The shell of the black pillars slowly split apart, revealing a room that could accommodate almost ten muscular demons. For safety reasons, the storage slots of biochemical beasts were shifted to the lower space together with the explorers.
The stone pillars operated for almost half a minute in silence, covered in mysterious blue brightness, before they finally arrived at the second floor of the Mausoleum of Chaos.
The environment of this floor was entirely different from the temple above. Except for the vast space in the center that appeared to be a square, dense pathways covered the walls. At first glance, the place was an enormous honeycomb.
A lot of corpses were scattered on the ground just like the floor above. The explorers were no longer surprised to see them. After making sure that there were no constituents of venomous gas or poison in the corpses, they marked the dead bodies with natural fluorescent paints before they began to explore the surroundings.
Li Yao saw Yuchi Ba place meatballs that looked like lumps in the corners of the central square together with a few members of the core squad.
It was said that they were very amazing demonic artifacts that could gather the weak bioelectricity floating in the air and display the image of the bioelectricity after enhancing it.
If the bioelectricity left in the air was powerful enough, it was possible for them to see the views of forty thousand years ago.
Bo! Bo!
All the balls were set and connected to each other via the synthesized nerves. They uttered a soft sound at the same time, and the tops of the balls blossomed like flowers. A few antennas that looked like stamen protruded out and shivered slightly.
Li Yao sensed that mystic rays were being triggered from the ‘stamen’ and spreading out like a tide. Soon, the entire square was filled up, and everything was soaked in a bright green ocean.
Soon, images were flashing, and clusters of shadows really appeared out of nowhere.
However, perhaps because of the vastness of the room, most of the bioelectricity had dispersed. The shadows were all extremely blurred. The explorers could only see that the shadows were running and chasing each other quickly and that they would rush into each other and roll over on the ground. However, no details could be seen clearly.
Very soon, the shadows dispersed into an overwhelming army that occupied the entire square like silent statues.
“It seems that an army of Chaos once gathered in this place. Or rather, this is the place where the army of Chaos was manufactured.”
Chu Zhengqing and other researchers explored the area with the shadows as leads. Soon, they discovered new skeletons.
The surface of many skeletons was still reflecting vague metal colors in weird forms. It was not hard to imagine that the skeletons must have been unbelievably strong when they were still alive.
After collecting a lot of files in the square, the explorers dispersed and explored the pathways on the walls.
The ends of the pathways turned out to be research rooms. Perhaps due to an emergency, the gates of most of the research rooms were not closed, and most of the defense rune arrays remained deactivated or had even been sabotaged. Therefore, it was rather convenient for them to go in.
The coverage of every research room was extremely impressive. They also boasted a fine ventilation and defense system. However, Li Yao could tell with a single look that the spiritual energy of the defense system had been used up.
Somebody fully activated the defense rune arrays of this place in order to resist something, Li Yao thought to himself.
A lot of magical equipment and training facilities were scattered on the ground. Li Yao had not seen many of them even in Ou Yezi’s dreams.
At the center of the research room stood an enormous stone platform on which dense spiritual stripes had been carved into the shape of a human being. There were also iron chains and rings nearby, which seemed sufficient to tightly tie somebody to the stone plate.
Bo!
Another demonic artifact that could enhance the bioelectricity was placed at the center of the stone platform and activated!
Maybe because the bioelectricity stagnated there due to the limited space, or maybe because a lot of unbelievable training sessions had taken place on the platform and led to the accumulation of the bioelectricity, the image that they captured in this place was much clearer than the image in the square.
Six clear shapes of human beings were all wearing fully enclosed robes that were glittering in silver colors. Even their faces were covered by weird bronze masks. Vague brightness was flowing on the surface of the masks, indicating that they could filter the air and kill the germs.
It seems that the ancient people were not as ignorant as we thought them to be. At the very least, in this place, they already had the concept of killing bacteria, Li Yao thought to himself.
The six people were all leaning against the stone platform that looked like both an operation table and an altar. On the stone platform, a naked human being was lying.
There was no telling whether it was because of the effects of drugs or because some sort of soul-suppressing techniques had been performed, but the human being seemed rather tranquil, with even resolution deep inside his eyes.
The bioelectricity was extremely unstable, and the images that Li Yao saw were changing constantly. Very soon, the image dispersed and condensed into something new. The human being lying on the stone platform was now floating in midair. His long hair all stood up and danced crazily like vipers while he trained himself, facing against the floating rune arrays.
The few people wearing silver robes and bronze masks, on the other hand, surrounded him and were busy taking notes.
Li Yao noticed that there were both human beings and demons among the strange researchers in long robes, but they seemed to be so familiar with each other that the disparity of their appearance was completely overlooked. They fully devoted themselves to their study.
The training human floating in midair was rather capable. He surpassed the speed of sound multiple times and blew the floating rune arrays into pieces. Although it was hard to see the facial expressions of the researchers, considering that they were nodding nonstop, they seemed rather satisfied with the result.
However, before long, the trainer screamed miserably and fell from midair. He then writhed on the ground, holding his head.
Li Yao thought of something and glanced around the room. Very soon, he located a desk on one side of the research room.
The items on the desk had almost all decayed, but Li Yao was quite familiar with the structure and usage of one pile of the remains.
It was a wood shelf that the ancient Cultivators used to store jade chips.
Li Yao extended his hand and groped. As he expected, he found a jade chip below the rotten shelf.
Naturally, a randomly placed jade chip in this place was not likely to have stored any invaluable techniques. Besides, since it had been unused for forty thousand years, there was no telling whether or not it was still readable at all.
Li Yao hid the jade chip inside his palm and scratched the spiritual stripes on the jade chip with his thumb carefully in the standard method of the Hundred Smelting Clan to clean rune arrays.
A moment later, Li Yao sensed the hard jade slightly soften, and it seemed to have turned into a half-frozen amber. Li Yao smiled in secret and extended part of his telepathic thoughts into the item. As he expected, he read a lot of information pieces from the jade chip.
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and absorbed himself in the information pieces, only to discover that it was an experiment log.
Judging from the analysis, an unbelievable experiment had been conducted in this place!
Are you kidding me? Transplantation of the spiritual root?
The spiritual root was the foundation of every Cultivator; it enabled them to absorb and release the spiritual energy in the universe once it was awakened. Besides, in the training and fighting after they became a Cultivator, the quality of their spiritual root was of paramount importance, too. For example, the release and reception of telepathic thoughts both required the spiritual root, and manipulating the magical equipment remotely could not be done without the spiritual threads that were triggered from the spiritual root.
Therefore, in the Star Glory Federation, the training of the Spirit Actualization Quotient had been attached great importance starting from childhood.
All the courses that the students took were focused on the improvement of the Spirit Actualization Quotient. A lot of strengthening drugs on the market were prepared for those who were desperate to increase their Spirit Actualization Quotient, too.
Even so, achieving the 100% of the Spirit Actualization Quotient and awakening themselves to be Cultivators was still merely a tantalizing dream for most people.
Most of the ordinary people could not awaken their spiritual root and grasp the strength to command the wind and storms however hard they trained themselves.
It was so in modern times when there were perfect training theories and various kinds of strengthening drugs, and it was even more so in the underdeveloped era of ancient Cultivators forty thousand years ago.
The road to divinity was unpredictable. Becoming a Cultivator was more difficult than ascending to the heavens. Without the most coincidental, fortuitous events, most people would not even dream of being a high and might Cultivator!
However, the research that was conducted in this place was trying to break the boundary between ordinary people and Cultivators!
“Cultivators have spiritual roots. When a Cultivator grows old and weary and eventually perishes of natural causes, their spiritual root will wither with them.
“However, most Cultivators are engaged in bloody battles all the time. It is very rare for them to die of old age.
“The majority of the Cultivators are killed in the combat during their prime years, when their spiritual root is in its prime!
“Isn’t it a shame that such a spiritual root is wasted just because the Cultivator has perished?
“If we extract the spiritual roots out of the Cultivators who have unfortunately perished and transplant them into the brains of the strong warriors without spiritual roots, can the strong warriors make a great leap forward into Cultivators?”
After combining all the files inside the experiment log, Li Yao finally figured out what an insane idea the predecessors had in mind.
Yes. Insane. Although he had always considered himself to be an audacious refiner, he could only describe it as ‘insane’!
It must be noted that, same as the Nascent Soul, the spiritual root was not an organ that existed in reality. One would not find a ‘root’ that looked like ginseng after they dissected the brain of a Cultivator.
The spiritual root was a mysterious organ that bordered between the flesh and pure energy.
How could it be extracted and transplanted when one could not even see such an organ?
Besides, even if the spiritual root of a Cultivator could be extracted, was it bearable for the brain of an unprepared ordinary person?
Li Yao recalled his experience when Ou Yezi’s tremendous memory pieces flooded into his brain for the first time.
The most likely outcome of such a crazy experiment was that the brain of the strong warrior would be completely ruined and burnt.
Judging from the results recorded in the experimental log, that was exactly what had happened.
Countless experiments had all failed. None of the ‘manufactured Cultivators’ who received the foreign spiritual roots survived more than three days.
The best outcome was that the spiritual root withered automatically, and the warrior retrograded to what he used to be, and the worst outcome was simply too miserable to be looked at.