Early in the morning, on a barren hill, amidst the dense forest.

Li Ang sat up from an intricately made vine hammock, yawned, and jumped to the ground. The vines behind him wriggled and contracted like snakes, disassembling themselves and reattaching to the surrounding trees, no longer resembling a hammock.

"Awake?"

Miss Chai drifted down slowly from mid-air, head down and feet up. She held a modern romance novel in her hands and spoke without lifting her eyes.

"Yeah."

Li Ang responded and casually slapped a nearby tree. A section of vine immediately extended down, pouring out fresh water like a faucet for him to wash his face and brush his teeth.

Miss Chai was still engrossed in her novel. Considering that some world anomaly events might trigger slowly, I usually place entertainment products like video game consoles and paper novels in the Automated Pet Box to prevent Chaichai from becoming mentally depressed from prolonged inactivity.

Hmph... When Chaichai first arrived in the modern world, she preferred high-quality classical romance novels and spent quite a bit on Jin Jiang supporting her favorite works. However, as she became thoroughly versed in all vices yet utterly useless, her reading tastes also broadened and diversified. Or rather, she became indiscriminate, devouring anything and everything—a return to her primal state, perhaps. Books like *Evil Princess's Hunting Plan and the Cold CEO's Submission*, *Goddess Comes Home and Finds Her Husband Living in a Kennel*, and *Counterstrike Fighter · My Queen Is a Fool Who Always Swears*... The style was so potent, even I found it a bit much to stomach.

"Phew, this fanfiction about Wu Dalang and Xi Men Qing is really thrilling."

Miss Chai put down the novel, rubbed her temples, and closed her eyes to rest for a moment. Then, she rotated her body to face Li Ang and asked, "Where to now?"

"North."

Li Ang spat out the mouthwash. No point commenting on what that Wu Dalang and Xi Men Qing business was all about.

"Not going to look for Xing Hechou and the others?"

"No."

Li Ang shook his head. "While you were reading last night, I wrote a letter and had the Soldier Bee take it to Old Xing and the others, telling them I needed to act alone for a while and would meet them in Lvzhou."

"Acting alone?"

Miss Chai tilted her head, puzzled. "What are you planning to do?"

"Of course, to go about righting wrongs, punishing evil and promoting good, and incidentally gathering the Power of Faith."

Li Ang wiped the water from his chin and snapped his fingers, and the vines retracted.

Last night, after Li Ang eliminated those White Lotus Cult followers, he processed them in the same way he had processed Wu Hu. Since he needed to send the White Lotus Cult followers to Lvzhou according to his plan, Li Ang drew on his experience from modifying Ma Bonde's brain to slightly adjust theirs. He kept their brains just active enough to control their bodies, eat, walk, and converse normally. Furthermore, by using a new model of Soldier Bee flying overhead—codenamed Brain Worm—which could release pheromones or ultrasonic waves, he could issue commands for remote control.

The Brain Worm, loaded with a transplanted brain, possessed basic, low-level intelligence. It could assist Li Ang in commanding subordinate biological weapons, acting as a command node and greatly expanding their operational range. Li Ang only needed to use Swamp God Power to communicate with the Brain Worm, even when it was many miles away. It was not about directly using Divine Power to span that distance, but rather a clever little trick.

Previously, in the modified Fairy World, Li Ang had acquired some knowledge about Divine Power prayers—specifically, how to gather the Power of Faith from people across the Rune Kingdom and concentrate it in the capital. He had kept this in mind when designing and creating the Brain Worm. Whenever the Brain Worm encountered a special situation it could not handle on its own, it would pray to the entity "Taoist Xi Menzi," just like a devout believer.

The Brain Worm, equipped with Wu Hu's brain, only had rudimentary intelligence, similar to that of a sheepdog. But that was actually a good thing. As a believer, the Brain Worm could provide a scarce but extremely pure form of Power of Faith, building an imperceptible bridge connecting it to Li Ang.

I believe in myself.

And since Li Ang only had this one zealot, the Brain Worm, as a true believer—the ordinary people who had received help from "Taoist Xi Menzi" only offered a tiny bit of Power of Faith, not even qualifying as casual believers—this made the Brain Worm stand out significantly. This allowed Li Ang to lock onto the Brain Worm and, by expending Divine Power, communicate with it over vast distances to guide its decisions.

Of course, creating a Brain Worm was very complex and required a lot of Sanity Value as well as Divine Power points. Maintaining contact also consumed a considerable amount of Swamp God Power. So far, Li Ang had only made one Brain Worm, using Wu Hu as the base material. He had instructed it to command those White Lotus Cult members to head to Lvzhou and meet their prearranged contact.

"Now my Divine Power points have dropped below two hundred. I need to do some good deeds to accumulate Power of Faith and make up for the deficit," Li Ang said as he stretched and began to clear away any traces left behind.

The Divine Mark's operational mechanism is very special. With Xing Hechou and Liu Wu Dai around, it's not always convenient to use it.

After taking care of the traces, Li Ang put on his black cloak, slipped into cloth shoes, and took out the Pet Breeding Box. He nodded towards Miss Chai.

Reluctantly, Miss Chai handed over her romance novel. After watching Li Ang place the book into the Breeding Box, she re-entered his body.

"Oh, right," Miss Chai popped her head out. "If we go to other towns and don't encounter any unusual events, should I create some trouble?"

"No need," Li Ang shook his black cloak and stepped onto the narrow mountain path. "This world is patrolled by warrior monks and Renowned Taoists; your interference would only draw their attention. Moreover, the world is dangerous and chaotic. Even without unusual events, I have ways to farm Faith points."

"Oh." Miss Chai, not quite understanding, blinked innocently. "Hey, wait a minute, you're disguised as a Taoist now. What if you run into a Longhu Mountain Taoist? Won't you be found out?"

"Then we'll just sit down and discuss philosophy," Li Ang casually replied, "As everyone knows, Xi Menzi's Shangqing Mystical Return to Emptiness Cultivation is a most peculiar practice. But just how peculiar is Xi Menzi's Shangqing Mystical Return to Emptiness Cultivation? Like many, I too have been perplexed by the same question. Today, I shall take you all on a journey to discover just how extraordinary Xi Menzi's Shangqing Mystical Return to Emptiness Cultivation really is. Alright, that's all on the topic of Xi Menzi's Shangqing Mystical Return to Emptiness Cultivation practice for today. See you next time."

"???"

Miss Chai's face showed the expression of someone witnessing bewildering human behavior. "Catchy title, but just one line of content. Are you the legendary Bajia Editor?"

Li Ang laughed proudly. "Discussing philosophy is precisely like this. Even when facing a righteous Taoist, a few vague yet seemingly profound words are enough to bluff your way through. Trust me, I'm right."

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