Chapter 715 – Price of Freedom

‘You know, it’s not like I want to hide anything, munya. It’s just that my dantian’s calamity era is coming, and I don’t want get myself killed because of you and your wives, munya!’

“What’s your goal, Mu-Nyang? Will you erase me another others eventually?”

Learning the truth from Mu-Nyang’s mouth, Miaomiao was on guard. He was also afraid of Mu-Nyang’s ability to read mind.

‘As I said before, for now, I only want to show you what you’re getting yourself into, munya. Being independent from me means I need to forcefully alter your fate and karma. That will damage my foundation, luck, cultivation base, and my lifespan, munya. Furthermore, if you wander around in my dimension and get yourself killed because you can’t adapt to this dimension’s power level, I would have wasted everything in vain, munya.’

Miaomiao looked up and gazed beyond the barrier dome. He noticed a star-sized anglerfish, who also stared into the barrier and fixated his sight on him.

“FOOD, COME OUT AND PLAY!” Shouted the anglerfish.

“…”

Miaomiao narrowed his eyes as he couldn’t measure the fish’s cultivation rank as the barrier prevented his Providence Law’s abilities.

‘See that fish outside? That’s a 3rd-stage creator. He’s two major realms above Pangu, munya. Oh, also, Pangu was merely an incomplete 1st-stage creator while I’m 4th-stage. We’re on a different league, munya!’

“…”

‘And this is my point, munya. I don’t want to get injured and lose my cultivation base for nothing, munya. I’ll ask you politely. Could you please reconsider, munya? Please work with me for a million years to help me first, and I can let you out without harming my foundation, munya.’

A million years might be a very long time for mortals and immortals. However, as Miaomiao had gone through countless years of many people’s memory, his soul’s age was already beyond billions years. A million years was a short period.

“As long as you don’t erase me and my wives, I’ll work for you for a million years, but I want incentives and guidance. Teach me how to ascend to the creator realm and transfer my wives to my dantian universe.”

‘Teaching and guiding you is natural, but freeing your wives is not a simple task, munya. I’ll definitely get injured from the backlash and lost a lot of luck, munya. If you really want to bring your wife out, I can release one extra soul at the maximum. Is that alright, munya?’

“Can’t I have more? How about 30?”

Miaomiao had more than 20 wives, so he needed more room for his people. Unfortunately, Mu-Nyang couldn’t afford it.

‘Liberating one creator’s soul will reduce my cultivation base by one stage, munya. Hell, I can’t even do 5, munya!’

“But, Mu-Nyang. I can’t live without my wives.”

‘I’ve already sacrificed enough for you. Don’t push your luck, munya.’

In short, Mu-Nyang imposed a high demand. He couldn’t bring all his wives with him. Had Miaomiao not given up, the cat god might be offended.

Fortunately, Mu-Nyang was not that heartless or overbearing like cliché antagonists. He offered a Miaomiao a deal.

‘But if you agree to return all my luck that you’ve been collecting up until this point and help me overcome five calamity eras, I can make room for 100 people, munya.’

“You…”

One calamity era was one million years. Therefore, five eras translated to five million years. Moreover, he would lose all his luck that he had been collecting so far.

‘I’m not that cruel, munya. I’ll leave you with one heavenly fate core so that you can build them back. Also, your dantian universe will remain the same, but the stars that you had contributed to my dantian universe will become mine. Your strength will degrade back to the 12th-mortal stage before the immortal sage ascension, munya.’

“Isn’t that too much?”

Mu-Nyang proceeded to explain why he needed to do that.

Any creator could liberate someone from their dantian universe by sacrificing a portion of their cultivation base. However, the stronger the soul, the higher the price.

In Miaomiao’s case, he was close to the creator realm. Freeing Miaomiao to the higher dimension would decrease Mu-Nyang’s cultivation base by a major realm as Miaomiao held a portion of Mu-Nyang’s luck and many heavenly fate essence, cores, and fragments.

However, there was a leeway to release someone in advance. By degrading Miaomiao’s luck and cultivation base, the price of freeing Miaomiao’s soul from Mu-Nyang’s influence would be a lot cheaper. In the worst-case scenario, Mu-Nyang might only lose one or two heavenly fate cores after letting Miaomiao and his wives go.

But again, to do so, Mu-Nyang would need to release them when they were weak, and they had to stay inside Mu-Nyang’s dantian universe until they were strong enough to get out and face countless carnivorous creators in the higher dimension.

There was another huge setback with this method. When Miaomiao and his wives was liberated from Mu-Nyang’s influence, their cultivation speed would drastically decrease as their luck energy and karma of Mu-Nyang’s universe would no longer be compatible with them! What Miaomiao had achieved within a year might take 10 years to get the same result!

After listening everything, Miaomiao bitterly laughed.

“So, I was close on becoming a creator, so you stopped me from continuing my experiment. Am I right?”

Mu-Nyang let out a sigh, ‘Yeah, you were so damn close. You got me scared when I noticed it. Had you gone through a calamity era in your dantian universe, you would have ascended to the 1st-rank creator realm like Pangu, munya.’

“I see. I don’t have enough time after all.”

Today was the promised great reset day. Miaomiao ran out of time.

“So, my new employer. Will you reset my cultivation base or reincarnate me somewhere? Or will you let me remain as a 12th-stage mortal after you take all my luck.”

‘Yes, I’ll reset your cultivation base. But you will be the only soul that retain stars in your dantian. You get to keep it to the next life, munya. With this method, you can quickly get back to the 12th mortal stage and get ready to breakthrough to the immortal sage realm, munya.’

Realizing that he could carry over his entire dantian universe, Miaomiao was relieved.

“And, what’s the mission. You won’t reincarnate me for no reason, right?”

‘Yes, munya. Alright. I’ll give you a quest and a bit of briefing. Oh, don’t worry about your wives. I’ll reincarnate them on the same planet as yours, munya!’

Mu-Nyang took his time to teach Miaomiao about the new universe after the reset. They stayed in Mu-Nyang’s dimension for 10 hours and discussed many topics and cultivation tips.

The cat eventually sent Miaomiao back to his dantian universe. Without letting Miaomiao talk to his wives, Mu-Nyang activated the grand reset, erasing everybody’s memory. Only those who had consumed a silver Qi pearl retained their previous life’s memory and experience.

.

Divine Theocracy Earth

Pan Xian, aka the real body of Pangu, stood on his company’s building rooftop, gazing at the falling stars in the night sky. He clenched his fists and grumbled in helplessness.

He had lost everything to Mu-Nyang and he failed to break free from the cat’s tyrannical influence and providence law. He could sense that the majority of his luck, contributed stars, and lifespan rapidly decreased.

Just now, Mu-Nyang had reset the universe, and all human on Earth had a strong urge to fall asleep. One after another, people went home and took a long deep sleep.

As everybody was sleeping, buildings, countries, and geographies of the earth changed overnight. New memories replaced the old one, and all historical items, books, records, and buildings changed to match with the new memories.

Pan Xian witnessed the changes with his eyes. He looked down and stared at his bleeding palms and bloody tear drops on his shirt.

“It has begun. Mu-Nyang, you scum. Without you, this universe would have been mine!”

Pan Xian got back inside the building and descended to the underground floor with a special lift. He reached the sealed quantum computer room, which could transfer human souls to one of the three stars that Pangu had prepared.

He operated the computer and pinpointed the location of the contributed stars. Unfortunately, Mu-Nyang found them and tampered with the environment. New creatures and local NPCs that Pangu had prepared were replaced while the programmed story scenarios were changed.

Pan Xian couldn’t do anything about it other than watching how Mu-Nyang altered everything to suit his taste.

While Pan Xian was in despair, he heard Mu-Nyang’s sound transmission.

‘Hey, there, my naughty villain. How’s it going, munya?’

“What? Are you here to laugh at the loser? Why don’t you come down here and kill me already?! Why are you torturing me?!”

‘This is not enough for what you had done to me and my children, munya.’

“SCUM! COME DOWN HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!”

‘I’m a cat. I don’t fight like a man. I fight like a cat.’

“…”

‘Anyway, I’m giving you a chance to fight me again, fair and square, munya!’

“What do you want?!”

‘Two years after the grand opening, I’ll send an army to invade Earth, munya. I’ll let the local human evolve into superhuman to fight against my army. If that planet is destroyed or the population is extinct, it will be my win, and I’ll exterminate you as you always wanted, munya!’

“And if I win? What the hell is my winning condition anyway? Repelling your attacks?”

‘If humanity and your planet manage to outlast my army’s assaults for 30 years, it will be your victory, and I’ll set you free, munya!’

Pan Xian’s expression turned dark. He clenched his bloody fists.

“Hah! Another game? Fine, I’ll beat you in your game! Don’t regret it if I convert this world’s humans into great dao sages!”

‘It’s not like that planet has enough luck energy for one great dao sage. Oh, right. None of the PLAYERS know anything about luck anyway. Good LUCK raising a great dao sage! I hope Hongjun is reincarnated in one of the game worlds, munya!’

Mu-Nyang stopped talking to Pangu. The latter’s face turned red in frustration and despair.

While his heart was in pain, Pangu searched the player’s database and brought out the list of beta testers. He opened the personal data of Hiiro Narukami, who was a protagonist of this universe.

Hiiro was the only person with myth-grade NFT character in-game, and his inventory was filled with useful items, resources, cryptocurrency, and gears. He could become a top ranker with just a starting account if he could get all these items.

‘Fine. Since you poached Mao Miaomiao from me, I’ll raise a protagonist of my own. I’ll increase the level cap and teach him how a dantian universe works!’

Pangu recorded the phone number of Hiiro. Even if the latter might forget everything from the beta testing incident, Pangu had a thousand ways to remind Hiiro of the past events.

‘I will not lose again, Mu-Nyang!’