Harun's declaration and bestowal pushed the Birusk clan's morale to its acme, and they got to work. First, they harvested all the plants spontaneously produced by the blessed land, hauled the sleeping beasts, and placed them at Harun's temple gate in ordered piles. With a finger snap, he sent them all into his Space World—using his Divine Sense to prevent them from colliding with Jiyan.
New instructions followed, and the clansmen weaved sets of black robes embroidered with dark-green tree patterns for themselves, and an unadorned black robe for Harun himself.
"Those patterns exist to remind you of what you seek. The closer you are to the truth, the less use you have for them. May the glow of your enlightenment supersede the darkness of your garb," Harun started the indoctrination of his new kinsmen. Each possessed two of his blood drops that held one another in equilibrium. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, they did share his blood.
At the moment, Harun's blood baptism was the most reliable source of innate talent increase. A rare few could take more blood drops, but the others wouldn't survive it. Harun took note of them, aiming to supervise their growth and dedication before granting more benefits. The 147 clansmen now each possessed the strength to crush tigers and bulls, and the stamina to match their new physiques, making farm work and hunting tasks less challenging than a morning jog.
Overall, their willpower experienced a qualitative leap. The fear of the unknown vanished, replaced by expectation for the world lying ahead. But Harun knew that those changes mainly relied on his presence and therefore didn't take them as real boons.
"To master causality, one must start by the source of woes: blight. Greed is blight, disease is blight, uncertainty is blight; all sources of negativity represent a form of blight. Remember that we aim to comprehend concepts to their root and take absolute ownership of them. Do not attempt to detach yourselves from the root, and if one day you feel trapped by uncertainty and despair, sing my name, and my guiding hand shall pull you out of the darkness," Harun preached to the 147 Birusk kinsmen who sat in rows before him. They followed a strict order, with the children at the front row, and the adults at the back.
Powered-up by Harun's words, the adults prostrated themselves before him, leading their juniors to do the same. "All hail Lord Birusk!" They sang like a choir. With a nod, Harun carried on.
"I will now give you all the Toxic Truth Mantra, and as you meditate on it, teach you the gospel. Understanding this mantra can further enhance your resistance to poisons and other forms of blight, enabling you to go farther in the pursuit of truth." Unlike the vast majority of cultivation paths, the Myriad Poison Bridge didn't rely on a cultivation method. Said differently, cultivation methods acted as embellishments rather than inalienable requirements.
Still, before he bred that path, Harun first had to come up with a unique method that, among other things, enabled its cultivators to transform their physique, increasing their poison affinity. He named it the Toxic Truth Mantra. Like most cultivation methods, it possessed nine layers. But Harun never expected anyone here to cultivate it to the peak.
Comprehension relied on the Sense and Dao Attunement stats. On the scene, no one went beyond "6" in either—making the third layer their universal limit. Of course, those with high luck could turn their fate around—accomplishing miracles. Streaks of green light flew from Harun's forehead, merging with the Birusk clansmen's brains. Immediately, they closed their eyes, singing the mantra. Driven by Harun, the children were no exception.
"The Nine Laws of the Birusk clan.
-First, the Spiritual Lord represents the guiding principle that will lead all clansmen to enlightenment. Abandon yourself to his will, find comfort in his cradle, and an eternity of bliss awaits.
-Second, all meat under the heavens carry taint. The more you take in, the greater the stain you carry. No creature with a pair of eyes or the sense of touch is meant for men's plate. We are observers, developers, students and guides. To return to a state of innocence, Birusk clansmen will no longer consume the meat they hunt or herd, and offer it all in sacrifice to their Spiritual Lord. The Spiritual Lord will purify the beasts' souls, enabling them to reincarnate as men. This will also help the clansmen accumulate good karma," Harun started imparting the new Laws of the clan, but as his devotees marveled at his gentle heart, unable to restrain itself any further, the system threw a fit.
"How shameless! You obviously just want to keep all the meat for yourself, yet have the gall to make it a religious principle! Who raised you?!" The system snapped at Harun, unable to endure such straightforward shamelessness.
"Hush! We're doing important business here. As the wise one said, If I don't enter hell, who will? I��m sparing those people from the plight of meat and grease, sacrificing my own health and integrity to ensure they have the best diet under the heavens. How can you accuse me of such outrageous thoughts? I live to serve my people! Don't insult a gentleman's heart!" Harun dismissed the system and returned to his preaching.
"Third, ecstasy is the mainstay of enlightenment. How can you grasp the truth when you suffer daily? Therefore, the Spiritual Lord orders you to live in constant delight. And to achieve this, we shall start brewing wine and other...lightening substances. I will personally lead those efforts and teach you all how to build and maintain the facilities."
"Fourth…" As Harun laid down the Nine Laws, he felt that the Birusk clansmen were too few. In fact, population-wise, this was more a hamlet than a genuine village. The beast-ridden forests separating it from civilization ensured that the average man didn't dare come here. Even tax collectors came through flying chariots loaned by the kingdom. Harun met a rather obnoxious one in the second month following his arrival and made him pay all he could of the villagers' share.
Their numbers needed to grow fast. Due to the Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere, the infant mortality rate remained low. Thus, though mortals aged fast and lost much of their innate resilience to the strains of hard work, in their younger years, common diseases didn't bother them that much. Food supplies alone determined how many children they dared have, and before Harun's arrival, one to two was the answer.
But now that they didn't have to worry about food, and lived to find comfort in his light, it was time to kick things up a notch.
"Ninth, children represent the mystery of life and the radiance of our world, spreading their numbers is the greatest show of filial piety toward the Spiritual Lord," Harun said, and instantly, the villagers resolved to work harder, and make breeding one of their top priorities.
…
Months flew by, with Harun's time split between perfecting and conceptualizing the next step of his Myriad Poison Bridge, guiding his Birusk clansmen, and working on breeding a variety of poisonous beasts through careful rearing and his gradeless Golden Silkworm Jar.
One, in particular, occupied most of his thoughts, a species Harun created during his mortal years out of selfish interest, but failed to bring to a high grade: the Resurrection Butterfly.
As the name implied, the Resurrection Butterfly existed to overturn death. A pinky-sized creature, it secreted a necromantic essence that revitalized a dead body's decaying organs, and brought them back to life. However, there were glaring flaws. Although the resurrected rose with greater physical abilities than they previously possessed, the butterfly couldn't bring the soul back—making 90% of the resurrected devoid of spiritual intelligence. As for the 10% that maintained their humanity, they all lost their memories.
The Noxious Flame world's people thus called it Corpse Poison, and the "resurrected," Barbaric Corpses. Though he learned to control the consequences' scope, Harun never managed to beat those side effects and switched his attention to live subjects—the results baffled him.
If allowed in, after drinking some of their blood, the Resurrection Butterfly could merge with the living's chest, and supplement their physical damages with its necromantic essence. Past a certain grade, it rose to its host's Sea of Consciousness—healing and supporting them from there. Unfortunately for Harun, the Decaying Flower's Withering Essence destroyed his Resurrection Butterfly—preventing him from enjoying that benefit.
But as he stared at the pinky-sized moth floating above his jar, he knew Jiyan wouldn't have this problem, and stepped into his Space World. There, the sleeping beauty lay in a half-comatose state, her eyelids twitching as if struggling to regain consciousness. Cutting a thin line of blood on Jiyan's palm, Harun aimed the Resurrection Butterfly at it—letting it drink and contract itself to Jiyan.
It then flew toward her forehead—turning into a streak of blood-red light that merged with her Sea of Consciousness. Rooting itself there, the Resurrection Butterfly poured out its necromantic essence, mending the damages of Jiyan's flesh and soul.
Her twitching eyelids eased, and a red light swirled around her form. Seeing this, Harun heaved a sigh of relief. But as he prepared to enter a meditating state to make time pass faster, a vast malevolent force alerted Harun's mind, and his half-closed eyes sprang open.
"How...how could this be?" Harun stammered, for from Jiyan's body, misty, dark-purple filaments surged and swirled, even as the Resurrection Butterfly healed her wounds. From those filaments, Harun sensed a force 100% similar to Nakula's aura. An ancient nefarious force that shouldn't exist in this world: Devil Essence!