At the very end, Carter Foster didn’t even know whether he was reciting those eight words himself, or if those eight words were echoing automatically in his heart.

　　Everything around him was slowly fading away, leaving only endless darkness, as if he had fallen into a dream.

　　The desk, the window, even the roof—all disappeared, as if he were in a void.

　　Yet around him, the sound of endless muffled thunder arose.

　　Listening closely, one could discern that all those thunderclaps were interwoven, heavy and unified, forming the eight words “天道煌煌，吾道不孤.” It seemed as if these eight words had transformed into rolling thunder, resounding throughout this world.

　　Crack...

　　Carter Foster looked up, and it was as if he saw streaks of lightning flashing across the sky!

　　In that instant, it felt as though some kind of power was traversing endless time and space, sweeping across the land of Daxia, surging toward the Fang residence.

　　It was an endless torrent of dark divine thunder, spreading across the sky like a spiderweb, then descending from the heavens.

　　Bolt after bolt struck down toward him. Beneath that infinite, terrifying divine thunder, he was just an ordinary person, an insignificant mortal like an ant. It seemed that every terrifying bolt could shatter him to pieces.

　　Not only himself, but the entire Fang residence, and everyone within it, would be obliterated.

　　Facing this, he didn’t even have the slightest strength to resist.

　　Even Carter Foster couldn’t help but feel a great panic rising in his heart, a sense of helplessness in the face of unknown terror.

　　In his desperation, he did only two things.

　　First, he placed the inkstone from his desk at the upper left corner of the desk, within a faintly visible, almost imperceptible talisman pattern.

　　Second, he picked up the old umbrella beside him and opened it above his head.

Chapter Five: The Heavenly Dao Merit Register

　　The Fang residence was the largest mansion in Liuhu City, with two stone lions at the entrance.

　　One with a tilted head, the other grinning!

　　The townsfolk of Liuhu City would say that the second young master of the Fang family was unruly, and so were the two stone lions.

　　Whenever young ladies and madams passed by the Fang residence, they would always say they felt as if those two lions were eyeing them with ill intent.

　　But countless people had touched them at midnight, and they were just two stone lions, not alive.

　　However, when Carter Foster placed the inkstone at the upper left corner of the desk, the two stone lions seemed to undergo some subtle change. At first glance, they still looked the same—one with a tilted head, one grinning, both looking unserious—but the Fang residence behind them seemed to have subtly changed.

　　The house was still the same, yet it felt slightly unreal.

　　It was at this moment that Carter Foster, holding the umbrella, stepped into the courtyard.

　　……

　　……

　　The umbrella looked like a very ordinary old one, with a black oilcloth canopy and a dark paulownia wood handle, without any patterns, appearing ancient and worn. Only at the handle were there horizontal and vertical lines carved.

　　Each line represented a demon or evil cultivator that Carter Foster had once slain. Since the age of fourteen, he had roamed about, seeking out the demons lurking in Liuhu City, and then, either through hired killers or by other secret means, sent these monsters to hell. Strictly speaking, almost none of these demons died by his own hand, but all died because of him.

　　Slaying demons and saving the people—that was merit.

　　This umbrella was one imbued with boundless merit.

　　“Crack, crack, crack...”

　　The divine thunder crashed down, all striking the black umbrella, then dissipating into nothingness.

　　This seemingly unremarkable old umbrella was actually able to withstand the divine thunder at this moment.

　　Or rather, it was not the old umbrella that withstood the thunder, but the merit upon the umbrella that did.

　　Carter Foster could feel that as the divine thunder struck, something invisible on the umbrella was dispersing. Yet as it dispersed, it also shielded him from these bizarre divine thunders, which seemed to contain endless destruction, evil, chaos, and madness—mutually annihilating...

　　This scene, as real as it was illusory, left Carter Foster unsure whether he was in reality or a dream, feeling only as if he were experiencing a nightmare.

　　The unending divine thunder fell as if without end, and he did not know when he would awaken from this dream.

　　“Heaven and earth offer no reward; good and evil, I know in my heart!”

　　Fortunately, just as he felt his mind was about to collapse and his brain about to split, the dark divine thunder above his head gradually weakened. Amidst the endless thunder, a gigantic register suddenly appeared in the sky, so vast it seemed to cover the entire world. It was filled with line after line of writing—names, perhaps, or records—radiating an overwhelming, ominous power.

　　Carter Foster strained to look at the register, trying to make out the writing upon it.

　　But in that single glance, he only saw the very first line: 天道煌煌，吾道不孤!

　　And just as he made out those eight words, the register suddenly fell.

　　In that moment, it was as if the entire sky collapsed, landing squarely atop Carter Foster’s head.

　　The weight of it seemed enough to crush him!

　　……

　　……

　　“Whew...”

　　Carter Foster suddenly woke up. He saw that he was still in his study, the old umbrella just now held in his hand.

　　“What was that just now...”

　　Recalling the hallucination from his dream, he felt as if he could barely catch his breath.