Chapter 475
Chapter 475
He had arrived. The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, returned to the capital, carrying the body of Gou Duhuan. Inside the cellar, Gou Duhuan's body lay motionless on a table that resembled an operating slab. The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, said,
“There’s no breath, no heartbeat, yet the body hasn't decomposed. It's a most strange and unusual affair.”
Shen Lang observed him closely. Gou Duhuan had first been poisoned, with a potent toxin that spread through the blood. Shen Lang inserted a silver needle into Gou Duhuan's body, drew a small amount of blood, and mixed it with water.
“Bring a live animal.”
A moment later, a very large deer was brought in, and Shen Lang fed it the water. It took only two sips. A few seconds later, the deer collapsed, bleeding from its nose and mouth, and died. It was a virulent poison indeed. To think such a small amount could kill a deer weighing several dozen pounds. And yet, Gou Duhuan had drained an entire flask of that same poison.
Shen Lang then examined the sword wound on Gou Duhuan's chest. The wound was located precisely where the heart should have been. Tuo Su'an had been ruthless and decisive, plunging her sword directly into his heart's position in a strike meant to ensure his death. But Gou Duhuan's heart was not in the same place as an ordinary person's. Furthermore, this was not a congenital condition; a special reason had caused the positions of his internal organs to shift. His twisted face, of course, was due to the same reason.
The moment Shen Lang removed Gou Duhuan's mask, he winced at the grotesque face and instinctively recoiled. His face was more terrifying than if it had been corroded by sulfur. It wasn't just scarred by severe burns; his features were completely contorted, clustered to one side. Shen Lang knew that Gou Duhuan was Tuo Yizhen, and that after winning the martial examination at eighteen, his body had undergone a drastic transformation, leading him to be sent to the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion for treatment. Because of his exceptionally gifted bloodline, Gou Duhuan had become a nominal disciple of the Left Faction's Pavilion Master.
The radical changes in his body were entirely due to his bloodline. The Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion had nearly cured him, but he left to avenge the Tuo Clan, which resulted in his current monstrous appearance. For the past few years, he had not been living for himself, but for the Tuo Clan, for that vicious woman, Tuo Su'an. It just goes to show that a man who gives his all for a woman doesn't always meet a good end.
Gou Duhuan was not the only one to suffer such a drastic physical change; the beggars brought by Madman Lan had also developed strange transformations due to their bloodlines. Their features were distorted, their bodies bent, their limbs twisted, making them appear crippled.
“Young Master, is this Gou Duhuan?”
Mu Yeol asked. Shen Lang replied,
“Yes. Do you admire him as well?”
“I do!”
Whether as Tuo Yizhen or Gou Duhuan, he had countless admirers. Whether winning the martial examination or making his name as a great bandit, Gou Duhuan had reached the pinnacle in every field he pursued. Throughout the State of Yue and the southern regions of the Great Yan Dynasty, he had already become a legend.
“Young Master, is he dead?”
“I don’t know.”
Even Shen Lang couldn't be certain if Gou Duhuan was truly dead. If he wasn't dead, how could one explain the absence of breath and a heartbeat? But to say he was dead was also difficult, as Shen Lang's X-ray vision detected faint energy fluctuations within his body. Generally, true death is considered brain death. When the blood fails to supply enough oxygen to the brain, brain death occurs. This is because the brain requires a constant, massive supply of energy.
Gou Duhuan had been without breath or a heartbeat for several days; under normal circumstances, he should have been brain-dead long ago. However, a very special energy in his blood was still supplying the bare minimum of energy to his brain, allowing it to survive. So, in a way, Gou Duhuan was not dead. Gou Duhuan's bloodline was extraordinary, only slightly inferior to that of Big Dummy, if a comparison had to be made. That was the reason he had been able to win the martial examination at eighteen. If he hadn't wasted the past few years on Tuo Su'an and had remained at the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion, his martial arts would have become even more formidable. It was then that Shen Lang was reminded that this world felt like a fantasy realm.
“Can you save him?”
Hearing Li Qianqiu's question, Mu Yeol excused herself from the room. She believed there were some secrets it was better for her not to know.
“Sword King, Senior, I cannot be certain either.”
Shen Lang had been working on this experiment for nearly half a year. Initially, he had used the energy from Big Dummy's golden bloodline to save the Divine Maiden, Xue Yin. But he later discovered that the mystical parasites from Fudao Mountain within Xue Yin's body would mysteriously and ceaselessly devour the energy of Big Dummy's golden bloodline. Moreover, after consuming the golden bloodline energy, these parasites would continuously secrete a new bloodline energy. It was a tier below Big Dummy's golden bloodline, but in terms of quantity, they produced more than ten times what they had originally consumed.
How powerful and magnificent was Big Dummy's golden bloodline? Even a bloodline energy several tiers below it was still incredibly astonishing. But this miracle was only the beginning. After consuming Big Dummy's golden bloodline energy, the mystical parasites from Fudao Mountain entered a frenzied, explosive phase, constantly breeding and dividing, their numbers growing more and more numerous. Shen Lang had now cultivated them to the tenth generation.
Originally, the tenth-generation parasites still secreted a neurotoxin, but by a stroke of sheer luck, Shen Lang had the opportunity to experiment with the parasites in the Sword King's wife's blood. After being poisoned by her adopted daughter, Xue Xue, the Sword King's wife had lost all reason and transformed into a terrifying, toad-like creature. Shen Lang's investigation revealed she had been poisoned by a different type of parasite. Shen Lang mixed the different types of parasites. He had thought that different species couldn't crossbreed, but to his astonishment, the experiment succeeded.
The new species of parasite that resulted was completely non-toxic. It had neither the neurotoxin from Xue Yin's parasites nor the toxin from the Sword King's wife's. The new parasites produced only one kind of energy within their bodies—that of Big Dummy's golden bloodline—and they continued to breed and divide endlessly. As long as there was enough blood and energy, they would continue to multiply and divide indefinitely. It was a terrifying prospect. It meant that bloodlines could be modified. Since the new parasites lacked any neurotoxin, simply injecting them into a body would cause them to continuously consume the host's blood energy and emit new energy. And the blood energy they emitted, though several tiers lower than Big Dummy's golden bloodline, would still be formidable.
Overjoyed, Shen Lang brought in several death row inmates for experiments, but the results were disastrous. Their bodies simply could not handle the energy of Big Dummy's golden bloodline. After the parasites entered their bodies, they were drained of energy until they withered and then promptly exploded. Whether he experimented on death row inmates or animals, none could survive for even a quarter of an hour. This proved that bloodline modification required an incredibly strong body; an ordinary person's physique simply couldn't withstand it. Of course, injecting a minuscule amount of the parasites did make the subjects stronger and extended their survival time, but they still couldn't last more than half a month. That was why Shen Lang had said his experiment was only 99.99% successful.
However, the ten beggars brought by Madman Lan already possessed astonishing bloodline energy within their bodies. They had become war refugees before they had a chance to grow strong, left to wander with no one to rely on. The oldest among them was about thirty, which meant that when they became refugees, they couldn't have been more than ten years old. They were unlucky not to have been taken in by a powerful noble family, so their bloodlines were never properly guided or their power unleashed in time. Over a long period, the potent energy within them failed to activate and had no outlet, causing their bodies to become horribly twisted, as if crippled.
Consequently, they were the perfect test subjects for Shen Lang. This was because they already possessed an incredibly powerful bloodline energy, and Shen Lang's modified parasites, carrying the golden bloodline energy, could activate it. And they wouldn't be drained of all their energy until they became mummified husks, nor would they die a violent death.
Nevertheless, Shen Lang couldn't bring himself to experiment on them, to modify or activate their bloodlines. But Gou Duhuan, being as good as dead, was the perfect test subject. If Shen Lang's golden bloodline parasites could save Gou Duhuan, it would prove that the fate of the ten beggars could also be saved, and the bloodline energy within them could be activated.
“Gou Duhuan, the final moment of this experiment to activate and modify a bloodline—the last 0.01%—I leave to you. If it succeeds, you will live. If it fails, you will die!”
Shen Lang took a deep breath and took out a syringe. Inside it was about three milliliters of a pale yellow liquid, densely packed with an innumerable amount of golden bloodline parasites—well over a hundred million. The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, was also extremely tense. Because if Shen Lang could save Gou Duhuan, it meant he could also cure his own wife.
“Though I am eighty percent certain, the rest is up to fate!”
Shen Lang said with a smile, then unhesitatingly inserted the syringe into Gou Duhuan's blood vessel and injected the three milliliters of golden bloodline parasites into his body. Two minutes later, the injection was complete. The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, watched the scene and asked Shen Lang,
“Is that all?”
“Yes!”
The two men held their breath, staring intently at Gou Duhuan. They didn't even blink, afraid to miss a single moment. But several long minutes passed, and Gou Duhuan remained motionless, still with no breath or heartbeat. The Sword King, Li Qianqiu's, heart sank deeper and deeper.
‘Could it have failed? It must not fail.’
Shen Lang's expression grew increasingly grim and solemn. The Sword King, Li Qianqiu, spoke up.
“Shen Lang, there’s no need to rush. The results won't appear so quickly. I think it would be best to wait until tomorrow. It will likely succeed. Shouldn't we at least give it a few hours to see a reaction?”
Li Qianqiu was growing more despondent, sensing failure, but he kept muttering to comfort himself. Shen Lang, too, felt his heart race with anxiety. Through his X-ray vision, he could see that after entering Gou Duhuan's body, the golden energy parasites had instantly entered a state of frantic excitement. In the blink of an eye, the parasites spread throughout the body, devouring energy and emitting new energy. Hundreds of millions of golden parasites charged rampantly through Gou Duhuan's body, filling every corner of his being in a very short time. But Gou Duhuan still wasn't breathing, and his heart wasn't beating.
‘What’s happening? Did the experiment fail? It absolutely cannot fail! I was eighty, ninety percent sure it would succeed, so why did it fail?’
If the experiment failed, not only would he fail to save Gou Duhuan and lose a great general, but all his future plans would be ruined, and he would have to restart countless experiments. But there wasn't enough time for that. If he let this chance slip by, he didn't know when he might get another to perform such a miracle. But just then!
*Thump, thump, thump.*
The sound of a rapidly beating heart began to echo. Gou Duhuan's heart had suddenly begun to beat violently.
That's right! He was finally alive.