Chapter 107: Chapter 18: Visitors from Celestial City
Unlike Yan Luo, every time Li Xinyue trains for seven hours in the gravity chamber, her body is too fatigued to move the next day.
No matter how much she tries to push her limits, she can’t go any further.
Training in the gravity chamber once every three days is Li Xinyue’s limit.
Although the gravity chamber at the Glazed Group headquarters is free, there’s always a long queue to use it. In contrast, while Yan Luo’s place requires some money, there’s no waiting.
Yan Luo has a strict standard for defining ’friends,’ but he’s very good to those he considers friends.
He initially didn’t want to accept money from Li Xinyue, but she insisted on giving it to him to help cover part of the electricity bill for the gravity chamber.
After meeting Li Xinyue that day, Sasa asked Yan Luo when she’d be coming. Upon learning that Li Xinyue showed up every three days, Sasa arranged her studies and work on those days. At other times, she mostly hung out at the Yanluo Villa, helping Yan Luo measure his body functions or conducting experiments in the basement.
Recently, Sasa bought some research equipment, claiming to study the microbial flora in Yan Luo’s body.
The human body and bacteria are symbiotic, generally containing 100 trillion bacteria. Often, bacteria are directly involved in the digestive process.
Yan Luo’s strong digestive ability must partly owe to his internal bacteria.
Sasa wanted to study just how powerful the bacteria in his body were.
It turned out that as Yan Luo’s body strengthened, so did his microbial flora.
The Magic Power enhanced Yan Luo comprehensively, not only the most notable aspects like flesh, bones, nerves, and organs but also the various microbial flora inside him.
Sasa strongly suspected that if Yan Luo ingested a substance carrying bacteria through his mouth at this point, he could rely solely on the antibacterial properties in his mouth to kill all the bacteria, without needing his immune system.
"I think if you were dropped on an alien planet, you might just survive,"
Sasa couldn’t help but marvel while looking at Yan Luo’s test report.
Yan Luo shook his head, "Blue Star’s exploration of the outer world has been stagnant for a long time. Since the Lost Decade, there hasn’t been any progress in this technology. We can’t even reach Mars, let alone other planets."
"That’s true," Sasa sighed.
Most of Blue Star’s resources are focused on dealing with the Abyss, causing outer exploration to halt for a long time.
However, despite focusing much of their resources on the Abyss, there’s been no progress in eradicating it. Instead, the concentration of Magic Power on Blue Star’s surface keeps increasing.
Even though they’ve invented aircraft that can single-handedly break through the atmosphere, they still can’t reach Mars.
Since the Abyss appeared, the development of Blue Star Technology has completely stalled. Basic science hasn’t generated any new knowledge for a long time; all new knowledge relates to the Abyss.
While researching Abyssal Demons is also a form of science, abandoning Blue Star’s original technology for Abyss-related technology is like missing the forest for the trees, isn’t it?
People on Blue Star live in relative prosperity but have lost the desire to explore the sea of stars. A light blue protective shield always covers city skies, and after nightfall, people can’t even see the stars.
Even Yan Luo isn’t concerned with the stars and skies; he only cares about when he can conquer the Abyss.
Regaining her composure, Sasa calmly said, "Actually, I also want to study whether your ability to digest Magic Power is related to the bacteria in your body."
Yan Luo furrowed his brow slightly, "You think my ability to digest Magic Power has more to do with the bacteria in my body?"
"It’s just a hypothesis!"
Sasa emphasized, "Because during the two years before becoming a Hunter, you often hunted mutant creatures and ate their meat. Mutant creature meat contains trace Magic Power, which might promote the evolution of the microbial flora in your body, granting you the ability to digest Magic Power and strengthen the body."
Following Sasa’s hypothesis, Yan Luo thought it might indeed be possible.
"So, what’s your plan for the research?"
Sasa responded, "Experimental animals—animals also have Magic Power adaptability. I plan to purchase an experimental animal with very low Magic Power adaptability, implant your gut microbiome in it, and feed it mutant creature meat or Demon-dropped materials. If it can digest Magic Power, it would indicate your gut bacteria could provide the same effect for others."
It’s quite a straightforward experiment, and relatively simple to conduct.
Even though the price of experimental animals is currently sky-high, and those with low Magic Power adaptability are very rare, Sasa still has a small amount of savings, which should be enough to buy one.
If necessary, she could borrow some from Yan Luo.
After listening to Sasa, Yan Luo nodded in agreement, "It seems feasible. Do you need sponsorship?"
Sasa’s face lit up with joy, "If you could sponsor me some money, that would be wonderful!"
Yan Luo is quite wealthy, even though he still carries a billion in debt.
This too is part of the research into his own secrets, so Yan Luo felt it necessary to sponsor Sasa.
If Sasa could figure out the source of his ability to digest Magic Power and strengthen his body, it might lead to a way to accelerate his growth rate.
"Let’s do it then."
Yan Luo casually transferred half a million as sponsorship funds to Sasa, "Let me know when you have results."
......
On another note, things weren’t going so well for Ma Liang.
Today was the day when the boss’s ’emissary’ descended from Celestial City, and he had to host the supposedly intelligent person who could easily convince Li Xinyue to quit the Hunter trade.
To keep a low profile, this intelligent person opted not to have the aerospace plane land directly on Crimson No.2, but instead landed in Lingquan City, from where he took a car to reach Crimson No.2.
Ma Liang, wearing a cap, stood silently at the bus station in Crimson No.2, waiting.
This ’emissary’ reportedly had never been to the surface before, having lived in Celestial City since birth, essentially being a ’family-born servant’ of the boss’s family.
After waiting for about half an hour, Ma Liang finally saw the bus pass through the city gate and arrive at the station.
These days, it’s entirely common for buses traveling between cities to be delayed; a delay of half an hour or even half a day is possible.
Even though the military often clears mutant creatures in the wilderness, they only clean up around the city. Many remain alive in areas far from urban centers.
The wilderness between Lingquan City and Crimson No.2 is rife with mutant creatures. Even if each bus was equipped with heavy weaponry, some buses would inevitably go missing, leading to passenger fatalities.
The bus, massive enough to be likened to a house, slowly pulled into its parking slot, and as the doors opened, passengers began to disembark one by one.
Ma Liang kept a close watch on the door, fearing he might miss someone.
Fortunately, the guest he needed to receive was dressed noticeably sharp, allowing Ma Liang to spot him instantly.
Sporting a retro suit that emphasized his physique, he had a commanding presence. The gold-rimmed glasses on his nose lent him an aura of scholarly gentility.
The face was exactly the same as the unfiltered photo the boss had given Ma Liang.
Only then did Ma Liang realize that the photo hadn’t been enhanced.
As the ’guest’ emerged from the concourse, Ma Liang immediately stepped forward, smiling and extending his hand, "Hello, I’m Ma Liang."
Shi Tianming politely shook Ma Liang’s hand, "Hello."
He didn’t remove his gloves.
Ma Liang glanced at them fleetingly before averting his gaze and withdrawing his hand with an inviting gesture, "Mr. Shi, I’ll be introducing you to Crimson No.2 and the Hunters here..."
"No need,"
Shi Tianming transferred his briefcase to the right hand he had used to shake hands, adjusting his glasses with his left, "Let’s solve this quickly; I want to return to Celestial City as soon as possible."
Ma Liang’s eye twitched slightly at his words.
Is this guy out of his mind?
If you understand nothing, are you planning to handle this by Celestial City’s rules?
Taking a deep breath, Ma Liang gravely said, "Mr. Shi, I must remind you, this isn’t Celestial City..."
"So what?"
Shi Tianming looked at Ma Liang expressionlessly, "Is there any difference between people on the surface and those in Celestial City?"
After a moment’s silence, Ma Liang broke into a resigned smile.
"No, we have no differences."
Idiot!
Ma Liang thought inwardly.