When Shen Mu opened his eyes, the world seemed both clearer and heavier. A vast ocean of spiritual energy flowed through his meridians, endlessly circulating within his nascent soul — a miniature golden figure seated in his dantian, exuding tranquil authority. He had finally broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm, a stage few in his world had ever reached.
The process had consumed nearly all his accumulated merit points, yet his heart was calm.
In his perception, the world's laws whispered faintly, and the will of heaven seemed a little closer than before.
He let out a long breath and stood from the cultivation platform.
"Nascent Soul…" he murmured, his voice echoing faintly in the silent chamber. "Yet this is only the beginning."
---
After stabilizing his breakthrough, Shen Mu once again ventured into the Dungeon Realm — the endless labyrinths that had appeared in Arin's world.
But something was different this time.
When he entered one of the deeper dungeons, he felt a strange sensation, as though a limit had shattered and dungeonshad grown. The atmosphere grew denser, the pressure sharper. And when he went deeper in the major dungeon he faced the monsters lurking within — grotesque abominations of law and void energy — he realized with shock that they were now stronger than him.
"This… wasn't the case before," he whispered, frowning. "It's as if the dungeon itself has evolved."
Each major dungeon he explored was now layered deeper than before. The monsters had grown terrifyingly powerful.
Yet rather than fear, excitement burned within Shen Mu's heart.
"If the dungeons have grown, then so too have the rewards."
He began his new cycle of cultivation: managing his sect, guiding disciples, and personally delving into the dungeons to hunt and slay the monsters that lurked within. Each kill granted him merit.
Soon, under his direction, his sect's entire focus began to change.
---
Shen Mu's sect — once known as Azure Sky Pavilion — transformed over the following decades. Under his decree, it reformed into what became known across the region as the Golden Lotus Sect.
Its guiding doctrine was simple:
> "Slay evil, accumulate merit, and ascend through righteous action."
Cultivators of the sect were no longer content with secluded meditation. They took up arms, diving into dungeons, exploring perilous regions, and striking down corruption wherever it hid. Each slain monster, each suppressed demonic entity, earned them merit.
Over the next few centuries, changes began to manifest.
The spiritual energy in the sect's region became unusually dense, shimmering faintly with golden luminescence.
Spiritual herbs matured faster; rare flowers that once took centuries to bloom now did so in decades.
Alchemy success rates soared.
Breakthroughs among disciples became frequent.
And as this cycle continued, Shen Mu understood what was happening.
Merit wasn't just a personal cultivation energy — it was a law-derived essence. Each act of righteousness subtly harmonized the surrounding laws of heaven and earth. In essence, they were purifying and strengthening the very world they lived in.
---
The Arrival of Faith
Three hundred years after his Nascent Soul breakthrough, Shen Mu stood at
the mid stage of nascent Soul Realm. His golden nascent soul pulsed steadily within his dantian, and the world around him seemed stable.
Then the heavens changed.
It began with a tremor that shook the spiritual realm itself.
Across the sky, unseen by mortals but visible to every cultivator above Core Formation, faint divine threads descended — threads of belief, faith, and prayer. They connected the mortal realm with the divine projections that hovered in the upper heavens.
When Shen Mu looked up, he saw a golden light illuminating the horizon. The light did not burn, nor blind — it simply filled the heart with reverence and awe.
A new will descended upon the world.
> "Faith has manifested…"
That was the whisper that passed through every cultivator's soul.
And with it came the presence — vast, serene, immeasurable — of a God of Merit.
The name resonated within Shen Mu's mind like destiny fulfilled. He didn't know why, but from the first moment he sensed that divine aura, he felt an instinctive connection.
"This god…" he murmured, eyes narrowing. "He governs the very path I walk."
Without hesitation, he knelt.
He offered his devotion not through mindless worship, but through action — the same path he had always walked.
Each monster slain, each corruption cleansed, became his offering to the God of Merit.
---
The changes began subtly.
At first, Shen Mu noticed that whenever he accumulated merit, the golden hue around his nascent soul deepened. His spiritual energy, once transparent and clear, now glowed faintly with golden light.
As years passed, even his physical body reflected this change. His skin faintly shimmered in sunlight, like polished jade infused with divine radiance. His blood pulsed with righteous energy, and his eyes carried threads of divine golden brilliance.
He realized that the God of Merit's blessing was transforming him.
His constitution was subtly being restructured to resonate with the Law of Merit.
The transformation wasn't just cosmetic. It granted tangible power:
His spiritual attacks became especially effective against those burdened by karma — corrupted souls, demonic cultivators, and foreign gods' followers.
His spiritual energy naturally suppressed chaotic entities, including monsters from the dungeon depths.
And most importantly, he could now sense merit in others — like threads of golden cause binding all beings.
It was an awakening, a second evolution.
---
Under Shen Mu's leadership, the entire Golden Lotus Sect began to shift.
Many of its cultivators had long followed Shen Mu's doctrine of accumulating merit — so when the God of Merit appeared, their faith naturally gravitated toward Him.
Temples dedicated to the God of Merit rose beside cultivation halls.
Priests and cultivators worked side by side — one praying, the other slaying, yet both contributing faith energy to the same divine law.
Over time, an astonishing phenomenon occurred.
The boundary between faith and cultivation began to blur.
The spiritual energy within sect grounds became infused with traces of divine essence, making every act of cultivation subtly more efficient.
Prayer before battle enhanced spiritual control, and meditation after worship increased the conversion rate of absorbed spiritual energy.
In Shen Mu's eyes, this was perfection — both systems, faith and cultivation, harmoniously entwined. He didn't know that this complementarity was by Arin's design, but he could feel it in his bones.
"Faith and cultivation are two sides of the same coin," he told his disciples.
"To cultivate without virtue is to build a tower upon sand.
To have faith without strength is to reach for the heavens with broken wings.
Only by merging both can we transcend the mortal realm."
These words became the creed of the Golden Lotus Sect.
---
The Age of Golden Radiance
Five hundred years passed since the day faith descended.
Shen Mu now stood at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, surrounded by a golden halo that never faded. The faint glow of merit constantly pulsed around him, painting the air with shimmering threads of righteousness.
In these centuries, he had led countless expeditions into the dungeons. Each descent was a holy act of devotion; each slain abomination was an offering of merit.
His sect had grown into one of the most powerful in the continent — not by sheer numbers, but by the purity and harmony of its faith.
The Golden Lotus Sect's territory shone as a beacon. Foreign cultivators and corrupted sects avoided its lands, for those tainted by karma would find their strength diminished within its bounds.
Even the dungeon entrances near their lands seemed cleaner — their corruption thinned by the overwhelming presence of merit. Many began to call Shen Mu not just a sect leader, but the Golden Saint.
---
A Glimpse Beyond
One night, while meditating in the sect's main temple, Shen Mu's consciousness suddenly ascended.
He found himself standing in a vast golden expanse filled with swirling patterns of light — a place that existed between the divine realm and the mortal world.
Before him stood an enormous projection — an abstract form of balance and order. Countless golden threads flowed into it from every corner of the world, converging into a radiant core.
When he looked closely, he realized it was the God of Merit.
But strangely, the god did not speak. There was no divine command, no heavenly voice. Only a faint, wordless resonance — as if the god's will was being reflected from something greater, something even higher.
Unaware that he was seeing a semi-conscious divine projection, Shen Mu knelt once more.
"I, Shen Mu, will uphold the will of Merit," he declared solemnly. "So long as evil persists, my sword shall not rest."
The golden expanse pulsed gently.
A faint ripple of light descended and merged into his chest — a fragment of divine acknowledgment.
When he opened his eyes again, he found that his nascent soul had changed once more.
The miniature golden figure within him now held a lotus in one hand and a sword of light in the other. Its glow was serene, yet unstoppable.