Chapter Sixty-Eight: Biological Tools

The sword energy of the Metal Element curled around his side, striking before its release. The biological organ had just burst forth when it was instantly sliced into pieces by the hissing sword energy! The now lifeless organ fell to the ground, immediately seared by the scorching sand, sizzling and smoking as a pungent scent of cheap biomass reacting to high temperatures drifted into Lan Yi’s nose.

No toxins—almost zero mental reaction.

Lan Yi assessed the situation based on his spiritual power and physical state. He didn’t rush into the explosion’s epicenter. With the overwhelming force of the Steel Armor Divine Thunder, this low-level synthetic beast was surely dead; even if it weren’t, after absorbing so many souls over the ages, any backlash in its weakened state would strip it of all mobility, leaving it to devour itself in its death throes.

Instead, the biological organ, now cleaved into several sections by sword energy, drew Lan Yi’s attention.

It was a classic model of a biological combat organ, boldly imitating the structure of the Life Cluster. Its “Moon” abilities clearly related to soul and energy attacks. The serpent-man hadn’t managed to deploy its unique properties; it was suppressed by fierce firepower, then chased and battered mid-air by Old Demon Lan until obliteration.

Compared to the Life Cluster, the synthetic beast’s biological organs were like crude contraptions, cobbled together from random scraps without regard for risk or consequence—products of reckless small workshops. Yet, with such aggressive material input, the serpent-man could wield spiritual power at the pseudo-realm level, a feat truly astonishing for martial artists.

Lan Yi sliced the biological organ into thinner segments for closer inspection. At the center of this pitted, disk-shaped organ, some unusually milky white biomass stood out.

A strand of Canghua, ever poised to sever, pierced into it.

Lan Yi’s calm, grim expression flickered with surprise.

“Trauma Team’s blood pack base solution?”

The Trauma Team—a super-company poised to rise rapidly within Oceanic Civilization in the coming years—specialized in life protection services. Whether facing the extremely dangerous anti-logic clans or unfinished collapsed artificial divine realms, whenever a client’s life was in peril and a rescue signal was sent, the Trauma Team would respond swiftly.

Their operations once extended deep into River Civilization. Products like blood pack tech, bodily self-programming, gene restoration tuning, and memetic vaccines became highly popular, favored as auxiliary tools by spiritual cultivators during artificial divine realm trials.

Among the many Oceanic super-companies notorious for unethical practices, the Trauma Team maintained a pristine reputation. Even when business setbacks forced their withdrawal from River Civilization’s territories, they left without causing any trouble.

Lan Yi never expected Trauma Team’s technology to be tied to synthetic beasts. At present, Trauma Team’s blood packs hadn’t even been manufactured, so there was no way for them to have entered artificial divine realms and been stolen by synthetic beasts.

Synthetic beasts—among the most despised entities in artificial divine realms by spiritual cultivators—were like the southern cockroaches lurking in a room, spawned from the previous owner’s experiments. Few in number, they sneak around feasting on scraps, occasionally emerging to disgust you; in greater numbers, they swarm, ready to unleash alien terror.

If left unchecked, the artificial divine realm might be destroyed in an instant. If managed, they always found a way to crawl out from inexplicable places.

But their most revolting trait was their existential predation on humanity—soul, flesh, spiritual energy, intelligence. The war between synthetic beasts and humanity had raged in the artificial divine realms long before the arrival of spiritual cultivators.

Lan Yi, bored at times, had participated in several extermination battles decreed by the two great civilizations—most triggered by synthetic beasts. The fate of irredeemable artificial divine realms was extremely disturbing: either total corruption and madness, or the entire world turned hostile toward humanity, demanding annihilation.

The most ridiculous part? Even Iron Men—silicon-based human variants—could be devoured, polluted, and bred by synthetic beasts. For those who claimed not to be human, this was a slap in the face.

Lan Yi chose not to worry about the origins of Trauma Team for now. If the serpent-man had used blood pack base solution, it proved there were leftover biological tools from the previous era in this rat hole; otherwise, replenishing base solution regularly would be impossible.

Such tools would be quite useful for Lan Yi’s upcoming endeavors—a pleasant surprise.

After the first artificial divine realm trial, the main world was plagued not just by endless turmoil, rampant toxins unleashed by Oceanic Civilization, and clamorous wars, but also by a catastrophic epidemic brought by highly infectious composite microorganisms.

If nothing else, the chaos surrounding Xinghan—fantasy, supernatural, sci-fi, magical pollution—was enough to warrant an exhibition of artificial divine realms. Among these, the reverse racial cultism spawned by non-human species was a persistent malignancy for River Civilization.

The official stance: the harm to youth is incalculable.

“Biological tools left in artificial divine realms generally share one trait—”

“They’re extremely sensitive to spiritual stimulation.”

“They can efficiently adapt for infection and disassembly among humanity.”

Muttering to himself, Lan Yi deactivated the high-energy crystal ring behind him. Canghua swept along the geomagnetic lines, sending waves of spiritual energy outward, most of which dissipated within this isolated space.

As the spiritual energy vanished, the differences—like the contrasting absorption of water by sponge and paper—became visible to his colorless eyes.

Walking forward, he soon encountered the upper body of the serpent-man, battered beyond recognition, completely lifeless, though in its final moments still consuming its own flesh.

This creature died in utter frustration. Its specialty—soul attacks—had no chance to manifest; it couldn’t even get close for physical combat, never once touching Lan Yi.

Its remains decayed rapidly. Once it lost the organ controlling soul power, its body could no longer maintain its immortality, and time seemed to accelerate across its form.

Bleached bones were already exposed. Amidst the decaying flesh, Lan Yi saw faces of unwilling humans emerge in his vision. Sensing their impending end, their lingering consciousnesses looked to Lan Yi, the liberator, gratitude and relief softening their expressions before they rose with the smoke and slowly dispersed into scattered sparks.

Being devoured by a synthetic beast was not death, but the beginning of hell.

No matter how many times he witnessed this scene, Lan Yi always affirmed that exterminating synthetic beasts was absolutely the right thing for humanity—not an act of non-human genocide.

He searched through the rotting biomass.

It appeared the biological tool was not inside the serpent-man.

Then, it must be in that peach grove.