Chapter 205: The Experiment

A group of people exited the stone cave and returned to the canyon.

Feeling the cold, dark Qi within the valley, Xu Chen felt a sense of emotion.

Compared to the sunless black fog outside, the aura emitted by the old Witch Master in the cave was truly terrifying.

This was the third most terrifying aura he had felt since he began cultivating immortality.

The first was that Ancient Fierce Beast, the second was the phantom of a giant beast he caught a fleeting glimpse of in the Underworld River, and the third was this old Witch Master who had been slumbering for countless years.

Compared to the peaceful Spirit Qi of Chixia Zhenjun, a powerhouse like the old Witch Master, whose intelligence was nearly extinguished and who was transforming into a Nether Beast, seemed even more frightening.

Returning to the hall where the Feng Clan members lived, Xu Chen followed the Elder and a group of people to the cave where ordinary clansmen were previously resting.

After all the stone chambers were opened, Xu Chen used his aura to sense and select a warrior whose state was similar to that of the old Witch Master.

This was a middle-aged man with a tall build, but after long-term slumber, eroded by Nether Qi and Blood Poison, his skin had also begun to blacken, his whole body withered like a dried corpse, and the red patterns on his body looked like a strange human skin draped over a skeleton, appearing very ghastly.

According to the consensus of all the Feng Clan people, those who had slumbered to this extent were effectively the same as dead.

Yet they could not simply be thrown out or buried outside.

Because they were not yet completely dead, and with the abundant Nether Qi outside eroding them year-round, they might revive as a Nether Beast devoid of humanity and intelligence, ultimately adding a powerful enemy to the human race.

Such occurrences could be said to be endless in the Minghuang region; even now, many such humanoid Nether Beasts, known as the Shihun Clan, still lived within Minghuang.

You might say these people lack intelligence, yet they do not slaughter each other and can even gather together to live.

But you might say they have intelligence, yet they are incomparably hostile toward humans and have almost no humanity at all.

Of course, the Shihun Clan also kills Nether Beasts, but this behavior is not their intention; rather, it is like an instinct or even a curse from an ancient heritage, said to be the power of the only ancestor's dying instructions that have not yet completely disappeared, causing them to be enemies with the Nether Beasts.

This was information Xu Chen obtained during his exchange with the Elder.

It shocked him greatly.

According to an ancient legend that even the Elder himself was not very clear about, after the human race withdrew from Minghuang, the human powerhouses who remained behind integrated a power of rules into the ancestral teachings; anyone who understood the content of the ancestral teachings would have some Ancient Rune marks that could never be erased branded deep within their bloodline.

This Ancient Rune mark not only helped humans resist the erosion of Nether Qi but also assisted humans in battle, while simultaneously allowing the ancestral teachings to be passed down from generation to generation.

However, as the erosion of Nether Qi became more severe and the time of human reproduction and inheritance grew longer, the power of the ancestral teachings in the bloodline became weaker and weaker; now, even if people could recite the ancestral teachings backward, they could no longer feel the slightest aura of runes or rules.

Even so, it is said that the power of the dying instructions left by the ancestors still exists, hidden within the bloodlines of all humans.

This is what causes the Shihun Clan to still fight endlessly with the Nether Beasts.

With the theories about the Shihun Clan flashing through his mind, Xu Chen looked at the Feng Clan man before him, who had been almost completely eroded by Blood Poison and Nether Qi to the point of near-extinction, and took out a Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill.

"Elder, I am going to begin, but I cannot guarantee he will survive!" Xu Chen reminded him via voice transmission.

"Just try, do not worry about whether he lives or dies!" The Elder nodded solemnly.

Thus, Xu Chen stuffed the Spirit Pill into the mouth of the middle-aged man, who looked like a skeleton, then used half a bowl of water to help him swallow it, gently pressed his fingers on the man's chest, and slightly infused a trace of Yuan Qi into his stomach to help refine the medicinal pill.

Because he had slumbered for too long, the man's body had been riddled with holes by the Blood Poison; not to mention his stomach, in reality, his flesh and blood had almost completely disappeared.

However, because his life aura had not yet vanished, his bodily functions were still operating; perhaps it would take several days for his heart to beat once, pumping the nearly viscous and congealed blood slowly through his body.

As his Divine Sense circulated within the man's body along with the Yuan Qi, although the speed was very slow, Xu Chen eventually managed to see the existence of the internal organs and Meridians, then used Yuan Qi to refine the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill, pushing the Spirit Qi and the faint white energy within the Soul-Entering Pill into the internal organs.

Spirit Qi represents essence, energy, and spirit, while white energy represents vitality.

If it were a cultivator from the Mortal World, both of these things would be excellent items, capable of continuously strengthening the Three Souls and Seven Souls, as well as the tendons, bones, flesh, and blood.

But the Feng Clan had lived in the Underworld for countless years, and their Soul and physical constitution had long since undergone drastic changes; therefore, for the Feng Clan, these two things were almost like poison. As the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill was refined and sent into the internal organs, under Xu Chen's Divine Sense observation, these blackened and withered organs were actually collapsing at a terrifying speed, and even under the erosion of the white energy, they were constantly exploding violently.

Although Xu Chen remained motionless, to the Elder and the group of Feng Clan onlookers, the man lying in the stone chamber was trembling violently, and black Qi and black water began to gush out from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, even mixed with fragments of internal organs.

Everyone remained silent, all very nervous.

This situation was certainly not a good thing.

However, everyone also knew that this was an experiment by Xu Chen, and no one cared about the life or death of this tribal warrior who had been asleep for at least three generations.

As long as this experiment succeeded, then there would be a chance to save the old Witch Master.

As the refining of the pill continued, the range of the Spirit Qi and white energy expanded, and the situation inside the middle-aged man's body became increasingly dire; his internal organs were collapsing over large areas, and even the remaining tendons, bones, flesh, and blood began to rot rapidly. Strands of black Qi were emitted from the man's body, and large patches of skin began to crack, peeling off like rotten waste paper.

There was a violent commotion among the onlookers.

A look of ugliness also appeared on the Elder's face.

At this point, it could almost be judged that Xu Chen had failed.

However, Xu Chen had no intention of giving up at all.

Because there were only a dozen or so Feng Clan members currently still in slumber, even if they were all used as test subjects for him, he only had a dozen or so chances; therefore, every experiment was a rare opportunity for him, and even if he failed, he had to find the reason for the failure.

Before starting, he had actually repeatedly pondered the edge-case scenarios after taking the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill in his heart, and the situation before him was actually within his expectations.

Because he had already used white energy to finish off two powerful Nether Beasts, these humans living in the Underworld must have accumulated a large amount of Nether Qi, so it was inevitable that a destructive process similar to burning would occur.

But the Feng Clan were, after all, human; their physical flesh, blood, and Soul were still very similar to humans, so even if an accident occurred, as long as the destructive contact process between the Nether Qi and the white energy was controlled, once the white energy eventually gained the upper hand, it could stimulate the normal flesh and blood to regrow, and a complete rebirth might eventually occur.

It was just that the bodily functions of these Feng Clan members who had slumbered for too long were already close to death, and the remaining vitality and flesh were too little; therefore, they could not withstand the strong impact of the white energy. He could only slowly feel the changes of the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill within the body and then find a suitable method to resolve it to reach a state that stimulated the flesh and blood to regrow.

Time passed breath by breath; the body of the middle-aged man, like a dried corpse, had already rotted like a putrid body, his body constantly collapsing and caving in amidst the surging black Qi, and the bones that had been blackened by the erosion of Nether Qi were exposed.

And at this moment, the aura of the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill had been completely refined and began to invade his skull.

Seemingly sensing the approach of death, the last trace of vitality remaining in the man actually struggled; the entire body convulsed crazily a few times, and a pair of sunken eyes actually opened, but what was revealed were two pitch-black and withered eyeballs.

Xu Chen knew this was the final key to whether this experiment would succeed or not, so he pushed his Yuan Qi violently, forcing a trace of white energy into the pitch-black, chaotic Sea of Consciousness. Under his powerful Divine Sense perception, he could feel a faint white light, like a bean-sized lamp, hidden within the boundless darkness, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

Based on the situation of saving Lan You last time, he knew this was the last trace of the Feng Clan man's Soul aura.

Once this bit of white light dissipated, even a True Immortal could not save him.

However, when this wisp of white energy merged in, the faint white light actually became much brighter, and Xu Chen could instantly feel that the man's Soul aura had grown significantly stronger; even in the eyes of the man who had suddenly sat up, there seemed to be a glimmer of hazy light for an instant.

But even so, the speed at which the man's body was collapsing had not diminished.

Now the white energy of the Spirit Pill had been almost completely consumed, and the body had entered an almost irreversible state, rapidly decaying over a large area.

"Treat a dead horse as a living horse!"

Xu Chen muttered to himself, simply using his Divine Sense to draw a wisp of white energy directly from the Blue Light Treasure Bottle at the mouth of his Sea of Consciousness into the man's Sea of Consciousness, forcibly using the white energy to continuously strengthen his Soul, trying his best to ensure his consciousness would not be extinguished, and additionally guiding the white energy into his internal organs to stimulate the remaining flesh and blood to regain vitality.

Under the intrusion and stimulation of a large amount of white energy, the man's body completely collapsed; the body eroded by the Nether Qi could no longer maintain its original form, bursting open with constant popping sounds, and the black fog rolled and splashed out colorful halos, looking both terrifying and beautiful.

Everyone was stunned and dumbfounded by the sudden change occurring in the man's body.

They exclaimed in alarm and retreated one after another.

Xu Chen had no time to concern himself with the emotions of the Wind Clan members; instead, he focused all his attention on wrapping the man completely in his Divine Sense, carefully sensing every change.

Slowly, a trace of pleasant surprise appeared on his face.

Within his powerful Divine Sense perception, the man's internal organs, which had almost disintegrated to the point of only having a few meridians left, were actually beginning to squirm under the nourishment of the white Qi, developing fresh fascia, and subsequently slowly accumulating flesh and blood.

However, although these newly grown fascia and flesh tissues looked very similar to those of a normal person, they were extremely strange, actually bearing wisps and strands of blood-colored patterns.

(End of this chapter)