“The biggest difference between a virus and the conventional toxins of Shenzhou is that viruses are alive. They have their own survival instincts and the ability to multiply, which can trigger terrifying changes.”
Walking bored across the desolate plains of the Otherworld, Jiang Ke’er took the opportunity to explain the knowledge of bacteria and viruses to several curious, knowledge-hungry babies.
After all, they had to walk every day wearing hazmat suits and gas masks.
If she didn’t eventually explain the reason clearly to them, they would soon become impatient.
“Alive? Like parasites? And that fungus from before…”
“Exactly. Jie Shui, your ability to apply what you’ve learned deserves praise,” Jiang Ke’er said with a light chuckle.
“When a parasite realizes its life is in danger, it will move to another place as quickly as possible and hide to protect itself… A virus’s ability is similar to a parasite’s, though perhaps even more disgusting.”
“Even more disgusting than a parasite?”
“Yes. No matter how a parasite hides, it won’t change its own abilities or structure. But a virus is different,” Jiang Ke’er explained patiently, recalling her high school curriculum from her previous life.
“Because viruses are made up of an incredibly vast number of individual organisms, there will always be one among that massive number who ‘gets smart.’ It will luckily find a way to deal with the crisis and survive… If even one appears, it’s a disaster.”
“And then?”
“And then, people think they have solved the problem, unaware that it is only lying dormant, waiting for a chance to strike a killing blow,” Jiang Ke’er said.
“It will begin to replicate itself frantically, allowing its resistant offspring to refill the host’s body. It only reveals itself once its numbers once again make the host feel a threat to their life… At that point, people will discover in despair that the methods which used to work every single time have suddenly become useless. In the end, they are helplessly consumed. It spreads from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred, until the entire biological species is extinct or there’s nowhere left for them to parasitize.”
Hiss—
The little Demons all gasped in unison.
They all felt that this thing was too terrifying—it was more than ten times scarier than a poison pill.
“So, if you are ever infected by a virus, you must never take medicine blindly. Ordinary medicine only serves to ‘train’ them and increase their drug resistance. You must use the safest means to wipe them out completely in one go to win this invisible war.”
Jiang Ke’er paused for a moment before continuing, “Especially for the Cultivators of Shenzhou. Because they haven’t experienced a viral crisis in tens of thousands of years, their bodies have absolutely no immunity… Back when I was studying fungi, I discovered that Cultivators rely too much on the Spiritual Power protecting their bodies. If a virus were to break through that layer of Spiritual Power, or even grow by using that power as nourishment, the consequences would be unimaginable!”
“Fortunately, there aren’t any,” Gan RuÇŽnruÇŽn said, feeling relieved.
“I certainly don’t want to be eaten by those things.”
“Just because there aren’t any in Shenzhou doesn’t mean they don’t exist in worlds outside Shenzhou.” Jiang Ke’er shook her head, her brow furrowing.
“Emperor Jing’s Celestial Monitoring Instrument has opened a smooth path for them to reach Shenzhou, yet Shenzhou has been at peace for tens of thousands of years and has no sense of precaution… With Emperor Jing’s ambition, he will surely send unprepared vanguard teams to explore everywhere. I’m afraid the arrival of a crisis is only a matter of time.”
“Aren’t you overthinking it?” Jie Shui asked, scratching the back of his hazmat suit hood.
“I hope I am. I’d rather we be trapped here for the rest of our lives and have Emperor Jing never find a use for me,” Jiang Ke’er looked up at the sky and sighed. ‘I don’t ever want to see that scene, even in my dreams.’
The topic was a bit heavy, so the little Demons continued their exploration in silence.
However, they had already been walking for five days, yet they had gained nothing.
They couldn’t find any signs of biological activity here.
“This tree is just too big,” Lin Gang sighed weakly.
“Actually, it’s not like we’ve gained nothing.” Jiang Ke’er pointed toward a bright star in the sky.
“I’ve been intentionally observing the constellations over the past few days, and I’ve found that the starry sky here also follows a pattern. This indicates that the world we are in maintains a rotational form. And since there is a sunrise and sunset, it means it is revolving around a star…”
“That’s Big Sister!” Eggy whispered into Jiang Ke’er’s ear, pointing at the sun that was about to set.
“I can recognize her! She’s the one floating above Shenzhou, too!”
“That means our current location isn’t too far from Shenzhou,” Jiang Ke’er analyzed.
“Because the temperature here is similar to Shenzhou, it means the distance between here and the sun is also about the same.”
The little Demons listened with looks of confusion.
Stars? Temperature? Distance? What kind of nonsense was this?
If Jiang Ke’er dared to spout such things in Western Ox-Headed Continent, she would be tied to a cross and burned to ashes as a heretic.
Even Shenzhou wouldn’t be much better.
Jiang Ke’er didn’t care about that. However, certain situations revealed by her Appraisal Technique left her utterly perplexed.
Clearly, everything around them suggested they weren’t that far from the Shenzhou Continent.
Yet, when she casually used her Appraisal Technique on a tree branch, the following words would appear:
[Sky Tree of Qilong Island]
[Serial Number: 63012]
The Serial Number was a function the Appraisal Technique had revealed for the first time.
When she appraised herself, Jie Shui, and the other little Demons, the Serial Number always showed as 231436.
This included all items brought from Shenzhou; the Serial Number was consistently 231436.
Jiang Ke’er roughly guessed that this was likely something like a continent code.
The code for the Shenzhou Continent was 231436, while this tree came from 63012.
However, when she appraised the dust around them, her theory was shaken once again.
The code for the dust here was 231436, the same as the Shenzhou Continent.
The fact that the codes for the giant tree and the dust were completely different was something she couldn’t understand.
‘Could it be that this tree was transplanted from somewhere else?’
What kind of Grandmaster would be crazy enough to do such a thing? And besides, how terrifyingly powerful would they have to be!
Even among Jiesian, Jiang Ke’er had never heard of anyone capable of achieving such a feat—literally altering the layout of a continent.
Perhaps only that legendary State Preceptor could do it!
“Walk softly. Don’t disturb the secluded cultivation of any experts here,” Jiang Ke’er warned.
“Uh… it seems we don’t have to worry about waking anyone up.”
Jie Shui, who was running at the very front, suddenly stopped. He stood at the edge of a cliff, his voice trembling.
Feeling nervous, Jiang Ke’er jogged over to check the situation.
The moment she looked down, she felt a sudden wave of vertigo wash over her. She nearly fell off the cliff.
It was a physiological, instinctive fear of heights triggered by an overly vast field of vision.
The charred rock walls told the story of a terrifying impact that had occurred here.
And where the deep valley at the bottom of the cliff should have been, another starry sky was now visible.
Jiang Ke’er swallowed hard, feeling her skin crawl.
This continent had been pierced through.
Clearly, a power so unimaginable that it defied description had struck this place, punching a massive hole straight through the front and back.
Some remnants of that dissipated power still lingered on the walls at the edge of the cliff, emitting a dark purple crystalline glow.
Then, to Jiang Ke’er’s stunned amazement, those dark purple remnants seemed to receive some kind of summons.
They transformed into ten thousand points of brilliance and surged toward her body!