Chapter 62: Exponential Growth in Assets, Returning to Running (Subscription Requested)

The palm briefly touched the stone pillar, and without any visible changes, Lv Rang withdrew his hand. Anyone unaware would have thought he had remembered something midway and abruptly stopped.

Meng Xi looked at him with considerable anticipation: "Done?"

"Mhm!" Lv Rang nodded.

Yuan Zhu: "??!"

Just like that? It looked completely unchanged. Even the sensitive [Celestial Scripture] couldn't be bothered to issue a warning, showing zero regard for the "Pipe Wrench Sword Immortal."

Mai Lili, who had been curious throughout the entire process, timidly asked, "Do you feel anything?"

Although she had no intention of becoming a sword immortal, she harbored great expectations for self-enhancement. Therefore, she paid special attention to Lv Rang, who was roughly on the same level as her.

"I..." Lv Rang frowned, carefully perceiving the [Sword Blessing] bestowed upon him by the stone pillar.

This was a rather explicit permanent state, much like someone mastering the ability to breathe underwater. Seemingly unchanged on the surface, but profoundly different in reality.

Suddenly, he extended his index finger, drawing upon both his spirit and physical stamina. On the surface of the first two phalanges, he condensed and maintained a membrane-like force field, forming a faint, sharp edge over the seemingly rounded fingertip.

Sizzle!

He bent his knees and squatted down, dragging his index finger across the floor, leaving a smudge-like scratch on the smooth marble tiles. Following that, Lv Rang revoked the [Sword Qi] and gently wiped the sword mark with his fingertip skin once more, quickly cleaning the floor into a brand-new state without leaving any grime.

The atmosphere at the scene instantly plunged into an awkward silence.

Meng Xiuyue gently applauded and encouraged, "No need to be discouraged. The 'sword qi' you condensed could not pierce the hardness of the tile, so naturally it left no scratch. You only need to temper the sword qi day and night, cultivating without cease, and rewards will naturally follow."

After swallowing a bowl of chicken soup for the soul, Lv Rang's mindset recovered slightly. After all, it only cost 400 points; one couldn't demand too much. "Then how should I temper my sword?"

Meng Xiuyue replied, "That's simple. Since you are in the rookie stage, you only need to perceive a little pain to infuse your [Sword Qi] into your flying sword. Since you chose this pipe wrench, when you get home, use a razor blade to cut your finger, let the wound touch the wrench, smear your blood inch by inch, and carefully experience the shifting trends of pain and sword qi. Imagine a sharp blade cutting your finger and leaving behind pain, and imbue all these intangible things onto the wrench. Don't be afraid of pain, and don't fear injury or excessive blood loss. In [King Mao's] exclusive zone, blood tomatoes and blood bodhi seeds are available for exchange. You really are blessed."

Yuan Zhu nodded in agreement. [King Mao's] material restock had come at just the right time. As long as there was a continuous supply of "blood tomatoes" to heal his wounds, Lv Rang truly had a chance to soar to the skies.

Looking at the single remaining blood bodhi seed in his hand, and then lowering his head to look at the pipe wrench, sword cultivator Lv Rang hardened his resolve. "I understand! Then everyone, I am returning first. Next time, I will definitely not drag everyone down again."

"Goodbye! I should go too." Meng Xiuyue waved farewell and then looked at Yuan Zhu, Mai Lili, and the others. "What about you guys? Any thoughts?"

Mai Lili summoned her courage: "I've decided to listen to the captain, take this uniform as the foundation, cultivate the seed of power, and then sign the Counter-Law with [King Mao] and accept the captain's guidance."

The peerless girl who seemed to have the lowest presence and had been timid and fearful all the way was not as mediocre as she appeared. She had unexpectedly found the optimal solution among countless options.

What was most important when lingering around [King Mao's Happy Home]? Naturally, it was taking a side and hugging a powerful thigh!

As long as you signed the Counter-Law with [King Mao], from then on you were the biological daughter of the [Happy Home].

Look at the other teammates: a lone-wolf butcher and serial killer, a knowledge-faction head-stealing mob, a legalistic-system anti-fraud warning expert, a non-mainstream pipe wrench sword immortal, and a rebellious kitty king... Not a single person trusted [King Mao]; how could they possibly gain the boss's appreciation?

During the next mission, when encountering a crisis, who would the captain prioritize protecting first? Naturally, her own people. As long as you hung out with [King Mao], the captain would directly evolve into a "tutor + protector," protecting and caring for this single sapling at every turn.

Otherwise, after a mission, only [King Mao's] believers would die. Where would Big Mao's face go?

Meng Xiuyue praised sincerely, "Little sister, your path has broadened!"

Before leaving, Zhou Chu still did not forget to remind them: "Even after signing the [Counter-Law], remember that power should be grasped in your own hands. Do not excessively rely on [King Mao] and degenerate into a puppet appendage of the other party. Instead, take the power bestowed by the Counter-Law as your own as much as possible, try to sever ties with the Counter-Law deity, and ultimately break free from [King Mao's] shackles to gain freedom while monopolizing the power. For specific operations, you can try believing in the [Pale Great Law]..."

"Hey! You are so daring, can't you stop talking about these heaven-defying topics inside the [Happy Home]? I'm so scared of being implicated by you." Meng Xiuyue thought to herself that this sister was truly bold, having no idea how the word "death" was written.

Zhou Chu calmly replied, "This is my philosophy of life!"

Yuan Zhu instantly understood. The "law" this sister had set for herself was probably to speak the truth, dare to act and take responsibility, never lie, and remain utterly upright and uncorrupted?

No wonder she dared to confront the captain, acting like an iron-headed, naive "anti-fraud assistant" who opposed the heavens, the earth, and King Mao all at once. So this was her persona; she was practicing her decree. As long as she talked back (upholding the justice in her heart), she would steadily grow stronger. Wasn't this much better than Lv Rang self-mutilating every day?!

Meng Xiuyue looked at Yuan Zhu: "And you?"

"I'll browse the exchange list for a while longer, studying and comparing common supernatural systems."

"Then play slowly. Anyway, with the coin, you can return at any time. Right, my golden arm!" Meng Xiuyue hadn't forgotten Yuan Zhu's promise to divide the gold by weight. That fool Lv Rang had instantly obtained supernatural power and gotten so excited he forgot to take his money home. She wasn't that stupid.

Mai Lili, who was about to leave, also stopped, casting a pitiful expression and looking expectantly at Yuan Zhu, her eyes spelling out, "Tycoon, bestow a reward!"

Even Zhou Chu, the righteous partner who always dared to act and take responsibility, wore a "I want some too" expression as she quietly watched him.

"Split it, split it, one arm each, pick your own. Zhou Chu, you break it off." Yuan Zhu stepped aside, revealing the golden bodhisattva standing firmly at attention behind him.

Meng Xiuyue, a slave to aesthetics, spoke up first: "Dragon claw, I want the dragon's arm!"

Mai Lili chose the thickest-looking beastly arm. Zhou Chu casually picked the most normal, human-like arm.

After taking three golden arms, the three of them did not linger and returned to their respective rooms. Only Yuan Zhu remained in the hall, examining the spatial stone pillar.

On the right side of the stone pillar, a transparent, columnar hollow tube was embedded.

He reached out and touched it, learning that this was a transmission device used for recharging. [King Mao] only needed to fill this cylindrical tube to lock onto the [Nightmare Foam Layer] and launch a "foam world" invasion and transmission.

If [King Mao] didn't make a top-up, Yuan Zhu and his teammates could similarly inject collected materials (cocoon, mummified giant palm, blood bodhi) or points, as well as the "polluted energy" accumulated through their own cultivation. As long as the cylinder was filled, it could likewise trigger a "spatial transmission."

The stone pillar stood right here, and relying on the coin, one could return to the [Happy Home] at any time.

In other words, even if [King Mao] wasn't working, as long as Yuan Zhu accumulated enough energy, he could independently shuttle through new foam worlds, or team up with teammates to take on private jobs.

"The atmosphere in this [Happy Home] is really relaxed."

Yuan Zhu sighed, noting that even the spatial transmission device was left unguarded for people to visit and use. It seemed [King Mao] truly didn't restrict people. This part-time job at the [Happy Home] was quite sustainable.

Workaholic Yuan Zhu decided to take on another new job!

At that moment, he noticed his points were not the 400 the captain mentioned, but a neat 2000! Among them, the captain had allocated 800 points to him, and the extra 400 points were related to the spy rat he had left in the Vajra Temple.

Not only had he seen the changes occurring within the Vajra Temple through the "rat's" perspective, but the captain who provided the rat had also seen, through its eyes, the scenes of the Buddha thorn suppressing the Buddha corpse ghost and sealing the [Nether Spring].

Thus, he doubled Yuan Zhu's guaranteed base salary as a reward for this intelligence.

As for the remaining 1200 points, they had little to do with the [Happy Home] and were a feedback mechanism of the Gods Space. Perhaps certain actions he took in the foam world triggered the reward mechanism, earning him this bonus.

2000 points was not a small sum; it could fund 5 sword cultivators. However, he hadn't decided on a supernatural path for his human identity yet, so this sum was temporarily shelved. It wouldn't be too late to return and spend it once he made up his mind.

"Little Spicy Strip, continue recording information and intelligence."

"Little Snake understands!"

Out of curiosity, he specifically searched for the [Basic Mechanics Model. Newton's Divine Palm] and found the relevant information.

"Knowledge Faction, artificial magic net, Luling Star inert mechanics magic net..."

Following the crash and invasion of the "crystal wall universe plane fragments," the planet Luling had briefly experienced a round of magical resurgence.

When the magic tide was in its ascending phase, the indigenous immigrants of the crystal wall system also realized that the universe they survived in had changed, and the cosmic rules and magic systems had completely failed.

Those mages at the top of the food chain pinned their hopes on artificially creating a "new magic net" to cover the entire plane sector, constraining the leakage and dissipation of magic power, and ultimately relying on the [Magic Net] to achieve an internal circulation of magic power while reactivating and re-emerging the failed "spell slot system."

Unfortunately, the magic tide collapsed at the speed of light.

In less than a hundred years, Luling, a seemingly ordinary zero-magic planet, instantly erupted into chaos under the stimulation, with numerous pollution sources bursting forth and outer cosmic entities invading one after another... The immigrants from the crystal wall universe were terrified: Could it be that we've transmigrated to the [Abyss] of another universe?

Although the "artificial magic net" of the crystal wall universe failed, this knowledge and technology were completely preserved and passed down. Later, through research by visionary local talents of Luling, they joined hands with the mages of the crystal wall universe to create the [New Classical Mechanics Inertial Magic Net] which was more suited to the physical constitution of native Luling babies.

This was the origin of the current [Knowledge Faction].

The [Mechanics Magic Net] was not the "magic net" of a magical universe; it lacked magic elements and even more so, spells.

Luling's scholars merely referenced the structure of the [Magic Net] while yearning to master various spells with human bodies, just like otherworldly mages. Thus, they jointly developed the native [Mechanics Magic Net].

Replacing "magic power" with "knowledge + wisdom," and replacing "0-ring spell models" with the most basic "classical mechanics models," they similarly developed high-dimensional storage structures resembling "spell slots," substituting "spell books" with the carried "skull servo." This allowed them to store "lomechanical models" in advance and stimulate and release them through the [Skull]...

After all, using the skull to hold knowledge and release knowledge was also extremely consistent with common sense.

And this was the reason Meng Xiuyue looked incomparably clean. She herself had not suffered any pollution; rather, she used the "skull servo" in her backpack as a spell-casting medium to indirectly store knowledge and construct models, releasing them at a critical moment to blast the bone-polluted fish grandmother to pieces with a single palm.

Yuan Zhu was indeed interested in the [Mechanics Magic Net], but unfortunately, the introductory basics required a massive reserve of native Luling knowledge. And not the ordinary knowledge learned in high school, but supernatural knowledge that one could gradually come into contact with only after university.

Only this kind of [Supernatural Knowledge] capable of stimulating the spirit and spirituality to produce mutations at the soul level was qualified to serve as a clean substitute energy for magic.

In fact, after Yuan Zhu's preliminary and hasty understanding of the [Knowledge Faction], he believed that "supernatural knowledge" itself was also a subtle form of mental pollution. It was just that the pollution characteristics were not so obvious and intense.

The more supernatural knowledge one learned, the more profoundly it would shape a scholar's soul, distorting their cognition. And this "distortion" also carried corresponding supernatural power.

Buddhism could absorb and fuse the souls of believers to strengthen its own soul through means like brainwashing and resonance. Meanwhile, the Knowledge Faction absorbed "knowledge" as nourishment by learning and mastering supernatural knowledge, which could likewise strengthen the soul.

"I am still not smart enough, failing even to reach the entry threshold."

The sprite chimed in: "Don't panic, Boss. You just haven't had the opportunity to contact this supernatural knowledge. Now, with my assistance, your learning ability surpasses ordinary people. With photographic memory and the ability to draw inferences from one instance, as long as you have 'spirituality' and the sparks of inspiration flash endlessly, I can provide the corresponding computing power to realize your dream. You and I joining forces, wielding double swords in unison, will definitely become the top scientific research workers in the Luling world!"

"Really?"

The sprite affirmed: "As true as gold! The [Great Desolate Celestial Scripture] is a professional espionage tool for going undercover in strange universes, possessing super strong scientific research and analysis capabilities. Cultivation is merely an auxiliary means. Essentially, it is about training the 'user (spy)' to continuously grow stronger, so as to better collect otherworldly data and intelligence and prepare for future cross-universe invasions. Therefore, you and I are destined to become great scientists! This 'Knowledge Faction' seems to have no threshold; we can dual-cultivate it in the future, bookmarked."

After spending a full hour browsing the exchange list and moving all recordable information into the [Celestial Scripture Database], Yuan Zhu attempted to exchange the "skeleton magic cocoons" he had collected in the foam world, only to find that one cocoon was worth 1 point.

The price was ridiculously cheap, whereas the exchange price to buy them was 5 points per cocoon.

"..."

Thus, he decisively abandoned the exchange. An instant appreciation of 5 times meant a 500% return on investment!

"Right!" He suddenly remembered an item, suspected to be the culprit behind him being dragged into the [Happy Home]—the metal token he had kept close to his body all along.

Pulling out the [Night Watch Department] token, its original dark gold material had now turned a mottled copper-green. The three seal-script characters for "Night Watch Department" on the front had also been distorted beyond recognition, impossible to decipher.

When Yuan Zhu brought the copper token in front of the stone pillar, he received a piece of feedback in his mind: A metal wreckage with a small amount of spatial attributes, its internal energy circulation system having been distorted and destroyed by external forces, leading to a sharp drop in value. The material itself can be exchanged for 700 points.

"So my being dragged into [Happy Home] really was thanks to this token? Spatial attribute metal, could it be what the other side used to locate Ningrun? The coins of the Gods Space similarly contain similar metallic substances. Is the [Night Watch Department] in the mortal world of planet Luling, or in the [Spirit Realm Layer], or perhaps the [Foam Layer]?"

Returning to his bedroom filled with lingering doubts, he picked up the golden bodhisattva, activated the shadow uniform to split out black threads, wrapped and clung them to one of the bodhisattva's fingers, and repeatedly bent it back and forth until it broke through metal fatigue, snapping and tearing the finger off.

Although he had gotten rich overnight, he wasn't foolish enough to directly exchange a golden bodhisattva. In fact, gold was also considered a hard currency within the "Gods Space."

Not only did [King Mao and the Gods Space] recycle it long-term, but even in the foam world, gold had always been an equivalent currency recognized from ancient times to the present.

A single golden finger was enough for him to splurge for a while. When it ran out, he could always come back to get more.

"Return!"

The dizziness gradually faded, the brightness around Yuan Zhu suddenly dimmed, and the air grew turbid. Drip, drip, the sound of dripping water entered his ears.

Only then did he realize he was back in the restroom. Huh? Where's my toilet?! Looking around, he found himself locked in the innermost part of the restroom partition, a room specially used to store mops and buckets.