The Xiang Butterfly Of Chaos - Chapter 69 Tempering The Arms

“Deadso quickly? The symptoms leading to death only spanned several seconds, less than half a minute.”

One of the elders commented, leaning forwards to place his finger past the bars and below the youth’s nose. Finding the lack of any displacement in the air, he shook his head as well before returning to the group.

“I suppose the rest of them will be rather frustrated with us old things once again,” sighed Tai Zi Hua. “However, it was indeed worth the effort of stressing over the medicinal ingredients.”

Clapping Tian Yu on the back, the old men started to depart from the iron cage, leaving Li Mo Shang alone, gazing at the ‘deceased’ mutant on the ground. Unlocking the gates, he stepped into the cage.

Squatting next to the youth, Li Mo Shang jabbed his exposed chest with his index finger, a stream of spiritual qi surging within. As his finger contacted the mutant’s flesh, the spiritual qi rapidly invaded, spreading to all corners of the youth’s body.

Cell by cell, the spiritual qi ravaged the mutant’s body as countless volumes of information was diverted towards the . The blue granules that had paused some time ago reignited their movement towards the upper layer of the hourglass.

Slowly inspecting the youth’s body with his perception, Li Mo Shang’s gaze suddenly constricted as he stared at his chest. Within, he could perceive a dense yet frail ball of vitality, and a fine thread of worldly qi. Though all of the physical reactions and functions indicated the mutant to have perished, he was actually alive!

Focusing onto the ball of vitality, Li Mo Shang could perceive numerous green strands of vitality orbiting around a dense core of worldly qi, which had given the illusion of a solid spherical object. Although Li Mo Shang attempted to extend his perception further to examine more, he was quickly rebuffed by the clouds of vitality guarding the core.

Slightly disgruntled, he withdrew his perception, diverting his attention to the mutant’s wings.

Ignoring the unusual agitation of the wings as they gently throbbed and trembled from the influx of spiritual qi rushing through the veins and meridians, Li Mo Shang carefully analyzed the wings grafted onto the mutant. Observing the physical structure, composition, and bone density, Li Mo Shang accessed his terminal to confirm that the values indeed matched that of a regular dove.

It was simply unnerving and vexing that he still wasn’t able to determine just how they had stabilized the mutant’s genetic structure and operations.

Decades of research and technological improvement had revealed to the world that the genetic structure of an organism was nothing more than organic chemical molecule chains, the operation of a genetic code wielded considerable influence. An individual could only live a stable lifespan if parallel genetic codes operated in the specified directives acquired upon birth.

Any enhancements or augmentations would cause an inevitable desynchronization between an individual’s genetic structure, leading to instability in their lifespan. To this day, nobody was unable to unravel a single clue to how the mutant before Li Mo Shang could remain alive for so long.

The wings displaying clear physical and genetic evidence that they had been attached to the body long after physical development, the only side effect was the inability of sustained flight. Even after numerous cross-examinations of millions of archived sample data, they still couldn’t discover a single trace, leading to many giving up with dejected expressions.

Releasing a sigh, Li Mo Shang sent a message to Tai Zi Hua regarding the abnormality of the mutant’s condition, before departed. Exiting the clearing and heading towards the nearby river, Li Mo Shang’s thoughts drifted to the small core of worldly qi he had observed earlier.

The only explanation he could provide for such an abnormal existence as the winged mutant, Li Mo Shang couldn’t help but wildly hypothesize as he strolled past the damaged buildings swamped by moss.

From his own observations and what the had provided in its explanations, Li Mo Shang inferred that in the world consisted an unknown, possibly abstract core of spiritual qi. At periodic or stochastic intervals, the core would distribute a certain quantity of pure, unadulterated spiritual qi to the world.

As the spiritual qi disseminated throughout the various regions and territories, it would adapt and assimilate certain attributes, be it natural or artificial properties. With the natural assimilation, the spiritual qi would surrender its purity, degrading to what was described as worldly qi.

Cultivators would absorb the worldly qi in their surroundings to temper their body, with matching attributes providing a significant enhancement in their practice of specified technique or method of cultivation.

The effects of worldly qi were rather encompassing in its benefits, granting longevity, strength, and both physical as well as mental vigor to whoever absorbed it into their body. A constant, gradual assimilation of worldly qi would allow for a person to refine various regions of their body, enhancing their life by a far greater margin than any medicinal pill or panacea in the entire Blue Flame World.

Specific attributes of worldly qi permitted an explosive growth or increase in certain properties, which diversified the benefits appropriated to an individual.

Although he had not given much thought towards it, the concept of worldly qi granting longevity garnered Li Mo Shang’s attention. Whether worldly qi had a stabilizing effect on unstable genetic structures or operations, he had no method of verifying.

Perhaps, only the ‘s superior deduction and processing abilities could verify such claims.

Drifting in his thoughts, Li Mo Shang’s feet brought him standing before a wide river, untouched by society’s resource-demolishing regimes. Dipping his feet into the clear, pristine water with a chilly current, Li Mo Shang released a sigh of relief, leaning back onto the grass as he gazed at the blue sky.

Tai Zi Hua’s favor had been rather sudden and equally significant; thus, he had forgotten to inform anyone of his departure, including his parents. As Wan Shou could no longer support electromagnetic transmissions due to many deserting its technological outposts, Li Mo Shang had no method of contacting anyone in Nan Qing. Looking at the cloudless sky, Li Mo Shang couldn’t help but wonder if anyone at Blue Rose University had noticed his absence.

Extracting his slightly chilled feet from the river, Li Mo Shang rubbed his chin, pondering for a moment. Looking at his terminal to find that it was only four hours into the afternoon, he shrugged his shoulders.

“Guess there’s plenty of time for another round.”

Stripping off the doctor’s robe he had received at the clearing, Li Mo Shang’s white skin was exposed to the chilly mid-autumn air. Manipulating his to bar the cold air currents from contacting his body, Li Mo Shang sat crossed-legged, clearing his mind.

Extracting nine thin strands of spiritual qi from the various orbiting rings, Li Mo Shang began to slowly infuse them into the bones in his right arm. Similar to how he had tempered the humerus, Li Mo Shang assimilated the surface first, gradually increasing in depth to the core.

His perception directed towards the interior of his arm, Li Mo Shang observed the nine strands of spiritual qi coil around the various bones in his arm, one strand encasing his fingerbones.

The tempering was hardly what Li Mo Shang had expected based on his previous experiences. Far from it.

Li Mo Shang had expected for the similar, almost euphoric rush of sensations as he had experienced from tempering the humerus. However, the assimilation of spiritual qi into his bones was like that of an unusual branding into his marrow.

Though there was the anticipated lack of pain, there was no presence of the expected pleasurable sensation. Li Mo Shang felt his arm instantly become numb, any neurological signals blocked. With a mix of interest and horror, Li Mo Shang observed the strands of spiritual qi thoroughly scour the bones of his right arm.

Having wrapped around the bones, the spiritual qi began to drill microscopic holes on various areas on the surface. Once each bone had been peppered by thousands of these holes, the strands of spiritual qi began to coat the bone surface with a thick layer, his originally dull white skeleton emitting a golden radiance.

Once each bone had been applied a heavy layer of spiritual qi, the entire golden cast convulsed before beginning to compress. Observing the process, Li Mo Shang instantly understood why the sensory and motor networks connecting to his arm had been disconnected.

The spiritual qi ruthlessly ground the bones to dust, gradually replacing the collagen fibers and bone mineral with solidified spiritual qi. The marrow was slowly extracted and expelled from the arm, with an azure gel-like substance gradually taking its place.

Watching the bones in his arms break down and reforged under the pressure of the strands of spiritual qi, Li Mo Shang could not help but gape in astonishment. When the spiritual qi had finally completed its assimilation into the bones, the dull-white texture had changed into a transparent crystalline material, the azure gel flowing within, a dense spiritual aura emitting from the bone.

Surprisingly, Li Mo Shang didn’t discover any inscriptions on the newly tempered right arm. Gazing towards his left, he furrowed his brows for a brief moment, before deciding to temper his left as well. Gathering another nine strands of spiritual qi, Li Mo Shang directed them towards the bones in his left arm.

Once again, his sensations were completely cut off, and the spiritual qi ravaged the bones akin to famished tigers. With the assurance of the that all processes induced by the spiritual core’s qi would complete automatically, Li Mo Shang dove into the river to cleanse himself.

He didn’t regret it.

Having focused so intensely on tracking the tempering of his arms, Li Mo Shang had forgotten about where the impurities had been expelled to. The instant he had begun to wash himself, the foul smell caused tears to run from his eyes.

With thirty minutes of fierce scrubbing, his right arm had finally returned to its pristine white color and smooth texture. However, it was at this point that various areas in his left arm began to discharge a massive quantity of impure elements and substances.

Caught in an ambush from behind, Li Mo Shang could only sigh before cleaning himself once more.

It was only an hour later that Li Mo Shang finally emerged from the river, having completed in washing all of the impurities from his body. Manipulating his to isolate the warmer air currents from the chilly autumn environment, he bathed his body in the warmer air, quickly drying himself.

Putting on the doctor’s robe, Li Mo Shang began his trip back to the clearing. Looking at the sky, the sun had long begun its journey to set, the fiery globe almost vanishing from the horizon.

As he walked, Li Mo Shang observed the bones in his arms again, delighted to discover that the inscriptions that had appeared on his humerus had extended to the rest of his bones. Each branch of the circuitry of spiritual qi emitting a gentle yet indomitable power, the inscriptions released a soft teal glow, with a considerable volume of spiritual qi coursing through.

However, Li Mo Shang couldn’t help but furrow his brows; something regarding the tempering of his arms felt incomplete. When he observed the spiritual qi coursing through the crystalline bones and the spiritual qi in his qi circulation unit located throughout the Lung Meridian, the disparity was more pronounced and easier to detect.

The spiritual qi in the qi circulation unit coursed through the designated pathways with extreme ferocity and might, an unparalleled dominance surging within. Li Mo Shang recognized those characteristics as part of the Ancient Ming Tribe’s legacy.

Might, dominance, and an unquenchable, indomitable strength.

It was just that the qi circulation unit revolved spiritual qi through itself, and wasn’t actually associated with anything