Chapter 129: The Lonely Dao Seeker
“It's a pity this thing ultimately treats the symptoms but not the root cause. Driven by immense profit, piracy will still spread like wildfire, impossible to completely eradicate. However, if piracy could be completely eradicated, an S-rank would be well deserved.”
“I'll leave this matter for you to handle. Once the thought crystals are being produced in quantity, under the name of the Spirit Energy Research Institute, hire renowned professors from STEM fields, both domestic and international, with high salaries, to record knowledge from their respective fields onto thought crystals, and then send them over here.” After pondering for a while, Bai Mo assigned this task to his assistant.
“The true use of thought crystals lies in enhancing learning efficiency. Although this will consume vast amounts of wealth, the Contribution Point System is currently a ceaselessly operating money printer for me. It's rare to find a way to quickly acquire knowledge through large-scale expenditure.”
“Even though a lot of income was lost due to piracy, the Contribution Points accumulated each month still showed no sign of being exhausted. Contribution Points that aren't spent are, in the end, just numbers.”
He wished to bear more Spirit Pictures within his body, and each Spirit Picture was a major energy consumer. This forced Bai Mo to re-plan his entire system, to maximize his gains under the given limitations.
“The types of Spirit Hubs that could increase internal Spirit Energy or reduce its consumption were still too few. Among the more than a hundred existing Spirit Hub types, only four were relevant, and that included my own energy-absorbing skin. Or rather, the sources of Spirit Hubs were too limited. Currently, the laboratory's Spirit Hubs came only from hostile Ability Users killed by the state, or Ability User prisoners from various regions. It was about time to expand the hunting grounds.”
“It just so happened that he could have an avatar visit that old Taoist. Fortunately, there were no restrictions on its range of movement.” In a moment of boredom, he suddenly recalled the two treasure hunters he had encountered in the ruins of Tianhai. One of the middle-aged men had left him an address for his master. He hadn't remembered it until now.
Following the address provided by the middle-aged man, the terrifyingly fast avatar, completely unburdened by mass, took merely an hour to arrive at a small mountain village nearly two thousand kilometers away.
Self-sufficient, with the sounds of chickens and dogs carrying between homes—this was Bai Mo's first impression of the village. The entire village seemed nestled within a mountain hollow, with only a small dirt path leading to the outside world. The surrounding farmlands were divided into small, neat plots.
The village was not large. The avatar spent half a minute scanning it completely with its divine sense, and immediately confirmed it hadn't come to the wrong place, because there was one house its divine sense couldn't penetrate!
“Le Gang Village, No. 9. This must be it,” the avatar thought, as it floated to the front of this building, which, under divine sense, appeared ancient and elegant with its green tiles and gray bricks, strikingly out of place among the surrounding simple houses.
“Fellow Daoist, please enter.” A voice appeared in Bai Mo's mind, and then the house's main door opened by itself. However, looking from outside the door, nothing could be seen but a patch of darkness.
“It's just an avatar,” Bai Mo, who had already tested that his avatar could regenerate using Spirit Energy after disappearing, floated inside the door without the slightest hesitation.
After passing through the doorway, he saw a wizened old man whose eyes, despite his advanced age, still gleamed with spirit. Beside the old man were only a futon and a few shelves of books. Other than that, there was almost nothing.
Although to the naked eye there was no one in front of the old man, he still turned slightly towards the direction of Bai Mo's avatar and said, “I sensed you the moment Fellow Daoist arrived in this village.”
The old man no longer used spiritual transmission, but spoke in a very calm tone: “I never expected to meet a Fellow Daoist who cultivates the Ghost Immortal path before my life ends.”
“Ghost Immortal?”
“It seems you’ve stumbled upon this path by accident. In the place where I once resided, it is said that five cultivation paths were pioneered, namely the Five Immortal Paths of Heaven, Earth, Human, Divine, and Ghost. From my shallow cultivation, these five paths seemed endless, and your situation, Fellow Daoist, closely resembles that of a Ghost Immortal cultivator as recorded in ancient texts.”
“This is merely an avatar of mine.” Bai Mo felt as if a new world had opened before him. He disdained to deceive a Taoist who was already half-buried in the earth.
“An avatar? Please forgive this old man's ignorance. May I be so bold as to ask, what path does Your Excellency tread?”
“My path? I, too, wish to know what lies ahead. I am merely a lost trailblazer.”
“For over a hundred years, it has been calm and peaceful, but in the last few months, the world has suddenly undergone a tremendous change. This world, originally in its age of dharma decline, suddenly gushed forth vast amounts of Spirit Qi. It seems, Fellow Daoist, that you are a ‘Congenital Being’ who benefited from this.” The old man stroked his beard with a difficult smile.
“Can you tell me more? I am very curious about your world. You, sir, do not seem to belong here.”
“When a man is about to die, there’s nothing left to hide. I come from a place called Tianxuan Continent. Over a hundred years ago, when I was still in the Qi Refinement stage, during a treasure hunt, I inadvertently passed through a spatial rift and arrived here. Initially, I called this place the ‘Land of Despair’, because this planet had no Spirit Qi whatsoever. For a cultivator like me, that was undoubtedly the greatest despair.”
“After arriving here, I continuously sought a way back. However, it quickly became clear that ten years of effort yielded no results. After completely giving up the thought of returning, I began to consider modifying the cultivation techniques I possessed to adapt to this spiritless world. But what was even more despair-inducing was that I discovered the humans of this world, besides their outward appearance being identical to our Tianxuan human race, possessed completely different internal bodily structures. All the cultivation techniques in my memory were uncultivable by the people of this world. I had no way to explore with others; they would only treat me as a madman.”
“It took me nearly a hundred years. Relying on a bag of Spirit Stones I brought with me, I painstakingly, bit by bit, reached the pinnacle of the Qi Refinement stage. However, this world entirely lacked the Spirit Qi for me to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. Forty years ago, I already sensed that my path had reached its end. Thus, I decided to cultivate a junior. I didn't expect him to cultivate; I only hoped he could keep me company, chatting about strange and mysterious things. I taught him some minor arts of Feng Shui and fortune-telling, but I never expected it would ultimately lead to you.”
“Yes, I met him. He told me,” Bai Mo nodded.
“Until a few months ago, the sudden Spirit Tide awakened me. I expended all my effort, hoping to break through to Foundation Establishment amidst the Spirit Tide. But for me, this Spirit Tide came too late. My body had already begun to decay. Even abundant Spirit Qi could only prolong my feeble existence for a few more days. I am weary.”
...
Bai Mo quietly listened to the old man ramble, for he, too, was a lonely Dao Seeker, only, he was born at the wrong time.
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