Chapter 112: To Achieve Great Deeds, Recruit Employees
Seeing the shop owner’s cheeks and skin crawling with black capillary patterns, large amounts of [Shadow Eggplant] spreading and growing in the physical body in the form of leaf veins, in about 1 minute, they followed the body circulation through one cycle, and began to spread along the capillary network.
On the top of the head on the other side, [Brain Eggplant] also quickly conquered territory, crawling over the periphery of the cerebral cortex, and slowly infiltrating inward.
At this moment, the Tiger Demon relied on the two supernatural abilities [Ghost Companion, Shadow Manipulation] to remotely control the three-piece set: [Shadow Eggplant] controls the physical body, [Brain Eggplant] manipulates the spirit, [Soul Memory] loads the Artificial Stupidity Program, stealing and seizing control of this physical body.
Suddenly, the ‘set effect’ activated, the shop owner’s body swayed unsteadily and stood up, just like Hawking who had lost motor ability, trying to stand up to toast the big shot.
The facial features were even more crooked with drooling saliva, mumbling unclearly: “Eggplant eggplant eggplant—!” strange sounds.
Seeing this cerebral palsy + hemiplegia scene, the Tiger Demon immediately turned to stare at its own tail: “I entrusted the [Artificial Stupidity] programming project to you! Is this how you repay me? Can you live up to my deep expectations?”
The snake tail twisted coyly, not daring to meet the Tiger Demon’s gaze, and said weakly: “King, listen to my explanation, I directly copied the behavior patterns of four Ghost Companions and entered them into the [Soul Memory]. The initial performance is indeed unsatisfactory, but boss don’t be angry, this is only the 1.0 prototype. The [Brain Eggplant] on his head has powerful deep thinking and learning abilities, comparable to super [CPU+GPU], as long as trained more and debugged more, it can automatically optimize the current program and achieve growth and evolution! Don’t look at him now having a stroke and hemiplegia, as long as he walks more, he will walk steadier and smoother!”
The Tiger Demon was also a layman in this regard: “I’ll believe you for now.”
“Don’t worry, boss, I won’t let you down!”
Focusing attention back on the ‘hemiplegic retard’, the Tiger Demon tried to drive the [Shadow Eggplant leaf veins] to deeply erode this body, but it failed at the dantian position, suffering a strong counterattack from [True Qi].
The opponent was not an ordinary citizen of Du Ling, the body was clean, not deeply eroded by the pollution system, like blank paper perfect for painting. The shop owner in front had cultivated [Qi Refining Technique] to [Earth Rank] strength, not bad at all.
The twelve main meridians were spread throughout the body, True Qi roaming spontaneously, immediately counterattacking the probing erosion of the ‘Shadow Eggplant’ detached from the blood vessels.
When the Tiger Demon tried to suppress, control, and cover the ‘True Qi System’ with [Shadow Pollution], it received bad news: couldn’t eat it!
It could use the [Ghost Companion Set] to cut off the shop owner’s control of the True Qi System, entering standby mode. But the quality-limited ‘Ghost Companion wetware’ couldn’t devour the True Qi System, could only coexist simply, and constantly consumed ‘Shadow Power’.
This was also related to the [Earth Rank] powerhouse’s strength being powerful, far surpassing trash little goblins. If the goblins it refined were all [Seed Rank] Ghost Companions, invading the shop owner again, it would probably be a different scene?
Fortunately, its ‘Ghost Companion set’ was not weak either, unable to perfectly integrate and become a ‘quasi-humanoid Ghost Companion’; but it could still occupy the initiative, strongly control this physical body, turning it into a puppet.
Just like in the two siblings’ bodies, there were three control methods [Cicada Bug, Infant Bug, Sandfly Bug], controlled by Cicada City over life and death. There were also inexhaustible [Immortal Zombie Tendrils] threatening life.
Now, the ‘Ghost Companion set’ left by the Tiger Demon also became a similar means to pinch life, and even more advanced. [Brain Eggplant + Shadow Eggplant] not only controlled life and death, but also thoughts and body actions, able to shut down the thinking system and cut off motor nerves anytime anywhere.
Conversely, it could also use [Shadow Eggplant, Brain Eggplant] to reinforce the opponent’s mental computing power, physical qualities, shadow affinity… and serve as a ‘biological spy device’ for covert monitoring, reading the host’s body intelligence in the background, discovering and spying on secrets of unknown supernatural pollution.
Thus, the Tiger Demon chose to strike while the iron is hot, knowing it couldn’t perfectly manipulate this body, still drove the [Shadow Eggplant] to consume wildly, spreading throughout the body’s capillaries, constantly provoking and invading the dormant [True Qi System], reading intelligence, recording feedback.
…
In the next 5 minutes, the Tiger Demon continuously supplied Shadow Power to the ‘wetware set’, letting the [Shadow Eggplant] scan this physical body, successfully reading the biological structure of the opponent’s internal [Insect Eggs Dao Seed – Twelve Main Meridians].
Information on [True Qi] was not obtained, but the substantively existing ‘Dao Seed (Insect Eggs)’ was clearly captured and recorded, and the twelve meridian tissues sprouted by the Dao Seed division were also recorded.
This was a strange biological tissue similar to ‘blood vessels, nerves, lymph’, presenting silver color, with extremely strong energy (True Qi) conduction and storage effects, extremely high resistance and rejection to shadows.
“Yin blows this sturdy. As expected of a professional spy tool, good for nothing else, but number one in stealing secrets!”
The Tiger Demon was satisfied with the first battle of the [Ghost Companion Set]. Three-in-one couldn’t beat [Earth Rank Insect Cultivator] was understandable, the rank difference too great. But being able to scan and read the [Dao Seed – Meridian System] was an unexpected joy.
While the [Shadow Eggplant] root tendrils wildly probed and scanned in the flesh; the [Brain Eggplant] also operated frantically, exerting [CPU+GPU] computing power, building the read data into a ‘biological meridian model’, and uploading it into the [Shadow Memory (+hard drive)].
Finally transforming from liquid into a ‘prismatic crystal rod’, extracted by the Tiger Demon from the temple position, recovered as a USB drive, with the data entered into the [Boss Template].
…
After completing the preliminary scan of the ‘shop owner’ with the three-piece set, the Tiger Demon reinserted the [Shadow Memory] into the opponent’s brain. Then it removed the opponent’s five senses and thinking ability, but closed the language voicing system.
The originally dazed-eyed, stiff and hemiplegic shop owner instantly regained clarity, seamlessly switching from muscle stiffness to a state of shock and fear, his expression terrified as he looked at the huge dark tiger head in front of him, inwardly horrified to the extreme.
What breed of demonic creature is this?! It looks so terrifying and frightening?! He had never even heard of it.
In the underground world, there were no animals except insects. The black Mountain Lord completely exceeded his imagination and cognition. Thus, suddenly seeing such a majestic and terrifying tiger head staring at him, he immediately fell into extreme panic and disarray, his brain blanking out once.
Hoo…!
A breath of Yellow Springs blew on his face, the [Brain Eggplant] on his head vibrated, clearing his spirit.
The Tiger Demon then spoke: “Don’t be nervous, you are my person now. Your body, your brain, even your thoughts and soul, all under my control. So calm down, don’t act smart and make rash moves, understand? Next, I will return your freedom. And you must follow my instructions and cooperate. I will monitor your thoughts, judge if you are lying or double-dealing.”
Hearing the Tiger Demon speak, the shop owner was both shocked and timid. The wise submit to circumstances, he quickly nodded to show understanding.
“Very good!”
The Tiger Demon removed the [Brain Eggplant + Shadow Eggplant] control over the shop owner’s body, letting the [Artificial Stupidity Program] enter background mode, monitoring the opponent’s every move, while optimizing its own motor program, performing replication and plagiarism.
Compared to loading the ‘Eggplant Head Ghost’ intelligence program, of course copying the original owner’s behavior patterns was more reliable.
…
After regaining control of his body, the shop owner merely slightly mobilized ‘Qi Threads’ to roam through the whole body’s meridians, and figured out his situation.
He perceived the ‘Shadow Eggplant leaf veins’ filling the blood vessels, which did not affect blood circulation at all, yet thoroughly rooted throughout the body, hard to peel off or expel. Not inferior to late-stage deteriorated [Immortal Zombie Tendrils].
He even suspected this was simply a control method of the ‘Immortal Sect’. This was a variant [Immortal Zombie Tendrils], and this unknown demonic creature was trying to refine him into a ‘puppet dao soldier’!
Because the plant attributes displayed by the [Shadow Eggplant] were too similar to the Kunlun Immortal Method. Except for not using ‘spiritual energy’, in the opponent’s eyes, it was simply the same thing!
Soon, the shop owner discovered a bun-like ornament (Brain Eggplant) on his head, which had also split out countless root tendrils parasitizing the brain, making his heart even more despairing. Although inexplicably a bit smarter, thoughts more agile, he was similarly disheartened, completely losing any thought of resistance.
Facing the Tiger Demon that controlled his life and death, he chose to bow his head: “I don’t know what instructions this immortal… lord has? This little one will unconditionally cooperate.”
The Tiger Demon looked at those crude shelves and said: “Remove the restrictions on these shelves, I want to record the knowledge inside.”
“This…” The shop owner’s expression was somewhat difficult, but thinking of his life still in the Tiger Demon’s hands, he had to reluctantly and painfully remove the restrictions.
The Tiger Demon was displeased: “Why do you have that Sima expression? It’s just looking at books. Other wealth decreases after sharing, but knowledge only doubles.”
The shop owner sighed: “Immortal lord doesn’t know, these ‘Insect Scrolls’ self-destruct once read with spirit, unable to be sold again. These Insect Scrolls are all one-time goods, purchased from the [Technician Alliance], very rare.”
“There’s such a thing?”
The Tiger Demon was slightly surprised, but its hands didn’t stop, shadow tentacles drilling out from under its feet, rolling back the Insect Scrolls from the compartments, then swallowed one by one by the snake tail, wrapped in shadows for digestion, forcibly scanning and reading with [Dataized Soul].
Even without understanding the ‘insect script’ text, it could forcibly record, and through the already built ‘native language database’, quickly complete comparison and translation, collecting a large amount of native common sense and basic knowledge.
In just 20 minutes, the Tiger Demon mastered 4 advanced [Source Qi Breathing Method] of different Dao Seeds. As well as three martial arts moves that even it could use, and ‘True Qi heart methods’ that it couldn’t drive.
In addition, some basic knowledge of planting and cultivating spirit grass; identification and cooking knowledge of mushrooms, moss, slime mold; a large amount of insect farming wealth scriptures (40%); and refining and preparation of medicinal herbs, insect molts (25%)… constantly emerging, enriching the [Immortal Scripture] database.
Useless knowledge increased massively, all basic content, incomparably precious for the siblings. For Yuan Zhu, it also had some value, letting him more profoundly understand and recognize this bubble world.
The Tiger Demon couldn’t help sighing: “The water in this world is probably a bit deep.”
The snake tail: “Indeed! I didn’t expect this bubble world to be so complex, with hidden heritage not lacking at all. I think it has value for deep cultivation. Boss, I suddenly have a bold idea, wonder if I should say it?”
“Speak!”
Little Spicy Stick habitually chimed in: “After you manually created the [Shadow Dream Hole], the ultimate supernatural ability [Mountain Lord’s Domain] that was gray and unactivatable in the [Boss Template] suddenly lit up. From the information I read, this [Shadow Dream Hole] can serve as the core foundation for opening the ‘Mountain Lord’s Domain’. I think you could consider founding a ‘private industry’ worth long-term management in this world.”
“This way, you can act as a downstream raw material supplier for the [Mao Mao King], control a batch of natives to raise bugs for you, open a company; also use your own forces to continuously extract resources from the underground world; finally, with a base, you can use the [Happy Home] smuggling channel to bulk import goods from Running City, sell in this barren world… earn the locals’ money!”
Little Spicy Stick just said it casually, but the Tiger Demon deeply agreed. It itself was optimistic about the consumer market of the ‘underground world’.
This doomsday world was too barren, not even having clean water sources. The siblings’ diet was bugs, mushrooms, moss, Reverse Life Tree sap filled with ‘Immortal Zombie Tendrils’…
If able to smuggle large amounts of clean ‘drinking water, beverages, food’ from the main world, it would make a fortune. Cheap rice, flour, oil, as long as brought over, would be luxury goods.
And although the underground world had harsh conditions, valuable resources were not lacking at all. Exotic ritual implements, magic arrays, and ‘pills’ in the same vein as Kunlun Immortal Path.
From the [Insect Scrolls] it read, the ‘pill system’ of Underground Insect City was unprecedentedly prosperous, central urban area cultivators generally cultivated by taking pills, exactly the same as the Kunlun Immortal Method habit of ‘qi refining, pill taking’.
In the underground world, the bottom layer used life (True Qi) to raise large numbers of ‘spirit insects’ that gnawed on Immortal Realm Tree roots and could be used as medicine, and cultivated many ‘spirit grass’ with various special methods.
Although the pill formulas were exotic, raw materials either bugs or cordyceps, the refining techniques were ‘Kunlun orthodox’, pill types complex, effects bizarre, hard currency even in Du Ling.
Just this one resource was worth Yuan Zhu deep cultivation and long-term management. Not to mention messy insect ritual implements, array materials… all acquirable at extremely low prices, just the price difference could make a fortune.
In addition, this underground world was indeed a holy land for raising bugs, very fitting the [Mao Mao King]’s needs.
Rather than cooperating with native residents, letting them earn the price difference and taking small dividends; better to reverse it, control a batch of natives itself, establish a raw materials company, become a farm owner, and [Happy Home] downstream supplier, earning more.
As for how to register the company? Little Spicy Stick already gave a feasible plan: [Shadow Dream Hole + Mountain Lord’s Domain]!
Once settled in the underground world, it could continuously extract more resources from this world, cultivate forces, mass raise and refine Ghost Companions, make Ghost Companion wetware… control more natives, snowballing to grow comprehensive strength.
And this was exactly the proliferation and expansion route the [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture] should take after invading the [Immortal Path Universe]. He just placed the proliferation location in the ‘Bubble Layer’ far from dangerous Du Ling.
Finally, Yuan Zhu had a guess, whether the [Mountain Lord’s Domain] nurtured by the [Shadow Dream Hole] would carry [Nightmare] attributes?
He had multiple times entered dreams in Running City, escaping into [Nightmare Layer. Yellow Millet Town]. If this [Shadow Dream Hole] could connect with [Yellow Millet Town] through the Nightmare Layer’s link, establishing a ‘Nightmare Path’.
Then wouldn’t he achieve the goal pursued by the [Nightmare School], bypassing [Happy Paradise of Gods], directly taking the Nightmare Path, crossing the [Nightmare Bubble Layer] straight to the underground world, completing supplies transport and smuggling?
In a moment, massive possibilities and operations flashed through its mind one by one, the Tiger Demon felt this matter was highly feasible.
…
Thus it looked at its tail, mental communication: “I need to confirm first, [Mountain Lord’s Domain] isn’t a one-time supernatural ability, right? After settling here, shadows won’t affect my return to Du Ling, reopening the [Domain] secondarily?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Of course not, even cunning rabbits have three burrows, which Mountain Lord doesn’t prepare three or four dens? Even the Bull Demon King first bought the first house in Cuiyun Mountain Banana Cave, married a wife and had kids; then raised the side consort Jade Faced Fox in Jilei Mountain Moyun Cave? Boss, you’re worried about the [Mountain Lord’s Domain] linking Yin-Yang Realms, being Mountain God in the yang world, Ghost King in the underworld, right? Just treat the ‘domain’ here as a backup base, resource production point, branch company, done. Don’t forget, you still have the [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture. Server] not deployed! Wherever the [Immortal Scripture. Server] is installed, that’s your base.”
The Tiger Demon thought slightly, suddenly eyes lit up: “With this experience, after returning to Du Ling, can I also include the [Disease Garden] in ‘Mountain Lord No.2 Domain’?”
“Possible, but not recommended. Not to mention whether you’re still suppressed in Du Ling, unable to drive this supernatural ability. Once using [Domain] to annex and cover the garden, it will leave your causal traces, then the victim tracing clues to counter-kill you, how do you escape? I don’t want to lose the great boss at a young age, if you die, I’m really done.”
“Right.”
After sweeping clean all valuable Insect Scrolls in the shop, the Tiger Demon looked at the shop owner heartbroken to the point of unable to breathe, and consoled: “Don’t be sad, you at least kept your little life. Not only that, seeing you know the times, a hero, I grant you a fortune, follow me from now on. Originally wanted to kill you, but this king now seeks great enterprise, lacking usable talents under command, so give you a chance. What valuable things are left in your shop, do you have family or friends nearby, confess everything clearly, I’ll take you all away.”
Hearing this, the shop owner was even more despairing, originally thinking it was just a robbery, didn’t expect even himself thrown in.
Just as he had little thoughts, trying to save himself, the root tendrils in his brain began twisting, a wave of hazy mental invasion (dataized soul pollution) spread and stacked in the spirit world, putting him in a state of ‘thought consciousness’ actively open, observable.
The Tiger Demon even shared this perspective with the shop owner, who immediately felt like he was observing his own thoughts, every move and little thought fully exposed, unable to hide.
This ‘mind reading’ despair and powerlessness instantly made him lose all hope, no longer struggling, choosing to accept fate: “I have no relatives, but there are some valuable items in the shop, I’ll pack them now.”
“Got money? Go buy more food outside, take them all together later.”
The Tiger Demon half-activated [Brain Eggplant, Soul Memory] entirely, handing them to the opponent for use, making him even more quick-witted, and aware he was constantly monitored.
Completing all this, the Tiger Demon then withdrew the Shadow Power permeating the shop, choosing to escape into the ‘Shadow Layer’ again.
