Chapter 100: Bubble World: End Of The Dharma Immortal Realm
Three days passed in a flash. Yuan Zhu, having made preparations and carrying a backpack, pulled over a chair and sat in the attic of the haunted house, flipping through the newspaper in his hand, quietly waiting for the captain’s summoning.
After reading all eleven newspapers like this, the familiar dizzy feeling finally came. After regaining control of his body and balancing himself, he had already arrived at the Happy Home.
“Yo!”
Meng Xiyue, also carrying a pink backpack, stood opposite him, enthusiastically waving at him. Even the ‘mouse’ on her shoulder had been dyed pink fur, and it even had a slanted bangs? Totally insane!
“A’zhu, we meet again! You’ve gotten much stronger.”
Yuan Zhu rolled his eyes at her and continued looking, spotting Zhou Chu with long hair and her uniform modified into a casual style, nodding slightly at him. And the silent, fat, burly Huo Tuoluo emitting a chilly aura, hiding in the corner with eyes closed in meditation, not participating in any interactions.
Besides them, Mai Lili did not appear. It seemed this girl had given up on this temporary mission.
As for Lu Rang, Yuan Zhu had met him once offline and incidentally recovered 5 goblins badly injured by a pipe wrench.
The current young sword immortal, repeatedly thwarted in the sewer, deeply realized his own shortcomings. So he rationally gave up going to the bubble world to court death, instead continuing to stay in the sewer, battling goblins to hone his sword dao and will. A wise choice.
The captain clapped his hands at this moment and said, “Since everyone is prepared, I’ll assign your missions. This can contains special insect eggs exclusive to the Mao Mao King. One of your missions this time is to find craftsmen who can raise and cultivate these insect eggs, achieve as many farming contracts as possible, and produce raw materials for the Mao Mao King. Additionally, this bottle contains several plant seeds; some plants are food for the insect eggs, some are fuel. You can try planting and cultivating them, or find native residents with relevant talents for cooperation.”
“Additionally, collect as much intelligence as possible about the ‘bubble world.’ Including native settlements, collect and draw maps of the bubble world. Investigate the types and distribution of resources in this world, the layout of native forces, the content and strength limits of the supernatural system… Try contacting native lawful good forces to see if they have cooperation intentions? And assess if the bubble world has potential customer groups for ‘luxury children’s wear.’ Any questions?”
“Yes, captain!” Meng Xiyue raised her hand high and spoke, “Are you sure this ‘bubble world’ has people who can raise insects? Are there many such people? How to find them?”
The captain confirmed, “There are many such people. According to intelligence I bought from other teams, the ‘bubble world’ you’re entering this time is mainly based on two supernatural systems: Kunlun’s blessed earth immortals. And another native system centered on insects.”
Meng Xi was astonished: “Kunlun earth immortals? Won’t that be very dangerous? From what I know, orthodox Kunlun earth immortals can control and manipulate earth veins, water veins, and atmospheric ecosystems within a thousand li range. Calling them resident deities is no exaggeration.”
“You can rest assured about that. According to intelligence feedback, this world once had a great war, and that earth immortal has long fallen, with the blessed land also collapsing and shattering. The current bubble world was rebuilt on the ruins of the earth immortal’s blessed land, with greatly reduced strength, and the remnants of the immortal path can no longer suppress the native forces. Therefore, there are many insect system talents, which is why it’s been noticed by the Mao Mao King. Even, if conditions are right, the Mao Mao King will focus on developing this world and cultivate a batch of dependants. And the gatekeeping work is handed to you.”
Meng Xi thought for a moment and said, “That sounds easy. If there are many insect-raising talents as you say, won’t we easily complete the mission? It feels not very difficult.”
Captain: “I wouldn’t feel at ease letting a group of newcomers act freely on too difficult a mission. But don’t slack off or be careless; the natural environment of this ‘bubble world’ is very bad, in the wasteland apocalypse stage after a world cataclysm. The Kunlun blessed land that once ruled the world was destroyed, severely injuring the entire world’s vitality and causing it to degrade. It will also be accompanied by ongoing turbulence from the aftermath of the earth immortal’s death tribulation, so avoid it carefully. If you’re lucky, you might inherit some of the earth immortal’s heritage?”
“Oh?” Meng Xiyue followed up, “If I have a fortuitous encounter, will the Happy Home take a commission?”
The captain shook his head: “No, whatever you harvest is yours. But don’t forget to open up markets for the Mao Mao King. Once you achieve something, you’ll enjoy long-term profit sharing in the future. The group has high expectations for this ‘bubble world’; you all are potential future regional managers.”
After a round of pie-in-the-sky talk, none of the four employees were full of fighting spirit; all were immune to the captain’s rhetoric.
The captain wasn’t angry either. He checked his watch and said, “You have 10 minutes to exchange for equipment and supplies, then teleport. During the mission, if you encounter a life-or-death crisis, you can consume the mark on the back of your hand for return teleportation. Dismissed.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Yuan Zhu raised his hands and found a strange and complex ring rune on the back of his right hand, probably representing the Mao Mao King, likely even the brand name?
“Baa bleh bleh…”
While he was observing the back of his hand, a goat bleat came from behind, and his hind legs were continuously pushed forward by a force. Looking back, he saw a little goat with white base and black patterns, horns mixed with green veins, constantly headbutting him, seemingly greeting?
“Baa bleh bleh…”
The other lifted its head to meet Yuan Zhu’s gaze; its vertical pupil looked particularly eerie. Among the wool on its neck, there were a few conspicuous thin green vines? Twisting like living things, drilling in and out among the wool!
What?! This guy’s physical body actually grew a ‘mad tomato seedling’?!
Yuan Zhu quickly retreated a step, dodging the little goat’s ‘tongue lick’ attack, pointing at the green plant on the goat’s neck and asking, “What’s the situation with this?”
Number 3 popped out at this time and explained, “Young Master Yuan, this is a benign mutation that appeared recently when I fed it tomato seedlings. It eats the vines of blood tomatoes every day, its body gradually strengthened and transformed, and fur on its chin and neck also slowly grew these vines under its control.”
“Baa!” The mad tomato goat also baaed loudly, indicating agreement.
Zhou Chu also came to his side, staring intently at the little goat, then took out a few test papers, sword finger slicing through the air to cut off a tuft of wool, wrapped it in paper and lit it, judging the little goat’s pollution degree based on the smoke’s state.
Number 3 hurriedly shielded her goat behind her and explained, “Miss Zhou Chu, the butler said this goat is very healthy and not polluted by mad blood. What I feed it are healthy blood eggplant vines and leaves, not mad tomato vines.”
After the test, the investigator lady ignored the little goat and asked back, “Is it going on the mission too?”
Number 3 looked confused; right, does the little goat need to go on the mission?
Meng Xiyue came over and egged on, “Take it along; if we encounter a crisis and run out of food, we can kill and eat it.”
“Baa baa baa!” The little goat seemed to understand her malice, raised its head and shook, flinging a green vine from its chin goat beard, wanting to whip her.
“I dodge!” But Meng Xi flexibly dodged it.
Yuan Zhu ignored the chase between the person and goat, took out an iron can from his backpack, and handed it to Number 3: “The gift I promised you; take it quickly.”
Number 3 couldn’t care about the goat anymore and hurriedly hugged the large alchemy element can. This thing is usually a fuel bottle for cars, similar to a full tank of gasoline on Earth, but lighter and with more durable combustion.
The captain suddenly burst out, one hand on Yuan Zhu’s shoulder, reminding, “Don’t bring this kind of thing to Number 3 anymore. Purity too low, too many impurities, high pollution, not the same system as her. Every time she consumes it, I have to spend a fortune to clean her core.”
Yuan Zhu: “Huh?”
“Don’t daze; this is the insect eggs and seeds; store them properly, don’t lose them.”
The captain stuffed two high-end-looking cylindrical metal sealed cans to Yuan Zhu. Not only heavy, but the lids had complex mechanical structures, looking very high-tech, extremely steampunk.
Then, he distributed similar cans to Zhou Chu, Meng Xi, and Huo Tuoluo respectively.
Yuan Zhu fiddled with it for a long time but couldn’t figure out where the switch was.
“Captain, how do you open this?”
“Uniform, or your mice.”
Click!
Yuan Zhu, with a look of ‘so that’s how it is,’ successfully used his uniform to open the metal lid. He found that inside the bottle body, metal sheets were neatly stored, each side of every sheet neatly arranged with translucent insect eggs.
“These are the Mao Mao King’s caterpillars?”
The captain reminded, “Be careful not to expose the insect eggs to air for long periods. The bottle interior can protect them in long-term dormancy, unaffected by external pollution interference. If opened and removed, they need careful care by professionals, nurtured bit by bit, otherwise they’ll lose activity, be eroded by external pollution, become dead eggs. Or mutate pollutedly, losing utility.”
“Oh oh oh!” Yuan Zhu hurriedly inserted the metal sheet back into the bottle; these little things concern his performance, better take good care of them.
“Hey!”
Meng Xiyue ran back to his side at this time, elbowing Yuan Zhu, asking in a low voice, “How’s your holy light reinforcement? Did you reinforce the holy seal? What did you choose? For this mission, want to cooperate? Follow me, obey my commands, be my subordinate; after success, you’ll get a share of the benefits.”
“What split?”
Meng Xi thought and said, “Three-seven; you three, me seven. Don’t be too greedy.”
Yuan Zhu shook his head: “Not interested.”
“Tch, reinforced for just a few days and already so arrogant?”
Zhou Chu, having finished exchanging at the stone pillar, walked over, turning into the anti-fraud expert again, reminding, “Be careful in the bubble world; don’t fall into danger for illusory earth immortal heritage. If separated, remember to use this to contact companions.”
She pointed to the mouse detector following behind her.
“Got it, got it; you’re so annoying. You even chased me to our school; I’m not some bad guy. You know how my bestie and classmates looked at me after you left? They thought I did some big crime off-campus.” Meng Xiyue complained to the investigator lady.
Zhou Chu fixed the latter with a death stare and seriously replied, “You’re very dangerous!” Then turned to Yuan Zhu, “Cultivate holy light well. Be careful of her temptations.”
Yuan Zhu, having received the investigator’s approval, nodded repeatedly: “Mm-hmm!”
Great, cultivating holy light is more reliable and trustworthy than any head robber group! See, he got the anti-fraud expert’s approval.
…
10 minutes later, the captain had filled the energy pillar for crossing the bubble layer and signaled the four to stand in the center of the hall.
As for the little goat, which acted very bravely and wanted to join the adventure squad, it was tightly held by the iron-boned Number 3 around the neck, strangled to near suffocation.
“Captain, won’t the little goat act with us?” Meng Xiyue wouldn’t give up.
The captain waved goodbye: “I suspect you can’t protect it, or even want to eat it. Better not risk it; good luck!”
As soon as he spoke, the teleport activated. Little Spicy Stick worked hard to record the spatial fluctuations of crossing the nightmare bubble layer, but the harvest was minimal.
The process was too fast; after escaping into the bubble layer, the concept of time was lost. When Yuan Zhu’s consciousness cleared again, Little Spicy Stick was dumbfounded: “Only 0 seconds passed? Immortal scripture malfunctioned?”
Yuan Zhu shook his somewhat groggy head and retorted, “How is that possible? I felt the teleport lasted over half a minute.”
“I feel the same, but the soul firewall shows only 0 seconds passed. Eek! Such turbid air, such a foul smell; where the hell were we teleported to?”
Yuan Zhu opened his eyes to observe the environment. He was now in a dim enclosed space; underfoot was tamped soil, both sides were soil walls crawling with moss and fluorescent mushrooms, the top also enclosed space, vaguely showing a grid structure of interwoven root tendrils supporting a large amount of soil to form a tunnel structure.
“Underground?”
From the environment, he could tell he was in an underground tunnel. This passage was quite spacious, three or four meters wide and over two meters high. Wider than Running’s sewer, those fluorescent fungi, moss, and root tendrils in the overhead ceiling soil all retained heavy ‘polluted aura,’ and each different.
If the wild forest of the little Xihong Realm back then still belonged to normal natural vegetation, with pollution limited to green-blooded filthy bone demonic creatures, Yellow Springs corpse ghosts… then this current underground space had no ‘clean’ natural crops.
Everything he observed with signs of life retained varying concentrations of pollution, especially the root tendrils overhead, like the fine branches and ends of some colossal entity. Though pollution intensity wasn’t high, they faintly connected into one piece, forming a macroscopic and enormous super pollution, giving him an instinctive sense of oppression, not daring to move rashly.
Looking up at those unremarkable root tendrils, Yuan Zhu muttered, “Is this the earth immortal’s root tendril spirit vein? Or a completely dead root tendril spirit vein?”
In the Happy Home, he had received a crash course from Meng Xi and Zhou Chu, gaining a basic understanding of Kunlun earth immortals. Kunlun earth immortals and Yellow Heaven earth immortals were two ‘land immortals’ with completely different core rules yet closely linked.
Among them, Kunlun earth immortals, upon cultivating to a certain stage, would cultivate a lifelong spiritual root (woody spirit plant) with life intertwined.
Thereafter, the earth immortal would select an auspicious land rich in earth vein energy, plant the lifelong spiritual root. The root tendrils would spread along ‘earth veins, water veins, spirit veins,’ gradually fusing and binding with a region of land.
Earth immortal cultivators start from incarnating as the most basic earth god, performing functions of fine weather; step by step growing to using the lifelong spiritual root as a tool, parasitically controlling a region’s natural deity.
Controlling celestial phenomena, modifying ecosystems, transforming geographical structures… becoming the ‘planet (Gaia) will’ of a localized area, somewhat similar to Yellow Heaven earth immortals in some ways, but completely different at the core.
Yuan Zhu learned from the captain that this world’s Kunlun earth immortal was long dead, even its lifelong spiritual root fallen together. The spirit plants on the land surface core thoroughly destroyed, only leaving root tendrils spanning thousands of li, still containing vast spiritual energy (pollution) reserves.
In another thousand years, these spreading ‘spirit plant root tendrils’ might evolve under geological action into spirit stone mine veins from cultivation novels. Allowing this bubble world to rebirth a ‘Kunlun system’ cultivation environment.
At this moment, these ‘root tendril tips’ appearing in the overhead soil should be the very finest capillary root tendrils of that fallen Kunlun spiritual root, only retaining barely detectable pollution, yet causing suppression and discomfort.
Especially in the underground enclosed space, massive dead root tendrils leaked ‘Kunlun spiritual energy (pollution)’ mixing into the air, causing the sealed underground world’s pollution degree to skyrocket.
He almost couldn’t resist covering himself with a layer of holy light for air filtration. Imagine, this was just an ordinary underground area of a mere bubble world, yet pollution concentration soared to this level.
Little Spicy Stick commented: “Still the enclosed underground space problem. If we appeared on the surface, air pollution absolutely wouldn’t be this high. Sniff sniff~, boss, through your breathing, I detected the ‘spiritual energy pollution’ in the air. This Kunlun spiritual energy pollution is nothing special, not as aggressive as the disease garden. Bad news, the ‘pollution’ leaked by these root tendrils can’t be identified or utilized by the Great Desolation Immortal Scripture, so Kunlun immortal method is definitely not orthodox xuanmen; it’s demon heresy cloaked in ‘immortal path’ skin!”
Yuan Zhu was too lazy to retort. Pot calling kettle black; your Great Desolation Immortal Scripture is also fake goods cloaked in ‘immortal skin’!
