Chapter 354: The Protagonist is Named Guo Zhanghai

Xu Jia also had no other choice; his disciples were all incompetent, and to become a Ghost Immortal, one had to start from being an Underground Lord or an Underground Commander.

This thing has legal documentation for the Enclosure Movement, conforms to the national conditions and National Fortune of America, is a natural candidate for an Earth Deity, and furthermore, American land does not need to accumulate Merit. There is only one rule: "Private property is sacred and inviolable," which is written into the Constitution. Although it is like a fart now, it is still a "statute" on the surface.

This red-necked old white man really cannot be replaced just by saying so; he must serve his full five or even ten years in office to maintain this divine position and leave it for his successor.

The civil servant contract Xu Jia signed for him is a "fixed-term annual salary contract," not a lifetime tenure, but one cannot violate the agreement at will and drive him away.

However, he definitely needs to be PUA'd a bit to give him some sense of urgency; otherwise, even if he cannot be replaced now, he can still be replaced later.

Guo Zhanghai, however, felt it was absurd, feeling completely like watching one of those Chinese-style movies that America imagines.

Xu Jia said to Guo Zhanghai: "America also has no concept of an Earth Deity, so it can only be relatively broadened. Farm owners, slave owners, estate owners—these aggregated together can barely work. As for those knights, nobles, barons, and viscounts from hundreds of years ago, they actually don't fit America, because America has no nobility. The concept of nobility might work better on the Europa continent."

"Our conferring of gods in America is actually a process of rebuilding order, following the logic of our Eastern Great Nation to keep this order running in a complete and smooth way."

"Therefore, we need the support of Eastern Great Daoism to pool our wisdom. After all, Tongtian Temple can be said to be unable to support itself alone in America."

"Don't look at the current glory; it is actually only temporary glory. I am the core. If I am not here in the future, can this cause continue?"

Having said that, Xu Jia led him out of the Dharma Realm district.

This time, one could distinctively see the true appearance of the American magic soil; it was truly full of demons everywhere.

After leaving this somewhat decent district, looking further out, one could see countless monsters, aliens, skeleton monsters, evil scarecrows, little devils, and even wandering goblins, orcs...

"The Dharma Realm responds to ten thousand thoughts. Those monsters are existences from the most popular games, movies, and even horror stories in America. These cannot be considered strong; they operate according to game logic and are easy to hack to death. The real demons are in the deep-layer Dharma Realm. Follow me."

Xu Jia opened a sewer manhole cover. The manhole cover flipped between yin and yang, and the next moment, they appeared in a gloomy and terrifying atmosphere: abandoned highways, lonely buildings, and eerie fog and whispers from all directions.

Thousands of eyes, tens of thousands of eyes, seemed to be staring at him simultaneously. Not far away, there seemed to be a woman's cry for help, and from a small house came the giggling of a child; the sound was both near and far.

Suddenly, a sharp sound rushed toward them. Guo Zhanghai was about to shout: "What kind of monster is this!"

Xu Jia had already pierced that thing with a point of light; it was exactly a Mind Flayer.

"The thing that Earth Deity said he wanted to use for soaking wine is exactly this."

It was a monster the size of a baby, humanoid, with long, thin limbs like a spider, and pure black eyes.

"The Mind Flayer in Harry Potter isn't like this."

"The form has changed, just like the image of ghosts in the Eastern Great. Do you think the sculptures of minor ghosts in the City God Temple look like living people?"

Xu Jia conjured a flashlight and handed it to Guo Zhanghai: "If this were in the Eastern Great, I would give you a lantern, but this is America. You use your light of the mind to sense; this flashlight will give you a certain safe range. Things that fear light will avoid it, but things that are attracted to light might get closer and closer."

Guo Zhanghai: "Ah? Do I have to explore it myself?"

"Try it. I will protect you from the side, and this is only a wisp of Dharma nature."

Xu Jia also gave him a gun: "This thing is also useful in the Dharma Realm. New era, new Thunder Law; a gunshot is the sound of thunder. Try it."

Guo Zhanghai was helpless and could only take the pistol and the flashlight. As soon as he took them, Xu Jia disappeared, causing him a burst of panic, as if he had entered a dream—a nightmare—but he could not wake up and could not leave.

Xu Jia hid in the dark and secretly said: "The superficial Dharma Realm is like a game; you can grind monsters, and hacking things is like hacking watermelons. But those things are popular for a while and then not; once they are no longer popular, they will dissipate on their own. However, the deep-layer Dharma Realm is events that actually happened in history, the eeriness produced after real people died. How many crimes have there been since the founding of America? Chinese laborers, black people, Indians... This soil has been stained with sin since its birth and cannot be washed clean."

"Now, after hundreds of years of brewing, it is truly difficult to clean up and resolve. The Eastern Great's Cleansing Heaven Mantra and Anzhai Jing Sifang Method also have weak effects. One must follow the local customs. Dao-Ye Dual Cultivation is indeed a good method."

These Dharma Realm demons, except for those in the Half-step Demon God realm who can enter reality to complete the Demon God Ritual, it is hard to see how much darkness is hidden in others, and the normal material world cannot see it either; there is a delay in both directions.

Perhaps people who died miserably over a hundred years ago can only interfere with reality after a hundred years, becoming a Half-step Demon God to kill people directly; during the interim, they can only hint and influence...

"Hiss!" Guo Zhanghai was startled by a sound similar to a snake coming from behind him. He hurriedly shone the flashlight over and immediately saw a fleeing shadow; the shadow showed it changing from a human into a snake...

This is a Snake Woman. Part of the prototype comes from the snake in the Garden of Eden, and part comes from the legend of Medusa... In the deep Dharma Realm of America, it belongs to low-to-mid-level goods, mainly relying on venom and beauty to seduce, skilled at sneak attacks and fabricating lies.

What it reflects in reality represents some selfish, short-sighted, and promiscuous women in America.

Although it is somewhat inappropriate and has the suspicion of discrimination, this is indeed how the form changes in the Dharma Realm. They all possess certain animal characteristics: overly obese people will become pig-headed butchers, police will become werewolves, dangerous women are red-clad Little Red Riding Hoods, capitalists are vampires, homeless people are lizardmen, drug addicts are green-skinned lepers, bottom-tier black people are black minotaurs, bottom-tier Chinese laborers are banana-masked men...

But these are not important; what is important is the evil soil that is difficult to purify, and the black oil that emerges from the evil soil, and the American Bacteria that breed on the oil.

The black oil is like a fountain of magic, which will attract Dharma Realm demons and evil spirits to occupy and consume it, then fight each other for it, and subsequently be infected and corrupted by the American Bacteria.

Although it looks like a joke, that is the logic.

Guo Zhanghai wandered alone in the Dharma Realm. At first, he was startled, but later, after shooting and killing a Mind Flayer, his courage grew.

It was a pity that he hadn't been brave for long; when he walked to the street trees by the road, a face-hugger suddenly sprang out. Fortunately, Xu Jia had left a spell seal, and the bug was frozen. Guo Zhanghai fired wildly and killed it, but the gun hit the tree. The tree revealed a face, shed red blood, and groaned in pain.

These plant-people represent the elderly group in America, and the face-hugger should be something like an insurance company salesman; it is heard that they are skilled at using suffocation to make the elderly die.

Hugging the face is exactly covering the mouth and nose for breathing; this kind of evil thought is most likely to give birth to this kind of Dharma Realm monster.

Guo Zhanghai did not dare to approach the street trees again. After an unknown amount of time, a white house appeared in front of him, the classic American white house.

It would have been fine if he hadn't seen this white house, but once he saw it, the surroundings all became a wilderness, and this white house became the only building.

Guo Zhanghai only felt it was over and tried to shout loudly: "True Person, save me!" Xu Jia's voice came: "It's fine, this is just a small Dharma Realm maze, probably caused by the childhood shadow of a victim of a child abuse case: an alcoholic and violent father, a schizophrenic mother who was imprisoned. Go, go in, find the abused child inside; it should be in some dark corner. As long as you are not seen by these two evil spirits and successfully bring the child out, this maze will dissipate, and you will also receive a portion of the Dharma Realm's gift."

………

A few hours later, Guo Zhanghai ran out of the small house screaming, holding a doll in his hands: "Finally out."

As a result, a voice came: "You hugged the wrong person."

He looked down and saw that the child, who was fine just a moment ago and only a bit mentally numb, had actually turned into a doll, while two monsters at the door were dragging a little boy and loudly scolding: "How can you play with those bad kids outside?"

This doll suddenly became dangerous and pounced on Guo Zhanghai, but was blocked by a ball of golden light.

"It's fine, harvesting a childhood nightmare doll is the same. Cultivate it a bit, and it is also an evil object; it can be refined using Witchcraft. It's like this here; nothing is normal."

Guo Zhanghai was still immersed in the intense emotional stimulation of just rescuing the child. The alcoholic father was a tall black-furred bear-man, and the mother had schizophrenia with two forms: one was a macaque form, holding a cloth doll, just like a mother monkey holding a "monkey rope," showing not a bit of maternal love; the other was a one-legged dog-man form that would bite anyone it saw.

He had discovered a small door drawn in chalk in the attic, pushed the door open, and crawled into an orphanage. He saw the child inside the orphanage, but after bringing him out, he didn't know why he had turned into a doll.

"True Person, what is going on?"

"You didn't solve the puzzle. It's all like this here. For an abused child to want to escape or be free is not that simple; you have to follow their logic. Next time you encounter this, you can change into the skin of an investigator from a child welfare center and go in; perhaps there will be a change. Generally, this kind of forced removal usually cannot be taken away."

"Let's walk some more. There is a gang district ahead with a 'hail of bullets' rule. If you can become the gang leader or kill the gang leader, you will likely obtain a high-quality Dharma Realm weapon, the firearm type. Free America, gunfights every day."

Guo Zhanghai knew this time that he had been placed under a defensive shield, so he was no longer afraid and gathered his courage to enter the Dharma Realm district ahead. As a result, he was immediately intercepted by two gorilla-like strong men. The gorilla-like strong men had no hair, carried firearms, and their eyes glowed red.

He immediately said: "I am here to join the gang."

"You!" The two gorillas sneered, and then took out a revolver and gave it to him: "Only by accepting the test of life and death can you enter the gang. There are two bullets in this revolver; if you don't die, you can join the gang!"

Guo Zhanghai was truly cowardly this time. The Eastern Great does not have such lunatics, and the Dharma Realm also has order jurisdiction; there are City Gods in every place.

Guo Zhanghai, thinking he had Xu Jia's protection, pointed a gun directly at his own forehead and pulled the trigger.

Fortunately, it was empty.

The two gorillas saw how brave he was, laughed, and said, "Hey! Bro, you're not bad; you're qualified to join our gang."

"So what does the gang mainly do? Exploiting prostitutes—those snake-bitches are under our management; drug trafficking—we have to deal with those green-skinned pus-bags; manufacturing drugs—we have a biochemical poison gas factory; and fighting with other gangs to occupy more blocks..."

It fit Guo Zhanghai's stereotypes.

However, Guo Zhanghai didn't experience much of this block before he experienced the "block rules" in a street shootout; amidst a hail of bullets, he was riddled with gunfire, and the next moment his body gave a jolt, his Dharma Nature consciousness returning to his physical body, only feeling a lingering pain where he had just been hit.

"True Person, save me!"

He saw a dried corpse in front of him, smiling as it watched him: "Did you experience it? The American Dharma Realm?"

Guo Zhanghai looked left and right, and after confirming he was in the real world, he let out a sigh of relief.

"True Person, I have a general understanding of the situation now."

Xu Jia took out a doll and gave it to him; Guo Zhanghai's eyes focused, and he suddenly discovered an extra thing in front of him.

A virtual interface, translucent, a simple square frame.

Written on it: Guo Zhanghai; Faction: Quanzhen Dragon Gate Tieshan Mountain; Cultivation: Human Immortal Middle Stage.

Essence: 2.6; Qi: 2.8; Spirit: 3.2; Status: Nightmare; Attribute Points Gained: 0.1; Talent: D-rank Canopy Destiny (possesses a certain talent for metaphysical knowledge), F-rank: Rabbit Sitting Lodge (first half of learning effect +10%, second half of learning effect -50%).

Skills: D-rank Quanzhen Dao Rhyme, E-rank Quanzhen Ritual (Altar Opening), F-rank Talisman Mastery, F-rank Feng Shui Geomancy.

Items: E-rank Fish Transforming into Dragon Pendant (Luck +1), E-rank Golden Light Mantra Beads (Three Thousand Mantra Recitations), F-rank Dharma Realm Curse Doll.

Guo Zhanghai was stunned: "True Person, what is this?"

"Oh, this is a little surgery I performed on you while you entered the Dharma Realm, transplanting a Dharma Nature Chip. Have you read web novels? This is a panel, though it's only the first version; it will be updated and replaced in the future."

Having said that, Xu Jia plucked one of his own hairs and blew on it, transforming it into a black string, which he tied onto his hand: "As the saying goes, three thousand strands of worry, each strand a Cause and Effect. This hair follows you and can help you turn bad luck into good; it is also a device for me to collect your data. You usually cannot see it, but if you feel it heating up, it is a warning of danger."

Guo Zhanghai didn't know what a Dharma Nature Chip was, but he had indeed read novels: "What is this 0.1 attribute point? Does it mean I can add points?"

"Correct, you can add them to attributes, but not to skills. Just treat it as the result of practicing; you just killed a Mind Flayer, which purified a sliver of Dharma Realm energy. I intercepted it through a sliver of Divine Nature and my Lingbao Register Method, and saved it. You adding points is equivalent to refining it."

"Ordinary people's Essence, Qi, and Spirit are all 1, or even less—0.8 or 0.9 is possible. For you to cultivate to the Human Immortal Middle Stage and have a 2 is already quite good, but to break through to the Human Immortal Completion, you must get them all to above 10. Once you reach Earth Immortal, your attributes will be above 15."

"Doesn't that mean as long as I kill..." Guo Zhanghai calculated: "As long as I kill six hundred Mind Flayers, I can achieve Human Immortal Completion?"

"It isn't calculated that way. Your energy level is about the same as a Mind Flayer's, which is why it only added 0.1. Of course, there is also the reason of my gift to you. When all your attributes reach five, the Mind Flayers will have no effect. When your attributes reach 3, perhaps you will need ten of them to add 0.1 points; when you reach four, or perhaps five, you will need 10 to add 0.1."

"The higher the Daoist Practice, the more Dharma Realm energy is required. The higher it goes, the more quality and quantity are both transforming. 1 is 1, 2 is 2; these cannot be mentioned in the same breath."

(End of chapter)