Chapter 640: Earth still has immortals in seclusion? (Two in One)

Heh… Rayquaza…

Xu Zhi couldn't be bothered anymore and gave up on treating them. However, he still had high hopes for these pixel creatures. Although these guys were full of crazy ideas, it had to be said that this group of players, fighting desperately to survive, had indeed achieved significant results through their hard work. He hadn't expected the reproductive capacity of the pixel natives to have such an effect; it was truly an eye-opener.

Xu Zhi's expression turned thoughtful. "This system could even be continued by these players after they die! In the future, a digital summoning system residing on a planet might truly emerge... It seems to have good potential and fits well with the pixel civilization's concepts of decomposition and synthesis. It also has a fusion form, which completely remedies its combat shortcomings... Wait, decomposition and synthesis... Does this mean there might also be 'monster refining' and 'creature fusion' schools of thought in the future?" Xu Zhi's expression suddenly became complex. He realized the potential was far greater than he had imagined. He instantly understood that given the players' nature, this wasn't just possible; it was inevitable!

Sure enough, when Xu Zhi quickly went online, he found the internet abuzz. They genuinely intended to push the pet stream to its limits. A forum post titled "Brothers, I don't want to work hard anymore, I've found a sugar daddy!" had been published just a few minutes ago, but its clicks were skyrocketing, instantly making it one of the hottest topics.

At this moment, looking at Bai Xiaojun's post title, everyone felt an intense chill run down their spine straight to their scalp! "Good heavens, you finally revealed your true colors? Siding with sugar daddies everywhere, scamming marriages everywhere, 'the world is full of my sons'?" A pair of jade arms for a thousand pillows, a touch of crimson lips for ten thousand to taste. "The legacy of the Great Joy Emperor from back then, a cute yet creepy villain – you've inherited it!"

He clicked on the post. "Foreword: Riding a human pet in the spring breeze, seeing all the flowers of Chang'an in a day!.... Hello everyone, I'm Bai Xiaojun, a player from the New Universe world, that's right! Today, I'm exclusively bringing you a true assessment of this cosmic world! And I've finally revealed my true nature: I don't want to work hard anymore!" Screenshots, screenshots, one Digimon picture after another was posted, but Bai Xiaojun secretly skipped over his own. At the same time, he also talked about various situations. Having left the barren pixel planet and finally encountering the cosmic worldview, everyone was immediately taken aback. The terrifying nature of the All-God, and also the Stone Star... Especially the researchers at various major institutes were completely shocked at this point!

The Cybertron planet, due to different translated languages, wasn't called Cybertron by Earth players. Furthermore, Caroline's development naturally didn't involve any Optimus Prime-like leader, and the Cybertronians wouldn't expose their true Spark to outsiders, so no similarities were found, leading them to believe it was just an ordinary mechanical civilization. But Xu Zhi's impromptu Stone Star was different... It was too obvious. "Dragon Ball, Frieza? Cell? Investigate!"

In a certain island nation, the person in charge's expression changed dramatically. A thought couldn't help but cross his mind: Akira Toriyama? It's highly likely related to aliens. However, for the researchers and major players, an even more terrifying conjecture had already emerged. With past precedents like Minecraft, and now this... Although the pixel planet was merely a coincidence, they didn't know this and believed both instances perfectly aligned, leading them to conclude it was no longer accidental. How could alien civilizations be reflected in various ways on Earth?

Perhaps, looking through Earth's entire history, there weren't just the ascenders from thousands of years ago, not just the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva group? Were there also more recent ascenders, like those from the Qing and Republican eras? In modern times, there were also many mysterious Daoists and masters of mysticism who departed for the myriad worlds. Although in reality, they might have left only decades or a century earlier, in the 1940s or 50s, in another world, they might have been thousands or tens of thousands of years ahead? At this moment, have they returned to Earth, hiding among the populace, living on Earth? Immortals living in seclusion on Earth?

In the research institute, a white-haired old man's face was solemn, his back straight. He fell silent, his eyes filled with disbelief. "This isn't a probability; it's almost a certainty!" He looked at the other researchers and, amid their horrified gazes, whispered, "This explains it. It's because these ancients transmitted the deeds of these alien civilizations through their divine consciousness to those individuals, leading to their publication and widespread knowledge..." At this thought, the white-haired old man slapped the table hard. "Make contact! Find a way to contact the immortals hidden among mortals. These are our ancestors! They are likely to be living in seclusion in rural courtyards or mountain villages. Go find them, and try to make contact!"

On the other side, the internet was still abuzz, unaware of the clandestine activities of the major research institutes. After describing the entire situation, Bai Xiaojun began to talk about his own affairs and the current dynamics. "Brothers, based on our analysis, deduction, and integration, this is indeed the most suitable school of thought for us players! What is demon cultivation? In the words of the ancient wilderness world, it's the primordial spirit! Residing in the sea of consciousness, which is a high-concentration spiritual energy space, absorbing and exhaling spiritual energy from heaven and earth – you can get stronger just by lying down! Once a certain realm is reached, breathing and absorbing spiritual energy becomes an instinct for powerful demons. We can go offline, and with someone nurturing us outside, replenishing the spiritual energy-dense space, we can silently grow stronger! This is called a game script, an AFK leveling stream! This way, we won't be forced offline by game time limits and suffer misfortunes, because the other party can control our bodies for fusion... Otherwise, like before, we could only be online for eight hours a day, leaving other players to guard our corpses!"

Xu Zhi froze when he saw this. There was *this* trick too? He thought these idiotic online gamers were foolish, enjoying absurd maneuvers. Who knew the absurdity was just a superficial phenomenon, a byproduct, their inherent trait? But were they truly foolish? Their underlying goal was clear; they were shrewder than anyone! This path was indeed dominant. No fighting, no risks, and someone would painstakingly find resources, furiously nurturing them. They only needed to lie in a small space, and a continuous stream of resources would be delivered. Most crucially, it didn't matter if they went offline every day; they could still AFK.

"Honestly, I'm in tears too. Have we finally become like Mengmei, playing an offline AFK pay-to-win browser game? (Excited)""Full of achievement! Knowledge changes the world, my hair is finally not bald from stress (tears streaming down my face).""Hahaha, at the same time, we must remain neutral! Anyone can cultivate this summoning system and have a pet.... We must learn from Mengmei's dragon vein system and let flowers bloom all over the world."Balloonfish directly commented: "Honestly, why has Mengmei lived so long? It's because she's basically neutral, helping no one, and everyone relies on her system to gain incense and replenish energy! You must also do this, spread your business across the entire universe, become a part of their lives; it won't be fashionable unless you raise a battle pet!"Akina Mountain Speed also came out to join the fun: "This is modern thinking! Why are Tencent and Alibaba Group so hard to shake? Because they've become a part of life. When battle pets become part of their lives, you just lie down comfortably."

Everyone instantly felt something was off; they had gone too far astray. Someone pulled the topic back: "This is all thanks to Mengmei, as the founder of this system, she taught us the concept of AFK leveling!" "As Lei Jun said, 'On the cusp of a trend, even a pig can fly!'" A group of "beasts" discussed excitedly. Mengmei also nodded in the dark, finding these guys quite capable and flattering in a comfortable way. She probably thought they were secretly training their cute flattering skills to serve their masters well.

Other netizens instantly had a toothache. People were talking about cultivation, passionate battles, leveling up, and fighting monsters, but these guys were talking about commercialization models? These guys were causing trouble! Could they still seriously strive to become strong? Could they stop exploiting loopholes? They were all giant babies, all shameless scoundrels! Well, actually, thinking about it, they felt a little envious. Learning from Pokémon and Digimon, as long as they acted cute to their owners, like Pikachu saying "Pika Pika!", they could be nurtured. If the owner was a young lady, even better. This was a grand scheme: You thought you were raising a cute pet, but you were actually the human pet! At the same time, you would never imagine what kind of scruffy, foot-scratching big man with a beard was secretly acting cute and pampered behind that adorable, soft, kawaii Pikachu.

"That's terrifying!""Who could handle this?!""I'll never believe in love again!"

Honestly, this move was too explosive. Netizens without cute girl avatars found it disgusting, literally ruining their youth, imagining a lewd big man behind Pikachu, rubbing against them in their arms... In short, the internet was in an uproar. These guys had been scheming for who knows how long in secret, and then a wave of review posts was released, completely shocking everyone, like watching an amazing movie.

However, that wasn't all. Next, these netizens also stated: "At the same time, our summoned pixel creature system will also have monster refining businesses for decomposition and synthesis in the future!" In an instant, many netizens already imagined that scene. A group of people setting up stalls on the planet's streets. "I have a high-aptitude vampire embryo here, who wants to fuse it? Three million for a fixed price, guaranteed to produce a top-tier mutation! You'll get rich and be able to sell it for a hundred million!" "I have a high-growth giant sea turtle here, DM if interested!"

Of course, some also began to shatter their beautiful dreams, thinking these guys were always theoretical, overestimating themselves and lacking practical skills. "Mengmei has intellectual property rights; no one can forcibly seize her market share. But what about you? Wait until you've developed; don't end up having your intellectual property stolen, your techniques learned, and then be raised like slimes and treated as commodities (wry smile)." These players were well aware of this point. "Don't worry, we're very low-key right now. We'll talk about it when our human pets rise up!"

Xu Zhi found it quite astonishing. He looked at the entire forum, scrolling through comments and various netizen replies, finding it incredibly lively. Some netizens even boldly speculated that cat people were indeed aliens, a type of alien player whose cute and naive appearance concealed a scruffy, foot-scratching big man, secretly sneering at gullible humans, using cuteness to become their "cat slaves"... They were simply a group of extraordinary people.

Is this how it developed? He lowered his head and looked at the massive central planet. Beside him, a cold female voice spoke. "This system, the summoned pixel system of decomposition and synthesis, has a very low foundation. At the fourth or fifth stage, large granular cells can be decomposed and made into a digital pixel snake, but its practical application is very poor; it takes a long time to succeed. It's likely that only at the sixth or seventh stage, the Heavenly Emperor stage, can rapid decomposition and synthesis be achieved in actual combat to form a special fighting style."

Xu Zhi turned his head to look. He found Caroline had appeared at some unknown time. Before, he hadn't known what she had been busy with. At this moment, she was still the porcelain-skinned girl holding the Holy Cherry Blossom Empress's umbrella and dressed in her style, but this time she had changed her hairstyle to cute twin pigtails, looking delicate and full of girlish charm. Perhaps due to the change in her attire, Xu Zhi felt Caroline's gaze towards him was somewhat different. Before, it had been very straightforward. It was as if she looked at him with respect and admiration, like an elder brother or father who had guided her. Now, while still full of admiration and respect, her gaze also contained some more special emotions. However, Xu Zhi thought about it for a while, and without much doubt, found it quite normal. As for her attire? A thousand years of unchanging appearance would be the strangest thing; regularly changing one's style also served to maintain freshness and quality in life.

"It's just that these Asura Path cultivators are a bit improper; don't let them influence you," Xu Zhi interjected. Caroline walked closer, her face flushed, her eyes evasive, and her expression turned strange as she said, "Indeed. These people deserve to be beaten, to be killed." Xu Zhi nodded, feeling Caroline was quite thorough in preventing potential issues.

Caroline continued, "This cultivation system, at present, is a path of cell decomposition and synthesis. Earlier, these Asura Path warriors themselves mentioned... this system, this pixelated life, is about to open the door to the ninth stage."

"Indeed." Xu Zhi, having now received information from the Phoenix, also dared to discuss this topic. "They are practically simplified versions of creatures; their cellular particles are visible, making it easier to research the path to the ninth stage on them. Furthermore... their cellular structure only has a few hundred thousand cells. From this perspective, the ninth-stage path for this creature is very short!" The length of the ninth-stage path varies for each race. Undoubtedly, for this type of cellular granular creature, this path is the shortest, allowing them to explore the threshold of the ninth stage. That's why Xu Zhi would say this land was a testing ground for ninth-stage cosmic gods and demons.

As for someone saying, if the path is so long, why not self-mutilate, cut off arms and legs, become a 'human stick' (torso), reducing a hundred trillion cells to thirty trillion, and then break through to the ninth stage in that 'human stick' form? An incomplete body and an incomplete self cannot break through to the ninth stage. This is fundamental. It's like your soul needing to cover all hundred trillion cells of your body; only when the soul and flesh truly merge in every part of the body can a life transformation occur. If a limb is missing, your soul won't cover your entire body; rather, your whole soul will cover the 'human stick' but not the limbs... An incomplete transformation cannot achieve a qualitative leap in life's hierarchy.

If there were a true shortcut to the ninth stage, it would be a race's innate advantage—cell count. For example, this special pixel life form with hundreds of thousands of cells before them... Caroline smiled, looking at the ancient deity with admiration, silently moving closer. "But all things in the world are subtly balanced.... The higher the complexity of the cells, the longer the path to the ninth stage, and the stronger the ninth-stage being will be after breakthrough."

Xu Zhi nodded. This was a process of proving the Dao. A path of a hundred trillion units would naturally be infinitely stronger than a path of hundreds of thousands of units. From this, it's clear that the difference between strong individuals within the ninth stage is also vast! She then looked at the pixel creatures. "These creatures, with only hundreds of thousands of cells, are simply a miracle of the entire world. However, if they break through to the ninth stage, they would at best be the weakest, a 'defective' kind of ninth-stage being... But the advantage is also clear: even the weakest ninth-stage being can easily crush us to death."