Chapter 381: The Secret of Xu Zhi’s Talent Circuit
The Supervisor—who had stubbornly refused to submit earlier and seemed to be one of the rare few truly loyal to [Pantheon Heavy Industries]—could no longer hold his ground at this point.
He confirmed with Xu Zhi repeatedly, “If I speak, you will really let us go?”
Xu Zhi nodded. “Of course. As long as you provide useful information, I will not lay a hand on you.”
She spoke with ironclad certainty, without a trace of falsehood. A calculating gleam flashed through the Supervisor’s eyes, and he then said, “I am undoubtedly the person here who knows the most. I want to use what I know to buy your guarantee that I can leave this place and return alive. I want you to establish a binding oath circuit!”
The Supervisor believed that even if Xu Zhi could temporarily block the oath circuit, she couldn’t ignore it forever. For researchers like them, it didn’t matter; if they broke it, they broke it. Even if they escaped immediate punishment, it was highly unlikely they could ever enter the Mansus to advance in the future anyway. But Xu Zhi was different. She was powerful, and she was bound to pursue higher ascensions.
Breaking a binding oath circuit, even if one evaded immediate retribution, would inevitably cause repercussions within the Great Dream, most likely leading to failure during advancement!
“Sure.”
Xu Zhi agreed effortlessly, adding with a smile, “You’re really overthinking it. I never intended to step in and kill you all in the first place; I just wanted this information.”
The Supervisor still carried a blank binding oath circuit plaque on him. Xu Zhi and he funneled their extraordinary energy into it to finalize the covenant.
Once the oath was successfully established, the Supervisor let out a sigh of relief. “What the others talked about were just group sub-projects. Each group has its own research target, while I am responsible for overall coordination to ensure that the general direction of the experiment is correct.”
“The overarching direction of the entire experiment is circuit genetic engineering.”
“Screening, modifying, recombining, and alienating talent circuits to research circuits of completely different categories and functions.”
“One of the research results was actually inspired by the Grail. The advancement of the Grail can bypass the Mansus, which left us incredibly curious as to how they achieved it. And we did, in fact, find the answer…”
“As everyone knows, the energy that Extraordinaries absorb is the power of the Glory scattering into this world.”
“But the believers of the Grail aspect do not draw their power directly from nature; instead, it is bestowed upon them by their deity.”
Xu Zhi raised her brow slightly at this. “You mean the power of the Grail is actually carved up and distributed from a god?”
They weren’t absorbing the scattered energy of the Glory, so they naturally didn’t need to undergo the trials of the Mansus.
“It’s not just a matter of the present.” The Supervisor shook his head. “Why the Grail requires blood meals and sacrifices is all to absorb energy. The energy they can draw from nature is far less than that of ordinary Extraordinaries. The deity of the Grail seems to have turned itself into a transit station, ensuring that before their ranks surpass It, its believers have no need to pass through the Mansus.”
“We have no way of knowing how It accomplished this, but judging by the results, this is the only explanation.”
“This is a hypothesis that is infinitely close to the truth.”
“Based on this hypothesis, we conducted numerous experiments and yielded some results. However, those results are highly unstable. It drastically shortens an Extraordinary’s lifespan, and although their advancement speed is exceptionally rapid in the early stages, it is virtually impossible for them to ascend to the Named rank.”
“Because upon reaching the Named rank, an Extraordinary’s life state undergoes an elevation, and this elevation is obtained from the Mansus. We have yet to find a way to bypass the Mansus to acquire this elevation.”
“Aside from this, we also derived another experimental result many years ago, which is the mutual devouring of talents.”
“Since rejection reactions exist between humans and creatures, what about between humans and other humans?”
“The progress of the experiment was anything but smooth at first. But later, we discovered that the compatibility of other attributes wasn’t quite right. Only the Lantern possesses an extremely high tolerance for its own kind, making it the most suitable for this experiment!”
“After a prolonged experimental process, we ultimately achieved a small amount of success. Those children whose talent circuits were altered can elevate themselves by continuously devouring the circuits of their own kind. Regrettably, however, this devouring can only be carried out mutually among the experimental subjects themselves.”
He was likely referring to Jiang Qing’s batch of subjects.
Only the [Lantern] can do it…
The Supervisor claimed it was due to the tolerance of the [Lantern], but Xu Zhi felt there might be more to it.
“We conducted long-term observations on the circuits of these subjects and finally determined that one of the causes enabling them to devour each other’s circuits is a specific circuit pattern fragment!”
“Even if it is just a tiny speck of it!”
“This pattern is not innate. In the beginning, we merely stumbled into it by pure chance, accidentally discovering this mysterious new pattern when several lines happened to intersect within numerous reforged talent circuits.”
“This was by no means an easy feat. We had to completely shatter these Extraordinaries’ circuits and reforge them.”
The Supervisor completely omitted how many Extraordinaries had been sacrificed in the process of reforging human talent circuits.
“After accidentally discovering this unseen pattern, the researchers spent a long period groping in the dark without managing to figure out its purpose. Yet, during an accidental experiment, it was discovered to possess an intense attraction and… appetite toward other Lantern aspect circuits that shared the same pattern!”
“A lot of major breakthroughs in experiments are discovered by chance, and this experiment was no exception. After that, the pace of our research advanced by leaps and bounds.”
“This pattern is exceedingly complex and exquisite. Every time, we could only accidentally discover a few fragments, a piece of a corner. Even when we deliberately tried to replicate it, we seemed to face a sort of obstruction. We could only rely on chance to create it; we could not forcibly replicate it.”
“Therefore, the number of successful subjects from that batch was also extremely small.”
“Over a decade has passed, and we have continuously been researching new corners of the pattern. Finally, just a short while ago, we obtained a crucial fragment! We pieced together the majority of the fragments we had acquired!”
“Though it still looks like a very minute portion of the pattern, we have already unearthed the tip of the iceberg. As long as we follow it down, sooner or later, we will glimpse the appearance of the entire mountain.”
“Such a special circuit must hide an immense secret!”
“Once we possess the complete circuit, perhaps even ascension will become an effortless matter!”
The Supervisor’s expression bordered on frantic. He seemed entirely certain that this mysterious circuit was connected to ascension, representing a powerful path that humanity had never discovered before.
“Where is that pattern?”
An inexplicable premonition rose in Xu Zhi’s heart as she pressed for an answer.
“Right here.” The Supervisor operated the main console a few times. Soon after, a holographic pattern manifested. That was the “tip of the iceberg” they had finally obtained just recently, after undergoing over a century of research.
It was a single corner pieced together from fragmented bits. One could discern from it that this appeared to be a portion of a certain pattern, but due to the complex lines, the complete appearance of the pattern couldn’t be glimpsed. It was only certain that this pattern would absolutely not be small.
Xu Zhi’s gaze locked onto the holographic projection, unable to look away for a long time. Her mind, moreover, surged with waves of emotion, completely unable to calm down.
She was highly sensitive to circuits, and exceptionally so toward her own.
Therefore, she could tell at a single glance that the tip of the iceberg—which this research institute had spent nearly a century of experimentation to uncover—was precisely nothing more than an inconspicuous, tiny corner within the core of the [Lantern] aspect circuit inside her own body.
What a complete joke…
What on earth was the origin of the circuit she had thrown together at random back then?
