I'm still not 100% sure how karma in ISSTH works. After the last chapter I figured I may as well ask. So... what does it do? How do you sow it (do you have to do something good/bad to someone, or just have an important relationship)? Why was Ke Jiusi afraid to meet Meng Hao because of the karma they both had with Ji Tian/Dongyang? (Or is this a future spoiler?) I'd be really like to know how karma is supposed to work (Preferably without spoilers for anything anything after chapter 1028+ )
It basically means you are connected to someone in someways. Like you met a girl, gave her your number. Now you got karma with her.
Anyone you've interacted with will give you some sort of karma there. But the karma will get stronger the more closer you are to a person. Edit: When I say closer it not only pertains to the intimate thing it also includes the thing when a person insulted Meng Hao or fight him or talk to him compared to just simply seeing him
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma Probably from where the author(s) took the concept from. Read, be cleansed and enlightened ...
Definitely not how most westerners view Karma. Karma in Issth is more like Fate. You can create ties with people by making them owe you or just interacting with them. All that creates literal ties of Karma between you and that person. If you are strong enough you can manipulate these ties to gain advantages over the other party. This is why Meng Hao creates Karma with other people, they either give him what he wants after or their cultivation will be suppressed by him through their Karmic ties. Recently Ji Tian (I think) put Karma on Meng Hao. I believe this was so he could later make Meng Hao his 9th body (inferred from those coffins). He created that Karma so he could later reap it and get what he wants from Meng Hao. (Of course Meng Hao has Karmic Hexing so the entire Ji Clan is but a speed bump as soon as his Cultivation level gets anywhere near Ji Tians) This is how I sorta define it.
How I understand it is that karma is essentially the effects of our actions. It can be divided into good karma and bad karma. I hit you (action) you hate me (effect=bad karma). This is also known as sowing karma. Coz if I didn't hit you, you'd never know who I am in the first place hence no karma. Now, reaping karma is essentially to dissolve any relation between us. Cue the above example. Reaping the karma is me giving you compensation or saying sorry. After that is done. We'd have no relation anymore as that conflict has ended. But usually in issth, this just leads in a downward spiral of more karma relations. In the recent chapters, I think that Ji Dongyan needs to reach a certain level of karma with Haowie or at least that's his aim. And he does ot by annoying the hell out of haowie
think of karma is a string, like the red string of fate. the more you interact with someone the thicker this string gets. some people can forcefully make a big string to attatch to someone. or removing the string. removing the string causes a lot of damage.
karma in general is the reaction to your actions. imagine when you move through a calm lake. any tiny movement generates ripples. now imagine these ripples move without dispersing till they reach the border of the lake, them they are rebounded in different directions. however, since they do not disperse, eventually the ripples will be rebounded towards you. so basically good things and bad things generate karma. when you take action in order to seek compensation for said action, that also generates karma. and technically, as long as you accumulate karma, you will continue to reincarnate. then there's dharma, the divine law or something like that, actions which you have to do because they are your duty. the actions made under dharma are the only ones which do not generate ripples. actions which you do out of interest for its reward also are part of dharma (good actions of course). for example caring for your parents and children, your younger siblings, sick family members, when done out of love and without expecting compensation, then it is dharma. the mindset under which you do things is very important. anyway, I haven't read ISSTH, but maybe karma in there works similarly in some points.
Thanks a tonne! This is what I was looking for I just wasn't really sure how it worked, and how the Jis could "reap" Karma when they hadn't really done anything. But I think I get it now. Forcefully sowing and reaping Karma is their ability. Also thanks everyone! Just to quickly add that I do know what karma means in a normal way, it's just that ISSTH has people sowing/reaping karma from each other which clashed with what I thought I knew about karma. IRL I've always believed karma is the universe rewarding/punishing you for your actions, rather than it being your relationship ties :3
People who are connected by karma have relations in some way. Meng hao can connect karma threads with objects as well to steal them with his divine ability.