight into the Soul Ferrying Scripture after ferrying this many souls.

Of course, this was not the only gain; Ning was also able to find the difference between ferrying the soul of a normal human and ferrying the soul of a cultivator.

And oh boy! Ferrying a mortal and a cultivator had quite a difference.

[Early Stage Qi Cultivator = Ferrying 1 normal human soul.

Mid Stage Qi Cultivator = Ferrying 3 normal human souls

Late Stage Qi cultivator = Ferrying 7 normal Human souls

Peak stage Qi cultivator = Ferrying 10 normal Human Souls

Foundation-building Stage cultivator = Ferrying a hundred normal human souls]

The exact difference might not be the same for every being, but approximately Ning was quite sure about his calculations. Although he couldn't exactly distinguish between the foundation-building stage cultivators, he knew that he gained a lot. Approximately, he had ferried atleast five hundred normal human souls.

Ferrying so many souls made Ning reach another level of high due to the increment in the quality of his soul.

"But now, the fun time is over," Ning couldn't help but say in sorrow. After all, he had already completed the mission in this graveyard, and he didn't want to show his feet taking another chance.

Now the only way to have a lot of souls to ferry is to chance upon a massacre. Or, let me start one myself and let it spiral downwards from then on?

...

..

.

Of course, Ning was just kidding. Unless...

...

Thanks for reading~