Chapter 38: Survivor
Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Survivor
His nerves had been stretched taut ever since he first transmigrated. A single night of peaceful sleep wasn’t enough to fully restore them.
However, it was enough to soothe his bloodshot eyes.
Zhu Ge knew without even looking in a mirror that the red in his eyes had surely faded a lot, and they no longer felt so sore and swollen.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, he carefully reviewed the events of the past few days before taking out the Fungus God’s seed from his robes.
"How do I use this?" Zhu Ge asked curiously. "Sister, can you eat this?"
He was asking Hua Liusha, the Xigui who was resting quietly in his soul.
"I can’t," Hua Liusha replied, exasperated. "Brother, I’m a Ghost! I can only devour ethereal souls. I’m not interested in corporeal souls."
"Right." Zhu Ge stroked his chin, put the Fungus God’s seed away, and said to Hua Liusha, "Sister, what kind of abilities do you have? We should have a good chat, otherwise we won’t be in sync later on."
It could be said that Zhu Ge was extremely familiar with Hua Liusha.
Or rather, the original owner of this body was extremely familiar with Hua Liusha.
The two of them had grown up together as childhood sweethearts and were later engaged with the Teacher as their witness.
Unfortunately, the Fungus God later exerted its power, overwriting and blurring their memories of Hua Liusha, which was why he had barely any memory of her at the time.
Now that his memories had returned, they were naturally very close.
He wasn’t afraid of leaving Hua Liusha in his soul; he trusted her completely.
Hua Liusha had always been sensible, so she didn’t say anything else and instead explained:
"I was a First Realm Ghost before. Now that I’ve married you, Brother, I’ve become Second Realm. In the First Realm, I could bewitch souls, which is similar to Soul Snatching."
"Also, maybe because I’m a Xigui, I could become stronger by getting married when I was in the First Realm, but I can’t do that anymore..."
’I see.’
Zhu Ge nodded slightly.
Gods were the same.
Each new realm granted an additional ability.
The Fungus God was Second Realm. Although it was innately weak, its abilities were not.
One was its First Realm ability, Parasitism, which allowed its hosts to continue to live and move like zombies.
The other was its mycelia, which was likely an ability it only gained at the Second Realm.
As for Hua Liusha’s soul-bewitching, it was like Soul Snatching—an ability that directly affected the soul. Every Ghost had it; it wasn’t unique to the Xigui.
The Xigui’s unique ability was to reach the Second Realm through marriage.
He had to admit, reaching the Second Realm just by marrying him was a truly powerful ability.
After all, the nearby Tiger God, Mr. Chong, and Fungus God were merely Second Realm existences.
Someone like the Teacher had reached the Second Realm way back at the end of the Human Race’s last dynasty.
But the Xigui had reached the Second Realm just by marrying him, saving who knows how many years of cultivation.
"So, this Fungus God seed... where do you think I should plant it?" Zhu Ge was stumped.
"Silly Brother!" Hua Liusha’s voice was teasing. "The Fungus God needs the Power of Faith and emotional energy to survive. Of course you have to plant it in your head and feed it with the corporeal energy you radiate!"
Gods needed corporeal souls, or rather, emotional energy, to live.
Pious faith was a particularly suitable food source for gods.
However...
"Plant it in my head? Is that reliable?" Zhu Ge was stunned.
"Silly Brother!" Hua Liusha giggled.
"I already told you, I’m just a Ghost!"
"You keep asking me about this stuff, but I’m not the Teacher. How would I know?"
"That’s not..." Zhu Ge was suddenly speechless.
He then remembered that Hua Liusha had been the rowdy one when they were kids, while the original owner of his body had always been quiet and well-behaved. He’d been teased by her quite a bit.
But Hua Liusha’s words did serve as a reminder.
"Then how do you grow stronger?" Zhu Ge asked curiously.
He had only asked about the Fungus God’s seed, but in reality, the Xigui was also one of his trump cards.
’In a fight, if the Xigui could suddenly hit an enemy with soul-bewitching and the Fungus God could hit them with Soul Snatching, how awesome would that be?’
If he could cultivate the Xigui to the Third Realm, she could protect more than just the one or two hundred people in the village.
A Third Realm existence could protect a small town of at least a thousand people.
"Me? I suppose by devouring souls?" Hua Liusha’s tone was a little uncertain. "But after marrying you, Brother, I haven’t felt the urge to devour souls at all. I guess I’m ’full’."
Hearing this, Zhu Ge nodded in understanding. "Alright, you get some rest. I need to think about some things first."
The matter of the Fungus God was over, but many things still required Zhu Ge’s planning.
It was a question of how to walk the path ahead!
This world didn’t just have a Fungus God.
In fact, the Fungus God was one of the particularly weak ones.
If he wanted to survive, he had to consider many more things.
First, his personal strength was very important.
If a Third Realm Zhu Ge had encountered this situation, he probably could have ended it with the flick of a finger.
The problem was that it was an ordinary person, Zhu Ge, who had encountered it, which was why he needed to rack his brain and come up with such a convoluted plan.
And after all that scheming, he was still nearly backstabbed by Ma Laizi.
He had to use his wits to plot against a mere Second Realm Fungus God.
If he, an ordinary person, didn’t increase his strength, even if he wasn’t eaten by the Fungus God today, he might be eaten by some other god tomorrow.
And to increase his strength, it seemed there were currently only two paths: the Martial Dao and the Confucian Dao.
The Martial Dao was straightforward. He had to lie in the coffin every day to temper his body until he could produce the first wisp of Blood Qi.
The Confucian Dao, however, required "enlightenment."
It wasn’t enough to just recite the famous works of ancient sages he knew from his past life; he also needed to have his own understanding of them.
Besides personal strength, group strength was also very important.
This time, defeating the Fungus God wasn’t just up to Zhu Ge alone; he had also relied on Yu the Scholar and the others.
Knowledge is power!
Unity is also power!
Of course, power itself is also power!
If there had been three, or even just two, Cultivators for this incident, they wouldn’t have been so passive.
Therefore, while improving his own strength, Zhu Ge also needed to improve the strength of the village’s survivors.
Besides...
’Jingzhe is almost here, isn’t it?’
Zhu Ge recalled some of the original owner’s memories and couldn’t help but frown.
Insects!
Yunjiang wasn’t just good for fungi; it was also good for insects.
The fact that both could be used as food was inextricably linked to their sheer numbers.
Every year during Jingzhe, countless insects would appear, swarming over the mountains and plains like a tide.
A change in quantity leads to a change in quality.
With so many insects, Demon Beasts would inevitably emerge.
In the past, the Teacher and Yu the Scholar had always been the ones to consider these problems.
But now, only he and Yu the Scholar could do so.
’Plan ahead, prepare in advance.’
Zhu Ge confirmed his next goals in his mind.
One, increase his personal strength!
Two, increase the group’s strength!
Three, fend off the Jingzhe insect tide!
So, he put away the Fungus God’s seed and opened the door, stepping outside.
The aroma of cooking wafted from the house next door. People were organizing things by the entrance—mostly miscellaneous items like cured meat and dried mushrooms.
Seeing Zhu Ge come out, a young man waved and called, "Zhu Ah Di, Sui Niang saw you were up and started cooking! Come and sit for a bit!"
Zhu Ge nodded and walked over.
Seeing this, the other two also stopped their work and gathered around. Sui Niang came out from the house carrying a plate of stir-fried green-headed mushrooms.
"Zhu Ge, my condolences."
"Thank you so much, Zhu Ge. Our village would have been completely wiped out without you. Xianxian, hurry and thank Brother Zhu. Kowtow to your Brother Zhu."
"Xianxian thanks Brother Zhu!"
"That’s right! We heard from the Scholar, it’s all thanks to you!"
Four people had survived: two young men and a mother-daughter pair.
The two young men, in their twenties, were both skilled workers and were also acquainted with Zhu Ge.
One was named Duan Lei, whom everyone called Big Belly Dog because he could eat a ton.
The other was Ji Fuhui, known as Little Black Egg.
The mother of the pair was named Sui Niang. She was not the least bit delicate; she specialized in helping people thresh grain and was quite strong.
Sui Niang’s daughter was only eight years old and had miraculously survived the disaster. Everyone called her by her pet name, Xianxian.
These four were the only survivors left in Jianshan Village.
"There’s no need for such a grand gesture." Zhu Ge first helped up Sui Niang and Xianxian, who were about to kneel, and then stopped Duan Lei and Ji Fuhui, who were also preparing to do the same.
"I’m sorry. In the end, I could only save you all. I was truly powerless to help the others..." Zhu Ge’s heart felt heavy.
In his mind, Hua Liusha also seemed to fall silent, and a strange sorrow lingered in the air.
Although Zhu Ge was a transmigrator, the closeness and familiarity he remembered with the villagers were not virtual.
Some of the uncles had been chatting with him in the cool evening air just a few days ago, and some of the aunts had helped them cut paper decorations for the windows during the New Year.
Little boys and girls Xianxian’s age would catch grasshoppers and dragonflies to show him, and there had been a dozen or so young women like Hua Liusha, in the prime of their youth.
And now, all of them were gone.
Zhu Ge felt a sense of empathy for Xiang Yu from his previous life, who was too ashamed to face the elders of Jiangdong.
They were all people from the same village!
They had lived together for generations. There were conflicts and disagreements, but mostly there was unity and friendship.
"It’s alright, Zhu Ge," Big Belly Dog Duan Lei said in his simple, honest voice. "It’s all thanks to you during this time. Otherwise, none of us would have survived."
"Yeah, yeah!" Little Black Egg Ji Fuhui nodded in agreement. "Without you, we’d be dead too. At least the Li Family has a sole heir left."
"Xiaozhu, don’t mind it," Sui Niang said, her voice gentle yet firm. "Xianxian and I are the ones who should be thanking you."
Zhu Ge shook his head and sighed. "It’s good that you understand."
"Life is hard for the Human Race."
Just then, a voice came from the distance, and Yu the Scholar slowly walked over.
"I went to check the surroundings. The auras of the Tiger God and Mr. Chong have not appeared at our borders. Perhaps we can rest for the next two days."
"Good..." Zhu Ge nodded, then looked at the people beside him and said thoughtfully:
"The dead are gone, and we must look forward. At least we survived and avenged them. What we need to consider now is how we will survive in the future."
"I have an idea. Perhaps you all should also practice the Confucian Dao and the Martial Dao, to have another means of self-preservation."
"In the past, we had to do manual labor just to get enough to eat. We had no time or energy to study the Martial Dao and the Confucian Dao."
"But now, the food left behind by all the families is enough to last us a long time, and we’re not short on other supplies either."
"We can take turns looking after the crops. This way, for at least the next two years, we won’t have to worry about basic survival issues like food and drink, and we can focus on cultivating the Martial Dao and the Confucian Dao."
"If we all become Martial Artists and Confucian Scholars, we won’t have to live in constant fear anymore!"
This place is like a barren wilderness, fraught with danger.
A Fungus God died today, but what if some other god comes tomorrow?
Therefore, they must increase their strength!