Chapter 59: Universal Boundary Standards for Document Spirits (Subscription Requested)

After the captain left, the atmosphere in the [Happy Home] instantly relaxed.

The tall and sturdy Black brother did not communicate or interact with anyone. He gathered his fully alienated uniform, picked up a blood-seeping cloth bag, and walked alone toward the stone pillar. His eccentric behavior instantly attracted the gazes of the other five pairs.

The Black man touched the stone pillar with a single finger, and after thinking for a few seconds, he directly untied the cloth bag, turned it upside down, and shook out a pile of skull demon cocoons stained with sticky green foul blood. There were at least thirty or more of them, rolling all over the floor. Among them were also mixed a few withered corpse ritual palms.

"Hiss...!"

Seeing this, Lü Rang gasped, a sense of awe welling up in his heart. He remembered clearly that the Black Butcher had parted ways when leaving the inn and had not gone to the Buddhist ritual at all.

Therefore, relying on himself alone without any teammate assistance (no powerful thighs to hug), the other person had spent only half a night individually slaughtering at least thirty-plus 'mad eggplants' and a small number of ghouls?

Meng Xiyue, who had confirmed that the other person was just an ordinary human with not the slightest trace of extraordinary traits on him, also praised: "What a ruthless man!"

Relying purely on a uniform plus a bone-chopping knife, aided by the cover of night and racial stealth talents, he carved out a bloody path. True to being a butcher.

Zhou Chu squinted even more, beginning to record the other person's characteristics and mentally stamping him with the label of a 'murderous demon'.

Originally just an ordinary butcher from Runing, the other person might still have been able to suppress the demonic nature within his heart. But when he was summoned into the foam world by [King Mao Mao], tasted the thrill of slaughter, and used foul blood to nourish a uniform, he was probably destined to walk a path of slaughter, eventually having his rationality eroded by pollution and degenerating into a criminal! A murderous fiend!

Who knows what Hu Tuoluo did, but that pile of skull cocoons and withered corpse ritual palms were all collected. Afterwards, without exchanging anything, the man carried his bone-chopping knife back to his exclusive bedroom, looking as though he had returned to the Spirit of Records realm.

Lü Rang felt his eyes burning with envy and spoke up, "Let's go take a look too! The captain gave me 400 contribution points. Sister Chu and Meng Xiyue, you two know a lot, please give me some advice on what cultivation route I should choose that is both combat-effective and safe."

Hearing this, Meng Xiyue nodded eagerly, "Alright, I've read a lot of books, I definitely won't scam you. Yuan Zhu, are you coming? In return for the gold you gave me, I'll customize a personalized enhancement route for you."

Yuan Zhu shook his head and refused, "No need. My uniform is temporarily sufficient. A move played cannot be taken back; I need to fully understand various systems and think deeply before making a choice."

Zhou Chu deeply admired Yuan Zhu's mindset, "This kind of thinking is very correct. Maintain it and don't be seduced by her. The [Head-Stealing Crow] is cunning, volatile, and deeply treacherous beneath a loyal facade; she is not to be trusted. You must carefully choose a legal system with high controllability and safety. This is taking responsibility for your own life."

The investigator habitually instilled her unique anti-fraud philosophy into her teammates. In short: mindlessly reject all temptations, give up thinking, and you won't get scammed.

"Hey, don't slander people out of thin air." Meng Xiyue grew displeased. What cunning and volatile, deeply treacherous beneath a loyal facade?

Zhou Chu glanced at her bulging backpack, then directed her gaze to her smooth-skinned neck, teasing, "So, you're planning to cut off your own head then?"

"Hmph, you rigid, dogmatic Law-path folks understand a fraction of what Knowledge School matters are about. Lü Rang, let's go, Sister will pick a heaven-defying ability for you. I guarantee you'll slaughter your way through the foam world and henceforth transform into a dragon upon meeting Meng Xiyue."

Meng Xiyue was full of fighting spirit, eager to configure the test subject at the fastest speed and highest cost-effectiveness to prove it to everyone.

Lü Rang followed behind her with a mixture of apprehension and fear, daring not to refuse, nor wishing to.

After all, apart from this Taixi university student, the only other person with broad experience who could give him advice was the Taixi investigator. The rest of the people couldn't help him.

As an unrated midnight street-racer reserve, he naturally harbored fear toward the Safety Bureau; by comparison, he was more willing to listen to the university student.

Because a university degree on Spirit of Records Star carried a higher gold content than a Ph.D. from Earth.

Above the [University Student] job class, there was no further path. There were no graduate students or doctoral candidates; they were uniformly called [Scholars]. And the [Scholars] employed within the academy were referred to as [Professors].

The group walked toward the stone pillar, while Yuan Zhu slowed his pace, opened the small black bag given by the captain, and poured out ten black coins made of a metal material that somehow felt somewhat familiar.

One side of the black coins was engraved with intricate and gorgeous flowers, and the other side was engraved with the number 72, the meaning of which he could not figure out. The moment the black coins landed in his palm, Yuan Zhu understood their purpose.

The essence of these black coins was a key. After returning to the mortal world of the Spirit of Records, no matter where one was, as long as the surrounding space was not anchored and locked, one only needed to consume a single coin to return to [Happy Home].

This was what the captain called space smuggling. Ten coins meant ten return trips, enough to contact buyers in the mortal world, ascertain their demands, and complete proxy purchases from the Divine Realm.

In addition to the basic function of a key, the coins could also unlock the 'high-end encrypted hidden transaction mode of the Divine Realm' outside of [Happy Home].

Within the [Divine Realm], there was not only [King Mao Mao]'s faction but also other teams. Everyone had different natures and purposes, yet they could trade on the same platform.

Thus, someone took the lead in forming high-end exclusive circles, using coins as a threshold fee to screen out poor newcomers like Lü Rang, while incidentally earning a batch of ticket money.

Furthermore, coins could be used to issue bounty tasks. Just like those wanted criminals of the Spirit of Records mentioned by the captain, who dared not return to the mortal world or even enter the spirit realm layer, they issued bounty tasks, letting newcomers like Lü Rang act as errand boys to purchase contraband goods.

Not paying attention for a moment, they would end up beaten to death in the real world. This was the so-called: men die for wealth just as birds die for food.

Aside from these 10 coins, the remaining 400 contribution points had no physical form and were stored in his account, which could be displayed by touching the stone pillar. Thus, Yuan Zhu stepped forward quickly, found an unoccupied side, and pressed his hand against it.

The next moment, a illusory conceptual screen surfaced in his thoughts, completely different from soul programs like [Taoist Scriptures]. It was more like the manifestation of a special spiritual-side power, transcending words and language, allowing anyone to understand the information within.

The information projected by the stone pillar was very simple: the exchange list of the Divine Realm and the communication platform.

The former was divided into two parts, large and small: [Divine Realm] and [Happy Home]. Exchanging items from the spatial list required paying the full price, while shopping at Happy Home offered a twenty percent discount.

As for the communication platform area, most of the regions were [Hidden] and required paying coins to unlock. The remaining limited information either consisted of posting bounty tasks, buying extraordinary materials, or bartering and trading intelligence.

Yuan Zhu ignored the communication platform and focused his attention on the official exchange list. The list presented him with two regions: [Mortal] and [Seed].

Anything higher was blurred out and not displayed due to insufficient strength. Merely browsing the contents of the list made him understand the meanings of [Mortal] and [Seed].

[Mortal] referred to ordinary people and the secular world. From a newborn, spotless baby to an elderly, frail person with a skyrocketing deviation degree, all belonged to [Mortal].

Those cultivators who actively accepted a certain lineage of pollution, stepped into the extraordinary realm, and mastered extraordinary powers were still categorized under [Mortal].

Through the information preserved in the stone pillar, Yuan Zhu learned that the power systems or pollution sources in the world of the Spirit of Records were varied and diverse. Each had its own level standards, forming its own self-contained and incompatible lineages, with unique advancement rules and realm judgments.

Power systems were difficult to compare and measure against one another, long lacking a unified standard of strength.

Eventually, by summarizing and observing the special natural reactions triggered in the world of the Spirit of Records by powerhouses of different systems, people formulated a set of standards for measuring strength.

[Seed] was the first sign, the first rank.

Regardless of the system, after officially entering the threshold, one deeply integrated their own spirit and life with the pollution energy, controlled and tamed the 'pollution power', and condensed the 'foundation' of that system, known as the [Seed]. This was similar to [Foundation Establishment] in immortal cultivation.

As the cultivator undergoing the process, one could clearly perceive that a certain core essence of their own had merged with the pollution source, turning into a seed rooted in the flesh and soul, beginning to take root and sprout, creating a skill tree belonging to oneself.

To the outside world, or to the planet of the Spirit of Records, if a practitioner at this stage was beaten to death, the 'seed' within their body would not dissipate; instead, it would spontaneously converge and condense, plundering all vitality and soul to turn into a 'true seed' that could be re-harvested and reused.

Whether used as a pill for advancement within the same system, crafted into equipment, or traded as equivalent currency, it was extremely good.

This peculiar phenomenon of 'spontaneously condensing an ability seed after death' was the origin of the [Seed] rank.

It had nothing to do with whether you had successfully condensed a power seed and established a foundation within your body. Outsiders didn't care if you had a future or potential; they only cared about harvesting a seed to trade after finishing you off.

The rank following [Seed] was called [Gate].

When a cultivator's strength broke through to another stage, it would trigger the 'ascension mechanism', and they would be rejected by the Spirit of Records into the spirit realm layer.

The weak would often ascend all at once, escaping into the spirit realm and finding it difficult to return. Even if they managed to accidentally linger in the mortal world, they still had to constantly endure the rejection of ascension, and if they weren't careful, they would passively shatter the void.

[Gate], however, was the second extraordinary phenomenon triggered by true powerhouses. Without needing to deliberately force it, they could spontaneously condense a [Gate] within their own extraordinary system that connected to the mortal world of the Spirit of Records, freely entering and exiting the mortal world and different dimensions.

The weak grew stronger and were rejected into ascension, while true powerhouses passively condensed a gate to make timed returns. Translated to the immortal cultivation universe, this meant frequently and freely entering and exiting the two realms.

"What a weird standard for measuring strength!"

Equating the [Seed] with [Foundation Establishment] felt quite reasonable to Yuan Zhu. But how could this [Gate] be connected to the [Golden Core] no matter how he looked at it?

"So, my current human body is clearly at the [Mortal] rank. But what about the Tiger Demon?" Yuan Zhu currently had no obvious feeling of having condensed a [Seed], let alone passively condensed a [Gate], so what tier was the Tiger Demon?

"This universal standard is not universal at all."

Little Spicy Strip encouraged him: "That's all because you, Boss, are the one and only! Unique! Completely unbound by secular standards, no one can define you!"