LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 278: Ten Good Deeds!
Li Li happily skipped along while holding Jing’s hand as they walked to the Outer Court. An innocent cute little tune was being whistled by Li Li which surprised Jing. She hasn’t introduced him to any music or even taught him how to whistle. Funnily enough, she didn’t know how to whistle even after all the lives she’s been through. Learning how to do it now would be easy but in the past, she never had enough skill using her tongue and shaping her mouth for the right whistle. Then there was also trying not to blow too much. Overall, it was a chore to learn such a meaningless skill and she gave up several times in dozens of lives.
“Where are we going?” Jing asked her son. He seemed like he had a plan and a direction in mind.
“I don’t know.” Li Li was more than happy to admit for some reason.
“I thought you had a good deed in mind you were taking us to. Are you just happy to be going somewhere with me, alone?” Jing giggled.
“Mhmm! No dummy losers tagging along with us. Just me and mom!” Li Li cutely nodded his head.
“I think I should lead the way then. I have some good deeds that won't take long to complete.”
“Okay!”
The Outer Court wasn’t comparable to the Inner Court. Whether it was in terms of housing, food, opportunities for advancement, getting noticed by elders, atmosphere, infrastructures, all of it couldn’t compete with the Inner Court. It made sense in a way if Jing tried thinking about it from the mindset of the elders. Those from the Inner Court proved themselves as talented in some way or their loyalty to the sect. The disciples in the Outer Court were simply going through a trial period. A trial period in where they show what they have to offer to the sect or fail and suffer for years to come hopelessly trying to show what benefits they could bring to the sect.
Those in the Outer Court worked hard to prove they belonged in a sect as great as the Golden Serpent Sect. It wasn’t the job of the Golden Serpent Sect to make them feel like belong. They should do that on their own. We’re the Golden Serpent Sect, after all. One of the top three sects in the Evergreen Continent!
At least, that’s one of the ways that Jing could understand it from the perspective of the elders. While that kind of made sense in a way, the strange obsession with reputation and face that the people of this world had still didn’t connect with Jing. It was like if they didn’t gain respect and had people fear them, they would shrivel up and die. Jing liked to focus more on practical means if she could help it. That would be one of the core changes when she takes over the sect.
“How are we going to do a good deed here? There’s no one around.” Li Li pointed out.
Right now, they were standing near all the shacks in the Outer Court. Barely any thought or love was made when these “houses” were built. If one was lucky enough, their shack came with a bed. If not, they only gained a shack with cold wooden floors. Jing was one of the lucky ones when she entered the sect.
“You can do good deeds without dealing with people.” Jing smirked as she placed her hand on a shack.
Jing consciously developed bacteria that would infect the wood of the shacks. With the power of SCP-353, Jing has created thousands of diseases on her own. Many of them were created through experimentation as Jing hasn’t left to explore the world to gather the many types of diseases prevalent throughout this world. In her other lives, she saw many illnesses but in this one, none at all that wasn’t caused by herself.
The SCP-353 was only capable of creating viral agents that could naturally survive within the human body. Jing has brought the ability to new heights thanks to her refined body and ability to use qi. While she hasn’t experimented much with this ability due to how easy it could kill off half of the population of this planet, she has played with it a little. Cultivators were more durable against infectious bacteria but with a minor change here and there to the viral agent, they would drop as easily to illnesses like the common mortal.
Jing knew this was one of her most powerful abilities but also one she had to practice extreme caution with. Its strength lied in its practicality, lethality, and infectious rate. While its usefulness lowered greatly against people in the upper realms, it was practically invincible against mortals and those below the Qi Transformation Realm. There were multiple reasons why it would be invincible but the biggest reason would be the lack of education plaguing the continent. Lack of education regarding health, diseases, the human body, geography. There’s also a huge lack of communication between settlements, villages, sects, and other organizations. By the time one of her diseases would be rampaging through a place, one of the escapees would have already reached a new place and infected the people there as they received news of it or even before they received news of a new illness.
‘This SCP... is really powerful...’ Jing never gave much thought to SCP-353 because of how dangerous it was but in this world that’s lacking so much.
Could it be possible that she could cause a revolutionary change in this world just by wiping out half the population? Well, no, that’s a stupid question. Of course, she could do that. Any world would drastically change if half the population was wiped out. What Jing initially meant by that line of questioning was that would it be easier to implement changes in the mindset of the people of this world by causing an apocalyptic pandemic. Simply put, making things easier for herself in the future.
A scary line of thought and while the amount of chaos it would cause to this world made her shiver in excitement, things are different now. Perhaps if she gained SCP-353's power before reaching the Golden Serpent Sect, maybe she would be more open to the idea. Back then, she had no purpose and no goal other than finding out more about cultivators and trying to become one herself. But now, she had her followers that seemed to be growing in number and strength by the week. It’ll take some time but everything is going according to plan so far.
“That’s a lot of little bugs...” Li Li’s eyes closely watched the infectious bacteria quickly spread within the run-down shacks.
The effects of being infected by the viral agents weren’t immediately apparent. They still looked just the same as before if you weren’t Jing or Li Li. With their refined bodies, they could see more than the average cultivator. Jing felt that this was a great start to the rest of her good deeds.
“They aren’t bugs but microorganisms. Single-celled microbes. I’ll teach you more in-depth about them later. They’re important.” Jing explained. “I’ll also need to teach Lei Zhi about them if his book doesn’t...” She muttered.
“What are they doing to the houses?” Li Li asked.
“Revitalizing them.” Jing answered. “It’ll take some time but eventually these ugly shacks will turn into an amazing interconnected jungle. Flourishing with life, greenery, and space!”
“So we’re going to give people a bigger place to live?” Li Li mentally processed the information given to him.
“Pretty much.” Jing nodded.
“I don’t think a small house is bad...” It would give him more chances to be near his mom.
“Some people do like small houses but the disciples in the Outer Court aren’t given the chance to pick if they want a large house or a small house. If they don’t like the changes that their house will have, they can request for a new one to be built at the Exchange Hall.”
“Why not?”
“The ones in charge don’t care about the likes and dislikes of the disciples in the Outer Court.”
“Why? Don’t they want people to be comfortable? Why would they want to make them not comfortable?”
“Because they believe it's not any of their concern if they are comfortable or not. All they care about from the disciples in the Outer Court is their potential. If their potential is adequate, they’ll be taken to the Inner Court and then somewhat taken care of.”
“Is that good?”
Li Li wasn’t sure what to think but he knew he wouldn’t treat his followers like that. Even if they were new to the Heavenly Demons. Why would they want to stay, be his friend, and follow him as a leader if they weren’t comfortable? It didn’t make sense to him.
“Hmm. It's working.” Jing didn’t explicitly tell him that it was bad because she wanted him to form his own opinion about it. A questioning mind is a brilliant mind.