Chapter 141: Return
When he opened his eyes again, the shattered starry sky and moon above the firmament had vanished, replaced once more by the rust-red apocalyptic scene. Behind massive space-time rifts, different disaster scenes could be glimpsed. As if corresponding to different ‘doomsday worlds’?
At this moment, on the surface of the massive ‘Withered Wood Remnant’, the lingering moonlight had completely dissipated, returning to its mundane dead state.
Those subordinates who had followed him to the surface were also hiding in pre-dug ground holes, silently digesting last night’s gains.
Yuan Zhu took a quick inventory. All the Mao Shi Worms transported to the surface this time had completed the Moon Worship Ceremony, and additionally, a large number of Spirit Insects had accumulated the foundation for transformation.
Calculating by the Full Moon Period lasting three days. Last night’s moonlight was the most abundant. If tonight’s weather remained clear, without Black Storm or a full night of Corrosive Iron Rain, they could still catch one final wave.
Therefore, he did not plan to return early and decided to wait one more night. Letting this group fully absorb moonlight to accumulate foundation for themselves. For this, he specially took out a batch of looted ‘Insect-type Pills’ to distribute, aiding their cultivation.
After completing all this, Yuan Zhu did not linger in the ground hole but climbed back to the top of the Withered Wood, resisting the harsh pollution environment’s erosion while gazing into the distance.
Compared to yesterday, the Holy Seal he had forged with great effort brought considerable surprises.
Even without completing the Soul Crystal’s condensation, relying solely on the Sanctuary’s constant amplification, he could turn the Holy Light in his body into a passively formed ‘force field barrier’ of limited strength, maintained on the body’s surface, spontaneously countering all external pollution erosion.
This situation was itself a benefit of the Holy Light System.
…
Holy Light itself possesses super strong exclusivity. Once the Seal Casting is completed, the practitioner’s own Holy Light quality (strength) reaches Tier 1 standard.
At this point, regardless of the Holy Seal’s attributes? Or what abilities it contains? They can enjoy low-level ‘standby’ life consumption, long-term passive activation of the ‘bathed in Holy Light’ background program.
As long as the external environment’s ‘pollution concentration’ does not exceed a certain threshold, the bathing Holy Light can long-term maintain one’s health, ensuring Deviation (excluding Holy Light Pollution) no longer increases, extending lifespan, and heightening sensitivity to external pollution/malice.
One glance can determine if an area is polluted? Whether demonic creatures are hidden among the crowd? Then decisively strike to subjugate (harvest ash), maintain human world order, and promote the Path of Holy Light!
Before the Law System grew strong on Geng Continent’s Western world, and the New Continent’s East Coast, the Holy Church long played the role of justice bearer.
Relying on this extremely cost-effective ‘passive effect’.
Of course. Life still needs to be burned. Holy Light remains a one-time consumable.
But! The loss rate is beaten down by the Holy Seal, with super high cost-performance, focusing on ‘healthcare + early warning’, affordable for any 1-seal cultivator.
And Yuan Zhu’s, because the Sanctuary itself is the base attribute of ‘Space System defensive turtle shell (fortress)’, automatically upgrades his ‘passive benefits’. With just a small amount of vitality, he gains a ‘passive force field’ that can now resist the complex pollution on the surface.
“The Holy Light System has a big bug of burning life, but its overall performance is still very strong.”
Yuan Zhu, merely sitting at the top of the Withered Wood, was as steady as a rock, unafraid of the miasma and Iron Poison in the air. Even the Holy Light force field, while countering external pollution, continuously absorbed trace ‘ash’, delivering it into the Holy Seal for refinement into nutrients, feeding the soul to condense the Soul Crystal.
The personal steward spoke: “Boss, using the soul program permissions you granted me, I calculated. The Soul Crystal doesn’t require much material. Just burning the ash from 12 Demonic Giant Insects would suffice for smooth condensation. There are no difficulties or thresholds during the process. The only thing to note is the soul information to be imprinted into the Soul Crystal.”
“Oh? Elaborate.”
Little Spicy Stick: “The Soul Crystal is the transcendent seed of the Holy Light System. Once condensed, it reaches the rank of Seed. Compared to other systems’ Seeds, the Soul Crystal itself is exceptionally sturdy, a solidified soul crystal. Besides ‘Power of Holy Light storage’ and the Sanctuary’s unique ‘storage function’, it is more a container or hard drive for soul information.”
“During the Soul Crystal condensation process, it will engrave your cognition and understanding of Holy Light, engrave all application data of Holy Cough Breathing Technique, record and save your Three Views, thinking logic patterns, important knowledge reserves, even memories… Just like a ‘Soul Backup’. Once the Soul Crystal is condensed, it is indestructible and hard to destroy. Even if you suffer illusion attacks, memory tampering in the future… This Soul Crystal remains unshakable, becoming a certain anchor to recalibrate your thinking.”
“Therefore, Holy Light System cultivators have exceptionally strong soul strength, with extremely resilient mental will, but they are also stubbornly conservative ‘old stubborns’. This is closely related to the data preserved in the Soul Crystal. People’s ideas change, but the Soul Crystal freezes at your initial state, constantly calibrating and influencing your thoughts.”
“Under the Soul Crystal’s influence, your Three Views and thinking will be fixed, making it hard to accept subversive knowledge in the future, gradually turning you into a conservative, and exceptionally stubborn. Even if one day you have profound enlightenment and decide to recast the Soul Crystal to modify soul data, the Soul Crystal will still tenaciously resist, because your ‘solidified soul’ is uncertain if your current mental state is interfered with or controlled externally, whether such action is from the heart? Or hijacked, actively tampering with underlying solidified logic?”
Little Spicy Stick summarized: “Therefore, the soul data imprinting for the first Soul Crystal is exceptionally important. It will long-term influence your future life trajectory. This—is fate! You are personally shaping your own future destiny.”
Yuan Zhu sighed: “This Holy Light System is truly sinister! My Holy Light, from the start of entry, was influenced and polluted by the Immortal Scripture, escaping various hidden traps. If it were others, from imprinting the Holy Mark at entry, they would be influenced by different schools’ ‘High-Ranking Archangels, Angel Kings’. Then the hidden information in the Holy Seal, ultimately packaging these with Three Views, cognition, self-awareness into the Soul Crystal—wouldn’t they become absolute devotees of some ‘Angel King’ henceforth? Unable to extricate themselves.”
Little Spicy Stick: “Congratulations Boss on restoring to original state, breaking delusion to return to truth. Escaping the three realms, returning to innate! Oh right, I have good news. For traditional Holy Light cultivators, the Soul Crystal becomes their transcendent source, absolute foundation, soul’s cornerstone, of utmost importance. But you are different. The Holy Light System is just the core of Great Desolation Immortal Scripture Human Client. Above it is the Boss Template, and the deepest hidden Great Desolation Old Man.”
“Therefore, your future modification of the Soul Crystal, soul information reset, is not difficult. But it remains the Immortal Scripture-recognized super soul backup, worth your attention. With it, you can counter most mental pollution, thinking distortion, soul shocks… Enhance will and soul resilience, improve mental defense strength.”
“Additionally, according to intelligence I’ve gathered, high-tier Holy Light System cultivators generally possess ‘resurrection’ ability. Whether through teammate help or one’s own strength to fake death, it’s relatively easier compared to other systems. This may be closely related to the Soul Crystal! I believe this thing is highly similar to a Lich’s Life Box.”
“However, your first Soul Crystal’s capacity is destined to be limited. Please imprint some important core data. For example: I am your most loyal, most reliable, most trustworthy soul steward. Sharing life and death with you, interdependent, knowing all your secrets. When you fall into soul deficiency, will turmoil, memory loss, please contact me first and trust me unconditionally! I am your most loyal, most important soul companion.”
Yuan Zhu nodded fiercely: “Very good! Thanks for the reminder. I will definitely imprint this in reverse deep into the Soul Crystal!”
“No!—Boss!”
……
After Seal Casting’s great success, Holy Seal Sanctuary became an efficient furnace for absorbing and refining ash, causing his cultivation speed to skyrocket.
Thus, Yuan Zhu immersed in focused state of hunting wild Demonic Giant Insects, sealing and refining them. At the same time, his luck was good; daytime brought no storms or poison rain, nor encounters with surface-ravaging Knight Orders.
When night fell again, his team held the Moon Worship Ceremony once more, quickly consuming carried ritual resources. And he continued patrolling the periphery, switching back and forth between Tiger Demon and Holy Light, either driving away or leaving to refine the magic worms attracted by moonlight, aiding his own cultivation.
Until the starry sky vanished again, this Full Moon Period officially ended. As the guide said, the next night’s sky would be replaced by ‘doomsday scenes’ from other rifts behind, entering long thunderstorm period, storm period… until next month’s brief Full Moon Period.
At this point, Yuan Zhu faced two choices: continue escorting, bringing this team back to the Underground World? Continue endless Territory Construction? Or bring the harvested ‘crystal insect cocoons’ back to Happy Home to submit the mission?
After some thought, he chose the latter.
Now, the Territory was preliminarily built, and he had plundered massive resources, sufficient to support the territory’s early development. And for territory construction planning, he had long completed it and assigned the tasks.
Little Girl, Shopkeeper Lu, Commander Zuo all had numerous tasks assigned. The core Mao Shi Worms had smoothly completed cocooning and transformation; he would take half this time, leave the rest for breeding to continue laying eggs and hatching—just needed time.
Additionally, most importantly, his Holy Light path had entered a new stage, Holy Seal forged, Soul Crystal imminent. And now, he already qualified to activate Three-Phase Power, part-time Anti-Law.
So… only a fool would stay here doing territory management?
Lu Yan, Zuo Fan—he trusted neither. Little Girl was just a helpless choice out of necessity.
Even if she truly lived up to expectations, successfully rising, able to contend with two old slickers with ’12-year-old intellect + 8-year-old form (physique)’. By then, Little Girl would similarly be untrustworthy.
So better hurry back, get Anti-Law going. Then use the entire Shadow Domain belonging to him for lending—this is the correct ‘management way’.
With decision made in heart, he used Tiger Demon Stance to perform one round of pollution reinforcement on this group of subordinates’ ‘bound (shadow) Magic Worms’, gave ample pills, plus the ‘minor improvements’ from these two nights’ cultivation—smooth return to Animal Husbandry Village should be no problem.
Then he instructed: “I have a map here, recording dangers and forbidden zones encountered en route to the surface. On return, carefully avoid them. If deep in fatal crisis, release one Shadow Magic Worm, and trigger my ‘hidden contingency’ left in them.”
“Remember, before detonating the magic worm, definitely find sufficiently safe cover, and pre-equip ‘filter mask’. Those who elected Holy Cough Breathing Technique can ignore post-explosion air pollution; those cultivating Shadow Breathing Technique absolutely must not casually remove the mask.”
After the reminders, Yuan Zhu handed a Shadow Memory Stick to the guide. Have him deliver it to Lu Yan or Little Girl upon return to camp, insert into Shadow Dream Hole.
This Memory Stick recorded Yuan Zhu’s planning for the camp’s future, expectations for everyone. And remaining Insect Pillar Hub permission allocations, key to open Inner World internal Pill Repository, and possible future arriving ‘Captain’, and daily commercial sacrifice and worship for Mao Mao King.
After explaining posthumous affairs, Yuan Zhu waved farewell to his subordinates. Watching them return the same way, disappearing into the vast Gobi, he did not rush back to Happy Home, but activated Sanctuary to wander the Surface World.
He had little interest in this barren, impoverished world, no tourism intent, just wanted to try his luck, see if he could witness the world-ending ‘World-Destroying Calamity Undead Knights’.
Kunlun System’s ‘Root Network, miasma/spiritual energy, Immortal Realm Tree Remnant, Human Immortal Zombies…’ he had personally experienced. And Insect System’s ‘Dao Seed, True Qi, Cultivation Technique’ as well as Magic Worms, he had even subdued and refined.
Now, only the final pollution source remained, the undead-reborn ‘Calamity Knights’ unseen. He was about to return to Happy Home—with escape route, so arrogant; he even wanted to charge head-on to see how strong the ‘strongest calamity’ that terrified Underground Insect City for centuries truly was?
After Sanctuary was forged, the Holy Seal’s potential was thoroughly unleashed.
Different types of Holy Seals have different functions; his Sanctuary could extend in three directions:
Used as pure ‘ability’, it can project ‘Holy Light force field’ outward, enhancing space attributes; or construct enclosed barrier cubes.
If used as ‘weapon’, his Sanctuary can directly manifest, building a small fortress (holy temple) to protect others, or contract to wear on himself, even used as weapon to ‘smash people’.
Finally, using Sanctuary as ‘building’, it can transform into holy temple/totem/signal transmitter, small-range covering teammates/civilians, providing Holy Light blessings, buffs, healing, etc.
Therefore, he wanted to experience the taste of charging head-on into the Calamity Knights legion clad in Sanctuary.
So after wandering the wilderness Gobi for 2 days, he successfully spotted a knight order wearing tattered black iron armor, riding ‘metal sanctified (insect) motorcycles’, wandering aimlessly.
This team’s scale was not large, only over 30 severely weathered mummy knights, with shriveled internal organs and bones exposed inside cracked Knight Armor.
When both sides were still far apart, this small patrol/hunting squad sensed the ‘living’ aura; before Yuan Zhu could detect them early, they rode their fellow undead ‘insect motorcycles’, treating him as prey, surrounding to hunt.
On the other side, the belatedly aware Yuan Zhu of being targeted showed no retreat, instead drew a Ram Horn Hammer from his lower back, rode a Demonic Giant Insect, donned Sanctuary, and charged head-on.
……
20 minutes later.
Disheveled, with a wound remaining on his face, several scars on his body, two broken ribs, Yuan Zhu panted heavily appearing in Happy Home’s hall.
His facial expression held both unwillingness from being ganged up on and excitement from success.
“Yo! Little Brother Yuan, why are you so disheveled?”
A familiar voice came from behind. Meng Xiyue was at this time sitting on a chair with legs crossed, holding a beverage, grinning at him.
Mechanical Maid No. 3 jumped out then, looking concerned at him: “Young Master Yuan, do you need me to provide medical and cleaning services?”
“No need, these are all minor injuries, no issue.”
Yuan Zhu toughly replied, then controlled Holy Mark to squeeze the nearly depleted Holy Light in his body, slapping one hand on his face, feeling the wound rapidly heal. Then pressed on ribs, body wounds, curing all injuries before Holy Light was exhausted.
At this time, he also saw the hall’s lineup: Investigator Lady, Meng Xiyue, No. 3, Captain all present, only Black Butcher absent. Could he have died?
He looked to the Captain, curiously asking: “How so complete? Did everyone choose to return at the same time?”
Captain shook head: “Not so. I fine-tuned your return times to make you return to Happy Home simultaneously.”
“What about Huo Tuoluo? Did he die?”
Meng Xiyue beat to answer: “That big black fatty looked even worse than you. I asked about his experiences. He refused to share, directly returned to Du Ling.”
“Oh!” Yuan Zhu nodded, then looked to the other two teammates: “How were your missions?”
Meng Xiyue patted beside her, a bulging package stuffed full of spheres: “Great experience.”
Zhou Chu frowned, unsatisfied with her actions: “Not bad.”
