Chapter 176: Chapter 19: Experimental Results
The armored vehicle traveled through the Dark Forest towards the Ruined Iron Hills, where Sasa witnessed numerous demons firsthand, even reaching out to touch them.
Yan Luo hunted demons but wouldn’t kill them outright. Most of the time, he would knock out the demons and then feast on their flesh and blood.
Sasa would take measurements and conduct research on the unconscious demons before Yan Luo started eating, filling in some gaps left by predecessors.
During the previous expedition into the Abyss, Sasa hadn’t been satisfied, so this time, she engaged in retaliatory research, hoping to make up for last time’s regrets in this Abyss hunt.
"Boastful in the morning, slumped in the chair by afternoon"—this phrase perfectly described Sasa.
Sasa had a congenital defect; her stamina couldn’t support prolonged physical activity, and once she exhausted her daily energy quota, her brain would force her body to rest.
Even if Sasa wanted to train her stamina to achieve a healthier body, she couldn’t.
So Sasa and Yan Luo discussed and divided the day into two parts, with Sasa leading the morning tasks and Yan Luo having free time in the afternoon.
Therefore, in the morning, Yan Luo would capture demons for Sasa, and come afternoon, he would start slaughtering them, eating and drinking with gusto.
It had been four days since they entered the Abyss, and during this time, research results on the Abyss Chameleon had been finalized.
Even by ingesting Yan Luo’s blood, the Abyss Chameleon could still automatically gather Magic Power. The rate was similar to another harmless-level demon injected with Yan Luo’s blood. This shows that whether through ingestion or injection, as long as Yan Luo’s blood is absorbed, one can gain the ability to automatically gather Magic Power.
What about bone marrow? Is it the same?
After their armored vehicle entered the Ruined Iron Hills, Yan Luo and Sasa began their experiments.
The results, however, stunned both of them—
All demons had extremely high adaptability to Magic Power, as they were inherently constructs of Magic Power. Even when materialized, their adaptability to Magic Power couldn’t be low.
As a result, Sasa wanted to observe what changes would occur when they absorbed Yan Luo’s bone marrow.
Would their adaptability to Magic Power become stronger or would there be other changes?
Sasa used ingestion and injection methods for two harmless-level demons to absorb Yan Luo’s bone marrow, keeping the dosage small.
Yet, Yan Luo’s bone marrow contained much more potent energy than his blood, and even with a small intake, the two demons underwent evolution simultaneously.
Yes, it was ’evolution’!
The two demons captured by Yan Luo for experimentation were the Stone-scaled Lizard and the Mimic Snake. After absorbing Yan Luo’s bone marrow, they didn’t level up but transformed from one species to another.
The Stone-scaled Lizard was a relatively weak demon, its scales analogously a stone-like substance, though not very hard. The Mimic Snake only had mimicking abilities.
Upon absorbing Yan Luo’s bone marrow, while the Stone-scaled Lizard’s appearance remained unchanged, it released a colorless and odorless gas from under its scales when stimulated, causing rigidity or even petrification in other creatures.
The Mimic Snake also underwent a significant transformation. After injection with Yan Luo’s bone marrow, its originally mimic-only scales could now emit brilliant radiance, causing dizziness in those who looked at it, while it retained its mimic abilities.
Upon observing this phenomenon, Sasa couldn’t help but gasp.
"It’s somewhat similar to the principle of directional enhancement."
Combining the data from previous experiments, Sasa speculated, "When a creature with Magic Power adaptability absorbs your bone marrow, its adaptability enhances. If the adaptability is low, even with enhancement, the effect is poor, so it changes their body structure like your blood, further strengthening their bodily functions.
"Demons are different; their Magic Power adaptability is at its peak, so your bone marrow enhances their superpower, evolving their abilities into branches based on their original superpower. In every aspect, it resembles your directional enhancement!"
Yan Luo exhaled heavily; perhaps the City-breaking Level demons were after him precisely for this reason, thus relentlessly pursuing him.
While Yan Luo was lost in thought, Sasa turned to look at him, her eyes behind the goggles sparkling, even her breathing quickened.
What on earth was the secret to Yan Luo? How did his blood and bone marrow transform into their current state?
Did he have some special gifts? Is this talent possessed by others?
So eager to know, to research, to... so eager to...
Yan Luo suddenly felt his hair stand on end and quickly turned to Sasa, "What do you want to do?"
"... Nothing." Sasa shook her head.
Though she said "nothing," Yan Luo knew for sure Sasa didn’t truly think so.
Just now, his intuition told him Sasa seemed like she wanted to do something to him. Although it posed no danger to him, it sent a chill down his spine.
"By the way, Yan Luo."
Sasa aware Yan Luo was pondering recent events, hurriedly spoke to change the topic, "I still want to conduct an experiment—demons today can acquire new abilities by consuming materials dropped by other demons. I want to see if, after developing new abilities, a demon consuming your bone marrow could also alter its new abilities or only evolve one ability."
As Sasa predicted, Yan Luo’s attention shifted immediately.
He began considering the feasibility of this experiment, checking their supplies.
Yan Luo had brought enough supplies for the two of them to survive fifteen days in the Abyss, and generally, a demon requires two to five days post-absorption of another demon’s Magic Power to digest it. Today was their fourth day in the Abyss... still doable.
Confirming they still had time, Yan Luo took action, driving around the Ruined Iron Hills collecting harmless-level demons.
Using harmless-level demons for experiments was most convenient, as even if they quickly grow stronger, they couldn’t escape Yan Luo’s grasp.
After gathering enough experimental demons, Yan Luo selected a few materials from those harvested from previously slaughtered demons and fed them to the demons.
Not all demons would choose to absorb the materials’ traits and acquire new abilities, so Yan Luo captured a few extras, just in case.
The vehicle’s interior didn’t have enough space for so many [Demon Preservation Boxes], so Sasa suggested putting the same type of demons in the same box.
According to findings by Yan Luo and other Hunters, there was a possibility of peaceful coexistence among same-type demons. However, the Lingquan University research team only had video footage of this and no researcher had seen it firsthand.
If Sasa could witness the peaceful coexistence between demons herself, it might greatly aid her research in related fields.
Time quickly reached the sixth day, and some demons with stronger absorption capabilities had already awakened.
Sasa operated the preservation boxes, attempting to stimulate the demons to use their abilities.
It was at this moment Yan Luo said, "Discovered a lethal-level demon, I’ll be right back."
"Mhm, go ahead," Sasa replied, with her head not turning, focused on the operation of the preservation box.
Initially, Sasa would be nervous, but after a few days, she had become familiar with the process of encountering a demon—Yan Luo getting off the vehicle—and successful hunting.
No demon was a match for Yan Luo; even elemental class demons could now be taken down by him bare-handed.
Yan Luo’s strength was growing day by day, yet his control over it was impeccable, not even crushing a glass cup with his grip.
The armored vehicle had excellent sound insulation, and Sasa could only feel minor vibrations from the floor, unable to hear the earth-shaking roars outside.
After a while, Yan Luo opened the door and returned inside.
"Another Stone Beast... after so many days, we haven’t found a single basic-level Stone Beast."
Yan Luo wanted to test if his blood and bone marrow functioned on elemental class demons, but in the more than a hundred hours they’d spent in the Ruined Iron Hills, they hadn’t found any basic-level elemental class demons, let alone harmful levels.
For experimentation, the weaker the test subjects, the better.
"Huh?"
Sasa caught a movement in the other preservation box from the corner of her eye and went over to check, finding two Mimic Snakes intertwined inside.
They seemed to be... mating?