Two Nascent Soul powerhouses stared at Mo Caihuan, making her feel like a mouse watched by a snake, unable to move.
"It is not a matter of the Misty Fragrance," Wine Butterfly Fairy comforted her disciple, then said to Mo Caihuan, "Come here."
Resigned to her fate, Mo Caihuan walked over and allowed the Nascent Soul expert to grab her shoulder as a surge of pure spiritual power entered her body. She was very nervous, yet unable to resist.
"Stellar Power? Although very faint, it is indeed correct," Wine Butterfly Fairy said with a strange expression.
Moon Worshipper said, "It seems I was not mistaken." A thoughtful look immediately appeared on his face.
The fairy released her grip and asked, "How did the Stellar Power inside your body come about?"
"This junior has no Spiritual Root, so I could only practice Body Tempering. Once, I encountered a strong enemy and, after miraculously winning, was severely injured. By the time my body recovered, it ended up like this," Mo Caihuan said.
Moon Worshipper's eyes lit up as he said, "It truly is Body Tempering." He scanned Mo Caihuan up and down with his eyes and said, "The Way of the Weak, excellent, excellent, excellent."
Repeating the word "excellent" three times showed that his mood was quite good.
Wine Butterfly Fairy, however, did not continue dwelling on the Stellar Power, as this tiny sliver of Stellar Power was completely useless. She said, "Explain the matter of the Teleportation Gate."
Mo Caihuan explained everything from start to beginning. Naturally, any parts concerning Food Immortal were entirely replaced by that non-existent master. As for that non-existent master, he was completely modeled after Xiang Zhili's words and actions.
She had spent a month with Xiang Zhili and constantly observed him, so when she lied, it was nine parts truth and one part falsehood, making it difficult to distinguish.
The fairy had no suspicions. After listening, she clicked her tongue in wonder, never expecting Mo Caihuan to be a sovereign of a nation, nor that the Mo Kingdom could actually rely on mortal power to repair the Teleportation Gate.
Moon Worshipper was also amazed upon hearing this, and said, "So now as long as we find the Teleportation Gate, we can go to the Heavenly South?"
"Some minor modifications are still needed." Mo Caihuan recalled Food Immortal's theories on boiling and stir-frying eggs, decided to go with stir-frying, and said, "Because the Magic Array on the opposite side was modified, for safety, the Magic Array on this side needs to be modified as well. Of course, theoretically speaking, it can be used without modification, but for safety's sake, I think we still ought to modify it," Mo Caihuan emphasized.
The fairy had no objections and said, "In the matter of the Teleportation Array, safety indeed comes first. Otherwise, upon entering the spatial void and encountering spatial rifts, even a Nascent Soul powerhouse will be torn to shreds. I will protect you two to go find the Teleportation Gate first, and you can modify it when the time comes."
"Yes," Mo Caihuan agreed readily.
Moon Worshipper said, "I will go along as well."
Having two Nascent Soul protectors was naturally even better.
Preparations began: purchasing materials and crafting array disks. It went very smoothly, and Mo Caihuan spent three months making enough array disks.
It was just that Moon Worshipper kept eyeing Mo Caihuan as if she were a rare commodity of high value. The back of her neck felt prickly, as though she were being targeted by a venomous snake.
On the eve of their departure, Moon Worshipper sent a voice transmission to Mo Caihuan, asking her to meet him on the rooftop.
Moon Worshipper stood atop the ridge of the roof, elegant and composed.
Mo Caihuan put strength into both legs to leap onto the roof, cupped her fists, and said, "Greetings, Senior."
"Today the sky is high and the air is crisp, and the starry sky is vast. Show me how you cultivate Stellar Power," Moon Worshipper smiled.
"Yes." Since the other party was a Nascent Soul expert, whatever he said went.
She sat cross-legged on the rooftop, slowly circulating her Mysterious Aperture, and cautiously absorbed a tiny wisp of Stellar Power. It was very slow-slower than a snail.
Moon Worshipper desperately wanted to help Mo Caihuan speed up, but he could not do it. He looked at Mo Caihuan, then looked up at the starry sky overhead, lost in thought.
An entire night passed just like that, and Mo Caihuan had only absorbed a single wisp of Stellar Power. Even if she lived to old age, she would not be able to absorb much.
"Thank you, Senior, for guarding my Dharma protector session." Mo Caihuan had performed all night, yet still had to thank the man.
"It's nothing," Moon Worshipper did not say much else, only stating, "Get ready to set off."
The two Nascent Soul experts brought the three juniors along, steering a Flying Carriage to easily cross the mountain range densely populated with Demon Beasts, and arrived at a cave halfway up the mountain.
Pushing open the stone door, the interior was still that dust-filled, enclosed space.
"So the Teleportation Gate was hidden here. You certainly know how to hide things," Moon Worshipper chuckled and said, "Fairy, let me clear this out." With a wave of his hand, the dust inside the room gathered automatically, finally forming a perfectly round ball of earth that was tossed outside.
The stone chamber took on a completely new look.
Wine Butterfly Fairy looked at the Teleportation Gate and began inspecting it carefully. Stealing a moment of leisure, Moon Worshipper took out a Red Gourd and drank a few mouthfuls of wine.
"The Teleportation Gate on this side is indeed intact, but for safety's sake, we should still modify it," the fairy said.
Mo Caihuan, Chu Fangfang, and Chen Bufei immediately stepped forward; such tasks were naturally for the juniors to handle.
Having made preparations in advance, they simply assembled the array disks according to the blueprints.
It took a day to complete the assembly.
"The Teleportation Gate can be used. As long as we feed Spirit Stones into it, the Teleportation Gate can be activated," Mo Caihuan said.
"Then let's try it out. If we can truly cross over, I will move my immortal manor to this place," Wine Butterfly Fairy said, intending to claim the Teleportation Array. "How many Spirit Stones are needed?"
"Ten High-Grade Spirit Stones."
"Here." To Nascent Soul cultivators, this was not money at all, and she tossed them directly to Mo Caihuan.
Mo Caihuan took a deep breath and threw the Spirit Stones into the Conversion Magic Array. Not all of the Spirit Stones' spiritual power would be injected into the array; a portion would be transferred to Food Immortal's Storage Bag-this was the stir-frying. Food Immortal used the embezzled spiritual Qi to cultivate.
No one could determine how much spiritual Qi was consumed, nor would the Nascent Soul cultivators be suspicious.
"Let's go, let's take a look at the Heavenly South," Wine Butterfly Fairy said.
The five of them stood together on the Teleportation Gate, and Mo Caihuan used the Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art to inject spiritual Qi, activating the Teleportation Gate.
A blinding white light flared, and the five figures vanished.
This trip lasted a whole year, and the harvests were enormous. Cultivators in the Great Jin were truly numerous, and resources were abundant. Many medicinal herbs that could not be bought in the Heavenly South were quite common in the Great Jin.
Upon seeing the Ancient Battlefield, both Nascent Soul experts frowned slightly, though they said nothing. Passing through the repaired tunnel to reach the surface, there were only a few Mo Kingdom guards keeping watch here.
The soldiers held steel rifles, and hidden positions held several machine gun emplacements, though these weapons could only deal with Qi Refining Stage cultivators.
"Your Majesty?!" The guards saw Mo Caihuan walk out and immediately walked over to salute.
"Is everything normal?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, everything is normal."
"Sorry for the effort, continue your patrol," Mo Caihuan said.
"Yes." The guards obeyed implicitly.
"You really are an empress?" Wine Butterfly Fairy looked Mo Caihuan up and down and said, "You don't look like one."
"Please allow me to lead the way to the capital of the Mo Kingdom," Mo Caihuan said, pretending not to hear.
"Let's go." Releasing the Flying Carriage once again, the five took flight.
Along the way, they saw quite a few strange cities, with buildings standing seven or eight stories tall. Upon reaching the capital, there were even structures thirty stories high.
The Flying Carriage did not land at the imperial palace, but rather at the smaller Mo Palace.
"Who are those people inside the imperial palace? As an empress, you don't live in the palace-why are these people able to enter and leave freely?" Chen Bufei couldn't help asking.
"Those are tourists. After I overthrew the Yue Emperor, I converted the imperial palace into a scenic spot; tourists can enter as long as they buy a ticket. Governing doesn't require such a massive palace at all, so it's better to take from the people and use it for the people."
Chu Fangfang couldn't help chiming in, "The Mo Kingdom and the Great Jin are vastly different. All the way flying here, not only are the cities drastically different, but younger sister's governance philosophy is even more peculiar. I originally thought Mohism sounded nice, but I didn't expect younger sister to genuinely implement Mohism in the Mo Kingdom. Truly a wise monarch of a generation."
"Wise monarch or not, I dare not accept such praise. Please, everyone."
Returning to the Mo Palace and arranging their lodgings, Mo Caihuan thought to herself that it would be wonderful if the two Nascent Soul experts could stay here permanently.
Of course that was impossible, so Mo Caihuan didn't dwell on keeping the two of them; her main focus was learning from Chu Fangfang and Chen Bufei about the Great Jin Imperial Court and the coexistence model between cultivators. The Mo Kingdom needed to learn these experiences.
Chu Fangfang and Chen Bufei had also gone deep into the grassroots level of the Mo Kingdom, discovering that the Mo Kingdom actually had compulsory education. Children from poor families could also attend school, and could even be selected as cultivators through mental techniques.
By now, the imperial court had already selected quite a few children possessing Spiritual Roots.
Children with Spiritual Roots were selected and sent to specialized Cultivation Schools, and currently over two hundred children with Spiritual Roots had been discovered. In the past, eight or nine out of ten of these children would have been buried in obscurity.
Most disciples of sects came from cultivation families rather than being rogue cultivators.
It was exceedingly difficult for rogue cultivators to cultivate; merely confirming that one possessed a Spiritual Root required a great stroke of fortune. Most rogue cultivators hailed from declining cultivation families, possessing a shred of family heritage so that they could know whether they had a Spiritual Root at a young age.
Mental techniques were monopolized, and ordinary people had no channels to determine whether they possessed Spiritual Roots.