Chapter 38: Creating an Immortal
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Restricting a person’s actions was simple enough, but restricting their instincts was far more difficult. Even if only the smallest crack appeared, collapse would follow as naturally as breathing.
In the Southern Region, inside the hidden fortress.
Meng Fan watched the Holy Gu Child devour an entire bowl of noodles with her bare hands, wolfing them down without restraint. He could not help falling into thought.
Next, they would simply need to treat the Gu poison within the child while rebuilding her understanding of the world as an ordinary human being. If they could accomplish both, the child’s problems would be perfectly resolved.
But could things truly unfold as they had imagined?
Whatever happened, Liao Zhong remained firmly convinced that they could.
Everyone watched as the child learned to recognize words through pictures, practiced speaking, and gradually accepted all manner of unfamiliar things. The speed of her progress astonished them all.
“What an incredible capacity for learning!” Liao Zhong exclaimed sincerely.
One of the researchers under him added, “Her physical abilities and intelligence are both extraordinary. Judging from what we know now, all forty-nine of the children selected back then were exceptional candidates.”
“What a pity that the priest responsible for selecting the targets committed suicide. In my opinion, the method used to choose those people was the greatest secret of the Medicine Immortal Association.”
“Thanks to this child, we’ve learned the true nature of Gu arts. However, the conclusion reached by the research team is not encouraging.”
“As long as the child’s internal organs continue functioning, the Gu poison will continue to be produced.”
Liao Zhong clenched the cigarette case in his hand, revealing the turmoil within him. “There’s no other way?”
“None.”
“Either we remove her internal organs, or we stop the flow of qi. At our current level, we have no way to cure the child.”
Upon hearing this, Liao Zhong’s brows drew tightly together. He could not even tell what he was feeling anymore.
Meng Fan walked over, glanced at Liao Zhong, and said, “Uncle Liao, it seems the people under you aren’t very useful. They’ve spent half a day and come up with nothing more than this conclusion.”
“Didn’t I say so from the very beginning?”
“The Holy Gu Child is already inseparable from the Gu within her. How difficult would it be to separate them?”
Hearing the mockery in Meng Fan’s words, Liao Zhong immediately seized him by the ear.
“You think you’re so capable, do you?”
“Ow, ow, that hurts!”
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“Let go! Let go!”
Liao Zhong released Meng Fan’s ear with an exasperated snort and said bluntly, “All right, boy. Speak.”
“Speak about what?” Meng Fan asked, pretending to be puzzled.
“Hmph. Do you think I don’t know your temperament? I watched you grow up. You must have a solution. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come here looking for me.”
Meng Fan rubbed his ear and gave him a thumbs-up. “As expected of Uncle Liao. No one understands me better than you.”
Then Meng Fan gazed deeply at the Holy Gu Child and said, “Since they cannot be separated, why separate them at all?”
“Not separate them?” Liao Zhong asked, bewildered.
Meng Fan nodded. “The Gu is already a part of the Holy Gu Child. In other words, the Gu and the human body form a single whole, a circular system. The problem is that this system is incomplete, much like the imbalance between yin and yang in Daoist theory. That is why one side is weak while the other is strong, creating a state of incompatibility.”
“From the perspective of a beast master, a living creature is a complete and perfected whole, the product of countless years of natural selection and evolution.”
“But the Holy Gu Child is an artificial creation. It is clearly imperfect—or perhaps the product of an excessively violent evolution. The human body is simply too fragile, while the Gu insects are too dominant.”
“In my view, if we could strengthen the human body until it reached a certain level, perhaps a perfect Holy Gu Child would emerge.”
“The body nurturing countless Gu, and countless poisons nurturing the body!”
“And if the flesh could stand against the Gu, would that not, in a sense, make it immune to every poison, beyond defilement and purity alike?”
“At that point, it might be more fitting to call such a body an immortal body. The Holy Gu Child would thereby advance into an Immortal Gu Child!”
“Ascending to immortality through the Gu path!”
Liao Zhong was not captivated by the beautiful future Meng Fan had painted. Instead, he stroked his chin and thought it over.
“Strengthen the human body?”
“No, that seems unlikely. As you said, the Gu and the Holy Gu Child are one. If the human body and its life force were strengthened, the innate primordial qi would inevitably grow stronger as well. Wouldn’t the Gu within her body then become even stronger?”
“Uncle Liao, I never knew you could actually think things through,” Meng Fan said in exaggerated astonishment.
Smack!
Liao Zhong slapped him on the back of the head.
“I have always used my brain, you little brat!”
Even the people under Liao Zhong shook their heads, clearly disagreeing with him.
“Uncle Liao, don’t be so impatient, all right?”
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“Let me finish!”
“All things bear yin and embrace yang, blending their vital energies into harmony. Since the Gu is stronger, we must weaken it. And to weaken something as mutated as the Gu, we must use something even more powerful.”
“Something more powerful than the Gu inside the Holy Gu Child?”
Liao Zhong stared blankly for a moment. For a time, he could not imagine what could possibly be stronger than the child’s original Gu.
“A Gu King!”
Meng Fan slowly uttered the two words.
“Among living creatures, there will inevitably be stronger individuals who dominate others of the same kind. Ultimately, Gu creatures are living beings as well.”
“A powerful Gu can cow a weaker Gu. That is simply one of the instincts of life!”
“Easy for you to say. Where am I supposed to find a Gu King stronger than the one inside the Holy Gu Child?” Liao Zhong asked worriedly.
“You don’t need to find one. It’s far away in the heavens yet right before your eyes. I already have one. Have you forgotten my little frog, Life-Extender?” Meng Fan reminded him.
As he spoke, Meng Fan took it out and held it in his palm.
“Life-Extender was born in a naturally formed Gu-breeding terrain. It is a marvelous species shaped by countless years of evolution, and it already possesses the nature of a Gu insect.”
“If we have it continuously consume the Gu creatures produced by the Holy Gu Child, accelerating the speed of its evolutionary mutation, and then combine that with innate primordial qi, it would be equivalent to refining it as a Gu creature.”
“Given enough time, we could obtain a Gu King capable of restraining the Holy Gu Child!”
“It would be like the relationship between predator and prey. Life-Extender would suppress the original Gu within the Holy Gu Child. With the Gu King’s assistance, the child could use it to further interfere with, even subdue, the Gu within her body and bring it under unified control.”
“Ideally, we would make it enter a state of dormancy.”
“Once the Gu within the child’s body became obedient, the next step would be to strengthen her body!”
“During the strengthening process, her original internal organs would first have to be repaired, then enhanced until they could contain the Gu insects. In short, it would be a transformation of life itself, granting her certain characteristics of insects. The Gu would then become her nourishment, while she would nurture herself into a Gu King.”
“And this step,” Meng Fan declared, “I call the Creation of Immortals!”
The foundation on which Meng Fan intended to create an immortal was none other than the Beast-Gathering Method!
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