Chapter 101 The First Seed

The First Seed: personally created by the "Goddess of Creation," it can be said to be the progenitor of life in the Dream Plane—at least according to the information currently available. Hao Ren had seen something resembling the First Seed in an illusion: a blood-red sphere that, upon coming into contact with a habitable planet, would explode into growth, becoming a super-organism like the eldest son and rapidly creating an entire ecosystem. The "Source Blood" nurtured from the First Seed served as a nutrient solution, nourishing the early ecosystem, and the eldest son's bodily fluids are currently known to be the closest substance to "Source Blood."

Hao Ren had originally thought that the First Seed on planet Holletta had been completely exhausted, with all of its original energy transformed into the eldest son and the second-generation ecosystem. But to his surprise, some remnants of that "seed" remained. The founding pope of the Church of the Glorious Dawn had found some Source Blood, and used its power to create the earliest church warriors and an entire system of divine arts.

"We are still investigating these things," Archbishop Auben said cautiously, choosing his words carefully, "We only recently learned where the church's inheritance went wrong, and it is difficult to find things from the church's origins in those ancient and incomplete records. But it is now basically certain that these sacred bloods are the Source Blood of the First Seed... strictly speaking, it is a copy of it."

Vivian raised an eyebrow: "A copy?"

"The earliest discovered 'Source Blood' was very small in quantity," Archbishop Auben explained. "When His Holiness the Founding Pope discovered those Source Bloods, they were almost dry. But he found a way to proliferate the Source Blood: by applying external stimuli, the Source Blood can constantly self-replicate, ensuring the continuous expansion of church talent. Otherwise, no amount of blood reserves would be enough to last for thousands of years."

"I can probably guess what you mean by external stimuli," Hao Ren said, rubbing his chin. "It should be simulating the planet's original natural environment, right? This would allow the Source Blood to make a wrong judgment, mistakenly believing that the ecosystem is restarting, so it will continue to proliferate to provide energy for the 'ecosystem'."

Auben didn't say anything. The technology for copying Source Blood was the church's top secret, and not even a single bit could be revealed to this group of foreigners who had already obtained the consent of the pope and the king. However, his silence was a tacit admission.

"What's the difference between the copy and the original?" Vivian was an expert on "blood," and her question hit the mark.

"There is no difference," Auben replied. "Source Blood is the goddess's great creation. It can replicate all its data with 100% accuracy, so the copy is the original. In fact, the original Source Blood has long been used up, and the church's current inventory is all Source Blood that has been copied countless times—but they are still pure and powerful, with the same effect as the original sample."

"I want some," Hao Ren said bluntly, "to study the relationship between the eldest son and this blood."

Hao Ren wasn't telling the whole truth: what he wanted to study wasn't just the relationship between the Source Blood and the eldest son, but the connection between the Source Blood and the Goddess of Creation!

The myriad lives nurtured from the First Seed are like ink diluted in a lake. With the evolution of the ecosystem, each new generation of creatures becomes further away from their original form and creator. Tracing back along the unique life tree of the Dream Plane, only the older and more primitive life forms are closer to their creator. Therefore, the First Seed is closer to the goddess than the eldest son—even the closest thing Hao Ren can find to the goddess right now!

So far, Hao Ren and his friends have only found various kinds of wreckage, but the Church of the Glorious Dawn actually has a sample of the First Seed, and this sample is still alive! What a godsend clue this is!

Archbishop Auben brought people to see the stigmatization ceremony, but he didn't intend to hand everything over, so he hesitated when he heard this request: "Source Blood is a sacred object, a treasure of the church. Even if it is a copy..."

"You said it was a copy," Nangong Wuyue retorted without thinking, "It's something that can be mass-produced, maybe you have it by the ton here. We only need a small bottle..."

"The value of sacred objects is not affected by quantity," Auben immediately said sternly—but his mosaic face didn't make much of a difference no matter what expression he made. "And most importantly, the Source Blood has never flowed out."

"The eldest son had never appeared two months ago," Hao Ren raised his eyelids. "Now is a very critical period, and everything must be changed to survive. At most, you can train a new batch of recruits with the Source Blood, but I may be able to find a way to safely eliminate the eldest son: after all, the eldest son was born from that blood."

Archbishop Auben didn't say anything. Hao Ren shrugged his shoulders when he saw this: "You know, eight hours ago I just held a funeral for another civilization. Their history is six times longer than yours, and they have more knowledge than your ancient magic emperors. But they were destroyed, destroyed by the eldest son, body and soul, and in the end, their entire civilization only left a data bank weighing more than a dozen kilograms, small enough to fit in a storage box. In the face of power beyond the secular world, your traditions and rules are useless—I don't want to come back here in a year just to put you in another box."

Auben was a bit old-fashioned, but this was only because he valued those dogmas too much. He wasn't a stubborn fool, and considering that those copied "Source Bloods" were indeed not too scarce, he nodded after a moment of contemplation and signaled to the altar boy standing in the corner of the room to hand over the container containing the Source Blood.

"Take it away, may the power of the goddess be manifested by the hands of the foreigners."

Hao Ren smiled and took the container, storing it in his dimensional pocket: "I will make good use of it."

"This is the first time since the founding of the church that Source Blood has been handed over to heretics," Auben said with some emotion, "But for the church, Source Blood is indeed not a scarce thing... it's just that it has never flowed out, and we have maintained this tradition for thousands of years."

"The history of the Church of the Glorious Dawn may be thousands of years, but in a longer time scale, these thousands of years are just a blink of an eye," Hao Ren smiled, "What we are fighting against is a creature that has lived for millions of years, so don't pay too much attention to those traditions that are only a few thousand years old in front of it."

Vivian shrugged and chimed in from the side: "Time is the most ruthless thing, enough to make many traditions and ancient precepts worthless, so under any circumstances, don't use traditions and ancient precepts to fight against something far older than you. Of course, I don't think your Church of the Glorious Dawn is the kind of stubborn religion, you are smarter than many other religions I have seen."

Hao Ren got what he wanted, and the sample of the First Seed undoubtedly had the greatest value. After that, he planned to take a look at the other two eldest sons.

But before that, he and his friends had to stay in the royal capital for two days: because Becky finally got what she dreamed of, and this girl is now excited, grabbing Hao Ren and not letting him go...

I don't know how Ofra explained to Morón the problem that "heroes who save the world also need to collect wear and tear fees and the price is not low." Anyway, His Majesty the King quickly approved a large sum of rewards, which was enough to make Becky dizzy with joy—far exceeding the rewards that should have been given for retrieving the Holy Temple Orb. This girl became one of the richest mercenaries in the world overnight, and soon she will also become the most famous mercenary in the world—yes, a legendary mercenary. Most of her peers can only hope for this title after slaying a dragon or sealing a demon king, and basically, by the time the title is settled, they are all dead. Becky achieved this achievement alive at the level of a twenty-three-year-old girl.

Facts have proved that it is really cool to have a big shot carry you through achievements.

The royal family rewarded her with an estate near the royal capital and a castle in the west. The former could be lived in for a long time, and the latter was a symbol of noble status and the foundation of the fief. Becky obtained a noble title beyond the norm. Now she is a viscount—and soon this title will be further elevated as her legendary story in the Dragon Spine Mountains is made public. The events in the Beinz Diocese were unsettling, and both the church and the royal family needed a strong dose of reassurance to stabilize people's hearts. Public opinion propaganda about miracles alone is not enough. They also need real hero idols, and now it seems they plan to package Becky.

Soon the news that "the legendary mercenary is still alive" and "the heroine survived the Beinz explosion crater" will spread, and Becky will undoubtedly become the focus.

However, the person involved doesn't seem to have thought so much. This simple and somewhat silly greedy girl hasn't recovered from the huge surprise yet. When she held the reward order, she grinned silly for a full two hours, and finally only blurted out one sentence:

"So much money... I feel like even if I die here on the spot, I would have no regrets..."

This is the first sentence spoken by the famous legendary female mercenary after becoming a viscount.