Bai Shi watched Millicent walk down the main road toward Stormveil.
I hope nothing bad happens to her.</<>
Bai Shi immediately felt Melina reclaim her spot behind him.
"You're so kind to everyone."
"She's involved with two demigods, not to mention the very god who is the source of the Scarlet Rot."
"You didn't even know her before this. You should be a little more careful."
Melina's voice sounded in his ear.
Bai Shi smiled.
"I can't help it. The people of the Lands Between live such hard lives."
"I can't witness their suffering and do nothing."Melina didn't say anything more, simply resting her head on Bai Shi's back.
She knew what kind of person Bai Shi was. In fact, it was this pure kindness that was so endearing.
—
Bai Shi returned to Redmane Castle via a site of grace.
The moment he arrived, Bai Shi headed to Hilbert's laboratory to check on the research progress.
A day had passed; they should have learned quite a bit about the nature of that unique Scarlet Rot by now.
When Hilbert saw Bai Shi return, he quickly called him over to see the results.
"You're back just in time. We've already made some discoveries."
Bai Shi raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? What have you found?"
Hilbert thought for a moment, gathering his words.
"Let's start with the conclusion."
"The plant that the Scarlet Rot transformed into is indeed free of toxins."
"Even when fed to living creatures, there haven't been any immediate, obvious reactions."
"However, the situation might not be as good as we hoped."
Hilbert took out a container identical to the one from before and placed it in front of Bai Shi.
Hilbert pointed at the small clump of Scarlet Rot before him, signaling for Bai Shi to look.
Bai Shi leaned in for a closer look but saw no difference between the rot in the container and ordinary Scarlet Rot.
"What's wrong? Isn't this just ordinary Scarlet Rot?"
Hilbert shook his head and spread his hands.
"Unfortunately, this is part of the same Scarlet Rot you used your power on yesterday to change its form."
In disbelief, Bai Shi looked again at the Scarlet Rot in the container.
It was, without a doubt, ordinary Scarlet Rot. The features that had changed were completely gone.
Just yesterday, that same rot had been transforming into a plant under the influence of the sunlight.
"What happened? Did it devolve on its own and turn back into this?"
Hilbert nodded.
"Precisely. It seems that because it ran out of nutrients, it all reverted to Scarlet Rot."
"Do you remember how the Scarlet Rot expanded after being affected by your power?"
"After this Scarlet Rot reverted to its original state, the amount remained the same as its expanded size."
"If we can't solve this problem, we'll actually be promoting the spread of Scarlet Rot."
Bai Shi frowned.
"So, does that mean this method is useless...?"
Hilbert waved his hand and said,
"No, not exactly. Let me show you some other control groups."
Hilbert retrieved several stacked containers from the side and placed them one by one on the table for observation.
In these containers, much of the Scarlet Rot still maintained its plant-like form and was even continuing to develop.
Only one or two had reverted to the form of Scarlet Rot.
Bai Shi scanned back and forth between the containers, observing the starkly contrasting forms of the Scarlet Rot.
"These haven't changed? What did you do to them?"
Hilbert pointed to the first container.
This container had a shallow layer of water at the bottom, and the water level was slowly decreasing.
The plant in this container was growing reasonably well, but its color was a bit dark.
"In this container, I only added water."
"Clearly, it's still alive."
"Although the color is darkening, it's still growing and hasn't reverted to Scarlet Rot."
"It seems that simple water can sustain its growth."
Hilbert then pointed to the second container.
Inside was a layer of soil, but it was already turning to sand, while the plant was growing quite vigorously.
"In this one, I added soil from another region, untouched by Scarlet Rot."
"Its need for nutrients is truly voracious."
"The soil underneath has been completely drained, gradually turning into sand."
Next, Hilbert pointed to the third container, where the plant was growing most vigorously of all and was very green.
"As for this one, I added animal flesh and blood."
"Its growth rate and developmental state are clearly more vigorous than the others."
"As for these three..."
Bai Shi looked at the other three containers, where the plants were slowly degenerating back into Scarlet Rot.
"These three had the same things added as the others, but only half the amount."
"Now that the nutrients have been absorbed, they are starting to turn back into Scarlet Rot."
"This confirms for me that they revert due to a lack of nutrients, not for some other special reason."
Bai Shi then looked at the last container, which also held Scarlet Rot.
Bai Shi asked Hilbert,
"What about this container?"
Hilbert checked the label on the container.
"This one? I added more Scarlet Rot directly to it."
"The plants transformed from Scarlet Rot seem to directly share nutrients with untransformed Scarlet Rot."
"When only a small amount of new Scarlet Rot is added, they can also convert it into a plant state."
"But once the energy is insufficient, they all devolve back into Scarlet Rot at the same time."
Hilbert paused, then continued explaining the characteristics of these transformed plants:
"These plants can function like normal plants in an ecosystem."
"After animals eat these plants, we haven't observed any abnormalities so far."
"After feeding these plants to uncorrupted animals like sheep and rats, they showed no strange reactions, and the plants didn't turn back into Scarlet Rot in their stomachs."
"Of course, it's also possible that the experiment has been too short. We'll need further observation to draw a final conclusion."
Bai Shi's gaze shifted back and forth between the containers of Scarlet Rot as he pondered. The plants derived from Scarlet Rot had very high nutrient requirements.
Sunlight could put them into a "bountiful" state, transforming them into plants.
But to maintain them in a plant state, a large, subsequent supply of nutrients was needed.
The experiments with various single substances showed that all kinds of nutrients had nearly the same effect on the Scarlet Rot.
In other words, the Scarlet Rot wasn't picky at all.
In fact, previously, the Scarlet Rot had been able to grow and spread out of its container with only sunlight and no other nutrients.
But once the nutrients ran out, not only would it revert to its Scarlet Rot state, but it would also expand its territory.
This meant that any such treatment plan had to eradicate the Scarlet Rot all at once, on a massive scale.
It couldn't be done piecemeal; otherwise, the plants' nutrients would be siphoned away by the adjacent Scarlet Rot.
This wasn't much of a problem, as Bai Shi had already planned to use Fengling Yueying to enhance the sunlight for the cleansing anyway.
But the subsequent nutrition was a major hurdle.
Just using Fengling Yueying-enhanced sunlight could indeed clear away the Scarlet Rot and turn it all into plants.
But he couldn't just ignore it afterward, or it might actually cause the Scarlet Rot to spread further.
Based on the current situation, the demand these plants had for nutrients from water, soil, and even flesh and blood was enormous.
With sunlight, the consumption of other nutrients might be reduced to a very low level.
However, the problem now was that he couldn't keep shining sunlight on them.
After all, the sun was still eclipsed.
If that was the case, then at the very least, he had to resolve the eclipse before he could begin his Scarlet Rot cleanup operation.
Bai Shi thought for a moment and decided to postpone the eradication plan for a while.
Otherwise, even if he could temporarily cleanse Caelid of the Scarlet Rot, the moment the plants' growth requirements could no longer be met, the region would once again turn into an inferno of rot.
Perhaps he should also research how to eliminate the plant-transformed Scarlet Rot on a large scale.
This stuff was ultimately a hidden danger. It came from the power of a god, and carelessness could lead to a backlash.
At the very least, he needed to study how to confine it to a specific area.
Right now it was a plant, but later on, it might give rise to animal life or something similar.
Bai Shi had no desire to see strange, green creatures that shouted "Waaagh!" sprouting from the ground.
So, Bai Shi asked Hilbert,
"Regarding these plants that transformed from the Scarlet Rot, is there any way to get rid of them?"
"We'll have to manage these plants going forward. We can't let them spread unchecked."
Hilbert strongly agreed with Bai Shi's point of view.
They definitely needed to be controlled; after all, this stuff could revert to Scarlet Rot.
No one knew if it might one day cause unforeseeable consequences.
Thinking back on the previous experiments, Hilbert said,
"On that front, we're still running various tests, but we do have some information."
"Fire is still quite effective."
"Just like ordinary Scarlet Rot, it recedes when burned with fire."
"It also actively avoids flames, slowly moving away from sources of high heat."
"Besides that, many other things can harm it, whether it's cold, lightning, or something else."
"And now that it's a plant, the blight perfume I formulated before is also effective against it."
"Overall, after becoming plants, their weaknesses have clearly increased."
"Perhaps because the Scarlet Rot state is meant for expansion and reproduction, its environmental adaptability is much stronger."
"But even though it has more weaknesses than Scarlet Rot, the simplest and most efficient method is still fire."
"The blight perfume also works well, and its material cost is much lower than the neutralizing perfume. If we can ramp up production, it's also a viable option."
Bai Shi was lost in thought.
Fire?
If managing it afterward proved to be too much trouble, he supposed he could just use Fengling Yueying's super damage buff on fire to scorch the entire land.
The only thing was, after that, Caelid would become a complete wasteland of scorched earth.
It would then face a very, very long period of ecological recovery.
This recovery time would likely be measured in millennia.
These plants transformed from Scarlet Rot were actually beneficial to the ecosystem; they truly did serve the ecological function of plants.
Both methods had their pros and cons.
If the plants could be contained, it would actually be better to leave them be.
He would wait for the results of the subsequent experiments before deciding on a final course of action.
Bai Shi took a breath.
"Do you have any animals we can experiment on?"
"I want to see what happens to the Scarlet Rot on an animal."
Hilbert nodded, went outside, and called for a Redmane soldier, telling him to bring the test subjects.
Soon, several Redmane soldiers pushed a cage toward the laboratory.
Inside the cage was one of the giant dogs commonly found in the wilds of Caelid.
The giant dog was covered in wounds and nearly dead.
Hilbert explained to Bai Shi,
"The knights outside helped us catch these. We have several."
"We used to use them for testing medicine and studying how to deal with rotted creatures."
"They can all be used as test subjects. Feel free to use them as you wish."
Bai Shi walked up to the cage, held out his hand, and began to release the power of the sun.
As the warm sunlight enveloped the giant dog's body, the symbiotic Scarlet Rot on it began to squirm, causing it to howl in pain.
Immediately after, the Scarlet Rot began to expand outward, gradually covering the dog's entire body and sprouting many swollen tumors.
But soon, the giant dog's flesh shriveled up, its slack skin hanging loosely on its skeleton.
The Scarlet Rot seemed to be directly using its flesh and blood as nutrients, rapidly transforming into the plant-like form.
Unfortunately, perhaps because the host was too weak, the giant dog soon collapsed and died.
In a short while, the writhing Scarlet Rot turned the giant dog into a mass of flesh, which then gradually became a huge, pinkish-white sludge from which green shoots slowly emerged.
Bai Shi didn't stop the sunlight, continuing to release it until the giant dog's corpse had turned into a sapling.
Only when he saw rough bark and lush branches and leaves did Bai Shi stop the sunlight from his hand.
It seemed that although the plants transformed from Scarlet Rot required an enormous amount of nutrients, the end result was indeed a plant, and one that grew incredibly fast.
Hilbert observed the sapling for a moment.
"Did it fail? It seems the giant dog itself was already at its limit."
"Let's try again with a few others."
Bai Shi nodded and told the Redmane soldiers to bring all the remaining giant dogs.