Chapter 105: Little Ghost, Breed Bugs For Me!
After some questioning, Yuan Zhu gained a preliminary cognition of his current situation.
The current timeline of the Bubble World differs from the intelligence provided by the Captain by at least about 80 years. This world remains in a cruel apocalyptic state, with the Surface’s ecosystem completely destroyed, the environment harsh enough to prevent survival, and various Demonic Calamities rampant. All living beings have migrated to the Underground World, surviving by relying on Immortal World Tree Root Tendrils.
However, the surviving natives have burst forth with a vitality tougher than Xiao Qiang’s, not only surviving but reshaping a new Underground social form, rebuilding civilization, and harboring ambitions to counterattack the Surface and remake the world.
His current location is approximately in the Slums at 20km Underground. In the Underground World, the deeper the layer, the richer and cleaner it is. Because the closer to the Surface, the stronger the Pollution Infiltration from the outside, and the greater the influence range of Demonic Calamities.
The former Immortal World Tree Root Tendril Network was the largest and strongest [Filter Net + Protective Shield], extending over 20km downward from the Surface, blocking the constant infiltrating pollution from the Surface, but with the most severe Mutation, breeding many Forbidden disasters.
The Civilian Area below 20km Underground has filtered out most of the pollution, making it quite safe.
Therefore, bottom-layer residents like the Cicada Tribe brother and sister live at this level, acting as [Human Flesh Environmental Purifiers] to further decompose and purify the pollution at the tips of the Root Network, repairing the ecosystem.
The deeper it goes, the better the living environment, the richer the resources, and the more powerhouses there are. They continue to serve as [Secondary Human Flesh Filters], purifying pollution for the nobles and lords at the bottommost layer.
Yes, the Source Qi Breathing Method is popularized among all people, with everyone practicing it diligently, not because resistance against the Immortal Sect won freedom, achieving great harmony where everyone is equal and everyone is like a dragon. Rather, it is a helpless promotion of the Ecological Purification Manual.
The Pollution Infiltration from the Surface is endless; if they sat idly by, the Immortal World Tree Root Tendrils would eventually be corroded away. Only by wantonly reproducing the natives and having everyone cultivate Qi Refining Technique can they activate the Dao Seed in their Dantian, actively digesting and absorbing garbage like Immortal Zombie Tendrils, Heavy Metal Pollution, Corrupt Spiritual Energy, etc., and decomposing and refining it into valuable Qi Threads. Then, through the production behavior of raising bugs, they consume their own combat potential to continuously produce valuable Cultivation Supplies for the rulers at deeper layers, in exchange for clean food.
Thus, every Insect Cultivator in the Slums is an independently reared Human Flesh Filter, a new layer of Human Flesh Firewall after the Immortal World Tree Root Tendrils. Pollution Purification + Environmental Restoration masters, together with the bugs they laboriously raise, resist pollution spread and improve the Underground ecosystem.
They also moonlight as basic Cultivation Supplies producers, continuously enhancing the value of their Physical Body through cultivation, to be recycled by lower-layer nobles upon death, used to plant and nurture higher-grade Spirit Grass, and traded with the Immortal Sect.
If exceptional individuals emerge from the bottom, they can join Insect City or the Technician Alliance, becoming higher-level cultivators to defend their homeland, fighting uncontrolled Demonic Giant Insects, and offering their precious lives; or become advanced professions like Insectoid Race Alchemist, Artifact Refiner, etc., contributing higher-level productivity.
The brother and sister are very satisfied with their lives, feeling no exploitation at all, only gratitude and pride in their hearts, and even greater effort to strive, become more excellent cultivators, achieve class leap, and move to deeper layers.
After figuring out the new world’s situation, Yuan Zhu relaxed. It seems the Surface really cannot be gone to; instead, he needs to find paths deeper down. As for how to deal with Cicada City’s higher-ups, he hasn’t figured it out yet; the siblings’ intelligence is limited, so he must plan carefully.
“By the way, I still don’t know your two names? How old are you this year? Tell me.”
The little girl looked at Yuan Zhu and honestly said: “I’m Tang Eleven, 12 years old this year; my younger brother is Tiao Twenty-two, eight years old this year.”
Hearing Eleven’s age, Yuan Zhu first frowned, feeling this skinny girl looked like a malnourished six-year-old who hadn’t developed yet, but it turned out to be double. Then, upon hearing her brother was only eight, he completely couldn’t hold back.
“What? This damn eight years old?!”
Your family’s eight-year-old kid looks about 15 or 16, and can even exchange a few moves with this seat? Yuan Zhu completely couldn’t accept it; in pure Fighting domain, he actually lost half a move to an eight-year-old kid, only cheating a win by relying on the Shadow Uniform.
Tang Eleven seriously said: “Really, my younger brother is really only eight; he’s the most genius child nearby, already able to go out herding with adults.”
Yuan Zhu: “Aren’t you two blood siblings? Why different surnames? Names are also weird.”
“We have no surnames; Tang and Tiao are both types of cicada. Eleven and Twenty-two are both numbers. Actually, we rarely use names, because everyone’s Dao Seed carries a unique aura; as long as perceived at close range, we can distinguish each other. But noble, you’re very strange; you have no Dao Seed aura on you.”
In the Insectoid Race’s conception, each Dao Seed is equivalent to ‘ID number + fingerprint’; once perceived, it can be clearly distinguished and remembered. So no need for names to precisely identify. Instead, Yuan Zhu is the weird one, with no Dao Seed or Qi in his body, and not like any proper Immortal.
Giving the siblings a sense of an alien wearing human skin.
“I’m not a resident of your world; I come from another world, a wandering traveler + merchant. Otherworlder, Alien, visitor from beyond the sky… you get it?”
Tang Eleven shook her head: “Not really, but I’ve heard legends in stories of Immortals from other Immortal Realms descending upon the Immortal Realm Tree, bringing undead Spirit Medicine for transactions. There are also legends of Immortal ascension, but since the Immortal Realm Tree’s destruction, no Immortals have descended. Are you from another Immortal Realm?”
Yuan Zhu: “Something like that; I come from another world similar to the Immortal Realm. But I don’t cultivate Immortality, nor practice Qi.”
After confirming Yuan Zhu is not an Immortal, the sister breathed a sigh of relief and asked again: “Then what is your purpose? Do you need me to introduce you to our district’s pavilion chief? He has broader knowledge, knows more, and goes to Cicada City every week to trade living Supplies.”
“No need; I plan to stay at your home for a few days, learn your language, and adapt to your living habits.”
Language communication is absolutely a major issue for integrating into the Bubble World. Although he can normally communicate with the other party relying on the passive buff of Language Comprehension, Yuan Zhu clearly doesn’t understand the other party’s language; the siblings also realize he’s talking nonsense, merely accurately understanding the semantics and suppressing the sense of incongruity.
He doesn’t know if other teammates have ways, but he carries the Great Desolation Immortal Scripture, this spy software, which can efficiently learn languages, and let Little Spicy Stick take over his speech system to directly speak the local language.
As long as he continuously communicates with the siblings, with constant chatting and recording, he can rely on Language Comprehension to quickly understand and brainlessly master it.
Little Spicy Stick: “Leave it to me; just chat another 6 hours, ask more weird questions, let me collect enough vocabulary pronunciations, and we’ll master this language! This Language Comprehension is truly heaven-defying; pity these two are illiterate, or I could handle it too!”
The younger brother Tiao Twenty-two suddenly objected: “You can’t stay at our house; our food is limited, not enough for you to eat!”
The sister Tang hurriedly said: “Enough, enough; sir, however much you want to eat, there is that much. Yes, yes, the food quality isn’t high, contains a small amount of toxins; not sure if you can refine them away?”
After learning Yuan Zhu has no Dao Seed, the sister has started pondering if the noble guest will be poisoned to death by the food? If he really dies, what to do with this seemingly Pure corpse: hide it to sell for money, feed it to bugs, or use it to practice planting flowers?
Looking at the so-called Fragrant Fart Bug, Dung Beetle, Stinky Boss, Mouthful Fragrance on the plate, Yuan Zhu really had no appetite and quickly declined the kindness: “No need; I have my own food, no need for yours. I just want to learn your language from you, understand more, observe your living behaviors.”
The sister decisively agreed: “No problem then; stay as long as you want, any requests, we’ll fully satisfy.”
Thinking of his mission, Yuan Zhu got to the main topic: “Your survival method is raising bugs, producing materials, conducting transactions, right?”
Tang Eleven nodded: “Yes, the Underground World has two types of bugs. Domesticated clean Spirit Insects, and wild Deadly Poison Magic Worms. Magic Worms gnaw on Immortal Realm Tree’s Root Tendrils, Deadly Poison mushrooms, moss, breathe Corrupt Spiritual Energy… while decomposing and purifying Miasma, they gradually demonize and lose control, eventually gathering into small Demonic Tides, then hunted and cleared by powerhouses. This type of bug is often full of Deadly Poison, inedible. Their only value is crazy reproduction, then sent into Insect City’s furnace to be incinerated and refined into Bug Gold.”
Yuan Zhu could understand this behavior; including the siblings before him, they are also higher-level ‘bugs’, responsible for purifying the Pollution Erosion of the Underground World.
But he still had a puzzle: “After these Magic Worms are incinerated, won’t they release new Deadly Poison exhaust?”
The sister shook her head: “No; Insect City and Technician Alliance, as well as the Immortal Sect’s outpost, all have Dream Holes. Though I haven’t seen them, I heard elders say the incinerator’s poison smoke is absorbed by Dream Holes. The Deadly Poison threatening the Underground World is thus cleaned up.”
Yuan Zhu suddenly realized that the Nightmare Bubble Layer, besides Bubble Worlds, has a more mysterious Nightmare Layer. So the Underground World’s rulers have found a way to excrete ‘Pollution Poison Smoke’ into the Nightmare Layer—Dream Holes?
No wonder the senior student said Rain Courtyard’s Nightmare School is very dangerous + sinister; when exploring Dreams, they always suffer various incomprehensible dangers and attacks.
If every Bubble World has things like Dream Holes, persistently discharging sewage into the Nightmare Layer, then the Nightmare World is probably a super heaven-defying Pollution Garbage Landfill.
The little girl continued: “Unlike wild bugs, domesticated Spirit Insects are uniformly distributed by Cicada City. Depending on your Dao Seed type, you receive corresponding Insect Eggs; for however many Qi Threads you cultivate in your body, you receive that many. Spirit Insects are nurtured and hatched by Qi Threads; cultivators use Qi Threads to nurture and warm them, helping them digest Immortal Zombie Tendrils, Deadly Poison, Corrupt Spiritual Energy in food, constantly growing. During growth, Spirit Insects produce different Cultivation Materials; we collect them, turn them in to exchange for food. When Spirit Insects are cultivated to the limit, they themselves are Treasures, exchangeable for more Supplies. Right, Spirit Insects matching the Dao Seed can also accumulate different Life information imprints in Qi Threads through feeding, endowing Qi Threads with extra attribute information, allowing us realm growth. Raising bugs not only earns money, exchanges for Cultivation Resources, but is itself one of the cultivation methods!”
Though feeling this silly child has been deceived, Yuan Zhu also understood Mao Mao King’s purpose: handing Caterpillar eggs to this type of bottom Insect Cultivators, letting them use Qi Threads to hatch and nurture, continuously producing immortal cultivation materials, Luxury Children’s Wear Threads, then handing to Mao Mao King to sell for money.
So every Insect City is a natural raw materials supplier.
If he doesn’t understand, he asks; Yuan Zhu said again: “Why can one Qi Thread only raise one Spirit Insect?”
Tang Eleven: “Because Qi Threads bind with Spirit Insects, completing master recognition. Thus the bugs become obedient; whatever I feed them, they eat. They can keep eating, keep growing, then obediently produce materials.”
Yuan Zhu: “Then what if using the bound master-recognized Qi Threads to infiltrate and control other bugs?”
Tang: “No reaction, won’t pay attention to you. Your Qi Threads can’t acquire useful Life information from other Spirit Insects’ bodies. But purely for raising bugs, you can raise a few more. But our daily cultivated Qi Thread length is limited, can’t supply a second Spirit Insect.”
“The Qi Threads you cultivate, are they consumed clean then respit and recongealed?”
Tang: “No; once Qi Threads are cultivated, they exist permanently. But after excessive use, they exhaust Origin Qi, shrink to a small point, return to the Dao Seed, waiting to be nurtured and grown again. Twelve Qi Threads can circulate twelve Meridians inward, stimulating the Dao Seed to grow more complete Meridians; outward, enter Spirit Insect bodies to nurture and control them, also collect Life information from Spirit Insect bodies to give Qi Threads Spirituality. Insect City’s Seniors call this ‘Spiritual Charm’; extracting Spiritual Charm from Spirit Insect bodies to give Qi Threads Spirituality.”
Yuan Zhu glanced at the huge golden Beetle lying in the Grass Cage, calculated in his mind: “You siblings both have twelve Qi Threads, right?”
“Yes.”
“Meaning you’ve already bound these Spirit Insects, but can still raise more bugs?”
Tang Eleven nodded: “Can, and I really want to raise more Spirit Insects. But each bug’s consumption is enormous; feeding them full stalls our own Meridian cultivation by more than half.”
Yuan Zhu thought, the best way is still to kidnap a batch of Goblins, implant Dao Seeds, let them raise Caterpillars. But do they have the Intelligence? Their bodies also lack Spiritual Root Pollution; can they condense Meridians?
He drew out a metal vial from his Backpack; under the siblings’ curious gaze, twisted it open, drew out a metal plate, and carefully broke off a corner, then put it away again.
Then, Yuan Zhu pinched that corner of metal, handed it to Tang Eleven: “See if the Insect Eggs on this metal plate can be hatched with Qi Threads? No need to bind and control them, just purely feed food; can they be raised as ordinary bugs?”
The little girl took the metal fragment, then clearly saw a dozen or so Insect Eggs orderly arranged on both sides, saw wisps of silver Threads drill out, gently brush over, seriously perceiving.
Then surprised: “Eh? Such strange Insect Eggs; feels different from Spirit Insects, not like wild bugs either. They’re actively absorbing my Qi.”
“How? Can you hatch them?”
Tang Eleven nodded: “Yes, they’ve actively absorbed Qi, shown Activity; I can try hatching them. But how to solve food? I feel they’re very weak; feeding them Underground World’s moss, mushrooms, they’ll quickly poison to death.”
“If I provide you enough food, can you use Qi Threads to clean pollution, save their little lives?”
“Food? Eat full?” The little girl pondered, “That needs very delicate operation; I can try. In early hatching, protecting them should be no problem.”
Yuan Zhu asked again: “If providing them sufficiently clean food, can it also reduce demonization and death risk?”
“Yes, but the Underground World’s cleanest food is still poisonous. These Insect Eggs are too frail.”
Yuan Zhu asked again: “Do you know how to plant Spirit Grass? I have some Seeds here; can you nurture them?”
The little girl’s eyes turned: “I think I can try; I’ve secretly observed others planting Spirit Grass, but we’re too poor, lack related tools.”
Yuan Zhu also understood the other’s little thoughts; but this bottom brother-sister pair is easier to control, with minimal demands: “What do you need? I’ll handle it.”
“Advanced Tube Worms, corpses of large spirituality-rich wriggling worms, Spirit Grass Seeds.”
Yuan Zhu: “What is Tube Worm; how to obtain large wriggling worms?”
Tang Eleven pointed to one hanging down from their roof, a shriveled umbilical cord-like soft tube creature: “This is Tube Worm, the lowest grade. Advanced Tube Worms are Technician Family’s Product; they can parasitize on Immortal World Tree Root Tendrils, extract and filter Corrupt Spiritual Energy, spit clean Spiritual Energy, create environment for Spirit Grass growth. Large wriggling worms are another Spirit Insect, similar to our raised Golden Cicadas, but after large wriggling worms mature and die, their corpses are natural nutrient bases for Corpse Seed. As long as obtaining the Corpse Seed secret method, I can nurture Spirit Grass for you!”
Yuan Zhu narrowed his eyes: “These three things can all be bought in Cicada City, right?”
“Yes!”
“Alright, I agree.”
“Thank you for sir’s trust; I’ll definitely work well for you.”
