I, Who Hate Marine So Much, Have Become A Future Nika?

Chapter 287: The Sprout of Immortality, Billions of Enemies

Late at night, in the territory of the Night Cat Clan, the outsiders of the Cloud Firmament Sect, who were reminded by the daylight, gathered together.

At this moment, they used their true abilities, summoning a special aura called 'Nightfall'. The nightfall enveloped their base, completely concealing any information from leaking out.

Hidden within the nightfall, their discussion truly began.

And this time, it was not the elder Shen Zhao of the Night Cat Clan who was in the central position, but the hot-tempered little cat girl from the daylight.

However, unlike in the daylight, under the cover of the nightfall, the petite cat girl Shen Xuan no longer displayed impatience, only elegance and grace.

"Tell me about the situation of the Cloud Firmament Sect."

"Yes, Divine Maiden."

After a respectful response, someone spoke up first, "The Cloud Firmament Sect does not trust us, nor do they believe that the divine envoys under the command of the Immortal Mother of Eternal Life pose much of a threat to them. They even arrogantly think that they can solve this crisis on their own."

At this point, the Night Cat Clan member's expression became somewhat excited, and with a cold smile, they said, "Those foolish and arrogant bastards have no idea of the terror of the Immortal Mother of Eternal Life. If they are not eliminated in advance, even the lowest-level 'Eye' grade divine envoy has the power to destroy a medium-sized world."

"If we don't come, this world will inevitably be destroyed, and they will all die!"

The last sentence sounded like a prophecy, but it was more like a curse.

Obviously, after the Cloud Firmament Sect snatched the control of Azure Ash World and was scolded by the Bamboo Hidden Perfected Being, their attitude towards the Cloud Firmament Sect was not very friendly.

The cat girl Shen Xuan, who was at the head, did not care about this. She did not like the Cloud Firmament Sect either.

"It's better if they perish... Isn't it?"

At this point, Shen Xuan sighed slightly.

"Humans are always like this, arrogant and foolish. They won't bow their heads and cooperate with us until they have witnessed the terror of the Sinful God with their own eyes."

At this point, Shen Xuan's tone suddenly turned cold.

"In that case, let's give them enemies."

"Spread the order, let our people not act rashly,"

"And tell the soldiers on the front line to release some big fish."

"Hehe, since they won't accept our toast, don't blame us for forcing them to drink the penalty wine... I look forward to the scene of those arrogant cultivators bowing their heads and seeking our help."

The elegant Divine Maiden looked forward to the regret of the Cloud Firmament Sect. In order to achieve her own goals, she was also prepared to secretly manipulate things.

The rest of the Night Cat Clan felt the same way.

The people who came to the Cloud Firmament Sect were all nobles of the Night Cat Clan, and the dark night god they worshipped was also a great god.

With a powerful background and great favor, they had never suffered any grievances.

Being despised by the Cloud Firmament Sect without any hesitation naturally angered them.

Therefore, there were more than just the Divine Maiden who wanted to teach the Cloud Firmament Sect a lesson.

Others also thought the same way.

In order to deal the biggest blow to the Cloud Firmament Sect, they not only remained inactive themselves, but also used some covert means to convey orders to other teams, instructing them to hide the information they had learned.

In this way, under the cover of the nightfall, the Cloud Firmament Sect remained unaware of the Night Cat Clan's plans.

However, although they did not receive any information, the Bamboo Hidden Perfected Being, who controlled this world, was not a fool.

Before the Night Cat Clan arrived, he sensed that the situation of the sprouting cultivators was unusual and immediately transmitted the news back to the sect.

Accompanying the news were the sprouting cultivators themselves.

With the sect as a reliance, this was also the reason why the Bamboo Hidden Perfected Being did not pay much attention to the Night Cat Clan.

"Danger? How could such a major event as opening up the lower realm go smoothly?"

"As long as our sect is strong enough, we can easily handle any danger!"

With this mindset, the Perfected Being of the Bamboo Hidden Sect had no intention of seeking help from the Night Cat Clan.

- Nor could they seek help.

In the eyes of the Perfected Being of the Bamboo Hidden Sect, in order to make their sect prosperous, their expansion into the mortal realm would continue indefinitely. As a result, they would gradually encroach upon the territory of another realm.

In this situation, they could only be hostile towards the opposing side, with no possibility of peaceful coexistence.

As opponents, how could the opposing side possibly give helpful hints?

Even if they did, the Perfected Being of the Bamboo Hidden Sect dared not believe them.

"If they come to us voluntarily, claiming to provide information, that information must be deceptive."

"Even if it's not, they would have other demands, such as asking us to return the occupied territory... but that is absolutely impossible."

...

With one side having the intention to punish and the other side unwilling to back down, the situation between the Cloud Firmament Sect and the Night Cat Clan reached a stalemate.

In fact, in the eyes of the Cloud Firmament Sect, this stalemate was only temporary.

Once the sect determined the strength of the opposing side, war could potentially break out immediately.

Such behavior was somewhat militaristic, which was not ideal in the original world.

However, specific situations require specific analysis.

Whether it was the Hongxuan Continent or the opposing side, neither was a modern society but rather a feudal society.

Moreover, it was a feudal society based on noble fiefdoms.

In this era, ordinary people had no human rights.

Therefore, the war between the Cloud Firmament Sect and others was not aggression but rather similar to the hegemony of the Spring and Autumn Period.

In this situation, the actions of the Cloud Firmament Sect sweeping across the land and annexing territories could not be considered wrong; instead, it was akin to the unification of Qin Shi Huang.

This behavior may have gone too far to claim surpassing the Three Emperors and exceeding the Five Emperors in achievements, but it did contribute to the unification of the world and the orderly development of civilization.

...

In the mortal realm, the Cloud Firmament Sect and the opposing side confronted each other, probing and gathering intelligence, searching for each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Within the Cloud Firmament Sect, the group of alchemists and spiritualists were the first to come into contact with those budding cultivators, searching for ways to eradicate them.

However, after a series of experiments, the expressions of the alchemists and spiritualists were not too good.

They were unable to easily solve the problem of cultivators sprouting.

Moreover, after a series of experiments, they discovered that they not only couldn't solve the problem, but also triggered hidden dangers within the cultivators' bodies.

As the sprouting occurred, these cultivators not only experienced a significant increase in physical strength and a strong recovery ability, but also absorbed spiritual energy at a speed several times faster.

The more severe their physical injuries, the deeper the woodification of their bodies after recovery.

And the deeper the woodification of their bodies, the higher their efficiency in absorbing spiritual energy.

This rapid growth in strength even caused cultivators to become addicted.

Of course, woodification was not entirely beneficial. During the process of body woodification, their memories became blurry and they forgot many things.

This kind of forgetfulness made the faces of the observing alchemists and spiritualists grim.

However, the suffering prisoners - the Cloud Firmament Sect would naturally not let their own disciples suffer. Most of the experimental subjects sent to them were criminals.

The sect's cultivators had no psychological barriers when it came to torturing them.

But what sent chills down the spines of these alchemists and spiritualists was that due to their forgotten memories, those prisoners had no idea that they had been contaminated.

The remaining memories make them feel that petrification is beneficial to themselves.

In this situation, they can only feel grateful.

"Praise the Supreme Heavenly Mother..."

Then, as their memories wear away and their spirituality diminishes, they will sing hymns to the Supreme Heavenly Mother while continuously attacking others, seeking only to harm themselves.

In the absence of external enemies, they may even torture themselves to further enhance their petrification and obtain a perfect immortal body.

In the end, these remaining cultivators will completely transform into a large tree.

At this point, they will not die and their heads will be preserved.

However, only their heads will remain, and they have long forgotten all their memories, even forgetting that they were once human. In their consciousness, only the worship of the Supreme Heavenly Mother remains.

This is the life of the infected. As long as their bodies sprout, they can hardly escape the fate of turning into wooden trees.

During this process, the alchemists and spiritualists gathered by the Cloud Firmament Sect have indeed treated these infected individuals.

However, those "immortal sprouts" have already merged with the cultivators. Ordinary treatments can restore the cultivators' vitality, but the external life force will be mostly taken away by those sprouts.

Therefore, the more they are treated, the more sprouts will grow on the cultivators' bodies.

Abandoning the infusion of life force and poisoning the immortal sprouts first is also not feasible.

First of all, the immortal sprouts have merged with the cultivators, so when trying to kill the sprouts with toxins, the cultivators' bodies will also be poisoned.

And when the body is damaged, their bodies will quickly transform into immortal sprouts. The more toxins are injected, the faster the transformation speed.

In addition, what makes the cultivators frown is that these sprouts have extremely strong natural adaptability.

Any toxin is difficult to have repeated effects on the sprouts.

As long as they are attacked, the immortal sprouts will develop corresponding resistance based on the type of attack.

For example, when facing toxins, the immortal sprouts will develop toxin resistance.

When facing cold, the immortal sprouts will evolve into hibernation or have strong cold resistance.

When facing flames, the immortal sprouts may even evolve the ability to absorb flames and convert them into energy.

With the long life force, resilience, and strong resistance of wood, the immortal sprouts truly resemble immortal creatures.

Of course, with the use of extraordinary power, a group of cultivators can still burn the immortal sprouts to ashes.

However, only cultivators at the Gold Core stage can kill the immortal sprouts at the Foundation Building Stage, and in the process of killing them, they will also kill the host bodies that the immortal sprouts parasitize. Such attack effects are obviously not satisfactory for the cultivators of the Cloud Firmament Sect.

It can be said that since obtaining the immortal sprouts, the alchemists and spiritualists of the Cloud Firmament Sect have been troubled countless times.

"How can we kill this thing?"

"It has strong adaptability, it's immortal, and it has a high absorption efficiency for spiritual energy... If it weren't for the fact that it forgets its memories and worships the Supreme Heavenly Mother fanatically after parasitism, this thing would be the best gift for us cultivators."

"Forget about gifts, think about how to kill it!"

"Should we try electric shock?"

"Yang Perfected Being, don't think about your electric therapy—killing the immortal sprouts is simply impossible."

The last person to speak and dampen the morale of everyone present was a young man. He was slightly older than Zhong Cang, but the cultivators in the room still held him in high regard.

His name was Mu Lin, one of the true disciples of the Cloud Firmament Sect.

Before Zhong Cang revealed his talent, he was also one of the more outstanding true disciples in the Cloud Firmament Sect.

Although Zhong Cang's sudden rise overshadowed everyone's brilliance, Mu Lin still had a little light to shine, at least in the field of alchemy and spiritualism, he could emit his own brilliance.

At this moment, seeing him in despair, the alchemists did not get angry, but felt that he had discovered something.

In fact, that was indeed the case.

"Mulin, have you noticed anything?"

"I have indeed noticed something. It would be fortunate if we can remove this Eternal Life Bud, but it is almost impossible to completely eradicate it."

"Why do you say that?"

Facing the questioning of the senior disciples, Mulin sighed and said, "If my speculation is correct, this Eternal Life Bud is not something that can be comprehended by Qi Refining, Foundation Building, or even Gold Core and Nascent Soul. It is Soul Formation, and the power and abilities beyond Soul Formation."

"Of course, this power has been weakened countless times, but even in its weakened state, its essence is still noble. Its high position gives it the ability to be extremely difficult to kill..."

"Above Soul Formation, this is impossible..."

Before the person could finish speaking, Mulin interrupted him, saying, "There is nothing impossible. According to the information we have gathered, the mortal realm is a domain dominated by deities, and deities can share their power with their followers. Under this power system, the divine messengers can summon weakened versions of the Eternal Life Bud with the help of the divine power."

"..."

This reasonable speculation left everyone unsure of how to refute it.

However, the reasonableness of the speculation also made them uncomfortable.

After a long silence, a voice finally spoke up.

"The power and abilities above Soul Formation, does that mean there is no way to cure the infected cultivators?"

Mulin replied, "Now, what we should be most concerned about is not how to cure the infected, but how to prevent the contamination of the Eternal Life Bud and how to stop its spread!"

"The spread of this thing is terrifying!"

The last sentence sent a chill down everyone's spine.

The alchemists and spiritualists of the Cloud Firmament Sect feared the Eternal Life Bud not only because it was difficult to kill and had strong adaptability, but also because of its powerful contagiousness.

When the Eternal Life Bud parasitized on humans or other animal bodies, it would mature after a period of time.

(End of this chapter)

The alchemists of the Cloud Firmament Sect had already sensed the danger.

"If you are hit, you will be infected. This is bad. We need to pass this information to the mortal realm!"

Close combat fights could deliver the offspring of the Eternal Life Bud into the bodies of others, infecting enemies.

This zombie-like mode of transmission naturally instilled fear in people.

But in urgent situations, it was not good.

Then, the mature Eternal Life Bud would release fungal spores inside the body.

Under normal circumstances, this was a good thing, as it allowed cultivators to cultivate for ten years in the mortal realm while only one year passed in the Hongxuan Continent.

The Eternal Life Bud can parasitize not only humans, but all living creatures.

However, when they transmitted the message to the mortal realm, it was already too late.

Although the Cloud Firmament Sect acted quickly, these times were not insignificant when multiplied by ten.

Especially the Perfected Being of the Bamboo Hidden Sect in the Cloud Firmament Sect, who only realized the danger of the Eternal Life Bud after it had appeared for some time.

Infected individuals who had lost their memories had the instinct to attack others, not only to be injured in battle and accelerate petrification, but also to spread the infection.

The cultivators of the Cloud Firmament Sect also took some time to investigate and experiment with the abilities of the Eternal Life Bud.

There was a time difference of five to ten times between the Cloud Firmament Sect and the mortal realm.

When the two times were added together, by the time the Cloud Firmament Sect realized something was wrong, there were already billions of lives in the mortal realm launching attacks on the Demon Sect, Cloud Firmament Sect, demonic beasts, and others.

It took some time for the mortal realm to transport the infected individuals to the upper realm.

Yes, you heard it right, billions!