As a key engineering project, Frick College of Liberal Arts is naturally of brick and tile construction, located next to the military camp.
Having inspected Frick Grammar School and finding no issues, Horn thought about heading back to the chanical Palace for an afternoon nap.
While crossing the wooden bridge over the Parra River, Horn caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of several chanical Palace staff tinkering with sothing by the riverbank.
"What are they doing?"
"Cleaning up the sli," Raphael glanced over, "The rainy season is approaching, the air is humid, and many slis have appeared.
Also, Hilov has been holed up in the chanical Palace doing experints every day, and there’s a lot of debris in the wastewater. Sli, with its decomposing nature, is attracted to gather at the drains.
But it doesn’t matter much, we just clean it up every two or three days; we’re used to it."
"Oh, is that so." Horn nodded, as if rembering sothing, and smiled at Raphael, "Hilov has been asking to visit the lab these past few days. Why wait and see, since there’s nothing else to do, let’s go have a look."
This morning, Hilov had just drawn a few drops of her own blood for the so-called Demon-Loving Fungus experint. It’s uncertain what the results are so far.
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Entering the chanical Palace, reaching Hilov’s laboratory, Horn could see the heavy, thick iron door.
The two Cheka at the door saw it was Horn, naturally didn’t obstruct him, and smoothly opened the door to let Horn in.
"Ah, Horn, you’re just in ti." Hilov just removed her leather goggles, and at the mont her peripheral vision caught Horn, her ears and head lifted simultaneously.
"Just in ti? Why?" Horn casually pulled up a chair to sit down, this way he could look directly at Hilov’s face.
"Do you rember a few days ago I told you I’m about to solve the mystery of the Blessed? Do you rember that?"
Horn answered reluctantly, "I rember."
"Liar." Hilov extended her snow-white finger, tapping Horn on the nose, "You never rember what I say."
"There’s nothing I can do, it’s a passive skill developed from practicing with Jeanne, and I can’t turn it off."
"Passive skill... you’re speaking nonsense again?" Hilov rotated her wheelchair, taking a folder from the shelf, and handing it to Horn.
"About the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus, after several experints, I’ve summarized so of its patterns..."
Listening to Hilov’s live explanation and looking at the experint brief in his hand, Horn’s expression gradually beca serious, gradually understanding the operational chanism of the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus.
First, there needs to be a wound on the body to facilitate the assimilation and entry of the Demon-Loving Fungus. Previously, through drinking and saring, the fungus couldn’t survive long.
Second, Horn himself needs to be present, preferably injured, to facilitate the spread and infection of the fungus.
Third, the toxicity of Horn’s Demon-Loving Fungus is too low, getting killed off by the body’s chanism before taking effect. It’s best to use it with other pathogens, ideally infecting a wound.
"Rember the first batch of infected? Most of them had injuries or illnesses in the high mountains, already injured or sick, so the infection was rapid.
Rember many who got your Witch disease but didn’t awaken as Blessed?
That’s because their vitality was too strong, eliminating your fungus.
During the Pavia battle, there was a sudden increase in Blessed, because there were many injuries, too many pathogens for the body to handle, allowing the fungus to take advantage and mingle, creating many Blessed.
Later on, fewer Blessed appeared in battles because the number of Extraordinary increased and the widespread use of garlic essential dicine resulted in effective elimination of your fungus."
Due to the lack of adequate biological and dical knowledge, Hilov didn’t have the concepts of immunity or virus, often having to explain with dical and biological knowledge from the Ancient Aer Era.
But from the report’s perspective, while descriptions were inaccurate, the patterns summarized were correct.
"So does this an..." Horn leaned forward from the chair, eagerly awaiting Hilov’s response.
"Yes, after solving this problem, in principle, we can now mass-produce Blessed." Hilov’s cheek muscles twitched slightly, her tail proudly arched.
Mass production of Blessed...
Upon hearing these words, the sounds in Horn’s ears blurred, thinking it was a term he’d hear only before his death.
"Well done, Hilov, well done!"
Horn rushed to Hilov’s side, lifting her from the wheelchair, making her face blush, before carefully placing her back into the wheelchair by her armpits.
Who would have thought that in just a few months Hilov could accomplish this. The intelligence of all Beastn is said to be possibly one stone, and Hilov occupies one and two-tenths of that.
No wonder Horn was excited; this could be one of his trump cards in dismantling the Church’s Extraordinary hegemony.
When the extraordinary exists as a natural phenonon, the idea of eliminating the extraordinary becos a joke.
Horn could kill everyone who knows the breathing technique and burn every book related to the breathing technique and Divine Art.
Yet, these things lie beneath the surface of nature, soone will inevitably discover them again, and put them to use once more.
Can Horn’s decree command nature?
Horn has always carefully controlled mortals’ perception of the extraordinary, not because he is an Extraordinary himself and driven by self-interest, but because he cannot eliminate the extraordinary.
He believes that understanding and utilizing the extraordinary, then popularizing it, is akin to how fire burns people, but instead of extinguishing or denying fire, people should harness it.
Hilov was encouraged to research and establish a system of natural theology, spreading the scientific research thodology... even boldly allowing the use of death row inmates for human experints.
The goal of all this was to seek and discover the laws of the extraordinary.
This effort finally yielded its first bud— the Demon-Loving Fungus.
Others might not yet see its potential, but Horn already has.
If the Demon-Loving Fungus could be cultivated in large quantities and made into sothing like a vaccine, which could then be widely administered to all mortals under the Salvation Army, what would happen?
Five million Thousand River Valley People, five million Wizards, five million Alchemists and Holy Gunn!
Eventually, perhaps it could even beco a mandatory practice, where every newborn is injected with the Demon-Loving Fungus, transforming the entire nation into a nation of Wizards.
By that ti, not even Witches could spread witch disease to ordinary people, rendering all stigmatization and judgnt of Witches a thing of the past.
All Witches could live healthily in the sunlight, no longer needing to hide.
This is Horn’s solution to the Church’s extraordinary hegemony and the extraordinary’s dehumanizing effect—
Turn everyone into an Extraordinary, forcibly lowering the upper and lower limits of personal power.
When everyone becos extraordinary, the the of "extraordinary dehumanization" ceases to exist.
This thod alone could phase out the breathing technique itself, turning it into sothing akin to a physical exercise or even gymnastics.
However, Horn’s wild notion was soon doused by a cold bucket of water from Hilov.
"No, it’s impossible to produce in large quantities for the ti being, let alone reach the numbers you ntioned."
"Why?" Horn asked, still bewildered, "Can’t you take a culture dium and cultivate a batch of Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus in large numbers?"
"You can’t cultivate it, rember? The Demon-Loving Fungus can only reproduce in a high-magic environnt, in a low-magic environnt it will cease all activity to preserve itself," Hilov said, pulling apart the fur stuck together with oil at the tip of her tail.
Horn realized that any environnt with magic power would bind to living organisms, making mass production with a culture dium impossible.
The living culture dium is another matter entirely, where the organism itself and the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus undergo simultaneous transformation to beco the second generation Demon-Loving Fungus, which loses the ability to distort nerves.
Simply put, the first generation Demon-Loving Fungus is food, while the second generation is what’s excreted after eating the food, lacking sufficient nutrients.
This ant that Horn would be the sole production facility for the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus for a long ti.
But since the problem of existence had been solved, all that was left was to gradually develop it until it could be used, and Horn could wait.
"Then how did you conduct those experints?" Horn recalled Hilov’s experints.
"I use them as needed; when I need to experint, I just take so blood or scrape so tongue coating to use," Hilov’s wolf tail suddenly swished, a sign of her happiness.
"Horn, if you want to turn soone into a Blessed, just spit into their wound."
"Huh?" Horn was left baffled.
"Think about it, the spit contains auxiliary bacteria, and the nasal and throat contain Demon-Loving Fungus, spitting it into soone’s wound is more effective than our post-configuration, isn’t it?"
Spitting into other people’s wounds to infect new Blessed... what the heck is this?!
Yet, after considering it, Horn couldn’t help feeling an indescribable absurdity, because he realized that Hilov’s words actually held so truth and feasibility.
The Demon-Loving Fungus needed other bacteria as a cover, and the nasal passage just so happened to have other bacteria, while the throat contained the Demon-Loving Fungus.
This mix didn’t even need Hilov’s temporary preparation.
But Horn still found it hard to accept at the mont; others would entice followers with "Join the glorious evolution!" while he would go with "Here... spat!"
Darn it, I thought jumping around was disgraceful enough, but how can there be an expert here?
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