Evolution - Chapter 158
Chapter 158
After tearfully recounting her miserable life for the past month, Ji Changqing received a comforting pat on the head from Yu Zhiyao. “You’ve worked hard.”
Ji Changqing was incredulous. That was it?
Yu Zhiyao had no choice but to add the reward of kisses and hugs.
Only then was Ji Changqing barely satisfied.
Because Yu Zhiyao had woken up, everyone stopped working in the fields for the day. They let loose with wild abandon, clamoring for a grand feast to celebrate properly.
Luo Gengjiu took it upon herself to hunt some tasty spirit beasts and also went to the spirit spring on the back mountain to catch a few silver-scaled fish.
Shen Guiqing politely declined everyone's enthusiastic menu requests. Ji Changqing and Yu Zhiyao’s meals were specially prepared medicinal dishes. Yunbao just ate a lot, but it wasn't picky and was especially easy to please.
As for the others, they could just eat whatever.
The group wasn't just there for the food; it was a rare chance for everyone to gather, chat, and joke around happily.
Even though they spent most of their time in an endless cycle of cultivation, they had lived for a very long time. On Blue Star, even the boldest boasts only spoke of “five thousand years of history.” But the people here? Aside from Yu Zhiyao and Ji Changqing, any random person—or dragon—was a great deal older than five thousand years.
Like elementary school students listening to adults tell fantasy stories, Yu Zhiyao and Ji Changqing listened with rapt attention, unable to get enough.
Slightly tipsy, everyone returned home under the moonlight.
Ji Changqing had wanted to crash at Yu Zhiyao’s place, but Big Sister mercilessly grabbed her by the collar, tossed her to Luo Gengjiu, and had her escorted back to her own cave dwelling. “Don’t mess around. You can’t handle it there.”
Chu Ci personally walked Yu Zhiyao back. On the way, she asked, seemingly nonchalantly, “What are your plans for the future?”
“I heard from Changqing that you have a theory about what happened to us. The worst-case scenario has already occurred; people from Blue Star were indeed involved.” Yu Zhiyao didn’t answer directly, instead throwing out another topic. “They say home is where the heart is. Ten Thousand Swords Peak, Xuan Tian Sect… is your heart at ease here?”
Chu Ci’s brow slowly furrowed, and she fell into deep thought. It wasn’t until they entered the cave dwelling that she placed seven or eight restrictive spells. “Is there something special about Blue Star?”
It was so easy talking to smart people; you didn't have to spell everything out.
“Ji Changqing and the others entered the Lingyun Peak instance and met you.” Yu Zhiyao smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I entered a God Cultivation instance.”
Chu Ci’s mind screamed, Holy shit!
Now she finally understood why Yu Zhiyao had allowed her spirit body to self-destruct over twenty years.
The path of cultivation sought longevity and the Great Dao, where the physical body and the spiritual soul were in harmony. The path of God Cultivation, however, sought immortality—how to be immortal? Even if the physical body was annihilated, the spiritual soul would remain eternal.
It was precisely because the path of God Cultivation was too difficult that it gradually declined, allowing the path of cultivation to flourish.
Although she had been in a slump for several millennia, she knew many secrets because of her master. There was still one ruthless individual from the God Cultivation lineage whose soul survived, eking out a meager existence.
She weighed the situation in her mind and felt the problem wasn't too big. “It’s fine, just focus on your cultivation. I have a lightning spirit root, so I should be able to beat him.” After a pause, she asked with some lingering fear, “You didn’t follow the path of God Cultivation, did you?”
Yu Zhiyao couldn’t help but laugh. “No.”
For some reason, when she entered the instance, she had landed in a territory that wasn't part of the God Cultivation lineage. Like listening to horror stories, she heard many terrifying legends about them—for example, the eternal soul. In theory, it existed, but once separated from the body, no matter how powerful the soul, it would weaken day by day.
So they strayed further and further from the proper path. Some would take in disciples with good aptitude, raising them from a young age. When their own bodies could no longer hold on, they would possess their disciple's body, devour the disciple's soul to nourish their own, and continue cultivating in their disciple's shell.
In some lineages that had been passed down for tens of thousands of years, you would find that the grandmaster was him, the master was him, the disciple was him, and the grand-disciple was also him. It was him, him, and still him. A single person not only lived on as an entire team but also as a sect with tens of thousands of years of heritage.
Others would directly use people's souls as nourishment, continuously replenishing their own soul's energy to cling to life.
After hearing such horror stories, who would be brave enough to pursue God Cultivation?!
Of course, the non-God Cultivation lineage at that time was trending toward the path of cultivation. They naturally had methods for strengthening the soul, but they placed more emphasis on the harmony and coexistence of the soul and body. The techniques she cultivated were from this lineage. Perhaps due to a generation gap, her understanding was lacking. After she started cultivating, her progress in strengthening her soul was slow, but she did gain a skill for being particularly sharp at sensing the good and evil in people.
It was because of this that when she was targeted by the God Cultivation lineage, she was able to endure a living hell until the very end, and even managed to temper her soul until it was quite powerful.
Ever since then, she had stayed far away from anything related to strange mental states, wanting nothing to do with them. All she wanted was to focus on science.
“As for what’s special about Blue Star, don’t you find it strange? Why can people from Blue Star match with so many cultivation and God Cultivation instances? As far as I know, there are also instances with other power systems.” Yu Zhiyao didn't have a rigid, either-or mindset. Since there were so many evolutionary paths, it wouldn't be strange for them to flourish side-by-side on the same planet.
For example, perhaps when people were young, they had all sorts of talents, but because they weren't stimulated and nurtured, they faded into the crowd as they grew up, and everyone just differentiated into ABO!
“I just think that if you’re looking for a place to rebuild Lingyun Peak, perhaps you could take a look at Blue Star.”
Chu Ci neither agreed nor disagreed. “I understand. For now, just focus on recovering.”
Focusing on recovering was equivalent to the battle against poverty. On the current Ten Thousand Swords Peak, this equation held true.
The next day, Yu Zhiyao was assigned a pile of homework. Basic introductory manuals on formations, artifact refinement, talisman drawing, alchemy, and more were all prepared for her. She was told to study hard and strive to catch up as soon as possible so she could join forces with Ji Changqing.
Yu Zhiyao looked at the pile of basic courses before her, amused and exasperated. It wasn't necessary, really. Couldn't they just find an excuse to bring He Yi over?
They had probably already learned from Big Sister that she was a sure thing, a future junior sister under their protection. On one hand, they told her the official line: “Big Sister said the time is not yet right.”
On the other hand, they quietly shared the poor truth with her: “Big Sister has the authority to contact the Star Alliance directly, but the communicator here is a bit different from the one you all use. She’s saving up for it!”
Although they were all part of the Star Alliance, different power and cultivation systems still needed to be appropriately segregated. High-level individuals naturally had higher clearance. This was mainly to separate the less powerful disciples; otherwise, if cultivators from every system flocked to the "star net" and started exchanging cultivation methods, many might explode into fireworks from qi deviation.
“She took Yunbao with her when she left?”
The others nodded, completely unaware.
Yu Zhiyao understood. She smiled faintly and lowered her head to seriously study the introductory cultivation courses.
With Chu Ci’s power, earning that amount of spirit stones would be easy. The reason she didn't want to contact the Star Alliance so quickly was simple: she was tempted by Yu Zhiyao’s suggestion and wanted to quietly conduct a field investigation herself.
That would indeed take a considerable amount of time.
With Yu Zhiyao’s participation, and the fact that practice makes perfect, large-scale joint planting was soon on the agenda. Spirit grains could be harvested once every three and a half months. The fastest-growing spirit fruits ripened once a year, while slower ones could take ten, a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand years. Adhering to the principles of sustainable development and ecological cycles, they planted a bit of everything in batches.
By the time they had harvested the spirit grains for the third time and were preparing for the first harvest of the one-year spirit fruits, Chu Ci returned with Yunbao, travel-worn and dusty.
She looked at the well-planned fields of spirit grains, spirit fruits, spirit plants, and medicinal herbs that covered the mountains and plains—a scene of thriving prosperity and diligent money-making.
Chu Ci was stunned. She stared blankly for a long while, her face gradually breaking into the joyous smile of a farmer at a bountiful harvest.
This was truly, truly wonderful!
“Wow!” Yunbao exclaimed, its childish voice crisp and full of envy. “Chu Ci, are you about to get rich? Is this what they call ‘winning by lying down’? Are you going to keep me?”
Chu Ci felt a wave of exhaustion. What do you even know about being kept? Don’t just spout nonsense!
“Yunbao, the righteous path for a dragon is to be self-reliant. Relying on others will lead to no good!”
Yunbao was completely unconcerned. “Hah, what’s the big deal? If one doesn’t work out, I’ll just find another!”
After all, it had over a billion “descendants of the dragon”!
During their trip to Blue Star, while Chu Ci wandered around, secretly observing, Yunbao had been secretly surfing the web and playing everywhere. It had accidentally been led astray by the silly netizens on Blue Star! Now, all it thought about every day was getting rich, winning by lying down, being kept, and reaching the pinnacle of life—all fucking daydreams of reaping without sowing!
It was no longer the pure Yunbao willing to sell itself to earn money for everyone!
Especially since, among all the totem worship on Blue Star, the dragon was the most favored. It had grown particularly fond of Blue Star and spent its days fantasizing about its over a billion descendants making offerings to it. They were its descendants, so wasn't it only right for them to show some filial piety to their ancestor?
Just on the way back from Blue Star, the creature had already imagined all sorts of wonderful scenarios where it became Blue Star’s darling pet.
This left Chu Ci feeling deeply unsettled. Although Blue Star was quite special, and rebuilding Lingyun Peak there wasn't out of the question…
But this was a little too special, wasn't it? She was genuinely worried that everyone’s style would collectively go off the rails, shifting from “dirt-poor” to “silly.”
She shook her head, trying to banish the terrifying thought. It must be because she had spent the last half-year with this little simpleton, Yunbao, and her intelligence had been affected. She had to find Yu Zhiyao and have a chat, to use the light of wisdom to counter this aura of idiocy.
Yu Zhiyao’s line of thinking was, in some ways, identical to Chu Ci’s. An unknown force had its eyes on Blue Star, which meant the planet must have some value to be targeted. In that case, rather than letting it fall into the hands of a ruthless and vicious power of unknown origin, it was better to cooperate with someone reliable—and Chu Ci, while not exactly a selfless saint, was a person of noble and open character.
Coupled with the karmic connection through Ji Changqing and He Yi, it was worth a try. Besides, they didn't have any better options.
The two conferred in secret for half a day and settled on a general plan.
However, you have to eat rice one mouthful at a time and do things one step at a time. There was no need to lay all their cards and objectives on the table at once.
Chu Ci made her first direct contact with the Star Alliance and requested that Major General Xie'er be added to the group chat.
She got straight to the point. “Twenty years ago, Blue Star’s Ji Changqing and He Yi entered the Tianyi Sect’s Lingyun Peak instance. Because of this, I had an epiphany, broke through to a major realm, and incurred a karmic debt. I am contacting you this time primarily to resolve this karma.”
The people on the Star Alliance’s side sat up straight and formal. This was bad. If this communication had come more than a year ago, they would have been jumping for joy. But now… He Yi was one thing, but Ji Changqing had been missing for nearly fifteen months. Where were they supposed to conjure one up?
They frantically signaled to Major General Xie'er with their eyes. You handle this!
Major General Xie'er glanced coolly at them and stated the truth plainly. “Ji Changqing went missing during a mission fifteen months ago.”
Chu Ci was very polite. Hearing this, she turned slightly to the side in a gesture of listening attentively, playing her part convincingly.
Ignoring the disapproving looks from the others, Major General Xie'er was just as direct. She revealed everything, concisely summarizing the general course of events before adding meaningfully, “The current investigation suggests it was retaliation from a network that Ji Changqing’s previous mission exposed—a chain that was funneling benefits to the Empire. A large number of people were caught and purged. They say it’s revenge from the ones who got away.”
She delivered the highly sarcastic words with a deadpan expression, clearly resentful of the outcome. All those caught so far were small fry. The big fish they suspected had washed himself completely clean, which put them in a very passive position. They couldn't just investigate someone based on a hunch without evidence, could they? Thus, they had met with immense resistance when trying to dig deeper.
Chu Ci’s eyes narrowed slightly. “In that case, could I trouble Major General Xie'er, as the discoverer of Blue Star, to personally escort He Yi here safely?”
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