Chapter 135: Crown Prince Regents, Moon Worship Ceremony
Inside the 【Domain】, Yuan Zhu and Little Spicy Stick discussed and listed out various scientific missions, programming the 【Work Memo】.
Then, through the comprehensive installation of the ‘Data Soul Program’ 【Shadow Domain-Internal Dream Local Area Network】, it was sent to Little Girl with one click. Only then did he lightly clap his hands on his chest, satisfied and done.
…
“Ding dong! You have a new mission, please receive it.”
At the same time, Little Girl had just obtained her own 【Holy Cough Firefly】 and was excitedly researching its usage method together with Younger Brother.
She used her own 【Qi Threads】 to successfully complete the master recognition binding with the 【Holy Light Firefly】, and urged the firefly to produce ‘Holy Cough Particles’ to accelerate the cultivation of the breathing method.
But before starting, she received a new ‘work reminder’.
Younger Brother perked up, immediately straightened his chest, and reminded his sister who was immersed in the ‘pet firefly’: “Big Sis, Teacher sent a new message, accept it quickly.”
Ever since hugging Yuan Zhu’s thigh, the brother and sister had been living a happy life they never even dared to dream of before. Following Yuan Zhu, eating nine meals a day!
No longer needing to worry about starvation, risking their lives to forage for food in the forbidden zone. With inexhaustible pure spiritual energy for their own cultivation, safe shelter, cultivation pills, profound cultivation techniques, guidance from the strong, and 【Holy Cough Blessing】 to purify internal pollution erosion…
What she needed to do was just manage orphans in the same situation as herself, leading them to do the simplest ‘insect rearing’. Plus the knowledge and learning she desired so much, diligently absorbing knowledge in the ‘Dream’, and applying it after waking up to complete one interesting experiment after another.
This fulfilling and happy life felt just like a dream. She didn’t want to wake up at all; it was just too joyful and happy.
As for things like ‘evil Yuan Zhu exploiting and enslaving child labor? Oppressing children? Working over 14 hours a day!’, if Little Girl heard it, she would definitely arrange for Younger Brother to beat the rumormonger to death alive!
There was no oppression! No exploitation! No pain at all; she loved this joyful life too much, like arriving in a black paradise (Shadow Domain), hoping to stay drunk forever without waking.
At this moment, receiving another new ‘mission reminder’, her heart was filled only with the satisfaction of being needed, then she eagerly clicked open the instructions.
Immediately after, Little Girl was struck as if by lightning, standing dumbfounded on the spot.
In her eyes, the densely packed experimental categories filled a list of 【Holy Light Four Heavenly Kings Package Plan】, which suddenly exploded in front of her. Before she could laboriously finish reading it, the list began to refresh rapidly, with one 【All Categories-Shadow Spirit Insect】 plan after another starting to update.
These newly learned words, she could recognize each one. But connected together, she could only understand them through the thought synchronization of the 【Data Soul Program】.
Until she saw the end of the 【Mission List】: Yuan Zhu personally appointed her as 【Crown Prince Regent】!
Taking office immediately as acting head of the 【Biological Science R&D Department】, first-generation deputy village chief of 【Animal Husbandry Village】, executor of 【Cockroach Village Completion Plan】, and concurrent root department minister.
Fully responsible for all experimental plans in the village, all resources in the 【Domain】 unconditionally tilted toward her, plus imperial authority specially permitted to form an exclusive secret Holy Light force, responsible for monitoring Commander Zuo and Shopkeeper Lu afterward.
This was also because Yuan Zhu had just arrived and lacked usable and trustworthy people at hand. He had no choice but to pick the best from the short ones, so he first thought of the clever and quick-witted Little Girl who seemed to have extraordinary potential.
…
At this moment, Little Girl had a face full of shock, confusion, and bewilderment. After crashing for a full 50-plus seconds, she slowly came back to her senses, pointed a trembling finger at herself, looked up at her 1.7m tall Younger Brother, and said incredulously:
“Me? Complete all the missions?”
She, a 12-year-old Upper City District little girl less than 1.2m tall with the Twelve Main Meridians just starting to develop, actually had to shoulder so many ‘experimental missions’, be responsible for completing the 【Cockroach Matrix】, and secretly monitor and confront an Earth Rank old slicker and a half-step Heaven Rank big shot?
At this moment, although she had never read Journey to the West, Little Girl’s heart already had the exact same experience as the rampaging boar in the Bi Bo Pool who was ordered by the nine-headed snake to take down Tang Seng and his disciples.
“Big Sis, what’s wrong with you?”
Seeing his sister crying one moment and laughing the next, with facial expressions changing wildly, mentality fluctuating dramatically in a mad state, Younger Brother was a bit scared, fearing something was wrong with his sister, so he asked with concern.
Little Girl took a deep breath and quickly calmed down. In her heart, she silently accepted this extreme challenge no less than ‘Rampage Boar wiping out the pilgrimage group’.
Then, as a sis-con, Little Girl looked at her most cared-for, most beloved Younger Brother, whom she had raised single-handedly with high hopes.
Just thinking of her brother’s outstanding cultivation talent, her eyes lit up slightly, and she was instantly possessed by the nine-headed insect: “Little Bro…” You’re not escaping either!
Since Rampage Boar was already here, how far could Boar Rampage be? Decided happily like that, you come along too!
Five minutes later, after hearing his big sister’s oral description of the massive missions and a series of impressive-sounding titles. Younger Brother’s face showed the same shock, confusion, and bewilderment, dazed for a full 30 seconds before coming back to his senses, tremblingly raising one finger to point at himself, saying incredulously:
“Me? Complete these missions?”
…
Seeing the siblings under heavy pressure not only not mentally breaking down in despair and slacking off, but bursting with unprecedented learning ‘enthusiasm’, accelerating time in 【Cockroach Village】 with mental overclocking, engaging in sleepless self-destructive learning, greedily absorbing various ‘Insect Cultivator knowledge’, just like two graduates burning everything to pass the civil service exam and get ashore.
Yuan Zhu showed a satisfied smile at this.
Kids, 8-12 years old, huge potential, heaven-defying malleability, explosive stress capacity, golden time for brain development, best period to shape scientific view, exactly the prime age to venture out.
“They are exactly my Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong! Trusted aides must be cultivated from childhood.”
Little Spicy Stick: “Congratulations Your Majesty, felicitations Your Majesty, overjoyed at obtaining a pair of talents!”
After pushing the pressure and responsibility onto the two siblings, Yuan Zhu felt unprecedentedly relaxed and continued immersing in Holy Light cultivation, continuing 【Seal Casting】.
…
One day later, a request to meet interrupted his secluded cultivation.
“Boss, camp manager Lu Yan has come to request an audience, saying he has important matters to report to you. Shall I let him see you?”
Yuan Zhu stopped cultivating, first perceived the changes inside the 【Shadow Domain】 through the 【Shadow Dream Hole】, felt satisfied with the camp’s construction speed, and found no obvious problems.
Only then did he say: “Then let’s meet.”
Then, he opened the entrance passage to the 【Inner World】 and let in the curious Lu Yan.
Shopkeeper Lu, entering the 【Shadow Inner World】 for the first time, felt cut off from the Underground World, the Root Network, and the ubiquitous spiritual energy in the air, entering another unfamiliar ‘space’, no longer perceiving anything familiar, only left with faint ‘Shadow Power’.
He didn’t know what this situation was and became even more wary and ‘loyal’ toward Yuan Zhu in his heart.
This mysterious ‘extraterrestrial visitor’ not only created movable ‘Dream Holes’, created ‘Shadow Domain’ without relying on magic arrays, and made mysterious ‘Dream World’, but now under his nose created a ‘Shadow World’.
Not long ago, he even directly assaulted 【Cicada City】, not only looting the Central Urban Area warehouses, but committing a heaven-shocking robbery case in the Lower Urban Area, calmly retreating from the siege of three Heavenly Rank experts. Strength unfathomably deep, wealth in hand rivaling a nation.
He still didn’t know how many pills this new boss had robbed from 【Cicada City】? With that amount of resources, how many dead soldiers and trusted aides could he secretly cultivate? Drooling, wants to eat!
Shopkeeper Lu’s mind turned a thousand times: Must show enough loyalty and value, then squeeze him hard to make him burst gold coins for me!
“What matter did you come to see me for? Report if there’s something, withdraw if not, don’t disturb my cultivation.”
After absorbing a large amount of Shadow Magic Worm ash, his 【Sanctuary. Holy Seal】 was gradually completing, about to fill the 7th notch, while still nurturing a second skill. This new ability seemed influenced by 【Holy Cough】, with some connection between the two?
This made him extremely curious and expectant, so he seized every moment to cultivate and cast seals, no time to waste.
Shopkeeper Lu didn’t dare delay and quickly answered: “My Lord! Starting tomorrow, the Surface World will enter the extremely special 【Full Moon Period】. All Insect System lives (Spirit Insects, Magic Worms), including Qi Refining Cultivators fused with Dao Seeds… will have the impulse to ‘Moon Worship’ during the 【Full Moon Period】. Every Insect City will organize personnel to go to the surface during this time, receive moonlight irradiation, perform Moon Worship Ceremony, and accept moonlight irradiation.”
“Moon Worship Ceremony?”
He recalled that right after arriving, he had heard related content from the brother and sister. It seemed during the previous full moon, a ‘Black Storm’ swept the Surface World, causing the ceremony to fail.
If he hadn’t appeared out of nowhere and disrupted the siblings’ fate, Younger Brother would have participated in this ‘surface ceremony’.
Yuan Zhu: “Explain in detail, what effect does this ‘Moon Worship’ have?”
Lu Yan: “The 【Moon Worship Ceremony】 itself can greatly enhance the spiritual essence contained in ‘Spirit Insects’, a necessary step to accelerate their transformation into maturity. Additionally, if Qi Refiners bathe in moonlight, they can also greatly increase their own ‘spiritual essence’, promoting realm advancement. Furthermore, the Underground World legends say the 【Moon】 contains the ultimate secret of 【Feathered Ascension】.”
Yuan Zhu now understood that the so-called 【Insect System spiritual essence】 was the essence of Insect Pollution, similar to in the Holy Light System, using soul ash to cast seals, then using 【Holy Seal】 to absorb ash and forge soul crystals.
Insect System spiritual essence usually exists in cultivators and Spirit Insects. The spiritual essence in cultivators’ bodies is the essence composed of ‘Essence, Qi, Spirit’, relying on Dao Seed to refine Qi into threads. As these spiritual essences gather, they form spiritual sense (Earth Rank), ultimately transforming into Primordial Spirit (Heaven Rank).
Ways natives obtain ‘spiritual essence’: 1 Through refining pills and consuming them, the safest. 2 Eating pollution-containing food, refining with True Qi to extract trace spiritual essence and integrate into the soul.
3 The most common method is raising Spirit Insects, binding with Qi Threads for master recognition. The insect rearing process is equivalent to alternative alchemy, using ‘Qi Threads’ to acquire insect information and spiritual essence, perfecting one’s own Qi Threads.
Little Girl consumes 1/3 of her True Qi daily to remove internal pollution and suppress demonic transformation; 1/3 True Qi to nourish 【Dao Seed】, stimulating meridian tissue development and growth; the last 1/3 True Qi wasted on Spirit Insects, raising them to produce valuable ‘materials’, ultimately performing the final harvest.
Consuming so much True Qi is both to accelerate Spirit Insect growth and development, cleaning and removing their pollution; and using True Qi to nourish and enhance the ‘spiritual essence’ in their bodies.
Approximately every 12 mature Spirit Insects provide enough spiritual essence to condense a perfect ‘Qi Thread’ and fully develop one meridian.
In other words, Insect City’s low-level cultivators only need to continuously raise 12 batches (12 per batch) of Spirit Insects to complete primitive accumulation, Human Rank perfection, meridians perfection, Qi Threads perfection, breaking through to Earth Rank.
Usually, one batch of Spirit Insects from hatching to maturity takes 1 year. 12 years of ascetic cultivation to step into Earth Rank. But if frequently sneaking to the surface for 【Moon Worship Ceremony】 during this period, it can simultaneously accelerate self and Spirit Insects, shortening growth time.
If going to the surface to court death every month continuously, then only half a year is needed to mature one batch of Spirit Insects. Shortening 12 years of ascetic cultivation to 6 years, or even breaking through in 5 years.
Therefore, major Insect Cities arrange large numbers of low-level personnel during 【Full Moon Period】, carrying batches of ‘Spirit Insects’ to the surface to die. As long as the ceremony is successfully completed, it greatly accelerates Spirit Insect growth and development, harvesting large amounts of ‘spiritual essence’, producing insect resources for alchemy.
…
Yuan Zhu: “The 【Moon】 contains the ultimate secret of 【Feathered Ascension】? Isn’t Feathered Ascension the 【Dream Hole】?”
Lu Yan: “My Lord may not know, in the Underground World, there are two different 【Feathered Ascension】.”
In Lu Yan’s explanation, the first kind is naturally the 【Dream Hole】. Heaven Rank Supreme Experts shatter the void and escape into the 【Nightmare Layer】, seeking a path to other ‘Bubble Worlds’; calling it ascension is no problem.
And every Insect City has several ‘Dream Hole experts’ with Primordial Spirits leaving the body to explore Nightmare for other worlds. This is already the recognized ‘ascension method’, and in different eras, cultivators have claimed ‘successful ascension’, but no one has ever returned from the Upper Realm to take others away.
Therefore, ascension via 【Dream Hole】 is also considered by some as a one-way dead end. Thus arose the desire for the second kind of ‘Feathered Ascension’.
This second ascension is naturally the 【outer space】 corresponding to the 【Moon】.
Now with some experience, Yuan Zhu had figured out, with Du Ling Star as the boundary: 【Nightmare Bubble Layer】 is the infinite void collapsing toward the inner universe; while the 【Moon. Sea of Consciousness】 represented is the outer universe after spiritual ascension.
Simply and crudely, it can be understood as ‘outer space’ for the 【outer universe】.
Of course, 【Moon. Sea of Consciousness】 has nothing to do with space, only structurally similar to the external world outside Du Ling Star.
The second kind of Feathered Ascension circulated locally is probably through 【Moon Worship Ceremony】, receiving moonlight, using ‘Primordial Spirit’ to connect with the 【Sea of Consciousness】 nurtured by the moon, obtaining some guidance.
Ultimately breaking through this shattered Bubble World’s ‘external barrier’, escaping into the 【Bubble Layer】, then seeking a path to escape to the 【Star Realm】.
After all, Little Xihong Realm’s 【Tomato Race】 are a group of infectees who escaped from 【Star Realm fissure (external universe)】 into the 【Bubble Layer (internal universe)】.
Therefore, local legends may not be delusions, but have a slight probability of success. But the difficulty is no less than far exceeding the first kind of shattering.
