Chapter 309: Integrating Into The Present World, Yuan Tang Debuts
After inspecting the condition of the employees, Yuan Zhu stood at the exit of the Disease Garden, staring blankly at the vast secret realm, remaining motionless for a long time.
Although this place was extremely eerie, with high concentrations of pathogens floating in the air and even the clouds being wriggling, blood-oozing greasy meat clumps, he had relied on freeloading the resources (pollution) here to quickly cultivate abilities in the Shadow and Holy Light systems, making it his starting point.
Unfortunately, once the Mountain Lord’s Domain was developed and he had a territory truly his own, he would inevitably migrate all his assets and employees there bit by bit. At that time, he would even need to erase all traces related to shadows within the Haunted House.
At that time, abandoning this Disease Garden for nothing would truly be a pity.
Should he anonymously report it to the Security Bureau and use this kind act to enhance the quality of his Holy Light? Or sell it to the Holy Church in exchange for promotion resources?
Giving it away to outsiders for free just like that always felt like a loss. Was there no scheme for a one-time, ruthless, drain-the-pond-to-catch-fish style of exploitation?
At this moment, Yuan Tang came to his side, looked up and tugged at his clothes corner, asking with concern: “Big Brother, what are you thinking about?”
Yuan Zhu looked at the diligent brother and sister who had completed their mission and said: “You two, come with me.”
Returning to the attic again, Yuan Zhu took out from his shirt pocket the two identity cards that the senior student had given him and handed them to Yuan Tang: “Keep them safe; these are your identity proofs for living in Running City from now on.”
The little girl curiously took them, lowered her head to observe, and immediately recognized her own portrait printed on the card. She slightly rotated the card in her hand, and her portrait changed to different three-dimensional perspectives from various angles: from left profile, to front view, to right profile…
Next, she recognized her name Yuan Tang. This variant of Earth Hanzi characters, different from Insect City script, she had learned in the dream space on the third layer of the Shadow Domain while managing the Shadow Domain.
Additionally, there was no ID code; instead, there was an indented bar-shaped groove. Finally, the residential address was listed as the current Frog Factory.
After checking, the little girl handed the card belonging to Yuan Tiao in the present world to her younger brother, then looked eagerly at her master, waiting for further instructions.
Yuan Zhu pointed to the bar-shaped groove near the bottom of the identity card and said: “Prick your fingertip, squeeze out blood and drop it on this card, and you can complete the spirit binding. From then on, this card will connect to your soul, be recorded in Running City’s records, and receive protection from the Pale Great Law.”
“Additionally, the Faith List that Nie Yin applied for you has already been reported and stored in Running’s citizen faith records. Once you complete the identity binding, the corresponding 10 faith connections will also be synchronously blessed upon you, further concealing your identity origins.”
“With a legal identity and ten weak faith connections, plus the identity information shielding from Anti-Law. As long as you don’t casually use True Qi, this polluting energy, in daily life and simply maintain the state of ordinary people while moving in the urban area, you won’t be detected by the outside world.”
Additionally, Yuan Zhu had a premonition: once his Mountain Lord’s Domain was fully developed, given the distance from Yin Mountain to the urban area, his position as Mountain Lord would be sufficient to overshadow other annual faiths, providing the brother and sister with even stronger dependant protection.
At that time, the karma of the brother and sister would be directly borne by the Mountain Lord. Unless the Mountain Lord couldn’t bear it, they wouldn’t be exposed.
Hearing Yuan Zhu’s explanation, the little girl impatiently pricked her fingertip, squeezed out a few drops of blood, and let them fall into the card’s groove.
Immediately, she sensed a vague and ethereal mysterious connection between herself and the card in her hand.
Not only that, when she held the card and a certain thought arose in her mind, the card would slowly draw her physical energy. This loss of biological energy wasn’t much, but it made a faint green glow appear at the groove on the card.
The little girl looked at the slightly glowing identity card in surprise and said: “This is?”
“Identity verification. It’s said that this kind of card was imprinted with the most basic law constraint during production. A glow means it’s you. If it emits red light, it means you’ve been officially wanted, in red name status. Additionally, keeping the identity card glowing and pressing it on devices that require identity verification is equivalent to stamping or entering a password… like riding the subway. The prerequisite is that you need to deposit money into the identity card at an official designated institution.”
Yuan Zhu gave a brief explanation, but the brother and sister looked confused, as if listening to a heavenly scripture. These things didn’t exist at all in Cicada City. They even found it hard to understand.
At this time, Yuan Tang clutched the identity card lovingly, asking nervously and excitedly: “Big Brother, with this, can we go out and move around freely? Witness the sky and sun with our own eyes, enjoy sunlight, breathe pure air, taste clean water sources…”
She rambled on at length, but Yuan Zhu pretended to be troubled: “Uh… well, you probably won’t see the sun and moon in Running City. But feeling the warmth of sunlight and enjoying daytime is still no problem.”
Yuan Tang was shocked: “Can’t see the sun? Why! Doesn’t even the upper realm have a sun?!”
Candle: “No, it’s just that the cloud layer here is too thick, blocking the sun and moon. But sunlight can still penetrate the clouds and mist to illuminate daytime. Additionally, I need to remind you that although Running’s water sources are thousands of times cleaner than the Underground World, they still contain a lot of impurities, bacteria, and parasites. It’s best to cultivate the habit of drinking boiled water.”
Upon learning that the upper realm was indeed as wonderful as they had imagined, the little girl nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes! We’ll drink boiled water. Can we casually taste the plants and flowers by the roadside too? No one to stop us.”
Yuan Zhu felt a headache at their cognition: “I still strongly suggest you only eat fruits and vegetables. Insects and wild animals found by the roadside should also be cooked before eating. This is common sense in the upper realm!”
He couldn’t even imagine that after this brother and sister gained freedom, they would feel intense hunger for any organic matter they saw and actively act on it. The scene was too beautiful; he dared not look.
After guiding the brother and sister to complete their identity binding, Yuan Zhu felt that beyond the strong connection of Anti-Law, he now had two extremely vague new connections with each of them.
These were the faith connections of the Anti-Law Master and Lord of Yin Mountain. How weak was this connection?
If the Anti-Law bond he had formed with the two was estimated at 100, then the Anti-Law Master and Lord of Yin Mountain anchored through the annual faith list might be slightly stronger than 0.001%, roughly equivalent to nothing.
No wonder the average citizen in Running City had 10 legal faiths per person, yet the blessings they enjoyed were so thin. Besides the deities being unhelpful and stingy, and too many users diluting it per person.
It was also related to this faith traffic being too small. Even if the Anti-Law Master fiercely poured into his believers through this weak faith connection, the blessings they could accumulate daily were very few, usually requiring a week of sign-ins to get relatively noticeable benefits.
Only someone like Nie Yin, who offered worship to a specific deity day after day for years, could gradually strengthen and expand the faith connection between herself and the deity. Over time, the deity’s effects would become apparent.
Yuan Zhu then asked: “Can you sense the faith objects you declared?”
Yuan Tang nodded first: “There are two particularly obvious ones, Anti-Law Master and Yin Mountain Lord, both pointing to the shadow power that Big Brother taught us. Additionally, I can clearly sense the Holy Church and Life Destiny. Frog God.”
The four faiths mentioned by little Tang were the basic projects that Yuan Zhu specified the brother and sister must declare. The first two were smuggling in private goods; as for believing in the Holy Church, it was deeply linked to the Holy Light attribute contained in their True Qi.
The Holy Light System had vast forces; one could believe in the Eight Holy Kings or famous archangels… Yuan Zhu didn’t belong to any of them. But his current attainment in Holy Light wasn’t yet sufficient for worship.
Thus, he selected the Holy Church as this faith concept for the brother and sister to anchor. Directly worshiping the Holy Church meant believing in the Holy Light energy itself, not targeting a specific entity, which could still enhance their affinity with Holy Light.
As for believing in Life Destiny. Frog God, it was closely related to the core industry of Frog Factory. Yuan Tang was his appointed Frog Factory deputy manager + sales, Yuan Tiao was the Frog Factory security head… Believing in one more frog wouldn’t hurt.
Yuan Zhu: “For the remaining six faiths, can you sense them and state the domains they each represent?”
The little girl was very interested in the upper realm’s Faith List; she knew it was a pure freebie welfare.
It seemed like civilians worshiped deities, offering faith to gain blessings. In reality, it was the opposite: countless faith objects competed viciously for customer groups, offering maximum sincerity and benefits just to retain more believers (clients).
Therefore, simple faith had little binding force on ordinary people, low side effects, and could be changed freely; choose whichever offered the best benefits. Only when this connection broke a certain limit and divine power became a pollution root eroding the soul would the relationship reverse.
Yuan Tang’s faith state was far from that level; moreover, she had Anti-Law protection and had already sold herself. So contacting as many deities as possible through faith was a very meaningful practical attempt.
Folk wild cultivators couldn’t obtain systematic knowledge from the University, lacked the aptitude and connections to join a sect, and were unwilling to touch overly dangerous and mad forbidden roots.
Then, through the Faith List to communicate with various deities, obtain scattered knowledge fragments as blessings, and self-grope combinations—why not take the folk science path.
At this time, Yuan Tang was full of exploratory spirit, actively communicating with the other six faith targets, quickly deepening the faith links, and uncertainly said to Yuan Zhu: “I seem to sense powers related to plants, medicine, and corpses?”
Yuan Zhu nodded: “Your perception and spirituality are very good. The faith objects Nie Yin declared for you are locally popular ones: Magic Potion Master. Su, God of Alchemy, Goddess of Elixir of Immortality. Additionally, the popular Harvest Goddess from the School of Dangerous Botany. I selected Life Destiny. Mushroom and Life Destiny. Female Corpse for you. Making up 10 faith objects.”
The ones selected by Nie Yin: Magic Potion Master, God of Alchemy, Goddess of Elixir of Immortality, perfectly corresponded to the East Coast Alchemy Magic Potion System, West Coast Classical Five Elements Alchemy, and the renowned Elixir of Immortality from the Kunlun System.
These three faith objects not only fit the little girl’s dream of alchemy but also matched Yuan Zhu’s needs for entering the pharmaceutical industry, while aligning with the professional scope of the School of Dangerous Botany.
The final Harvest Goddess was to let Yuan Tang quickly master medicinal herb planting technology, to match the senior student and serve as her little assistant.
The two Life Destiny ones selected by Yuan Zhu were the simplest and most brainless. When civilians didn’t know what faith objects to pick, Life Destiny was undoubtedly the best choice. Among them, Mushroom God was a popular faith object in the humid environment of Running, second only to Frog God.
Additionally, Yuan Zhu planned to assign the task of farming Nightmare Mushrooms to the little girl. She was proficient in growing mushrooms in the underground world and had an innate affinity with Mushroom God.
As for the other Life Destiny. Female Corpse, it represented Earth Year and the ancient corpses deeply buried in the earth. Besides the sixth of the twelve zodiacs, it also corresponded to the sixth month of each year, with meanings in mysticism such as earth, death, rebirth.
Yuan Zhu thought that believing in Female Corpse might improve her success rate with corpse seeds. Planting and cultivating spirit medicine in corpses—wasn’t that a kind of rebirth from death, withered wood blooming in spring?
As for the younger brother’s faiths, they weren’t so particular. He entrusted Nie Yin to check academy records and found two deities somewhat related to entomology. One Kitchen God related to fried insects; one entomologist who became a god posthumously due to famous works. Then a series of deities related to fighting, martial arts…
…
After handling the brother and sister’s identity issues, Yuan Zhu moved that barrel of biological experiment garbage (polluted frog) into the Haunted House and gave it to the younger brother to treat as tonight’s dinner, arranging it for the orcs and goblins.
Then, calculating the time, he directly took Yuan Tang away, drove to Frog Factory to meet Nie Yin. From today, the little girl would officially debut, residing at Frog Factory as Yuan Zhu’s distant relative, assisting Nie Yin with frog farming, and following the senior student to learn Plant School knowledge, acting as her helper.
As for the younger brother, his debut wasn’t far off. Yuan Zhu planned to let A Tiao make his first appearance as beastman fighter coach + Frog Factory security minister.
As for the five half-blood orcs, besides amateur-level underground fighting, they were naturally his appointed Frog Factory security captain. Five fierce-looking, muscle-bound orc captains, each leading a few similarly muscled cattle-and-horse goblin temporary workers.
Frog Factory’s prestige was directly maxed out; which other suburban workshop could afford so many power path extraordinaries? He even thought he could rent out this power to A Miao for smuggling activities in the Misty Mountains.
If A Miao can do it, how can I, the local tyrant Yin Mountain Lord, not? Another path to making money.
