Chapter 140: Dantian Ecosystem (Double-Feature)

His short hair had transformed into a bald head, atop which appeared several ring-shaped incense scars, making his appearance indistinguishable from an ordinary monk seen in any temple. The aura emanating from him also felt like someone who had spent decades studying Buddhist scriptures; if he were to stand side by side with Monk Sanhuo, Zhou Bai would probably look even more like the genuine article.

Achieving this was largely related to his innate Buddha bone. Coupled with the integration of Demonic Dao divine abilities into his Dantian's microcosm, his mastery over Buddhist Dao divine abilities had advanced even further, otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to imitate it with such vivid precision. Of course, it was not entirely without flaws. Once he made a move, the alien aura within his body would still fundamentally be exposed.

However, Zhou Bai only intended to use this facade to see if he could get close to Liaowu. As long as he could reach striking distance, he believed it would take very little time to finish off his lingering, half-dead opponent.

Xianyu was not stored inside his Dantian; instead, it was coiled around Zhou Bai's arm. With his upper body bare, he appeared extraordinarily solemn and majestic. In Buddhism, the snake represents anger, hatred, temper, wrath, resentment, and perversity. Zhou Bai's current image implicitly aligned with Buddhist philosophy; while he might not possess genuine inner cultivation, it was certainly very imposing.

Moreover, unlike the Ghost Tree, the dragon qi within Xianyu's body could easily conceal its demonic aura. Even if it actively manifested, it would not matter, as no one could possibly perceive this as Zhou Bai's natal beast.

Once preparations were complete, he began searching around the footprints on the ground. Although the traces were extremely faint, fortunately, he possessed several types of eye-related divine abilities, otherwise, he would not have been able to detect them at all. After being able to flexibly utilize the Yin-Yang Eyes, even the slightest anomaly could be captured by his vision.

Following the footprints, Zhou Bai eventually walked up to a cliff face where the traces vanished. Before him lay a human-shaped crack complete with limbs and a head, forming a "big" character and barely wide enough to accommodate a single person. He tried gesturing and realized he could indeed wedge himself inside, but without employing his alien aura, he would be completely unable to move.

Furthermore, this crevice was not regular. Although the internal space consistently maintained a human shape, it gradually grew narrower, until at the very deepest part it narrowed down to a hole the size of a fist, where the Buddhist light flickered within his middle Dantian.

"What kind of ghost thing is this? Could it be that the golden Buddha entered from here?"

Zhou Bai hesitated slightly. Ever since he arrived here following the images in his memory, everything had reeked of the unusual, and especially knowing that the White Lotus Sect was involved made him even more wary.

Just how vast was the influence of the Underworld Department across the Nine Provinces? Although its reputation was on par with the Tang and Song imperial courts, in reality, the latter were far from being comparable to the former. Yet, even so, the White Lotus Sect had still lingered on and developed for hundreds of years, with the potential to grow ever stronger.

After pondering for a moment, he grabbed Xianyu by the tail as its body gradually elongated, and crawled into the fissure. However, an invisible force seemed to block Xianyu within, forcing it to stop. If he were to force his way through and cause damage, he had no idea what kind of situation might arise.

Zhou Bai did not hesitate much longer. After all, his own strength gave him a great deal of confidence. He instructed Ah Huang and the scrawny horse not to leave the vicinity, and then stretched out his arms and legs, overlapping his body with the human-shaped crack.

Sure enough, he felt unable to exert any force, as if the crevice had trapped him, though his divine abilities remained unaffected. Suppressing the urge to transform into his Tyrannosaurus true form, Zhou Bai slowly exerted strength in his arms, inching himself inside bit by bit.

An absurd thought arose in his heart: if a mortal were stuck in such a crevice, although unable to exert their own strength, over time that person would gradually slide deeper inside. By then, that person's bones would be crushed together and sent straight into that hole.

As he drew closer to the center bit by bit, Zhou Bai could already feel his body being compressed, his joints deforming under this invisible force. Yet he was not in a rush, because he felt a slight fluctuation of the Buddhist light within his body, which indicated that there were indeed peculiarities within, making this trip worthwhile.

As time slowly passed, the Buddhist light was continuously stimulated out of Zhou Bai's body, much like water being squeezed from a sponge. And as the Buddhist light grew increasingly dense, strange changes began to occur to his body; both his torso, limbs, and head were shrinking at a proportional rate.

As Zhou Bai's body shrank, his clothing did as well, and even Xianyu, coiled around his arm, was shrinking along with him. He drew closer and closer to the hole, and his entire perspective shifted, as if the surrounding objects were continuously growing larger.

He could not help casting a glance backward. The original fissure now looked like a narrow gap between two towering mountains, while he had become as tiny as a crawling insect. Two massive faces appeared within the crack, giving Zhou Bai a start, but upon closer inspection, they were clearly the scrawny horse and Ah Huang.

So where on earth was he heading next? Was it some kind of microscopic world created by the White Lotus Sect, or a naturally formed secret realm?

***

Once the binding sensation on his body vanished, Zhou Bai dropped to the ground, where the weeds at the edge towered higher than ancient trees. The hole in the fissure he had seen earlier could now be described as a cavern, and it was by no means close to his current location; it would probably take a couple of hours of walking to reach it.

From a normal perspective, the place Zhou Bai currently occupied was merely a tiny patch of ground, but now it seemed boundless, and the densely packed weeds resembled a dense jungle.

He pulled out the Sea-Calming Gourd, took a swig of wine to calm his restless mood, coiled Xianyu around the gourd, and let it drink a few mouthfuls as well. Using his hand like a blade, Zhou Bai immediately slashed forward, cutting down a giant weed, and then used his hand to sweep it into his Dantian microcosm. Once inside, the weed resumed its original size.

This did not relax him at all; instead, it heightened his tension. The reality of the situation was that his body had genuinely been shrunk, rather than him having arrived at a scaled-up secret realm. However, turning back the way he came was a bit too late; since he had already come this far, he had no intention of turning back easily.

Zhou Bai walked some distance toward the distant cave entrance when a black-armored giant insect suddenly appeared before his eyes. It was an ant magnified dozens of times, using its mandibles to gnaw on plant roots.

Initially intending to ignore the ant, Zhou Bai was just about to detour around it when a thought suddenly stirred in him. He leaped up, landing on the ant's head. Sensing his presence, the ant began violently shaking its body, attempting to fling him off.

Dissatisfied, Xianyu opened its mouth and emitted a hiss, following which dragon qi radiated outward. How could the ant withstand that? It collapsed straight onto the ground.

"Interesting. If this can be brought under my control, then a part of the microcosm's ecosystem can also be established."

Zhou Bai stroked the ant's fuzzy head. Although its size was colossal, its spiritual intelligence was no different from ordinary ants, and it merely kept using its antennae to send out requests for reinforcements.

Pulling a fruit of divine ability from his embrace, Zhou Bai saw the ant's gaze suddenly freeze, locking onto the fruit unwaveringly.

"Hehe, whether I can form an ant legion in the future depends on your own fortune." With that, he motioned for Xianyu to retract its dragon qi.

The ant regained its mobility, but remained sprawled on the ground, stretching its head forward in an attempt to grab the fruit of divine ability with its pincers. Zhou Bai actively pushed the fruit into its mouth. The ant then stood up, but showed no intention of swallowing it, instead heading off in a certain direction.

"That won't do. You're quite lucky, but you're my designated ant general."

Saying this, Zhou Bai flicked his finger, sending a stream of qi that drove the fruit of divine ability straight down the ant's throat.

After consuming the fruit of divine ability, the ant's body stiffened in place. A fruit of divine ability had no inherent taboos; theoretically, even a flea could consume one. However, swallowing the entire fruit completely to absorb the divine ability runic characters contained within was practically impossible for an ordinary insect.

Yet in this secret realm, it was different. A wisp of yin qi quickly emerged on the ant's body, albeit extremely faint—so faint that if it were restored to normal size, even Zhou Bai's Yin-Yang Eyes would be unable to detect it.

Under his control, the ant's giant pincer-like mandibles turned a purplish-black, and with a heave, it spat out a mouthful of venom. The venom splattered onto the plant roots, dissolving them rapidly, and even the soil met the same fate.

The divine ability was named Ghost Venom, and its effect was indeed quite impressive. If Zhou Bai were to release it, he would have to brew it in his stomach before spitting it out. While it didn't matter that the style didn't suit him, it fundamentally failed to harm enemies effectively, and the speed was far from fast.

However, having an ant do it was a different story. The only drawback was that its current cultivation level was too low, and the venom lacked sufficient potency. Even so, Zhou Bai was extremely satisfied. He patted the ant on the head and motioned for it to head toward the ant nest.

The ant he had named General was merely a worker ant—the smallest individual in the colony's division of labor, yet existing in massive numbers and adept at walking and running. The primary duties of worker ants were building and expanding nests, gathering food, tending to larvae and the queen, and they lacked reproductive capabilities.

Zhou Bai next intended to visit the ant nest and take the drones and the queen away in one sweep. As long as he constructed an ant colony within his own Dantian microcosm, he could control all the ants through the queen.

Even if he failed to find the method to rapidly attain the fruit of a Buddhist position this time, this harvest alone was enough to compensate for the risks he had taken.

Riding atop General's head, Zhou Bai traveled at high speed. A ghost-transformed ant was indeed much stronger than an ordinary beast; after all, if their sizes were equal, insects could easily become the rulers of the world.

It wasn't long before he reached the entrance of the ant nest. This was a small hill riddled with interconnected passages, and General ignored the inquiries of its companions, diving straight inside.

It traversed various tunnels where the ant colony operated in orderly fashion—transporting food, standing guard, and expanding the nest. Creatures like ants were simply born soldiers; if they could form a certain scale and might, they would constitute a formidable force.

With General's traveling speed, Zhou Bai soon arrived at the queen's location, though the entrance was guarded by two worker ants. Before Zhou Bai could make a move, General spat fiercely, instantly dissolving the worker ants into a puddle of corrosive liquid with its venom.

"Damn it, at least try courtesy before force."

Because of General's action, the entire ant colony received the queen's distress signal and erupted into a riot. Countless worker ants and soldier ants dropped what they were doing and rushed toward the queen's location.

Zhou Bai was slightly speechless. He had merely given the command to go to the location, but given General's limited intelligence, it couldn't turn the corner. This also served as a reminder: if his future commands were too vague, unexpected situations might very well arise...

However, since he was only facing a bunch of ants this time, Zhou Bai didn't mind. With a flick of his hand, he made Xianyu manifest its true form, using its tail to block the entire cavern opening. Then, he walked inside.

The queen's size was several times larger than ordinary ants, and her abdomen, used for laying eggs, was colossal. Piled beside her were clusters of milky-white ant eggs, freshly laid and not yet transported to the nest's specialized chambers.

The queen possessed no ability to resist and immediately trembled with fear under Xianyu's aura. Zhou Bai walked up to her, and a new fruit of divine ability materialized.

This fruit's divine ability had also been carefully chosen by him. Although relatively ordinary, it was exceptionally suited for the queen, allowing her to absorb yin qi to rapidly recover her physical strength while subtly strengthening her physique.

Upon seeing the fruit of divine ability, the queen displayed the exact same reaction as General, and Zhou Bai directly tossed the fruit into her mouth.

As the yin qi completed its transformation of the queen's body, the riot within the ant nest instantly subsided. Xianyu shrank itself and returned to Zhou Bai's arm, and under his indirect command, the ants outside the cave began filing back inside one after another.

Without a shred of pity, Zhou Bai sent these ants directly into his Dantian microcosm. Unfortunately, ordinary insects entering it died off one after another due to the drastic environmental differences. Next came the eggs, but the result was identical; after all, the Dantian microcosm contained a massive amount of alien aura, which they were utterly incapable of adapting to.

In the end, only a few drones, the queen, and General remained of the entire ant colony. Zhou Bai selected the three largest drones from among them, feeding each a fruit of divine ability containing physical enhancement abilities such as increased strength, agility, and stamina.

He attempted to store the drones inside the Dantian microcosm; although they showed slight discomfort, fortunately, they did not die on the spot. Seeing that these drones were fine, Zhou Bai gathered all the remaining ants, save for General, and sent them inside.

Once inside the Dantian microcosm, the queen quickly settled on an island. Though drones generally did not build nests or dig caves, having been modified by the fruit of divine ability, they quickly began working with proper form.

Zhou Bai estimated that barring any accidents, they would construct a simple ant nest within ten days, after which the queen would begin laying eggs to reproduce worker and soldier ants—this was the most crucial step. Whether the next generation of the ant colony could adapt to the environment of the Dantian microcosm depended entirely on this period, but having done everything he could, he would leave the rest to fate.

If a simple ecosystem could be constructed, it would be of immense help to the microcosm's evolution.

Riding atop General, he emerged from the ant nest and headed toward the distant cave. With such a lightning-fast mount, it shouldn't take much time. Along the way, Zhou Bai could also search for any other life forms within the secret realm. He was increasingly finding this place marvelous, though he had no idea what was truly hidden inside the cave.