Overseas Laboratory

Doctor Sun was Hu Mang's "pen pal" with whom he had been exchanging messages for almost half a year. In fact, Hu Mang had already started chatting with him before he even went to sea, and the reason for it was the banner of light that Hu Mang had given him.

Do you believe in light? No, I believe in Doctor Sun.

Then Doctor Sun discovered the trickery on the banner, namely the "Human Immortal Lightning Puppet" pattern.

As a researcher specializing in artificial acupoints, Sun Jidao was extremely interested in this topic.

Then began a three-month-long pen pal correspondence.

Sun Jidao tried to subtly probe the origin of the patterns, but Hu Mang remained clueless. Whenever he provoked Sun Jidao to the point of exhaustion, Hu Mang would occasionally send him two pictures of acupoints from the Human Immortal Lightning Puppet to further provoke him.

Until recently, Hu Mang sent over pictures of the "Lightning Puppet's" internal organs, Sun Jidao finally couldn't stand Hu Mang's flirting anymore and sent him a plane ticket.

Hu Mang didn't hide anything and sent all the pictures he had taken on the way to the other party. As a result, Doctor Sun even forgot about having his kidney removed and kept muttering to himself, "This is impossible. How can there be such a special acupoint circuit? There are more than twelve meridians!" It wasn't until the half-demon carriage entered Zheng Family Garden that he came back to his senses.

Looking at the mansion of a wealthy Nanyang Asian Chinese businessman that resembled a palace, even the well-traveled Sun Jidao was dumbfounded.

"Is this your territory?"

I guess so.

The land inside the Heavenly Gate is incredibly valuable; even a Nascent Soul Cultivator can only own a detached villa at most. A garden of this caliber would probably only be owned by wealthy merchants from the Jiangnan in the old days.

However, Sun Jidao quickly regained his composure, pondered for a moment, and said, "The Spiritual Qi here is average."

However, he soon had another eye-opening experience, because a group of modified cultivators were patrolling the Zheng Family Garden. Looking at these fierce modified cultivators, especially the prosthetic Law Artifact on their hands and feet, Sun Jidao immediately started with "Holy crap!"

"Are overseas cultivators really this wild? They don't even want their Zhou Tian (a concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine) anymore? They don't even want their Golden Core?"

As expected of a disciple of Nascent Soul expert and Golden Core physician, he immediately saw the biggest problem with this transformation: unless a full-body transformation was performed, it would be impossible to form a Golden Core.

Hu Mang nodded in agreement, "That's how wild it is."

Sun Jidao became interested. With a casual wave of his hand, Hu Mang summoned a modified cultivator and even disassembled the cultivator's magical Law Artifact so that Sun Jidao could examine it closely.

"Simulating meridian circuits and stimulating blood flow... Wearing this for a long time can cause the meridians to shrink continuously, and it will be impossible to reconnect them."

The modified cultivator opposite him stared at him expressionlessly.

Hu Mang chuckled and casually asked, "Of the cultivators who fought in the life-or-death arena with you, how many are still alive?"

"Five died, three were crippled, two had their Root Bone damaged, two retired early, and three are still healthy."

"Do you understand? This is the old era. They are the Rogue Cultivator of the old era. How can they get ahead without risking their lives? What does losing a hand or foot matter if it helps their cultivation progress?"

Sun Jidao was taken aback upon hearing this, finally gaining a little understanding of this overseas cultivation world.

Hu Mang took Sun Jidao directly to his room, a detached villa with a lake in front and mountains behind, in a very quiet and secluded environment.

Hu Mang led the other person to offer three incense sticks towards the statue of the Datuk Gong, and then without any further words, led the other person around the statue, where they saw the right arm of the huge Human Immortal Lightning Puppet.

Sun Jidao's eyes lit up instantly, but he quickly let out a long breath and gave a bitter smile, knowing that this time, he had probably fallen completely into the other party's trap.

"To put it simply, I'm here in Java, funding you to set up an overseas lab. You recruit the staff, I provide the funding, and I want the commercial rights to the patents. Everything will go through the proper procedures, with professional lawyers and a contract with a formal legal basis."

Hu Mang patted the "right arm of the Lightning Puppet," which was three times larger than a water tank, and got straight to the point.

"Why does it have to be overseas? The personnel and specialized research equipment in Heavenly Gate are far superior to those overseas," Sun Jidao asked doubtfully.

"This thing is too precious. I'm worried that if I take it out Heavenly Gate, it might be confiscated. And didn't you just see? There's a lot of tough work here. If you apply for human trials inside Heavenly Gate, you'd have to go through so many procedures, and there's no guarantee you'd get through."

"Human experimentation should prioritize safety. What if something goes wrong?"

Sun Jidao was quite cautious in this regard, which was in line with the style of researchers in Heavenly Gate cultivation technology.

"If something goes wrong, it'll be perfect for getting a prosthetic body. I'll have my henchmen cooperate with your research. If there's an accident during the research, just implant the prosthetic Law Artifact directly. I'll give them a discount and compensation."

Hu Mang said calmly.

"Will they agree?" Sun Jidao asked doubtfully.

"They're not just willing to agree, they're practically fighting over this spot."

This Heavenly Gate Doctor Sun gained a deeper understanding of the painting styles overseas.

"Okay, I understand. I'll head back to Heavenly Gate now."

"Why go back to Heavenly Gate?" Hu Mang asked, puzzled. "Am I not good enough?"

"Write your resignation letter, and while you're at it, recruit people and get equipment."

"Efficient, I like it!"

After Sun Jidao left, Hu Mang went directly to Jiacha and asked him to select a plot of land within Zheng Family Garden. Then he approached Zhao Tiezhu and asked him to gather several civil engineering teams so that he could build a cultivation research building within Zheng Family Garden.

For the next period of time, Hu Mang supervised the project while continuing to work as a junk collector in Demon-Subduing City, accumulating enough items to fill ten large warehouses.

Even the broken building debris from the Demon-Subduing City was carried over by Hu Mang, who planned to load it onto the newly built research building.

The lack of Spiritual Qi in Java is unavoidable. Without the massive infrastructure of a blessed land, it is ultimately impossible to enhance the Spiritual Qi of a region. Therefore, Hu Mang can only try to find a solution using ancient methods, such as improving the quality of materials or using top-grade Spirit Stone to create a large-scale Spirit Gathering Formation, at least to meet the most basic conditions for research and experimentation.

The array book left behind by the Mysterious Yin Old Daoist contains information on the arrangement of the Spirit Gathering Formation, which is a standard array in the Azure Mysterious Realm.

Meanwhile, Old Xie, who was obsessed with fishing, finally developed a new version of the Core Formation Method.

After reading through the thick stack of documents, Hu Mang remarked that if he had this talent, he could form a core without the Core Formation Method; he would need your abnormally difficult technique.

Just like what Gu Yunshu said, it's either something created from something, or something created from nothing.

Gu Yunshu followed the path of creating nothing from nothing, using the most advanced swordsmanship to achieve a technique similar to "Golden Core Corpse Liberation".

However, Hu Mang could not possibly possess such abnormal swordsmanship, so Old Xie's proposed route was "creating something from something," which, in short, involves using top-level Buddha-Devil Evolution, then incorporating Daoist truths to achieve the unity of the three religions.

This was also the ultimate pursuit of those Dao of Alchemy back then; of course, their pursuit was the unity of the three religions and the Tao.

The monks of the Liang Dynasty shared similar ideas, but they envisioned a syncretic system of teachings, religion, and Confucianism, with Buddhism as the most revered.

The debate between the two sides continued until the fall of the Liang Dynasty without a clear winner.

However, Old Xie extracted the essence of it, evolving the debate between Buddhism and Daoism into the "Method of Elixing the Elixir".

But if even achieving the "National Standard Golden Core" is this difficult, how did the other cultivators of Heavenly Gate manage to do it?

While National Standard Golden Core) is rare, it's not entirely nonexistent.

Hu Mang was quite puzzled; he couldn't figure it out, so he made a phone call to Eighth Master Hui.

"You mean top-tier Golden Core? If it's within the system, then naturally you accumulate the Five Virtues, and once you reach a certain number, you can directly go to a large-scale cultivation project to form your Golden Core. If you're lucky, you can form a top-tier Golden Core."

"Does the Underworld Bureau exist there too?" Hu Mang asked.

"Yes, there is one in Fengdu, called the King Yama Hall, where we formed our core. It can mobilize the power of the Eighteen Levels of Hell to help us form our Yin Core."

Having read the "Netherworld Register," Hu Mang naturally knew what the Eighteen Levels of Hell were. These were the eighteen most ferocious Ghost Dragon Vein under the jurisdiction of the Underworld Bureau. He could actually mobilize the power of the dragon Dragon Vein to assist in the formation of the Golden Core, which was truly enviable.

Eighth Master Hui laughed:

"So, now you know how difficult it is for a self-employed individual to reach the Core Formation stage, right? How about you come work for the Underworld Bureau instead? With your talent, you should be able to accumulate enough Yin Virtue to go to the King Yama Hall in less than ten years. I'll handle the procedures for you; it'll be quick."

Hu Mang remained noncommittal, only asking:

"Are there any problems with forming the core in this way?"

"What problems could there be? But since you've already reached the Core Formation stage in the Underworld Bureau, you're stuck on this path. The old man won't allow someone as talented as you to transfer to another department."

Going down a dead end?

If Hu Mang only possessed the knowledge of the Heavenly Gate, he would probably think this was not bad, after all, Ghost Lord was also Void Refinement.

However, having gained experience in the Azure Mysterious Realm, Hu Mang naturally had a different idea.

Among the ranks of immortals, Ghost Immortal don't seem to be considered very high.

After chatting for a while, Eighth Master Hui took the initiative to speak.

"When Lin Zhiying came to you for help before, you handled it quite well. I didn't expect her to take the initiative to ask you for help. She's a military elite, so there's no harm in building a good relationship with her."

"If you have time, help me investigate the level of Yin Qi in that Sea Dragon Vein. I'll calculate a field mission for you."

One ordinary field mission can earn you a little bit of Yin Virtue.

Hu Mang was actually looking into this thing, and given the relationship between Eighth Master Hui and his Hu Household for two generations, he'd help even if he didn't have Yin Virtue.

After hanging up the phone, Hu Mang pondered for a moment, then took out the sealed box he had previously opened. A blood-red phantom appeared before his eyes.

The Old Man Min's soul was extracted, and his cultivation level, which was originally at the Golden Core stage, naturally dropped back to the Foundation Establishment.

He had altered the Root Bone of an infant back then, and now that infant has grown up and murdered him—it's a case of karma.

Hu Mang pondered for a moment, then took out a Three Yin Life and Death Talisman.

Although the old man's memory is most likely lost, what if it is?