Chapter 249 The Balance Between Cyber and Flesh
The blinding operating lights finally went out.
When Lao Ding opened his eyes again, he didn't feel the extreme weakness he usually felt after maintaining his pseudo-spiritual root, as if his marrow had been drained. Instead, he felt a sleeping beast inside him, pulsating slightly and energetically in sync with his steady heartbeat.
He sat up abruptly from the cold alloy operating table.
There was no excruciating pain after the anesthesia wore off, and no spasms from the rejection reaction. Old Ding was even surprised to find that his skin, which had become gray and dry due to years of overworking, had now regained some of the rosy glow of a healthy person.
"How are you feeling?"
The young researcher wearing gold-rimmed glasses stood not far from the operating table, holding a steaming cup of top-grade spiritual tea, looking at Old Ding with the eyes of someone appreciating a perfect work of art.
Old Ding didn't say anything. He ripped off the remaining sterile cloth from his body, walked barefoot to a huge full-length mirror on the side of the laboratory, and turned around.
In the mirror, the crude, pseudo-spiritual root that had accompanied him for three years, like an ugly metal centipede firmly nailed to his spine, had completely disappeared.
Instead, a dark red protrusion became completely integrated with his flesh and blood. It extended smoothly down Old Ding's spine, its surface covered by a highly resilient, translucent biological membrane. Faintly visible beneath the membrane, an array of exquisitely detailed micro-carved runes intertwined perfectly with his capillaries. With Old Ding's breathing, the dark red protrusion emitted an extremely faint glow, like an organ naturally present in the human body.
"What exactly did you do to me?" Old Ding touched his smooth back, his voice filled with disbelief and trembling.
"We simply helped you regain the lifespan you were meant to have."
The young researcher put down his teacup, walked over to Lao Ding, and pulled up a complex set of data projections.
"The biggest problem with the previous pseudo-spiritual roots was their 'rigidity.' The mortal body has no affinity for spiritual energy. Forcibly stuffing a metal array into the spine would force the array to brutally extract the mortal's life force and essence as its starting energy in order to operate. That's why you all fought so hard, but in the end, you still didn't live long."
The researcher pointed to the dark red thoracic cord behind Lao Ding.
"But now, we've found the balance. This 'Perfect Biochemical Spiritual Root' was created by the Academy of Sciences using the active cells of a second-tier demon beast as a culture medium, directly inscribing the rune array onto this biofilm. It's no longer a cold water pump, but a living symbiotic organ that desperately craves spiritual energy."
The researcher looked into Lao Ding's eyes and solemnly announced this groundbreaking conclusion.
"Congratulations, veteran. From today onward, as long as you are not killed by a demonic beast, you will no longer suffer the loss of lifespan due to using your spiritual root. Your new spiritual root will not only not drain your life force, but will also nourish your physical body and slow down your aging process when it is in operation."
The researcher paused, a glint of fervor flashing in his eyes: "More importantly, this biochemical membrane will spread throughout your limbs and bones like real meridians, nourished by the demon blood. In time, when your physical body is completely transformed by the spiritual root, you can even, like those orthodox cultivators, cast spells with your bare hands without the aid of an exoskeleton."
No longer shortening one's lifespan. They can even cast spells on their own.
These words struck Old Ding's heart like heavy hammer blows. In the muddy meat grinder of the Yellow Zone, the greatest despair of countless mortal hunters was not that they couldn't defeat the monsters, but that even if they won, their lives were dwindling day by day.
But now, this deadlock has been broken.
But Lao Ding was a veteran who had crawled out of piles of corpses, and he absolutely did not believe that those high-ranking families and academies would be so merciful as to develop such a perfect gift without any cost.
"What is the price?" Old Ding turned around and stared intently into the researcher's eyes.
He could feel it. Although his body was no longer weak, from the moment he woke up, his stomach, every vein in his body, and even the depths of his soul were screaming with an extremely terrifying hunger.
It wasn't hunger for food, but an extremely pure, bloodthirsty craving for some kind of high-energy substance.
"You are very perceptive."
The researcher nodded approvingly and took out an unlabeled glass test tube from the freezer next to him. Inside the test tube was about two hundred milliliters of extremely fresh, even slightly boiling, second-tier demonic beast blood essence.
The researcher handed the test tube to Lao Ding.
"This is the price."
"Although the Perfected Biochemical Spiritual Root no longer drains your lifespan, it is a living symbiote. It requires a tremendous amount of energy to maintain the array that allows you to rival cultivators. Spirit stones are too expensive, and the guild cannot provide them to you. Therefore, for you, its only sustenance is demon blood."
Old Ding took the test tube. The instant his fingers touched the glass tube, the dark red spiritual root on his back suddenly lit up, and an almost frenzied urge to eat instantly overwhelmed all his reason.
Old Ding didn't even bother to pull the stopper. Like a real wild beast, he bit off the top of the glass tube and violently poured the glass shards and scalding demon blood down his throat.
Glug, glug.
The moment the demon blood entered his throat, the excruciating pain that used to burn his meridians like swallowing magma was gone. The perfect spiritual root acted like an extremely efficient filter, instantly stripping away and shattering the raging, wild will within the demon blood, leaving only the purest life energy, which was continuously transported to Old Ding's limbs and bones.
In just a few seconds, the muscles in Old Ding's right arm swelled up in an extremely bizarre way, and an extremely violent blood energy gust burst out of his body uncontrollably, directly shattering a precision instrument next to the laboratory.
happy.
An unprecedented, exhilarating feeling, filled with a destructive desire, exploded in Lao Ding's mind.
He was breathing heavily, his eyes gleaming with an extremely dangerous dark red light. He finally understood what this "perfect" pseudo-spiritual root really was.
"It's feeding on demon blood." Old Ding wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice becoming hoarse and rough. "What would happen if we didn't feed it demon blood?"
"It will get hungry. Extreme hunger will make you lose your mind and turn you into a madman who only knows how to kill. If you are not nourished by spiritual energy for a long time, the symbiote will start to devour your flesh and blood again in order to protect itself, until it sucks you into a dried-up corpse."
The researcher looked at Lao Ding, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
"This is the result that the Supreme Council and the Hunter's Guild truly wanted. You are no longer expendable; you will become the most perfect weapons of war."
Old Ding finally understood.
Hunters in the past fought with time bombs on their backs, constantly facing the possibility of their lives ending, which hampered their actions in battle.
The current perfect hunters, freed from lifespan limitations, now possess an insatiable appetite. This bio-engineered spiritual root, like an addiction, compels them to endlessly venture into the wilderness to hunt demonic beasts, drink demonic blood, and seize inner cores.
Moreover, Lao Ding also keenly noticed an extremely fatal detail.
"What I just drank was raw blood." Old Ding looked at the broken glass tube in his hand. "No need for purification by the Academy of Sciences, no need for neutralizing agents, this thing can directly digest raw blood extracted from demonic beasts?"
"Yes." The researcher adjusted his glasses. "The biochemical membrane has a perfect filtration mechanism. This means that if you kill a monster in the wilderness, you can simply cut its main artery and drink the liquid on the spot to replenish your fighting power. You can sustain yourself through combat, without ever stopping."
Old Ding's heart skipped a beat.
The bigwigs in the Academy of Sciences and the Guilds only saw that this technology could create a tireless, bloodthirsty army that didn't require exorbitant logistical costs.
But they clearly underestimated the ambitions of the wasteland natives.
In the past, the guild tightly controlled the lower levels by controlling expensive repair fluids and advanced exoskeletons. But now, although they still rely heavily on exoskeletons as a medium for spellcasting and physical defense before their physical meridians undergo a complete transformation, the shackles of the repair fluids are now practically gone.
If they could directly drink demon blood to cultivate, given time, this body could truly circulate its energy like a cultivator.
The exoskeleton would no longer be a cage that confined them to life and death, but merely an excellent tool for transitioning and amplifying destructive power!
Who would want to be a dog forever exploited by capitalists?
Hunters can be completely self-sufficient. As long as they dare to kill and fight, the demonic beasts of the world are an inexhaustible source of elixirs. This is a path of demonic cultivation entirely for mortals!
"Your body data has been collected."
The researcher clapped his hands, and several heavily armed guards from the Green Zone walked in.
"The Supreme Council is very satisfied with the data from the perfect state. The first production line will be put into operation in the dungeon tomorrow. This batch of brand-new bio-elemental roots will be available for implantation to all veteran hunters in the Yellow Zone at an extremely low price."
……
Half a day later.
A dilapidated armored off-road vehicle sped along the muddy roads of the Jianghuai defense line. Old Ding sat in the back, looking out the window at the ruins of the Yellow Zone, forever shrouded in gloom and the stench of blood.
His mechanical left arm has been replaced with the latest model of tungsten gold armor, and inside his body, the bio-engineered spiritual root is beating steadily.
He was no longer a dying old wreck. He was now a new human being, desperately eager to hunt and evolve.
When the SUV stopped outside the No. 17 trading center, Xiao Shitou and several team members were anxiously waiting at the door.
Seeing Lao Ding jump off the car, not only was he not missing any limbs, but he also exuded an extremely terrifying sense of oppression. Xiao Shitou excitedly went to greet him.
"Uncle Ding! You're alright! What did they do to you? You look so much better than before!"
Old Ding looked at the young man in front of him, whose face was covered in blood but full of vigor, and then turned to look at the low-level hunters in the distribution center who were humbly pleading with the guild clerk for a few vials of repair fluid.
He touched his smooth back, a wildly insane smile spreading across his face.
"Stone, go and get all our savings and all our ammunition. Tell the brothers not to trade with the guild for those watered-down, garbage medicines."
"Times have changed. Starting tomorrow, we will use our own swords to drink the purest blood from the necks of monsters."
……