Chapter 2554

"Ah Lian is very clever. Two months ago she was just learning to read, and now she can already read books." Hu Xin said, "Master Duan likes her very much and has been trying to get her to learn more things, wanting to see how great her potential is."

Everyone who heard this fell silent.

The research that the Heavenly Palace has churned out from Mistcloud Bay is truly remarkable. Ah Lian, as the latest generation of demon puppet, not only looks completely human in appearance, but is also very intelligent!

Being able to read fluently at just five or six months old—this precocity has long left humans far behind.

Mingke Immortal suddenly asked: "How did the drug that triggers the 'Peach Blossom Mark' end up in the hands of the people of Baishu City?"

"Ah, salt. Mix it into the salt."

This answer was beyond everyone's expectations.

Ling Jinbao wondered strangely: "I still thought the medicine powder was put in the water, after all I saw the caravans of Baishu City going to Dahu to fetch water, and the water they brought back should be easy to mix medicine into, then sell to the townsfolk."

"We considered this plan, but there are still over two hundred wells in the city, and those who drink well water would not get the medicine." Hu Xin said, "But everyone has to eat salt, and the source and destination of salt are the easiest to control, so the medicine powder is all mixed into the salt according to the ratio."

Earlier he had also instructed the subordinates of the Warden Wang that this time the medicine powder ratio must not be wrong, lest the Peach Blossom Mark be too faint, delaying the work of the night demons.

Dong Rui then asked: "Is this medicine powder harmless to the human body itself?"

"Harmless, men, women, old and young can all consume it without problem." Hu Xin gave a clear answer, "It's just that once a woman becomes pregnant, under the effect of this medicine, a peach blossom mark will appear on her face."

And once they have the Peach Blossom Mark on their faces, the nearby night demons will know that it's time for them to work.

Then the question that everyone is most concerned about comes up:

"Why does the Spirit Essence Palace want to seize the embryonic sacs of the civilians of Baishu City?"

Although everyone present could guess that this must be related to the Spirit Essence Palace's divine descent research, when Hu Xin spoke the true answer, everyone still sucked in a breath of cold air.

Dong Rui slammed the table and stood up: "Genius!"

Seeing the looks everyone was giving him, he hurriedly corrected himself: "Cough, I mean, vicious!"

Genius and viciousness—these two words are not contradictory.

The difficulty in the Heavenly Palace's creation of divine descent bodies has always lain in the "human form."

A divine descent body is not merely about looking like a human. After Dong Rui's research, he found that although giant taotie beasts or demon puppets can briefly bear a fragment of a heavenly demon, if one wants the descending heavenly demon to exert its true power, the divine descent body must become more and more like a human.

This means that in terms of bodily structure, extraordinary meridians, flesh, tendons and bones, and many other aspects, the skin bag should possess as many human characteristics as possible.

The deeper the research into demon puppets went, the more problems arose.

Using divine blood to provoke mutations in demon bodies—this kind of mutation is very hard to control, and the probability of growing seven hands and eight feet is more than ten or a hundred times greater than that of growing into a human form.

Therefore, after the heavenly demons captured the Hidden God Lord, although research on using demon puppets as vessels for divine descent did not stop, it was no longer their main approach.

The Hidden God Lord's body, whether as a whole or in parts, has the property of being able to change shape—this is an innate talent, requiring no excessive stimulation by the heavenly demons.

In other words, it possesses the three great advantages of stability, controllability, and templatization.

Successfully capturing the Hidden God Lord allowed the heavenly demons' skin bag research to press the fast-forward button.

But He Lingchuan and Dong Rui, from analyzing large amounts of intelligence materials, could conclude that even if the Lingxu crowd claimed their "complete divine descent" experiment was successful and shocked both realms, it still only applied to individual cases.

Creating a vessel capable of bearing complete divine descent is as difficult as climbing to heaven, because the human body itself is one of the most complex life structures in this world, and furthermore contains countless mysteries. Even if the Hidden God Lord's body has shaping ability, that is only "form"; if one wants to also change the inner aspects of the skin bag, not to mention other things, He Lingchuan, from the perspective of another world, wonders how those nerves, blood vessels, fascia, and tendons could be created and connected?

This not only relies on extremely precise surgery, but also requires heavenly methods.

The super-high difficulty of its production process determines that perfect divine descent vessels are few and far between. The Lingxu crowd being able to temporarily make a few prototypes to bluff and get by is already not bad; still wanting mass production? Dream on.

This is Dong Rui's incisive conclusion, which he has held for many years. Even when the news of complete divine descent arrived, he did not think it was a big problem—

Until he finally understood the true intention behind what the Heavenly Palace is doing in Baishu City!

"Even if a divine descent body is made to look very human, it is still not a human, and the difficulty of making it is comparable to climbing to heaven." Dong Rui's breathing became rapid, "Looking human is not as good as just being human!"

"Just……human?"

"People give birth to children, children give birth to grandchildren, generation after generation, all have the appearance and inner nature of humans, very stable! Although mutations may occur during the reproductive process, the possibility is not zero, but very small." Dong Rui exclaimed excitedly, "Any postnatal modification cannot compare to innate reproduction! This is the work of creation!"

"What the Spirit Essence Palace is doing now is stealing the work of creation for its own use, employing the human method of reproduction to cultivate the divine descent bodies it needs!" He spoke very quickly, "You all know that most humans cannot be used as divine descent vessels because their bodily strength is too weak to bear the descent of heavenly demon power. If one could greatly strengthen the human body, that would be the perfect vessel for the heavenly demons."

For example, immortals.

But immortals in the world are not so easy to catch, and their numbers are far from sufficient to meet the heavenly demons' needs.

Zhu Xiuer scratched her front paw: "So they suddenly had the idea to start from the womb?"

"Everything that makes a person a human is already included in the embryonic sac. As long as they are allowed to absorb nutrients and grow, they will naturally become human."

For He Lingchuan, this sentence was too easy to translate:

Genes.

This way, the heavenly demons wouldn't have to painstakingly scrape and carve to hard-form a shape—the embryonic sac of a human naturally develops into a human, from inside to outside.

How much more convenient.

Ling Jinbao stared blankly: "What about those sea-disc vehicles in the terraced fields? What are they used for?"

"If I'm not mistaken, that is the 'base' for future divine descent bodies." Speaking thus, Dong Rui's facial expression clearly said "I'm sure I didn't guess wrong," "If we use medicine-making as an analogy, the embryonic sac is like the starter, and the Hidden God Lord's sea-disc vehicle is the main ingredient!"

Mingke Immortal listened intently and unconsciously asked: "What effect does it have?"

"Let me put it this way: using human embryonic sacs solves the 'human form' problem; using sea stars transformed from fragments of the Hidden God Lord's body solves the 'divine body strength' problem." Dong Rui explained, "If both of these are solved, the problem of the divine descent body is also readily solved."

The terrifying prospect he described made everyone suck in a breath of cold air:

"Not that easy, is it, right?"

"Yes. The life form and power of the Hidden God Lord differ too greatly from those of humans."

(End of chapter)