Chapter 596

To be honest, since joining Li Cheng, Daqun has never truly been repaired. Even during the London Campaign, the corner wound still leaked oil and tissue fluid.

Subsequent battles came one after another with almost no break; now, when called out, its skull is still open, its left and right chest plates temporarily welded together with steel plates, and a row of pink bandages stuck along the weld seams.

“I, and all the divine corruption hosts I have consumed and absorbed—my brothers and sisters—”

the mechanical Daqun rumbled, “have never seen the true form of the Worm Lord corruption.”

The essence of carbon-based memory lies in the arrangement and connection of neurons and neural pathways; when Daqun absorbed the corruption hosts, it also absorbed most of their memories.

Li Cheng mused: “So, within your knowledge, there are no eyewitness reports of the corruption’s true form—not even indirect contact records.”

“Any living thing that might have seen the Worm Lord’s true form was eaten by it.”

Huiyu imitated Li Cheng’s gesture, rubbing his chin and raising his hand: “Suppose a Worm Lord host encounters the Worm Lord’s true form—would it trigger something like a familiar’s instinctive fear of a vampire progenitor, freezing it at the genetic level?”

“Probably not.”

The mechanical Daqun paused, then said: “The infection and distortion effect of the Worm Lord corruption’s genes comes not just from biochemistry, but also significantly from conceptual sources.”

Among the brothers and sisters I have consumed, there were those with greater raw power and longer histories as hosts than I.”

Yet when they encountered each other, two entities with independent evolutionary paths experienced at most a vague, intuitive resonance—not suppression or fear.”

The true form of the corruption likely operates the same way—according to my guess and those of other hosts, the Worm Lord corruption may have replaced its bearers multiple times; whoever defeats and consumes the previous one automatically becomes the new Worm Lord.”

Our most primitive genetic code desires us to kill each other, compete, eliminate, and evolve.”

Li Cheng made no comment on Daqun’s speculation, but the fact that the corruption’s infection effect involves conceptual elements was indeed true.

“The contagion effect of homeopathy...”

He muttered thoughtfully, then noticed Huiyu’s curious gaze and added casually: “Homeopathy is a 18

th-century alternative medical system founded by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, centered on ‘like cures like’ plus dilution.”

For example, arsenic causes gastric spasms—so use arsenic to treat stomach illness. Take one part arsenic, add it to ninety-nine parts water, shake, randomly take one part of the solution, dilute again with water, shake, repeat thirty times. Then take one final dose.”

Huiyu counted on his fingers and exclaimed in disbelief: “Can this actually work?”

“Of course not.”

‘Like cures like’ is nonsense to begin with, and after thirty dilutions, the solution contains not a single active molecule of the drug.”

Today, this absurd homeopathic system is only believed by tens of millions of illiterates in the U.S. and India.”

Li Cheng shrugged: “Long ago, I ran a similar experiment using a Worm Lord corruption crystal—crushed it, diluted it repeatedly with water, then used the solvent to stimulate different types of biological cells and microorganisms.”

Theoretically, the repeatedly diluted solvent contained no crystal molecules, yet a significant portion of the microbial cultures still showed varying degrees of mutation.”

This proves the Worm Lord corruption’s infection effect carries at least a conceptual component.”

Huiyu scratched his head and admitted honestly: “Hard to understand.”

“It’s normal to find it hard—when you reach higher tiers of power, concepts, memes, and anti-memes come into play.”

Li Cheng said casually: “The good news is, the Worm Lord corruption’s genetic foundation, rooted in the material plane, can be killed—it’s not as ethereal as [Formless Conception] or some other corruptions.”

I saw on the forum that the Witch Alliance once allegedly discovered the Love Corruption—unseeable to the human eye or any scientific instrument, known only by the intense, inexplicable emotions it triggered wherever it appeared.”

Emotions between people, between people and objects, between people and abstract concepts—like nation, freedom, happiness, love.”

“Ohhh.”

Huiyu suddenly understood, pulled out his phone: “Something like this?”

The screen showed a short-video app: Felix Taylor, the anomaly taken in by the Special Affairs Bureau, was tearfully holding a permanent residency permit for China, filming himself: “I’m in China! I’m in China! So happy! Hahaha! For a moment, I felt unreal—I opened my eyes and I was in China! Hahaha! Look at this sky, so blue! Look at these clouds, so white!”

Felix walked down the streets of Baijing, speaking fluent Mandarin, his left wrist wearing a Special Affairs Bureau–designed wristband (likely sealing his anomaly ability), his right hand holding his daughter’s: “Dad, I bought a basket of seven steamed buns—the server gave me eight. Steamed buns are so delicious.”

The father-daughter duo’s daily life was heartwarmingly ordinary—they’d filmed dozens of short videos documenting their move to Earth, but their dialogue was utterly bizarre, constantly saying things like “Starbucks, bad! Mixue Bingcheng, good!”

“Taking a taxi in Baijing is so convenient—you’re at your door in seconds.”

“When I stepped off the plane and stood on this land, I immediately felt the air was sweet beyond measure.”

The video’s comment section was filled mostly with script-world BOSs taken in by the Special Affairs Bureau but still lacking Earth residency permits, or outright Loujie natives who never qualified to reach the real world, all envious of Felix and his daughter: “Congratulations on embracing civilization.”

“Evacuation successful. Welcome to shore.”

“QAQ, Laoxiang come back! Loujie just released another booster shot!”

“So what? What does this have to do with my 3,000-calorie meal?”

Li Cheng, who had seen it all, wiped sweat from his brow: “Cough, cough—Felix’s situation is still different from conceptual infection or meme contagion...”

The environment of the city where the Special Affairs Bureau is stationed is vastly superior to most script worlds and Loujie , and the Bureau’s moral fiber far exceeds that of other guilds. If Felix had fallen into the hands of the Evil Science Alliance, Prometheus, or others... the outcome is unthinkable.

The environment of the city where the Special Affairs Bureau is stationed is vastly superior to that of most script worlds and slum streets, and the Special Affairs Bureau’s moral standards are far higher than those of other guilds; if Felix fell into the hands of the Evil Science Alliance, Prometheus, or other guilds... the outcome is too terrible to imagine.

A respectful voice came through the comms channel. Li Cheng pulled out his phone, glanced at the map sent by the servitor: “Huh? You found the original location of that Republican-era mansion?”

The straight-line distance between the Republican-era mansion and the toy factory was about five hundred kilometers; accounting for terrain obstacles impassable by conventional transport, it was over three thousand kilometers.

Besides assigning servitors to pose as a film crew and deceive Ai Da and others, Li Cheng had earlier dispatched a portion of servitors with aerial vehicles and engineering equipment to locate the mansion—and they had just found it on a plain.

And the soil still contained considerable amounts of mold.

“Oh?” Li Cheng perked up. “Dig down three feet. Package everything—soil included. Don’t miss the trees at the entrance, the groundwater, the earthworms, the insects.”

This mold consistently produces evil spirits—worth studying. If it can be cultivated like mushrooms, we won’t lack ammunition for alchemical cannons.”

Turn it into... a Ghost Launcher?

Turned into... a demon launcher?