Chapter 231 The first artificial pseudo-spiritual root is formed!

As Old Ding's hoarse yet resolute cry of "In exchange for this chance at immortality" echoed across the square, the previously deathly silent miners' ranks erupted into a frenzy, like a powder keg ignited.

"I'm signing up! Me too!" a death row inmate with one eye roared as he rushed out.

"Count me in! My wife is waiting for me in the lower city. As long as she can live like a human being, what's wrong with selling my life to the League!"

despair.

In this dark and sunless mine, it was more potent than any poison. When the Alliance military offered them this poisonous drink called "Hope," these ordinary people, utterly folded and abandoned by the times, drank it down without hesitation, like fanatics.

In less than ten minutes, the left side of the square was already packed with people. Even the elderly or terminally ill prisoners wanted to gamble their last breath on that elusive chance to become immortals.

The colonel standing on the high platform looked down at the group of mortals below, who resembled hungry wolves, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Excellent. This is how consumables should be."

He waved his hand. "Take them all away! Escort them to the First Reform Camp to prepare for the connection of their spiritual roots!"

……

At the same time.

Kyoto, the Alliance Academy of Sciences, the highest-level underground arsenal.

This place is no longer the laboratory with only one hundred nutrient tanks. With the special approval of the highest decision-maker and the all-out effort of the entire alliance, a super production line covering an area of ​​more than three football fields, specifically for the mass production of [artificial pseudo-spiritual roots], was urgently built in just a few days.

The extremely pungent smell of blood mixed with a high concentration of spiritual energy filled the entire factory.

Wang Mingyuan stood on the high glass walkway, looking down at the industrial marvel below that resembled a giant meat grinder.

What was displayed on the screen was no longer a cold, impersonal pressure constant, but tens of thousands of "spiritual resonance frequencies".

Over the past three years, the Academy of Sciences' biggest breakthrough, aside from pseudo-spiritual roots, has been gradually deciphering the essence of the phenomenon that "spiritual energy has a temper"—spiritual energy is not elusive, but rather possesses its own unique fluctuation patterns. Science, in essence, is simply about finding the frequency of spiritual energy step by step.

"First-tier demonic beast blood extraction complete. Bio-polarity induction matrix warming up."

Below, the chief engineer's voice came through a loudspeaker.

"Initiate mass production and integration!"

With Wang Mingyuan's command, a tremendous roar of machinery resounded through the sky.

At the end of the first process, the corpses of several low-level mutated monsters, whose marrow and essence had been completely drained, were ruthlessly thrown into the incinerator by the mechanical arm. At the other end of the thick transport pipe, the extracted dark red monster bone marrow fluid was injected into thousands of translucent petri dishes.

"Activate the resonant induced circuit!"

Hundreds of high-precision array engraving machines descended simultaneously. However, instead of performing the brutal cutting as before, they released extremely weak beams of spiritual energy, gently "stroking" the bone marrow fluid.

The machines are using the biological polarity of the demon beast's spinal cord to "trick" spiritual energy into entering. They are simulating the frequency of spiritual energy absorption and release when a first-tier demon beast breathes!

As the frequencies synchronized, the originally violent and temperamental spiritual energy actually began to obediently flow into those spinal cord tissues.

"Sizzle—"

The micro-engraving machine then engraved the patterns of the [Spirit Gathering Array] and [Mind Purification Array].

As the formation took shape, the bone marrow fluid of those previously lifeless demonic beasts began to writhe strangely! They frantically absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy in the petri dish, and a tough keratin film gradually condensed on their surface.

"laugh--"

Thirty minutes later.

The first batch of coolant was sprayed out, and a blinding white mist instantly enveloped the end of the production line.

Wang Mingyuan held his breath, gripping the glass walkway railings tightly with both hands, his knuckles turning white from the excessive force.

As the white mist dissipated, the robotic arm slowly rose.

At the end of the assembly line, a "biological organ" about 20 centimeters long, dark red in color and covered with faint blue patterns that pulsate like capillaries, lies quietly in a sterile tray.

It doesn't look like the crystal-clear, ethereal "innate spiritual root" described in cultivation classics.

It's more like a blood-red centipede that's been skinned and is still wriggling, absorbing the spiritual energy around it! It's full of evil, deformity, and the extreme violence of a cyber wasteland!

This is the first truly automated, industrially produced [first-generation pseudo-spiritual root] that has broken free from the manual laboratory!

"Beep—Spiritual energy compatibility: 76%."

"The resonant frequency is stable."

"Life potential combustion ratio test passed. Production line yield rate reaches 95%!"

The cold, hard data that popped up on the monitor triggered a long-suppressed cheer that nearly lifted the roof off the entire arsenal.

"Success...The mass production line is completely operational!"

Wang Mingyuan stared at the bloody organs continuously sliding out of the assembly line below, his eyes gleaming with fanaticism.

He whirled around, looked at the endless production line behind him, and issued his top command:

"Run the machines at full power! Keep the machines running even when people are resting!"

"I want to see 100,000 of these pseudo-spiritual roots roll off this assembly line within half a month! Send these 'ladders to heaven' into the mortal realm!"

……

three days later.

The First Underground Rehabilitation Battalion of the Eastern Theater Command of China.

Old Ding was stripped naked, his body covered in coal dust was washed away, and then he was firmly fixed to a cold, high-quality steel operating table with extremely thick alloy shackles.

The blinding light from the operating room lamps made it almost impossible for him to open his eyes. Beside him, a mechanical assistant was holding a biological incubation box that emitted an eerie red glow. The "blood-red centipede" inside the box was writhing uneasily in front of him, and the array on its surface was flashing with a chilling, eerie light.

"No anesthesia, understand?"

The military doctor in charge of the surgery stepped forward, his tone as cold as if he were facing a corpse.

"The connection of the pseudo-spiritual root requires your nervous system to be in a state of extreme excitement and sensitivity; otherwise, it will be impossible to synchronize the frequency of the organism with the array. Next, you will feel your bones being crushed inch by inch, and then a red-hot branding iron being inserted into your spinal cord and stirred wildly."

"If you can't make it, you die; if you do, you'll be a warrior of the God-Making Legion." The medic looked down at Old Ding. "Are you scared?"

Old Ding stared intently at the ceiling, veins bulging on his forehead. His chapped lips parted slightly, revealing a狰狞 (zhengning, meaning ferocious or hideous) smile more grotesque than death itself.

"bring it on."

"As long as I can become stronger... as long as I can get that 'Blazing Sun Pill'..."

"Come on then!!!"

"Snap!"

The robotic arms on both sides of the operating table suddenly descended, and the sharp laser blades instantly sliced ​​open the flesh on Lao Ding's back, exposing his spine completely to the air.

The next second, the blood-red centipede was forcibly pressed into the crevices of Old Ding's spine.

"Ughh ...

A heart-wrenching scream, as if it were tearing the vocal cords apart, exploded in the closed operating room!

Old Ding's skin instantly turned bright red due to the influx of violent spiritual energy, and white mist even rose from his body. His eyes were completely bloodshot at that moment, and a faint blue array pattern flashed deep within his pupils.

The violent power surged through his limbs and bones like a runaway horse. The nerve tendrils of the pseudo-spiritual root were violently intertwining and fusing with his original spinal cord nerves.

The excruciating pain caused Lao Ding to faint several times, but he was always awakened by even more intense pain.

He bit down hard on the specially made silicone mouthguard, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Only one thought remained in his mind: survive! Hold on!

I don't know how much time passed, it felt like an eternity.

"Beep—Neural connection complete. Psionic microcirculation established."

With the system's cold voice, the excruciating pain that tore at the soul finally subsided like the receding tide.

Old Ding was soaked in sweat and blood, as if he had just been pulled out of the water. He was panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

"The alloy shackles have been removed."

With a clang, the locks binding Lao Ding's limbs popped open.

Old Ding slowly propped himself up and sat up from the operating table.

He looked down at his hands. The muscles, which had been withered from years of labor and malnutrition, were now slightly raised, and there seemed to be a violent force surging beneath his skin.

What surprised him even more was that the spiritual energy in the surrounding air, which had once made him feel suffocated and in pain, was now cheering and flowing into his body through the pseudo spiritual root on his back!

"Is this... the power of cultivators?"

Old Ding gripped his right hand, which had only three fingers left, feeling the terrifying force emanating from his finger bones. He had a strange feeling that even without his steel exoskeleton, he could kill an ordinary wolf with a single punch.

"Congratulations, S-7-0992."

The military doctor looked at the data on the monitor, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes. "Your willpower is even stronger than I imagined. The circulation of spiritual energy within your body is very stable, and you have already reached the standard of the first level of Qi Refining."

"Go next door and put on your exoskeleton armor. From today onwards, your life belongs to the League."

Old Ding didn't say anything.

He stood up, and because he was not yet used to the enormous power within his body, his old mechanical prosthetic leg even let out a mournful cry as if it was about to break, unable to withstand the force of his stomping.

He touched the slightly raised, warm, blood-red scar on his spine and strode out of the operating room.

The birth of the first batch of mass-produced "artificial cultivators" was without celestial music or dazzling radiance.

There are only the heart-wrenching cries of mortals on this cold operating table, and the blood-red contracts signed in order to survive!