Chapter 168: Freebies! Ride The Bus And Get Seven Free Supernatural Inheritances
The chanting voices coming from the mist grew weaker and weaker.
Finally, they turned back into wails like static noise, or chants that could touch the heart, pleas filled with fear and terror… Yuan Zhu, who had been immersed in learning, finally stirred slightly awake, his eyes regaining their light.
Looking at the passengers beside him again, more than ten people had already been bound up by the swift-moving, muscular service auntie, the skinning willow strips in her hand deformed from being whipped, but people’s faces only showed relief.
It was hard to imagine how much hardship ordinary people had to endure for a round trip between Running and Taixi? No wonder from childhood to adulthood, many people around his predecessor went to Taixi and rarely returned to Running.
He used to think this group of people despised poverty and loved wealth, and after seeing the extravagance and prosperity of the big city, they could no longer look at their rustic hometown.
Now looking again, those cattle and horses who worked hard for a whole year without saving a single penny, if they took a passenger bus home, just the mental pollution impact alone, plus the medical expenses from internal injuries caused by the service staff’s violent whipping, would be enough to bankrupt them directly.
Blocking out the continuous background static noise in his ears, Yuan Zhu leaned on the seat and fell into a state of contemplation.
At this time, the bus happened to drive into another mountain cavity for the third stop. Passengers who had long endured mental oppression took advantage of the rare ‘barrier space’ to relax, and got off one after another for resupply and decompression (defecation).
Yuan Zhu closed his eyes to rest his mind; he was no longer interested in this kind of repeatedly appearing ‘cavity cave’. At this moment, he concentrated all his energy on the ‘knowledge’ he had heard during the journey.
This trip could be divided into four segments on the map. From Running to the first stop, it belonged to the stage where ‘mental pollution’ continuously intensified, formally entering the depths of the Misty Mountains.
From the first stop to the second and the current third stop, the pollution degree of mental pollution continued to strengthen and then fall back. In these two stages, he crossed the meaningless ‘static noise’ and heard valuable ‘knowledge’.
The difference was that the ‘knowledge infusion’ in the second segment was in an acceleration phase, where he had to use Soul Crystal to clear the garbage cache every 15 minutes; the infusion speed in the third segment was in a deceleration state, with fewer and fewer useful information that could be heard.
After the next departure, the bus would gradually leave the Misty Mountains, formally enter the West Coast line, and head south bit by bit to reach the most prosperous seaport city Taixi in the New Continent.
Yuan Zhu messaged Snake Snake in the spirit world: “How’s the screening going?”
“I’m about to puke; everything you heard is messy ‘information fragments’, headless and tailless, with no patterns at all. Some are meaningless scripture segments, others are ‘secret words’ praying to different deities. There’s also an ancient ‘steam tractor’ maintenance manual, a missing 1/6 style sword cultivator secret sword…”
Little Spicy Stick complained: “I can now assert that the mist in the Misty Mountains is mixed with countless people’s soul fragments and memory fragments. Those weak, not profound enough, and not very valuable ‘soul memory fragments’ will naturally be worn away in the mist.”
“While those related to ‘supernatural phenomena’ carry the aura of ‘pollution’ themselves, making them hard to wear away. Like sand grains in the sea and rivers, constantly polished into tiny particles, mixed in the ‘sounds’ you hear. Ordinary people’s spirit is too low and will only be eroded by the pollution wrapping the sand grains; sufficiently compatible or strong spirits can accept and interpret them.”
“But the problem is, the mist in the Misty Mountains is like a vast ocean, containing too many and too chaotic sand grains; screening out mutually compatible and cooperative content is too difficult. Moreover, the more sand grains and the more complete the content in such matching, the greater the value. I eliminated worthless knowledge and scriptures that temporarily show no potential… only collected truly usable ‘supernatural knowledge’, totaling 62 portions!”
Hearing this, Yuan Zhu, who had been acting as a tool person throughout, using his brain to listen to the mist voices, then delete and clear, and continue infusing… finally showed the satisfied smile unique to an old farmer after the autumn harvest.
It was worth his hard work all the way, listening to sounds until his spirit went numb, and the ‘holy light’ constantly emitted by the Soul Crystal could not make him feel warmth. Just like after staying up all night watching videos, he only felt boredom and numbness toward pretty big sisters posing seductively.
“Not a bad harvest.”
Spicy Stick said nonchalantly: “Looks like a lot in quantity, but most are garbage, completely unusable. Missing Sword Cultivator sword moves, Blood Wheel Martial Arts never encountered before, laying the most basic Four Symbols Instrument, and maintenance of Steam Totem, purification of Element Water… Very helpful for collecting intelligence on the Great Desolation Immortal Scripture and deeply understanding the Du Ling World, but not much for strength improvement.”
“Among them, that Soap recipe actually completes a little more. You need to enter the Spirit Layer to find and hunt a magical creature called Oil Carbon Rat for processing and refinement. This species was once abundant in number, but suddenly disappeared for some reason, becoming a rare species. The completed knowledge includes constructing special buildings for large-scale centralized breeding to increase yield, secret knowledge.”
Yuan Zhu raised an eyebrow: “Sounds a bit hellish. Is there also a ‘bathroom module’ to keep the breeding room clean and moist?”
Spicy Stick was stunned: “Didn’t collect that, but in the known building blueprints, there seems to be such a missing puzzle piece? Bathroom, a very reasonable configuration.”
Yuan Zhu: Then there must certainly be a ‘stove’ for maintaining the warmth of the breeding room, right?
“Besides this, are there other usable knowledge?”
Spicy Stick nodded: “Yes, yes, among which I personally think the highest value is a portion of Sacrifice Knowledge!”
Yuan Zhu puzzled: “Sacrifice Knowledge?”
“Yes, remember how we got here?”
“Transmigration! What else could it be… hmm?” Yuan Zhu suddenly perked up and hurriedly asked, “You mean that ‘Pinduoduo Evil God Sacrifice Ritual’ we were bound to with Shadow Pollution?”
Spicy Stick excitedly said: “Yes! That’s the ritual! What a coincidence, the deputy cult leader who provided technical support used ‘ritual steps’ that came from this Misty Mountains! I reorganized this ‘ritual’ from the knowledge you heard, more complete than the Sacrifice Ritual we experienced!”
Thinking of his own transmigration encounter, he suddenly felt a sense of ‘causality and fate’, and hurriedly asked: “Tell me in detail!”
“After you woke up back then, I used your ‘vision + memory’ to record the magic array and sacrifices of the sacrifice ritual… This time, the ‘mist knowledge’ we collected has related knowledge. Your soul is tough and powerful, with higher capacity, acquiring more knowledge, perfectly covering the ‘crime scene’ in memory, the harvested knowledge more complete than that deputy cult leader who suffered backlash and died!”
“That sacrifice turned into Pinduoduo mainly because the person involved had ideas, but more importantly, the other’s ‘knowledge deficiency’, no ability to complete it, so within relatively safe limits, exert his own talent to make ‘Pinduoduo Sacrifice’, succeeding multiple times without flipping until you, the jinx.”
“Now the ‘Sacrifice Ritual’ we summarized has the greatest value in Positioning! In the real world, it can covertly and precisely position and contact specific gods and demons in the Spirit Layer, and use the ‘ritual’ power to weaken the barrier intensity between the two worlds, conduct mental-level contact, receive divine power descent, and sacrifice to transmit items. If it can continue to be optimized and modified, I think it’s not impossible to go further, connecting to the Nightmare Bubble Layer world and the gods and demons living inside!”
Yuan Zhu understood: “Insect City.”
“Yes!”
Yuan Zhu: “Any other good news?”
Spicy Stick: “Some strange knowledge, between valuable and useless, but with cultivation potential. Including Golden Rune, Buddha Maggot Incense, Starlight Reception, Moon Path Sublimation, Fire Extinguishing Ritual, all relatively complete ‘ritual knowledge’, no need for pollution system prerequisites.”
“This good? Learn directly and use?”
Spicy Stick: “Premise is you must consume (eat) the corresponding ‘knowledge’ to proficiently use these ritual powers with a mortal body.”
Yuan Zhu: “Then what’s the difference from accepting pollution erosion?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Besides unknown soul risks, people who consume this ‘knowledge’ remain ordinary people, with no obvious pollution traces on the body, and can still learn new Supernatural Systems. I have a hunch these Active Knowledge are very suspicious; the ‘knowledge’ they contain should be mortal-level knowledge and technology that ordinary people can master without consuming. But after Pollution processing by the Mist, they become must-consume to use.”
“You mean these ‘active knowledge’ have decoding value. No need to consume, no need to stain with ‘mist risks’, as long as resist the temptation to strengthen spirit and soul, there is possibility to use these ‘rituals’ through learning and practice with a mortal body?”
Spicy Stick nodded: “Yes!”
Yuan Zhu: “Then introduce these kinds of knowledge, what are their uses?”
Spicy Stick explained clearly: “Golden Rune uses everyday high-purity gold, with gilding craft, to draw a ‘golden rune’ on object surfaces and endow supernatural powers. Suspected use of Golden Rule, but zero threshold, and rune function unknown. Buddha Maggot Incense also incomplete, needs a raw material called Buddha Maggot to make a supernatural spice; inhaling it grows spirit and strengthens soul, a very precious secret technique, zero threshold.”
“Starlight Reception is about ignoring environmental limits, in any area with ‘starry sky concept’, setting up ritual to receive nearby stars projecting ‘starlight’. Related ritual knowledge incomplete, suspected from aliens, one of the means to supplement food.”
Hearing this, Yuan Zhu immediately thought of the Qie Tou Tribe he saw in the Little Xihong Realm; that’s a foreign race from the Plant Universe settled in the Star Realm.
The Buddha Tomato that devoured a large amount of ‘Qie Tou Tribe’ has the ability to receive and absorb starlight; now this simplified version of Starlight Reception Ritual very fits his stereotype of ‘Plant Universe aliens’!
Yuan Zhu: “Receiving starlight, then can be used to cultivate special ‘supernatural plants’? Perhaps, also to assist ‘rogue immortal (plant system)’ cultivation?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Suggest boss use ‘Senior Student Chen’ for experiment, send the Ritual to her, let her entice rogue immortal classmates of the School of Dangerous Botany to bathe in starlight, Hundred Day Ascension. Moon Path Sublimation is a cultivation ritual on full moon night, using moonlight power to infinitely elevate spirit, escaping into the Sea of Consciousness.”
“From the incomplete knowledge records, this is a relatively primitive and retro basic cultivation method from over a hundred years ago. In that era, those emphasizing spirit and soul cultivation saw the Moon Sea as a destination like Buddhism’s Other Shore. Soul logging into the Moon is like mortals ascending to the Immortal Realm, can cultivate Great Yin Longevity Body Refining Great Law, exit Yin God to cultivate Yang God. This Moon Path Secret Ritual is an ancient moon-landing technique.”
Yuan Zhu: “Eye-opening, but the Holy Church also has its own moon-landing technique. This Moon Path Secret Ritual has little value.”
Spicy Stick shook head: “I don’t think so; if you can use Moon Path Technique to launch Soul Crystal to the Moon, then no need to waste a ‘door-opening’ slot, can open the holy light Door to other dimensions.”
In Yuan Zhu’s plan, he who doesn’t plan to join other holy light camps prepares to shift holy light’s ‘inclination’ to the Moon, exploring toward Du Ling’s ‘outer universe’, Primordial Spirit moon-landing!
But now, this retro and incomplete Moon Path Secret Ritual has hope for early moon-landing. Paired with previous Buddha Maggot Incense to grow soul, has a ghostly path cultivating ‘holy light immortal’ flavor. Really too mix-and-match, too cool!
Yuan Zhu: “What about the last Fire Extinguishing Ritual?”
“This requires communicating with a deity named Burning King, using it as constant core to set up a ritual. Within the ritual range, can extinguish all flames. Not just mortal fire, but various intensities of ‘supernatural flames’. Fire Extinguishing Ritual doesn’t extinguish flames but seals, constrains, and preserves them. Subsequent content missing, unable to complete. Only know Fire Extinguishing Ritual has deeper purpose.”
After hearing the name ‘Burning King’, his predecessor’s dormant memory became active. He immersed in it, resonated with recall, then ripples arose: “Eh, so the boss of Fire Fang is in this line.”
He gradually recalled that his predecessor went to Fire Fang to work part-time as a scrap dealer, besides the cleaning company having chance to contact ‘supernatural powers’, also had a hidden little thought: to apprentice under the boss, contact and learn ‘supernatural powers’ through the boss’s line.
The boss once in private office sacrificed to an indescribable thing named Burning King. The sacrifice scene was extremely eerie, coincidentally peeked by predecessor, but soon discovered by boss. When caught, predecessor boldly begged boss to pass down dharma, but refused, instead erased that memory.
Before erasing memory, boss promised predecessor that as long as he performed well, would help him step on the cultivation path. Even hypocritically said watching ‘fire worship ritual’ as mortal leaves huge risks, bound to die miserably. Thus this memory must be deleted, also a test.
So although amnesic, greatly increased predecessor’s sense of belonging and loyalty to the company. Very obedient to boss’s orders, worked hard, and had strong mysterious confidence in contacting and mastering ‘supernatural power’. As if success next second!
“Fuck! So fucking shameless, so faceless means. Washed away memory, but left profound subconscious traces, missed supernatural by a hair, yet kept strong motivation and confidence, firmly believing to gain Supernatural Path in the company. Thus stubbornly went to ‘Sacrifice Ritual’ to send head?!”
Although boss indeed thoughtfully provided Rain Courtyard’s letter of introduction, helping him smoothly obtain Holy Mark, and contact hidden Yellow Heaven System inheritance.
But after recovering ‘memory backup’ now, Yuan Zhu still felt unhappy. Wait until later when he’s awesome, use Fire Extinguishing Ritual to seal boss, play with him well, delete his memory, make him cattle and horse working for himself!
Spicy Stick: “This knowledge all indirectly contacts different ‘pollution sources’ through Rituals, and relatively safely uses corresponding powers. But the key to activate them is ‘active knowledge’. I think next we can find way to bypass it, restore direct method to drive Rituals to produce effects.”
Plus Sacrifice Ritual and Oil Carbon Soap, total seven zero-threshold zero-price ‘supernatural knowledge’; this Taixi trip hasn’t even started, already earned big!
Yuan Zhu with numb brain now felt utmost satisfaction.
