Chapter 950

The crow stared at the black surface of the alveoli, wrapped in fascia and dense, slime-like growths, and the indescribable feeling within him grew stronger.

He lightly touched it—the alveoli were filled with seawater, trembling slightly as if pulsing rhythmically.

In a daze, the black left and right lungs seemed to split open with countless bloody slits, like gills; the dense alveoli on the surface transformed into countless gill filaments, each crawling with egg-like alveoli.

The outer layer was deep red bordering on black, growing brighter red toward the interior…

The split lungs opened and closed like countless gill plates, driving the lungs’ faint rise and fall as they sucked and expelled bloody water.

“Pulmonary malformation!”

Hillin’s voice pulled the crow’s gaze away; the hallucination vanished instantly.

“According to anatomical knowledge, the left and right lungs should each have five lobes and three fissures; healthy lungs should be pink—but…”

Hillin frowned: “This corpse’s lungs are abnormally swollen, with extremely indistinct lobe differentiation, covered in abnormal tissue, and the alveoli filled with fluid.”

She cupped her hand lightly around the right lung: “It feels like a waterlogged sponge.”

A foreigner beside her suddenly asked in Camelotese: “The pulmonary effusion is abnormal! And when you cut through the skin, the subcutaneous fascia and fat showed irregular morphology—human subcutaneous fascia should be extremely thin, allowing skin mobility, but here it resembles powerful tendons.”

“His fat is dense, forming part of the subcutaneous fascia like a soft armor!”

“This resembles our dissections of certain Eastern martial artists, whose subcutaneous fascia had undergone mutation, developing folds and knots, allowing them to disperse force applied to the skin across the muscles.”

“But in this corpse, the fascial mutation is far more extreme—such powerful subcutaneous fascia implies the skin can move to a limited degree.”

“Movement?” Hillin repeated, then asked gravely: “Are you certain it’s movement, not just activity?”

“I am certain,” the foreigner nodded slightly. “It resembles the dissection I performed on the corpse of an ‘abnormal deity’ worshipped by natives on Crodo Island, and also resembles our dissection of a martial master from the Shaolin on the Eastern Continent.”

“When alive, this master tensed his mutated golden skin with fascial force—even soldiers’ bullets could only dent it, leaving small depressions.”

“He stormed onto a warship, wounding over a hundred elite soldiers; had his religious beliefs not forbidden killing, not a single soul aboard might have survived!”

“Goodman was merely a mixed-blood born in the New Continent, his father a lowly sailor, his mother a native prostitute—he had no extraordinary bloodline, nor any contact with transcendent power lineages.”

Jia Daoli took up the thread, gravely: “Except for that thing!”

“The North Star carried specimen No. 1, offered to the Eastern Emperor. We suspect Goodman’s death was linked to his contact with specimen No. 1!”

“That day’s bell seemed to stimulate specimen No. 1; that very night, Goodman died mysteriously! If specimen No. 1 truly caused Goodman’s sudden skin and pulmonary malformation, granting him transcendent power—should we still send specimen No. 1 to the Eastern capital?”

Drummond interrupted: “We have no authority to decide this. The Grand Council has already decided: deliver it to the East in exchange for our seven leased territories in the South.”

“To violate the agreement, the Grand Council must issue a new resolution—but by convention, such a decision requires at least three months. By now, specimen No. 1 has already reached the Eastern Emperor’s palace!”

Hillin stared at the lung now entirely covered in black fascia, frowning: “I feel the skin mutation is only a mild malformation.”

“But the lungs… the organ structure has undergone complete pathological transformation. The deep fascia on the alveolar surface seems to have penetrated inward, like…”

Her gaze shifted to the diaphragm beneath the lungs.

The diaphragm itself consists of muscle and discontinuous fascia, with muscular tissue merging with the intercostal fascia to cover the upper portion of the diaphragm.

The lower portion is covered by transverse fascia, an extension of the intrathoracic fascia.

Now, no diaphragm tissue could be seen—as if it had migrated upward, engulfing the entire lung and even penetrating deep within.

“Good heavens!” Hillin’s hand trembled slightly as she peeled away the fascia from the lung’s surface.

“It’s not the diaphragm’s contraction and release driving respiration—it’s the lung itself that moves. The fascial tissue has divided the lung internally into numerous ‘lobes.’ A normal human right lung has at most three lobes. But this mutated lung has over ten! Based on the fascial structure, I suspect it can open like gills—ten or more lobes unfolding!”

“This implies astonishing respiratory capacity—its alveoli may expand to incredible proportions; the open lobes provide space for expansion. When breathing, its chest swells like a frog’s!”

Hillin swiftly cut along the ribs; under the deep frowns of the Three Emperors’ Society, she sawed through the ribs.

“Its ribs are like a snake’s!”

“They can open to an extreme degree…”

“What purpose does this mutation serve?” Jia Daoli frowned. “Abandoning rib protection, exposing the fragile lungs to gain maximum respiration?”

“No, its lungs are not fragile!”

Hillin countered: “They’re covered in fascia; the alveoli are rubber-like. When expanded, this structure can withstand tremendous damage and impact. And expanded lungs allow it to remain underwater for hours like a whale. Given its size, I suspect it can dive deep and hold its breath for days.”

“This gill-like lung—I even suspect it can breathe underwater!”

“And such lungs regulate internal pressure… this form is inherently designed for the deep sea. Goodman has mutated into a Deep Dweller!”

The Chinese physician of the Three Emperors’ Society stared at the fully extended ribs, his face pale as he muttered: “Xuanming Snake Bones!”

Nearby, Sai Huatuo inserted a needle into the corpse’s Shanzhong point, piercing the fourth intercostal space and penetrating the lung.

Instantly, the clustered lobes unfurled completely, like gills wide open—over ten lung lobes spread like gill plates; black fluid oozed from the alveoli, calcified tissue forming a net-like web, clinging to alveoli and wrapping fascia, bronchi extending deep within.

Before them, the corpse’s lungs opened like countless fissures…

“Lord Lantern!” Jia Daoli whispered. “I’m looking at a living demon’s corpse.”

“The lung governs qi. Metal generates water—this is the True Kidney Water Lung, Hundred-Leaf Canopy, expanding and contracting at will.” The Chinese physician gravely said: “Bring the Five Viscera True Form Diagram!”

An apprentice ran over with a scroll; the physician unrolled it. There, too, were painted a pair of lungs—three lobes each, layered like a canopy, shaped like a turtle’s head, as if inhaling and exhaling.

“Demons… such mutation must be demonic!” Hu Physician also said gravely.

“The lung is the root of qi, governing ascent and descent. When ascending and dispersing, it spreads outward to the periphery, inward and downward it clears and descends. Lung qi ascending: first, expels turbid qi; second, transports fluids and fine essences from the spleen upward to the head and orifices; third, disseminates defensive qi to the skin and muscles, warming the flesh, filling the skin, nourishing the pores, regulating opening and closing.”

“Thus, lung qi must ascend and fill.”

“When lung qi descends, it inhales clear qi, blending it with food qi to form Zong qi, which flows downward to below the navel to nourish Yuan qi. Second, it sends fluids and fine essences from the spleen downward to moisten other organs. Third, it transports metabolic turbid fluids downward to the kidneys or bladder, forming the source of urine.”

“Thus, the True Form Diagram of the lung emphasizes three qi: Ying-Wei qi, food essence qi, and Yuan qi.”

“The True Form Diagram conceals the lung’s secret: like a canopy, it protects the five viscera, stores metal qi; like a turtle’s head, it generates, inhales, exhales, and nurtures longevity. In every inhalation and exhalation, Yuan qi ascends and descends naturally, driving changes throughout the body.”

The Chinese physician rolled up the Five Viscera True Form Diagram, stared grimly at the mutated lung before him, and said gravely: “But this lung is profoundly sinister.”

“It lacks ascent and descent—Yuan qi throughout the body must become chaotic, yet within chaos, order persists. When inhaling, it draws inward, expelling metabolic turbidity outward through pores as mucus, like a frog. When exhaling, it disseminates Gui Water qi to the skin and muscles; the ribs contract like a coiled snake.”

“In every inhalation and exhalation, snake coils and frog moves—utterly unlike the turtle form in the Five Viscera True Form Diagram!”

“It usurps the kidney’s function! This is not merely a lung—it is also a kidney, driving all bodily fluids and metabolizing food essence. Its kidneys must be severely atrophied, even the bladder regressed…”

The physician parted flesh and muscle—indeed, the two kidneys at their position were shriveled like beans.

The bladder below, though unopened, must be as he said—completely atrophied.

“The lung is the root of qi—but this lung is the root of fluid, governing Gui Water. Thus, this mutated demon must dwell long in water, even lurking deep underwater, more at ease than on land.”

From opposite perspectives, East and West reached the same conclusion.

“The Five Viscera’s Five Elements cycle, generating and overcoming, is the Dao. This lung, though powerful, usurps the kidney’s authority, reversing Metal to overcome Water—profoundly demonic, certainly not the True Path.”

“Such beings must possess the ability to hibernate and metamorphose, like snakes and frogs!”

“Their lungs mutate first. Had this man lived, his exterior would have gradually transformed, his lifespan extended. His skin secretes mucus, eyes bulge like a frog’s, nostrils are external orifices of the lung—so powerful that nostrils alone cannot suffice, hence gills develop…”

“His hands and feet have webbing!”

The Chinese physician, as he theorized, tested his claims on the corpse.

Indeed, when he lifted the eyelids, the eyeballs protruded noticeably; fissures appeared at the nape of the neck; the skin between his fingers was abnormally broad…