No Money to Cultivate Immortality? - Chapter 816 (Patreon)

Chapter 816: Zhang Yu’s Grotto-Heaven Production Line

After Zhang Yu suppressed the berserk corpse unit production line before him and extracted the grotto-heaven power inside it, he discovered that he could control this mountain of flesh.

And as he controlled it, he also received information sent from within the mountain of flesh, learning more about the situation in the current Labyrinth Realm related to the berserk corpse units.

“The berserk corpse units in the Factory Zone can be subdued as long as I suppress them and extract their grotto-heaven power?”

Zhang Yu thought, What is this supposed to be? Pokémon? Digimon?

Sensing Zhang Yu’s thoughts, Zhanxian said, “This should be an extension of technologies related to grotto-heaven divine beasts, or rather, mountain-guardian divine beasts.”

Zhang Yu’s heart stirred. “Mountain-guardian divine beasts?”

He remembered that in the history of immortal dao technology he had once read, it had indeed said that ancient sects possessed things called mountain-guardian divine beasts.

Zhanxian continued, “So-called mountain-guardian divine beasts were originally only captive-reared demon beasts. After gradual development, immortal dao technology emerged that linked demon beasts to a sect’s spirit veins, and even its fortune. In the end, mountain-guardian divine beasts were cultivated.”

“This technology developed very quickly during wartime. Especially after being combined with grotto-heaven technology, grotto-heaven divine beasts were born as well.”

Zhang Yu knew that so-called grotto-heavens were like the independent space he controlled. In ancient times, they were also called secret realms.

Many sects of Kunxu’s past had histories of establishing their own grotto-heavens, building secret realms, and even moving their entire mountain gates inside.

Zhanxian said, “In short, it uses a grotto-heaven’s empowerment to make a demon beast stronger while placing multiple restrictions on it, letting it serve the function of protecting the mountain gate.”

Looking at the berserk corpse unit production line before him, Zhang Yu said, “This does not look like a divine beast.”

Fu Ji said, “What era is this? Who still plays around with grotto-heaven divine beasts? Isn’t it better to hire security, set up surveillance, and connect to the Spiritual Realm?”

“How much does one security team cost each month? Fire them when you don’t want them anymore, replace them when you’re not satisfied.”

Fu Ji sighed. “But something like a grotto-heaven divine beast? Once you raise one, it’s for decades or centuries. If you’re not satisfied after raising it, it’s hard even to find someone to take over.”

Zhang Yu nodded slightly and thought, Grotto-heaven divine beasts… They’re like raising a watchdog. Compared with all kinds of modern protection technologies, they’re far less cost-effective.

Looking at the berserk production line before him, Zhang Yu said, “They probably considered this point too, right? So although this thing continued from grotto-heaven divine beast technology, it is not a grotto-heaven divine beast. If I have to define it… it should be called a grotto-heaven production line.”

“What grotto-heaven divine beasts? Using them to strengthen combat power and the like is completely useless.” Fu Ji praised, “But if it’s a grotto-heaven production line, using it to strengthen a production line and increase production and money-making ability, now that’s kind of interesting.”

Zhang Yu looked at the information floating before him and continued, “For now, it looks like this production line can only exert one hundred percent of its power inside my immortal grotto-heaven.”

Zhanxian said, “This is the limitation of grotto-heaven divine beasts. While gaining enhancement, they cannot leave the grotto-heaven. Once they leave, their power will decline rapidly.”

“Master Ancestor should have injected grotto-heaven power into large numbers of berserk corpse units in the Factory Zone, transforming them into grotto-heaven divine beasts exclusive to the Labyrinth Realm.”

“After you, as the successor, collected these grotto-heaven divine beasts, they transformed from grotto-heaven divine beasts of the Labyrinth Realm into grotto-heaven divine beasts exclusive to this immortal grotto-heaven of yours.”

Recalling the power erupted by those berserk corpse units in the Factory Zone, Zhang Yu thought, No wonder… I felt that the power erupted by the berserk corpse units in the Factory Zone seemed higher than their standard parameters.

“At first, I thought it was because they had been devouring and strengthening one another. Now it seems there was also the empowerment relationship of being grotto-heaven divine beasts.”

Zhang Yu said, “It’s just that after transforming from the Labyrinth Realm’s grotto-heaven divine beasts into my grotto-heaven divine beasts, they probably no longer have that kind of empowerment inside the Labyrinth Realm.”

“I can test it…”

Zhang Yu left his own grotto-heaven and returned to the Factory Zone of the Labyrinth Realm.

The next moment, as he opened the entrance to the immortal grotto-heaven in his palm, dense blood-and-vitality pipelines extended violently out of it like tentacles.

They were precisely the pipelines from the berserk production line.

At this moment, under Zhang Yu’s mental control, these blood-and-vitality pipelines twisted together into one strand, as though turning into a scarlet whip of light. With a whoosh, it cut through the atmosphere and lashed toward the ground ahead, carving out a large pit with a boom.

Then Zhang Yu lashed it toward a place farther away.

After a round of testing, Zhang Yu quickly obtained the experimental results.

“After leaving the grotto-heaven, it can still maintain eighty to ninety percent of its power within one meter. After exceeding one meter, the power it can exert rapidly declines. After exceeding three meters, it can basically exert less than ten percent of its power.”

Grotto-heaven divine beasts, or rather grotto-heaven production lines, could perform beyond their normal level inside the grotto-heaven, but after leaving the grotto-heaven for even a very short distance… their power was completely gone. Zhang Yu firmly committed this point to memory.

Then Zhang Yu returned once more to the immortal grotto-heaven and looked toward the berserk production line.

Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord, trait: Furnace of a Hundred Forms (0/10)

Looking at the information that appeared, Zhang Yu grew increasingly curious. “This format is really like the Feathered Tome.”

But Zhang Yu knew that the line of text he could see at this moment absolutely did not originate from the Feathered Tome. Instead, it came from the device information sent to the surroundings after the berserk production line had been subdued by him.

If one wanted proof, it was that even Fu Ji could see this information.

“Could it be that this grotto-heaven production line… this Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord, when Ying Xintian manufactured it, also applied immortal dao technology similar to the Feathered Tome?”

“Or did Ying Xintian once see immortal dao technology similar to the Feathered Tome, so a similar format was used here too?”

Zhang Yu could not be certain. The Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord before him, the so-called grotto-heaven divine beast, or rather grotto-heaven production line, had applied far too many immortal dao technologies beyond his understanding.

To him, it was like an elementary school student reading a doctoral dissertation. He could not understand the technical principles inside at all.

“I’ll ignore the principles of immortal dao technology for now. First, I need to learn how to use it properly.”

“As for the principles… I can only wait until I become stronger in the future.”

Looking at the contents of “Furnace of a Hundred Forms (0/10),” Zhang Yu thought, If I collect berserk corpse units with the same trait, I can increase the trait points. By then, I’ll know exactly what this trait is useful for.

Just then, Zhang Yu sensed that the berserk production line before him, or rather the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord, seemed to become somewhat listless.

Zhang Yu’s heart stirred, and he thought inwardly, Is it because there isn’t enough spiritual energy?

Zhang Yu understood that such an enormous production line would inevitably require large amounts of spiritual energy and mana to drive it.

Yet the spiritual energy inside his immortal grotto-heaven was thin. All this time, it had only relied on one tiny entrance to absorb a trace of spiritual energy.

But as the volume inside the immortal grotto-heaven continuously expanded, that tiny bit of spiritual energy drawn from the entrance had also grown increasingly sparse.

“I can’t rely on myself to extract spiritual energy for the immortal grotto-heaven every day, can I?”

“Wouldn’t that slow down my cultivation speed?”

As Zhang Yu pondered, his gaze swept over the breathing machines on the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord’s body, as well as the Cave Heaven Bridge not far away.

“Maybe… this could work?”

The Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord’s predecessor was a production line for breathing machines. At this moment, its body was still loaded with large numbers of breathing machines produced and modified by it, like chunks of twisted, deformed, freely growing malformed flesh.

These chunks of flesh were like the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord’s nose and mouth, constantly gathering spiritual energy for it and breathing out mana.

Under Zhang Yu’s command, the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord let out a low growl. Its huge mountain-like body trembled slightly, and countless breathing machines like malformed chunks of flesh had already flown toward the Cave Heaven Bridge.

These breathing machines circled the Cave Heaven Bridge and began gathering spiritual energy to breathe.

In an instant, Zhang Yu sensed threads of spiritual energy being continuously extracted from the other end of the Cave Heaven Bridge. One portion filled the immortal grotto-heaven, while another portion was converted by the breathing machines into mana and poured into the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord’s body.

As the breathing machines continued operating, a moment later… the spiritual energy that had originally flowed in as thin strands had already become like a small stream converging into the immortal grotto-heaven.

And the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord, which had just seemed somewhat listless, gradually returned to normal. Like a living creature, it silently inhaled and exhaled spiritual energy and mana as its body rose and fell.

Zhang Yu, standing nearby, was delighted at the sight. Good. With this Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord and the breathing machines, combined with the Cave Heaven Bridge extracting spiritual energy remotely, the environment of my immortal grotto-heaven can be slowly transformed. At the very least, the concentration of spiritual energy can be raised.

Zhanxian analyzed, “Perhaps this was Master Ancestor’s intentional arrangement. While passing the grotto-heaven power on to later generations, he also prepared all kinds of key equipment and technologies for them to transform and strengthen the grotto-heaven.”

Thinking of how many berserk corpse units might still be waiting for him to subdue inside the Labyrinth Realm, which could be used to expand and transform the grotto-heaven, Zhang Yu began looking forward to it.

Zhang Yu thought, But collecting these corpse units will probably take a lot of effort.

He knew this was not only a matter of quantity, but also a matter of strength.

“corpse units also differ in strength.”

“Setting aside their functions and judging only by combat power…”

Zhang Yu looked at the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord before him, which resembled a mountain of flesh, and analyzed inwardly, A Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord like this… roughly brushes against the edge of Divine Transformation-level combat power. It has the strength of a blank-slate Divine Transformation. I’m afraid it would take a Divine Transformation cultivator, or a large number of peak Nascent Soul-level cultivators, to suppress it steadily.

“As for the breathing machines on the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord’s body, looking at them individually, their combat power is at most equivalent to the Qi Refinement or Foundation Establishment level.”

Zhanxian said, “The essence of corpse units is also a kind of artifact. Or rather, the essence of the vast majority of Kunxu’s equipment, gear, Law Husks… all of it is artifacts.”

“Although corpse units are usually used as a kind of production tool, with their powerful drive systems, enormous size, sturdy shells, or special abilities… if used for combat, they also possess rather impressive combat power.”

“And this combat power depends on the corpse unit’s performance and raw materials.”

“The more powerful the raw materials and the stronger the performance, the stronger the combat power naturally is.”

Zhang Yu nodded slightly. So-called corpse units naturally originated from physical bodies, and a corpse unit made from a Nascent Soul-level expert would naturally be more powerful than a corpse unit made from a Qi Refinement cultivator.

The Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord before him probably had no lack of Divine Transformation experts’ flesh and blood among its raw materials.

This made Zhang Yu think of the students from Vajra University he had seen back in university.

“University students have to grow meat and sell meat. I didn’t expect that after reaching the Divine Transformation realm, there would still be people taking on businesses that involve growing meat and selling meat.”

Zhanxian continued, “Secondly, just like artifacts, the stronger the cultivator driving the corpse unit, the stronger the effect naturally becomes. However, the berserk corpse units in the Labyrinth Realm are all ownerless objects, in an unmanned driving state, so there’s no need to consider that point for now.”

Zhang Yu pulled out the Factory Zone’s old data, which contained introductions to various factories and equipment.

He thought inwardly, So… the more powerful the production line, the more powerful it naturally becomes after turning into a berserk corpse unit. If I want to subdue them, maybe I should first subdue the stronger production lines.

“Preferably Divine Transformation-level production lines…”

Zhang Yu’s gaze swept over the projected data before him. In particular, he highlighted several factories that had once been presided over by Divine Transformation cultivators.

In addition, he silently committed several factories presided over by Void Refinement cultivators to memory as well.

“Production lines that once required Void Refinement cultivators to operate at full power… after becoming berserk production lines now, haven’t they probably brushed against the edge of Void Refinement-level combat power?”

“Even if berserk production lines don’t have combat power like cultivators, and are merely blank-slate Void Refinement combat power, they’re probably still not something the current me can subdue easily.”

As he pondered, Zhang Yu had already memorized the data on several Void Refinement-level factories and left them for later.

As for production lines above the Void Refinement level, the Factory Zone before him no longer had any.

“Subduing these corpse units in the Labyrinth Realm may also be another layer of the test Ying Xintian left for his successor.”

While Zhang Yu’s thoughts raced, he had already returned from the immortal grotto-heaven to the Factory Zone and hurried toward the ancestor’s corpse he sensed.

Only this time, he did not conceal himself inside the violent winds again and skip past the berserk corpse units he encountered along the way.

He began using Kunlun in the Palm together with the power of Immortal Descendant, preparing to collect each berserk corpse unit he encountered on the road into the immortal grotto-heaven.

A corpse unit with a jar-shaped body roared at Zhang Yu. More than ten hoses extended from inside the corpse unit, like jellyfish tentacles, winding toward Zhang Yu.

“Combat power… roughly at Gold Core level.”

“It should originally have been an anticorrosion storage tank. After going berserk, because it couldn’t find corpse units that needed anticorrosion, it started searching for targets and injecting them with anticorrosion poison?”

Zhang Yu swept it with a glance and roughly judged the level and origins of the corpse unit before him.

Then he spread his five fingers. Kunlun in the Palm activated with a rumble, locking onto the corpse unit before him.

The space within dozens of meters twisted and contracted, as if instantly falling into absolute darkness.

When the darkness dispersed, the jar-shaped corpse unit that had just been going berserk had already vanished without a trace.

At the same time, inside the immortal grotto-heaven, the berserk corpse unit had only just fallen in when it saw a huge body of flesh before it, swinging out hundreds and thousands of blood-and-vitality pipelines. They swept over like red whips of light.

Beside that body of flesh, several of Zhang Yu’s clones were also jointly using Heavenly Kunlun Mountain-Moving Might, fiercely suppressing the berserk corpse unit.

Then, together with several other suppressed berserk corpse units on the other side, it was piled up with the rest.

In this Factory Zone, where the connection to the Spiritual Realm was severed, supervision was lacking, and there were no bystanders, Zhang Yu no longer had any scruples when he acted.

Kunlun in the Palm combined with Immortal Descendant allowed him to rapidly collect all kinds of corpse unit equipment like a septic suction truck. Meanwhile, the clones inside the immortal grotto-heaven, paired with the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord, could often easily suppress each berserk corpse unit one after another.

After suppressing another Nascent Soul-level corpse unit, Zhang Yu took the initiative to enter the immortal grotto-heaven in order to prevent accidents. He planned to extract the grotto-heaven power from these suppressed corpse units one by one and subdue them all.

As thread after thread of grotto-heaven power was drawn into his body, a line of information appeared over the jar-shaped corpse unit before Zhang Yu.

Injection Corpse, trait: Mechanical Corpse Cry (0/6)

The next moment, the Injection Corpse, which had just been constantly twisting and struggling, immediately stood obediently in place and moved back and forth according to Zhang Yu’s will.

Then Zhang Yu pressed down another berserk corpse unit at the Nascent Soul level and violently extracted the grotto-heaven power inside the other party’s body.

As threads of grotto-heaven power surged into his own body, Zhang Yu could feel his immortal grotto-heaven faintly expanding. Its length, width, and height all grew slightly.

“This was clearly more than the Injection Corpse just now. Sure enough, the stronger the corpse unit, the more grotto-heaven power its body contains.”

Zhang Yu’s gaze shifted as he looked at the information that appeared over the Nascent Soul-level corpse unit before him.

This was a corpse unit that had originally existed as a conveyor belt. After going berserk, it transported things everywhere, making it one of the relatively harmless kinds of berserk corpse units.

If it had been the original Zhang Yu, he would have gone around this type of corpse unit directly and been too lazy to get entangled with it. But now that he saw them again, he discovered they were all destined objects, each with something worth taking.

Conveyor Worm, trait: Assembly-Line Assimilation (0/8)

Looking at the information before him, Zhang Yu nodded slightly. “Saves me the trouble of naming them.”

After subduing the captured corpse units one by one like this, Zhang Yu looked at the various functional corpse units before him, all standing obediently in place and moving according to his will. He thought inwardly, With this, my next round of subduing will be much easier.

“If this continues, won’t I soon be able to create a corpse unit army?”

But Zhang Yu very quickly realized that matters were not that simple.

As the number of corpse units increased, the concentration of spiritual energy inside the immortal grotto-heaven began to drop. Major spiritual energy consumers like the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord gradually became listless again.

Zhang Yu frowned slightly. “The more corpse units there are, the greater the spiritual energy consumption. The spiritual energy gathered by the original breathing machines is already no longer enough?”

“As expected, controlling large numbers of corpse units is not that simple.”

“First, I need enough spiritual energy and mana.”

“Second…”

Zhang Yu looked at the size of the immortal grotto-heaven before him and thought inwardly, A large enough space is also necessary.

And when it came to raising the spiritual energy concentration, the first thing Zhang Yu naturally thought of was breathing machines.

But although he had previously encountered breathing machines from time to time, when Zhang Yu now actively wanted to capture them, he discovered that he could not find any.

Then Zhang Yu thought of the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord currently inside the immortal grotto-heaven.

“The Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord was originally a breathing machine production line. Can it be used to manufacture breathing machines?”

“But collecting materials would be a little troublesome.”

As Zhang Yu pondered, he set his sights on several other corpse units.

With a thought from Zhang Yu, the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord scattered hundreds of blood-and-vitality pipelines, rolling them toward a motionless corpse unit.

In an instant, the entire corpse unit had already been directly dismantled, and countless materials were swallowed into the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord’s body.

Accompanied by waves of rising and falling flesh and the surging of blood-and-vitality pipelines, a breathing machine covered in bloodstains was spat out.

Then blood-and-vitality pipelines from the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord inserted into it like needles. With large amounts of unknown liquid injected into it, the breathing machine trembled violently. Like a lung rapidly expanding and contracting, it began to breathe in spiritual energy.

After two breathing machines were produced in a row like this, when the third breathing machine was produced, it only squirmed slightly in place a few times before completely stopping operation, like it had stopped breathing.

Zhang Yu thought, There’s a chance of producing defective goods?

As Zhang Yu’s thought shifted, the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord had already swallowed the defective item into its feed port, using it as reserve material for the next production run.

Of course, repeated production like this would consume large amounts of material, and the usable rate would grow lower and lower.

Although there was a chance of producing defective goods, to Zhang Yu, this was still an effective method of increasing spiritual energy.

Thus, for the rest of the time, as Zhang Yu subdued corpse units along the way, he only kept some corpse units that looked useful. The vast majority of the other corpse units were handed to the Hundred-Husk Furnace Lord to swallow and produce into new breathing machines, which were used to raise the concentration of spiritual energy inside the immortal grotto-heaven.

And as he watched the breathing machines’ somewhat bloody-looking production process, Zhang Yu could not help thinking inwardly, No matter how I look at this… it doesn’t seem like immortal dao technology popular in the Myriad Laws Sect, does it?

A previous guess surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind again. “Are the various berserk corpse units in the Labyrinth Realm, or rather the immortal dao technologies related to the grotto-heaven divine beasts, something Ying Xintian learned from the Demon Sect?”

“After the demonic path was put to righteous use back then, had Ying Xintian already begun learning immortal dao technologies in this area?”

Just as Zhang Yu was thinking this, he heard Zhanxian say, “Perhaps… this place is not solely Master Ancestor’s work.”

Zhang Yu asked in confusion, “Why do you say that?”

Zhanxian explained, “Within the current Myriad Laws Sect, it is not as if there are no technologies that once originated from the demonic path.”

“But even immortal dao technologies that came from the demonic path, after being learned and integrated by the Myriad Laws Sect, would change in style. They would not look so crude and careless like these berserk corpse units.”

“Instead, they would become cleaner and neater, appear more orthodox, more high-end and grand…”

Zhang Yu’s heart stirred, and he said, “You mean… aesthetic style?”

Zhanxian said, “Correct. Cultivators also have cultivators’ aesthetics. The external style of these berserk corpse units is completely different from Master Ancestor’s aesthetic.”

“So I suspect these things may have come from another person, a cultivator from some other sect.”

“And this Labyrinth Realm may have been arranged jointly by Master Ancestor and that person.”

Just then, Zhang Yu’s gaze suddenly froze.

In Zhang Yu’s perception, the ancestor’s corpse that he was drawing ever closer to had suddenly vanished without a trace.

“Who? Did someone steal it?”

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