The Messenger of Death

Thinking that they had come here for no good reason, Mr. Guardian presented the rest of the non-seed holders with an opportunity.

"There are 303 people in this independent space, almost all of you are under the age of 120 years. 45 of you are Midas seed carriers, 1 amongst the remaining 258 people qualifies to receive the Midas petal if he obtains it, and the remaining 257 will have opportunities that you might never come across again.

On this island, I will scatter tokens that have different colors and special effects. Some of the effects of these tokens can increase your cultivation permanently or temporarily, and some of the tokens can reduce cultivation permanently or temporarily. Some of the tokens can give you special abilities that will last for a certain time. These abilities can only be permanent if you can manage to comprehend the basic laws of Dao that constitutes the ability."

The only person amongst these 303 cultivators present that was already over 120 years old is Argus, however, Mr. Guardian purposely let him in to assist Al.

"Woah!" A non-seed carrier exclaimed happily. It was clear from what Mr. Guardian said now that there were dangers as well as fortune involved in this, but most of them heard the fortunes and ignored the possible dangers.

"A red token can increase your cultivation permanently and also reduce your cultivation permanently. It depends on the state of the token at the point when it is acquired. A red token will have a plus or minus sign on it and a number from 1-3. The plus and minus signs will interchange at random on a token, if you get a red token when the plus sign is on it, your cultivation rank will increase in accordance to the number on the token, permanently. The same concept applies to the minus sign too. Each person can have as many of this token as they please, so long as they can find it in this forest."

Many people exclaimed in surprise.

['Doesn't that mean that one can breakthrough continuously if they have sufficient red tokens? If I have can get 9 red tokens with positive signs, I can breakthrough easily.'] Al reasoned and started considering the thought of searching for these tokens while going for the petal too. The greedy nature of Al was tugging at him and encouraging him to do so.

"A green token will grant the holder with immunity and protection from any attacks or harm that is on this island. It is a safe house for the bearer, but its effects will only last for a period of time, and that depends on the token itself.

An orange-colored token will temporarily increase or reduce your cultivation. The concept of plus, minus, and numbers applies here too.

An Ash token can grant the bearer special powers, for example, the ability to change your body size, appearance, at a whim. The ability to affect the flow of time for a few seconds, clairvoyance.

A Gold token will serve as a guide to whoever can get it. This guide will lead you to what you need the most, or what you desire the most.

It is also possible to find martial skills and rare treasures on the island."

A few people cheered, happy that they came here in search of the Midas petal.

"These tokens are not restricted, even the seed carriers can obtain if they are fortunate enough, everything will depend on your Karma."

Excited and ecstatic, many of the cultivators were eager to begin this competition.

"Senior, please, what do mean by everything will depend on our Karma?" A seed carrier asked.

"It is just as it sounds, your fortuitous encounters on this island will depend on your Karma. For those who do not know what Karma is exactly, let me give a brief explanation. Karma is the action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, either good or bad, in this life. It is the weight of your deeds, deciding your future, dependent on the nature of deeds you have performed.

For how Karma will be put to work here, on this island, this is how."

Three hundred and three white wristbands then appeared in front of everyone present, hovering in front of their eyes.

After their appearance, Mr. Guardian continued; "These wristbands in front of everyone has little beads on them. The number of beads on the wristband depends on your cultivation, if you are at the Spirit Awakening realm, which is the highest cultivation realm present, your wristband will have 11 beads on it.

When you put this wristband on, it will measure your Karma, and pivot on the weight of your bad deeds, the white beads will be dyed red. If one bead is dyed red completely, you will temporarily lose a cultivation realm until the competition ends, or you obtain a token that can increase your cultivation.

If most of your beds are dyed red, you will have many unfortunate encounters on the island and will have to fight against your fate. But so long as there is still a thread span of white on your wristband, you will have few lucky encounters. It is not impossible to gain good Karma while you are here and increase your chances of having lucky encounters." Mr. Guardian finished.

['Goddamn it!'] Al swore after listening to Mr. Guardian's explanation of how Karma was going to affect them here. Al didn't know what his Karma would be like, but he had a feeling that half of his beads will be dyed red.

Those that were eager quickly snatched the wristband in front of them and wore it. A few seconds after the wristbands had been worn, it started to calculate the Karma of the wearers. Slowly, the wristbands that had been worn began turning red. Everyone that had rushed to put their wristbands on was appalled to see that they had this much bad Karma. All of them had most of their beads dyed red and subsequently, their cultivation realms dropped in accordance with the result on the beads.

The remaining that waited to see what would happen to those that rushed to the bands on, confirmed that their cultivations will indeed drop depending on the result of the calculated Karma. The rest of them proceeded to put on their wristbands.

Al watched his wristband for a while, hesitating to put it on. His wristband has 6 beads, indicating the number of his cultivation realm. "Ah, what's the point of delaying the inevitable? I was born under an unlucky star and have always been fighting against my fate. Whatever happens, happens." Al muttered and wore the wristband.

Without any more thoughts, Al put the wristband on his right hand, and immediately he wore it, Al could feel something grab on his wrist. As if it was sucking the blood in his arm, "Is it supposed to be like this?" Al grunted as he spoke.

None of the rest had a reaction like this when they wore theirs. His right hand began vibrating fast and the beads started to change color.

A bloody shade of red began dyeing Al's beads, quickly filling the first bead and was stretching on to the next bead. It didn't take long for every bead on Al's wristband to be dyed bloody red.

Al could feel his strength seeping as the beads were changing color. When the first bead was filled up, he felt his cultivation base drop from the Nirvana realm to the Disaster realm. His cultivation wasn't dropping by ranks rather, by realms.

From the Disaster cultivation realm, Al's cultivation base then dropped to the Nascent realm when the second bead was completely dyed bloody red, and then it dropped to the Origin realm when the third one was filled up. From the Origin realm to the Body refinement realm and then the Elementary cultivation realm, as the third, fourth, and fifth beads were dyed red.

Even the sixth bead was dyed bloody red, however, a fraction of it was still white and that was Al's saving grace. With a fraction of the last bead still being white, he didn't fall back into being a mortal again.

Al let out foul air from his mouth as he stared at his right hand in horror.

['Oh my God,'] Alex whispered in shock and dejection of what he was seeing now. ['Just how in the hell did we gather so much bad Karma!?'] Alex asked. He was unable to understand how he, who used to be a mortal gathered so much bad Karma, even more than cultivators that were here.

['Just what in the world is our fate?'] Xander muttered, also unable to understand why their karma was this agonizing and crippling. He out of the 3 of them has never seen any of them as evil, they only did what they had to do in the past to preserve their lives and comfort. ['Were we suppose to just resign to our fate since the days in the slums and die!?'] Xander was rather pissed at the universe at the moment.

Lex didn't know what to say, but he did have a tinge of guilt. He was assuming that it was his brutal ways that might have made their Karma this bad.

['What the hell were you guys expecting!? We have killed a lot of people… although I wasn't expecting it to be this horrifying, I did suspect that it would be bad.'] Al wanted to roll his eyes at the gibberish that he heard in his mind, but he didn't because he didn't want the fraction of purity on his wristband to disappear. He knew how petty the universe had been with their situations in the past and was scared that it will dye the fraction that was left on his last bead if he misbehaved…