Monsters Die When Killed

Chapter 375: Volume Finale: Legacy of the Desolate Ancient (Part 3)

It was a young man, who also had a head of silver hair. His features were vaguely similar to the Life Saint’s—no, it would be more accurate to say they were one and the same. It was the Life Saint in his youth.

Just then, the figure slowly opened his eyes. All over his fair skin, beads of blood began to form—a pale silver mixed with a faint red. It was the color of the blood of Bai Ze. The young man met the Life Saint’s gaze and gave a slight nod. "A failure, then? Please collect the data as soon as possible."

"I’m sorry." The middle-aged man, Cang Lunzhe, bowed deeply to the young man in the incubation tank—a perfect image of himself as a boy. But his hands never stopped moving. He operated the controls on the tank, extracting the data and analyzing it against historical records to find the cause of the adverse rejection.

"There’s nothing to be sorry for," the silver-haired young man in the incubation tank said flatly as his body began to break down. "After all, I am you. We’re the same kind of person."

"When an apology is warranted, it must be given," the middle-aged man replied, watching until the young man whose body was breaking down stopped breathing.

In truth, for those familiar with Zhengguo’s internal systems, things had started to seem very strange ever since the Zhengguo Government confirmed the personnel in charge of the Kunlun Ruins expedition.

It was an expedition to the ruins of an ancient Demon God, so why hadn’t the representative of the Mimic Dao, the scion of Bai Ze, come forward to lead? Instead, the responsibility had been handed over to Bai Canglang, who was only relatively well-known among the junior generation, and Su Zhou, a recently emerged prodigy.

Furthermore, among those in charge of the subsequent plan to explore the Dragon King’s Remains was the Military Saint, a Holy Seat who had previously been opposed to the Mimic Dao. And yet, the true head of the Mimic Dao faction, its Leader, the Life Saint, showed no signs of making an appearance from start to finish.

Some said that the Life Saint’s Cultivation had gone awry, that he had suffered a deviation and was so grievously injured he could not make public appearances.

Others claimed that behind Zhengguo’s seemingly placid facade, a brutal internal conflict had taken place, and the Life Saint, being on the losing side, had long since been reduced to dust.

Still others speculated that the Life Saint could no longer control his own bloodline and had completely transformed into a Demon Fiend, which was why he could not be seen in public.

The answer, of course, was that none of them were correct.

The reason the Life Saint hadn’t appeared for either of the previous two events was simply because he had more important things to do.

In fact, whether it was the procedure for exploring the Kunlun Secret Realm or the entire "Walking into the Ruins" team’s plan for the Dragon King’s Remains, the one who had actually established and green-lit the projects was the Life Saint.

"Before the exploration of the Dragon King Ruins, many people questioned my decision. Why expend so much effort to explore the remains of Immortal Gods? Whether we wanted to reveal the Mimic Dao or demonstrate the power of Immortal Gods, we had better, more moderate methods. We didn’t need something so ostentatious and tense."

As he continued to record data, the Life Saint spoke—whether to himself or to the Artifice Sage, he didn’t know. "But they don’t understand that first impressions are the most important. If we can’t suppress humanity’s instinctive rejection and fear of the Mimic Dao from the very outset, our more important plans for the future will be that much harder to implement."

As he said this, he glanced at the stream of information on his wrist. The Life Saint subconsciously clenched his fist and murmured, ’New Human Transformation... a plan that began sixty years ago, when we first sent humans into space. Now, it has been given new life by the Spiritual Energy Revival.’

’And our objective has shifted from the original goal of "adapting to the cosmic environment" to the present one of "adapting to the New World".’

It is a well-known fact that human beings are fragile creatures.

Or, to be more precise, the vast majority of living things are fragile.

A land-dwelling creature entering the water could never be as at ease as a fish.

An aquatic creature that comes ashore could never breathe with ease.

A creature adapted to a temperate climate would struggle to survive in the arctic, while a species born in the polar regions would likely die of heatstroke in the tropics.

These are merely geographical variations on Earth, yet they can cause discomfort severe enough to be fatal. Although human beings, as a terrestrial species living in multiple zones, are adaptable to most regions, that adaptability is limited to Earth alone.

If humans were to travel to an Otherworld, would they be able to demonstrate that same adaptability?

That was not a gamble to be made with human lives. Preparations and comprehensive countermeasures had to be in place before such a thing could happen.

Hence, the New Human Transformation plan was born.

’Humanity is far from a perfect species. To say nothing of our innate organ defects and fragile bodies, even the wisdom and legacy we take such pride in are, in essence, fraught with critical flaws.’

The Life Saint paced past rows of incubation tanks. Inside each was a silver-haired young man with identical features. They varied in age, from embryos to fully grown adults. There were even female bodies, their sex reversed.

But anyone could see that the Source of all these figures was the Life Saint himself.

Cang Lunzhe stared at each of his "selves," his voice devoid of emotion as he spoke softly. ’Humanity’s organs of communication are far too crude. Before we had Spiritual Power, we could only communicate through sound waves. Even with Spiritual Power, one must reach the Extraordinary Tier to be able to actively transmit messages with one’s Soul, but that requirement is far too demanding... One has to remember that not everyone has enough Talent to cultivate to the Extraordinary Tier.’