New concept of the mysterious way to ascend to immortality

Chapter 333 Zombie Parasite? Wrong! Ganoderma lucidum
"What? You want to invest more again? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

In the greenhouse next to the frog-raising workshop, a senior student was clumsily handling the corpse of a wolverine that had recently died. Its eyes, ears, nose, and mouth were sewn shut with black thread, and a yellow talisman was stuck to its forehead.

After listening to Yuan Zhu's "Business Plan 2.0" presentation, he instantly sprang from his half-squatting position, glaring at the other party with wide eyes: "Your damned frog farm has only been in production for less than a week, and you haven't seen a single output. Now you're asking me for a new 'canned food processing production line'. You even want to produce soap? Didn't you say before that the 'frog farm' was going to get into 'pharmaceuticals'? My underground laboratory is almost finished!"

Yuan Zhu nodded sincerely: "Yes, yes! The transformation of the Frog Factory into a Pharmaceutical Factory is a must, but building a complete industrial chain and fully tapping into every bit of the frog's potential can further reduce costs and create a 'hexagonal comprehensive enterprise'."

The senior student pushed up her glasses and sneered, "Heh, I'm just an ordinary college student. You can't just take advantage of me like that. My credit rating with the family is currently negative. Unless my career improves and brings significant expected benefits to the family, I won't get any more help."

"Forget about the cannery and soap factory; I can't help you with those. At most, I can support you in opening a closed canteen, replacing the chefs with illegal monsters (evil goblins). I'll cover for you and hide this information. In addition, the 'monster canteen' connects perfectly to the 'underground laboratory,' allowing you to privately confine and cultivate more 'frog-type warrior' test subjects for illegal modification experiments, drug trials... to achieve the exploration and breakthrough of 'potions.'"

"If you have a large number of dead frogs that you can't handle, there's no need to set up any canning or soap factories. My greenhouse can handle it all. I'll take as many as you have dead, no problem at all. Even if the greenhouse can't handle it all, you can chop them up and use them as fertilizer, which is a good thing."

As she spoke, the senior student turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the somewhat empty "small greenhouse." The tiered flower racks, which should have been planted with 'rare plants,' were now devoid of any plants or flowerpots. Instead, they resembled supermarket shelves, displaying strange animal carcasses.

Amphibians, reptiles, mammals… from mice and frogs to deer, goats, and wild boars. All sorts of animals are displayed in a variety of elaborate ways, and have even undergone preservation treatment. It resembles an art gallery reflecting some kind of morbid psychology.

From the sewn-up orifices of a few small animals, green plant shoots had already sprouted... It was bizarre and eerie, yet tinged with a strange vitality. Unfortunately, the sprouting plants were few, and the huge greenhouse smelled terrible. It was filled with a pungent, indescribable odor, similar to formaldehyde. Thankfully, there was no stench of decay, otherwise it would have been utterly hellish.

...

Yuan Zhu suddenly realized that the two of them had been excitedly spending the morning together, even skipping breakfast, apparently trying to replicate the [Corpse Species]. They had even made new breakthroughs.

If your "canned food and soap" plan is to efficiently utilize the frogs eliminated by the "frog factory," then your senior's "greenhouse" also has a huge gap in 'corpses' and can also absorb the defective and eliminated products from the "frog factory."

However, it seems that the senior's 'career start' was even more meager and hasty than that of [Frog Factory].

One's own "frog farm" must at least purchase "standard frog seedlings" from "Rain Academy", add drugs to make special feed, carry out holy light disinfection of the frog farm, and carry out standardized feeding to ensure the absolute cleanliness and safety of the environment. It seems very legitimate.

Looking at the senior student's side, it was a complete ragtag operation. There wasn't even a standardized "corpse flowerpot"; the bodies were all wild animals hunted or collected from the "Misty Foothills."

They pick up all sorts of junk without any discrimination, not even missing out on tiny squirrels with barely any meat on them.

That's so inconsiderate!
However, Yuan Zhu was unaware that this wasn't the senior student's fault at all. Senior Chen was a college student with principles and morals; she wouldn't do something like that.

The bizarre animal carcasses displayed on the greenhouse shelves today were all made by Yuan Tang alone. They were all rare items that Sister Xiaohai painstakingly retrieved from the nearby swamps and jungles.

Having lived for most of his life (14 years) in the barren and dark underground world, he has now ascended to the upper realm and finally survived the quarantine period in the [haunted house]. He has been brought to the foot of the [Misty Mountains], a place close to nature with light, water, and fresh air.

The little girl completely unleashed her true nature, letting loose and remaining in a state of extreme excitement and exploration all day long. Not only did she absorb knowledge at an incredible speed, but she also quickly mastered the skills taught to her by her two older sisters.

During her rest periods each day, she is always busy, squeezing out a lot of time for outdoor exploration.

Everything she saw was new and exciting, and she was always amazed by what she saw. Even the mud and strange rocks by the roadside could amaze her with the wonders of nature.

If the senior student wasn't careful, she would pick up ants and crickets crawling on the ground and put them in her mouth, carefully tasting their similarities and differences with the dung beetles from her hometown.

If Nie Yin and her senior hadn't taken turns watching over her and strictly warned her not to spit out snails or slugs... who knows how crazy Yuan Tang would have become? Maybe she would have even thought of golden apple snail eggs as strawberry-flavored bursting gummies?
She has lived for a long time in the resource-scarce and ecologically isolated "underground world," and has only ever seen "insects" and "humans." One can only imagine the shock and fascination she would feel when she encountered "fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals."

In this sense, the stimulation that the Misty Forest brought to Yuan Tang was a hundred times stronger than the psychological impact that Jurassic Park brought to young Yuan Zhu.

When Earthlings first saw 'living dinosaurs and living Avatars' on screen, they quickly became a global sensation. So, the shock I felt when I was actually in the Misty Mountains, encountering mammals even more bizarre and grotesque than dinosaurs, was no less than ascending to the celestial realm and seeing unimaginable, indescribable, and eerie creatures appearing in every corner of my life.

Thus, Yuan Tang, caught up in a period of fervor, unleashed boundless enthusiasm. Whenever he had time, he would venture into the swampy forests near the construction site, embodying the spirit of Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, sampling wild grasses, tasting tree bark, and even gnawing on small animals raw...

Fortunately, after eating high-calorie fried delicacies and experimental garbage (frog meat) stewed with Nie's seasoning packet, she gradually got rid of her obsession with original ingredients and developed a more luxurious high standard for food (cooked + seasoning).

The abundance of material life caused the two siblings, who were used to eating dried moss, mushrooms, and dung beetles, to quickly become corrupt and decadent. In just one week, they forgot their roots and began to indulge in luxurious meals such as "frog stewed with instant noodle seasoning packets" and "chicken king family bucket".

Yuan Tang has now overcome the urge to casually nibble on roadside snails, but he still can't shake his squirrel-like hoarding habit.

Deeply engraved in her ambition to become an excellent alchemist, she used her physique and strength as a Qi Refiner to relentlessly beat up small animals around the construction site and rob predators of their prey... bringing back batches of corpses for her senior to use in casting the Corpse Seed technique. This joy of exploring the forest was like a thief falling into the treasure of the richest dragon in history, the fashionable Smaug, being overwhelmed by a sea of ​​gold coins. It could only be described as happiness bordering on dissociative psychosis.

...

At this moment, Yuan Zhu pointed to a dead duck with a green sprout emerging from its eyelid slit and asked, "Little Tang, has your improvement of the [Corpse Species] been successful?"

The little girl looked at him innocently and aggrievedly, then shook her head dejectedly: "No!"

Yuan Zhu asked in confusion, "It's turned green now, it's sprouted, isn't that a success?"

The senior student snapped out of her anger and explained, "Your attempt to cultivate the [Corpse Seed] was unsuccessful, but Xiao Tang and I modified, weakened, and improved the technique, successfully growing ordinary 'herbs' using the corpses of common wild creatures. The seedlings you see are ordinary medicinal seeds that I provided."

Candle: "Seeds native to our Duling? What's the difference between these and seeds grown in ordinary flowerpots and soil?"

The original meaning of "Corpse Species" is that the environment of the "Feathered World" is too harsh, with miasma pollution everywhere and all nutrients being plundered by the "giant root network".

To cultivate spiritual herbs that meet the standards of the [Reverse Life Immortal Sect], one must use the corpses of high-energy 'giant demonic insects and Qi Refiners' as a nutrient base to cultivate top-grade spiritual herbs.

Now that you've successfully cultivated ordinary herbs from the bodies of ordinary wild animals, isn't that utterly redundant?

Senior Sister: "There are differences. First of all, the 'seeds' I provided are also extraordinary. They are 'high-quality herbs' carefully selected by the [Botany School], of the same grade as, or even higher than, the 'experimental frogs' you raise. The environment for cultivating them is equally demanding. The [Corpse Seed] that Xiao Tang has mastered is equally magical. Even ordinary beasts of the Duling can be used to grow low-grade spiritual herbs after being processed into 'corpse culture medium' through special methods. This not only saves costs but also greatly increases the survival rate of 'medicinal materials' and reduces the environmental requirements."

Yuan Zhu: "Really? That's amazing! How's the genuine [Corpse Seed] and the batch of 'spiritual herb seeds' I gave you?"

Yuan Tang then reported, "The environment in the 'Upper Realm' is vastly different from that in our 'hometown.' Sister Chen tried to cultivate it using the 'academic' method, but failed to germinate and grow seedlings, instead consuming a lot of seeds. In order not to waste light, we suspended the 'academic' method. As for the [Corpse Seed], it also failed repeatedly, and we finally concluded that only the corpses from our 'hometown' can provide the environment needed for the growth of the spiritual herbs in our hometown."

Senior Sister: "From your sister's description, it seems that to germinate and cultivate these kinds of 'spiritual medicine seeds,' one 'extraordinary pollution' element is lacking, which is the 'spiritual energy' of the Kunlun system. Don't panic, I have already ordered a 'bonsai spiritual plant' of the Kunlun system and a 'ornamental fairy flower' cultivated and promoted by overseas wandering immortals from the school."

Candle, who was also struggling at the bottom of society, looked completely bewildered, not understanding what her senior meant by "bonsai." She asked naively, "What are those?"

The senior student thought for a moment and summarized: "You can think of them as the weakest production units capable of producing 'Kunlun-type spiritual energy' through minute amounts of breathing. These two ornamental plants can be placed at home and, through careful watering and cultivation, release extremely thin amounts of 'spiritual energy' every day. Because they undergo strict selection and cultivation before being sold, the 'pollution' they release is of a healthy and beneficial type. Just like your [Holy Light System], which is essentially also pollution, but after so many years of evolution, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and it has been categorized as 'safe, orderly, and beneficial'."

Yuan Zhu: "You want to use this 'spiritual bonsai + animal corpse' to reverse synthesize and deduce the 'soil (corpse)' conditions that can germinate this batch of 'seeds'."

The senior student nodded: "This is just one possible approach."

Yuan Zhu, however, thought of the [Reverse-Growth Mulberry Seedlings] that had already begun to be planted by the 'Eggplant Spirits': "You should have said so earlier. I could have gotten some 'dangerous plants' that were more suitable for the [Corpse Species' to pollute the environment. It's just that their state is very primitive and not safe at all."

The senior student quickly raised her hand to stop her: "Stop! I really want it, but not now. The greenhouse can't accommodate such a dangerous and polluting plant. You can bring it after the underground laboratory is completely sealed off, and we can study it properly in the closed isolation room."

Zhu Zi looked disappointed: "Since there's no progress, what were you two doing together so early in the morning?!"

Yuan Tang gently patted the badger whose seven orifices had been sewn shut, and said with a hint of happiness, "Sister Chen found a copy of the [Basic Corpse Refining Technique] yesterday afternoon. Last night, we performed a 'death ritual' on it according to the description in the manual and planted spores in its body. We are currently observing and recording the results, and we have had an unexpected gain."

"What's the catch?"

Yuan Tang: "In the 'Upper Realm,' neither ordinary animal carcasses nor deeply polluted remains can germinate spiritual plant seeds using the [Corpse Seed]. However, if we take a step back and use the [Corpse Refining Technique + Death Ritual + Corpse Seed], neither ordinary animals nor polluted remains can germinate the mycelium of 'Cordyceps Fungus and Zombie Fungus' and begin to grow slowly."

Candle: "So, you succeeded?"

The senior student shook her head: "It's not entirely successful. The 'cordyceps-like and zombie-like spores' you provided also exist within the spirits, which can parasitize and hijack insect bodies to grow. Now, we've used the [Ritual of Death] to stimulate this potential, but the medicinal properties of the 'otherworldly fungi' you provided are slowly diminishing as they successfully germinate and grow. The initial germination and planting were successful, but it continues to weaken itself during development... I don't know whether, once it fully adapts to the [spirit] environment, it will become just another ordinary creature, or whether it will retain some of its 'medicinal properties'?"

Yuan Zhu glanced at Yuan Tang, who seemed a little excited, and then at the senior student who seemed indifferent and uninterested. She asked in confusion, "Isn't this great? You've successfully taken the first step. Why don't you seem very enthusiastic?"

Senior: "The Kunlun system has monopolized 'woody plants,' while we, the Dangerous Botanists, are researching the mysteries of the 'Loose Immortal lineage,' which is the 'herbaceous Daoist species.' As a result, we have now successfully developed 'parasitic fungi,' which are indeed medicinal materials, but they are of no help to the 'Loose Immortal exploration.'"

(End of this chapter)