Mo Caihuan was not the only one profiting from price differences through the Teleportation Gate. Wine Butterfly Fairy and White Dew Academy, both of whom controlled Teleportation Arrays, were quietly playing middlemen too.
By tacit agreement, none of them made the Teleportation Gate public. They all used it for profit.
The Teleportation Gate had been modified once again. It no longer needed Mo Caihuan's Hundred Vault Immortal Art; a Qi Cultivator simply had to direct the spiritual energy to activate it.
It was still a matter of scrambling eggs, with a portion of the spiritual energy flowing into Food Immortal's spiritual energy storehouse to support his cultivation.
Over the past three years, Mo Caihuan had cultivated misty fragrance while absorbing stellar power, and golden Dao patterns had emerged in the little vortex in her stomach.
These were nature's restrictions.
"Was my first mysterious aperture finally about to open? Before, the aperture had only appeared. It hadn't actually opened." Mo Caihuan felt helpless. This alone showed how difficult cultivating the mysterious apertures was.
Still, if she could open eighteen mysterious apertures, she should be able to arm-wrestle a Nascent Soul cultivator.
"Your Majesty, do you really want to increase the ratio? Once you do, both gravity and stellar power will increase. It's extremely dangerous," the scientist said nervously. "If anything should happen to Your Majesty, even ten thousand deaths could not atone for my guilt."
"The Mo Kingdom has a Cabinet and a system of governance. It is not one person's country. You work for the people of the Mo Kingdom, not for my family alone. I no longer interfere in government affairs; the Cabinet handles them. Even if I die, the Mo Kingdom will still develop and still have a bright future," Mo Caihuan said.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider."
"It's fine. My lifespan is limited. I might as well take a gamble."
"Then please obtain permission from the heads of the Production Department and the Health Department. Doubling the ratio means four times the gravity and four times the stellar power. I cannot authorize that." The scientist was stubborn too and refused to let Mo Caihuan take the risk.
Increasing gravity and stellar power simultaneously meant an assault on two fronts, one that could very well cause her body to explode.
Mo Caihuan was speechless, but rather than force the scientist, she adjusted it herself. These days, she still needed to master the technology herself.
The scientist was no fool. He immediately phoned the two department heads and explained that the Empress intended to risk her life cultivating.
And so her two elder sisters came to dissuade her.
Mo Caihuan was speechless. Telephones certainly were convenient; one call had brought both department heads running.
"Third Sister, Dr. Liu said you intend to risk your life cultivating?" Mo Yuzhu had taken good care of herself, but white hairs had already appeared at her temples. She could not hold back the marks of time.
Mo Fengwu had grown gentler and more kindly, her gaze filled with a mother's concern.
"It's not that dramatic. I'm just absorbing stellar power to break through a bottleneck."
Mo Yuzhu said, "Third Sister, I know what stellar power is, but Dr. Liu wouldn't joke about this. You are the Empress of the Mo Kingdom. If something happens to you, what will the people do? The Mo Kingdom isn't without problems, and we can't sleep soundly on high pillows yet. There are still insurgents in remote regions, and many nobles want to restore their own countries and seize the fruits of victory. The Mo Kingdom cannot do without you."
Mo Fengwu also urged her, "I know you've made friends with immortal cultivators, but we have no spiritual roots. No matter how much we cultivate, we cannot become immortals. You already stand at the pinnacle of mortals. You should be satisfied. I don't object to your studying formations to improve people's lives. But using formations to cultivate is too dangerous."
Both elder sisters opposed their younger sister risking her life to cultivate. In their youth, they too had hoped to cultivate toward immortality, but now they had accepted their lot.
"We're not young anymore. Our four mothers need us to care for them in their old age, the officials need your leadership, and the people need your guidance. You can't be headstrong anymore," Mo Yuzhu said heavily. "Mortals cannot cultivate toward immortality. Face reality."
Hearing the way her sisters spoke, Mo Caihuan felt a little dazed. In her memories, they were still brimming with youthful vitality. In the blink of an eye, they had taken on the solemn air of elders and become pillars of the nation.
Everyone had changed except her. She was still searching for a chance to cultivate toward immortality. However slim that chance might be, as long as she could still move, she clung to hope and refused to accept her fate.
She was no longer young herself, yet she still refused to admit defeat.
"Eldest Sister, Second Sister, I don't want to give up hope. Besides, the very reason I've worked so hard to perfect the Mo Kingdom's institutions is to keep its policies from dying with me. Even if I die, those policies will continue to operate, talented people will keep being selected, and the Mo Kingdom will keep developing." Mo Caihuan took both her sisters' hands and said, "Besides, I won't necessarily fail. If I succeed, the gains will surely be enormous. By then, you might even find me annoying. In any case, I have to try, or I'll never be at peace. I have to try opening my first mysterious aperture."
Seeing that their younger sister had made up her mind, both sisters smiled wryly. They also knew that Mo Caihuan had always hoped to be a hands-off ruler, with the Mo Kingdom's affairs running smoothly even without an empress.
The Empress was more of a spiritual symbol and did not interfere in the country's operations.
"You planned this long ago, little sister," Mo Yuzhu said helplessly.
"There are no divine emperors, nor any saviors. To create happiness for mortals, mortals must rely on themselves," Mo Caihuan said. "As long as the people study diligently and become knowledgeable and capable, they can make their own decisions. They won't need an emperor at all. Read more, and you won't be deceived by the learned."
"If you insist on cultivating, Third Sister, then I'll personally lead an Emergency Response Team. If you don't agree to that condition, I won't consent," her second sister said, yielding a step.
"All right. While you're at it, you can observe the changes in my body and collect data. All of this will provide valuable experience," Mo Caihuan said.
Although cultivation ought to be undisturbed, Mo Caihuan was willing to let the Emergency Response Team collect her data.
The gravity Magic Array had been set up on the research institute's rooftop, where there was ample space and the stars seemed close enough to touch.
With the gravity adjusted, Mo Caihuan was ready to risk breaking through her bottleneck.
Before attempting the breakthrough, she did not forget to record the Dao patterns inside the little vortex. This time, she observed them not with her eyes, but through internal vision.
After her internal energy disappeared, Mo Caihuan's perception of her body had become extremely precise. Mysterious apertures resembled meridians, existing between matter and energy, profound beyond profound.
The gravity Magic Array activated. Gravity doubled, and the stellar power it drew in doubled as well.
If she could not withstand it, she would explode.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider. You don't have a corresponding cultivation method. Even if you break through the bottleneck, without knowing how to circulate stellar power, your body could still explode and kill you." The scientist studied both science and mysticism, and he knew that immortal cultivation required a cultivation method. Otherwise, the tremendous energy would cause death.
After breaking through the first mysterious aperture, the stellar power would not stop. It would certainly keep circulating. What would happen if she had not found the second mysterious aperture?
Without a second mysterious aperture, the stellar power might very well surge wildly through her body and cause an explosion.
Mo Caihuan naturally understood the danger, but she had thought it through. As long as she stopped cultivating immediately after opening the first mysterious aperture, there should not be much of a problem. "It's fine. If there's danger, carry out the backup plan," she said.
With that, she walked straight into the formation.
In an instant, four times normal gravity bore down on every cell. Her vision went black as gravity dragged her eyelids shut.
Her legs buckled, and she nearly fell to her knees. Fortunately, she gritted her teeth and held on. She could not embarrass herself with everyone watching. At a moment like this, she had started worrying about saving face.
The misty fragrance circulated within her, supplying her body with energy to resist four times its weight.
She walked toward the center of the formation one step at a time, every step immensely difficult. Sitting cross-legged in the Five Hearts Facing Heaven posture, she began absorbing stellar power.
The doubled stellar power entered her body, bringing terrible pain, like countless hypodermic needles swimming through her.
She guided the stellar power toward the mysterious aperture, where the golden Dao patterns acted like a sluice gate, refusing to let the power pass. This was force pitted against force. There was no technique involved, only a contest of brute strength.
Mo Caihuan focused on directing it. This attempt to break through the bottleneck was more agonizing than the previous one. Before, she had only been breaking through the restrictions of her flesh, but this time, beyond her body, there was a mysterious aperture as well.
In just a few breaths, she was drenched in sweat, and misty fragrance seeped into her surroundings along with it. Despite the open space, the fragrance lingered without dispersing, refreshing the heart and soothing the mind.
But everyone was concerned about Mo Caihuan's condition, and no one spared any attention to enjoy the fragrance filling their nostrils.
When they saw Mo Caihuan take a mid-grade spirit stone from her pocket, they knew her body had been injured and needed spiritual energy to accelerate the repairs of her indestructible body.
That was indeed the case. A great drama of destruction and healing was unfolding inside Mo Caihuan's body. The restrictions on the mysterious aperture were too powerful, and the aftershocks of her assault were injuring her internal organs.
She smiled bitterly inwardly. Did body tempering have to be this painful? Couldn't cultivation be painless?
Worse still, despite all this pain, the restrictions on the mysterious aperture remained utterly unmoved, without the slightest sign of loosening.