This was, after all, a civilization that traversed the cosmos. Noldrei could finally transform however he pleased.
He now had a good grasp of what these people were all about.
Among the Six Charioteers of the Xianzhou, the Alchemy Commission had the most independence.
Or rather, it wasn't that the Alchemy Commission had the most independence now, but that in the beginning, it was the strongest; its position had simply shifted over time.
Because of this, the Alchemy Commission clearly had an air of arrogance about it.
'Who exactly told them that outlanders are inherently weak?'
'And who told them that outlanders have no way of dealing with the so-called power of the Vidyadhara?'
'They don't even have their basic facts straight, yet they dare to just grab people for experiments in this chaotic universe?'
Noldrei had to admit, the people of the Alchemy Commission were far too arrogant.
He had obtained the secret to the Xianzhou's longevity with ridiculous ease.
'The Vidyadhara?'
'The technological developments here are so severely imbalanced, it almost made me think I was on a primitive version of Earth.'
The very idea of carrying out a conspiracy in such broad daylight was laughable.
Noldrei had initially assumed that a spacefaring civilization could at least produce nanite-level information systems to monitor every individual. But this was it?
Back when facing the Sugar civilization, they had sworn that the "people from the sky" possessed nanite-level technology to manipulate the human body.
So, at the time, Noldrei had assumed these people also had nanite-level technology to monitor the human body.
He'd never imagined that after venturing into the cosmos, he'd find a civilization that was little more than advanced primitives using starships as hammers.
'You're the ones who are astonishing…'
Noldrei's current form was merely an imitation of the Thousand-Armed bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, used to fool these people. Unfortunately for them, just a slight demonstration was enough to make it impossible for them to distinguish whether the effect was from Noldrei's own transformation or from the Vidyadhara marrow fluid.
Amidst the gawking crowd of the Alchemy Commission, Noldrei quickly regained his composure.
He maintained his form with three heads and twenty-four arms, coldly watching these people conduct their so-called research as if they were performing some ritualistic dance.
The so-called research, Noldrei now understood, was simply selecting suitable test subjects and infusing them with certain special substances, similar to what was inside those blessed by Yaoshi.
Then, like observing an AI concocting an elixir, they would let the substance develop within the subject's body, bit by bit deducing patterns from the results.
One couldn't say this research method was advanced; one could only say it was incredibly primitive.
"Disciples of Yaoshi, is it my turn to speak now?"
Noldrei's voice instantly calmed them.
Although his clothes were in tatters and his entire body was as terrifying as a blood-soaked man, these people seemed to have long anticipated this kind of 'rebellious' situation.
The security personnel, one by one, surrounded Noldrei with cold weapons in hand.
However…
An intense, unbearable itching suddenly erupted from their bodies, as if something were sprouting from them.
Just as Noldrei had predicted, the bodies of the Xianzhou people were their greatest weakness.
Their seemingly perfect bodies were, in reality, capable of producing an overdeveloped rejection response.
"You people are so dull and foolish…"
Noldrei stood up with a sigh, the restored divine weapon still swinging between his legs. He stepped off the experimental platform, each step like treading on a bloody lotus flower.
"Your supposedly superior bodies are so sensitive to external influences, it's as if you're in a perpetual state of allergic reaction. I only needed to mix a few spores into the air to infiltrate your bodies."
"While you were breathing, speaking, overjoyed with yourselves, those spores had already seeped into your bodies. What gave you the arrogant idea that you could approach me wearing just two layers of masks?"
"Was it the perfect bodies granted to you by Yaoshi?"
"Or was it your filthy desire to freely abuse outlanders?"
"Or perhaps…"
"Was it the big boss behind your Alchemy Commission?"
A single, tiny fungal infection was all it took to incapacitate them.
The researchers seemed completely unprepared for the day they would witness their own research subject fight back.
"You always like to wave the banner of the Aeons, committing this evil deed or that crime. I've looked through your Xianzhou's history concerning Yaoshi, and I saw no trace of Her committing any sinful acts. On the contrary, you people love to use the Aeons as a linguistic tool for your own actions."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk…"
Noldrei looked mockingly at the members of the Alchemy Commission, who were wailing and scratching their bodies in agony on the floor. He sneered, "Do you know what your greatest sin is?"
"It's that you don't know how to use your 'tools,' and instead, you let the 'tools' harm you."
"There's nothing wrong with an Aeon being a tool. The fault lies with you fools who are incompetent yet insist on using them!"
"People can be stupid, they can be foolish, they can be radical, they can be conservative. But they cannot be evil, always trying to turn back the wheel of history…"
Noldrei could accept that the Xianzhou people had adopted a culturally conservative approach to adapt to their rapid progress, and he could even accept the harm and impact of human experimentation. But he had never accepted the act of wantonly depriving other beings of their lives for one's own selfish gain.
Even Noldrei knew that you couldn't make humans cede their reproductive rights without offering sufficient benefits in exchange, and you couldn't achieve internal reform without sufficient external conflict.
But these bastards from the Alchemy Commission, just as Noldrei had expected, had never once considered the dignity of their test subjects as living beings.
"The perfection of you Xianzhou people is, in fact, your greatest imperfection."
"With just a little push, I can send all of you into the abyss of 'allergies'!"
"Welcome to the hell of medical science."
Medicine was like a precise, sharp scalpel, and modern medicine had honed this scalpel to be even smaller and more precise. Whether it was lasers or nanotechnology, these were all necessary tools for painting on the canvas of the human body.
But these people from the Alchemy Commission treated the human body like an alchemical furnace, emphasizing only the infinite possibilities of humanity.
'Genetic-based human modification isn't supposed to be done like this!'
Noldrei lamented inwardly. These people had found the right direction but the wrong method. It was as painful to watch as a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.
He was struck by a profound realization of just how significant a role a Bishop like Otto Apocalypse played in advancing human civilization.
'Otto! I miss you, Otto!'
Noldrei had never dreamed that even out here in the cosmos.
A being like Otto would still be a rarity!