Chapter 669
It was hard to tell whether it was the effect of the "Kexing" or the influence of the island laboratory or the Eye of Order contract that was at play.
Xia'er opened two boxes and spotted an envelope on top of one of them.
Without hesitation, she picked up the envelope and tore it open, glancing at the words inside.
Hmm...
Just as Xia'er had suspected, when the second round began, her simulated self was indeed more skilled than before.
Previously, it had taken her nearly forty days to complete all the negotiations and assemble the experimental team; this time, it took just a little over thirty days.
Don’t be fooled by the few days saved; this wasn’t just about setting up a laboratory. Each experimental member had to sign the Eye of Order contract.
Convincing those organizations to accept the terms of the contract would likely take a considerable amount of time.
**[Things are going much smoother than I expected. The recorded experimental processes and notes have proven useful; the complete experimental protocol convinced Long Ying that I still have another team conducting research behind the scenes.]**
**[With the endorsement of the Pope of the Order of Order, the experiments on flesh alchemy also seem to be a kind of sharing, just like the experiments on the Brain of the Otherworld.]**
**[The "Kexing" also played a significant role in the negotiations... Lv.5 "Kexing" must be used cautiously; if someone has been affected by "Kexing" more than three times, their mental strength may be too weak, leading to a complete breakdown.]**
**[I have a feeling that this time we can progress to human experimentation... The reason for Sadana's transformation might soon be revealed...]**
**[...]**
The progress was surprisingly smooth... Xia'er hadn’t anticipated this; she thought there would be some unexpected twists.
Aside from the experiments, there had also been new developments regarding a few friends and Aivina's advancement.
Adele's promotion to Tier 3 was accelerated to 34 days, thanks to the method provided by Long Ying;
By deliberately having Lucy intensify her focus on the "Red Dragon" potion formula and the replication ritual, Amy completed her Tier 3 promotion just four days ago, becoming a Tier 3 "Red Dragon";
Aivina was the fastest, with Xia'er’s help, she advanced to "Soulwalker" in just 28 days... but Aivina's rapid advancement was unstable; her body was undergoing some kind of aberration, necessitating improvements to the replication ritual and potion.
As for Tara, she seemed to have no desire to advance at all, still stuck at "Missionary." Xia'er needed to find a way to help her with some psychological preparation for promotion.
If Tara's rank didn’t improve, it would be just like when they encountered Long Ying before; Xia'er would have no way to stop others from harming her.
Tara had been with Xia'er for a long time, always loyal, and Xia'er didn’t want to lose this capable assistant who had helped her so much.
Besides the advancements of those around her, the simulated version of herself seemed to have plenty of energy left to pursue other matters.
For instance, searching for the three lost paths.
The simulated Xia'er was no longer limited to searching the land of the Ansu Empire; she had the followers of the Goddess of Salvation scouring the world, even including the New World and other continents, using money to acquire books.
Over the past year, a significant amount of money had been spent acquiring numerous books, and among them, the simulated Xia'er had indeed discovered something.
"The New World..."
Xia'er gazed at the address in her notebook, murmuring to herself.
This was another continent across the ocean, once the largest overseas colony of Ansu.
However, that colony had launched a war of independence decades ago, completely breaking away from the Ansu Empire. Since the region still retained the faith of the Order of Order and the Goddess of Salvation, it hadn’t completely lost contact.
There, Xia'er had received a fragment of a text, which had only just arrived in her hands a month ago.
It was a book with a few Chinese characters, clearly not the original, but rather a copy.
It contained a few odd symbols of spirit language, and the transcriber had copied nearly all the symbols...
This was the cryptic writing left by Leimeides in the Old Days...
Unfortunately, the transcriber didn’t understand spirit language or Chinese, leading to significant errors that rendered it unreadable...
Of course, there was another possibility.
The original text might have appeared to the transcriber as a jumble of distorted words capable of affecting the mind.
If that were the case, the person who managed to copy the text under such pressure... would likely have strong ties to the Tower or the Witch Academy.
This was a rare piece of information...
In the next round, Xia'er needed to ensure that her simulated self handled matters here well before making a trip to the New World...
With new clues in hand, Xia'er felt her heart race a little. She closed the letter, trying to suppress her excitement.
It wasn’t time to pop the champagne just yet...
Xia'er set the letter aside and picked up the experimental records and manuscripts from the two laboratories, beginning to read.
It was clear... while the flesh alchemy hadn’t yet progressed to human experimentation, it had succeeded in animal trials... they had successfully fused extraordinary materials with a bird.
This progress was nearly on par with the flesh alchemy Xia'er had been working on before leaving the Old Days.
In the era Xia'er was in, flesh alchemy was still a novel subject; Hecate and her team were just getting started. Now, after two rounds and nearly a year and a half of research, catching up to that level was quite normal...
If they continued for a few more rounds, they should be able to advance the research to the point of human experimentation...
After finishing the data from one box, Xia'er turned her attention to the other.
Compared to the research on flesh alchemy, the study of the Brain of the Otherworld seemed to have hit a dead end.
Logically, the research team for the Brain of the Otherworld should have been larger and better managed, leading to faster theoretical progress.
Yet so far, they had only scratched the surface of studying the two Brains of the Otherworld, extracting information that might only amount to a page or two from the Old Tower's library...
While that was decent for the research team, it was still too slow for Xia'er...
She didn’t have the luxury of time to study a few pages for a hundred years like the Pope of the Order of Order.
She needed to find a way to speed things up on the other side...
Just as Xia'er furrowed her brow, poring over the research materials and deep in thought, the door swung open.
"Xia'er?" Aivina's voice came from the doorway, tinged with surprise.
Xia'er looked up and met Aivina's gaze, momentarily taken aback.
A year later, Aivina seemed to have grown quite a bit taller, and she no longer wore glasses, giving her a stronger presence, shedding some of her student-like aura.
Her figure had also developed somewhat; she now had a B+ cup size, while Xia'er’s own development could only be described as disappointing, as if she hadn’t changed at all.
Neither Adele nor Vitalis could tell any difference between Xia'er a year ago and now, indicating that she hadn’t grown taller or developed at all; it seemed she had plateaued.
"What’s wrong? Xia'er? Why did you dye your hair?" Aivina asked, her brow furrowing as she approached Xia'er.
Suddenly, she seemed to remember something and turned to Tara, who was behind Xia'er, smiling as she said, "Miss Tara, could you step outside for a moment? I need to talk to Xia'er."
"Of course, Lady Aivina." Tara nodded slightly and stepped out of the room.
Once Tara had left, Aivina turned her attention back to Xia'er, studying her with curiosity.
"Which timeline are you from? The past? The future?" Aivina asked, looking at Xia'er. "Why do you seem so... weak?"
Xia'er: "..."
Xia'er stood up from the sofa, realizing that she now seemed to be a good half a head shorter than Aivina.
Aivina was probably around 1.65 meters tall now...
Well, you’re 16 now, and your development has peaked; you won’t change much from here on out...
Perhaps feeling a bit overshadowed by Aivina’s growth, Xia'er chose not to respond and instead prepared to examine the remaining pages left by her simulated self.
"You still haven’t answered me." Aivina stepped closer, gently pushing Xia'er’s shoulder.
Then, to Aivina's surprise, Xia'er was lightly pushed back onto the sofa, looking up at her with a somewhat resentful expression.
"What are you doing... getting up is exhausting..."
Gulp.
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