Complications Of Emotions

After resting for a bit, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Director Salvador said, taking a deep breath.

"Professor…" The person who entered was the young female doctor with the delicate features, the same one who had done CPR on the patient a few hours ago.

"Claire, is the stitching all done? How's the patient?" Director Salvador asked. He had left the final suturing to his protégé, stitching wasn't that hard.

"Yes, it's done. The patient is in good condition and has been sent to the ICU. They should be out of danger and can be moved to a regular ward in a couple of days," Claire answered promptly.

"That's good… You must be tired. Go get some rest."

"Professor…" Claire hesitated for a moment before asking softly, "Was it really because of him that the patient survived?"

Director Salvador's expression turned extremely serious. "Don't doubt it for a second! He was right. With how badly the patient was bleeding, they would've never made it to surgery without those silver needles. The outcome would've been too horrible to imagine! He's a real master of medicine. And to think… he's so young.

It's such a pity! We didn't even get his name in all the chaos, what a loss!"

Even though Director Salvador practiced Western medicine, and that young guy's acupuncture came from traditional Chinese medicine, there was still a deep respect and admiration between them as fellow healers.

Of course, Director Salvador had no idea that acupuncture was only one of Merritt's many skills, and his profession had nothing to do with being a doctor.

Claire was shocked. Her professor was her role model! Not only was he the chief surgeon at First People's Hospital, but he was also a professor at Bien City Medical University, he was at the top of his field.

He had mentored her during college and now guided her in the hospital. They'd worked together for years, and she had rarely heard him speak so highly of anyone.

The only exceptions were always old experts in the medical field.

Claire couldn't help but think of that incredibly handsome face, the way he had used the needles with such calm confidence, and the words he had said.

He was really amazing!

So young and already so skilled. And then there was her… still just a junior doctor.

As for Merritt?

He was lying on a bed in a cheap motel somewhere in the city, completely unaware that anyone was talking about him, and honestly, he didn't care about that kind of stuff.

Saving someone like a hero? No way. Merritt was never someone who acted out of pure kindness.

The only reason he stepped in was because Claire reminded him too much of his past.

He laid there quietly, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. Then all of a sudden, he sat up.

The Heavenly Desire Pearl was a complete scam. There was no point in putting any more faith in it. From now on, he'd just focus on retraining in martial arts.

Just then, two streams of light, different colors, suddenly flew into the room.

Before he could react, they merged into the Heavenly Desire Pearl inside his mind.

The pearl was split into six sections by detailed carvings.

Until now, only the hatred section had been slightly filled, and even that was barely a tenth.

The other five were completely empty.

But now, two new ones lit up: the blue aura of joy and the orange aura of sorrow. Joy took up way more space than sorrow.

What the heck was going on?

Merritt was confused. He'd spent half a day at the hospital and didn't collect a single emotion.

But now, after coming back to the motel and doing nothing at all, two new emotions showed up?

This was totally different from what happened in the morning! Back then, the emotions he absorbed turned straight into life force. But now, they were just staying inside the Heavenly Desire Pearl.

Why was it different from this morning?

Where did those two emotions come from?

Merritt stood there dumbfounded for a long time before it suddenly hit him. "I get it!"

He had noticed something weird earlier.

His vitality had fully recovered, and the joy and anger he had gathered that morning were completely used up. How could that be just a coincidence?

It had restored his vitality perfectly, not too much, not too little.

There was only one explanation!

The emotions he collected earlier weren't used for cultivation, they were used just to restore his vitality.

That meant there weren't any strict requirements. Any of the six base emotional seeds would work.

But once his vitality was full, the energy created after that was something else, it was for cultivation, and that came with more conditions.

So, what were those conditions?

The anger he absorbed in the morning was Yasmine's anger toward Evan, it had nothing to do with Merritt himself.

So from now on, if he wanted emotional energy for cultivation, the emotions had to be connected to him somehow.

But why did he suddenly get joy and sadness just now?

It wasn't a coincidence. It had to be from the surgery earlier.

When a patient's life is on the line, their family is filled with sadness.

And once the patient is saved, not only do the family members feel overwhelming joy, but even the doctors and nurses who helped out feel that same happiness.

That explained why the joy he got was slightly more than the sadness.

Merritt realized that for emotions generated during healing to be useful, they had to come directly from people affected by his actions. Only then could the pearl absorb and store them.

But then... why weren't they immediately turned into life force like before? Why were they stored inside the Heavenly Desire Pearl?

Merritt had a vague idea.

Why was the Heavenly Desire Pearl split into six sections?

If it was only for recovering vitality, then any emotion could work. But if he wanted to use them for cultivation, maybe he needed to collect all six primary emotional seeds and get each of them to a certain level.

He started thinking about another problem.

If his guess was right, things were going to get a little tricky. All the emotions he collected from now on had to be connected to him.

Joy and anger weren't that hard to get, and even hatred, being a stronger emotion, wasn't impossible. But... what about love?

Did he really have to go around flirting and making girls fall for him?

The Heavenly Desire Pearl was divided into six parts. The blue section for joy was almost one-fifth full.

The orange section for sadness was about one-tenth, and the red section for hate was a little less than that. The other three were completely empty.

Clearly, there was still a long way to go.

At first, Merritt had thought absorbing emotions would be easy. But now, it seemed way more complicated.

He had to make people feel those emotions because of him, his presence, his actions.

That was a lot harder than he expected.

But not impossible.

There were shortcuts.

Like, if he slapped a random person, they'd definitely get angry. If he beat them up, they might even feel sadness, fear, and hate too.

On the flip side, if he suddenly gave someone a big wad of cash, they'd definitely feel joy.

Only love... yeah, that one was going to be way more complicated.