New concept of the mysterious way to ascend to immortality

Chapter 137 The Call of Teammates

After a long journey, Yuan Zhu, guided by the guide, led his team to the surface world. A somewhat dazzling light shone from the sky into the huge tunnel connecting to the ground.

The light stung his eyes and made him feel somewhat dazed... He hadn't seen sunlight for almost ten days, and it felt like a lifetime had passed.

Along the way, he witnessed the harsh environment of the underworld, encountered multiple attacks, and came across several hidden forbidden areas, but all of them were resolved and dealt with by the [Tiger Demon].

During this time, there were maze-like, looping cavities, filled with anesthetic miasma, and the tunnels secreted corrosive acid, resembling the mutated intestines of a celestial tree root. Once one strayed into them, escape was nearly impossible, until finally the tiger demon violently tore a path through them with its 'spatial claws'.

Some restricted areas are filled with highly polluted miasma, and decaying roots connect to those who were once 'Kunlun Immortals' in life, but were imprisoned in special areas after death and became 'Immortal Zombies' similar to earthbound spirits, hunting down passersby.

Yuan Zhu's team had spotted them in advance and tried to avoid them, but they were still detected by a group of 'immortal zombies'. A tattered root attached to their tailbone led them on a chase. Fortunately, they were distracted by two 'shadow demonic insects' wreaking havoc, and with the Tiger Demon covering their retreat, they managed to escape.

There were also the roots of the decaying immortal tree, which had come back to life like a zombie. At its core was a huge wooden brain tumor, with hundreds of thick, rotten roots spreading out from it. On the surface of the thick roots, screaming human faces appeared, emitting meaningless groans and using the putrid aroma to lure passing demonic insects and humans.

This wave couldn't even be avoided. The 'roots' released by the activated brain tumor roots stretched for miles. With so much food gathered together, it immediately triggered the other side, which stretched out numerous rotten roots to prey on it.

Ultimately, Yuan Zhu had no choice but to remotely detonate a 'demon insect'. The resulting burst of [Holy Light] triggered a chain reaction within the confined, polluted area. The Holy Light purified the pollution, but the pollution, stimulated, went berserk further, even attacking the 'woody brain tumor' and wreaking havoc in the enclosed underground region.

After fleeing the area in a sorry state, the team encountered wild demonic insects that were devouring the decaying roots, multiplying wildly, and swarming like ocean waves... as well as a giant demonic insect that wandered alone in the underground tunnels, constantly searching for food and striving to become bigger, stronger, and more powerful.

Faced with this underground crisis, which resembled eighty-one tribulations, the Tiger Demon relied on its 'evil spirits + shadow tentacles' for early warning, avoiding it whenever possible, detouring whenever possible, and adapting to the situation if avoidance was not an option. It could release shadow demonic insects to draw fire and take its place. If all else failed, it would confront the enemy head-on.

Sometimes, when he was confident of victory, he would even take the initiative to provoke others and keep the danger within a manageable range.

In the end, they arrived safely at the surface and successfully swallowed a Celestial Zombie, a large number of activated roots, and a massive amount of demonic insects... as spoils of war and food, which they sealed in the [Inner Universe].

He simultaneously activated multiple 'Changgui Refining Quests'. He had a premonition that the [Immortal Zombie] and [Activated Roots] might yield unexpected surprises?

...

Seeing the long-awaited light streaming into the upward-sloping tunnel entrance, he couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Then a burning, stinging sensation came from my respiratory tract; it was a burning sensation, as if my lungs were being burned, and I was inhaling corrosive chemical fumes.

The air is toxic; to be precise, the surface world is filled with toxic gases that are impossible to breathe. Normal organisms cannot survive on the surface, and they will die quickly if they inhale the toxic gases.

On the contrary, the polluted miasma of the underground world, while having an equally high mortality rate, is barely livable, representing a slow erosion, gradual pollution, and eventual death.

He turned to look at his teammates beside him, whose faces were already covered by breathing masks resembling 'facehuggers'. They had been using these 'facehugger' masks to breathe the high concentration of 'true qi + spiritual energy' they had stored in advance, similar to a biological oxygen tank, throughout their journey.

As for Yuan Zhu, his lungs contained a large number of [Holy Cough Particles], which were constantly burning their life force (demonic insects) to purify everything he inhaled. He used the [Holy Light] within his body to repair the damage.

He stepped out of the shadowy root tunnel and into the light, where he saw an endless expanse of red scorched earth, desolate and like the end of the world.

The land appears flat and boundless, but in the distance, cracks and ravines are everywhere, like scratches left by a giant blade; looking into the distance, at the end of the hazy smog, are the outlines of bare mountain ranges.

The entire world is a mixture of red iron sand, black gravel, and yellow dust; endless deserts and Gobi, long rift valleys, and winding mountain ranges... The howling wind whips up clouds of dust, and not a trace of green can be seen, as if we have arrived on Mars.

The only traces of life that once existed are probably the bare, solitary, towering 'remains of the fairy tree' that have been ravaged and worn down by storms and sandstorms, leaving only a withered branch.

Yuan Zhu speculated that the [Immortal Tree] at its peak might not have been a single pillar of the World Tree, but rather a single tree forming a forest, with its underground root network giving rise to numerous 'branch trees' that sprang up from the ground in the bubble world.

Today, giant, withered trees, resembling the ruins of skyscrapers, have been weathered and shaped into bizarre forms by black storms, standing alone on the desolate land.

Looking up again, the sky was a rusty red, like the end of the world, with four irregular cracks. If the sky were a sheet of paper, the sky above where Yuan Zhu was standing had been torn into four pieces that could not be pieced back together, and had not been able to heal for a hundred years.

Around the enormous crack, countless tiny cracks extended, seeping into the fragments of the sky. On the back of these cracks, some revealed spectacular starry skies; others showed layers of overlapping colors, swirling into twisted vortices; and still others displayed destructive scenes of intertwined thunderstorms.

“Spectacular!”

This place was indeed a post-apocalyptic world. Apart from a giant, mutated worm as large as a mountain in the distance that was slowly moving, there was no trace of any living creature.

How is the moon-worshiping ceremony conducted? When does it begin?

The guide following behind him explained, “When night falls, the ‘rust red’ of the sky will be replaced by the ‘starry sky’ through the cracks, and that is the ‘night.’ To hold the ceremony, you need to move to the foot of any ‘ancient tree reaching to the heavens’ and touch the wooden base on the ground in order to receive the moonlight.”

"How do I know when night has fallen? I see that the longest crack in the sky is already filled with 'stars'."

“When the starry sky fills all the cracks, night will fall. It’s about a third of the day now. We’ve already missed the first small full moon and are in the middle of the big full moon. There’s plenty of time.”

Yuan Zhu nodded: "Then let's get started!"

The surface world is also fraught with dangers, including the unpredictable Black Storm, Corrupting Iron Rain, and Undead Knights, as well as the super-sized, demonized worms that have swelled to their limit and can hardly move underground...

Only by moving to the foot of the 'giant dead tree' can one enjoy the protection of the 'fairy tree's' remaining force field.

Although the air was filled with poison and impossible to breathe, Yuan Zhu felt a sense of liberation from the 'root network' and a release from a layer of shackles that enveloped his body.

So, unable to resist, he cast a [Light Spell] into space. The result was a small burst of holy light, but it didn't cause any 'polluted spiritual energy' disturbance. It only made the uneasy team members around him feel a sense of unease. "So the underground world really does discriminate against [Holy Light]? Is it the Kunlun system's 'Root Network' unconsciously suppressing and inhibiting it?"

With doubts in his mind, Yuan Zhu ordered his team to ride on the Shadow Demon Insects and begin to move at high speed toward the nearest 'withered wood remains'.

In the short journey of about ten miles, they encountered several attacks from giant insects hidden in the Gobi Desert, and even came across two 'death knights' who were filled with deathly aura, half of them wearing rusty iron armor and the other half being dried-up skeletons. They charged at the group at an extremely slow pace, wielding broken iron weapons with only the hilts of their swords remaining.

As a result, it was mercilessly crushed by the claws of the demonic insect, which rolled over the corpse without stopping, leaving it scattered all over the ground.

"Was that the infamous 'Calamity Knight' just now?"

As they sped along, Yuan Zhu posed a profound question to the guide: "That weakling is the most feared 'forbidden natural disaster' in the underworld?"
The guide shook his head: "No, those were corpses infected by the aura of natural disaster that escaped during the 'Undead Knights' movement. These corpses would spontaneously absorb 'iron particles' in the Gobi Desert to repair their bodies, gradually transforming into zombies. As long as they killed enough, they could gradually self-repair, eventually being discovered, captured, crushed, and absorbed by the 'Knights'..."

According to the guide, true knightly orders would roam aimlessly, typically hunting 'enchanted giant insects'. The pollution they released as they moved would spontaneously infect the corpses, collecting and condensing 'contaminated iron sand', which would eventually be collected by knightly orders that passed by again to replenish their battle-damaged weapons and armor.

They were quite thrifty and committed to sustainable development. Yuan Zhu also abandoned the idea of ​​swallowing a 'garbage recycling device' and slowly refining it.

As the team moved at high speed (riding insects) and repelled several waves of lone demonic insects, they successfully arrived at a spiral-shaped dead tree and once again felt the suppression brought by the 'root network' (field protection).

Yuan Zhu gave the order for the demonic insects to dig a cave down the dead tree and establish a temporary camp.

Just then, Little Spicy Stick, who was fiddling with the 'mechanical mouse' exploring the vicinity, suddenly exclaimed, "Boss, there's a signal! The mouse has received a signal from its companion!"

Yuan Zhu exclaimed in surprise, "Oh? Are there other teammates on the surface?"

Little Spicy Strip felt a delighted surprise, like meeting an old friend in a foreign land: "Wait, let me connect first!"

Under her control, the mechanical mouse quickly climbed the spiraling deadwood, continuously ascending. This time, instead of being blocked by the 'root network' signal, the mouse used the deadwood as a 'super signal receiver' to establish contact with the 'mouse' on the other side of the world.

The mechanical mouse controls its eight limbs, constantly pulling out the antenna inserted into its skull, then shaking its head and adjusting its angle, trying to receive clearer frequency bands.

"Ha, I've got it! It's a pre-stored broadcast, sent by Meng Xiyue."

Soon, Yuan Zhu heard the familiar, energetic female voice: "This is the encrypted FM [Mengxi Broadcast], playing once every hour, 24 hours a day, so please don't leave! This is the encrypted FM [Mengxi Broadcast]..."

After repeated verbose and repetitive several times, the mechanical voice finally entered a new phase.

Meng Xiyue, having pre-recorded her own audio, bragged enthusiastically over the encrypted broadcast. She recounted her legendary experiences, her current situation, and the little secrets she had uncovered through scientific research…

"Welcome, all teammates who have received this intelligence, to come and join me in [Kusarwing Castle]. I will provide you with shelter and food, as well as opportunities and strength!"

...

At this time, in the Grasshopper City, Meng Xiyue was imprisoned by the natives in a huge underground space.

The 'roots and veins' intertwined with the magic array spread from the ground to the walls, eventually covering the entire ceiling, imprisoning her in a luxuriously decorated laboratory.

This place not only has a huge 'laboratory', but also a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom... In addition, there are four young girls who serve as maids to provide her with attentive service.

Order whatever you want to eat, and ask for whatever ingredients you need. And she lived up to expectations, connecting more than twenty "skull servers" wearing "insect armor helmets" that looked like Kamen Rider heads into a super "server matrix".

Using scientific and technological methods incomprehensible to the indigenous people, they created a bizarre product that is compatible with both the "Physical Magic Network" and the "True Qi System".

They euphemistically call it creating a 'city server' for [Grasshopper City], laying out the great [True Qi Magic Network], and realizing a technological (human) revolution!

To the local Qi cultivators, this thing was a 'black box system'. They simply couldn't understand its mysteries. Clearly, the heads of these 'Heavenly Rank Corpses' had long since lost their most important primordial spirits, leaving only empty shells.

But they are strangely able to function and engage in incomprehensible thought processes. Although lacking in spirituality (wisdom), they possess the 'brainpower and calculation ability' they had in life, performing logical calculations that even they find absurd.

Even the 'puppet soldiers' refined by the Reverse Life Immortal Sect weren't this miraculous! And this woman did it with just her head?

Just a bunch of worthless dead heads connected together unleashed a super brainpower that surpassed even the 'Dream Kong Supreme', and even reproduced the [Martial Arts Domain] and even the legendary [Martial Arts Dharma Form] that only a living Heavenly Rank could unleash.

This achievement shocked the entire Grasshopper City, prompting the city lord to personally oversee and monitor the entire process.

The city lord immediately ordered that the extraterrestrial demon be imprisoned, forcing her to serve [Grasswing City] and build the [Skull Matrix] she spoke of, while also squeezing out as much of her value as possible and turning the knowledge in her mind into 'True Qi'.

Meng Xiyue, who was 'imprisoned', was very sensible and cooperative, actively translating the knowledge she had learned from [Taixi International Academy].

On one hand, they use the newly developed [Skull Servo] to learn and understand local Qi cultivation knowledge, and on the other hand, they try their best to translate the mature knowledge in their minds into local culture.

This wave of 'Renaissance (translation)' movement has greatly enhanced the technological foundation of [Grasswing City].

Although the city lord couldn't understand why this woman compromised so easily? He hadn't even used any coercion or inducement, and she had given in completely... There must be a conspiracy hidden behind this!
However, the city lord still obediently accepted and learned this translated new knowledge. He also arranged for trusted confidants to record it and seal it away to prevent it from leaking out.

If nothing unexpected happens, once Meng Xiyue has exhausted her own value and can no longer provide new knowledge, she will likely be eliminated. Meanwhile, [Grasshopper City] will leverage this alien knowledge to achieve a leap forward, becoming equal to other [Technician Families].

(End of this chapter)