Chapter 8: The Underworld Ecosystem (Please Bookmark)

When the beast ship came to a halt, Liu Zhi had already absorbed the contents of the books, gaining a thorough understanding of the Ide family’s situation, the mortuary officers, and several unique skills exclusive to the Ide lineage.

As a management figure in a fourth-tier city, the Ide family did not rely on superficial slogans about family unity to survive and thrive. What truly sustained them were a few exclusive magics tied to their lineage. It was precisely these arts that allowed the Ide family’s necromancers to continually advance along the path of mortuary officers.

At the core of the Ide family’s secrets was something called the Underworld Ecological Sphere. Though the term sounded grandiose, it was essentially a method of cultivating plants and breeding living creatures within the ghost city of the underworld.

Within this framework, the Ide family had developed three distinct schools of thought: the Phantom School, which aimed to integrate death and life as one; the Thorn School, which sought to harness life energy to strengthen death; and the Environmental School, to which Sandro’s great-grandfather belonged, emphasizing the notion that life gradually becomes part of the environment within a deathly setting.

Among the four specialized volumes the Ide family provided, one was devoted entirely to these philosophical schools—a guide on how to surreptitiously cultivate plants in the underworld and how to introduce living familiars into the ghost city, effectively making them early residents of that spectral domain.

Another of the technical tomes detailed a meditation technique known as the Breath of Nature Meditation, tailored specifically as an auxiliary practice for mortuary officers. While this meditation did not substantially enhance a player’s mental strength or magical power, it offered immense benefits to those aligned with the mortuary officer path. By meditating once daily, a player could supply sufficient mana to sustain the ghost city, eliminating the need to manually channel magic into it.

Moreover, the Breath of Nature Meditation infused the ghost city with a portion of natural vitality, which formed the foundation of the Underworld Ecological Sphere. This was precisely why the Ide family’s mortuary officers could cultivate plants and raise familiars within their own cities.

Apart from this meditation method, another volume detailed the creation of Tree-Bound Spirits, a hallmark of the Ide family and fundamental to the Underworld Ecological Sphere. Every ecological sphere began with the Tree-Bound Spirit: selecting a plant species and then forcibly using magic to bind it symbiotically with a humanoid or animal familiar, creating a mutualistic state.

This represented the genesis of the ecological sphere. Without the ability to produce Tree-Bound Spirits, any further study of the Underworld Ecological Sphere was futile.

The book described numerous types of Tree-Bound Spirits, such as the hanged ghosts suspended from trees and the little spirits buried beneath roots, symbiotic with the trees themselves.

Further advanced evolutionary processes were comprehensively covered later in the volume. Possessing this book alone meant having seized almost half of the Ide family’s heritage.

This explained why the Ide family had assigned a third-tier Death Knight to guard these volumes—an indication of their immense value.

The last book focused on the external application of the Underworld Ecological Sphere, entitled The Path of Symbiosis. It described a method of planting identical flora to forcibly establish passages granting access to and from the ghost city’s gates.

After all, the symbiotic creatures within the ecological sphere were unlike undead summoned by necromancers; they could not be called forth merely by channeling magic. Without gateways allowing their ingress and egress, raising innumerable such beings would be pointless.

Naturally, the energy cost to open these passages was still borne by the player’s mana. However, for Liu Zhi, this was manageable. Thanks to the Breath of Nature Meditation, meditating once daily freed him from the Underworld Palace’s usual constraints, granting him an extra seventy mana points each day—a quantity capable of turning the tide in battle.

With this realization, Liu Zhi exhaled deeply and placed the final volume into the book chest.

“This is the greatest gain I’ve had in the past month and a half,” he said.

He then pushed the chest toward a man standing nearby.

This man was the Death Knight assigned to escort Liu Zhi and transport the books. He had watched Liu Zhi place all the books into the chest without leaving any excessive annotations.

Closing the chest, the man nodded. “This is the glory of our family.”

“Indeed, and also my opportunity. I never imagined the family’s direction would align so perfectly with me,” Liu Zhi replied sincerely, not exaggerating but expressing his true feelings.

Upon learning of the Underworld Ecological Sphere, he had immediately thought of the divine aspects within his Underworld Palace inherited from the Feathered Serpent deity—sun, rain, harvest, and death. These four divine forces could form a suitable ecological cycle.

Unaware of Liu Zhi’s thoughts, the man was pleased to see his insight. “That’s right. Our family’s path is etched into our bloodlines. We merely need to follow their guidance. Those who refuse to obey our family’s arrangements—no, I’m not talking about your kin, but those who try to break free from the family’s guidance—they are heretics.”

Well, those would be my kin, Liu Zhi thought silently, but it didn’t concern him. After all, it was Sandro’s business, not his.

Seeing Liu Zhi’s lack of reaction, the man nodded. “If you need anything, contact me directly through the communicator. It’s a player’s privilege; not using it would be a waste. Be careful here—don’t act recklessly. If something happens, even if the family wants to help, they might not arrive in time.”

“I understand. You take care on the road as well,” Liu Zhi responded, gathering his belongings and addressing the man.

The man chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ve done this kind of task countless times. Nothing will go wrong.”

Liu Zhi said no more and leapt off the beast ship, carrying his luggage.

Upon reaching the dock, Liu Zhi recalled the information from The Mortuary Officer’s Path. In major cities, undead were not allowed to roam freely, as even the spectral undead of the Underworld were unpredictable in allegiance.

Therefore, most undead servants were only released during combat and retracted afterward.

Although Liu Zhi was now officially a mortuary officer, he had not yet reported for duty or been assigned a jurisdiction. He certainly did not want to attract the attention of bone guardians and stir up unnecessary trouble at this stage.