The lifeblood—the raw ingredient used by the Goddess of Creation to create life, the divine substance representing the origin of beings in the Plane of Dreams—had an unquestionable sanctity in it though it was only a component of the Seed of Origin and the First Born. It made them wonder why the lifeblood was so scared of a small fish that was just one foot long.
Hao Ren took some lifeblood samples from the blood pool and Lil Pea to a hut far away from the square for the experiment. The results of the test remained unchanged. As long as the little mermaid came close to the lifeblood, it would immediately show its inactivity and even signs of active retreat. He put the lifeblood in a glass tube and let the little mermaid stare at it. The lifeblood almost stuck on the side wall of the glass tube.
After a few tests, he also found a peculiar phenomenon; Lil Pea seemed to be able to control her ‘power’ slightly.
When the little mermaid looked at or paid attention to the lifeblood, the retreat of the lifeblood would be more visible, but if the little guy shifted her focus away, the effect of this ‘suppression’ would be greatly reduced, or even no suppression effect at all. The little mermaid became impatient after a few experiments. She no longer wanted to pay attention to the ‘red water’ in the tube, so the lifeblood regained its vitality.
Feeling bored, Lil Pea jumped around on the table and finally onto Hao Ren’s arm and hung there like an armband. She no longer wanted to move her muscle. The lifeblood in the glass tube began to move slowly. Its surging speed was a little slower than before though. Hao Ren stroked the tail of the little mermaid and said to Y’zaks, “Looks like the key to the suppression effect is the little guy’s attention. When she focused, she would influence the lifeblood.”
“The lifeblood has no self-awareness. It can’t even perceive,” said Y’zaks, scratching his big bald head. The highly experienced great demon king was also a little dumbstruck now. “Why is it afraid of a fish?”
Lily chimed in suddenly. “Rollie is also afraid of Lil Pea.”
“It’s not the same thing. Go to a side.” Hao Ren motioned her away and then looked at the MDT. “Were there any other special powers in her that you had discovered during the body check-up?”
“She has a lot of special powers, after all, she is a demon hunting fish,” the MD replied. “However, there is no such special power that you describe. She is just an ordinary mermaid. At most, she is a little spirited and likes to beat the cat up.”
“The talent of the demon hunter is unlikely to produce this effect,” Hao Ren said and pulled his brows together. “Nangong Sanba used to be in contact with the lifeblood, but there was no reaction at all. I guess demon hunters would not be able to influence the lifeblood. After all, demon hunters are just cyborgs created by the ancient magic emperors.”
“Is it because Lil Pea has a purer bloodline?” Lily wagged her tail gently, which was a sign that she was in serious thought. “She was, after all, processed in the Sacred Relics of Origins, and several ranks above the demon hunters such as Hesse,” she said.
Hao Ren spread out his hand. “Isn’t demon hunter of the purest bloodline just a derivative of the derivative of the derivative of the lifeblood?” he asked.
While they discussed and studied the problem here, Muru was following up with the situation through the radio outside the town. The giant had learned about the phenomenon between Lil Pea and the lifeblood and discussed it with the First Born of Zorm. His voice suddenly came through the radio. “Guys, something crossed my mind suddenly. Do you still remember a few months ago, when you tested Zorm’s ability to control the lifeblood in the CARS? Near to the culture pool, the lifeblood suddenly lost its vitality just like today. Was your daughter present at the scene at that time?”
Muru’s word reminded Hao Ren of the incident. He smacked himself on the head and said, “Right, Lil Pea was also there!”
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“However, this still doesn’t explain how the interplay comes about,” the MDT said as it knocked on the table, or rather knocked its head on the table, depending on your interpretation. “I’ve recorded the information of the interaction between Lil Pea and the lifeblood, but not found any logical relationship. There is no magic nor superpower. Lil Pea did not exert any power. It seems that it is just an instinctive reaction of the lifeblood as if it fears the mermaid naturally although the mermaid is only a foot long and has not even learned how to speak properly.”
The discussion went on for a long while, but there was no conclusion. Whether it was the actual test or the analysis of the MDT, they found not the slightest clue. Hao Ren felt that harping on the question was only a waste of time. He got to his feet and said, “Keep this question in the record. After the mission, I’d ask Raven 12345 about it. After all, she was the only who sent Lil Pea to me. She must know something.”
They all agreed and could only place their hope on the Goddess.
They came out from the hut and saw Ulyanov loitering outside. No one chased him out of the hut, but he came out on his on will. He was still troubled by the memory disorder and could not wrap his brain around the experiments that Hao Ren conducted. He just needed some quiet time. When he saw them coming out, he came up to them and asked about the blood pool, looking worried. The blood pool was the most important thing in the society of Zorm today. It was the only way for them to return to the real world and the source of the population. If they could not depend on it, then there would be nothing they could depend on in this world.
“The blood pool is fine. The incident was just an isolated accident.” Hao Ren patted Ulyanov on the shoulder to reassure him. “By the way, is the person who failed to come through the ‘transmission’ okay? Did he return to the virtual world safely?”
“The person is fine.” Ulyanov nodded. “The birth is a two-step process. The only thing that comes out of the blood pool is the body assembled according to the gene bank. Then we have to touch the signal tower to reload our soul into the body. It is said that this process is to save bandwidth and prevent the soul from being loaded into a defective body. The person who was ‘stuck’ today has been born only half an hour late.”
Hao Ren nodded as he breathed a sigh of relief. “Perhaps you should build a roof or something around the blood pool; exposing it in the open doesn’t sound appropriate,” he said.
Ulyanov laughed. “We are planning to do that in the future. The town has just been formed not long ago, and we are facing housing and food shortage right now. Build a large ‘restoration greenhouse’ is too big a project for us for the moment.”
Looking at the rudimentary houses around, Y’lisabet suddenly asked with curiosity, “Why don’t you live in the golden city? Isn’t Alamanda a ready-made shelter? The houses are solid; the most you need to do is to clean the place up. Err, I mean those that have not collapsed.”
Hao Ren also nodded. “She is right. You can stay in the ruins of the city freely. Anyway, the necessary preservation work of civilization has been completed, and the rest are just materials. People are more important than anything else.”
Ulyanov who had just woken up did not seem to know this thing. All he saw was just a beautiful wall of Alamanda on the high ground in the distance and never realized there was a magnificent alien city ruin and thought of moving to the city. At this time, a Zorm people passed by and heard the conversation. The person came up and told them, “Although we would like to do so, this is not realistic at present.”
The person was a tall, dark-skinned man, whom Hao Ren had never met before. The man was not a member of the Grey Fox Mercenary Company, he figured. The dark-skinned man explained, “At this stage, we can’t leave the blood pool and the signal tower too far. These two things are the key to connecting the virtual world and the real world, but there are no such facilities in the city ruins. There are no water sources and food in the ruin, no materials from the natural world, and too far from the resupply point. Initially, there was a small group of people moving in the city, but they found that there were food supply and communication difficulties, so they came back out, leaving behind only a few outposts around the city. The only advantage of that place is that the houses are relatively stronger, but to be honest, this is not our priority at the moment.”
Hao Ren had been wondering why these Zorm people would instead settle in the wild and not live in Alamanda. Now he understood. When he first built the infrastructure on this planet, he consciously circumvented all the ruins of Tannagost, including making eighty percent of the autonomous factories in the wild, and only a few production facilities in the city. At present, the Zorm people needed more than just solid houses. They relied on the blood pool, the signal tower, forests, and natural rivers to survive. The alien city had none of these things.
He knew that this would be temporary. After the Zorm people had stored enough food, explored the surrounding terrains, built necessary production tools and gained experience in reclaiming the wilderness, they would move into the city ruins of Tannagost. When that happened, the area between the ruins and the blood pool would grow into a populated strip.
The Zorm people still needed shelter from the wind and rain. The first winter of this planet would not be hospitable to them.