Wielding the Thunders Across Two Worlds

Chapter 319: Chapter 318: Adding Another Ability Tag for the Daoists: A Dream of Millet Porridge

"Taoist Zhi Qing and Taoist Zhi Xiu from the Celestial Master’s Mansion; Taoist Han Zheng, Taoist Han Xuan, and Taoist Zhan Qing from the Sanmao Mountain Shangqing Sect; Taoist Gao Yue from the Zhenwu Mountain Qingwei Sect; and Taoist Xu Xing from the Dragon Gate Sect were all picked up by Gu Zhao."

In the conference room, the presenter pointed at photos of the Daoists on a large screen. "This happened not long after he picked up the five Daoists from Lao Mountain, and the number of people involved is growing."

"So he’s taking more people?" someone asked curiously. "Or has something happened?"

"I don’t know." The presenter shook his head. "The one currently overseeing the Taoist Research Institute is Taoist Jing Fa. He’s a man of few words and rarely speaks with us."

Chen Yao glanced at the file on Taoist Jing Fa in his hands. ’Taoist Jing Fa from the Eight Immortals Palace.’ It all clicked.

"Gu Zhao caused a stir at both the Celestial Master’s Mansion and Sanmao Mountain when he picked them up," the presenter continued. "A clap of thunder in the middle of winter at the Celestial Master’s Mansion drew the attention of tourists.

There were four foreign Cultivators outside the Celestial Master’s Mansion that day. When the thunderclap echoed from the mansion, they all collapsed. The one from Mi Qi was the first to flee. The one from Shan Country kowtowed devoutly and was subsequently unharmed.

Only the two Sakura People seemed to want to test the Celestial Master’s Mansion. They used taunts, but the result was that they lost their minds, even injuring a few ordinary tourists. They were eventually taken away by security and, after a hospital diagnosis, confirmed to be insane."

A moment of silence fell over the room. They had all read the summary in their briefing materials and knew what the two men had been shouting.

"After analysis, we believe Gu Zhao likely used a technique similar to Hypnosis to make them personally experience the experiments their ancestors conducted," the presenter said.

A scholarly, calm-looking old man waved his hand dismissively. "Let’s not use such foreign terms. Our ancient texts have a clear name for this kind of technique: A Dream of Millet Porridge."

"Indeed." Chen Yao nodded, unable to suppress a grin. "I wonder how long Gu Zhao kept them in that dream. To drive two Sakura People, both Cultivators with Magical Power, completely insane..."

Zheng Hongsheng, seated at the head of the table, signaled to the presenter. "Add another item to the Daoists’ list of abilities: A Dream of Millet Porridge."

"Yes, sir!" The presenter immediately made a note.

A middle-aged man with a stern expression and a ramrod-straight posture sitting nearby spoke up, his eyes glinting. "A Dream of Millet Porridge that realistic... isn’t that basically a metaphysical, full-dive VR game?"

All eyes turned to him, his implication immediately clear to everyone.

"You’re oversimplifying things," an old man with glasses said, shaking his head. "For soldiers to train in a game, you need, at a minimum, a realistic battlefield environment and accurate equipment data. All of that requires massive processing power for real-time computation. It’s not a simple Illusion Realm."

The man nodded and said nothing more. But another man, who was so plain and unremarkable he could get lost in any crowd, suddenly spoke up. "So a large, complex environment can’t be simulated. But a small-scale interrogation scenario should be no problem, right?"

A smile played on the man’s lips. "An Illusion Realm that can drive even Cultivators insane would surely be effective for counter-interrogation training."

...

Chen Yao was speechless. "Asking Daoists to train your special agents... only you could come up with something like that."

The man stated calmly, "The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war."

Zheng Hongsheng was silent for a moment. "I’ll mention it to the Taoist Research Institute, but there’s no guarantee the Daoists will be willing or able to spare the time."

"Of course," the man nodded.

Another person sitting nearby began to muse aloud, "I wonder how many people this Dream of Millet Porridge can affect at once? That movie of ours was boycotted, with complaints from over a million accounts. We should make them all go in and get a taste of it."

Everyone gasped. Chen Yao retorted with a laugh, "Are you trying to create a million new psychiatric patients? We can’t afford to take care of them all!"

A portly, middle-aged man nearby pushed up his glasses and chuckled. "A lot of those are paid trolls and foreign accounts. If you only count the ones in our country who are both malicious and moronic, it’s not quite a million."

Chen Yao shot him a sidelong glance. "And? You planning on supporting them?"

The man shrank back. "Forget I said anything."

The room erupted in laughter.

The presenter then changed the display on the screen again. "Next, an incident at Sanmao Mountain. Chen Yingsi, a National First-Class Combat Hero, once met Taoist Shen Hao years ago. He recently went to Sanmao Mountain to seek him out.

Taoist Shen Hao appeared and gave him an Elixir called the Water and Fire Suppressing Spirit Pill. According to Chen Yingsi’s son, Chen Guangwen, his father’s chest began to glow. With Taoist Shen Hao’s help, both his physical and mental condition have improved.

According to Taoist Shen Hao, Mr. Chen Yingsi can live for another three to five years. However, based on his medical checkup a month ago, he wasn’t expected to make it through the winter."

"Water and Fire Suppressing Spirit Pill..."

"Miracle Elixir..."

A flicker of unconcealed longing passed through everyone’s eyes. It was a basic human instinct.

Zheng Hongsheng scanned the room. "Tempted?"

Someone chuckled. "Wouldn’t it be a lie to say I’m not?"

But Chen Yao just smiled and shook his head. "The Celestial Spirit Talismans and Golden Gang Bracelets already help regulate the body, preserve health, and extend life. To covet Spirit Medicine on top of that would be letting greed get the better of us."

"Compared to the Celestial Spirit Talismans and Golden Gang Bracelets, Miracle Elixirs must be exceptionally rare, even in their world," the presenter said. "From the information we’ve gathered, while the families of these Daoists each have a Golden Gang Bracelet, they only use some Medicinal Wine for their daily wellness. Only Gu Zhao’s parents and his two girlfriends have undergone more significant changes than the others. It’s highly likely they’ve consumed a Miracle Elixir."

"Speaking of which, I just heard that Gu Zhao’s two young girlfriends have gone abroad to perform again?" Zheng Hongsheng asked.

"Yes," the presenter replied. "We’ve dispatched a protection detail."

Zheng Hongsheng nodded. "We can’t have a repeat of what happened last time."

"Yes, sir!"

The presenter turned to the last page of his notes. "The final item on the agenda: how to handle the public fallout from the Celestial Master’s Mansion incident."

"It’s manageable. The public reaction isn’t even as strong as it was for the Lao Mountain incident," someone said, looking at their file. "Those two Sakura People went insane, but there weren’t any overt supernatural phenomena like there were at Lao Mountain."

Someone laughed. "The rumor going around is that those two Sakura People were descendants of the devils from that infamous unit, their sins passed down through the bloodline. The Thunder Department Gods discovered them while they were visiting the Celestial Master’s Mansion and descended to vanquish the evil."

Someone remarked dryly, "Strictly speaking, that’s not entirely inaccurate."

"Those two Sakura People were part of the most vehemently anti-Celestial Xia faction," someone sneered. "If they went insane, so be it. If Sakura Paste has the guts, just let them try to retaliate!"

"For the masters at the Taoist Research Institute to reveal their powers to the public, they need to make an example of someone," someone else chuckled. "Using Sakura Paste for that purpose isn’t a bad choice at all. In that case..."

All eyes turned to Zheng Hongsheng, who delivered the final verdict. "As for the public opinion on this... we do nothing!"