Chapter 155: I Have A Friend Who Proves The Dao With Strength!
The next day early in the morning.
Master Yuan, who had been “burning burning burning” all night without sleep, still arrived at Rain Courtyard in full status and spirited condition.
On the street of breakfast stalls at the academy entrance, he bought two steaming hot “crispy frog cakes” for just 1 jiao, then took out his Taixi Holy Church Employee ID and smoothly passed the guard’s inspection.
“Crunch” one bite, the crust was crispy with juices overflowing, the rich pepper flavor exploded in his mouth, simply enjoyable.
“I didn’t expect the frog that was burned to ash last night to be so delicious?! I feel that as the Soul Crystal condenses, my mental state can remain at peak for a long time, even without needing to sleep?”
Although he had stayed up all night, he was not tired at all. On the contrary, as the Soul Crystal continued to crystallize and condense, his spirit became increasingly focused, maintaining an excellent state, and he could sustain it by replenishing Soul Ash + Holy Light.
Just like charging a mobile phone. (Smartphone: “Ah! I haven’t shut down for two and a half years ni~!”)
Little Spicy Stick stopped him: “It’s not like that! Your current excitement is just an illusion. The Soul Crystal can indeed keep your mental consciousness in a false ‘optimal’ state for a long time, but your body and brain cannot withstand such torment, you still need sleep to recuperate. Unless you abandon your physical body, strip out your ‘soul consciousness body’ and rely on the Soul Crystal to become an energy life form.”
Yuan Zhu: “Then can I learn from dolphins? Separate the left and right brain, pair it with the Soul Crystal to work only half at a time, while the other half rests?”
Little Spicy Stick hesitated: “For that, you need to prepare materials on the Knowledge School for me, especially the supernatural knowledge on Skull Servers. Once I fully comprehend it, I can try modifying your ‘head’. According to my estimation, the success rate should be over 99.9%, worth a try.”
Yuan Zhu: “It can really work? Then when you have time, you must use those ‘goblins’ at our house as experimental subjects. If you can help them escape the curse of sleep, it will completely unleash the labor potential imprisoned in their shells, truly a great merit!”
Little Spicy Stick also eagerly took on the mission: “Good, good! After going to Taixi and meeting Meng Xiyue, I must ask her for the technology. Ruthlessly modify the brains of those retarded goblins! Eh, boss, do you think this Skull Server can be dreamily linked with our External Brain Pods? Plagiarize advanced experience, greatly optimize the Brain Eggplant structure…”
Little Spicy Stick got more and more excited, the mission of the Great Desolation Immortal Scripture is to lurk low-key, infiltrate, steal, plagiarize, magically modify… and make it their own.
On the other side, Yuan Zhu quickly found the teaching building of the School of Dangerous Botany, and by chatting up a blushing freshman girl, smoothly found the senior student seriously reading with goggles on.
“Sister Chen, I’m here to see you! It’s Saturday today, am I disturbing your studies?”
The senior student closed her book, took off her goggles, and looked at Yuan Zhu: “It’s you, Little Brother Yuan. Not resting on a big weekend, suddenly coming to find sister. What trouble do you have to bother me with again?”
“How could it be? I’m here specifically to thank you. I’ve had some fortuitous encounters these past few days and received a gift, specially bringing it for you.” Saying that, Yuan Zhu took out a small wooden box and handed it to her.
Chen Yi saw Yuan Zhu really take out a gift, somewhat surprised: “You’re serious? A little help, I already earned my own remuneration from it, no need to do this.”
After a bit of false refusal, the senior student stared at the small wooden box without taking it, but still asked: “What’s inside? If it’s jewelry, no need to give it to me.”
Yuan Zhu: “Seeds! Guaranteed to be exotic seeds you’ve never seen. They stably survive and reproduce normally in highly polluted environments, and they’re Spirit Grass Seeds of the Kunlun System. Just say, precious or not?”
The senior student’s eyes lit up, staring hard at him: “Kunlun System pollution Spirit Medicine? You’re sure?”
“Mm. Due to the Confidentiality Agreement, I can’t reveal many things, but I can give you a hint: Bubble World.”
“Oh? Then I’ll accept this gift, it does have research value for me.” The senior student swiftly snatched the small wooden box from Yuan Zhu’s hand and quickly stuffed it into her backpack.
Yuan Zhu: “Accepting the gift comes with conditions.”
“Say it, what is it. I knew you wouldn’t just come to visit me purely.”
Yuan Zhu said straightforwardly: “Can you share a copy of the research results on these ‘seeds’ with me? I’ve seen the Immortal Methods of the Kunlun System and developed some curiosity about Dangerous Plant Science. Not to the point of switching systems, but I want to understand some common sense.”
The senior student shook her head: “That probably won’t work. It’s not that I’m unwilling. Though you provided the seeds, once they enter the academy’s laboratory, using professional equipment and consuming the school’s experimental resources. Even if I lead everything, the final research results belong to the academy and cannot be disclosed to outsiders.”
Yuan Zhu: “I heard there’s a ‘sponsorship mode’? Outsiders provide money and resources, make requests, cooperate with the academy for experiments, and finally share research results.”
“Your investment is way too small, doesn’t meet the standard.”
Yuan Zhu: “What if I have more and more precious ‘seeds’?”
The senior student stopped him: “Don’t rush, I’ll test the waters with this gift from you. If it really has research value, I can research it privately. We can cooperate privately, bypassing the academy.”
Yuan Zhu was somewhat surprised: “You have that capability? Do research on your own bypassing the academy?”
“Sister’s family has some money, I have my own small laboratory where I can do some simple research. But lacking materials and experimental subjects, so I still hang around school to mooch resources. You came to find me for this?”
Yuan Zhu: “Of course not just that, I’ve accumulated many questions lately and need you, sister, to answer my doubts.”
Chen Yi: “Having trouble with Holy Light cultivation, go ask Old Mr. Cui at the academy church.”
“No no no, all common sense questions outside the Holy Light domain. Sister, you know I’m a novice outsider, lacking basic common sense reserves, and need a proud daughter of heaven like you to answer doubts and point the way.”
“Alright alright, you speak nicely, let’s go out and chat, don’t disturb others studying.”
Chen Yi packed her textbooks and notebook, slung on her backpack, gestured for Yuan Zhu to follow, and the two quickly arrived at a scenic lake heart island, starting private chat mode.
Yuan Zhu saw no one around, hesitated for a moment, then probed: “Senior student, are you familiar with people from the Nightmare School? Do you know about the Nightmare World?”
Chen Yi saw his sneaky look and said strangely: “My knowledge of Nightmares is only from textbooks. You said earlier the seeds you gave me came from Bubble World, now asking about Nightmares, have you been tainted by something unclean? Trying to drag me down now? Good little brother, sister’s been good to you, don’t pit me.”
Yuan Zhu thought carefully and found his situation indeed inconvenient to reveal. He couldn’t just say directly: Absolutely won’t harm you! Brother, I’ve claimed a territory in Bubble World, created a private Dreamland directly connected to the Nightmare Layer. Now want to consult on illegally punching a dream channel from reality, connecting to this ‘private Dreamland’, for cross-Nightmare Dimension smuggling?
“Uh… let me organize my words. First, I absolutely have no intention of pitting you, just lacking a guide, want some pointers. I have a friend…”
Before he finished, the senior student couldn’t help “uh…” ing first. And showed a ‘do you think I believe you’ uncomfortable expression.
“Continue, your… friend, right? What ideas does he have?”
Yuan Zhu: “He, he contacted the Nightmare Dimension in Bubble World, and discovered a wild ‘unowned Dreamland’.”
The senior student quickly interrupted: “Stop stop stop! Still say you’re not pitting me? Just say your friend has too high deviation, spirit polluted, contacted an ‘outer domain evil god’ in the dream, inciting him to inside-outside collusion from the Nightmare Layer, establishing a stable ‘dream contact’.”
Yuan Zhu suddenly felt a helpless inability to argue: Your analysis is too normal, too right, too reasonable. But! It’s actually not like that.
Seeing Yuan Zhu’s extremely helpless to somewhat amusing expression, the senior student urged: “Why aren’t you talking? Quick, continue denying and quibbling.”
“Sigh, it’s really not like what you think. But I still have to ask, do you know how to establish a Nightmare Path from the ‘present world’ to ‘Nightmare Dimension – unknown Dreamland’? Or log into a dream space like Yellow Millet Town from the present world, then jump?”
The senior student replied: “First, I really don’t know. But based on my shallow understanding of the Nightmare World, to bypass the monitoring system, Pale Great Law, Du Ling Star’s suppression force, and illegally communicate with an unknown polluted world in the Nightmare Dimension, the best way is to enter the Spirit Layer first and then try. The suppression there is weaker, pollution degree higher, order more chaotic…”
“Second, not to mention specific methods, just having this idea is absolutely illegal. In the future, even if you have similar thoughts, don’t casually reveal to people. If I hear it again, I’ll can’t help but report it. Third, from what I know of the Nightmare School, Rain Courtyard’s Nightmare Scholars also conduct Nightmare Exploration in the specially built teaching building in the Spirit Layer, under layers of surveillance.”
“Exploring Nightmares is extremely dangerous. So the academy, in the old campus in the Spirit Layer, cooperated with the West Coast White Barbarians to build a building specially designed for ‘Nightmare Exploration’. Built-in strict disinfection, extermination, cleaning, mental detection, confinement… and other devices. Additionally, every university’s Nightmare School is under official and multi-party joint monitoring. Every exploration must be recorded and filed.”
“Your friend’s revealed idea, even if Rain Courtyard has the capability, no one would cooperate under Security Bureau surveillance. If your friend really isn’t afraid of death, I suggest he enters the Spirit Layer and seeks channels in the Black Market. Or go to the eastern barbarian countries, where management of the Nightmare Layer is very loose, even deliberately indulgent.”
“Actually, their official scholars coming to the West Coast to cooperate with universities to advance the Nightmare School isn’t without the idea of diverting disaster eastward. Due to too frequent ‘Nightmare Pollution out-of-control’ cases on the East Coast, they simply used academic cooperation as a cover to move those high-risk but valuable ‘experiments’ to our West. If something happens, we bear it; if there are benefits, everyone shares.”
After hearing this string of analysis, Yuan Zhu was slightly disappointed: “Is the Nightmare Layer really that dangerous?”
The senior student spread her hands: “How would I know? Anyway, the Nightmare School has the highest student death rate, reportedly people often mysteriously disappear in the Spirit Layer. Unlike other schools, where deaths are clear and obvious.”
Although no safe and professional method to construct a ‘Nightmare Channel’ was found, from the senior student’s cautious attitude, it was clear that building a channel in the Spirit Layer connecting to the unknown Nightmare Dimension was absolutely feasible.
It was just high risk, prone to losing control, and causing irreparable accidents, hence strictly prohibited and guarded, with official severe crackdowns.
But doesn’t this just prove that the risk is a bit high, but the profit is very high! As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold… as long as finding daring ‘professionals’ to cooperate, it really has potential.
“Mm, Little Spicy Stick, put this on the agenda. On one hand, search for Nightmare Knowledge in the exchange list of Space of Gods; on the other, from the gray circles in the Main World, screen ‘wanted talents’ with relevant skills.”
Little Spicy Stick: “Already entered into memo, will auto-remind once encountered.”
…
The senior student: “Besides consulting for your friend, any other doubts?”
Yuan Zhu: “Yes, pure curiosity. Last time consulting on supernatural systems, you introduced the Frog School? I want to know, is the entry difficulty of this system very low? In our Running City’s underground fighting circle, many martial artists pursue the Path of Strength, is it related to the Frog School?”
Chen Yi nodded: “You guessed right, the so-called Path of Strength is precisely the supernatural system of the Frog School. Frog God, the 2nd of the Twelve Mandates, Ruler of Strength, the deity representing the concept of Power. Among the supernatural systems, it has the lowest threshold, simple and easy to learn, very accessible, extremely high cost-performance. Cultivation relies entirely on hard work, low floor, high ceiling.”
“Additionally, our Running City, besides the name Rain City, is also called Frog City, naturally favored by the Frog God. Though not necessarily substantial connection, reportedly the success rate of contacting and cultivating the Path of Strength in Running is far higher than other cities. Thus every February, fighters from the New Continent come to pay homage…”
Yuan Zhu: “Aren’t supernatural powers strictly controlled?”
The senior student: “The Power School is quite special. First, the Frog God’s pollution is relatively light compared to other pollution systems, initial polluters easier to maintain sanity. Second, Power School easy to enter, hard to advance, and not much harm to the outside. Third, Power School cultivation requires Body Tempering Fluid, mastering that indirectly controls these cultivators.”
Yuan Zhu: “The Body Tempering Fluid circulating on the market?”
“Right! Exactly from the academy. Our Rain Courtyard’s Frog School isn’t those underground martial artists and fighters pursuing ‘Path of Strength’. The essence of the Frog School is to explore and analyze the mysteries of ‘Frog God pollution’, summarize and master the laws of the supernatural system; and refine ‘supernatural potions’ beneficial to cultivation from ordinary frogs.”
Yuan Zhu: “Does the Frog School also, like other ‘pharmaceutical companies’ settled in Running, use these boxers and fighters for drug development? Quickly and efficiently cultivate ‘Power System ability users’, man-made super soldiers?”
The senior student nodded: “Indeed there’s that consideration. These years, more and more ‘pharmaceutical laboratories’ coming to settle in Running, Frog School also feels pressure and joins the competition. One to reserve technology, two to make money. Because Body Tempering Fluid outflow is limited, true ‘Path of Strength cultivators’ numbers are limited. As for other Body Tempering Fluid, all sold to other cities.”
“You just say Path of Strength, what’s the core of this system? How to make ‘power’ produce supernatural effects?”
The senior student: “Frog God pollution, also called Muscle Synthesis. Any life form with flesh structure, after accepting ‘Frog God pollution’, activates a supernatural state of muscle synthesis. Through uninterrupted muscle exercise, ‘muscle fibers’ at the microscopic level pair up and synthesize. Ultimately, the total ‘fiber amount’ of whole body muscles unchanged, actually doubled. Thus whether power or physical body strength, both surge countless times, this is Proving the Dao with Strength, physical body becoming saint!”
“The two-in-one ‘muscle fibers’ also carry permanent ‘passive pollution attributes’, strength, toughness, durability, resistance… all greatly soar. This pollution system is simple and unadorned, only power surges, pollution resistance surges. If entering ‘second round muscle synthesis (2)’, every muscle fiber synthesized from 4, then fists swung will carry supernatural Power attribute enchanted damage. Also called Martial Will, Fist Intent, ‘extreme strength, breaking vacuum’.”
Yuan Zhu: “Then is there a ‘third round’? 2, eight-in-one?”
“Right!”
