Moral Compass

In this world, mortal kingdoms face immense challenges; cultivators always seek 'seeds,' so no matter where mortals establish their kingdoms, they are eventually taken over by cultivators.

There are only two ways for a true mortal kingdom to exist in the world.

The first is if mortals form their civilizations in a place where no cultivator can find them. In that case, they can develop their civilization without any interference. Of course, it's possible that some mortals in this imaginary kingdom discover supernatural powers and eventually take over.

The second way is if a cultivator protects the mortal civilization from outsiders. This is extremely rare; the only cultivators capable of doing this are those in the Soul Transformation and Perfection realms. Void Soul cultivators may be able to do it in some desolate places, but without at least one Soul Transformation cultivator, it is hard to imagine a mortal civilization developing without interference from cultivators for long.

Fortunately for mortals, one cultivator in the peak of perfection realm fits the description; she is called Immortal Master Extreme Demon. Her name sounds extremely evil, and it used to suit her well. However, around 300 years ago, her personality changed overnight. The woman, once known as one of the most cruel cultivators in the world, suddenly became kind-hearted. On that day, she freed all her 'experimental subjects'—poor mortals she had captured—and allowed them to live in peace under her protection.

Experimenting on people is not at all rare among Perfection Realm cultivators. If that were all she had done, it would have made her just a generic Perfection cultivator.

Some famous cultivator scholars have developed a moral compass and quantified morality to make it easier to understand. The evil side goes all the way to -5000, and the good side goes all the way to +5000.

On the positive side, a generic farmer who cares for his family and friends is given a value of +1200. A warrior who voluntarily protects his country out of righteousness is valued at +2600. A mother who takes care of her child has a value of +200. A person who dedicates his entire life to selflessly helping others, enemies, or friends, without any expectation, has a value of +5000. A politician who does things solely to stay in power, implementing helpful policies when it is popular among the people, and doing things he knows would result in great harm when his political donors ask for it has a value of 0.

The farmer protects his family and friends but doesn't protect others; he is undoubtedly on the good side but not a saint. The warrior who voluntarily throws his life away to protect everyone is good, yet he kills people on his way to protect his country, so while he is good, he is not a saint either.

A mother who takes care of her child does so because she considers the child to be hers. If the mother in question cared for a child other than her own, an orphan, as good and with the same care as her own child, her value would go up by +2300.

The person who spends his entire life selflessly helping others, enemies or friends, would get the full positive point of a saint, +5000.

It is easy to see that most people are on the 'good' side; indeed, most people are 'good.' They have their issues, but most make the 'good' choice when push comes to shove.

Of course, there are wrinkles that can skew the perception of 'good.' For example, the warrior who 'protects' his country does so with good intentions; he throws his life away for people he doesn't even know. However, he may kill innocents along the way, and the enemy would see him as evil, even though his intentions were good.

Another example would be a soldier who volunteers to invade another country with 'good' intentions of 'saving' it from an 'authoritarian' local ruler. Yet, his participation contributes to the suffering of many of the same people he originally wanted to help. His intentions may have been good, but from the perspective of the people he invaded, he is no different from a devil incarnate who destroyed their lives and killed their loved ones. These situations happen because people are unable to distinguish good from bad.

There are other situations, such as when a 'bad' act unintentionally produces 'good' results and vice versa.

For example, a Good Samaritan tries to help a sick individual who fell on the ground, but due to lack of skill, he instead causes the death of the person. Is the Good Samaritan evil? His intentions were definitely good, but they caused the death of another human.

Or a murderer who, for his own joy, kills the leader of a very scary criminal gang. The death of the leader causes the disbandment of the group, consequently preventing the death of thousands of people. Did the murderer commit a 'good' deed by killing the gang leader?

These answers are not simple, and no matter what answer one gives, it can always be disputed. However, cultivator scholars who designed the moral compass had no choice but to give those questions a certain answer. Their answers were simple: no matter the result, for the purpose of placement on the Evil Compass, the only thing that matters is the intention.

For example, the Good Samaritan who accidentally caused the death of another while trying to save him would get a +1700 positive moral value. He may be jailed for acting without having the skill, but that wouldn't make him evil; his intentions were good, and that is all that matters.

The murderer who killed the leader of the criminal organization for joy is evil, no matter the result; he would get a negative value of -3100.

The soldier that destroyed a country with good intentions gets a +2500 value. He may be prosecuted for his actions, but no matter what, his intentions were good, and that is all that matters.

Conflicts skew people's perceptions. The mortal world is filled with people with good intentions, but prejudices, tribalism, radical beliefs, etc., make it look much darker than it actually is.

On the moral compass, a person who kills for joy, molests and makes others suffer for no reason other than his own twisted desires, and has no mercy toward anyone, not even his relatives and children, would receive a -5000 moral value. Such a person would be more evil than most actual demons; even the worst demons can, at most, be equally bad as him.

A moral value of -2500 would be someone who kills and molests for joy but has some red lines, such as not killing newborns or his own parents.

A moral value of -1000 would be someone who kills people with joy but has clear red lines, such as not hurting children, relatives, women, etc.

A moral value of 0 would be someone who kills without care but only for clear benefits. Such a person wouldn't hurt anyone if there is no benefit behind it. He might do evil acts, but only for clear benefits.

Obviously, this is not how most mortal societies define evil. In most mortal societies, killing any human is an evil act, full stop. But in the cultivator scholars' moral compass, killing for benefits is a neutral act, not evil. This is a deep cultural difference. Cultivators base their moral compass on the cultivator's mentality; they only care about their path to immortality. For them, everything that helps on that path is justifiable. This is the mentality of most high-level cultivators, and this is where the moral compass's middle point was placed.

Among mortals, however, the typical cultivator's mentality is psychopathic, clearly far into evil territory. This is because the 'zero' point in the moral compass is usually placed where most people are in that society. The 'Zero' point of most mortal societies is around +1000 value on the cultivator's compass. Of course, not all mortals are the same; in some stone-age mortal tribes, the compass may look more like the one cultivator scholars designed.

Overall, mortals' morality compass has a heavy bias that makes the world look less good than it actually is. In most modern cultures, it is expected to protect one's family and friends; such acts are ordinary and not considered 'good.' That makes the mortal world and people look far less 'good' than they actually are.

Immortal Master Extreme Demon used to have a moral value of -4700; she killed and tortured for her own joy, with nearly no red line; even on the cultivator's moral compass, she was indisputably far into the negative.

But after that day, her value changed to about +2800.

The reason was simple: transmigration!

…

"Name: Immortal Master Extreme Demon"

"Cultivation: Perfection Realm, 10th Stage"

"Do Good Points: 13,866,019,272 - System Store"

"System Skill: Anonymous"

"Anonymous: Nobody can know your true identity"

His name used to be Albert; that is no longer the case. Now, they call him Immortal Master Extreme Demon.

He accepted his true identity long ago.

That day, he was hit by a truck, the most generous method of transmigration. His body in this world turned out to be that of a female cultivator at the peak of power.

Albert was not happy about his new identity; in fact, he was absolutely terrified. It wasn't because his body's gender changed to female; that was the least of his issues.

His problem was his memory. The moment he transmigrated, he inherited the memory of a Daoist Extreme Demon.

In his previous life, he was just an ordinary worker for a local shopping center. Such a person suddenly received memories spanning countless years of torturing people, watching them melt, transforming them into monsters, and cutting off limbs ... If he still had his previous brain, he would have gone mad without a doubt.

Fortunately for him, he had the brain of a Perfection cultivator. For that reason, he managed to completely consume and analyze the past of Daoist Extreme Demon. The more he analyzed, the more terrified he became; he possessed the body of a devil.

In the end, he decided to take responsibility. No matter what, he now controlled the body of this devil. Until he found a way to return to his own world, he would do his best to compensate for what this devil did. Of course, he could never completely compensate for all that evil, but he had to try at least.

So, he healed and freed all 'experimental subjects' and gave them as good a life as possible. He also bought all the slaves from the surrounding continents, allowing them to live in peace in a mortal kingdom without any harm from cultivators.

That was 300 years ago. Now, the mortal kingdom is the biggest mortal settlement not ruled by cultivators worldwide.

Yet, he doesn't feel satisfied.

While the mortal kingdom is safe from cultivators, that doesn't mean its people have good lives. The first group had good lives, but as time passed and people who remembered how bad it could get died of old age, things started to change. Gradually, kings and nobles appeared, and it all turned into a generic medieval-era kingdom where nobles abused commoners.

Extreme Demon has been considering whether to intervene for many years. He was afraid that any interference from him might make everything worse.

The system changed two years ago as he was contemplating his next actions; a new column displayed 'Do Good' points.

'Do Good' points can be earned if he does acts that result in good outcomes. Conversely, Doing Good points would be reduced if he does anything that results in a bad outcome. Albert had no idea why the 'Do Good' system appeared or what use it had. Still, it wasn't an obstacle for him. After all, he wanted to do good and help mortals anyway. It wouldn't be bad to accumulate a few 'Do Good' points along the way.

He didn't expect to gather so many Do Good points so quickly. And just today, the new 'System Store' appeared!

Extreme Demon tapped on the 'System Store' option in the system interface.