Chapter 1 If the Information Is Correct

If the information obtained earlier was accurate, the source of the World Tree's corruption should indeed be directly below Nidhogg's lair, and the most likely target for corruption was undoubtedly the eldest son's core organization: the brain core. The group had explored all the way to this point along the underground cave, and the various signs they had discovered along the way also indicated this trend of corruption spreading, but only one thing was beyond Hao Ren's expectations:

The organ before his eyes was a healthy mass of biological tissue.

"These tentacles… and the condition of the nerve ganglia aren't quite right," the data terminal flew around in the large cave, continuously scanning the tangled, vine-like tentacles with a blue scanning beam. "They appear to be divided into two distinct… camps."

Not only did the data terminal notice this, but Hao Ren also noticed the abnormal state of the biological tissue near the nerve ganglia after observing it. The tentacles on the walls of the large cave were not entirely uniform. Some of them had undergone severe pathological corruption, their epidermal folds blackened and lusterless, as if they had been scorched by flames. The other part looked quite healthy, appearing full and vibrant, and on some of their surfaces, one could even see shimmering silver runes: the unique mark of Yggdrasil, this special eldest son. These two types of tentacles appeared as distinct as if they came from two different organisms, intertwined but giving off a sense of irreconcilable differences.

If ordinary organisms underwent pathological changes, the diseased areas would mostly be "gradual," with healthy and unhealthy tissue merging together, and there would also be many biological tissues that were "semi-pathological," but there was no such situation here at all.

Whether healthy or diseased, the tentacles eventually converged at the center of the large cave, growing on that constantly pulsating large node, which led Hao Ren to ultimately shift all his attention to that organ.

He stared intently for a long time, finally finding some suspicious clues within that seemingly healthy organ: in the connective tissue grid area where the brain core was located, there were some vague shadows lightly pulsating inside. At first, he thought they were normal blood vessel shadows or something else, but later he suddenly remembered: the brain core of the eldest son had no blood vessels around it.

Because the brain core was immersed in living "source blood," this living blood did not require blood vessels for transportation and distribution at all. The brain core was suspended in a liquid-filled chamber, and the transmission of information between it and the surrounding tissue relied on a form of near-spiritual connection: around it, there were no solid organs or tissues that could possibly produce shadows!

The data terminal hovered around the large organ in the center of the cave, considering whether to directly activate a high-powered detection device for irradiation, because a high-powered detection could very likely directly cause the eldest son to awaken, and it dared not make this decision casually.

"We need to check inside," Hao Ren said, pointing to the black shadows. "The structure here is a bit off."

"Scan it?" The data terminal immediately flew over.

"No," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Surgery. I want to see directly."

"Too risky," the data terminal shook vigorously on the spot. "Yggdrasil will definitely awaken. This is a very serious stimulus, and we currently don't have an effective way to hypnotize the eldest son – the 'lullaby' device copied from Holletta is only effective on specific eldest sons, and it theoretically has no effect on this big guy in front of us."

Hao Ren shook his head and pointed to the pool of source blood in the center of the cave. "The most dangerous thing is the source blood going berserk. As long as we can suppress the activity of the source blood, we can greatly weaken the eldest son's power. At the same time, we'll inject him with the powerful tranquilizer that the Crystal Nucleus Research Station just synthesized. I don't think there will be much of a problem."

The Crystal Nucleus Research Station had been fiddling with the two samples brought back from Holletta for two years. Even if the eldest son's mystery was high, there were now quite a few research results emerging, including targeted tranquilizers: these were essential agents for various highly stimulating tests.

The data terminal did not doubt the effectiveness of this tranquilizer, but the biggest problem was another one: the most troublesome thing about the eldest son was that his "blood" was independently alive. Source blood could not be sedated or appeased. The drug was ineffective!

It immediately raised its objection, "The tranquilizer is easy to say. The cargo hold of the Behemoth Rock Turtle has a lot of it prepared, but what about the source blood?"

A small figure flashed through his mind, and Hao Ren had a flash of inspiration. "Bring Dou Dou over!" (Dou Dou is a name)

"That's right, Dou Dou can suppress the source blood!" Vivian also reacted instantly. She remembered the amazing talent the little fish baby showed in Tanagoth: as the end of life in a world, Dou Dou had an extremely special position on the ecological ladder. The source blood created by the creation goddess had an innate reverence and avoidance instinct towards her. As long as Dou Dou was present, the source blood would immediately lose its activity!

The data terminal immediately set off to Earth to pick up the little merman. With the help of space teleportation technology, its round trip was quite swift. Before Hao Ren and the others had waited long, they saw a blue light flash in mid-air, and then a little fish baby jumped out of the portal. The little guy excitedly hung on Hao Ren's neck, her fishtail pattering against the latter's chest. "Papa, papa, ugh…"

The data terminal's space teleportation function was indeed a bit too strong. After adapting so many times, the little merman was still dizzy after being teleported over.

"We'd better hurry up and get this done," the data terminal muttered while hovering next to Hao Ren's head. "Your fish was just busy playing with your cat. Now that the fish is gone, that cat might not be able to stay quiet for long…"

Dou Dou continued to hang on Hao Ren's neck and vigorously patted her tail. "Cats are so fun!"

Gala卓尔 silently watched this scene, without saying a word: she had long since given up on expressing her opinion about the way Hao Ren's team got along.

The data terminal also used space teleportation to bring over the "Eldest Son Dedicated Extra Strength Tranquilizer Version 2.0" stored on the ship. A silver-white box was full of individually packaged metal tubes. Any tube, when injected, was enough to locally anesthetize an ordinary eldest son for half an hour – but the effect on Yggdrasil, this specially evolved eldest son, remained to be verified.

When all the conditions were ready, Hao Ren decided to begin this creative surgery.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Vivian looked at the slightly pulsating mass of biological tissue in the center of the cave with some worry. "It's hard to say what will happen if we overstimulate it. Maybe we should evacuate the people from Twilight Capital first."

Hao Ren shrugged. "But if Yggdrasil stays in its current state, we won't be able to do anything."

He released three autonomous machines from his personal space. One of them whirred and circled around the group twice, then used its mechanical tentacles to grab a tube of tranquilizer and flew towards the eldest son's large nerve ganglion. The various tentacles of the autonomous machine had different functions. One of the tentacles had a mimetic structure at the end that could be freely deformed. This little guy, who kept whirring, transformed the tentacle into an injection device and carefully pierced it into the eldest son's nerve ganglion.

"Chirp, chirp…"

Accompanied by a faint pressurization sound, the tranquilizer was injected into Yggdrasil's body. Almost visibly, the red light pulsating on the surface of the nerve tissue dimmed, but it did not completely extinguish.

The tranquilizer took effect, but as Hao Ren had expected, the effect was not as significant as it was on ordinary eldest sons. Yggdrasil was clearly a more powerful individual, and it resisted some of the tranquilizer's effects.

So the autonomous machine injected the tranquilizers from cylinders number two and three as well, which finally completely suppressed the nerve reaction of the core tissue in front of them.

"Start suppressing source blood activity," Hao Ren held a one-foot-long little merman with a serious expression and stood next to the source blood pool. He announced solemnly while putting Dou Dou on the ground, "Begin first contact!"

Dou Dou immediately clapped her hands and jumped towards the surging red liquid in front of her: as a fish, jumping into the water at the sight of it was almost her instinct. As for the seemingly dangerous color and shape of these "waters," Dou Dou didn't care – she was a grandmaster in the art of courting death, and she only jumped happily into things that looked abnormal!

As expected, as soon as Dou Dou jumped forward twice, the source blood pool instantly calmed down. The source blood closest to the edge of the pool even began to retreat layer by layer. This retreat reaction ultimately affected Yggdrasil's nerve ganglia. The source blood within the tentacles and node organs also lost its activity, and the eldest son's life reaction throughout the cave instantly dropped to the lowest point!

Gala卓尔 stared at everything in amazement. "...This actually works?"

Nan Gong Sanba casually replied after hearing this, "That's just how he is. The more effective the trick, the more rustic it looks."

Gala卓尔: "..."

Hao Ren carefully instructed Dou Dou to not move around randomly, and to maintain the suppression of the source blood at the edge of the pool. After the little guy solemnly made a promise with her small fist clenched, he ordered the remaining two autonomous machines to begin cutting the connective tissue outside the brain core.

The moment the cutting beam broke through the connective skin, a stench suddenly gushed out!