"No, impossible! The Xianzhou received the blessing of Yaoshi. No disease should be able to plague us…"
One researcher simply couldn't believe this was happening, yet he watched with his own eyes as Noldrei, by some unknown means, overwhelmed the perfect bodies of the Xianzhou people.
But the truth was unfolding right before them, leaving no room for disbelief.
"I already told you, how many types of diseases are there, really? An allergic reaction isn't an illness…"
"Allergies are caused by harmless substances triggering a counterattack from parts of your immune system, which in turn leads those parts to attack other parts of your own body. Do you understand? To put it simply, in my eyes, your perfect bodies are riddled with flaws."
Noldrei even had to give these people a lecture. After hearing his words, the researcher clearly understood why he was having an 'allergic reaction.'
"Allergies… it's actually allergies… there's actually a method like this!!"
"Hahahaha…"
"I never thought there was a method like this! Guiding the body to attack itself, hahaha…"
"This isn't…"
"It isn't…"
Noldrei looked at the man's crumbling state, speechless. He didn't know if this person was serious. These Disciples of Yaoshi had caused plenty of trouble themselves while trying to break through the limits of the Xianzhou people. It wasn't like their bodies were absolutely immortal, so what was so strange about being laid low by an allergic reaction?
He didn't realize how devastating this was for people who had once been blessed by Yaoshi and freed from many diseases.
When they experimented on Xianzhou natives, they thought they were trying to alter the boon of the Abundance. This just meant they were fighting against some unseen force.
But Noldrei's words had breached their psychological defenses. What Noldrei did had completely shattered the myth of the blessing.
The two feelings were entirely different.
"What an ugly mindset."
Noldrei quickly understood the reason for the man's breakdown. Interestingly, the Xianzhou people whose knowledge was lacking and had instead focused all their points into martial prowess felt nothing at all.
"Now, submit and obey me, and I can alleviate your suffering. Oh, by the way, I've studied the bodies of you Xianzhou people. Under normal circumstances, implanting modifications into your bodies does indeed cause very troublesome pain."
"But if there are gaps within the body—even between cells, there are certain gaps—it's not a problem to occasionally hide other things in these gaps, just like a mosquito bite."
"To enter a space with no thickness, you can bypass the hidden neural networks of the body. Just like how one doesn't feel pain from dead skin on the stratum corneum."
"So don't think you'll have a chance to remove the bombs I've hidden in your bodies."
The researchers of the Alchemy Commission quickly understood what Noldrei was talking about.
By now, they were being tormented beyond endurance, their bodies constantly wracked with pain and itching, to the point where they wanted to find a place to end it all.
"We submit, we submit! We are willing to obey your commands!"
"I submit too!"
The first was followed by a second, and soon, all the people in the area who still had their wits about them dropped their weapons and submitted at Noldrei's feet.
At this moment, no one cared anymore what benefits Noldrei's 'birth' would bring.
In a flash, these Disciples of Yaoshi had become Noldrei's captives.
As the chorus of submission rose and fell, the itching and pain in their bodies gradually subsided, as if the scene of them scratching themselves raw just moments ago had never existed.
"Itching and pain are different signals from different nerve endings. Did you notice anything unusual about your bodies when you felt them just now?"
After these people had recovered, Noldrei, instead of continuing to suppress them, began to inquire about their normal sensory experiences.
A female researcher seemed to have felt a subtle difference. She explained, "Just now, I only felt a general discomfort all over my body. It was itchy first, then painful. The pain felt like a foreign object was stuffed inside me, similar to how our bodies quickly recover after a needle prick."
"But the itching was different… I can't describe it. It was different from the itchiness of a normal scratch, and also different from mosquito bites and such. We Xianzhou people haven't been bitten by insects for a very long time."
The female researcher's words indirectly confirmed Noldrei's theory.
The function of itching in the human body is a specially evolved system to detect things like parasites or irritating substances. Those without this system were mostly eliminated through the process of Darwinian evolution.
The fungi and other things Noldrei created relied precisely on this method of infectious infiltration to achieve the effect of itching. Because he had designed them to be so small, they could even infiltrate directly through skin contact. However, they would also be counterattacked and hunted down by the rejection immunity inherent in the Xianzhou people's bodies.
He even designed a unique replication method specifically for this fungus.
If the bodies of the Xianzhou people were truly perfect, then the bodies of primitive humans would be a typical chaotic system.
Although the bodies of primitive humans were not perfect, they could adapt to the invasion of various foreign substances, and even achieve a new balance of symbiotic coexistence through the struggle with the body's immune system.
Although both had their pros and cons, if Noldrei had to choose, he would definitely choose the body of a primitive human.
He would never give up the right to modify his own body just for a bit of extra lifespan.
"It seems that these simple fungi alone are not enough to control your bodies…" Noldrei nodded thoughtfully.
If it was just about competing with an Aeon for territory and leaving behind a new Aeon legend, this meant nothing to Noldrei.
What he needed was control over humanity's connection to the Aeons.
In other words, he wanted to transform these Pathstriders, these Emanators, and these followers of the Aeons into what he wanted them to be.
'Not enough control?'
The Xianzhou people hadn't heard such an outrageous statement in many years.
"Your bodies have already been transformed by the Abundance. Oh, and there are some untransformed outlanders. They are not included in this calculation for now."
"Whether it's the Abundance or Yaoshi, I believe you have completely chosen the wrong direction and path. Given the current situation, there is only one way to stop the power of an Aeon."
"And that is to introduce the power of another Aeon."
Noldrei looked at these people, not quite understanding their behavior of obediently following just one Aeon.
Since there were so many Aeons, why not believe in two, three, four, five, or six at the same time?!
"There are so many Paths in the world. It doesn't make sense for a person to walk a single path to their death."