Chapter 244: Receiving The [domain], Governing By Non-interference
After taking over the Shadow Dream Hole, Yuan Zhu tried using the Immortal Scripture to receive data and construct a microscopic model he could understand, quickly figuring out the current state of the Shadow Domain.
It was developed to the extreme, to the point where he couldn’t intervene at all.
He just owned this “real estate,” and his net worth skyrocketed instantly. In theory, he had management rights over the Shadow Domain, but in practice, the operable space was very small, and the mobilizable power was limited.
The most critical and important Shadow Dream Hole was originally a circular black portal that could be actively opened and closed, connecting to the Nightmare Layer.
Now the Shadow Dream Hole was not only forcibly opened, but its circular doorframe edges were forcibly expanded and stitched onto the spatial structure of the Shadow Domain using strange Silk Thread.
To describe it forcibly, it’s like stretching a 1-meter diameter circle to 2 meters in diameter, and using steel bars with Space Attribute to pierce through the edges of the circle, densely fixing it to the wall.
These Silk Threads must be the Captain’s, or the Mao Mao King’s behind him, rhythm. The forcibly expanded Shadow Dream Hole had its communication power with the Nightmare Layer forcibly increased.
The never-closing structure was like a black hole with an open portal, extracting Nightmare Pollution.
Faced with this scene, even if Yuan Zhu regained ownership of the Shadow Dream Hole, he was helpless and could do nothing.
He couldn’t close it!
The Shadow Dream Hole had been forcibly bound in play; he was just the owner holding the remote control to open and close the garage door. The door couldn’t close by itself, and pressing the remote until it sparked was useless.
“Why does it feel faintly like being cuckolded?”
He stared blankly at “his” Shadow Dream Hole. After the Captain’s modifications, the dream hole’s power had increased by more than 4 times? And it was efficiently utilized 24 hours a day.
Those Nightmare Pollution floods continuously rushing into the Shadow Domain were all digested and absorbed by the Reverse Growth Mulberry Tree parasitizing in the Inner World, converted into Pure Spiritual Energy for the Mao Shi Worms in the Inner World to breathe; for the insect cultivators in the Domain to cultivate True Qi; for the Reverse Life Tree to grow, providing food for the Mao Shi Worms; for the Spiritual Grass and Medicine of the Corpse Seed to grow.
Just the forced expansion of the Shadow Dream Hole + Reverse Life Tree + the absurdly increased number of Worm Pillars already gave Yuan Zhu a huge scare.
Then the massive changes in the Shadow Domain of the surface world were even more horrifying.
At this moment, a thick Withered Wood Root Tendril at least 20 meters in diameter brutally pierced through the rock layer above the Underground Cavity, descending from “heaven” and stabbing into the central position of the Animal Husbandry Village (Domain), disappearing downward into the Inner World.
Ultimately, it took root where the giant withered wood remnant branch overlapped and intertwined with the main root of the Reverse Growth Mulberry Tree in the Shadow World.
This couldn’t help but make Yuan Zhu think, could the Reverse Growth Mulberry Tree actually have been hatched from this Immortal World Tree Withered Root?
But judging from his control, reading, and analysis of the Domain, the Reverse Life Tree was extremely vital and carried a large amount of external plant information not from the Immortal Realm Tree.
Yuan Zhu had reason to speculate that this Mulberry Tree was probably transported by the Captain from another world, and after incorporating local Reverse Life Tree gene pollution, it became a product readapted to the environment.
And that Immortal World Tree Withered Root that pierced through the “bottom layer” from above was always filled with Death Qi and contained a dense aura of Corrupting Miasma, a standard local pollutant.
This withered wood, in the depths of the Domain (different space) detached from the Real World, overlapped with the Reverse Life Tree and was forcibly stitched with countless Silk Threads. The other ends of these silk threads were fixed around the Shadow Dream Hole, forcibly expanding and propping it open.
Thus forming the complex spatiotemporal structure of Immortal World Tree Withered Root – Shadow Domain – Silk Thread – Reverse Life Tree – Inner World – Silk Thread – Shadow Dream Hole.
“Holy crap!”
As Yuan Zhu continuously raised his line of sight, his “gaze” traced the Withered Wood Root upward, long beyond the Domain’s control range, yet he could continue tracking. After this Withered Wood continuously pierced through the 30-kilometer bottom layer riddled with root tendrils, it ultimately transformed into an Immortal Realm Tree stump like a Skyscraper.
This was Surface 01 Site, a remnant of an Immortal Realm Tree clone capable of inducing Moon Worship Ceremony.
For the current Shadow Domain, Yuan Zhu didn’t dare say a word; he’d just tremble in fear.
Snake Snake: “Is this the feeling of introducing top-tier venture capital? The entrepreneur is kicked out of the team for half a year, the company skyrockets in value and goes public. When returning home, it’s already transformed into a shape he doesn’t recognize, developed to a mature, juicy extreme state?”
Yuan Zhu: “It seems like there’s nothing for me here anymore?”
He had to admit, the Shadow Domain was truly developed to the limit. The Tiger Demon was already powerless to intervene, walking a path unrelated to him.
The Shadow Domain definitely had potential, but without using the matching upgrade software, it was halfway hijacked, forcibly inserted with unknown plugins, and transplanted with foreign programs.
Causing the Shadow Pollution concentration in the Domain to plummet rapidly. The Animal Husbandry Village now obtained endless energy from the surface’s Moonlight Pollution and the Nightmare Layer opposite the Shadow Dream Hole, maintaining the entire system structure.
And the greatest value or use of the Shadow Domain was providing an Inner World that could be inflated like a balloon, plus a Domain-ized surface world, separated from the Underground World’s pollution environment, forming a safe house for colonial landing.
Although he no longer had space to play his own role, through taking over the Shadow Domain, he gained a deeper understanding of part of the Mao Mao King’s authority.
Those threads sewing the Shadow Domain back and forth, with various forced modifications and forced play, didn’t seem to be Silk Thread at all? Moreover, these threads had extremely high affinity with Moonlight! Just like the relationship between his own refined Ghost Companion Plugin and digitized Shadow Pollution.
The current Domain, besides continuously extracting pollution from the Nightmare Layer to convert, absorb, and store; could also, through 2-3 days of continuous Moon Worship Ceremony each month, extract Moonlight Pollution from the withered wood to further nourish the Domain.
Finally, that Reverse Life Tree seemingly parasitizing the Inner World and hijacking all energy channels (root tendrils) of the Domain also spread, eroded, and expanded in its own way to the underground root tendrils around the Domain, extracting pollution from the Immortal World Tree Root Tendrils to nourish, grow stronger.
After the Animal Husbandry Village developed to this stage, Yuan Zhu truly couldn’t come up with any new tricks. He could only hold back tears and silently inherit this billion-dollar asset. No need to go to court; the Captain had everything arranged, he just needed to enjoy and collect remuneration monthly.
Was this the feeling of the Mao Mao King in the Happy Home? No need to personally strive at all, do whatever he wanted. From now on, he also had no need to return to the Eclosion World; the Captain would operate the industry for him.
Snake Snake: “Can we find another Insect City, emulate the past entrepreneurship, open a new Shadow Domain and entrust the Captain to operate it?”
“The Shadow Domain could be built entirely thanks to the Shadow Dream Hole. But the Shadow Dream Hole wasn’t opened by me; 90% relied on perfect timing and conditions. Now the will and attention of the Eclosion World has shifted away from me.”
With this eerie and mature Domain as an example, the new child of the world would naturally be the Captain himself, or the Mao Mao King behind him.
The mere foreign digitized Shadow System couldn’t save the world; instead, the Captain, continuously bringing new technology, became the better option.
Yuan Zhu: “Do you think the Mao Mao King could be a Moon Sea immigrant? So actively invested in the Eclosion World now, planning to take the Moon Worship Ceremony ascension path to reland on the Moon?!”
Snake Snake: “I support the Mao Mao King! She’ll lead us to land on the Moon!”
…
Yuan Zhu controlled the Reverse Life Tree above to droop countless root tendrils, moving away the scattered supplies on the ground and arranging them neatly.
Then he paced around appreciating the Inner World. At a glance, countless mycelial corpses were like fungal fermentation beds for fungi farming, containing different nutritional elements after special processing.
To put it this way, a Qi Refiner’s True Qi before death was divided into multiple Yin-Yang and Five Elements categories; after death made into Corpse Mycelial Beds, they were naturally suitable for nurturing spiritual grass and medicine of different attributes. This was so damn scientific! And the wise laboring people of the Eclosion World did exactly that.
“What the actual fuck, so grotesque!”
After a simple inspection of the Inner World, Yuan Zhu discovered a separately developed 2.0 Shadow Small Space in a corner area. Its essence was no different from the Inner World, just like opening up a bedroom within a set of housing.
In this Small Space, his exclusive Shadow Yuan Shi Worms were being raised. And in another space marked as 3.0, the Holy Light Shell Spirit Insects whose Holy Light Pollution was nearly depleted were being kept.
The Captain had no intention of completely occupying the industry; all the projects Yuan Zhu had left behind were preserved, and small spaces were thoughtfully separated out for independent cultivation.
This moved him to tears: “It increasingly feels like I’ve been sidelined, turned into a puppet!”
Although he grumbled in his mouth, saying unpleasant things. He had a look of disdain, frustration with no outlet for his ambitions. But after entering the 2.0 Worm-Raising Space, he couldn’t help but say: “Smells so good!”
The Captain held nothing back, creating the most comfortable Shadow Pollution Environment for his Yuan Shi Worms, while also providing specially modified True Kunlun Spiritual Energy, as well as the most nutrient-rich, attribute-compatible leaves.
Benefiting from more professional silkworm-raising experience, his Yuan Shi Worms were raised very well, each one thick, sturdy, and ugly, like enlarged spiny caterpillars, or like lazy giant sea cucumbers…
Each one covered in sharp spines all over, emitting retractable, shootable shadow poison hairs, slowly crawling close to the ground, gnawing on the leaves.
“Huh?”
He observed for a while, while reading the breeding logs stored in the Domain, and found that the Yuan Shi Worms had grown very well, from gravel-sized eggs back then to baby arm-sized bully caterpillars now.
But they had only grown in size, not in number.
“Unable to reproduce?”
Yuan Zhu was somewhat surprised; was there some defect in his Yuan Shi Worms? They surprisingly didn’t mate and reproduce, but instead all took the path of individual super evolution.
Then, through the Captain’s unique breeding secret technique, they even started spitting silk, but refused to form cocoons, instead continuously molting and growing larger. They all embarked on an unknown new path.
With some doubts, he visited the 3.0 Space again. The internal environment changed once more; the Spiritual Energy attribute wasn’t deliberately modified, still in native mode, but the Shadow Pollution Environment was deleted and changed, with Holy Light content increased as much as possible. But the concentration of Holy Light Particles was still rapidly declining.
Before Yuan Zhu left, the Holy Light Devices he left behind were several Demonic Giant Insects parasitized by Holy Light. The bugs had limited lifespans, especially after being attacked by Holy Light, continuously producing Holy Light Particles through their injuries.
Lifespan was equivalent to the service life of the biological device; the more new Holy Light Particles they produced, the faster they died and the lower the yield.
Yuan Zhu had been away for about 7-8 months, and the Holy Light Giant Insects in the 3.0 Space had suffered heavy casualties, thus the Holy Light content plummeted.
Not only that, the Coleoptera and Hemiptera being hatched and raised in the 3.0 Space also had their internal Holy Light Attribute gradually declining generation after generation due to multiple rounds of continuous reproduction without receiving Qi Thread nurturing and such.
But there was also good news: the newly hatched Coleoptera and Hemiptera Spirit Insects were gradually washing away the Immortal Zombie Tendrils, Iron Poison, and other pollutions in their bloodlines, gradually being replaced by Holy Light.
In other words, they were gradually adapting and becoming attuned to their exclusive Holy Light like the Yuan Shi Worms; if iteration intensity was increased, it was very likely to cultivate quasi-Holy Light System Beetles.
The core of Insect Cultivator Qi Refining couldn’t do without the assistance of Spirit Insects. The transformation of True Qi was essentially cultivating and strengthening Spirit Insects, then extracting Spiritual Machines from their bodies to nurture one’s own Essence, Qi, Spirit three treasures.
These Holy Light Coleoptera and Hemiptera could allow Qi Refiners to gradually shift toward Holy Light. Originally, Yuan Zhu had planned to use this method to try cultivating Holy Light False Face Qi Refiners.
But after the Shadow Mutated Alienation Tissue failed; now having comprehended Flask Power, he was more interested in the orthodox Holy Light Breathing Technique.
However, seeing the Sacred Beetle project gradually maturing, he didn’t plan to waste it. He could consider cultivating Younger Brother into a Holy Light False Face Qi Refiner.
Once the other party signed the Anti-Law and left the Eclosion World with him, he, deprived of Corrupt Spiritual Energy, native Spirit Insects, and the Qi Refining environment, could just use the brand new Sacred Beetles + Holy Light Particles to replace the old system and smoothly continue cultivation in the Present World.
After inspecting the Inner World, Yuan Zhu did not enter the Cockroach Village, whose growth progress was not ideal. Instead, he chose to return to the outer world, stepping out and arriving in front of Meng Xiyue.
The other party was at that moment fiddling with a low-tier cultivator’s head: “Yo, you’re here! Where did you run off to just now?”
“I entered the second layer world of the Domain and found the changes here too great, so I stayed for a while to adapt.”
Meng Xi: “What about the promised management rights?”
Yuan Zhu reminded: “I’ll give them to you. But you also need to be mentally prepared. The Captain utilized the Shadow Dream Hole to the limit; under the premise of not shaking the Domain’s foundation, the authority left for you and me is very limited.”
“No problem, I’m best at exploiting gaps!”
Yuan Zhu nodded happily, then transferred a portion of Shadow Dream Hole management rights over: “Good then, I just need your Skull Server technology to help me develop and upgrade the Third Cockroach Dreamland!”
The foundational root of the Shadow Domain was the 12 Insect Pillar Town Stones; now he decisively handed over 1/12 administrator permissions to Meng Xi.
The latter’s eyes rolled back for a moment, instantly infused with a large amount of information and knowledge. Fortunately, she wasn’t a mortal and carried her personal Skull Server to share the load, quickly sitting up straight.
“Stimulation!”
