Chapter 224: A Harem Ratio of One to Fifteen
Chapter 224: A Harem Ratio of One to Fifteen
“Has it attracted the notice of the other Hidden World Clans? Fine. We’ll cease expansion for a while. Five provinces’ worth of Hidden World Clans should suffice for now. This is a good chance to place our operatives among all the Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearers within these five provinces before we take further action.”
“With the cooperation of the Hidden World Clans this time, the process should go much more smoothly.”
Based on the intelligence gathered through the big data feedback from his System, Chen Xiyi ordered the organization under his command to halt further expansion.
Better to digest what they’d already swallowed first. Stuffing themselves until their bellies burst wouldn’t be good.
The territory of five provinces was enough for his maneuvering at this stage. If the truth were suddenly exposed, they’d end up facing a world full of enemies.
Caution was definitely warranted.
“The Qian Country possesses seventy-two provincial capitals, and seventy-two Hidden World Clans. It seems not all descendants of the God of Cooking evolve into Hidden World Clans. Certain methods are still required.”
“However, it appears a small portion don’t originate from God of Cooking lineage, but are instead Noble Families that started as ordinary dynasty clans and turned the tables.”
Chen Xiyi scanned the messages and found something interesting. Most of these Hidden World Clans unrelated to the God of Cooking had risen to prominence after the supernatural abilities of the chefs began declining. They were classified as Noble Families originating from royal relatives of contemporary dynasties attempting to emulate the Hidden World Clans.
Of course, the number of successful Noble Families was small; only the most powerful dynasties could achieve it.
A dynasty lasts a century; a Noble Family endures a millennium.
This saying was demonstrated here perfectly.
“‘Ruled by Noble Families’. It looks like a unified empire on the surface, but really, it’s just a thin veneer covering the shame.”
Chen Xiyi shook his head. This state of the Qian Country paled in comparison to his previous life.
“It feels more like a modern corporate-run country. Yes, it resembles that kind of system, only far more blatant here.” Chen Xiyi seemed to have identified a common point.
He shoved a corpse twisted into a grotesque knot into the cremator to burn.
The Corpse Collector ritual was now committed to memory. He no longer needed his full attention to handle such tasks; the System’s process Module allowed him to complete them autonomously.
These ‘dirty things’ were hard to find. For his Sequence 2: Graveyard Keeper to develop as Chen Xiyi envisioned, he required vast quantities of them.
Locating these ‘dirty things’ proved difficult. Though the ability ‘ghostly illusion’ (鬼遮眼) was simple, and Gu Martial Artists could easily capture such entities, the issue was its extreme specificity. Not only ordinary people, but even longevity-grade Gu Martial Artists might overlook these dirty things.
Moreover, these dirty things possessed diverse abilities.
Specifically, Chen Xiyi sought only corpse-type dirty things; spirit-ghost types were unwanted. The Graveyard buried corpses, not Soul fragments or wandering spirits – those weren’t his department.
Besides, corpse-type dirty things essentially contained a trapped Soul. It was this trapped Soul that granted the corpse its special abilities.
Spirit-ghost type dirty things lacked a physical body, often becoming bound to a specific location as a localized spirit, unable to move freely.
He wasn’t sure about other worlds, but this world seemed divided solely into these two distinct categories based on his research: earthbound spirits and possessed corpses. There appeared to be no third type.
The bus full of ghosts he captured earlier belonged to the possessed corpse category. Due to their manner of Death, their original bodies had long been collected and cremated. They remained imprisoned within the bus itself.
Recently, once his study of the bus was concluded, he had ceremoniously buried it within his private Graveyard, right in the prime central plot – the ‘C-spot’.
The grave mound rose conspicuously high, constructed with lavish decoration.
After performing the Corpse Collector ritual, all the restless entities bound to the bus were released.
While physically or magically putting spirits to rest existed, this was ritualistic release. Chen Xiyi’s Corpse Collector ritual freed those tormented Souls.
Based on Chen Xiyi’s research, this release was essentially a ‘good Death’ – allowing them to pass on peacefully.
As for reincarnation or passing them to some next life? That needed clarification. This world had no concept of Reincarnation or Samsara. Death was final.
The birth of a Soul fundamentally stemmed from the structure of the human brain, memories, and other factors creating a unique spiritual entity.
The emergence of dirty things also resulted from mutations in this spiritual entity, influenced by certain external factors.
Chen Xiyi was sure of one thing: the spiritual mutation was secondary. The true origin of dirty things lay in external influences.
Determining the exact nature of this influence had led him to experiments, pinpointing the Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearer.
The appearance rate of dirty things in areas inhabited by these Bearers was at least 100% higher than elsewhere.
Regions devoid of Bearers lacked dirty things entirely.
Therefore, cities became high-risk zones.
In contrast, impoverished towns or remote mountainous areas – places the Bearers wouldn’t deign to visit – remained free of such phenomena.
This correlation was especially pronounced where Bearers congregated in larger numbers.
These conclusions came from extensive data analysis and investigations, not baseless conjecture.
Thus, it proved the link between dirty things and the Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearer, further confirming that these qi-cultivating, martial art wielding ostentatious groups were cultural upstarts.
Chefs and Supernatural Ability Users constituted the world’s original fundamental system.
“With control spanning five provinces, the Graveyard now houses fifty-seven ‘households.’ The efficiency is slower than I’d like. Ideally, we need roughly a thousand households.”
After burying this knotted corpse, Chen Xiyi surveyed his Graveyard – uneven, patchy, and largely empty – and sighed.
A shortage of dirty things was the main constraint. Gathering even fifty-seven households recently felt like an achievement, though more deliveries were persistently en route.
Of course, these fifty-seven households didn’t equate to just fifty-seven deaths. Besides the C-spot bus burial acting as a central landmark, there were also collective burials housing multiple corpses.
Regrettably, such groupings counted as just one household unit; they couldn’t be separated.
Think of it as a sort of communal dormitory. Chen Xiyi wasn’t stingy, though. Such collective plots were constructed notably larger. If the Graveyard filled up later? Just expand it.
The Graveyard occupied a plot allocated to him by the Dongfang family outside the city. Construction, from start to operational, took a mere three days. Its design and build quality were top-tier.
It perfectly showcased the perks of power: issue an order, allocate resources, and witness unparalleled speed.
After his routine patrol around the Graveyard, Chen Xiyi swept up some windblown dead grass. He managed every aspect of this Graveyard personally, including the nightly vigils.
Since establishing the Graveyard, his ascension ritual had automatically commenced.
His progress bar however remained stubbornly stuck at zero percent.
Yet, Chen Xiyi knew the ritual was underway. During daytime upkeep, he could distinctly feel an incremental strengthening of his physical body. The enhancement was miniscule, but perceptible.
He’d traced and verified its source.
Daytime bolstered his physique; night enhanced his skill – the Spirit Warden.
The Spirit Warden appeared as an inky-black, shadowy figure with indistinct features and gender. Usually, it manifested as a cloud of Black Mist clinging to Chen Xiyi. If someone attacked him directly within close range, it would materialize into a dark specter to protect him.
During daylight hours, the Spirit Warden and its Black Mist remained invisible. Only those with Yin-Yang sight, spiritual vision, or exceptional sensory perception could detect them.
At night, it became visible, accompanying Chen Xiyi during his watch within the Graveyard, periodically growing stronger through the Graveyard Keeper ritual – mirroring the daytime physical enhancements he received.
Chen Xiyi observed that while the Spirit Warden manifested the strength, its source was actually his own escalating Spirituality. The protective specter was an emanation of his Spirituality.
Further research revealed Death Notice’s progression also linked directly to Spirituality, not the Home Game.
Each Corpse Collector or Graveyard Keeper ritual incrementally augmented his Spirituality. This ascending Spirituality fueled the strengthening of both Death Notice and Spirit Warden.
Earlier, since the Corpse Collector ritual rewarded Spirituality per task completed, the boosts seemed sudden and distinct, mistakenly perceived as ‘skill level ups’.
The ongoing Graveyard Keeper ritual differed. Its percentage progress indicated proportional Spirituality gains unfolding steadily over Time, explaining the absence of abrupt ‘level jump’ sensations.
Therefore, Spirituality was the core driver, not the skills themselves.
And within the Home Game, Spirituality was represented as the Sequence, which Chen Xiyi had initially assumed was merely a functional display.
It wasn’t. This Sequence and the Qi Refiner’s Qi Manipulation and Spirit Wandering were fundamentally the same type of entity, though manifesting and operating quite differently.
“Sigh, games without manuals are exhausting to play,” Chen Xiyi sighed. If such a game had launched in his previous life, he would have turned into a furious online troll, firmly delivering a piece of his mind to the developers.
No tutorial? Bad enough. A chaotic attribute system? Worse. No descriptions for items or skills? Forcing players to guess? That wasn’t playing a game; it was being played by it.
Finishing his patrol, Chen Xiyi retreated beneath the Graveyard to continue his research within his Underground Shelter.
Indeed, he’d moved his Underground Shelter here. He discovered that as long as he remained within the boundaries of the Graveyard, the ritual continued uninterrupted, even underground.
He suspected it exploited a terrain glitch.
Alternatively, maybe the game lacked compatibility. The Sequence: History Module didn’t seem intended for a sandbox game like this; after all, the Graveyard Keeper archetype didn’t typically imply living under the cemetery.
“Five provinces… seven hundred and three Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearers. Utterly absurd. Yes, five provinces are vast, but this is sheer wastefulness!”
“Averaged out, each Bearer commands a harem of fifteen women. Across these five provinces alone, these seven hundred and three Bearers monopolize ten thousand, five hundred and forty-five women of exceptional beauty and considerable wealth!”
“Extrapolating from this, the entire seventy-two provinces of the Qian Country must harbor at least ten thousand Bearers, appropriating roughly one hundred and fifty thousand high-quality women. Admittedly, against a population of three billion, these numbers are minuscule wavelets.”
“Yet, the sheer impudence of it…”
Crucially, Bearers didn’t pursue ordinary women. Their targets possessed either stunning beauty or significant social standing and wealth. Looks and physique also factored heavily, exceeding certain thresholds even without elite backgrounds.
“And right now, the average is fifteen per Bearer. But the trend is upward. Soon it will likely hit sixteen per Bearer.”
“Within one month to three months max. At a rate of acquiring roughly one woman every two days, they’d cycle through fifteen in just one month!”
“Without their innate Peach Blossom Luck fortitude, this wouldn’t be a matter of endurance grinding down capacity. Their mortal forms would’ve been long gone, sent straight to the crematorium.”