Chapter 145: Mages
Combat Rating: 5?
Zhang Xiongyuan’s first reaction was to refresh his combat rating several more times.
But no matter how many times he refreshed it, the 5 remained glaringly displayed under his combat rating.
Zhang Xiongyuan quickly came up with an explanation for the situation.
Perhaps the dr*g first changed the epidermal cells of his skin and the collagen in his dermis, while the muscles, bones, heart, and other parts responsible for supporting his physical strength needed more time to complete a full cycle of replacement.
In other words, if he wanted to increase his combat rating, he would have to wait a little longer.
Thinking of it this way, Zhang Xiongyuan laughed heartily, poking fun at himself for being far too impatient.
He got up and moved around for a while. After confirming that he didn’t feel any discomfort anywhere, he reported his current condition to the clergy.
A cleric soon arrived.
“Please come with us. We’ll arrange a physical examination for you right away.”
Zhang Xiongyuan nodded and instinctively adopted a respectful expression toward the cleric as he followed them out of the hospital room.
After becoming a believer of the great Creator God, he had come to understand more and more why the people of Blue Sea trusted their clergy absolutely and held them in such high regard.
Because only after placing his faith in the great Blue Sea Creator God could he truly understand just how trustworthy the clergy were—the people who had sworn beneath the statue of the great deity to love humanity and save humanity for the rest of their lives.
Anti-aging dr*gs weren’t something you could simply take and then forget about.
Strictly speaking, the dr*g merely provided the cells with a repair program. During the repair process, an aging body still needed a massive amount of raw materials to restore itself to a youthful state.
Calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and so on.
In fact, the three days after taking the dr*g were the most vulnerable period for a human being. It was comparable to an animal shedding its skin or changing its shell. If danger arose, they would have little ability to escape.
Yet even in such a weakened state, lying inside the Blue Sea Temple, Zhang Xiongyuan felt nothing but complete peace of mind.
Even though he knew that the world beyond the Safe City was filled with dangers, he still felt utterly safe.
Sure enough, while he was unconscious, it had been the clergy in the temple who continuously supplied him with nutrients and the raw materials needed to rebuild his body, monitoring his vital signs around the clock. That was how he had been able to safely recover to the condition he had in his youth.
When they reached the examination area, Zhang Xiongyuan thanked the cleric who had led him there.
“Thank you. Sorry to trouble you.”
The cleric smiled gently, placed a hand over his chest, and bowed his head slightly.
“Our God above. May Blue Sea endure forever.”
Zhang Xiongyuan likewise replied respectfully:
“Our God above. May Blue Sea endure forever.”
—There were quite a few others undergoing examinations in the same batch.
Everyone now looked to be around thirty or forty years old. Clearly, before taking the dr*g, they had all been over sixty, just like Zhang Xiongyuan.
Now that they had regained their youthful appearances, the entire corridor was filled with an atmosphere of joy and celebration.
The temple had thoughtfully placed large mirrors all along both sides of the corridor, allowing the “old people” to stand in front of them and admire their youthful appearances to their hearts’ content.
While waiting for his number to be called, Zhang Xiongyuan couldn’t resist standing in front of a mirror himself.
He simply couldn’t get tired of looking.
“Old Zhang!!”
A voice called out from the left.
Zhang Xiongyuan looked up and saw a man about 1.9 meters tall, broad-shouldered and robust, with the face of someone around thirty-five, waving at him.
From the way he addressed him, Zhang Xiongyuan vaguely guessed who it was. But faced with a muscular man who looked nearly twice his width, he still sounded rather uncertain.
“Dorian?”
The man laughed heartily and immediately threw an arm around Zhang Xiongyuan.
“It’s me! Hahahaha, Old Zhang, you haven’t changed that much. I recognized you at a glance!”
Feeling Dorian’s powerful arm around him and his broad, solid chest, Zhang Xiongyuan said:
“…You’ve changed a lot. If you hadn’t called out to me, I wouldn’t have recognized you at all.”
Dorian was a Blue Sea resident and Zhang Xiongyuan’s colleague at the Agricultural College. Since the two were around the same age, they had quickly become friends. In their free time after work or during their days off, they would often invite each other out to go fishing or do something similar.
Zhang Xiongyuan’s physical condition had always been mediocre, so he usually walked quite slowly.
But Dorian had been even slower than him. Whenever he walked, his whole body was always slightly hunched over, perfectly matching the stereotypical image of an old man.
At least, in Zhang Xiongyuan’s memory, Dorian had only been a little taller than him.
Now, however, Dorian was a full two heads taller than him, his face beaming with a hearty smile.
“Hahahahahaha!! Our God above! The anti-aging dr*g got rid of my osteoporosis! I feel fantastic now. My lower back doesn’t hurt at all anymore! I could take a day off and go kill a few mutant beasts right now!”
A smile spread across Zhang Xiongyuan’s face.
“That’s wonderful. Congratulations! It’s the same for me. Some of the problems caused by aging have disappeared, too.”
Compared with his youthful appearance, regaining his health was what made him most grateful. At long last, he wouldn’t have to make the slightest movement and hear something go crack, pop, crack anymore.
After enjoying his happiness for a while, Zhang Xiongyuan glanced at Dorian’s massive arms and cleared his throat. Then, pretending to ask casually, he said:
“By the way, Dorian, did your combat rating go up? How much did it increase?”
“It went up. You know, my combat rating had dropped to 21 because of that damn osteoporosis.”
He pulled out his phone and showed Zhang Xiongyuan his updated combat rating.
“Now it’s only gone up to 76.”
Only gone up to 76.
Zhang Xiongyuan:
“……”
Dorian didn’t notice his friend’s blank expression and continued enthusiastically planning.
“I figure I’ll probably need to build up my muscles through exercise and training before I can recover my true strength.”
What?
76 isn’t even your true strength?
Leaning against Dorian’s sturdy arm, Zhang Xiongyuan said:
“…I thought you’d already recovered to your peak condition. Haven’t you grown all this muscle on your arms?”
Dorian looked at his own arm in confusion.
“No. This is just what I looked like when I was young, before I started working out. When I was actually this age, I was quite a bit more muscular than I am now. After I finish my examination, I’m still going to resume training.”
“Oh, right, Old Zhang. What about you? How much did your combat rating increase to?”
Zhang Xiongyuan:
“……”
He answered slowly, “Not as high as yours. Actually, I’m not really fond of fighting. I’ve loved farming ever since I was a child.”
“Oh! I see!”
Dorian said regretfully, “I was actually going to ask you to get a gym membership with me. You know, before, we couldn’t force ourselves to exercise because our bodies couldn’t handle it. Now we don’t have to worry about that anymore.”
Zhang Xiongyuan cleared his throat.
“Um… I’ll get one with you after all.”
Being naturally weaker was no big deal.
From now on, he’d work out for an hour before work in the morning, another half hour during his lunch break, then two more hours after work in the evening. He’d also sign up for every online tactical training course available.
Now that he’d regained a young, healthy body, he could absolutely handle a training schedule like that.
He refused to believe that if he kept working this hard, he still wouldn’t be able to increase his combat rating.
He, Zhang Xiongyuan, was definitely going to raise his combat rating to…
Above 30!
…
Compared with Zhang Xiongyuan, whose combat rating remained pitifully low even after regaining his youth and who had secretly resolved to work himself to the bone, the Lilithians were simply overjoyed.
As mentioned before, when Kansidang attacked the Lilith Kingdom on Green Billow, only the children had not been on the floating farms that were destroyed in the attack. Some of the adults had escaped the territory with large numbers of children.
As a result, ninety percent of the Lilithians today were young.
They had all been raised by that original ten percent of adult Lilithians, so naturally, they shared deep bonds with one another.
Among the adults who had raised the younger Lilithians were also some who had already been elderly and had reached an advanced stage of aging.
And now, after their new home had been thoroughly inspected and tested to ensure there were no problems, the aging Lilithians were given the anti-aging dr*g.
Naturally, this left the younger Lilithians incredibly excited.
As they gathered around their elders, who had become both younger and healthier, Lilith hurried over.
The other Lilithians respectfully bowed to her.
“President Lilith.”
Although the Lilith Kingdom had now become the Lilith Guild, to the Lilithians, Lilith had been a more than capable queen.
She was the one who had asked Blue Sea to bring them back, and she was the one who had modified the floating devices and proven the value of the Lilithians.
Even though the Lilithians had now all become believers of the great Creator God and pledged their loyalty to Blue Sea, and Lilith herself no longer held the title of queen, she remained the leader of all the Lilithians.
At a glance, Lilith spotted the younger version of one of her elders, who looked noticeably taller simply because she no longer needed to walk hunched over.
“Aunt Valentina!”
Lilith rushed over and threw her arms around her, her hands tenderly stroking Valentina’s back, which was no longer so frail.
“Our God~ My little Lilith, look at you. Still so reckless and full of energy.”
Eighty-five-year-old Valentina’s eyes were smiling, yet tears glimmered in them as she lovingly gazed at her queen with her much-younger face.
She could understand Lilith’s excitement. Valentina herself was overwhelmed with emotion.
She had already been frail with age, and she could feel death drawing closer. At most, she probably had only another year or two before she would fall into eternal sleep.
But who could have imagined it?
Blue Sea had developed an anti-aging dr*g—and they had used it on her.
Valentina lovingly stroked Lilith’s cheek.
“Don’t cry. This is a good thing. Just look at me. I’m so healthy now. I can stay with you little troublemakers for another hundred years or more.”
Lilith nodded repeatedly, but the tears still refused to stop, streaming down her face.
She was simply too happy. Aunt Valentina, the oldest and most knowledgeable elder among the Lilithians, was practically a mother and teacher to all the younger Lilithians.
And now, the great Creator God had allowed her to remain by their side.
Lilith took Valentina’s hand and saw that the age spots and wrinkles on it had indeed faded away. She laughed and cried at the same time.
Just as she was gently stroking the smooth back of Valentina’s hand, a sensation like a tiny electric shock suddenly flashed across her fingertips.
Lilith froze. Valentina’s entire body trembled as well.
The formerly elderly woman slowly raised her hand and stared at the faint arcs of light flickering from her fingertips, resembling tiny electrical currents.
“Is this… did I awaken as an ability user?”
After joining Blue Sea, the Lilithians had learned all kinds of new knowledge, and supernatural abilities were among them.
When the clergy preached to them, they had once explained that after becoming believers of the great Creator God and true Blue Sea people, they could theoretically become supernatural beings if they encountered the right opportunity.
So Valentina’s first thought was that after her body had become young again, she had awakened as an ability user.
“No.”
Lilith was both startled and delighted as she stared intently at the arcs of light dancing across Valentina’s fingers.
She raised her own hand as well. Identical arcs of light appeared across all five of her fingers, only hers were wider and brighter than Valentina’s.
“This is magic.”
“Aunt Valentina, you’re a mage now.”
…
“So, all Lilithians have some kind of special differentiated cells in their bodies. Before this, those cells were all in a state of aging and apoptosis. Even newborn babies were the same.
“And the anti-aging dr*g developed by Jin Yin and her team happened to awaken a portion of the Lilithians’ magical stem cells. The dr*g also broke down the fibrotic and necrotic tissue in their bodies, allowing magic to flow smoothly through their meridians…”
After reading the report Aether had sent over, Cheng Qisheng felt as though her entire brain had been baptized by knowledge.
She knew that they all belonged to the same human civilization. After conducting their research, the temple had confirmed that the anti-aging dr*g developed by Jin Yin could be used on the human residents of Blue Sea Safe City as well, although its effects might differ somewhat.
For example, after the Old Eighths used the dr*g, they would visibly regain a younger appearance, and their Combat Ratings would increase significantly.
As for the several treefolk residents who had been taken in after Blue Sea defeated another Safe City, their bodies would shrink by a considerable amount after taking the dr*g, but their overall condition would indeed become much younger.
The Velvet Star residents were relatively ordinary. Aside from Professor Zhang Xiongyuan, most of the elderly Velvet Star people saw their Combat Ratings rise to between 30 and 50.
And now, she was being told that Jin Yin’s anti-aging dr*g could even heal magical stem cells belonging to a magical world.
Cheng Qisheng’s current feeling was a mixture of, “Wow, someone this incredible actually belongs to our Blue Sea!” and, “The universe really is full of wonders.”
“This feels like someone telling me that the spiritual roots in a cultivation world are actually just clusters of pluripotent stem cells combined with blood-vessel-and-nerve-like composite tissue.”
Aether flipped through her database and immediately responded:
“City Lord, your insight is truly remarkable. If we were to visit a cultivation world, spiritual roots could indeed be structured in such a form.”
Cheng Qisheng:
“……”
Fine.
In this vast universe, apparently nothing was strange enough to be surprising.
That wasn’t important.
What mattered was…
“So, does that mean we can have more than a thousand mages now?”
Aether pulled up the data on the virtual screen.
“City Lord, there are 971. The anti-aging dr*g cannot be given to minors.”
“Also, according to the temple’s conclusions, the dr*g only awakened some of the magical stem cells within the Lilithians. It cannot awaken all of them. So the amount of magic these Lilithians gained through the dr*g is quite limited.”
“According to Lilith herself, their magic can reach, at most, the level of a [Magic Apprentice].”
Cheng Qisheng said, “That’s fine. Apprentices are great too. We didn’t even have any apprentices before.”
Their magic might be weak, but there were a lot of them.
More than nine hundred residents with magical abilities!
She asked, “When are they planning to give the anti-aging dr*g to the Lilithians who were selected?”
Aether replied, “According to the information that has been uploaded, after all the elderly Blue Sea residents have used the dr*g, the Lilithians will be the next group.”
“Producing a new batch of the dr*g will take time, and the raw materials also need to be collected. The estimated time is one month from now.”
Cheng Qisheng asked, “Does Lilith know about this?”
“President Lilith already knows. She has applied for [Inspiration Access].”
Cheng Qisheng wasn’t surprised.
[Inspiration Access] was a new access privilege introduced by Blue Sea after Ruo Buyan developed the flight wings.
Researchers in the Inner City and private research institutions could apply for [Inspiration Access] to visit all of Blue Sea’s institutions and warehouses, including classified facilities.
For example, if Ruo Buyan hadn’t happened to see the information on the long-tendril trees from the Long-tendril Civilization and gained inspiration from it during her research, the flight wings would never have been developed.
Opening [Inspiration Access] to researchers allowed them to break free from the mental constraints imposed by working within a single field. By combining knowledge from multiple systems, they could discover more possibilities in their research.
As the saying went, everyone in the inner city was a believer and had Blue Sea’s absolute trust. Because of that, Blue Sea could afford to be much more open-handed in this regard.
Cheng Qisheng usually kept a close eye on Lilith. The moment she heard about this, she knew Lilith was bound to do something.
Lilith was the kind of person who constantly came up with all sorts of inspirations. The only thing limiting her was her insufficient supply of magic.
But now, the other Lilithians would be able to wield magic as well.
Even if those nine hundred-plus people couldn’t accomplish much individually, for Lilith, who possessed a complete body of theoretical knowledge but was constantly held back by a lack of magic, giving her fellow clansmen magic would have an effect equivalent to 1 + 1 = 30.
As the chief designer, she could completely map out the positions of the magical circuits for her people and have everyone inject their magic into them simultaneously.
The contribution of the entire Lilith race might increase dramatically.
—At any rate, the increase in contribution would definitely be greater than Professor Zhang Xiongyuan’s increase in Combat Rating.
Cheng Qisheng directed part of her mental power toward Lilith and had Aether immediately approve her application for [Inspiration Access].
The moment her application was approved, Lilith left and headed straight for the Pure White Research Institute.
She knew exactly what she wanted. Along the way, she used her [Inspiration Access] to pass through one heavily guarded, tightly locked door after another.
At last, Lilith stood before a massive abandoned Moon Silk airship.
She had once again entered that state of being a “crazy mage.” As she continuously calculated all kinds of formulas with magic in midair, she walked around the airship, examining its various components.
Cheng Qisheng even saw Lilith directly use magic to “draw” the internal structure of the airship in midair.
She had to admit, it looked pretty good. Extremely realistic, in fact.
Cheng Qisheng had already vaguely guessed what Lilith wanted to do.
Lilith had no idea that the great Creator God was watching her.
Her entire mind had sunk into magical thought. Both before her eyes and inside her head were nothing but the internal and external structures of the airship.
Lilith had never left Blue Sea Safe City.
But as an Inner-City resident, she knew exactly what Blue Sea was doing.
She also knew how dangerous it was for Blue Sea to disguise itself as the [Company]. If their disguise were exposed, given their current stockpile of weapons, their only option would be to run.
And even escaping wasn’t guaranteed.
Right now, the only thing Blue Sea could do was find every possible way to rapidly raise its technological and military capabilities, bringing them up to the level of the true [Company] powers on Moon Silk.
Lilith lowered her head and looked at the statue of the great Blue Sea Creator God hanging around her neck.
She and her people had joined Blue Sea. They had entered the embrace of the great Creator God, receiving acceptance and understanding, closeness and trust.
She was already a citizen of Blue Sea. Together with her people, she was protected within the inner city, living a peaceful and happy life.
But they wanted to protect Blue Sea, too.
Lilith gently cupped the statue of the great Blue Sea Creator God in her hands and prayed devoutly.
—Our God, please allow the Lilithians to show you our strength. Let us protect our homeland alongside you.
After finishing her prayer, she opened her eyes and looked toward the abandoned Moon Silk airship before her.
“As long as it’s an airship, it’ll work, right?”
“A magical airship is still an airship, isn’t it?”
