355: Chapter 355 Three Chapters Combined

(Update was late, so three chapters in one. [Chapter One: The Genius Korda])

Nie Ning fled for half a day, and seeing that no one was chasing him, he finally came to a stop.

He looked at Little Guang in his arms; her face was currently a sunken gray, and she had already fainted.

Normally, given Little Guang's Strange Beast Body constitution, although she was injured, it shouldn't have reached the point of fainting.

However, due to using the Jerky Bear Head for spatial jumping, Little Guang had been tainted by the Jerky Bear Head's Power of Corruption, and her body's resistance to that power was still a bit lacking.

Nie Ning pondered for a long while, looking around at the flat plains where only a small hill stood ahead.

He immediately flew toward the hill with Little Guang, carved out a cave, and carried her inside.

"It seems I really need to train her corruption resistance."

Looking at Little Guang lying on the flat ground, Nie Ning took a deep breath and pressed his hand onto her shoulder.

In an instant, the gray Power of Corruption began to flow into Nie Ning.

Nie Ning's face twisted in pain, and he gritted his teeth to protect his mind.

Fortunately, this wasn't the first time Nie Ning had done such a thing; his resistance to the Power of Corruption far exceeded that of a typical Transcendent.

In just a short moment, the Power of Corruption on Little Guang was completely absorbed by Nie Ning.

Without the suppression of the Power of Corruption, Little Guang's self-healing ability began to take effect, and her majestic bloodline power started repairing her body.

Seeing the color return to Little Guang's face, Nie Ning couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Next, Nie Ning looked at the ice sculpture nearby. A layer of ice formed from magic protected Korda's body, slowing the erosion of the Power of Corruption, though he had still been slightly infected.

Korda was just an ordinary human with a strange beast bloodline, causing his rate of corruption to be much faster than Little Guang's.

Seeing this, Nie Ning shook his head; he could only suck the Power of Corruption out of him as well.

Otherwise, over time, this fellow would inevitably become a Corrupted Puppet.

Luckily, there wasn't much Power of Corruption, and with Nie Ning's current strength, the impact on him wouldn't be too severe.

...

Half a month later.

Nie Ning and the other two returned to Tushi Town.

Looking at the small town before him, Nie Ning felt much more relaxed.

He had been on edge this entire time, deeply afraid that the Bloom Family would catch up.

But now it seemed his worries were somewhat redundant.

Or perhaps it was because their escape route was quite convoluted; they had circled around outside for over a week, likely leaving the Bloom Family's pursuers dizzy from the chase.

Regardless, they were safe for now.

Now that Little Guang's injuries had mostly recovered, Nie Ning prepared to return to the Yishi Mansion area via the original route.

Arriving above the town, Old Bogge immediately came forward to greet them with a fawning smile upon seeing Nie Ning.

"Lord, is your business finished?"

Nie Ning nodded. "Pretty much. I plan to rest here for a night before heading back."

After traveling for so long, Nie Ning's group all felt a bit tired.

Especially Korda; to put it bluntly, he was just an ordinary human, and long-distance travel really didn't suit him.

Furthermore, the strange beast bloodline within Korda's body was extremely unstable, causing him to appear somewhat weak and even show faint signs of bloodline rejection.

"Then I will arrange a room for you immediately."

Upon hearing this, Old Bogge immediately led Nie Ning and the others toward the villa they had stayed in last time.

After a brief conversation, Old Bogge glanced at the two figures wrapped in black robes beside Nie Ning and left the villa without asking questions.

Although he faintly felt that the identities of those two were not simple, it was clear that some matters were not for him to get involved in. The less he knew, the safer it was for him.

Moreover, Nie Ning had done him a huge favor last time.

...

With Old Bogge's departure, Nie Ning and the others settled in.

This wasn't Little Guang's first time here, so she returned to her previous room with practiced ease and went straight to sleep.

Nie Ning was quite helpless about this.

He wasn't sure where the problem lay, but it seemed the creatures that stayed with him all shared a trait: they were extreme homebodies.

Unless absolutely necessary, they almost never went out.

Take Sensen, for example—a typical case of ignoring the outside world, spending every day reading and sleeping.

Heloise wasn't much better, soaking herself in the laboratory every day.

If it weren't for the need to increase her cultivation, Heloise wouldn't even be bothered to go to the cultivation room.

And Little Guang had just taken human form, but judging by her recent behavior, she also seemed to dislike wandering around—a total shut-in girl.

"Lord..."

Seeing Little Guang leave, Korda spoke up from the side, looking somewhat awkward.

"Don't worry, there's no need to be so formal. I will definitely fulfill what I promised you."

Nie Ning patted Korda's shoulder and said with a smile.

As an ordinary human, Korda was undoubtedly outstanding.

At only thirty-something years old, he had researched a special metal like nether spirit gold and possessed deep attainments in the field of chemistry.

Even if the world's laws were different, Korda deserved the title of genius; he had even touched upon research into physical laws.

It had to be said that talking about physical laws in a Transcendent World, where the variable of Elemental Power alone was enough to make one's head spin, was quite a feat.

Of course, in reality, this wasn't uncommon among Wizards.

Wizards were essentially seekers of truth, so the so-called physical laws naturally fell within that scope.

But for an ordinary human, this was clearly something unimaginable.

Because ordinary people could not come into contact with Elemental Power, and conventional methods made it very difficult for them to capture elements.

Although the Bloom Family had imprisoned Korda, they had provided him with various experimental equipment.

Yet in the Transcendent World, many things were invisible to ordinary people, causing various research projects to encounter insurmountable bottlenecks.

One could only say that Korda was indeed a ruthless person.

Unable to freely perceive elements, this guy actually dared to attempt merging with a strange beast bloodline to feel the elements and conduct his research.

One must remember, Korda was just an ordinary human.

Even though Wizards dealt with body modification, the subjects were usually Knights with powerful physiques.

Because a Wizard's research was very lethal; if only ordinary people were used as subjects, the death toll alone would be an astronomical figure.

Furthermore, this involved issues of social humanity and ethics.

Therefore, almost everyone defaulted to a rule: one would not lightly use ordinary people as experimental subjects.

The reason it was 'not lightly' was based on the variable of 'safety'; there were clear requirements for experiments involving ordinary people.

Any research with a high fatality rate was forbidden from using ordinary people for experiments.

This was to prevent people from conducting all sorts of outrageous experiments under the guise of 'for all mankind'.

This wasn't rare among Wizards, and it was most common among Black Wizards with weak moral concepts.

Even the cultivation techniques used by Wizards ten thousand years ago carried 'radiation'; placed among ordinary people, they were like radiation sources.

With long-term contact with a Wizard, an ordinary person's lifespan would be drastically shortened.

([Chapter Two: Treating People with Kindness])

Among common Wizard experiments, body modification was one of those with the highest fatality rates.

Particularly bloodline fusion experiments.

Because there was a fundamental difference between humans and strange beasts.

If an ordinary person didn't have a powerful body, it was almost impossible to survive the bloodline fusion stage.

Even with the support of various high-tech alchemy, the fatality rate for ordinary people remained high, making it a very treacherous field of research.

In order to conduct better research, Korda was willing to merge with a strange beast bloodline.

To be honest, in Nie Ning's view, the Bloom Family probably didn't treat Korda as a human being.

The reason was simple: for a Sixth-Order Wizard family, it wasn't hard to make an ordinary person's constitution stronger, or even turn them into a Wizard.

Unless it was a truly Spirit-Severed Constitution, a Sixth-Order Wizard family wouldn't be helpless.

But judging by the fact that Korda could merge with a strange beast bloodline, he clearly didn't have a Spirit-Severed type constitution.

Yet the Bloom Family hadn't done so, likely because they believed Korda's value ended with nether spirit gold and didn't expect him to achieve anything else.

Otherwise, the Bloom Family wouldn't have let Korda undergo dangerous bloodline fusion modification.

But even so, it still couldn't stop Korda's obsession with this element; it was Korda himself who had actively requested the bloodline modification surgery.

It was clear Korda was very smart; he likely guessed that the Bloom Family had no intention of letting him become a Transcendent, which is why he took the risk and chose such an extreme path.

Unfortunately, the results weren't good. The Bloom Family's bloodline modification was garbage—calling it apprentice-level wouldn't be an exaggeration—and it wasn't even as good as what Nie Ning could do himself.

This led to various abnormal reactions in Korda's bloodline modification.

However, Korda was indeed impressive, even to the point of shocking Nie Ning.

Without being able to read Wizard books, this guy had actually formulated his own preliminary healing plan!

Unfortunately, one person clearly couldn't complete it, and he couldn't get help from the Bloom Family, which was the main reason his body's mutation was becoming increasingly severe.

...

Nie Ning saw that Korda didn't seem to believe him, so he spoke slowly.

"I am a Wizard with very strong principles. The principle of equivalent exchange between Wizards applies to us as well. Since I have already obtained what I wanted, I will naturally give you the help you deserve."

"Even after your body is healed, you can go wherever you want, and you can return to seek my help at any time."

For Nie Ning, if he hadn't encountered those few lunatics, he and the Bloom Family wouldn't have reached this point.

In fact, he had originally intended to leave some mana crystals as payment for the nether spirit gold.

Unfortunately, he ran into those people with mental issues.

If you're going to rob someone, just rob them; why go and kill people for no reason?

In such matters, the more people you kill, the more violent the retaliation will be.

After all, they weren't some small force; the capabilities of a Sixth-Order Wizard family were beyond what an ordinary Transcendent could imagine.

Even with Nie Ning's vengeful disposition, he wouldn't pointlessly do something that only a lunatic would do.

"Thank you for your understanding, Lord."

Korda bowed slightly, a look of gratitude appearing on his weak face.

But Nie Ning looked into Korda's eyes and knew that this fellow didn't fully believe him.

Even though Korda was a very pure scientific madman, his long imprisonment had caused abnormal changes in his heart.

"Since I have the time, I'll take you to see exactly what's wrong with your body."

Nie Ning did not dwell on the issue further, instead preparing to first examine the cause of Korda's illness.

Korda's knowledge was ultimately limited; even though he had formulated his own treatment plan, Transcendent matters still required a Transcendent to take action.

Furthermore, Korda's rejection reaction was severe, and Nie Ning needed to first inhibit his body from continuing to mutate.

Nie Ning then took Korda to find Old Bogge.

...

Although the town was not large, Old Bogge and the others had joined forces to build a Wizard Tower.

The benefits of a Wizard Tower went without saying; the formation that had trapped the Fourth-Order Wizard back then was powered by the Elemental Pool.

Otherwise, with the methods available to Old Bogge and his group, they could not have trapped a Tier 4 Transcendent based on their own strength alone.

Nie Ning followed Old Bogge to the laboratory. Although it was not as good as the one Nie Ning had built himself, it was sufficient for Second-Tier and Tier 3 Wizards.

“Then I will leave you to your business, Lord Wizard. You can call me if you need anything.”

After bringing Nie Ning to the laboratory, Old Bogge bowed, preparing to take his leave.

However, Nie Ning called Old Bogge to a halt and took out a bottle of blue potion from his spatial ring.

“This is a Tier 3 breakthrough potion; it should be enough for you to break through to Tier 3.”

This was a potion he had made in passing while refining the Heavenly Universe Holy Wings, using the extra materials he had purchased.

After all, it was a form of hard currency and also served as practice for him to improve his proficiency in potion-making.

Upon hearing this, Old Bogge’s eyes widened.

Although he desired it greatly in his heart, he hurriedly waved his hands in refusal.

“I cannot accept this, I cannot! You have already helped us so much, while our help to you has been negligible. Please, put it away quickly.”

Although potions were easier to obtain now than in the past, they were still incredibly precious to people like them who lacked resources.

Furthermore, not everyone could successfully break through, and a precious potion would place a very high burden on them.

“One thing is separate from another; there's no need to feel any psychological pressure.”

Nie Ning smiled and tossed the potion to Old Bogge.

He was always very generous toward those who helped him, and he enjoyed performing these seemingly casual acts of kindness.

Of course, the main reason was to show Korda that he wasn't a bad person, thereby lowering Korda's guard.

After repeatedly declining, Old Bogge finally accepted the precious bottle of potion under Nie Ning’s stern gaze.

“Thank you, Lord Wizard.”

As Nie Ning waved his hand, Old Bogge respectfully withdrew from the laboratory.

Korda had remained silent the whole time, but he had taken everything in.

Regardless of whether Nie Ning was putting on a show, he was at least genuinely willing to spend money. Even someone like Korda had heard of the potions that wizards coveted.

“Let’s take a look at your body first.”

Seeing that the look in Korda’s eyes had improved, Nie Ning spoke with a smile.

Korda bowed slightly: “I am troubled to have you go to such lengths, Lord Wizard.”

Seeing this, Nie Ning said no more; practical action was the best answer.

Immediately afterward, Nie Ning began to examine Korda’s physical condition in order to create a corresponding treatment plan.

...

...

([Chapter Three: Preliminary Treatment])

After spending the entire night, Nie Ning finally gained a preliminary understanding of Korda’s body.

To describe it in two words: absolutely terrible!

Korda’s body had been undergoing modification for three years already.

The strange beast he had merged with was called the Black Domain Entangling Spider, a Tier 2 spider-type strange beast that favored long periods of dormancy, spending nearly half its life asleep.

The advantage of this strange beast was its slow metabolism, and it could use sleep to adjust its physical state.

Theoretically speaking, this was indeed a good subject for bloodline modification.

Because the Black Domain Entangling Spider possessed self-healing abilities, and the benefit of a slow metabolism was that the rejection reaction was slower, not coming on as violently as the bloodlines of those more aggressive strange beasts.

Correspondingly, however, if the Black Domain Entangling Spider bloodline could not be completely fused, the rejection reaction would manifest as an unstoppable trend.

Due to the body's rejection reaction, what had originally been just a small graft of strange beast limbs had now grown into large patches of strange beast joints and limbs.

The spider legs stretching from his face to his back had all grown out within the last two years.

Because Korda’s body could no longer provide enough nutrients, it was like a poorly tended plant, showing signs of withering and decay.

The joints where his body connected had begun to develop sores and ooze pus, and the internal state of decay was even worse.

It had now spread to his internal organs, which was not good news for Korda.

...

“Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case. The success rate of this surgery should be quite high, and given the Bloom Family's situation, treating you shouldn't be that difficult, right?”

Nie Ning looked at the strange expression on Korda's face and couldn't help but feel somewhat puzzled.

Although the rejection reaction of the Black Domain Entangling Spider was slow, it could be detected early, and the chances of recovery with early treatment were very high.

Upon hearing this, Korda couldn't help but sigh, and he then began to recount the origins of his bloodline modification.

In fact, when Korda was with the Bloom Family, the family had initially hoped he would achieve other successes.

But the result went without saying; during that time, Korda did not produce any results.

As time passed, the Bloom Family gave up on Korda.

Even the promise they had made beforehand to let Korda become a Transcendent was shelved indefinitely.

To prevent the formula for nether spirit gold from leaking, and also hoping that Korda might one day achieve something else, the Bloom Family kept Korda locked up like this.

While he was imprisoned, Korda met a wizard—the same Second-Tier Wizard Nie Ning had encountered in the underground tunnel earlier.

The other party was a scion of the Bloom Family and also Jerry's younger brother, Hyman Bloom.

Perhaps because he was quite young, Hyman still possessed a youthful sense of compassion, and the two became friends through their regular contact.

Korda knew he could not escape, so he could only immerse himself in scientific research.

When he hit a bottleneck, knowing the Bloom Family wouldn't let him leave and didn't want him to become a Transcendent, Korda came up with a crazy idea.

Korda deliberately egged Hyman on, having him propose the idea of a bloodline modification experiment.

By this time, the Bloom Family had completely given up on Korda, so they ultimately gave their tacit consent to the matter.

However, although Hyman was young and very strong, like Nie Ning, he suffered from the disadvantages of youth and over-specialization.

Originally, Hyman had done no research into biology.

At Korda's plea, Hyman was forced into a difficult position and could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive, completing that human modification surgery.

The result was what it was today, and this was even with Hyman frequently treating Korda.

As for finding a doctor...

The Bloom Family would never allow outsiders to come into contact with Korda.

Even within the manor, only core members like Hyman and Jerry could have contact with him.

After all, imprisoning a commoner was not a glorious thing.

To avoid raising suspicion in others, the Bloom Family still showed a bit of humanity, sending money and goods to Korda's family every month.

...

After listening to Korda's story, Nie Ning couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholy.

If it were Nie Ning himself facing years of imprisonment, never mind research, he would likely have gone mad.

Moreover, Korda was just an ordinary person; his Spiritual Power was not as firm as the will of a Transcendent.

Looking at Korda’s dejected expression, Nie Ning patted Korda’s shoulder and spoke softly to comfort him.

“I have already thought of a preliminary treatment plan, and there will be results very soon.”

Although he hadn't researched human modification much, he had done quite a bit of research on bloodlines.

The higher the rank of the strange beast, the more superb the bloodline analysis capability required to make the strange beast bloodline easier to absorb.

There was also the research regarding Psionicists; this wasn't something that could be done with the Power of Corruption alone; it also required technology in this area to stabilize the Psionicist's physical state.

Of course, he was different from Korda, so some slight modifications were still necessary.

Overall, he did have a certain level of expertise in bloodline research.

As long as he was willing to invest heavily, the chances of curing Korda were very high.

Korda gave a bitter smile, but he did not harbor much hope for this.

Seeing this, Nie Ning didn't say much more and then began to prepare a potion to slow down the bloodline decay.

Once they returned to Blood Rainbow City, the equipment would be more complete, and he could also look for a master of human modification; the results would be much better then.

...

Busy until dawn, Nie Ning temporarily stabilized Korda’s bloodline rejection reaction.

Although it wasn't cured, it had at least stopped worsening, alleviating the pain Korda felt from the bloodline rejection.

Returning to the villa, Xiao Guang was already sitting in the dining room starting her breakfast.

Xiao Guang’s movements and behavior were elegant; she didn't look like a strange beast at all, but more like a young lady from a wealthy family.

At least, that was how she appeared in front of outsiders...

It had to be said that the 'Transcendent World' was indeed quite good, allowing Xiao Guang to practice the speech and behavior of a human in advance.

Of course, with those large headlights on her chest, she looked convincing no matter how you looked at it.

Besides Xiao Guang, Old Bogge was also there.

At this moment, Old Bogge was acting like a butler, busying himself around Xiao Guang.

“Lord Wizard, you’re back. Breakfast is ready.”

Old Bogge stepped forward to invite Nie Ning and Korda to sit down and eat.

Korda seemed unaccustomed to such an attitude from a Transcendent and appeared quite restrained.

“You sit down and eat a bit too, and tell me how that matter is going while you’re at it.”

Nie Ning gestured for Old Bogge to sit, wanting to learn about the situation in Earth Wolf Valley.

Over a month had passed now, and the matter had likely fermented; he was very curious about how Earth Wolf Valley was doing now.

This time, Old Bogge did not refuse. After sitting down, he began to tell Nie Ning about Earth Wolf Valley.

After all, Nie Ning was the one who had spearheaded this matter; perhaps Nie Ning could give them some advice.

Otherwise, once Earth Wolf Valley recovered, the business in Tushi Town might very well be exposed, so this was also for peace of mind.

...