Chapter 1871: Research on Magic Energy Infection, the Special Mira

Xia Duo pondered for a long time, and gradually, a train of thought formed in his mind. Next, in the newly built laboratory outside the manor's main building, he released one of the mutants he had brought back from the Golden Rose Community.

The reason these mutants were in his hands was, naturally, that he had asked Ougesi for them. The ostensible reason was that he wanted to purify the contamination on these mutants, but his true purpose was to study the Principles of Magic Energy Infection.

At this time, a Jinjufazhen had long been built in the laboratory. Xia Duo adjusted the confinement level to medium. A Wood Elf with two horns on his head and blood-red eyes fixed his gaze on Xia Duo the moment he appeared in the array, beginning to bare his fangs and brandish his claws.

"Do you still have consciousness?" Xia Duo asked in a calm tone.

But the other party did not answer, just charging forward relentlessly. The medium-level confinement only restricted spellcasting ability and the range of movement, equivalent to "Draw Ground as Prison."

"No consciousness?"

Xia Duo could not help but feel a bit troubled. If there was not even consciousness, then even if the contamination were purified, it might not be possible to restore them to their original state!

Subsequently, he raised the confinement level of the array, causing the mutant Wood Elf in the array to become still. Afterward, he cast spells one after another, using various Elemental Energy to probe the Magic Energy that had not yet completely dissipated within the other party's body.

Regarding the Magic Energy attributes of Sailuo, Xia Duo had actually already gained some understanding during the previous operation to capture Sailuo, though it was not yet precise.

The first step of the current examination was to determine the specific Magic Energy attributes of the other party, so that the specific infection process could be determined based on those specific Magic Energy attributes.

Only by analyzing the process could one arrive at a possible conclusion; it might not be the Principles, but at least there would be a summary of the laws.

After a series of operations, Xia Duo had recorded over a dozen pages of Scrying data in his notebook. After that, the utility of this mutant Wood Elf became optional.

Perhaps he could add alien energy to observe and record the subsequent infection situation of the mutant Wood Elf to obtain more experimental data, but that would violate Xia Duo's promise to Ougesi to try his best to save these mutants.

Moreover, that would be crossing the line too far. Even in the Projection Plane, he was not prepared to do that, unless there were no other ideas left.

But clearly, there were plenty of methods and ideas; as long as one was willing to think, they would always be there.

For this mutant Wood Elf, Xia Duo was also not prepared to lock him back into a Lattice Cage, but instead attempted purification. In fact, the process of purification was also a process of understanding the infection.

He first dispersed the residual Magic Energy in the Wood Elf's body, but the demon characteristics on the other party did not disappear. From a certain perspective, this kind of mutation could be considered quite stable.

However, after a quantitative check using a Scrying spell, the Wood Elf's body was still undergoing changes, only slower than when Magic Energy was present.

In other words, the result of Magic Energy Infection, without external intervention, should be permanent and irreversible.

And purification was, in fact, this external force.

Next, Xia Duo attempted to perform a Positive Energy Baptism on this mutant Wood Elf. Strictly speaking, this spell could not be considered a single spell, but rather a category of spells.

What Xia Duo was performing at this moment was the mildest form of Baptism. A faint aura of Positive Energy slowly seeped out from the Positive Energy Plane, creating a weak Positive Energy environment within the Jinjufazhen.

But a strange change occurred—

He saw that the still mutant Wood Elf in the array actually began to emit tiny wisps of black smoke, and a faint, almost imperceptible burnt smell wafted out.

Xia Duo immediately interrupted the transmission of Positive Energy. He wanted medical-style purification, not that kind of "purification" that meant annihilation.

Positive Energy and demons were in conflict; Xia Duo had known this for a long time. Positive Energy represented order and Entropy Decrease, containing the origin of life, while demons were often synonymous with chaos, and Negative Energy was their favorite.

It was just that what Xia Duo did not expect was that a mutant caused by Magic Energy Infection would react so strongly to even a tiny bit of Positive Energy. So, how did Demon Descendant Elves manage to remain unaffected by Positive Energy?

"Does controlling the bloodline have such an effect?"

Xia Duo could not help but harbor such doubts, but he did not believe that Gulite had deceived him. After all, language could deceive, but memories in consciousness certainly could not.

Moreover, he had seen with his own eyes that Sailuo was safe and sound in a wave of Positive Energy. Although there were some anomalies, it was certainly not because of hidden injuries; it was just a simple dislike.

There must be something he had overlooked!

Doing research alone had this disadvantage: individual thinking, inspiration, and even Wisdom always had limitations. Sometimes, when stuck on a problem, unless one used exhaustive enumeration, it was hard to find blind spots in one's field of vision.

Even for Xia Duo, who could already trace memories, the process of exhaustive thinking could be called a massive project, and others might not even have the qualifications to perform exhaustive enumeration themselves, only being able to substitute it with the different thinking of different individuals.

From this point of view, Xia Duo was still lucky.

However, he did not immediately begin exhaustive thinking, but instead put this mutant Wood Elf away, released another elf, and repeated the previous experiment, only temporarily refraining from attempting purification.

……

As time passed bit by bit, by the time Xia Duo had filled an entire notebook with experimental records, he suddenly realized that the problem he had previously overlooked was actually the Magic Energy itself.

Strictly speaking, Magic Energy was not something Demon Descendants were born with. Perhaps some Demon Descendants possessed Magic Energy the moment they were born or the moment their transformation was complete, but Magic Energy was initially a type of artificial energy researched and created by Demon Descendant Elf Mages.

Demon Descendants researched Magic Energy in order to control their bloodlines, and they seemed to have truly succeeded; Demon Descendant Elves with Magic Energy were truly unaffected by Positive Energy.

And these mutants, in reality, could only be considered failed Demon Descendants, and they did not possess Magic Energy.

Or rather, the initial Demon Descendants were very likely like this. If nothing went wrong, a small number of mutants might actually be able to naturally recover their consciousness over time.

If that was the case—

"The greatest difficulty in energy infection changing the essence of a living being lies in how to ensure the normal continuation of consciousness during the process of transformation into different carriers?"

At this thought, Xia Duo suddenly felt enlightened. "That's it! Consciousness also includes self-cognition, and self-cognition includes the original body form. When even the body has been changed, how can one ensure the normal continuation of consciousness!"

From this, Xia Duo also associated it with certain transmigration novels on Earth, where the protagonist immediately identifies with the identity of a native after soul-transmigration. If such a transmigration were real, it might truly be because consciousness is influenced by the body, thereby producing cognitive bias.

……

In the time that followed, Xia Duo did not check the Magic Energy Infection situation of new mutants, but instead dragged them out one by one to ask if they still possessed consciousness.

The result was as expected: he actually discovered a young Wood Elf who could still call for "Mama" amidst his muddled state!