Chapter 356 - 2: A Researcher’s Day

Chapter 356: Chapter 2: A Researcher’s Day

The sun rose early in the morning.

Sunlight streamed through the window into the room. Bathed in the light of the rising sun, Mo Zhi got out of bed.

He walked into the bathroom and turned on the faucet, about to start preening his feathers. But when he looked down, a smooth, naked human body met his eyes.

"..."

"I forgot again... I’ve already passed my Celestial Tribulation. I’m a Crow Demon now!"

He gave a self-deprecating laugh.

Then, black feathers sprouted from his body, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed into a giant crow.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Mo Zhi finally nodded in satisfaction.

’Mmm, *this* is what I call handsome. The human form is just ugly. It has no glossy, jet-black feathers, no sturdy beak, no sharp talons, and it can’t even fly.’

’Other than gaining a pair of dexterous hands, there are really no upsides.’

Then, he began to preen his feathers meticulously. Once satisfied, he took the leftover Spiritual Food from the refrigerator, casually heated it with his Spiritual Energy, and started to eat...

Mo Zhi’s home was a treehouse built in a tall tree, located in the Crow Race settlement of the second ring.

The houses in the settlement were all constructed by the Territory Urban Planning Bureau using the territory’s power. The construction was a joint effort between the Bureau’s staff (of the Druid class) and the root tendrils of the Divine Wood (the World Tree). Each structure was formed from sturdy vines, resin, twisted branches, and a few tendrils from the Divine Wood (the World Tree) itself, leaving no trace of artificial construction.

After breakfast, Mo Zhi left home and flew toward the nearest Heaven-Reaching Vines station.

Along the way, he encountered many other members of the Crow Race.

"Hey, Xiaozhi, off to work?"

"Keep up the good work, Xiaozhi! You’re the pride of the Crow Race now!"

"Xiaozhi, have you eaten yet? Here, take this! It’s a wild Spirit Fruit I picked from the middle ring this morning. Way tastier than the fruit from the orchards!"

...

His fellow crows were all very enthusiastic. After all, Mo Zhi was the face of the Crow Race—the most highly educated crow among them.

He was a crow who, in less than four years, had gone from the Enlightenment Garden to the Spiritual Power and Comprehensive Science College, then successfully graduated and joined a research institute.

What’s more, Mo Zhi had also recently passed his Celestial Tribulation to become a Legendary Crow Demon.

He was the first in the Crow Race to hold the dual status of researcher and Crow Demon.

Upon arriving at the Heaven-Reaching Vines station, Mo Zhi boarded a Heaven-Reaching Vine Pod, heading for the research institute in the middle ring.

Ever since the territory’s research institute was established in the middle ring, researchers had to take the pods to work. If they wanted to go to the Wisdom Library to look up information, a round trip would take half the day, which was quite inconvenient.

However, the institute wasn’t just doing theoretical research; it was also conducting applied research. Some of the experiments were dangerous, so moving the institute to a desolate, outlying area was a necessary evil that everyone understood.

As a result, most researchers lived in the institute’s staff dormitories on workdays to avoid the exhausting commute.

Mo Zhi was no exception. During the five-day workweek, he stayed in the institute’s dorms, only returning to his home in the Crow Race settlement on his days off.

...

The Heaven-Reaching Vine didn’t just run underground. Sometimes it would burst forth from the earth, snaking along the ground or coiling around massive trees, and at other times it would even pass through water.

The Heaven-Reaching Vine Pods attached to the vine were one-way transparent; from the inside, you could see a great deal of beautiful scenery.

However, Mo Zhi, sitting inside the pod, wasn’t looking out. He had to make the round trip on the Heaven-Reaching Vine at least once a week, and he had long since grown tired of the scenery.

"Mama, look! Why are they fighting over there?"

"That must be a regional battle, triggered by the animals! *Sigh.* Some animals just can’t control their appetites, or perhaps there was a breakdown in communication, and too many herbivores flooded into the area at once."

"But Mama, why does the Lord have the carnivores attack us herbivores?"

"Some folks aren’t too bright. A few years back, they nearly grazed the inner ring into a desert. After that, the territory’s rules changed."

...

The speakers were a sika deer mother and her fawn, who were also in the pod. It seemed the mother was taking her little one out to see the world, or perhaps to visit relatives in the middle or outer rings.

Just then, the pod was passing through an area locked in combat. Carnivores were hunting and driving out the herbivores within the zone.

Among the herbivores, however, there were powerful individuals fighting back against the carnivores’ assault, covering the others as they migrated to different zones.

These powerful individuals had decent academic records, but they hadn’t been able to pass the elementary school graduation exam. So, they had to come to the middle or outer rings to try their luck, hoping to raise their level, change their class, or become a hero.

They were considerably stronger than ordinary animals; the innate gap in strength caused by natural disposition had been erased through later cultivation, allowing them to trade blows evenly with the powerful carnivores.

Hearing the sika deer mother and fawn’s conversation, Mo Zhi opened his eyes. Fights in the middle ring were a relatively rare sight.

After all, no one was a fool. The territory was now immense. As long as the herds spread out enough, the number of herbivores in any given zone wouldn’t cross the warning threshold. The territory’s Spiritual Energy had also become plentiful again, and plant growth had accelerated accordingly. It was actually quite difficult to graze an area so thoroughly as to trigger a battle.