Chapter 116 Source Blood

Source Blood, the raw material used by the Creation Goddess to create all living things in the world, represents the sacred substance of the origin of life in the Dream Plane. Although it is only a component within the Primal Seed and the Firstborn, it possesses an unquestionable sacredness. Why would something of such a high grade fear a little fish that's only a foot long?

Hao Ren took some samples from the Blood Pool and, with Doudou, went to a house farther away from the plaza to conduct experiments. The results remained unchanged. As long as the little mermaid approached the liquid, the Source Blood would immediately show signs of losing activity, even actively retreating. He placed the Source Blood in a transparent container and let the little mermaid watch the liquid from outside the container. The latter almost completely stuck to the side of the glass tube.

Moreover, after several tests, he discovered a peculiar phenomenon: Doudou seemed to be able to control this "power" to some extent.

When the little mermaid focused on the Source Blood, the "retreat" phenomenon became more obvious. But if the little one shifted her attention, this "suppression" would greatly decrease, even to the point of no longer producing a suppressive effect. Hao Ren conducted several tests until the little mermaid became a little impatient. She no longer paid attention to the "red water" in the container, and the latter's activity gradually recovered.

Doudou bounced around on the table, bored, finally jumping onto Hao Ren's arm and hanging there like an armband, no longer moving. The Source Blood in the test container resumed its slow surge, but the surging speed was slightly slower than before. Hao Ren stroked the little mermaid's tail and said to Izhaks and the others, "It seems the key to producing the suppression effect is the little one's 'attention.' When she concentrates, she exerts influence on the Source Blood."

"The Source Blood doesn't have a clear will; it doesn't even have the ability to sense," Izhaks scratched his bald head, even the well-informed Demon King was a little confused at this point. "And why would it be afraid of a fish?"

Lily blurted out, "Gungnir also fears Doudou!"

"Go play, it's not the same thing," Hao Ren waved her away, then looked at the data terminal beside him. "When you examined Doudou's body before, did you find any other special abilities?"

"She has quite a few special abilities, being a demon hunter fish and all," the data terminal buzzed. "But you shouldn't be talking about that kind of special ability, she's just an ordinary mermaid, at most more energetic and likes to beat up cats."

"The talent of a demon hunter couldn't produce this effect," Hao Ren frowned. "Nangong Sanba has also come into contact with Source Blood, but there was no reaction at all. Moreover, Source Blood is such a high-level thing; it couldn't possibly be interfered with by a mere demon hunter, right? They are basically just bio-engineered humans created by ancient magical emperors."

"Could it be because Doudou's demon hunter fish bloodline is purer?" Lily gently wagged her tail, a sign that she was thinking seriously. "After all, she was processed in the Origin Relic. According to bloodline, she could even be Su Han's grand-aunt or something."

Hao Ren spread his hands. "No matter how pure-blooded a demon hunter is…aren't they still a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of Source Blood?"

While they were discussing and researching the problem, Muru was monitoring the situation from outside the town through a communicator. The giant had learned about the sensory phenomenon between Doudou and the Source Blood and had discussed many things with the Firstborn, Zohm. At this moment, his voice suddenly sounded from the communication channel: "I suddenly remembered something. Do you remember a few months ago, when you were testing Zohm's control over the Source Blood in the Crystal Nucleus Research Station? It was the one that happened next to the culture pool. At that time, the Source Blood suddenly lost its activity, the same as today. Was your daughter on the scene at that time?"

Hao Ren was reminded and also remembered. He immediately slapped his forehead: "Right, Doudou was there at the time!"

"However, this still doesn't explain where their connection comes from," the data terminal knocked on the table with its shell, of course, this action could also be regarded as it hitting the table with its forehead. "This unit has recorded all the information transmitted between Doudou and the Source Blood just now. No logical internal connection has been found. This is not magic, nor is it a superpower. Doudou did not release any power--it seems to be purely the Source Blood that has this instinct, as if it were born to revere a mermaid, even though this mermaid is only a foot long and hasn't even learned to speak completely."

A group of people discussed for a long time without any results. Neither practical testing nor data analysis by the data terminal could find the slightest clue. Hao Ren felt that studying this problem now could only waste time, so he stood up. "Write down this topic, and after we finish this mission, go to Raven 12345 and ask what's going on. She sent Doudou over, so she should know something about it."

The others agreed, and at this time, they could only place their hopes on that funny goddess.

Hao Ren and his party pushed the door open and saw Ulanov wandering around at the door as soon as they appeared. It wasn't that he was driven out. In fact, he was in the house at first, but Hao Ren's tests quickly developed to a stage he couldn't understand, so the Zohm man, who was still a little troubled by memory disturbance symptoms, simply stayed outside for peace and quiet. He stepped forward to ask if there was a problem with the Blood Pool, his face full of worry. The Blood Pool was the most important thing in Zohm society today. It was their only way to return to the real world and the source of population. If this thing was unreliable, then there was really nothing reliable in this world.

"There's no problem with the Blood Pool, just an accident," Hao Ren patted Ulanov on the shoulder to reassure him. "By the way, is the person who 'failed to transmit' okay? Did he safely return to the virtual world, or what?"

"The person is fine," Ulanov nodded. "Birth is done in two steps. What comes out of the Blood Pool is just a shell assembled according to the gene bank. Then we have to touch the signal tower to reinstall our soul into the body. It is said that this process is to save bandwidth and also to prevent the soul from being installed into the new body if there are defects. The person who was 'stuck' today has been successfully born, just half an hour late."

Hao Ren nodded with relief, then casually mentioned, "By the way, you should also hurry up and decorate the area around the Blood Pool, at least build a house on that pool or something. It's not appropriate to have it in the open like this."

Ulanov laughed. "The next step is the construction plan in this regard. In fact, this town has only just been formed. We are already struggling to solve the housing and food problems of the existing population. Building a large 'Resurrection Greenhouse' is a big project for us."

Elizabeth looked at the simple buildings around and suddenly asked curiously, "Why don't you live in those golden cities? Isn't Alamanda a ready-made shelter nearby? Although it needs to be cleaned up, the houses are ready-made, and they are more sturdy than your simple houses. Uh, I mean the ones that haven't collapsed."

Hao Ren also nodded. "Oh right, I forgot if Elizabeth hadn't mentioned it. You can use those city ruins as you please. Anyway, the necessary civilization preservation work has been completed, and the rest is just supplies. It's more important to have living people now."

Ulanov had only been awake for a short time, so he didn't seem to know anything about these things. He had only seen the magnificent outer buildings of Alamanda on the highlands from a distance, realizing that there was a magnificent alien ruin there, but the idea of moving in hadn't even occurred to him. However, at this time, a Zohm man passing by heard the conversation and took the initiative to explain, "Although we would like to, it's not realistic at the moment."

The speaker was a tall man with dark skin. Hao Ren didn't recognize him, so he must not have been a member of the Gray Fox Mercenary Group. The dark-skinned man explained, "At this stage, we can't leave the Blood Pool and the signal tower too far. These two things are the key to connecting the virtual world and the real world, but there are no such facilities in the city ruins. Moreover, there is no water or food in the ruins, no supplies from the natural world, too far from the supply points. A small group of people initially settled in the city ruins, but found that supplies and communication were a problem, so they withdrew. Now only a few outposts are left in some ancient buildings around the city. The only advantage of that place is that the houses are relatively strong...but to be honest, that's not a very important thing at the moment."

Hao Ren suddenly understood why these Zohm people would rather build settlements in the wild than live in Alamanda. When he built the infrastructure on this planet, he consciously bypassed all the Tana ruins, and 80% of the autonomous factories were also located in the wild, with only a few production facilities placed in the cities. Now what the Zohm people need to survive in this world is not just strong houses--they also need to rely on the Blood Pool, signal towers, forests, and natural rivers to survive, and none of these things exist in the ruined alien cities.

But he knew that this should all be temporary. After the Zohm people had stored enough food, explored the surrounding terrain, and possessed basic production tools and experience in reclaiming the wilderness, they would definitely move towards the city ruins left by the Tana people, and eventually form a series of striped population distribution areas between the Blood Pool and the city.

After all, they still needed a place to shelter from the wind and rain, and the first winter on this planet would not be very friendly to them.