72 Reverting To One's Roots

Xie Ling with one of his eyes replaced by a Blood Vission Eye Gu was experimenting on beasts. Unlike Gu that would instantly blow up in his face time and time again, these beasts although tricky to modify, would still yield results in some way or another.

Results from the Blue-Eared Bear were particularly fruitful, Xie Ling attributed this success to the fact that the only truly unique thing about the creature was its ears, making its body very similar to that of a bear back on earth.

Opening up a centrifuge, Xie Ling pulled out three unique vials. Two were invented by the lab and then improved upon by him while he was there, while the third one is his own new creation.

First, the Awakening Serum: Like cancer, it will find cells and infect them, first making them stronger before mutating them.

Second, the Buster Serum: Otherwise known as 'Weakened Awakening Serum'. While the two are similar, this one instead gives a higher success rate at the cost of only making cells that were dormant activate, as opposed to mutating them. Awakenings done using the Buster Serum, can't be magical, a.k.a manifesting something out of nothing. They also can't be spiritual, giving the host the capability to touch souls.

And third, the Flicker Serum: A parasitical liquid designed to target and kill mutated cells that are too volatile. the name 'Flicker Serum' comes from its unique characteristic of flickering every time it kills a cell.

This serum was only made possible by the blood and lightning path material known as 'Flickering Bloody Eye'. This rare material is made when lightning strikes a blood path beast directly in one of its irises. While not a difficult resource to make, one wouldn't find it on the market, on account of blood path being ostracized.

Pulling out a Human Blood Heart Gu from his aperture, Xie Ling walked over to his microscope.

The lab's doors slid open Shang Yan Fei crossed the threshold, bearing a crate filled with human hearts. Behind him trailed a few slaves, their eyes cast downward in deference. The laboratory exuded an aura of pristine purity, its walls purged of any hint of impurity and its floor gleaming like a polished mirror. Casting his gaze upon the grotesquely disfigured forms of slumbering beasts encased within large glass tubes, he queried, "I don't hear any explosions today, either you've finally given up with your weird experiments or you've finally succeeded?"

With a careful hand, Xie Ling delicately placed a droplet of beast's blood into each of the three sterile Petri dishes before uncorking the Buster Serum. His eyes carefully watched the liquid in the vial as he replied, "I've finished making all of the equipment necessary to start genetically modifying beasts on mass. With this making a full set of transformation path Gu will only be a matter of time."

Sliding the box of hearts on the table before taking a closer look at one of the glass tubes, Shang Yan Fei posed another question, "Wouldn't modifying the beast make the recipe for it no longer work?"

Before answering, Xie Ling poured varying amounts of the Buster Serum into individual Petri dishes, "True... However, according to my calculations, this has a much higher chance of success than changing the Gu after refinement. Furthermore, unlike the past process of trying to change Gu through trial and error by myself. With this method all I have to do is make the beasts, and refinement path gu masters can then go through the trial and error themselves, allowing for much more efficiency."

The blood within the Petri dishes commenced expanding at an observable rate, measuring 1.6, 1.9, and 2.5 units per second, respectively, with each expansion ceasing after precisely 5 seconds.

With great care, Xie Ling positioned the dishes beneath a microscope, carefully analyzing their volatile nature. Employing the Blood Vision Eye Gu, he could even see their DNA structure.

As Xie Ling immersed himself in the analysis, a series of alphanumeric codes left his lips. "ATTATTGCGAC... a 23 percent activation of dormant genes, accompanied by a 42 percent reduction in plasma and a 39-electron increase," he ruminated, his head shaking slightly in response.

"ATTATTGCGCA... a 34 percent activation, 61 percent reduction, 77 electrons."

"ATTATTGCGCB... a 59 percent activation, 100 percent reduction, 120 electrons. Status: dead."

Upon scrutinizing the gathered data, he deduced, "An average increase of 13 percent compared to the previous test. Magnetizing the Blue-Eared Bear's blood with alpha particles and altering its diet from sheep meat to Blue Trout seems to have yielded better results. However, the reduction in plasma is excessively severe. Nevertheless, the increase in electron count proves to be a favorable outcome. I wonder if I could counterbalance the plasma reduction with the use of a Blood Path Gu."

Shang Yan Fei, taking notice of Xie Ling's state of heavy concentration, decided it best to refrain from interrupting him. Before departing, he mentally noted, "A Bamboo Snake with three tungs. A Blaze Rabbit boasting razor-sharp teeth. And a Red Scaled Fish adorned with blue scales. It appears he might have even more blood path attainment than myself."