Speaking slowly, the village chief paused for a mont, then smiled bitterly, "From the current perspective, my ancestors were probably trying to wash away the negative effects of the Ghoul Bloodline by marrying outsiders, gradually turning the clan into normal humans.
Thus becoming closer to the holy and great Sacred Mountain.
According to common sense, this plan shouldn't have had any problems, but..."
Li Ang asked, "Did the plan go slightly off track?"
"That's right."
The village chief nodded and said, "Initially, the bloodthirsty impulse within the clan was indeed suppressed. The appearance of newborns was completely indistinguishable from normal humans; no more red eyes, sharp nails, or prominent veins characteristic of our kind.
Even if they don't eat flesh, only vegetarian food, there wouldn't be any issue.
However, as ti went on, during a generation when our village's population peaked, the bloodthirsty impulse engraved in our bloodline returned — by then, the village population was already too large, relying solely on hunting at the forest's edge or raising livestock couldn't satisfy the demand for at,
so we could only resort to so special ans..."
The village chief paused again, seemingly noticing the expressions on the players' faces, and quickly explained, "Rest assured, everyone, our ancestors had never attacked adventurers, nor have we ever maliciously hard any Hero Team.
When issuing trials, we only occasionally requested Hero Teams to bring back demon corpses from the Underground Palace,
or, uh, when adventurers died, we would bury them in the village cetery under the guise of a special Holy Mountain burial ritual - in reality, you understand..."
The village chief rubbed his hands in sha and embarrassnt, the villagers of the Guardian Village using burial rituals as an excuse to share the bodies of deceased adventurers, was truly a disgrace to talk about,
but he had no choice; without saying so, the other party would not believe him,
Moreover, he, and even the previous generation, had never seen a living adventurer; such matters only existed in the oral transmissions of elders, considered village secrets.
It was only because now the village was on the verge of natural decay, he had to disclose this to Li Ang and others.
"According to estimates by , my father, and grandfather, the root cause of early aging illness is irreversible bloodline deterioration due to long-term lack of blood nourishnt, and the additional reason might be the destruction of the Holy Mountain Gate."
The village chief sighed, "You all must have seen that within our village we raise chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep,
yet now, even if we start feeding newborns with livestock blood from an early age, it doesn't cure or alleviate the early aging illness — that's why I say, the early aging illness belongs to the realm of miracles unattainable by conventional ans.
Sotis I wonder if our village lost its pure bloodline through intermarriage with outsiders, being abandoned by the Sacred Mountain..."
"..."
Li Ang quietly listened to the village chief's narrative, stroking his dragon-head mustache in thought.
David pondered, then asked, "Hmm... have you tried hunting demons in the Underground Palace?
Maybe the lack of extraordinary energy in livestock blood is why eating it has no effect."
"Well..."
The village chief smiled bitterly, "We want to, but as you have seen, the early aging illness has left our village defenseless, and the extraordinary power within our bloodline has long been lost.
Even disregarding ancestral teachings, intending to actively hunt demons in the Underground Palace,
we no longer possess the strength to do so."
"Equivalent to a dead loop?"
Amber casually said, "No strength — can't obtain demon flesh — early aging worsens — strength declines.
If we hadn't co, within a few more years, wouldn't your village reach the point where an eight-year-old child would appear to be eighty?"
The village chief laughed bitterly, his expression bleak, "It's almost there. According to rough statistics, the early aging illness in the village is onset earlier and getting more severe.
The premature death of the young prevents us from accumulating knowledge and technology, preserving it is even difficult.
Training a craftsman capable of using, and repairing external tools takes five years,
and training one who understands the dismantling, imitation, manufacturing, and researching of external tools takes at least ten years,
Once a craftsman is finally trained, within a year or two, he becos elderly,
sotis unable to even train the next generation of apprentices before passing away.
In a few more years, perhaps no one will be able to understand or interpret the literature in our library."
"I've seen cases of bloodline deterioration like this before."
Hoenhem slowly said, "If a vampire with a low bloodline level lives long-term in a low ambient energy area and doesn't get blood nourishnt, their skin becos gradually pale and wrinkled, hair falls out, thoughts beco slow and dull, gradually losing reason, eventually regressing into a humanoid Big Albino Bat monster.
Werewolves are similar,
without moonlight replenishnt, they will turn into purely unintelligent beasts.
Hmm... I'd like to ask, have you ever recorded the changes in ambient energy levels here throughout history?"
"What?" The village chief was stunned for a mont, not understanding.
Hoenhem patiently explained, "I an the density of surrounding energy; has it changed over the decades or has it always been like this since hundreds or thousands of years ago."
"Well..."
The village chief hesitated for a mont and said, "I'm not really sure. Fifty years ago, when the Shadow Monster attacked and destroyed many of the village's buildings, killing a lot of people, so information was lost,
leaving
with limited knowledge.
After all, that was already the matter of my previous generation."
"Alright."
Hoenhem nodded regretfully. If the other party had kept records, he might have figured out the reason why this area at the foot of the mountain is a low magic domain.
That's normal, akin to historical ancient human civilizations not recording the oxygen levels of their era's world,
to accurately detect the concentration of ambient energy in the air would require professional knowledge and equipnt, with an understanding of ambient energy's essence.
Hoenhem thought for a mont and asked again, "Then, have you considered leaving?
If you leave the forest, or even the island, and head to the outside world, maybe you can halt this bloodline deterioration?"
"Leave?"
The village chief's expression turned peculiar, hesitantly speaking, "Uh, although leaving the Holy Mountain area would be considered traitorous behavior, viewed as disgraceful, exiled from the village, removed from the clan lineage,
yet to continue the race, so would try — a part of our ancestors tried to leave the Sacred Mountain Island, either sneakily leaving themselves or following Hero Teams to the outside world,
however, once stepping out of the forest, none ever returned — later Hero Teams never brought back any information about our clansn."
"So you're just trapped here waiting to die."
Amber clicked his tongue, "Is this the Sacred Mountain's blessing or curse upon you?"
The village chief's lips moved as if wanting to refute Amber's defaming of the Sacred Mountain, but the words were swallowed back — perhaps in private, he often doubted or questioned this aspect.
Li Ang slowly opened his eyes, nodded, "I've roughly grasped the information."
The village chief's face showed anxiousness, "So do you... have any solutions?"
"I need to try an experint first."
Li Ang waved his hand and didn't make any guarantees. Instead, he asked the village chief to gather villagers of all ages, genders, and physical conditions in the village square.
The more sample evidence, the better.
Since it concerned the survival of the race, the village chief and village guards quickly gathered hundreds of villagers to stand unified in the village square.
Li Ang sohow found a wooden table and covered it with a red cloth,
He sat behind the table, letting the villagers line up and co forward one by one for his examination through observation, questioning, and touch.
After about ten minutes, Li Ang completed his preliminary check of the villagers' physical condition and didn't dismiss them. Instead, he went to a secluded corner to discuss with the village chief and other companions.
"I've figured it out."
Li Ang began, "The early aging disease currently prevalent in your village is indeed due to a long-term lack of blood food, leading to irreversible bloodline degeneration.
This source of blood food, specifically speaking, is from humans who look like you."
The village chief was taken aback, "Ah, this..."
"There's nothing to feel awkward about; it's the food chain. Killing and eating each other is quite normal. I'm not a demon hunter."
Li Ang casually waved his hand and said calmly, "This actually proves you didn't deceive us earlier. You truly haven't eaten humans for a long ti.
You've even forgotten why your race needs to eat humans."
"Uh..."
The village chief asked quizzically, "What do you an?"
"Rabbit, horse, cow, sheep,
Lion, tiger, cat, dog..."
Li Ang said calmly, "Herbivores eat grass, carnivores eat at.
No matter whether animals eat plants or at, the essential purpose of eating is to obtain enough energy and material from outside to satisfy their own survival needs.
Vampires drink blood, ghouls eat corpses, all for the sa reason—for survival.
But, looking beyond the surface,
Why can't vampires survive without drinking blood?
Why do ghouls beco weak and frail without devouring corpses?
Can any of the little ones tell ?
"Different mystical schools have varied explanations for why vampires drink blood,"
Hoenhem didn't mind Li Ang's seemingly provocative words and thought carefully before replying, "So schools believe that vampires drink blood to absorb the spiritual energy within ordinary humans,
so believe it's to imrse themselves in sinful karma to nourish their own blood abilities;
so think it's due to the influence of the Blood Clan's ancestors—if they don't periodically consu human blood, they'll experience soul-based withdrawal symptoms.
As for us in the Clock Tower...
Through cooperation with the Blood Clan and a series of scientifically rigorous experints, we lean more towards the last explanation..."
Noticing the strange looks from other teammates, Hoenhem continued calmly, "Actually, in my country (the real-world Britain), Blood Clan also exists,
Although they aren't as powerful and stylish as depicted in literary works, there are several groups with considerable size.
Previously, due to the decline of spiritual energy, they lived quite miserably and were protected by us at the Clock Tower as rare species to prevent extinction of native British Blood Clan,
Things have improved a bit in recent years.
About the Blood Clan outside of mainland Britain, I'm not too sure."
As an organization with equal longevity as the Special Affairs Bureau, the Clock Tower Mage Association has been developing well through exploiting past treasures,
With all sorts of new experintal projects erging one after another,
Such as the plan to place dragon eggs next to a nuclear reactor for a factory breeding Red Dragons;
Releasing epic-level magic on battleships to endow them with independent intelligence and the ability to transform into humans as part of the Royal Navy reconstruction plan;
Compared to these grand projects of a national destiny level, exploring the genos of the re Blood Clan isn't much—while London was once a major birthplace of Blood Clan,
under the supervision and cleaning of the Clock Tower and Puritanism, it's very weak.
The current global Blood Clan population is primarily residing on the European continent and in the United States.
Others didn't know what Hoenhem was thinking, turning their gaze to Li Ang.
Li Ang snapped his fingers and said with a smile, "That's right; vampires consu human blood to absorb the fresh blood and soul energy.
And ghouls, who aren't as stylish as the Blood Clan,
consu flesh for a much simpler reason—to replenish special substances they can't produce themselves.
For example, the microbio."
"Microbio?"
The village chief and other players were taken aback, "What do you an?"
"Have any of you raised hamsters?"
Li Ang gestured and said, "Hamsters, these rodents, are furry, tiny, and super cute.
Yet they're rciless poop machines.
What's even more terrifying is they not only poop but also eat their own poop.
Hamsters eat their poop more than twenty tis a day, while guinea pigs can do it over two hundred tis.
When they hold sothing using their paws, you can't tell if they're gnawing on food or their own feces.
The reason behind this is these rodents lack enzys to directly digest cellulose and can't obtain the nutrition in plant stems and leaves by breaking through the tough cell walls.
This makes their ability to obtain nutrients from eating grass extrely inefficient, so they repeatedly eat poop, practicing self-supply."
Everyone was sowhat bewildered,
Although Li Ang was wearing a dragon head mask,
for so reason, his tone gave everyone the impression that he was particularly animated and delighted when discussing poop.
"This self-supply behavior is not only for gaining nutrients but also to preserve their microbio."
Li Ang explained, "Take rabbits as an example; their size prevents them from evolving a large run like cows to store enough microbes to help digest plant fibers they ingest.
So they've evolved a very long cecum to store microorganisms, aiding digestion—
Of course, the cecum isn't long enough relative to their body size to thoroughly digest the food during its passage, resulting in soft and dense cecal pellets rich in cecal microorganisms.
Eating their soft pellets allows rabbits to redigest poorly digested fibers and also to recycle cecal microbes; otherwise, inadequate microbe amounts can cause diseases like coccidiosis."
Reviews
All reviews (0)