You Will Be Blessed If You Do Good Deeds¿ - Chapter 201

There is heaven in the sky, and there are Hangzhou and Suzhou on the ground.
These cities have been famous for their beauty for thousands of years in China.

However, what we see now is not the beautiful city resembling heaven, but only rusted ruins.
Han Jaeyoung clicked his tongue.
"Chinaâs internal situation is almost unknown... it seems that dungeon hazard management is worse than expected."

"Yeah."
A giant bat rested on a power line, and flocks of crows circling in the sky would frequently hunt monsters swimming in the canal.
At this point, it was less about monsters and more like an ecosystem forming.

How long had they left the dungeon break unchecked for things to have gotten to this state?
âThough, this isnât just a phenomenon specific to China.â
In fact, this kind of monster settlement was happening globally.

South Korea, with its smaller land and high population density, managed its dungeons well, but many countries were facing significant issues with their dungeon management.
Of course, if a country finds it hard to handle internally, the World Hunter Association would send hunters, but China probably wouldnât be open to receiving that kind of help.
Though outwardly it might seem like a transnational organization, the World Hunter Associationâs headquarters is in New York, so itâs natural for them to become sensitive.

âBut itâs ridiculous that theyâve left it to ruin out of pride.â
Moreover, this information from James Chen was starting to seem off.
âJames Chen said the person named Hyunam was based in Suzhou and had significant influence in Jiangsu Provinceâ¦â

Surely, he didnât establish a base in a city that had turned into ruins.
The system is guiding towards the direction where the "fragment of humanity's enemy" is located.
 
Since the system is guiding us toward the "fragment," there must definitely be someone around here in Suzhou, even if it appears to be in ruins.

We continued walking, following the system's guidance, scanning the surroundings.
However, after walking for more than half a day, we were forced to stop.
"This... No matter how I think about it, it feels like thereâs some sort of barrier, doesnât it?"
It was Han Jaeyoung who spoke first.

It was an obvious deduction.
During our walk for more than half a day, the view of the canal never seemed to end.
Looking at the map we had prepared, we should have already passed the point where the canal was visible.

Also, the GPS signal showed one location, but the landscape we actually saw was completely different.
Yuhanul nodded.
"It seems like weâre just going in circles."

"Thatâs a common phenomenon when you canât enter a barrier..."
"...The problem is, it doesnât feel like anything is there."
Even I, who was much more sensitive to magical power than Han Jaeyoung and Yuhanul, couldnât feel the trace of a barrier.

Yuhanul turned to me with a question.
"Could it be that we need a keyword, like last time in Count Burkâs domain?"
Right, in Count Burkâs domain, there was a powerful illusion barrier that couldnât be entered without the correct keyword.

But I shook my head.
"While it's true that very intricate magical barriers can be hard to detect with just the flow of mana... {Nâ¢oâ¢vâ¢eâ¢lâ¢iâ¢gâ¢hâ¢t} This area is too large for such an intricate barrier."
Itâs not just a castle with a barrier.

The land size in China is on a different scale.
Moreover, there was another problem.
"And this is different from Count Burkâs domain. That one essentially trapped the dead inside the barrier."

The greatest flaw of illusionary magical barriers is that once theyâre set up, itâs hard for anyone inside to leave without breaking the barrier.
In Count Burkâs domain, the residents were like ghosts, having lost their bodies, so they couldnât leave the barrier which was artificially maintained.
Thatâs why the barrier lasted so long and remained so solid.

"But living humans are harder to control."
Looking at Margarita, she could only create a barrier to control and strengthen her dominance over living people, limiting her ability to do much else.
Han Jaeyoung agreed, nodding.

"Yeah, thatâs true. Even in the dungeon where we went to find Yuhanul, we eventually found people lurking near the barrier... Hm, then Iâll check from above to see if there are people around."
Soon, Han Jaeyoung quickly soared into the sky and climbed high until he became a small dot in the distance.
I still canât get used to that.

â...Though, I donât think thatâs going to solve anything.â
I crossed my arms and stared at the scene in front of me.
âItâs been a while since Iâve been this puzzled.â

How could they have placed a barrier over such a large city without using magic?
"Hmm..."
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldnât figure it out.

Honestly, as a grand mage, it stung my pride, but I had to admit it.
No matter how much I knew about magic, I couldnât guess what was happening here.
After a while, Yuhanul, who had been watching me, awkwardly spoke up.

"I donât know much about magic... so should I just try swinging my sword like last time? It might help in breaking through."
"Thatâs not breaking the barrier; itâs just mindless destruction. Do you want to make things worse by touching it recklessly?"
"Hmm..."

While I was deep in thought, Han Jaeyoung, who had been flying around rapidly, returned.
He landed and folded his wings, then said,
"Wow, incredibly, I didnât see anything."

"What? You even spread your wings, and it didnât help at all."
"Well, is that my fault...?"
Though Han Jaeyoung was grumbling, the fact was that it didnât help.

In this already annoying quest, the last thing I needed was useless companions...

But instead of me, Yuhanul offered a polite compliment.
"Still, thank you for your effort. It looks like you flew pretty high."

"Well, if I wanted to see farther, there was no choice. But whatâs strange is that even though I went so high, it felt strangely easy to breathe."
Han Jaeyoung, looking around, suddenly spoke with a tone of admiration.
"Ah, is it because the plants are growing in the abandoned houses? Honestly, this feels much more comfortable than the city. Donât you think?"

If you are reading this translation anywhere other than .net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.
"Huh? I donât know... I feel pretty uncomfortable here, actually."
"Ha, I see youâre still a typical human. You need to appreciate and protect nature more..."

"Wait a second."
I interrupted the conversation between the two. Han Jaeyoung looked at me, wide-eyed.
"Huh? Whatâs wrong?"

"What did you just say?"
"Huh? Protect nature and appreciate it more..."
"No, not that. The part beforeââfeels comfortableâ?"

"Hm? Yeah, thatâs right. As a fairy hybrid, I feel better when thereâs more natural energy around."
"...Thatâs it."
Why didnât I think of this earlier?

Han Jaeyoung, being a fairy hybrid, felt comfortable in this place, while Yuhanul felt uneasy.
"Leo."
I carefully set Leo, who had been curled up in my arms, down on the ground.

Leo landed gracefully, looking up at me as if asking what was going on.
"Meow?"
-Why?

"Catch one of the monsters over there. Not the ones swimming, the ones crawling on the ground."
"Mya!"
-Okay!

Bored with being in my arms, Leo excitedly jumped into the canal.
The water looked dirty, so I hadnât allowed him before, but it couldnât be helped now.
Han Jaeyoung looked at me with sparkling eyes.

"Oh, our grand mage seems to have had an idea. Care to share?"
"Wait."
Leo soon returned with a monster, resembling a mud worm.

"Meow!"
-Howâs that?
Leo, eager for praise, nudged his head toward me, but I ignored him as the muddy monster was handed back to Yuhanul.

"Give me your sword."
"Mya?!"
"..."

Though Yuhanul looked reluctant, he handed me his sword. I took it and sliced open the monsterâs belly.
Inside the monster, I saw some reddish soil.
"Leo, did you see this colored dirt under the water?"

"Mya!"
-Yes!
Leo responded happily.

After hearing Leoâs answer, I handed back the dirty sword to Yuhanul, then reached out for Han Jaeyoung.
"Han Jaeyoung, give me the gem you have."
"Daon, if someone hears that, theyâll think Iâm a thief. And honestly, I donât think a hunter like you would carry around gems..."

"I think itâs more like Iâm robbing you. But yes, there is a gem."
"Why would you carry something like that?"
"Ah, last time Daon showed a pretty impressive spell. So I wanted to experiment... but why the gem?"

"I want to check what kind of barrier the opponent set up."
Han Jaeyoungâs eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"Oh, did you have an idea of what magic barrier it might be as a grand mage?"

"Itâs not really based on my knowledge as a mage. And itâs not a magic barrier either."
It was obvious I couldnât understand this as a mage.
After all, it wasnât magic.

I smiled and asked,
"Have you ever heard of the Qi Men Dun Jia?"
Qi Men Dun Jia.

A method to unfold the harmony of the heavens on earth, said to be mastered by those who understand the harmony of all things...
I interpreted it that way.
âIf this Hyunam person is based in Mount Mo, then using Qi Men Dun Jia wouldnât be strange.â

Since Qi Men Dun Jia is based on the I Ching, it makes sense that someone who studied Taoism would also be skilled in it.
Now that I thought about it, when I heard the name Mo Mountain Sect, I should have suspected it was related to Qi Men Dun Jia, but I realized that too late.
Han Jaeyoung spoke with admiration.

"Really... youâre far more knowledgeable than I thought, Daon."
"You, as a mage, should be prepared to read all the knowledge of the world."
Since I was born in Korea, one thing I really liked was how easy it was to access knowledge.

You could find high-level books at schools or local libraries.
And out of curiosity, I had read the I Ching a few times.
At that time, I had no idea I would awaken as a special ability user, so I only read it as an interesting piece of knowledge.

"Knowledge shouldnât be treated unequally. Every field of study is just another way to reach the truth... though, I still believe magic is the most efficient study."

Han Jaeyoung was wide-eyed.
"That sounds like something a grand mage would say..."

"Because I really was a great mage."
"Yuhanul, you sound like youâve seen it all."
 

I left the two of them bickering and examined the insides of the monster I had gutted.
The intestines of the monster that had been crawling on the canal floor were, of course, covered in the dirt from the canal bed.
And the color of that dirt was strangely reddish.

Fwoosh!
I set fire to the dirt.
Normally, the wet dirt would burn...

"Ah."
Sizzle!
The dirt, which had been solid under the cold water, crumbled easily in the fire.

And when I extinguished the flames, what was revealed was a silvery liquid that rippled like waves.
Han Jaeyoung wrinkled his face.
"That... Could it be�"

"Yeah, it's exactly what youâre thinking."
But with everything in this situation, certainty is always a good thing.
I took the gold dust I had received from Han Jaeyoung and sprinkled it over the silvery liquid.

The silver liquid that touched the gold bubbled oddly and reacted.
"Mercury."
"Exactly. To be more precise, it seems like it's crushed cinnabar, which contains a lot of mercury."

"So, this canal bed is covered in mercury... and they used it to set up Qi Men Dun Jia here?"
"Yes."
Cinnabar.

A red mineral that contains mercury.
"Among the materials on this earth, gold is the most perfect, while... mercury is one of the most unstable."
Itâs known to be highly toxic to the human body and causes illness...

"So, itâs a material that can twist the flow of mana in the air just by existing."
While itâs an unstable substance, its ability to disturb the flow of mana is similar to goldâs usefulness.
It seems that Hyunam, the person in charge here, used cinnabar to perform Qi Men Dun Jia on the whole of Suzhou.

"Qi Men Dun Jia doesn't go against the natural order of the world. It just slightly alters things to suit the userâs intent... so they twisted the flow of mana with earthly materials."
A mage is someone who controls the power of mana, using it as a language to create miracles and twist the world.
Magic, in essence, is like chiseling stones into sculptures, but Qi Men Dun Jia is more about subtly changing the position of things to shift the flow of mana.

So, itâs only natural that a fairy hybrid like Han Jaeyoung would feel comfortable here, attuned to nature.
But for Yuhanul, a swordsman with a heightened sense of instinct, the feeling of unease was inevitable.
Because, after all, thereâs something in this canal that is highly toxic to humans.

I couldnât help but smile.
âHyunam... what kind of person is he?â
If this guy is not just a fragment of Orbis but the main body, I wouldnât be surprised anymore.

Hearing my words, Yuhanul looked at the canal with a pale face.
"...Oh my god. Then, the canal..."
"Yeah, this is really interesting."

That was an honest assessment.
As a mage, exploring new knowledge is always fun.
I never expected to encounter such a large-scale formation.

Was it cost-effective to use cinnabar instead of gold? If itâs cheaper than gold and works just as well, thereâs no reason not to use it, assuming the toxicity is the only drawback.
The system reminds the user, âJeong Da-onâ, of their quest.
 
â...â

Ah, did I just think like a devil again?
"But now that I know itâs Qi Men Dun Jia, what should we do next?"
"We need to find the birth door."

Although itâs a very intense formation, if itâs Qi Men Dun Jia, there must be a birth door or an opening.
That means there is a way to enter this formation.
The problem is...

"Then, can Daon really break this formation and find the birth door?"
"No, honestly, I donât carry around the I Ching to recite it by heart to find a birth door in a formation Iâve never seen before. I did it just out of curiosity."
I had an interest in minerals and happened to be following a similar theory, so I read up on it out of boredom.

The hope I found felt useless, and the faces of both Yuhanul and Han Jaeyoung grew dark.
"So, what should we do...?"
"Maybe we should ask Master about it..."

Everyoneâs so impatient.
I shook my head.
"No, I canât break the formation, but that doesnât mean I canât find the birth door."

"Huh? Then just tell us quickly."
"Itâs just that... it might require a bit of sacrifice on your part."
"Me?"

Han Jaeyoung blinked in surprise when I pointed at him.
"Sacrifice? What do you mean?"
"Money."

I waved my finger.
"About 1.2 billion won worth of gold."
What? Does it sound like Iâm a thief?

Impossible.
This is all for the sake of good deeds.