122: Chapter 42 Limitations 122: Chapter 42 Limitations “Jianghu sects still have this rule, huh… My apologies.”
Yuki uttered these indifferent words, yet they sparked a trendous tumult in Cui Hai’s heart.
He rembered the elders of his sect once saying that the rules of Jianghu are not set in stone.
In the distant past when Jianghu had just erged, there were no “sects”.
It was just that people from specific regions would spontaneously band together to form organizations for solidarity.
Then these organizations expanded in the form of a “Magnetic Chain.”
Eventually, a sect might comprise thirty percent core mbers concentrated in a particular area, while the rest of the seventy percent were scattered across the ends of the earth.
So Sect Leaders might even be on Mars or Venus, while their disciples could be found on Earth or Jupiter.
It was only after this that the grassroots heroes gradually began to establish their own rules.
However, these rules were aningless for a minority of renowned heroes.
They had lived from the dawn of Jianghu to the present day and didn’t necessarily agree with the current rules of Jianghu.
The vast passage of ti had endowed these heroes with unimaginable accumulations.
Although they shared their knowledge following the spirit of cooperation and stored it in blockchain format, even a newly born genius could not catch up with their century’s worth of accumulation.
To these Great Heroes, “Jianghu rules” were not that important.
With no choice, he could only offer a wry smile and said, “If the senior wishes to ask, normally I should be fully forthcoming, but… in reality, I am not very clear myself.”
“Oh?
Why is that?”
“The culture vessels for preserving seed strains are kept by the elders of the sect…”
After pondering for a mont, Yuki asked, “So you truly do not know?”
Cui Hai nodded.
Yuki said, “Then in your opinion, the ‘Restoring Enzy’ and the ‘Mind Saving Virus’ are considered very precious resources, right?”
Cui Hai nodded again.
Yuki ditated for a mont, “To be honest, I don’t quite understand.
You have the conditions to produce them, right?”
“What?”
“The Restoring Enzy should actually be dirt cheap…”
“What is a cabbage?
It sounds like a plant.”
“What I an is, the Restoring Enzy should be very inexpensive.” Yuki corrected himself, “Cost-wise, the amount of enzy one could get in exchange for the price of a single chip should be enough for a person to evolve from a novice to Turing-state.”
An organic substance that can be extracted through biological ans should indeed be very cheap.
The Jade Cauldron Fungus is a very mature product of technology.
It can autonomously synthesize the Restoring Enzy.
As long as it is alive, it will continuously produce this enzy.
And the only raw material required is a sugary substance.
That ans as long as you have bacteria and starch, you can obtain an endless supply of Restoring Enzy.
Yeast is incredibly hardy and can be found everywhere in nature.
Its resilience and low cultivation costs have also made it one of the most common eukaryotic host cells in genetic engineering laboratories.
The bulk of the cost for this technology lies in the research and developnt stage.
That is to say, once it’s developed, you only need to consu so starch to easily expand the scale of production.
If you aim to maintain a high efficiency of production, industrial equipnt is required.
“In a sense, that’s true,” Cui Hai said with a bitter smile.
“In fact, in so regions, heroes can quite easily obtain things like Restoring Enzy.
But… ensuring its activity during transport is a challenge.”
Yuki nodded.
Enzys are extrely fragile and quickly deteriorate once outside a biological entity.
And in this era, there lacks a stable and effective ans of transportation—at least none that heroes could definitely have.
If a certain sect indeed managed to produce it, getting it to their disciples was fraught with difficulties.
“What’s even more outrageous is that it seems the Jade Cauldron Fungus has been designed to degrade.” Cui Hai said.
“Many heroes try to seize seed strains from the governnt, but the strains are also degradable.
After proliferating for a year, the efficiency of the Jade Cauldron Fungus in producing Restoring Enzy would drop to a tenth.”
“The problem with the ‘Mind Saving Virus’ is similar.
It’s too unstable.
If you separate the Mind Saving Virus from the Furnace Cauldron Fungus after propagating for three months, there is a significant chance of adverse reactions.”
“I see,” Yuki nodded.
Degradation of species.
This is a common tactic employed by biotech corporations.
Ever since humans unraveled the workings of the enzy system and decoded the secrets of heredity, creating stable genetically inherited species beca easy.
After Homo sapiens undergo gene therapy to beco Benchmark Humans, all their offspring are stable Benchmark Humans.
The sa goes for crops.
Superior varieties of crops can help humanity escape famine effectively.
Because once a superior species is born, it can rely on the cycle of “seed grows plants, plants bear seeds” to expand and cover the globe within a few generations.
But the problem is, the developers wouldn’t make much money that way.
So, many agricultural giants produce seeds that either can’t bear seeds or the seeds produced can’t sprout/can’t grow into high-yield crops again.
But there’s a catch.
Xiang Shan rembered this technology.
In other words, it was a technology that had existed since the Old Era—it was very likely a part of the “great plan” Xiang Shan had developed.
When this technology was born, the current “Civilization Protector” governnt system probably hadn’t even appeared yet.
There should be a small number of strains in the world that wouldn’t easily degenerate.
And a mature viral tool should also allow Heroes to create a small number of strains themselves.
—No, wait…
If in nature, the vast majority of pathogens had been wiped out due to the overall changes in the biosphere…
Then aside from in the virus banks, there probably weren’t many active viruses left.
For example, Simian Vacuolating Virus 40, abbreviated as SV40, a simple virus with only seven gene segnts, had once been used by human scientists to insert foreign gene segnts into cells.
SV40 could infect both apes and humans, with a certain probability of inducing tumors.
But with the advent of Benchmark Human Remodeling Surgery, humans would no longer be infected by this virus.
And by this ti, if apes were extinct, then SV40 would only exist in virus banks.
The sa went for all other viruses that could be used in transgenic technology.
As far as Xiang Shan knew, as long as you collected a complete set of viruses, enzys, and target gene segnts, modifying genes was as easy as cooking a dish.
After humans had cracked the logic of the enzy system, biochemical technology had beco such a thing.
As the saying goes, even the cleverest housewife can’t cook without rice.
But the situation that Heroes now faced might not be as simple as having no rice.
They didn’t have a pot, either.
“The combination of resource monopoly, knowledge monopoly, and lack of transport channels leads to this outco,” Xiang Shan said, nodding.
“In other words, you think these resources are sohow not easy to obtain, so that’s why you’re pessimistic?” Xiang Shan asked.
Cui Hai nodded, “Half and half.
Even if I had enough Restoring Enzy…
would I really dare to degenerate my existing neural pathways and train anew?”
“I see.
At first, I didn’t quite understand that point, which is why I found it strange.
Why were you so downcast?
A brain injury that hardly affects the psyche, it should have been easy to treat hundreds of years ago.”
Cui Hai hung his head, “It’s really…
embarrassing to reveal this to you.
I understand the reasoning…
it’s just…just…”
“Crying about what?” Xiang Shan said.
“I’m not your master, and I haven’t reprimanded you for anything.”
“You gave Treasure dicine, let observe that young girl’s surgery in the morning to awaken , ca here to enlighten saying there’s still a lot of hope, but I…
I…
I still am so inept.” Cui Hai said mournfully, “I am really unworthy of you.”
“Good grief, what’s with you?” Xiang Shan sighed.
“I just ca to ask a question, don’t overthink it.”
“The key to your illness is still the heart.
Losing most of your self-taught Martial Arts in an instant, within the known scope, doesn’t seem to be easy to cure.
Under these circumstances, isn’t it quite normal for soone to lose control of their emotions?
It’s just a temporary loss of control.
I think you don’t even need to avoid crowds.
Cry if you want to cry.
But after you’ve cried, we still need to get back to business,” Xiang Shan counseled.
“You’re right in your reproach…” Cui Hai said, “Ever since I was young, I’ve always been working hard on this.
In an instant…sigh.”
“Get ready.
Rest for a few more hours, and I can attach your spine for you.”
Leaving these words behind, Xiang Shan turned and left.
The next day, Cui Hai had his spine attached.
For several days, he had to block the nerve signals from his spine and control his Prosthetic Body remotely.
But once the wound healed and the nerves were reconnected, he would be able to control the Prosthetic Body even better.
anwhile, Yuki underwent new modifications.
Xiang Shan nearly removed all the remaining internal organs from his disciple and replaced the muscles attached to the spine with Prosthetic Body parts.
At the sa ti, most of the “Dragon Breath” was also removed.
Yuki was increasingly less in need of oxygen.
These surgeries, along with subsequent rest, took another four days.
After the fourth day, Xiang Shan and his party once again set out on their journey.
This ti there were three vehicles in the convoy.
In addition to “Donkey” and “Mule,” Xiang Shan had added another fully automated carrier called “Cal.” This carrier, not designed for passengers, was cramd full of supplies.
They sped across the land all night.
As dawn just began to break, a dazzling colorful light spot appeared on the horizon.
Pine Eagle City was now within view.
At this distance, the security was already quite strict; there might even be Martial Artist optical surveillance of the surroundings for security.
So Xiang Shan stopped the vehicles and retrieved so weapons.
At that mont, the vehicle “Mule,” assembled from an Excavator Group base, ca into play.
It swung its shovel rapidly, digging out two shallow pits half a kiloter apart, and buried “Donkey” and “Cal” shallowly.
Then the group set off towards Pine Eagle City, ard and carrying minimal supplies.
After traveling about a dozen kiloters, Xiang Shan caught his first glimpse of a city of this era.
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