Faced with Biyou Immortal Lord's reminder, the present Immortal Venerables were somewhat at a loss. Their understanding of the virus was so limited that they couldn't determine if Biyou Immortal Lord's words were alarmist or a timely warning.
Consequently, they found it difficult to make a decision.
They could only acknowledge their understanding and then send away those summoned. The five Immortal Venerables present continued their meeting and discussion.
"Do you think Biyou's words are credible? Might it be a bit alarmist? It shouldn't be that dangerous, right?"
"It's hard to say. Back then, we never expected that a plague that only appeared in the mortal realm could harm the immortal tribes in the immortal realm, and even Golden Immortals could perish because of it.
The Golden Immortals of the native immortal tribes are Golden Immortals, and the Golden Immortals among us ascenders are no different from Golden Immortals.
In theory, if that virus can harm the Golden Immortals of the native immortal tribes, it can also harm us ascenders. It's just that the people who researched the virus back then belonged to our ascender faction, and the virus research was specifically aimed at those native immortal tribes.
That's why we were temporarily safe.
Otherwise, we would probably be as anxious as Hunyuan Immortal Venerable and the others. So, I don't think this is alarmist; it's something that could actually happen. How about this: Dongming, you're skilled in the laws of time. I'm skilled in the laws of space, and Yongheng is skilled in the laws of creation. Let's try to create a small world and use time acceleration to observe the virus's evolution."
"That's a good idea. Although it's a bit troublesome, doing it ourselves can prevent any accidents. Even if the virus mutates and becomes more powerful, it won't be beyond our control. I agree to do this."
"That works too. Our current understanding of these viruses is indeed a bit lacking. We need to study it ourselves to feel more at ease. Well, let's start now..."
"You guys create the world, and I'll go find the virus!"
After a brief discussion, the five great Immortal Venerables came up with a preliminary plan and began to busy themselves.
Some opened up worlds, others created ordinary life, and some constructed time arrays within the worlds. Before long, all preparations were complete, and the virus was quickly obtained.
Although the paths the Immortal Venerables walked were different from technological approaches, they could still use their own understanding and expertise to analyze and study the virus's characteristics and assess its mutation status.
Under the effect of the time array, the mutation speed of those viruses was incredibly fast. The five Immortal Venerables watched with their own eyes as the viruses continuously adapted to the environment. Some viruses preemptively adapted to demonic beasts, transferring to certain demonic beasts and achieving human-demon transmission.
Another portion of the viruses even exhibited near-cooperative mutations. Both strains had greatly weakened toxicity but vastly enhanced transmissibility. Infecting a single virus posed no significant threat, but once infected with both, a deadly virus would immediately emerge within the body.
This virus was somewhat harmful even to Grand Unity Immortal Lords.
Upon seeing this, the Immortal Venerables present already had some ideas. The one responsible for creating the world quickly destroyed it, obliterating the entire world along with the viruses within, and then said,
"You've all seen the results of the deduction.
Although these situations may not necessarily occur simultaneously in the immortal realm, there's still a certain probability. Biyou Immortal Venerable's words cannot be considered alarmist.
We still need to take precautions.
However, this is good. This gives us an excuse to not help the native immortal tribes, as we need to do the same things internally.
Moreover, we can both be considered victims.
We don't need to bear any guilt or be criticized for being in the wrong..."
"You're quite open-minded. Let's proceed then.
But I truly never expected that the path of poison could actually be played out in such a way by those people. What the Plague Demon Lord of the demon realm tried to do back then but failed, was ultimately accomplished by the immortals in our immortal realm.
Next time there's a war between immortals and demons, we should quickly find an opportunity to eliminate the entire lineage of the Plague Demon Lord. Otherwise, I worry he might be inspired and actually replicate these viruses, which would then be another disaster!"
While expressing his感慨, Yongheng Immortal Venerable did not forget to plan for the future, pre-determining the main targets for the next immortal-demon war. There was no other way; viruses were indeed terrifying. If they were learned and propagated by the demon race skilled in this path, the ultimate losses and impact on the immortal realm would be truly unpredictable.
It truly warranted vigilance.
However, as it was still a bit early to discuss immortal-demon wars, the Immortal Venerables did not dwell on this matter for long. They quickly moved past it and headed together to the main hall of Hunyuan Palace, the main base where the native Immortal Venerables were temporarily staying, to inform them of this matter.
The process was, of course, not as peaceful or smooth. Upon hearing that there was no antidote, the native Immortal Venerables erupted, nearly engaging in a fight on the spot.
Dingyun Immortal Venerable and the others were equally unyielding, directly accusing Hunyuan Immortal Venerable and his faction of going too far, which led to the destruction of all data and antidotes, with no researchers surviving. Everything had to start from scratch.
The two sides argued back and forth until, finally, the ascender faction reluctantly presented a solution, or rather, a way to control the situation.
That was the suggestion Biyou Immortal Lord had made earlier.
Yongheng Immortal Venerable and Dingyun Immortal Venerable had also performed a deduction on this suggestion. They had finally confirmed that as long as the plan was followed and no unexpected events occurred, it would definitely succeed.
Thus, they presented it in front of Hunyuan Immortal Venerable.
By the way, Hunyuan Immortal Venerable was the first Immortal Venerable in the immortal realm, so this realm was named after him. However, as more Immortal Venerables appeared, people simply referred to the realm as Immortal Venerable, without specifically mentioning the Hunyuan Immortal Venerable realm.
And such a solution, which could almost be considered crude.
Naturally, it could not satisfy those native Immortal Venerables.
However, the ascender faction truly had no better solutions. Coupled with the native Immortal Venerables' worsened attitude due to the lack of an antidote, and even becoming somewhat greedy, the two sides inevitably clashed again.
And they fought another battle.
It was evident that in the end, fists still spoke louder.
This battle had no victor; both sides remained evenly matched as before. At the same time, due to concerns about the situation in the demon realm, neither dared to fight to the death.
Therefore, they could only part ways unhappily.
Meanwhile, both sides were quite displeased.
The native Immortal Venerables generally felt that the ascender faction was hiding something, or that the ascenders were the ones who caused this mess in the first place and should be responsible.
The ascender Immortal Venerables, on the other hand, felt that the native immortal tribes had gone too far, leading to the current situation. Now they had dropped all pretense and were unwilling to honor their previous compromise.
They were truly shameless, utterly indecent.
Fortunately, despite their falling out, they still knew the importance of the bigger picture. Therefore, they did not declare war on each other because of this. Instead, they acted separately according to the plan previously prepared, beginning to control the situation and eliminate the virus according to Biyou Immortal Lord's suggestion.
And they issued a strict order prohibiting anyone from researching the virus.
Those who violated it would be jointly destroyed by all Immortals.
Even cultivators who researched poison and蛊道 (gu-dao, a type of dark art) were affected, and the Way of Plague, which was very similar in nature to the virus, went from being unpopular to being a public enemy, hunted and killed.