Chapter 237 – Florida Man Whose Wife Was in Coma Prevented Relatives from Visiting Her So That He Could Watch TV Alone in Hospital.
Minutes later…
Leo gave Aslan a meaningful look after listening to his lecture. He repeated what he had learned so far.
"So, there's a glitch in the karma river because that asshole cut her karma string. Do I understand it correctly?"
Aslan shook his head. "You can't compare the karma river to a computer. It's Mother Nature's finest creation and a threshold to separate entities from non-entities, and karma sovereigns from entities. Entities like me and other guardians are comparable to client users while karmic sovereigns are super users."
"What about the developers?"
Aslan gave Leo a meaningful look. He concealed his mischievous thought with a smile. "I have no clue about that, but I'm positive that he's harmless to you, master."
"Are you sure? How do you know that the person's a "HE"?"
"It's a figurative of speech. Would you like me to address his pronoun as they/them or she/her?"
"Never mind." Leo rolled his eyes, "Talk about the trustworthiness of that guy. Are you sure about it?"
"Of course, master. I'm very sure."
"…"
Leo had a feeling that Aslan hid something from him. He planned to fight the latter's shadow in the simulation mode at least 10,000 times to get his knowledge and skills later.
"Any, back to the previous topic. The Karma River is the gathering place of souls. Every time a soul is destroyed, a new soul will be born to become its replacement. When people die, their souls are dragged into the river so that they can be recycled… Ahem… reincarnated again. As for Esen, her soul is still inside her body because she hasn't died yet. It's just a little tricky. Her karma has been cut by a karmic sovereign, whose authorization surpasses the River of Karma. We can't use the Karma River's system to cure her."
So far, Aslan taught Leo about the karma river and its usage.
In this universe, there were seven karma rivers. Each of them was located at the center of a galaxy cluster. Every karma river housed 9.2 quintillion soul embryos of mortals, immortals, gods, and sages, which waited for their queue to be reincarnated into the universe.
However, at the bottom of the rivers, there were other nasty things that only sages, entities, and karmic sovereigns were aware that they existed.
Karma eggs of every mortal, immortal, god, and sage were hidden there. Many people called it Akashic Records. Some named them books of gods even though they were crystal-like eggs.
Those eggs were the shells that the soul embryos left behind as the owners had already been reincarnated. However, the connection between the souls and the eggs persisted in the form of karma strings.
These karma strings were the things that sages, entities, and karmic sovereigns could toy or tamper with, depending on their cultivation base. For example, Sages could only temporarily cut the strings to kill the targeted souls. Entities could erase them permanently while they were immune to a similar trick. As for karmic sovereigns, they could tamper the souls to their liking, including putting a curse on any soul or blessing them with misery and misfortune.
Aslan reminded Leo.
"You see, master. When you revived her and purified her undead curse, you accidentally switched the link between her soul embryo's shell and her soul. You tied her existence with yours. Therefore, when that moron cut her karma string, she lost her connection to you. As a result, she lost her source of life force."
Leo looked at Esen's face and let out a sigh of relief. "Forget about the mumbo jumbo things. Teach me like I'm 10 years old. What do I have to do to fix her?"
"To fix a patient with a severed karma curse, we need a karmic sovereign's help. Actually, you can also…"
"Ahem." Aslan hid his grin and came up with an idea. "How about we seek help from a karmic sovereign?"
Leo gave Aslan a meaningful look. He shook his head. "I know that you know I can help her. Teach me how to do it. Again, teach me and use the vocabulary of a 10-year-old. No big words or stupid jargon."
"Alright, master." Aslan couldn't help but laugh. "Have you created a karmic river in your dantian universe, master?"
"What is that? How do I create one?"
"Okay. This is gonna take a while. It's okay. This daddy will do his best."
"…Daddy? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Never mind, master. Forget what I said. Hehehe."
The lecture continued for the entire day.
.
.
The next day morning, Aslan left the bus. As soon as he came out, Ivy, Beatrice, and their colleagues surrounded the living statue.
"How is our empress, guardian?" Ivy clenched her hands together.
Aslan smirked. "You don't have to worry about her. Your emperor has it under his control from the very beginning."
"R-Really? Can His Majesty really cure her?!"
"You underestimate your emperor, my dear. You don't even realize how capable he actually is. Oh, well. I spoke too much. Just give him time, and everything will be revealed."
"…"
Aslan excused himself and returned to the flying island.
As soon as Aslan left, Ivy rushed into the bus.
DONG
However, something prevented her from getting in. There was a transparent barrier, blocking everybody from reentering the motorhome.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you." The sound transmission of Aslan entered their ears. "For the sake of your emperor's mental health, I've blocked the access to the vehicle. Until he completes what he is trying to do, none of you can enter the bus."
"HEY!!"
Ivy screamed in frustration. The others were also annoyed as the bus was their living quarter.
.
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Meanwhile, Leo sat on a chair next to the bed. He closed his eyes to meditate and sink his consciousness into the dantian universe inside his body.
The universe was roughly shaped as Leo hadn't properly arranged his galaxies and star systems yet. Most of them still orbited around the rainbow sun, aka the core of Leo's universe.
Leo floated in the void, gazing at the rainbow sun. He frowned for a moment as he noticed how the sun collected strange liquid and turned it into a sea of orbital rings.
As Leo had no idea what they were, he ignored it. Instead of inspecting his universe, he opened the simulation mode and browsed for an opponent. Leo filtered the search menu to find two individuals – Kitten and Mao Miaomiao.
Leo hadn't done with the shadow of Mao Miaomiao yet. He needed to learn more about the karma severing skill that the mysterious doctor had. As for Kitten, aka Aslan, Leo suspected that the statue didn't tell him everything. He planned to extract memory and information from his shadow.
DING
The details of Aslan appeared in the simulation system menu.
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Name: Dr. Aslan "Kitten" Ariel
Race: Elemental Spirit
Age: 50,120
Cultivation Base: 5-Law Entity
Skills: Law of Genes, Law of Souls, Law of Creation, Law of Karma Fishing, Law of Soul Destruction, Dao of Guardian, Dao of Ocean King, Dao of Soul Scientist
Specials: Shadow of Transcended Singularity, Curse of Karmic Sins, Overlord Xiaomao's Bloodline, Blessings of Overlord Xiaomao
Favorite Weaponry: Fishing Rod of Karma Oceania's King
Potential Percentage: 1,000%
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The guy had quite a potential in his final form. Unfortunately, his cultivation ceiling was stuck at the entity realm, which was a stage lower than the karmic sovereign realm.
Leo didn't mind it. At least, Kitten seemed more reliable than the other guardian statues.
"How many skills do he have? One, two, three… eight? So 8,000 wins for all skills and an additional 2,000 for his weapon. Oh, well. Time to grind."
Leo cracked his fist and began the simulation mode. He summoned Aslan's shadow to fight first as he seemed easier than Mao Miaomiao's shadow.
As soon as the shadow appeared, Leo wasted no time. He stopped time and punched the shadow in the guts, destroying the doctor's body in one punch.
However, an artificial soul of Aslan's shadow escaped. It resisted the domain of time and pointed its finger at Leo's face. Then, a fishing line came out from its fingertip and pierced through Leo's head!
"!!!"
Leo was shocked. This was the first time that someone managed to stab him. However, he didn't feel that his physique was harmed or injured.
The fishing line didn't harm Leo's physical body in the simulation. Instead, he caught Leo's simulated soul. Aslan's artificial soul shouted and pulled Leo's soul out of his body.
"CRAP!"
For the first time, Leo's soul was ejected from his body in the simulation mode.
Aslan's shadow didn't stop there. He reanimated his fleshly body to protect his soul. Then, he created a frog out of nothingness and pulled Leo's soul into a frog!
As Leo was unfamiliar with his new soul form, he failed to react on time. Aslan's shadow stuffed Leo's soul into the frog!
When Leo came back to his senses again, he found the gigantic body of Aslan's shadow. He tried to lift his hand to fight back, but strength left him.
'What the hell?!'
The next thing he knew was an incoming fist. Aslan's shadow's fist came down and crushed the animated frog while Leo's soul was still trapped inside.
BOOM
Leo's vision turned black for a moment. A few seconds later, he woke up from a trance and found himself hovering in the void.
DING
<You have lost in the simulation mode. Please try harder.>
"…"
He lost!
Leo lost to a clone of his guardian!
Leo lost to an entity that was supposed to be weaker than Mao Miaomiao!
"…Crap. Isn't he quite strong?! What the hell? Isn't he supposed to be weaker than the other guy!?"
He hadn't realized yet that Aslan was also a clone of Overlord Xiaomao. There were many abilities that Aslan's shadow could borrow from the karmic sovereign, which an entity like him shouldn't have. Moreover, the blessings of Overlord Xiaomao and "Shadow of Transcended Singularity" enhanced his abilities, raising his strength enough for him to be capable of killing Leo.
Instead of feeling down, Leo was excited. He loved this harmless fight so that he could experience death as many times as he wanted. He could also spy on his future opponents and learn which type of abilities worked on him.
"I want that weapon. That thing is dangerous enough to negate my raw power. Also, what is that dao or law? I want to try using those!"
Leo summoned Aslan to fight him again.
10 hours in the real world was 10,000 hours, aka 417 days in the simulation mode. Leo fought only Aslan as he tried to get familiarized with the soul-related abilities.
His fight record was horrible as Leo kept losing to the law of soul destruction of Aslan. But after battling him 50,000 bouts, Leo managed to get his first 1,000 wins.
