Chapter 48 - 47: The Nature of Earth Evil Fire

Upon learning that the laboratory had made a new discovery, Lin Li immediately abandoned the idea of exchanging a few pleasantries with Wu Fan and Cao Yi.Briefly parting with the two, he hurriedly found Yan Shaohua and, taking the army’s off-road vehicle, rushed back to the Fire Camp.

The Fire-Life Laboratory was formed as a brand-new laboratory, with the original plant research group as the core, after a second expansion.

Currently, the laboratory’s research has two directions:

First, the ongoing research on the ecological environment of mythical beasts and the Damo Realm, with the addition of a virus subgroup.

Second, the re-formed new drug research group, primarily focused on analyzing the chemical structure of the spirit plants and the spirit field soil of the Damo Realm.

The entire laboratory is led by many senior academicians, with strong scientific research capabilities.

In the second phase plan customized by the base camp.

The Life Laboratory will soon expand into a Life Experiment Base, and the new drug research group will become an independent New Drug Research Institute.

After completing a series of sterilization and verification procedures.

Lin Li, wearing a specially made lab coat, entered the laboratory of the new drug research project group.

As soon as he entered the group, Lin Li was taken aback.

He asked a figure standing with his back to him but exuding a strong comical aura:

"Xiao Wang, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, Captain Lin."

Wang Qiang turned around and waved at Lin Li: "This time Elder Liu needed us to do an analysis, so I came over to help."

"...Alright then."

Only then did Lin Li remember that this rebellious disciple of his was actually a scientific genius from the Youth Class of the University of Science and Technology of China.

He subconsciously glanced at the experiment table out of the corner of his eye, and upon seeing a ballpoint pen, he felt at ease.

Then his expression straightened, and he quickly walked towards another figure in a lab coat:

"Elder Liu, I heard that your team has made a major discovery?"

The Elder Liu that Lin Li referred to was Liu Xiangqian, a small and elderly man with a head full of white hair, tall stature, and two very distinct nasolabial folds on his face.

Liu Xiangqian, at seventy-four years of age, was an elected academician from the second batch after the academic division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was renamed, and an expert in pharmacology and medicinal chemistry.

In a fantasy novel, Liu Xiangqian wouldn’t warrant the description of being as rare as "phoenix feathers and unicorn horns."

Upon hearing Lin Li’s question, Liu Xiangqian nodded, pointing to a cluster of flames in a sealed container beside him:

"Academician Lin, do you still remember this flame?"

Lin Li looked at the flame and pondered for a few seconds:

"I remember this was the Earth Vein Fire given to us by the Wei Mansion, right?"

After he finished speaking, information about the Earth Vein Fire automatically surfaced in Lin Li’s mind:

Earth Vein Fire, also known as Earth Evil Fire, was one of the materials exchanged between the two parties.

According to the information provided by the Wei Mansion.

The Earth Vein Fire was a special fire seed drawn from deep underground rock veins by Foundation Establishment Cultivators through great effort.

This Earth Vein Fire is extremely hot and contains Yin Cold Earth Vein Evil Energy, making it very suitable for refining medicines.

It is an essential fire for alchemists.

Liu Xiangqian handed Lin Li a form:

"With the assistance of Academician Zeng Gu Cheng, we measured that the temperature of the Earth Vein Fire is about 3800 degrees or so.

And the highest flame temperature in our reality—that is, for the combustion phenomenon, the record is 4990 degrees Celsius for acetylene dicyanide.

If we leave aside the essence of the combustion phenomenon and speak only of temperature.

We can instantaneously reach a temperature of even 300,000 degrees using spherical convergence to compress a small argon gas ball at its core.

Not to mention nuclear fusion reactors, which can reach several million degrees.

So under certain conditions, we are entirely capable of simulating the temperature environment of the Earth Vein Fire."

Lin Li pondered for a while and said:

"Elder Liu, it’s certainly good to solve the temperature issue.

But this Earth Vein Fire seems to be more than just a matter of temperature, right?

According to the Wei Family, this flame contains some kind of Yin Evil power..."

Liu Xiangqian laughed heartily, pointing at Wang Qiang:

"This is where we need to thank your beloved disciple.

With Comrade Xiao Wang and others’ assistance, we discovered a brand-new microorganism in the Earth Vein Fire.

Let Comrade Xiao Wang report the specifics to you."

Wang Qiang scratched her head, a hint of embarrassed shyness on her face:

"Hehe...

It was really everyone’s effort.

While Academician Zeng’s team measured the temperature, they also measured the quality of this cluster of Earth Vein Fire and found that, after deducting the substrate, the quality of the flame seemed off—it was too ’heavy.’

As everyone knows.

Flame is essentially a phenomenon created by the oxidation reaction of solid particles, gaseous molecules, and oxygen molecules.

During burning, the atoms in the flame first absorb energy, causing electrons to jump to higher-energy orbitals, and then release energy in the form of light when they transition back, which is the origin of the glow.

So in essence, flame is a solid-gas mixture composed of real atoms, thus flame has mass.

On Earth, gravitational force applies, so flame has weight—similarly, in the Damo Realm, flame also has weight.

But the quality of this cluster of Earth Vein flame is unusual, far exceeding the mass range flames ordinarily belong to.

That is to say, this cluster of Earth Vein flame contains something else.

So we performed an EUAN deposition experiment on it, and separated it using an empty-level graded flow cytometer. (Don’t ask how flame underwent an EUAN deposition experiment, it was successfully experimented on June 13, 2014, by the Nuclear Research Institute at Tsinghua in Gansu)

Finally, we discovered a type of unknown microorganism in free state.

This unknown microorganism can survive in extremely high temperatures but cannot leave the core of the flame.

Its traits are similar to nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, capable of directly converting free nitrogen in the air into nitrogen compounds.

But the strange thing is.

These nitrogen compounds are immediately burned after being generated, with unclear significance."

Lin Li didn’t rush to express his opinion; he knew Wang Qiang definitely had other information to share.

Sure enough, Wang Qiang continued:

"Besides, these microorganisms have another very peculiar property. They release a large number of cold particles—you heard correctly, releasing cold particles at temperatures over 3000 degrees Celsius.

Through experiments, we found that the freezing effect of these cold particles is comparable to that of Hiroshi... ahem.

In short.

The temperature of these cold particles is extremely low.

With the assistance of the physics team, we attempted a particle beam guidance experiment.

We endowed over a hundred thousand cold particles with chaotic initial potential energy to disperse.

After detaching from the Earth Fire’s vein, some particles quickly vanished without a trace.

And some particles...

penetrated directly into the target cells of a Tier Two Giant Beast, destroying the cell structure of the target cells!"

Lin Li let out a genuine gasp, inhaling a sharp breath of cold air.

Though his specialty was biology, he was not completely uninformed about physics and chemistry—many experiments in physics and chemistry are actually interrelated with biology.

This experiment was sufficient to indicate that those unknown particles possessed extremely strong penetrative and destructive abilities.

However, before he could react in shock, Elder Liu spoke up:

"Not only that, but later we conducted another experiment:

We temporarily separated these microorganisms from the Earth Fire’s vein and invited the alchemist sent by the Wei Mansion to assist us.

The result was...

he couldn’t make any elixirs using the separated Earth Fire, not even the simplest ones.

Then we simulated the conditions in the Earth Fire’s core and transferred this batch of microorganisms to a flame produced by dicyanoacetylene.

We discovered that the new flame indeed had the properties necessary for alchemical processes, capable of breaking down various cellular interfaces of medicinal materials for complete fusion.

Combining with the previously identified particle characteristics...

our team finally confirmed that the particles emitted by this batch of microorganisms, under certain conditions, converge into a force we call—

Evil Energy, or what we refer to as ’煞气’!"

Then Liu Xiangqian took out several somewhat old files and handed them to Lin Li:

"In fact, research on煞气 started locally over thirty years ago.

After all, the concept of煞气 has always existed in Huaxia since ancient times, and it can’t be simply dismissed as feudal superstition.

Back then, a young man proposed a hypothesis:

Could煞气 be a formation of aggregated microorganisms?

For example.

Some people had no apparent health issues.

But after moving to a new environment and meeting new people, they began experiencing unexplained ailments.

In metaphysical terms, Feng Shui masters often attribute these issues to the ’Evil Energy’ brought by the new environment and new acquaintances.

However, from a biological perspective.

Is it possible that the microorganism groups or microbiomes of others conflicted with yours, while you were in a weak state, hence leading to the appearance of so-called ’Evil Energy’?

Some colonies have strong infectivity, hence the long-lasting influence of the ’Evil Energy,’ termed ’malignant evil.’

While some colonies are weaker, and antibodies quickly develop in the human body, allowing the affected individuals to recover promptly from the ’Evil Energy’—though it is often attributed to the effectiveness of certain practices.

Similarly, some so-called ’evil places’ might be derived from the aggregation of special substances produced by certain microorganisms.

After all, on Earth, less than one-tenth of all microorganisms have truly been discovered thus far.

So this hypothesis certainly holds some possibilities."

Hearing this, Wang Qiang couldn’t help but ask, "And then what happened next?"

"And then?"

Liu Xiangqian showed a trace of remembrance on his face, shaking his head:

"Ultimately, due to the absence of actual samples of ’Evil Energy’ and the 1980s’ exposure of the Qi Gong scam,

the changing winds led to the research being terminated, and that young man had no choice but to abandon it."

Then he glanced at the nearby cluster of Earth Fire, a hint of emotion on his face:

"Who would have thought.

That this hypothesis would eventually be verified in another world. Tsk tsk, fate indeed plays with us."

With that, Liu Xiangqian started slowly pacing to the operation table.

Through the enclosed facility, he quietly observed the flickering Earth Fire.

In the slightly dancing light of the Earth Fire,

he seemed to see a young girl with a blooming smile, holding a stack of documents to her chest, energetically speaking to him:

"Senior, I will definitely prove that煞气 is formed by microorganisms!"

The scene then shifted.

The same girl appeared again.

But this time, she no longer had her former bravado; she stood before him helplessly and despairingly, tears streaming down her face:

"Senior, they said that Qi Gong and煞气 are fake; the documents are out, and the project... has been halted...."

Liu Xiangqian murmured:

"In the end, you couldn’t witness the moment your hypothesis was validated....

You... left too soon."

He gently removed his glasses.

Rubbing the corners of his eyes.

He sighed softly.

Then he simply couldn’t hold back.

A sudden snicker escaped, a childish smile appearing at the corner of his lips:

"Who told you to sneak off to Lingnan to see your grandson alone, you troublesome old woman!"