Chapter 1 What to Do After Returning from the Dream Plane

What should one do after returning from the Dream Plane? Immediately formulate the next plan of action? Write a report? Study history? Consult that unreliable goddess about life? The truth is, all that is nonsense. Those heroes in movies who can save the world, fight aliens, and then run to the White House for a conference are all liars. In fact, the first thing Hao Ren and his gang did after saving the world was to go back to their rooms and sleep for nearly a day and a night. When he woke up, Hao Ren stared at the calendar for a long time before figuring out what day it was…

After figuring out what day it was, Hao Ren yawned, leaned back and fell onto the bed, preparing to sleep a little longer. But just as he lay down, he heard a series of slapping sounds, and then something jumped onto his chest. The next second, a wet, cold tail began to slap him in the face. Hao Ren opened his eyes and saw the little mermaid turning her head to look at him.

This child was still full of energy. Of course, she wasn't tired. Most of the time in the Dream Plane, she was hiding in the portable space, sleeping soundly. Occasionally, she would come out to breathe and play for a while. She didn't encounter any dangerous things. Hao Ren later wondered what the point was of bringing Doudou to the Dream Plane, but he soon realized that just bringing this child along was the greatest significance, given her talent for courting death...

Hao Ren got up, tidied up, and came out of the room carrying Doudou and her pot. He saw Vivian cleaning the room, while Lily was sitting opposite "Roll" not far away, listening to the sacred teachings. The black and white dumb cat had been wandering outside for many days, its fur dirty, but its body was inexplicably fatter. He didn't know where it had been wandering. Looking at this ordinary daily scene, Hao Ren was a little dazed. His state was still immersed in the previous "Upheaval of the First Born," which could be called a natural disaster. The impression left by the thrilling scene was so deep that he felt a sense of disharmony looking at the everyday scene before him.

"Awake?" Vivian glanced at Hao Ren and nodded toward the table. "The food's still warm. Hurry up and eat. You're the only one left."

Hao Ren responded with an "oh" and sat down at the table. Looking at the familiar bowls and chopsticks, smelling the familiar taste of Earth's food, he finally managed to throw aside that sense of disharmony. He took two sips of thin porridge to refresh himself. As he picked up a small steamed bun, he suddenly felt something and looked up in Lily's direction: "Lily!"

Lily looked up in response, and Hao Ren casually threw the bun over. The next scene was simply wonderful: Lily almost instinctively jumped up on the spot, spun around, and opened her mouth to catch the bun—but "Roll" was faster than her. A black shadow flashed, and the bun was gone, leaving Lily staring blankly at the bun in the cat's mouth.

Vivian, holding a rag, put one hand on her hip and glared at Lily. "Look at your pathetic self. It's one thing to jump up to catch food, but you're actually fighting with a cat! And even if you're fighting with a cat, you still lost! Isn't that move supposed to be your family's secret skill?!"

Lily blinked, she was still wondering, "Why is the landlord's cat like a dog..."

"Speaking of which, what are those four masters doing?" Hao Ren finished his breakfast in a few bites, and then remembered that there were suddenly four more people in the house, but he didn't see the figures of the four ascetics. He finally remembered his job as a "special case caretaker" and felt that he should popularize the knowledge of living here to the four ascetics.

After all, in the foreseeable future, the four of them, like Becky, would not be able to go back.

He remembered that when he returned home the night before, he had hurriedly given the bearded man and the other three a rough explanation of the knowledge of living here, at least letting them know how to use the toilet and the tap water. The four ascetics were taken directly from Kuiper Station to the Dream Plane after being picked up from the Little Green Planet. This was their first time on Earth. Then he arranged for the four of them to stay in the last two empty rooms upstairs, which was just enough for two men and two women. He didn't know if they were used to living here now.

"They should be behind the house," Vivian frowned. "They went out early in the morning, saying that they weren't used to staying in the room and wanted to cultivate in nature."

"Cultivate?" Hao Ren was stunned, unable to understand how this was related to cultivation. "They're not planning to build a temple behind the house, are they? The housing authority won't allow that!"

"Why don't you go see for yourself?" Vivian came over to clear the table, and casually threw the chopsticks Hao Ren used into Doudou's pot. "I always feel like they don't fit in with life here. When I prepared a lot of food for them this morning, they just took a few steamed buns, went to the water room to get some cold water, and ran out..."

When Hao Ren heard this, he roughly guessed what was going on, and quickly went out the back door of the house to find the four masters. As mentioned before, Hao Ren's big house was located on the southern outskirts, the most remote one. Behind the house was directly a wilderness. He didn't know what the four ascetics were planning to cultivate in the wilderness. He pushed the door open and didn't go far before he saw three people, including the bearded man. The three ascetics had cleared a space in the wilderness. They were still wearing their worn gray robes, sitting cross-legged on the ground, closing their eyes and meditating. There was also a bonfire lit in the middle of the three—it looked like wilderness survival...

Hao Ren went over and saw that the two nuns were with the bearded man. The young monk didn't know where he had gone. He stepped forward and sat down next to the bearded man: "What are you doing?"

"Cultivating one's moral character and conducting daily meditation," the bearded man opened his eyes and nodded to Hao Ren with a smile. "Have you eaten?"

Hao Ren was stunned, thinking that this greeting was quite down-to-earth: "Uh... I ate. By the way, why aren't you in the house? Didn't we prepare rooms for you?"

"The room conditions are too good, not suitable for us to cultivate our moral character," the older nun shook her head. "We can't let ourselves become addicted to a comfortable environment, it will weaken the strength of our minds. When there are tasks, we adapt to the circumstances, but now that we are starting to live normally, we must pay attention to guarding our poverty."

Hao Ren looked at the empty wilderness around him. It was freezing cold now, and it was almost the end of the year. The wilderness was naturally a desolate scene. Even the wild rabbits that often ran around in this area could not be seen. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "You're not planning to just live in this wilderness, are you?"

"That's exactly what we intend," the bearded man nodded with a serious face. "The few of us plan to build a wooden house in this wilderness, first to cultivate and live in, and second to enshrine the goddess inside, so that the glory of God can continue in this world. Isn't that a good thing?"

Hao Ren felt that he simply couldn't understand these people's way of thinking: "You're really planning to do that?! Putting aside everything else... where are you planning to get the wood to build the house from?"

The bearded man finally frowned when he heard this: "That's true, the few of us just turned around and found that there were few trees in this area, and not many stones either. It is indeed a bit difficult to build a house. But we saw quite a few trees in the north just now..."

Hao Ren thought for a while, almost jumping up: "Those are windbreak forests! It's not allowed to cut them down!"

"It seems that we still have a lot to learn here," the young nun muttered in a hoarse voice, then looked at the bearded man. "Why don't we dig a cave? Imitate the Ge Yi School ascetics of a thousand years ago..."

The older nun also made a suggestion: "Or should we go to cultivate under the tower we saw in the south before? The base of that tower is a pile of iron frames, which can be covered with leather and cloth to block the wind, but it's a little closer to the crowd, and I don't know if the owner of the tower is easy to talk to..."

Hao Ren thought for a while, and reminded him with a cold sweat on the side: "...Don't, that's a TV tower..."

The bearded man nodded solemnly: "Then it seems that we can only dig a cave. We'll start work when he comes back later—by the way, do you forbid digging holes in the wilderness here? Some areas on our side don't allow digging at will, and we have to report to the local lord."

Hao Ren's cold sweat was already preparing to spread to the back of his feet at this time. He found that he had underestimated the strange living habits of these ascetics. They had come to Earth to challenge life. In all fairness, he felt that he could not change the beliefs of this kind of fanatical believer, so he had to make a tactful suggestion: "I have no objection to you insisting on wilderness survival, but can we slow down for a few days? You see, you haven't even figured out the rules here, and you almost went to cut down the windbreak forest—this may cause huge trouble to others. How about planning the wilderness survival after you have figured out the rules and regulations here?"

The bearded man thought for a while and felt that it made sense: "That's fine, then we'll bother you at night for these few days, and cultivate here during the day. This place is vast and open, it's indeed a good place."

The other two nuns nodded in agreement, and then each took out a steamed bun from their arms,烤着准备吃饭: 原来他们还坚持“冥想后方可进食”的规矩，现在还没吃饭呢。郝仁看着几人手里的馒头，想想自己平日里的饮食，总觉得这样更过意不去：“你们就吃这个？”

大胡子很满意地笑笑：“这挺好的啊。”

郝仁想到自己和小伙伴们住着好房子吃着好饭菜，却让这四大金刚在后面荒地里挑战人与自然，总觉得一旦传出去至少是个够上微博转发500条的道德新闻，于是想再劝劝：“你们这样容易把自己饿死……”

他话还没说完，就看到之前不知跑去哪里的那位年轻修士突然回来了，对方手里还拎着个野兔子……

大胡子跳起来接过兔子，在魔法的辅助下一瞬间完成褪毛放血，随后在兔腿上抹着香料准备放在篝火上烤，一边还问呢：“你说啥？”

郝仁：“……没啥……”

人家这比自己吃的还好呢！