Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 769 Both Male and Female, Words Unending
"Lord."

Yan Bujin suddenly spoke up: "Didn't you want a cultivation technique? I can help you with that."

"You'll help me?" Li Zheng asked. "Didn't you say you don't understand demon cultivation techniques? How can you help?"

“You don’t necessarily need demon cultivation techniques to cultivate.” Yan Bujin rolled his eyes and said, “After all, I have five hundred years of cultivation experience and have modified my own techniques. Since Master says that you have a power within you, perhaps I can modify my techniques and make use of it?”

“He’s right. Even if he hands over the technique, we don’t have the relevant experience and we won’t know where to start if we want to modify it.” Zhan Zhouzhou pondered, “He’s different. It’s like someone who has never been exposed to technological modifications. He can only stare blankly at the race car parts in front of him. But if it’s Ye Kai, even if he has never modified a race car before, Ye Kai can use his previous modification experience to make connections.”

"Oh……"

Li Zheng nodded thoughtfully: "I see. You're planning to get me to provide the parts so you can easily modify your race car."

Modifying a cultivation method inevitably involves experimentation, and experimentation requires a physical body; otherwise, one cannot obtain firsthand information, and without knowing the full story, how can one know whether the modification of the cultivation method is successful or not?

"Hehe." Yan Bujin smiled ingratiatingly, "Your Majesty is wise; nothing can escape your discerning eyes."

"Hmm..." Li Zheng thought carefully for a while before saying to Yan Bujin, "I can agree to your request, but cloning a body takes a very long time, and I don't think you have the patience to wait that long. So I will find a way to give you a body to temporarily reside in, and you can find a way to change it in the future, is that feasible?"

"This..." Yan Bujin hesitated and said, "My lord, you may not know, but the method of seizing a body is forbidden and cannot be used frequently, otherwise it will harm both the user and others."

"Heh." Li Zheng sneered and said, "What kind of bullshit body-snatching method is this? It's nothing more than cuckoo taking over someone else's nest and swallowing up their mental world."

Li Zheng discovered this the first time he entered Miriel's mind. If he had taken advantage of Miriel's unpreparedness and used his powerful mental strength to kill her, and then stuffed his entire spiritual body into Miriel's mental world, he could have taken over her body.

However, there are limitations to doing so.

First, you must ensure that the other person does not resist or is powerless to resist when you enter their mental world.

Secondly, it is essential to preserve the integrity of the other person's mental world, ensuring it remains undamaged.

Otherwise, even if one were to possess the other's body, because it is not the original physical body, the spiritual body would have no foundation within it, and there would be no hope of further development in this lifetime.

Li Zheng suspected that his inability to grow his mental strength on its own might be closely related to the fact that he lacked a mental world.

"No!" Yan Buwan said with unexpected seriousness, "The method of seizing a body is against the harmony of heaven and earth and will be rejected by heaven and earth. If it is used frequently, it will be intolerable to heaven and earth. Walking will cause foot pain, drinking will cause choking, eating will cause choking, sleeping will be difficult, cultivation will cause qi deviation, qi deviation and demonic possession, and calamities will befall one after another."

"That's so weird?" Li Zheng looked Yan Bujin up and down. "Then why did you try to possess me in the first place?"

"Your Majesty knows that I only have a Nascent Soul left. Otherwise, I would not have wanted to use the method of possession." Yan Bujin smiled bitterly. If he hadn't been desperate, who would want to become a cursed star rejected by heaven and earth?

"What if I find you living dead?" Li Zheng said, "They are living dead whose consciousness has been scattered or stripped away. You can temporarily borrow their bodies to modify your cultivation techniques. Once your body is cloned, you can return it, leaving behind your cultivation. Consider it compensation to settle the karmic debt, right?"

"This..." Yan Bujin hesitated, "Is it feasible?"

In his five hundred years of cultivation, he had never heard of anyone doing such a thing.

"Whether it's feasible or not, do you have a choice?" Li Zheng looked at him intently and said, "Anyway, I've accepted the suggestion. What to do next doesn't seem to be up to you?"

I can't express it all, but upon further reflection, it makes sense.

My life is in their hands. If I behave well, I can live a more comfortable life in the future. It's much better than getting beaten up like before.

He gritted his teeth and nodded vigorously: "I will do as my lord commands!"

“Okay, then it’s settled!” Li Zheng immediately made the decision and said to Zhan Zhouzhou, “Go to the research institute later and tell the professors that I will be there later.”

There are many people with amnesia in the neighborhood, and you can find one in the 375 block. Li Zheng is planning to spend some money to find an unclaimed "experimental sample" for Yan Bujin.

If the doctor makes progress later, I can cure him and give him my cultivation as a reward in exchange.

Without hesitation, Li Zheng put Yan Bujin into the Dark Realm and went with Miriel to the place in Block 375 that specializes in researching amnesia.

Li Zheng had inquired about the location during previous training sessions and knew where it was, though it was a bit far.

It took more than half an hour to find the medical research institute, which was almost half of the 375 block away from the gravity research institute.

The person in charge here is a dog-headed, human-bodied race. He is refined and also wears thin-rimmed glasses, the lenses of which flash white light from time to time, clearly indicating that their function is not just to correct vision.

When Li Zheng said he wanted to buy a sample of a mental illness experiment, the kobold did not refuse and took him to the "inpatient department" to pick out the one that looked the most human.

Since the research institute had been searching for this person's relatives and friends for a long time without anyone coming to claim them, the procedures were simple; one could take them away by paying a fee.

For this reason, Li Zheng only spent three hundred red crystal coins to buy a living dead person.

The moment he paid, Li Zheng suddenly felt that this behavior was too strange.

A living, breathing person was traded away like a commodity, with money on the spot.
This made him feel like a buyer dealing with human traffickers, which made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

On the way back, Miriel noticed that Li Zheng seemed preoccupied and asked him what was wrong.

He shared his thoughts with Miriel.

Miriel comforted him, "Just think of it as us hiring him to do something. Anyway, it won't kill him, and we can cure him and give him his freedom in the future. What other employer would offer such a generous deal?"

It includes food, lodging, and medical treatment, and might even come with the ability to cultivate immortality.

Li Zheng imagined that if such a job existed on Earth, he would fight tooth and nail to get it. By subtly changing his perspective and deceiving himself, Li Zheng felt much better.

Back at his rented apartment with the experimental samples he had purchased, Li Zheng released Yan Bujin.

Yan Bujin looked at the alien body with wings on its back with considerable disdain: "It's actually a demon..."

"Stop talking nonsense, this is the most human-like race I could find." Li Zheng immediately felt annoyed and cursed, "It's not like you're being asked to live here permanently, that's enough!"

"Yes, yes, yes, what the master says is true!" Yan Bujin dared not argue and obediently crawled into the space between the eyebrows of the experimental sample.

After a moment, the experimental subject's eyelids twitched, and it slowly opened, revealing a pair of eerie, dark eyes.

"My lord..." Yan Bujin began, his voice clear and crisp, but he was suddenly startled: "This body of mine seems to belong to a woman!?"

"Is it a man?" Li Zheng looked at the flat chest. He wasn't sure. He had just found someone who looked human and bought him without confirming the gender.

Yan Bujin tried moving his arms and easily lifted them up.

"Huh? This body has such strong vitality! No wonder it's a demon's body!"

Although he had been lying still for a long time, his body was not stiff at all, and his blood was surging like a river.

He then got up from the coffin-shaped container where his body was placed and turned around to check his current gender.

After confirming it repeatedly, Yan Bujin discovered with pessimism that she seemed to actually have female characteristics.

However, the good news is that he also possesses male characteristics...

He was speechless with grief: "These demons are hermaphroditic!"

"what?"

Hearing this, Li Zheng was stunned.

He and Miriel exchanged a glance, neither of them having expected things to turn out this way.

Miriel softened: "How about we get him a different pair?"

Li Zheng was too lazy to make another trip: "We've already bought it, wouldn't changing it just bring him more trouble?"

He offered words of comfort: "Just make do with it. After all, it's just a container for you."

Seeing that Li Zheng had no intention of helping him change his body, and also worried that changing it again would increase his misfortune, Yan Bujin had no choice but to accept his fate.

Li Zheng scratched his cheek and asked curiously, "But how do these hermaphroditic people reproduce? Do they produce and consume their own?"

Thinking about it, it seems unlikely.

If incest has so many problems, wouldn't self-production and self-consumption be even more disastrous?
Miriel suggested, "Why don't we let Yan Bujin give it a try?"

Yan Bujin was horrified: "Mistress, no!"

Between myself and myself...?
Just imagining that scene sends chills down my spine.

"Forget it, this guy can't take a joke, so stop teasing him." Li Zheng said to Yan Bujin, "Now that the physical body has been prepared for you, I hope you can produce some results as soon as possible to prove your usefulness."

Yan Bujin knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your subordinate will do everything in his power!"

"Okay. We're going out in a bit, so you stay here and don't wander around. We'll find you a place to stay before we come back tonight." Li Zheng gave her a long lecture before leading Miriel out to the research institute.

On the way, he suddenly slapped his forehead, realizing that he had been so focused on collecting data since returning yesterday that he had forgotten about some things.

Li Zheng: "Miriel, when you're looking for a house, also check where you can get out-of-town resident status and get me two."

Miriel: "Are you planning to send Kuro and Iss away?"

“Yes.” Li Zheng nodded: “I promised them before that I could leave whenever I wanted, but I couldn’t get a resident status back then, so I kept putting it off. I kept putting it off and forgot about it. Now that I’ve remembered, I might as well get it done and put an end to this worry.”

"That can't be right?" Miriel thought carefully for a moment: "Didn't you say that you wanted them to help you manage the machinery produced on those two production lines? Why are you saying now that you want them to leave?"

“Times have changed.” Li Zheng paused for a few seconds and said, “Back then, I thought mechanical bodies would play a significant role in the future, but after visiting the Sin Domain, I realized that their role was actually quite limited.”

With Kuro and Is's small physiques, the twisted creatures in the Gluttony Domain could crush several of them with a single stomp.

Moreover, the most important thing in fighting against the twisted creatures is mental strength and willpower. As for Kuro and Is, who have been transformed into data information, they may not be affected by the Sin Domain, but when it comes to actually fighting against the twisted storm, they are of no help at all...

The "Li Zheng" who deceived the Crohn race back then completely turned the Crohn race into a useless race.

When Kuro said that the robots initially played a role on the battlefield, killing many twisted creatures, he was probably referring to the white and red-level robots, not the current main force of quasi-purple and purple-level robots.

Therefore, keeping the two Kron members around would only restrict their freedom; it would be better to set them free.

Fortunately, Li Zheng now has Block 4 as his base, so Kuro and the others can live there without worrying about encountering danger.

(End of this chapter)