Chapter 5

Chapter 5

But this time the Taoist priest was afraid that his opponent was an old monster who had been practicing magic for a long time. In order to ensure that the divination result would be right at the first try, he not only invited divine power to help, but also used the most complicated yarrow divination. It must be said that it was indeed Very attentive.

The process of yarrow divination is very cumbersome and boring, but the Taoist priest seems not to feel this boring at all, and devotes himself very piously to this ritual of asking about heaven and earth.

As his hands sorted and sifted the yarrow again and again, the pale golden divine power shrouded in his body was also mixed with his own mana, and slowly integrated into the yarrow unconsciously.

After a long time (this long time refers to several hours later, you can see how complicated this divination method is!), the long and tedious divination process finally ended, and the divine power that the Taoist priest had invited through the ritual of inviting gods was all integrated into the yarrow. The divination results finally came out.

A faint golden glow emerged from all forty-nine yarrow roots, condensing into a hexagram in the sky.

I saw the Taoist priest sitting cross-legged on the altar, with his eyes closed, combining all his energy and spirit with the hexagram just obtained from the divination, and instantly broke through the appearance of the material world and entered a mysterious place. in the location.

The surrounding onlookers had just seen some movement and were cheering up, but they didn't expect that the Taoist priest would sit there motionless next, even the previous sound and light effects were gone. They all looked at each other in confusion - why was there no movement again? Already? Ten minutes later, just when Xiao Zhang was about to move forward to see if the Taoist priest had just fallen asleep, suddenly, the Taoist priest suddenly opened his eyes.

But before he could say a word, he was shocked, a mouthful of blood spurted out from his mouth, and then he fell to the sky.

"Taoist!" "No, call an ambulance!" "Come and help..." At the same time, Fang Yuan, who had been studying alchemy until midnight and was about to go to bed, suddenly felt the door of truth in his mind shake. Two shocks.

Thinking that something had changed at the Gate of Truth, he immediately meditated and entered his spiritual space, only to find that the Gate of Truth was still standing there quietly, without any change.

After repeated inspections, nothing was found. Fang Yuan thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a clue. In the end, he could only put the matter behind him and go to sleep.

PS: Fang Yuan: So, what just happened? ')016'\u003eChapter 16 Pay attention to safety in scientific research work

Opening your eyes, you see bright lights in front of you, and you smell the pungent smell of disinfectant in your nose.

"I...where am I?" The Taoist priest woke up from his drowsiness and asked in a hoarse, dry voice while holding back the headache that had not subsided.

"You're in the hospital now.

Taoist priest, how do you feel? "A familiar pleasant female voice came to his ears. The Taoist priest turned his neck with some effort to follow the sound. His somewhat dim eyes tried hard to focus, and finally saw the other person's face clearly. It was the woman with a goddess-level figure and appearance. Captain Liu, a strong woman with a stronger aura than most men.

"Is this...backlash?" The Taoist priest still remembered that he was doing divination before, but the memory in his mind only lasted until his consciousness followed the hexagrams and entered that dark place, and then it was completely fragmented. , I have no idea what happened next.

Captain Liu: "You have to ask yourself, what did you see in the divination?" Taoist priest: "...I don't remember..." Captain Liu: "Don't remember?!" She was a little surprised, but thought of the Taoist priest's previous misery. With a look like that, he realized that it must be the mysterious spellcaster opposite who did something! (Fang Yuan: I'm not! I didn't!) "Ahem! I didn't expect that I still underestimated the people of the world...I thought that nothing big would happen if I was possessed by divine power, but I didn't expect that it would be completely broken... ...Fortunately, the other party did not intend to kill them all..." The Taoist priest barely squeezed out a little energy, mobilized a little mana to check his body, and found that except for some damage to his internal organs, there was no major damage to the meridians and acupoints all over his body. However, his mana source has not been damaged at all, so although he looks miserable now, once he recovers a little and can use his mana, he will be back to full health in minutes.

He immediately understood that the other party was showing mercy.

(No, you don’t understand anything!) "...You should have a good rest first. Since the other party has not been cruel to you, it probably does not want to antagonize the state. Regarding the investigation of the other party's true identity, it is up to us. Think of a way... This time we have caused trouble for you, and I am really sorry..." (No, the other party has no idea what happened) When Captain Liu talked about this matter, she felt that The fierce and intimidating aura softened, making her look more feminine and gentle. It seemed that she was really sorry for what happened to the Taoist priest.

… After Captain Liu left, the Taoist priest still lay on the bed and stared at the snow-white ceiling. He sighed again: "Sure enough, the practice is still not enough..." However, what the Taoist priest didn't know was that if he hadn't invited a divine power to protect his body just in case, he wouldn't be lying on the bed with his internal organs injured. It was his luck that he didn't go crazy! He could make his injuries so light, which can be said to be his profound skills and superb practice! … Some spellcasting accidents that happened far away in the other side of the city had nothing to do with Fang Yuan, who was devoted to studying alchemy.

He has been conducting detailed analysis and research on the arm of the ghoul in the past few days, but the results are not very good.

It's not that Fang Yuan's alchemy can't get information from this arm, the problem is that most of what he can get from it can't be used on himself.

First of all, it must be made clear that although the true origin of the ghouls in the COC system is still unclear, there is no doubt that their life essence is deeply influenced by some of the Old Ones, and has been severely distorted and mutated to the extent that ordinary biologists will shudder when they see it.

Normal animal cells generally have a structure of nucleus, cytoplasm and cell membrane. The chromosomes formed by DNA in the nucleus are responsible for carrying the gene coding containing all the life information of the organism. The various organelles in the cytoplasm are responsible for running the various bio-electrochemical activities of the entire cell, making the cell truly "alive". The cell membrane serves as the boundary of the cell and the control interface for the exchange of internal and external substances, and also plays a part in the protection.

However, the cells of the ghouls, which are said to be derived from humans, have completely lost their normal cell morphology.

Not only has the DNA coding inside the cell itself mutated into a mess, but the various organelle structures inside the cell have no characteristics of ordinary eukaryotic cells.

More importantly, Fang Yuan discovered that in the cells of the ghouls, a large part of the organelles have been replaced by various symbiotic fungi and bacteria.

Various common fungi and bacteria that were originally very common in nature, once they entered the tissue cells of the ghouls, under the influence of some mysterious force, changed from independent life forms that completed all physiological activities on their own to a strange life between parasitism and symbiosis.

It can be said that in the body tissues of ghouls, these symbiotic fungi and bacteria are responsible for at least half of the physiological functions.

Therefore, most of the outer layer of ghouls' cells is wrapped with a layer of cell wall, just like real fungal cells.

In the tiny pores inside the cell wall, there are more different types of bacteria connected in filaments, building a huge and dense network between the cell tissues of ghouls.

This network not only strengthens the physical strength of the ghoul's body tissues, but also plays a role in buffering and defense when it is hit hard. It can also contract faster and stronger than ordinary muscle fibers under the action of nerve electrical signals. At the same time, they themselves are a very good nerve signal transmission medium. Whether it is receiving signals or feedback signals, they are much faster than nerve fibers in ordinary animals.

It can be said that this is the most fundamental reason why the physical strength, physical strength, and reaction speed of ghouls far exceed those of humans.

Although this result looks extremely scientific, except for the mysterious power that allows fungi and bacteria to coexist with the original cells, everything else can be explained by biological knowledge, but this cannot change the fact that Fang Yuan can't apply this body structure to himself.

He is currently very satisfied with his human identity and has no intention of implanting any bacteria or fungi in his body.

Fang Yuan just thought that the cells in his body were eroded by various bacteria and fungi, and the whole person became a hotbed for fungi growth like Cordyceps sinensis. He immediately felt a chill all over his body and sweat on his forehead.

This is even more terrifying than injecting the T virus into the body! In fact, after Fang Yuan discovered this terrifying fact, he immediately sealed the ghoul arm again, and at the same time carried out the most thorough and complete disinfection of his laboratory and residence (that is, using alchemy to decompose all microorganisms).

Then, he was still not at ease, and even conducted a deep molecular examination of his body again, decomposing all the microbial species in his body that he had not seen during the last strengthening.

I don't know if it was Fang Yuan's illusion, but he always felt that after cleaning up like this, he felt much more refreshed... After this time, Fang Yuan made up his mind that it was really time to find a professional experimental site! ')017'\u003eChapter 17 The difficult decision of being a human or not

The matter of the ghoul came to an end. After Fang Yuan dug a secret laboratory in the belly of a small mountain near his community, he sent this dangerous item tightly sealed by high-density stone into one of the fully enclosed storage rooms. He didn't want to see this thing again in a short time.

Of course, it doesn't mean that Fang Yuan really got nothing this time.

Although the truth about the ghoul's physical structure is very terrifying, the physical strength that surpasses the human body in all aspects is real. Although Fang Yuan cannot directly transplant these structures to himself, he can still get a lot of reference and inspiration from them.

For example, the tough membrane on the surface of the ghoul is full of rubber-like structures. Although Fang Yuan cannot use the materials made of special hyphae and collagen on himself, after analyzing the fiber structure and mechanical support structure, he can still make similar improvements and adjustments to his skin structure.

Another example is the hyphae network that basically replaces the muscle fibers and motor nerve fibers in the muscles of the ghouls. Fang Yuan also borrowed this structure to transform some of the connective tissues in his muscles, achieving a similar effect.

And the skeletons of the ghouls, in order to support the huge power of this creature that exceeds the limit of human beings, their bones have also changed. Whether in terms of composition material or microscopic mechanical support structure, they are far beyond human bones.

Fang Yuan used this as a template to optimize the microstructure of his bone density, directly making his entire body bones completely surpass ordinary steel alloys in hardness and flexibility.

Overall, Fang Yuan's copycat magic transplant of the ghoul's body structure has enhanced his comprehensive body functions by nearly half, and there has been no major change in body size and weight. It can be said that it is quite rewarding.

Now Fang Yuan, in terms of physical fitness alone, has surpassed Batman, who is known as the "mortal limit", and is close to super soldiers such as Captain America and Deathstroke who have undergone human body enhancement and transformation, and is getting further and further away from the word "ordinary human".

Emmmmmm, Fang Yuan was still a little scared to try to grab a helicopter with one hand. After all, it was a movie special effect, and Fang Yuan didn't know how strong the real Captain America was, so the above sentence was just a metaphor... However, no matter how strong the body is, as long as it has not reached the point of being invulnerable to swords and guns, it is still a mortal body after all, and it will still kneel when facing the direct hit of modern firearms.

Even those artificial people in Fullmetal Alchemist who are almost immortal and have their own special powers are not truly invincible. In the plot, they were all found out their weaknesses and killed one by one.

In order to be truly powerful and invulnerable, Fang Yuan needs to take a completely new path.

But first, Fang Yuan has to make a very important decision - whether he wants to continue to be a human.

As an alchemist, and an alchemist specializing in biology, Fang Yuan knows the limits of the human body better than most people in the world.

No matter how he optimizes and strengthens his body structure, as long as he does not change the most fundamental racial genes and life essence, his body will eventually have limits.

To surpass the limit, the only way is to surpass humans! 　　 (JOJO, I don’t want to be a human anymore!)　　 Of course, he doesn’t want to imitate DIO and become a vampire.

Not to mention whether vampires can be found in the real world, the fact that they die in the light is enough to make Fang Yuan stay away from becoming a vampire.

What Fang Yuan is considering now is whether to implant the Philosopher’s Stone in his body to give him immortality similar to that of an artificial human, or simply transform his entire body into the Philosopher’s Stone like the little man in the bottle and Hohenheim.

Although the androids in the anime Fullmetal Alchemist died miserably, and the little man in the bottle was overturned by a car like all the final bosses in the world, there is one thing that cannot be denied - that is, before the Philosopher's Stone in their bodies is exhausted, they really cannot be killed no matter how hard they are killed.

After all, the experience of hunting ghouls but being almost killed by ghouls really left a deep impression on Fang Yuan. He realized unprecedentedly that the ability to save life is the most important ability of a spellcaster.

Therefore, the implantation and strengthening of the Philosopher's Stone that can make him immortal came into his vision.

Of course, it is a stupid idea to wantonly slaughter ordinary people to refine the Philosopher's Stone in a peaceful and stable country like China. Fang Yuan's conscience does not allow him to use his compatriots as materials for alchemy.

But don't forget that this world is very big! 　　Look at the world map. Except for a few very limited places such as North America, Europe, East Asia, and Australia, at least half of the countries in the world are still deeply trapped in continuous wars.

Especially in black Africa where warlords emerge and disappear one after another, and in the Middle East where people shout "Allah" and kill each other to kill all heretics and pagans, there are a lot of raw materials that can be completely classified as human scum, wasting their lives. Fang Yuan has no psychological barriers to using those garbage that drag down human civilization to refine the Philosopher's Stone.

As long as Fang Yuan is careful and doesn't make a big scene (such as playing with land refining), he can easily refine the Philosopher's Stone enough to revive him hundreds of times.

However, after gaining the ability of alchemy, Fang Yuan, who re-read all the comics, animations and setting collections of the entire Fullmetal Alchemist series, noticed a detail.

That is, as mentioned in the plot, when von Hohenheim, the protagonist's father, is around, all animals will be inexplicably terrified.

Those who have read the plot know that this person is an important character who is the source of the birth of the little man in the bottle. His body is almost entirely made up of the Philosopher's Stone, and these Philosopher's Stones, which are enough to make people live for hundreds or thousands of years without aging, are the lives and souls of all the citizens of the country called Xerxes! 　　It can be said that this "fear aura" that only works on animals is the result of the resentment of those souls who died tragically in the Philosopher's Stone emitting thousands of years of lingering resentment, and even directly affecting the outside world.

Although Fang Yuan doesn't care whether he will be hated by small animals, he dare not just casually implant this thing that he doesn't know if there will be any sequelae into his body.

Although these resentments may only drive away some animals in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, God knows what will happen after being entangled by a huge amount of resentment in the real world.

Even the ghouls in COC have appeared here, who knows where there are some indescribable monsters that like to bite people who are entangled with resentment...　　It's better to be cautious when doing things! 　　However, there is more than one way for alchemists to strengthen themselves.

After changing his mindset, Fang Yuan thought of another way.

That is to engrave the alchemy array directly in his body! 　　Fang Yuan, who had personally refined the Philosopher's Stone in Fullmetal Alchemist's dream, knew very well that the Philosopher's Stone itself was not a panacea that could restore full health after eating it. The reason why those artificial people could be resurrected with the power of the Philosopher's Stone was actually that their bodies had been repairing and refining themselves with the power of the Philosopher's Stone.

In this way, the role played by the Philosopher's Stone in this process was actually just an automated alchemy starting device with huge energy and material reserves.

Then, as long as you think of a way, you can actually achieve a similar effect with other methods.

PS: As a conscientious protagonist who grew up under the red flag, Fang Yuan said that the Philosopher's Stone was too barbaric and bloody, and giving up this plan was definitely not a coward! (Serious face)')018'\u003eChapter 18 People who are afraid of death can always find a way to survive

The medical alchemy that repairs the body and recovers from injuries is actually not a very advanced alchemy.

Especially for an alchemist like Fang Yuan who is extremely familiar with the human body, as long as there are enough materials and clear consciousness, and he is given a circle, he can recover no matter how serious the injury is.

However, for Fang Yuan's desire for the automatic recovery and automatic resurrection ability similar to that of an artificial human, he has another difficulty to be solved.

That is, he must activate the alchemy array himself.

In other words, he must ensure that his consciousness is still clear when he is injured. If he is directly attacked and shot in the head, he will have no way to deal with it.

Therefore, how to modify the alchemy array so that it can be successfully activated even if he loses his brain has become Fang Yuan's most important topic now.

========Research dividing line=======　　The so-called alchemy is a kind of "science and technology" that understands, decomposes, and then constructs matter based on the principle of "equivalent exchange" - this is the saying in Fullmetal Alchemy.

Let's not talk about whether the "science and technology" in this sentence is scientific or not, but "equivalent exchange" is indeed the real core of alchemy.

The equivalent exchange here is not only the conservation of mass that the mass of the substance before and after alchemy must be equal, but also the conservation of energy that "how much effect you want to achieve depends on how much energy you need to pay".

Even the so-called Philosopher's Stone that can break the iron rule of "equivalent exchange" in the plot does not really break this law, but only exchanges the mass of the soul for the mass of the substance.

However, this is a contradiction - does the action of the alchemist promoting alchemy to change the substance itself not need to consume energy? Don't worry, according to the setting of Fullmetal Alchemist, the reason why alchemists only need to use one alchemy array to achieve various grand alchemy effects is because the energy that drives the alchemy reaction is actually the energy of the earth's crust movement, and the alchemist's own mental power is actually only used to guide and regulate the operation of this force. It can be said that even at the energy level, the iron law of "equivalent exchange" is still valid.

Of course, all of the above is not the point! The point is that if there is no alchemist's spiritual power to promote it, then no matter how perfectly the alchemy array is drawn, it is just a very beautiful decorative pattern. The crustal energy will not be activated, and the alchemy phenomenon will not occur.

Therefore, Fang Yuan must find a way to stably input spiritual power for his new alchemy array.

Fortunately, the research and development of alchemy in Amesdoris has indeed reached a certain level. Although most of the material technology is still at the level after World War I, the research on soul consciousness has far exceeded the earth in the 21st century.

At least the earthlings in the real world cannot do such a thing as fixing a person's soul to a piece of armor.

(A special mention here is that Edward is really a hack! The technology that the entire military secretly studied for a long time to develop was completed by a child!) Especially as the culmination of soul alchemy-the Philosopher's Stone Alchemy.

In fact, the soul-fixing alchemy array that can fix a person's soul on a dead object is itself a by-product discovered in the study of the alchemy of the Philosopher's Stone. In the entire soul alchemy system, the content about the subtle relationship between the human soul and the body and how to interrupt or resume this connection can be said to occupy a large part.

Fang Yuan started from these contents and tried to develop a new alchemy formula that can stably connect part of his soul to the alchemy array.

In his imagination, as long as the alchemy array engraved with this formula is not damaged, even if his brain is damaged, his soul can still use this connection to fix his consciousness in the limb fragments where the alchemy array is located, and then use the pure spiritual body to activate the alchemy array to repair the body. As long as there are enough substances around, he will be a brave man again in a dozen seconds! 　　More importantly, there is no limit to the number of connections between this alchemy array and the soul! In other words, Fang Yuan can completely engrave multiple array diagrams named "Soul Connection Type Flesh Repair Alchemy Array" for himself, and then distribute them to various parts of the body. As long as there is a complete array diagram, he can be revived in a short time! It can be said that in this way, his heart, brain and other parts are no longer vital points. The absolute vital points that must be protected have now become such small alchemy arrays that can be engraved in any size anywhere in the body! When Fang Yuan finished the first draft of this plan, even he was shocked by his own genius.

——It turns out that I am also a great genius in alchemy! After testing, it was found that this new alchemy array was indeed running normally. After optimizing and modifying it in some details, Fang Yuan couldn't wait to engrave it in his body.

In order to ensure his own survival ability, he was so crazy that he actually engraved every inch of the surface of every bone in his body with this alchemy array-and it was micro-carving! It can be said that even if he was killed and only a piece of bone smaller than a fingernail was left, he would never die easily! This TM is already afraid of death to a certain extent! ... After engraving a large number of such flesh repairing alchemy arrays in his body, Fang Yuan also has some "insignificant" additional abilities.

-For example, super-speed regeneration.

Now Fang Yuan only needs a thought to make huge wounds heal instantly. Even if he has broken hands and feet, he can reshape and regenerate them at will as long as there are enough materials around him. Except for not having a body of adamantium bones and claws on both hands, he is now not much different from Wolverine.

Well, or more like Enkidu? Standing on the earth, he will never die or something... Not only that, in fact, because this flesh repairing alchemy array is enough to repair the whole body at the cellular level, Fang Yuan can now even give up the inefficient way of supplementing nutrition by eating.

As long as he wants, he can use any raw materials at any time to refine all kinds of nutrients needed by the body directly in his body! Now that he has even achieved the achievement of "not eating worldly fireworks", Fang Yuan feels that he is one step further away from the definition of "human".

"I am afraid that I have really cultivated to become an immortal!" This is Fang Yuan's feeling after discovering this - he was still hesitating whether to give up his human identity before, but he accidentally worked too hard and made himself even less human... PS: Of course, the current protagonist only has the lowest level of immortality. If he encounters an attack that can completely turn him into ashes, he will still have to kneel.

Not to mention that there is actually a hidden limit on the upper limit of mental power. Once his mental power is completely exhausted, it is also a word of death.

')019'\u003eChapter 19 Urban supernatural online articles will indeed involve foreign forces

Two months later, after Fang Yuan initially achieved the achievements of "immortality" + "not eating worldly fireworks", his troublemaking spirit that was originally suppressed because of the previous incident revived again. He is now looking forward to the emergence of a good opponent to let him try his latest research results.

(Hmm, I'm getting swollen again...) Therefore, he, who had been indifferent to the outside world for a long time, paid attention to the reports in the news media for the first time in a long time, hoping to find some interesting information from them.

He turned on the TV that he hadn't used for a long time, and after randomly flipping through a few local channels, he found that they were all some ordinary daily news.

He checked the news in recent months on the Internet and found that except for the report that a certain section of underground culvert in the city was repaired two months ago, there were no other major events, and there were not even many car accidents with deaths.

And the earlier serial murder cases no longer attracted attention after the police "shot" the murderer - the atmosphere in the whole city was a little unbelievably calm! 　　"There is nothing interesting at all"　　Fang Yuan was a little disappointed. He thought that life after having superpowers would be like what was described in novels, with all kinds of villains jumping out to let the protagonist fight monsters and upgrade - he never thought about what the meaning was for a scientific researcher who could upgrade himself to go out and fight monsters! (Collecting materials?) Fang Yuan, who was unwilling to give up, expanded the scope of his attention. He no longer focused on a few nearby cities, but expanded his vision to the entire country, checking various bulletin boards, forums, Weibo, and Moments to see if there were any clues of supernatural mysterious events.

However, after checking, Fang Yuan found a problem - it was not that there was too little information, but that there was too much information that was difficult to distinguish between true and false! For example, the report of a humanoid UFO that was suspected to be an immortal undergoing a tribulation during a thunderstorm, with pictures and videos. With Fang Yuan's shallow computer skills, he could not tell whether it was true or photoshopped.

Another example is the various legends of haunted houses, which were said to be serious, even the city, street and house number were clearly stated, but when Fang Yuan used the street view mode of the map software to check, he often found that the place had already become a construction site after demolition, and the haunted house was no longer visible - was this fabricated by someone or did the relevant national departments act too quickly? There were also various gimmicky videos such as "superpower witness reports" and "street superpower battles". Fang Yuan looked at them and had to give a thumbs up to the level of domestic folk film and television special effects - the sound and light effects were really harmonious, and they were definitely 50-cent special effects! In short, after a rough browse on the Internet, Fang Yuan still did not find any real and reliable reports of supernatural events. Most of them were just hearsay or even the result of netizens' self-entertainment.

But Fang Yuan did not believe that the world was really as peaceful as it seemed on the surface - apart from anything else, he himself had personally encountered and killed a ghoul that ran out of COC! 　　So, supernatural events must exist, but they were covered up by everyone - or, in other words, the real supernatural witness reports were hidden with a large number of fakes.

I don't know if this was intentional or a real coincidence. If someone deliberately guided it, then he or they did succeed. At least Fang Yuan really couldn't extract the real intelligence he wanted from this mess of intelligence.

... What should I do... Fang Yuan frowned, a little hesitant.

"Maybe, I really have to find someone from the government..." He knew very well that if there was an organization in this country that knew the most about supernatural events, it would definitely be the state machine.

From the fact that the news reports of the last ghoul incident did not reveal even a single bit of information about the ghouls, it can be seen that the government is already very experienced in dealing with similar incidents, and may even have a very mature set of confidentiality procedures.