Chives, Octopuses, Refining Demons

"What we desire is right beside us?" Under the tea shed, he still didn't understand.

Zhu Zhengwei just smiled.

A chive growing right above your heads—it'd be a shame not to harvest it.

But, It was only natural they didn't know.

How could mortals possibly sense Qi?

They'd just take it for an ordinary weed!

Only those who had already begun cultivation could sense Qi.

But such people were basically all within the Three Great Dynasties—emperors, blood relatives—they wouldn't wander out casually!

And inside the City of a Hundred Stones before them was an aging tyrant. A pity.

Zhu Zhengwei smiled, stood up, and prepared to leave.

The few travelers beside him showed murderous glints in their eyes, exuding a bandit's aura, silently pressing their hands on their waist knives as they slowly rose.

But the Middle-aged Traveler waved his hand and said calmly, "We don't kill indiscriminately. He has no intention of informing. I see no change in his expression at all."

"But—"

"If we lack even this much boldness, if we can't trust even others, wouldn't we just become the next slave hero who trusted no one?"

The surrounding guards backed down.

The Middle-aged Traveler suddenly called out to Zhu Zhengwei's retreating figure, "Who exactly are you? A martial arts expert with good skill? Confident enough in your abilities to come here alone? Really won't join my side? This grand ambition, this land—it's all about to change soon."

Zhu Zhengwei shook his head and only said, "If fate allows, we'll meet again."

"You haven't told me your name, and I haven't told you mine!" he suddenly laughed. "Otherwise, in this vast sea of people, how will we meet again?"

Zhu Zhengwei simply replied, "This hero, I hope to learn your name not from your own lips, but from the people of the world."

"I will."

Zhu Zhengwei took a turn around the city.

He could faintly make out the splendor of the Desert Giant City's heyday beneath its current harsh conditions.

But now, everywhere was filled with an aura of decay and ruin, with no one bothering to repair anything. The Arena, on the other hand, was bustling with activity, exuding a feeling of impending doom.

"That god is about to die of old age."

"Even gods die."

Various rumors had already erupted throughout the city, and many were stirring restlessly.

Everyone was waiting for him to grow old and die, yet they couldn't wait for him to die completely.

If he died of old age, the Qi on his body would dissipate. They had to kill him while he was still alive, devour his Qi, and seize everything he had!

"A new era will begin. I've arrived just in time to see how it unfolds."

As he left, Zhu Zhengwei donned a cloak and walked out of the desert city against the wind and sand.

Three days later, a Middle-aged Traveler brought a shipment of goods into the city, presented them at the palace to the Stone Light Emperor Changshou, and launched an assassination attempt, thus sparking the transformation of a new nation.

"Rebels!"

"My power is bestowed by Heaven! Royal power is divine! The gods will not forgive you!"

A stooped, hunched old man radiated white light.

Rolling waves of invisible Qi surged around him, as if he were a statue of an ancient god from a distant Greek era.

Every curve and edge of his body seemed like the finest polish by a sculptor. Standing atop a boulder of yellow sand, he exuded a romance and wisdom belonging to this age.

In that moment, people rediscovered that he, too, had once been a hero—a mortal who raised his blade against the gods.

"Kill!"

Countless warriors wielding spears and lances leaped up.

They charged at the old man on the city wall, who gripped a scepter and wore a crown.

The old man was drenched in blood from the encirclement and suppression. Suddenly, as if sensing something, he ran across the boulders, his eyes filled with longing as he gazed at a tea shed outside the city gate.

Inside that tea shed, the Middle-aged Traveler, as the leader, watched the battle.

On top of the tea shed, a wild weed swayed in the sunlight, gleaming brilliantly, standing alone and aloof.

"That's the aura of Qi. How could it be?"

The Stone Light Emperor Changshou's face twisted into an expression of shock, loss, and regret—a vivid spectacle.

He was growing old. He had run around his whole life, stopping at nothing for immortality, yet he could never break through to the next realm. If only he had this herb imbued with Qi—

Pfft!

"Volley fire!!"

Countless strong warriors drew their bows.

Unfortunately, a day later, Zhu Zhengwei received the news.

The encirclement and suppression of the second-generation Stone Light Emperor Changshou of the Slave Dynasty had ultimately failed. He escaped, severely injured, and vanished without a trace.

And that wild blade of grass still swayed beneath the tea shed by the yellow-sand city gate, untouched by anyone.

It was a rare treasure that promised immortality, coveted by countless people, yet it sat right where the crowds passed by, unrecognized for what it was.

"Wow, there's even a movie scene here, full of historical weight, like a blockbuster."

This plant had no heart or conscience, finding the spectacle well-crafted. At the very last moment, that old man who looked like an emperor even locked eyes with it—such a cinematic shot!

Everyone was bewildered by the old emperor's final, intense agitation, but no one knew what he had actually discovered.

Yet the entire era was swept up in a massive storm.

A roaring gale raged across the land.

"The divine power has fallen into other hands!"

"Find him! Find the Stone Light Emperor Changshou of the Slave Kingdom. The second king's lifespan is at its end. Hunt him down, kill him, and whoever does so becomes the new king!"

"The throne is mine!"

"I will wield the power of the new god!"

Countless slaves, nobles, wanderers, craftsmen, and farmers scoured every possible trace.

Zhu Zhengwei walked on, deliberately taking detours along distant paths, spotting some cacti, wild grass, chives, and dandelions.

He even reached out to touch them, sensing the brand-new form of these fourth-generation servers. In this world, they were plants, but within them flowed abundant qi, circulating and operating as the world's servers.

He also caught their whispered murmurs:

"Wow, there's actually a person here. Is this a hidden scene? So beautiful."

"This is amazing. The scenery is gorgeous, and there's even hidden interaction."

"Hey, handsome, handsome, touch me quick. I'm so itchy."

Seeing how flirtatious it was, Zhu Zhengwei plucked it and took it away.

What is qi?

The essence of qi is the soul energy diffused throughout this world!

And these server humans, as living beings, are constantly emitting soul energy—commonly known as mining!

So with these mining machines, they act like "spring eyes," endlessly gushing forth living water to nourish the withered rivers and mountains, eventually forming an entire bountiful world.

Unfortunately, there are still too few mining machines in this world.

The concentration of mined qi in the air is very low, so people cannot sense it.

Only by seizing and consuming these spring sources, taking in a large amount of qi into the body, can one truly enter the gate and begin to sense the thin qi between heaven and earth, embarking on the path of cultivation!

Zhu Zhengwei glanced a few more times and continued walking.

"If you think about it that way, aren't these plants equivalent to 'Innate Spiritual Roots'? Obtain one, and you enter the Dao?"

In the age of the end of the Dharma, the depletion of Spiritual Qi in heaven and earth = a scarcity of servers, insufficient Spiritual Qi production.

"Then wouldn't those earlier servers be people with 'Spiritual Roots'? For other mortals to cultivate, they can only seize their Spiritual Roots to set foot on the path?"

Zhu Zhengwei mused on random thoughts. "Of course, in this world, after I turned them from humans into wild grass, they lost their Root Dreams. Without a birthplace, they truly became random blades of grass born by chance."

He passed through the Bronze Country, a land retracing the path of a Technology Civilization.

Smelting bronze and black iron, their steam civilization was highly developed, yet also unique, because it incorporated "qi" and forged its own path.

He walked a full circuit and found that this world, after countless years of development, remained a feudal-era civilization, with only a few extraordinary seeds sprouting, blooming at an excruciatingly slow pace over the ages.

Thinking about it, In the five thousand years of Earth's human civilization, the first four thousand eight hundred were mostly accumulation and sedimentation—all agrarian eras, largely meaningless.

It was only in the last two hundred years that the accumulation bore fruit, sparking a civilization explosion, establishing basic physics and chemistry, and rapidly transforming from ancient farming to modern civilization in just two centuries.

"Should I wait another five thousand years for slow accumulation?" Zhu Zhengwei had no desire to wait.

Zhu Zhengwei finally settled in the Seaside Ghost Country.

For no other reason than that this country was by the sea, with beautiful scenery, suitable for him to make some attempts. He planned to sow some seeds among these feudal dynasties.

To run some experiments of his own.

"Since humans can't succeed in a short time, and Zhang Zhi has struggled until now without achieving it, then let's try a different direction: what about other animals?"

As for animals rising and humans falling from the top of the food chain?

Heh heh.

Where one stands depends on where one sits. From Zhu Zhengwei's perspective, all living beings were already equal.

The human species, after all, has such powerful brains that they can only store and circulate "qi" in the head, barely letting it pass below the neck. As a result, the body remains weak and un-nourished. But animals have little in the way of brains, only instinct, and perhaps qi can flow through their entire bodies.

Thus, Zhu Zhengwei settled in a secluded harbor in the Seaside Ghost Country, with several fishing villages nearby. He planned to begin a second chapter of his life outside Zhujing Village in his childhood—or rather, a second "Yellow Millet Dream"—a period of seclusion for research.

At the root of it all, it was for the development of the world.

Three months later.

A few steam ships from the Bronze Kingdom sailed across the sea surface, docking at the port to conduct bilateral trade with the Ghost Country, while the Slave Dynasty was locked in a cataclysmic war—over there, it was already a season of turmoil.

The sea wind was strong, the damp ocean smell heavy.

Zhu Zhengwei waited at the port. From time to time, he saw traveling scholars from the Bronze Kingdom disembarking with large trunks, clutching beast-skin books and recording their travel experiences along the way.

In this world, books were precious things. An ordinary family could absolutely never afford them; knowledge was a rare commodity in this feudal age. Most books were also beast-skin volumes, and it was said that only the upper echelons of the Bronze Kingdom possessed the papermaking technology of the old civilization.

"Carrying a book everywhere they go—probably picked that up from Zhang Zhi," Zhu Zhengwei grumbled.

Still, he knew that as a Scholar Kingdom, every student in the Bronze Kingdom had to complete a long-distance journey to graduate. Their academy advocated against reading dead books.

Feudalism, studying by the cold window, passing the imperial exams to earn merit and fame, spreading one's name far and wide.

Whether in the ancient civilizations of the East or the West, it was basically the same—plenty of backroom dealings, nepotism among noble clans and aristocrats everywhere.

It was deeply unfair, yet also relatively fair.

But on second thought, Earth's civilized society in reality was just like that too.

"Here!" After a short wait, a dark-skinned girl handed Zhu Zhengwei a wooden bucket.

Inside, several octopuses were lively and bouncing around.

Zhu Zhengwei glanced at them and nodded, handing over three flattened, illegible beer bottle caps with crushed patterns. "Three copper coins."

"Mm." Even though it was only three, the girl still counted them carefully. She was saving up money to put her younger brother through school.

Zhu Zhengwei turned and left.

The laboratory was very crude.

The level of this era could barely smelt rough glass, and even that belonged to the nobility.

The room was filled with ceramic clay jars, giving it the look of an ancient apothecary.

"The essence of qi is soul energy. So, what happens when soul energy circulates through the entire body?"

Zhu Zhengwei picked up a plant and placed it into a jar. "To be honest, this is something Zhang Zhi told me in his diary—the fruit of his painstaking research over the years! I don't really understand it myself, but that doesn't stop me from following his line of thought and applying it to animals."

"Huh? What's he doing? He wants me to lie down?"

Zhu Zhengwei picked up the medicine pestle, aiming it at this muttering plant.

"So big and thick."

The pestle came down.

"No, don't!"

The plant was smashed several times before it finally reacted. "Am I about to kick the bucket?"

Thump, thump, thump!

It was quickly ground to pulp.

The whole plant was completely dumbfounded.

This is what they call a sleep-and-relaxation game?

Are you sure this isn't a horror game?

But as the pounding sound of the pestle echoed—da-da-da-da—it only felt serene, drowsy, as if its consciousness was slowly slipping away.

Its awareness grew completely hazy. I guess I'm about to fall asleep?

"Holy crap! That actually works! No wonder it's the Development Team—I get it now!"

"So there really is a way to sleep like this. Death is also a form of psychological suggestion for sleep! The Development Team put so much thought into this!"

"As expected, they were right—everyone gets a completely different new scene. My life as this plant really fits the theme!"

"I love it! I love it!"

Zhu Zhengwei diligently ground it into a green paste, then fed it to the octopus he kept in a water vat, staring intently at this wriggling marine life.

"An octopus has nine brains, spread throughout its body. I want to see if, with nine brains in different places, the qi can perfectly circulate through the mind and every part of the body."