Chapter 1037: Common Topics

After settling into the subspace, there wasn't much to unpack, as they had traveled lightly.

Meng En formally took on the role of a respectful and sensible attendant. The next morning, he accompanied the group to a simple shop located on the outskirts.

“I’ll take my leave now,” Meng En said.

Inside, the shop felt like a hardware store or a cluttered general goods shop. Mechanical parts, loose components, and barrels of oil were strewn about, while clearly semi-finished parts were neatly arranged on shelves.

Three powerful beings were busy inside.

Xu Zhi had initially been quite expectant. After all, ninth-tier Achievers were surely peerless beauties. Such beings, transcending the laws of the universe, would have flawless bodies, perfectly refined into the most aesthetically pleasing forms.

He was also very curious about these degenerate Achievers—about their genes, bloodlines, and systems. Achieving such a level undoubtedly required immense intelligence, and if possible, he wasn't averse to learning from them. To him, it could be a significant opportunity.

However, what he saw left him bewildered. These so-called beauties were:

A large, snow-white spider with a human head.

A fire-red kobold-like being, which somehow gave off an impression of delicate features.

And a sticky, dark green jelly-like humanoid female.

Only the last one marginally conformed to human aesthetics from Earth. While the first two were indeed beautiful, it wasn't in a way that would attract the opposite sex.

“A newcomer has joined us?”

The three looked at Medusa with delight. The spider beauty slowly rose on her eight legs. “We heard yesterday that a newcomer was joining us. We didn’t expect you to choose our group. Welcome! Not going to ‘Burning Cloud’s’ place means you’re also a self-respecting peer. We are self-reliant here and resist all despicable acts of relying on males.”

“Indeed,” Medusa replied with a smile, finding it rather odd. She hadn’t expected the interactions among these Achievers to be so unexpectedly ordinary and casual, much like those of common people.

“Don’t be shy,” the jelly beauty said, leading Medusa further into the room. “Perhaps you’ve traveled countless universes without encountering beings of your level, but here, you’ll get used to seeing many. However, you must be careful. Don't venture out too much. Some evil degenerate Achievers will kill others to obtain various materials and resources. Especially for us, female Achievers who are considered beauties, they might even capture us to satisfy their twisted desires. After all, some individuals are interested in powerful female Achievers and have a proclivity for enslavement… That would truly be a life worse than death.”

“Yes, you need to stay vigilant,” the kobold added. “That Burning Cloud is constantly interested in our eldest sister, coming over here every few days.”

The eldest sister, the beautiful spider named Nai Sila, smiled and explained, “Indeed, beauties like us are coveted by countless degenerate Achievers. Especially since the three of us are still young women, having been super geniuses in our own civilizations, we dominated entire eras during our cultivation. Ordinary males who pursue us simply aren’t worth our time.”

Nai Sila, the beautiful spider, said this with a proud expression.

“That’s right,” the green jelly woman said gently. “Sister, though there are many strong beings here, we haven’t found any decent males with good character whom we could truly rely on and journey with.”

This small group was quite interesting.

“Are you two from the same civilization?” Medusa asked.

“Yes, Mei Duo La and I are from the same civilization,” Nai Sila, the beautiful spider, said, taking the jelly being’s hand and glancing at the kobold. “And Wei Na is from a different one.”

Xu Zhi: “.....”

It seemed all three were very popular Achiever beauties… Xu Zhi was utterly bewildered! He suddenly realized that perhaps his progress was too rapid—after all, it had been less than a year. This speed of breakthrough severely hampered his aesthetic sensibilities from keeping pace with his power level.

So, among Achiever civilizations, after seeing many alien races, these powerful beings began to feel that as long as they were carbon-based, they all had delicate features, transcending races, and that universal harmony prevailed?

“Perhaps Achievers of this level, looking down upon countless civilizations and galaxies, have long transcended the limitations of race and form in their perspectives…” Xu Zhi, sitting aside with his daughter, began to ponder how bizarre Burning Cloud’s concubines and companions must be.

Xu Zhi suddenly somewhat understood, but he couldn't accept it. Perhaps his lifespan was too short, and he hadn't experienced enough to possess such broad-mindedness. He still preferred humanoid forms and human aesthetics.

“And who is this?” the beautiful spider asked with a smile.

“This is… my senior, and her daughter,” Medusa explained with a smile. “She’s my guide, but she hasn’t broken through to the ninth tier yet.”

“Is that so?”

They didn’t seem to mind. “Joining us is an excellent choice; from now on, we’ll be a group of four. We currently deal in machinery here, helping other beings with custom mechanical parts, repairs, and various odd jobs. Since you’re new, it’s best if you learn the ropes.”

Medusa nodded. Shifting from the supernatural to the technological side, this made sense. Medusa didn't mind at all and seriously intended to learn from them. After all, secretly acquiring the experience and knowledge of this civilization was a strong temptation for her.

“Oh, right, learning aside… since you’re new, you still need to hurry and procreate, raise offspring, then cover high-dimensional spacetime, accelerate the flow of time, and try to produce over a hundred million descendants, continuously multiplying.”

Although the beautiful spider Nai Sila appeared very proud, she spoke with great care:

“The three of us have at least over a billion descendants, all within our high-dimensional spacetime. It’s common for one person to carry an entire civilization,” said the jelly maiden, Mei Duo La.

“So prolific, and you still have the nerve to call yourself a pure maiden?” the kobold teased, a wry look on its face.

Mei Duo La glared. “That’s different. At our level, we can self-reproduce. Don’t look at how many children I have; I’m still clean and pure… And if we were to procreate with other beings to produce Achiever offspring, it would lead to our bloodlines mixing and mutating, no longer being the same species as us, and causing our descendants’ Dao Seeds to be less compatible with ours.”

Shi Ji understood. They procreated by reproducing their own kind, striving for exact replicas of themselves. This was to ensure perfect compatibility with the Dao Seed. Their own racial bloodline would not be tainted. After all, for a powerful race, maintaining the purity of their transcendent bloodline was essential.

“Then what’s the point of a companion?” Medusa asked with a smile. “How are you still so popular?”

“Descendants are one thing; that’s normal cultivation, a way to perpetuate the glory of one’s race,” the beautiful spider patiently explained. “However, normal Achievers are still flesh-and-blood beings and still have such needs. And ordinary eighth-tier gods are not beings of the same dimension; they are like paper, requiring extreme caution even with a ten-thousandth of our power. Achievers are inherently very rare, so an Achiever beauty is still very popular.”

“I see,” little Shi Ji nodded. “No wonder they marry across races, even those that look strange and aren’t their own kind… it’s because there’s no other choice.”

The three wore awkward expressions.

“Ahem, ahem…” Nai Sila chuckled. “It’s not that forced… While most still prefer forms similar to their own race, the majority no longer care about physical appearance. Some special Achievers even particularly like various unique life forms…”

“Like our sister,” the green-skinned maiden Mei Duo La said. “The exotic spider beauty is considered the number one beauty here.”

Medusa nodded, finding it all very novel. “I see… So between companions, they each build up their own racial civilizations and ensure their pure bloodlines… but they don’t produce offspring together?”

“It’s not that they won’t. Some special civilizations actually really like such Achiever offspring,” Nai Sila chuckled. “Because there’s a probability that by fusing the bloodline genes of two races, a powerful new mutated race might appear… After all, life is very mysterious.”

“It’s said that some powerful races were born that way… For instance, the three Heavenly Venerates of the Abyssal Blue Divine Realm.”

“Hiss… no way? Their time-control bloodline was born from such mixed mutations?”

“I don’t know, but that’s what I hear. It’s said that many heaven-defying bloodlines are born this way.”

“Yes, I heard there are ‘Inspection Envoy’ level beings here who enjoy producing such mutated offspring, and they have hundreds of them… Although most have disabilities or defects, it’s rumored that a few heaven-defying ones have appeared.”

The three began chattering, gossiping.

“Actually, we’re quite interested in these mutated ‘babies’ too. After all, procreating within our own race is just a duty and cultivation for a flourishing civilization… Who wouldn’t want a beloved male partner and to bear our unique children? It would be even better if they could be powerful.”

“Indeed, such a dream isn’t bad, but currently, there are too few trustworthy Achievers to rely on…”

Xu Zhi sat nearby, listening to the lively conversation among the shop group, and only then realized how bizarre the prevailing customs of the degenerate civilization were!

“Is the entire degenerate civilization discussing topics of offspring like this? Races flourishing with hundreds of millions, even billions of descendants? And all of them are very familiar with and understand this system of knowledge?… Perhaps this is one of the reasons they are called ‘degenerate’.”

Fortunately, Xu Zhi quickly integrated into the conversation of these female Achievers, as he, too, was quite proficient in matters of procreation.