Chapter 4166: Directed Mutation

Viga shook her head, denying Megan's conjecture:

"Xia De just went to see Granny Cassandra and borrowed that nun statue relic capable of testing bloodlines. Eve is still currently determined to be a pure-blooded human."

Megan nodded. After casting a spell, she used her finger to tap the outer wall of the glass vessel containing the heart, then listened carefully to the vibrations:

"The three gears are made of an alloy. This complex alloy can coexist with flesh and blood and must possess excellent corrosion resistance and biological adaptability. If the formula for this material could be obtained, it would be another major discovery in the field of alchemy."

The wise Great Witch was clearly very interested in this matter:

"Although my ancestor's research mentioned fusing machinery with flesh and blood, because flesh and machinery are ultimately different, the ancestor's research in this direction was not very deep."

"Viga, this future apprentice you prepared for me has truly given me a big surprise. I'm not leaving today; I want to borrow the laboratory in your palace to dissect this heart. Even if I don't know how it was formed, at least I must figure out how the gears function together with the flesh."

Viga nodded:

"No problem, do whatever you like. However, this is Eve's heart after all; you cannot take the sample away."

"Why would I take them away? Well then, Xia De, I'm going underground first. Call me anytime if there's anything."

As Megan said this, she picked up the jar and followed Viga's maid to the mansion's underground laboratory.

Princess Lei Qianya continued to express her own views:

"There are no whisper elements, which means this has nothing to do with relics. But Luweiya's divination results said the gears grew out directly; this can't be a natural phenomenon, right?"

She was very puzzled:

"Or perhaps, is this some kind of unknown infectious disease with supernatural power?"

Luweiya continued to shuffle the cards on the coffee table, wanting to perform another divination, while a worried expression appeared on Dorothy's face:

"Xia De, when you were in Tobesk this morning, you saw... at the location of my niece's heart..."

"After we go back tonight, let's go see her."

Xia De nodded and said.

Miss Luo Lin only rushed back with information at seven in the evening. Seeing the document bag with the church seal in her hand, Viga knew the information had been successfully obtained. But she didn't reach out, letting Xia De check it instead.

Xia De moved Little Mia from his lap to the sofa, pulled the materials out of the document bag, and read them quickly. Even he couldn't help but be surprised:

"It can be like this? Directed mutation?"

"What's wrong?"

"Strictly speaking, this really is a natural phenomenon. But the Creation Sect suspects that the emergence of this so-called 'natural phenomenon' is related to the 'Construct Master' and their group. Although the defectors took almost all the data, the church isn't without ways to reconstruct their past research reports."

Xia De handed those materials to Luweiya and explained simply to the young ladies:

"The 'Construct Master' and his group pursue human mechanization, believing that flesh and blood are ultimately not as powerful as metal. This mechanization can be carried out through human alchemy, such as Mr. Sari Pirot, the 13th-ring 'Steel Right Hand' stationed in Tobesk. His right hand suffered conceptual damage in his early years, but after undergoing surgery to transplant a steel prosthetic limb bestowed by an ancient god, that right hand is almost indistinguishable from a normal arm."

"But using human alchemy to mechanize the human body can't be considered creating a new race; it can only be considered human modification, far from opening up a new evolutionary direction for humanity. And now, the church's defectors seem to have found a way to permanently influence the growth direction of flesh-and-blood life—no, not all flesh-and-blood life; currently, it is only humans, and a very small number of people with aptitude can naturally grow mechanical structures within their bodies."

Luweiya also quickly finished browsing the document:

"If this mechanization tendency appears first in the brain or heart, it will cause serious consequences, but if it appears in other locations, the human body will adapt to this change after a period of abnormality and gradually mechanize the entire body. This can be considered a directed change in the mutation direction of flesh-and-blood life."

Viga couldn't believe it:

"How was this achieved? I mean, directly influencing the entire human race—is this also something mortals can achieve?"

Princess Lei Qianya thought of a possibility:

"Xia De said that the various forces currently holding the source of fire most likely each have a Chosen candidate. Among the church's defectors, there is likely a candidate as well; this might be related to the candidate's special talent."

Dorothy, also a Chosen, nodded: "Although it's exaggerated, this possibility indeed exists. However, no matter how amazing that talent is, influencing the entire human race is still not something mortals can easily achieve. The other party might possess high-level relics, special artifacts, or other things we can't imagine. It is the combination of the Chosen talent and those peculiar powers that led to this situation."

"We originally thought it was bad enough that those illegal ring-warlock organizations were active everywhere in the city; I didn't expect the church's defectors to have achieved such a major result."

Luweiya handed the materials in her hand to Viga:

"To prevent causing panic, the Creation Sect took the initiative to block the news. But the good news is that this phenomenon currently mainly appears in Arcadia and surrounding areas, and since the defectors left, the total number of cases has just exceeded 40, among which there are only 5 fatal cases like Miss McDonald."

"According to Xia De's method of directly digging out the mutated organ, it can completely stop the body from continuing to mutate. Miss McDonald was fine afterward."

Viga also lowered her head and flipped through those materials:

"This is another thing the church has caused; what exactly have they been hiding from everyone? And that 'Construct Master', he helped us at the 【Skin-Object Hall】; I originally had a good impression of him, but now it seems he is also an unreasonable person. Warm and soft flesh and blood are, of course, better than cold and boring steel; why can't they understand that?"

Dorothy asked:

"If this flesh-machine mutation is an epidemic targeting all of humanity, then how can it be prevented?"

"No need to worry about this; any miracle or spell capable of resisting flesh mutation can prevent this phenomenon from appearing on oneself. Because it requires a constant 24-hour effective effect, targeted amulets might be more convenient."

"There is no need for particularly high-level flesh-mutation resistance amulets; Old John definitely has stock."

Luweiya replied. Princess Lei Qianya breathed a sigh of relief, planning to find Old John to urgently customize one after returning and then give it to Ajelina.

Xia De then said:

"Next time I meet Mr. Gerald Delong, I will have a good talk with him about this matter. If they only want to use their own people for experiments, that has nothing to do with me; that is just a dispute over the path between them and the 【Creation Sect】. But now that they are suspected of involving all humans in the material world, I cannot watch them do this."

Because Xia De had the blessing of that 【Lord of Flesh Mutation】, he didn't have to worry about the low-probability event of flesh-machine mutation happening to himself. And Viga soon remembered that as Great Witches, they themselves were protected by Chaos Ancient Gods, and some basic resistance was already far beyond ordinary witches and ring-warlocks, so this kind of thing wouldn't happen to Great Witches either.

Dorothy and Princess Lei Qianya also didn't need to worry about this situation appearing on themselves. Besides their Chosen status, their multiple deep fusions with Grace and Helen had already made them influenced by the Red Butterfly sisters.

This influence could also be simply summarized as the "Red Butterfly Twin Blessing," which also included an increase in flesh-mutation resistance.

The doctor and priest in the group definitely had enough resistance, so Xia De suddenly realized that among the five in the group, it was Luweiya and Little Mia who needed to worry about their situation.

And Megan, who went to the underground laboratory to study that heart, also returned to the study at eight in the evening, but one could tell from her expression that her gains were not great:

"I believe it now; that heart was absolutely not made by external force. This is a purely natural product."

"Why?"

"Except for the great power of nature, I don't believe anyone else could create such... exquisite craftsmanship."

Megan had already washed her hands, and there was no smell from the laboratory on her:

"Very exquisite, the perfect fusion of flesh and machinery. Every beat of the heart drives the gears to rotate, and the rotation of those three gears promotes the heart's beating. The position, size, weight, and center of gravity of the three gears must perfectly match the heart to produce such an effect."

"I even believe that if the treatment method you chose wasn't a heart transplant, but letting her heart return to normal beating, perhaps after a few days, her body would perfectly adapt to that heart, and then... the heart would be completely mechanized, thereby driving the mechanization of the entire body."

"Look at this."

Viga handed the materials in her hand to her:

"We have been discussing the consequences this might cause, but Dorothy is right. Since this phenomenon has already appeared, it indirectly shows that the goal of 'creating a mechanical race' has very likely already been half-achieved."

"The 【Blood Spirit School】's new human technology is gradually changing, my mother's 'Perfect Child' is also being completed as I retrieve the various parts of my sister, and now the 'mechanical race' has appeared..."

She sighed, then coughed softly a few times.

Megan also quickly finished reading the materials in her hand:

"If this is the case, it explains it. Viga, some viewpoints in the book "Natural Alchemy: Evolution" that you gave me a few days ago can explain this phenomenon. This is a directed mutation that has been selected, but it was not born naturally; it was artificially induced."

"Current directed mutation can at most be considered as causing humans to have subspecies. If it can spread throughout the world, it doesn't need too many people to become a mechanical race; as long as a few hundred or a few thousand people complete the so-called 'thorough mutation' and prove that they can pass this directed mutation to the next generation, then the new race is considered to have been thoroughly born."