Six: One Tower, One Bell, One Wooden Fish
Two days ago.
“He’s gone. Stop staring foolishly.”
“Ah.”
“If you can’t bear to let him go, then hurry up and chase after him. Don’t just stand there dithering.”
“Ah.”
“You’re neither chasing nor moving, just standing there wide-eyed. What are you trying to do? Wear me out?”
“Ah...”
“Forget it, talking to a mute like you is exhausting. Hurry up and send me back to that prison. If your senior sisters find out, it won’t be you who’s in trouble—it’ll be me who loses an arm or gets struck down.”
“Ah, ah...”
“What’s that? You’re asking if he’s really okay now? Heh, little girl, you may doubt my character, but don’t question my medical skills. This boy’s injuries have healed; he just has a bit of temporary amnesia from just waking up. Seeing familiar things will restore his memory. I was just amusing the mad monk a moment ago.”
“It’s smart of you to come to me first this time—it shows you know my medical skills surpass those Jade Purity Taoists from Gesso Mountain by a thousandfold...”
“Ah...”
“What’s that? You say you only came to me after getting closer?”
“...”
The air in the underground chamber grew silent for a moment.
“Hmph! Next time something happens, go ask the Jade Purity Sect for a Golden Core, see if they’re willing to give you one. Besides, I don’t like scholar’s Dao veins. If you come to me again for this boy... Hah, do you even know what that broken mural behind me on the wall depicts?”
“Never mind, it’s pointless to ask. It’s a Buddhist birth mural, telling the story of the ‘Quick Sight King’s Eye-Giving’ from the ‘Sutra of the Wise and Foolish.’ You’ve probably never heard of it, but if there is a next time, you’ll understand.”
“I don’t practice medicine to help the world—I’m just doing business. One item for one life—no cheating, no matter young or old.”
“This time I’m making an exception and returning the favor. Next time I have to save him again, I want one of your eyes.”
The old Taoist, covered in poisonous sores, waved his broad sleeve and sneered coldly, only to immediately see the mute girl standing in the center of the chamber, tilting her head back without hesitation, nodding.
Her nine fingers tightly gripped a goat-skin water bag, already drunk from by someone else, like a lock that could never be undone. Her clear eyes, into which white clouds slowly flowed, gazed through the autumn waters. The vast blue sky, the size of a well’s mouth, remained empty and unreturned.
“I hate scholars even more.”
...
Ouyang Rong felt as if he had arrived before the Southern Heavenly Gate, standing atop a sea of clouds under a vast, clear sky.
Looking around, he saw nothing but rolling platinum-white clouds and mist, dense like clouds yet drifting like fog.
Deep within the mist, a golden sun seemed hidden, casting a gradient from white to pale gold to deep gold across the cloud sea.
What caught Ouyang Rong’s eye most was the ancient tower dusted with the weight of history, half-shrouded in golden mist at the center of his view. The plaque bore two purple-gold characters: “Merit.”
At that moment, the door slowly opened. Ouyang Rong felt a flicker of anticipation and drifted inside mentally. The scene was starkly simple—just the layout he knew well: “one bell, one wooden fish.”
That was all.
Nothing else. The rest was filled with white mist.
Ouyang Rong tried to compare it with the shoddy “Merit Tower” app he’d seen in his memory.
He couldn’t say it was identical, but it was completely consistent.
Just like the app’s programmer had carelessly used fake textures, the “one bell, one wooden fish” inside the ancient tower was quite ordinary.
“Wow, the outside of the tower is so grand, but inside it’s just slapped together—a golden finger wrapper, huh? Better be careful not to lose merit points from Buddha!” Ouyang Rong muttered.
“But maybe it’s possible. That day at Donglin Temple, I didn’t see the Merit Tower in person. It might have been just as plain inside... I just don’t know if the blessing bell is as effective as the rumors say. Ringing it really brings good fortune and makes wishes come true... If so, then maybe there’s hope for me to go home?”
Ouyang Rong’s gaze was immediately drawn to the ancient bronze bell, which he examined closely.
It sat silent and seemingly eternal.
Suddenly, a fragmented message flashed across his mind as if inspiration had struck.
He paused, standing quietly for a moment, then quickly digested the divine thought and lowered his head to ponder.
This bell was the core of the entire Merit Tower... When it sensed a nearby “predestined connection,” it could consume stored merit points to ring once, capturing this elusive, easily missed “predestined connection,” instantly bestowing a blessing upon him.
The amount of merit points required varied depending on the size of the blessing; naturally, the better the blessing, the more merit points consumed.
The blessings came in many forms. The fragmented message briefly listed some: beyond the expected lucky treasures and sudden enlightenment, there were also blessings related to romantic luck—attracting love and favor from beauties. This bell was a bit strange. However, in his previous life, the temple’s Merit Tower did indeed serve many devotees, including offering matchmaking blessings, so it made sense.
Besides that, there were blessings for disaster relief and another for dispelling karmic obstacles. The former sounded quite good—it could save a dog’s life at a critical moment.
But the latter, “dispelling karmic obstacles,” made Ouyang Rong frown slightly. What kind of karmic obstacles? Sinful deeds? Violations of human ethics, betrayal of masters and ancestors, corrupted filial piety? He would never use that—he was a man of integrity and righteousness! That seemed unnecessary. Buddha really didn’t understand him...
After roughly understanding the message, Ouyang Rong realized that this “blessing fruit” was essentially a kind of manifestation of wishes, but it required an external, direct or indirect cause—like “elemental awareness”—to awaken the blessing bell, which could then exchange merit points for blessings.
“So where does merit come from... Right, striking the wooden fish!”
Ouyang Rong’s spirits lifted, eager to try.
“Better to break it a little than not at all. As long as I can strike it, I’ll be honest and steady this time.”
But when he approached the wooden fish with high hopes...
“What the hell, it’s still locked?!”
Seeing the wooden fish marked with a red cross, Ouyang Rong’s eyes went dark. He nearly lost it.
He took a deep breath, verified several times, and reluctantly accepted this reality.
He put on a stern face.
The heavens have sealed it forever, right? Even reincarnation can’t unseal it? They’re messing with me, huh? Tell me, is this just because I’m not fun to play with?
“I thought no one in this world would wait for me forever. Turns out, I missed you—the worthless locked wooden fish.”
Ouyang Rong sighed deeply, feeling Buddha was a bit petty.
What irritated him more was that the huge amount of merit points he’d earned before the lock didn’t come with him.
So, were the illegal gains deducted? Could it be that night he pushed Buddha down to second place? Or is the current merit count inherited from this world’s version of himself?
Ouyang Rong glanced again at the turquoise small seal script above the locked wooden fish:
[Merit: 101]
“Hey, I’ve lived a life of good deeds, a man of virtue. How did it come to this?”
But he wasn’t one to blame fate for long and soon regained his composure.
Ouyang Rong nodded: “But thinking carefully, it’s already good that the original self managed to blunder all the way to Dragon City... I should be grateful it’s not negative... Speaking of which, can merit points go negative? Would that mean bad luck?”
He smiled faintly.
“Calm down, calm down. Heaven never seals off all paths for a man...”
Ouyang Rong circled the wooden fish inside the tower a few times, glanced around the spacious, bright white space, then suddenly seemed to recall something and looked up:
“Since the lock means I can’t strike it, then how was that wooden fish sound I heard at Sanhui Courtyard just now? The Merit Tower was awakened then... and the merit points seemed to increase.”
“And what was I doing at that time? Calming the tense doctor-patient relationship, not being influenced by my aunt’s generosity... cough... I mean, I saved the host and Xiu Fa.”
Ouyang Rong suddenly understood: “I get it. It’s simple—doing good deeds accumulates ‘virtue’!”
...
—
(PS: A brief explanation: this golden finger is not a system, and personally, I don’t like systems much.
Those familiar with Ouyang Rong’s previous work know he’s a perfectionist about logic and details, so even his golden finger must be explainable within the worldview and will be revealed later in the story.
If I had to describe it, this golden finger is similar to the ‘Gray Mist’ in the Mystery Master series.)