Chapter 505: The Beastly Style…

Chapter 505: The Beastly Style…

“You did well with this.” Annie couldn’t help but say after hearing that Zheng Yichen had managed to secure some of the church’s ‘procurement’ channels. Things from the church weren’t easy to obtain, especially for non-physical items. Physical items were one thing—once given, they were given—and as long as they weren’t too important, the church would consider it no big deal.

But non-physical items were a different matter. Those things often required a lot more to exchange for.

“What do you think it was? It wasn’t that easy to get what the church promised.” Zheng Yichen shook his head and looked at the ‘flesh’ surrounding Annie.

“Oh? I think I understand what it was about.” After hearing this, Annie immediately realized what Zheng Yichen was referring to. For the church to make such a promise, it was most likely about matters within the Containment Zone. Only events inside there would have earned Zheng Yichen such extra preferential treatment.

As the Witch of Life, she knew all too well the crisis that would erupt if the danger inside the Containment Zone leaked out. It might not be as extreme as in a biohazard scenario, but for humans, going out normally in the future would be out of the question. Connections between cities?

Trade caravans?

Those would cease to exist!

Without overthinking it, the result would surely be like that. Therefore, it was certain that the church paid extra attention to this matter.

“Speaking of which, why didn’t she spread the Flesh Seeds back then…” Zheng Yichen wondered aloud.

Annie immediately provided an answer. “It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but she couldn’t. At that time, she was targeted by an Evil God. That Evil God sacrificed all its followers to devour her. Although Evil Gods are usually nothing special, some of their traits are noteworthy. Even though you interfered in the end and caused that Evil God to fail, the impact on the Derivative Witch remained.”

“At that time, it wasn’t that she was incapable of spreading Flesh Seeds, but that she lacked the conditions to do so. By the way, that Evil God must have left something behind, right?”

Zheng Yichen took out the fire core essence left by the Evil God. After glancing at it, Annie gave a slight nod. “Not bad quality. This Evil God had the potential to become a top-tier Evil God, but it was too greedy.”

“Tsk, an indestructible body—who wouldn’t be greedy upon encountering it?”

Gender? For an Evil God, gender was meaningless.

“Hah? ‘Indestructible’ is only relative. Even if it had successfully absorbed the body of that Derivative Witch, it would still have faced disaster in the end. It’s hard to explain, but in short, that Evil God did humanity a favor.”

“…Tsk tsk~” Zheng Yichen tossed the fire core in his hand a few times before putting it away. The applicability of this item was limited since it was an Evil God Essence. Although it could be purified using certain methods, the effects would weaken significantly afterward. The original state was the most powerful. Zheng Yichen thought he might forge a piece of equipment with it later when he had free time—not a magic weapon created through magic, but one crafted from materials.

Since it was just sitting around unused, it might as well serve as a decorative item. Things obtained should be utilized to their fullest potential. Besides, he had already opened an additional armory in his Personal Space, linked to the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, all in preparation for a future plan!

Just imagine, if the Magic Weapon Summoning Book became indispensable to everyone someday, like mobile phones, he could launch a quest ‘System’. The Mercenary Guild? That was fine—their commissions could be treated as side quests. The ones he issued would be the ‘main quests’. Any objections? He was the Creator of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, so what he said went!

What he did would be the main quest! Everyone else’s would be side quests. As for what others thought, Zheng Yichen felt that was none of his business.

“Since you already know about this, you must also understand why I came back, right?”

“The method to prevent Flesh Seeds?” Annie said softly, continuing to watch Zheng Yichen and waiting for him to elaborate. If he had only come to her to solve this issue, he would have stated it from the beginning, not waited until now.

“I already have a method, but there are many aspects I need your confirmation on. I want to ensure it’s effective in one go…”

“Then get to work quickly. I’m very busy here.” Annie said. Irene was responsible for the Magical Structure part, but Transformation Magic involved changes in the Life Domain. The refinement of the Magical Structure afterward still required her assistance. Otherwise, who knew what kind of destructive magic might come out of it?

Transformation? Use it on yourself and you might end up as a twisted lump of flesh! So Annie’s workload wasn’t light either. For the division of labor between her and Irene, the analogy Zheng Yichen could think of was that Annie was responsible for building the hardware, while Irene handled the software programming.

Himself? He… he was probably the one who plugged in the power and booted it up… Ahem!

Zheng Yichen already had a relevant plan. The difficulty of implementation wasn’t too high—the only troublesome part was ensuring reliable stability. His envisioned method was simple… a ‘fighting fire with fire’ approach. First, he would make his body special. Since Flesh Seeds were weak during the initial parasitic stage, they were just hard to detect. Eliminating them would be easy, provided they could be found.

If they couldn’t be detected… well, then you’d be doomed!

However, people who hung around the Containment Zone generally had some common sense. If they got injured, they would definitely suspect something. If they still ignored it at that point, well, they couldn’t complain about their fate!

So, Zheng Yichen’s approach to handling this situation was similar to dealing with Corruption parasites inside the Containment Barrier at the Border Great Wall—focusing mainly on immunity. As for middle or late stages, he just wanted to say, spare the details. If you had money, buy a bottle or several of Fixation Potion, then find a skilled and precise Spellcaster or Warrior to perform a clean excision. For the late stage? That depended on whether you had money or not!

With money, you could do so much!

Without money, you could always sign a contract with the church and become a temporary worker.

After being infected with Flesh Seeds, the affected areas might retain normal bodily functions due to their camouflage effect, but it was all an illusion. Those parts no longer belonged to you. Once they erupted, there wouldn’t even be a chance to resist. Imagine only your head remaining normal—or maybe not even that—what resistance could you put up?

The church commissioned him to find a solution for this matter mainly to reduce costs, right? If they disregarded costs and poured Fixation Potion, basically anyone who came back alive could be saved. However, no organization could afford such extravagance.

More importantly, Fixation Potion was in short supply. As a high-end product, there was no such thing as unlimited supply. If it were Mana Enhancement Potion, that would be a different story—basically, every professional traveling outside carried a bottle or two just in case.

So, after being infected with Flesh Seeds, relying on magic potions to eradicate it was impossible since cutting away the flesh was unavoidable. Moreover, potions that could quickly restore the body, especially for injuries involving internal organs, were priced beyond what ordinary people could afford.

Therefore, if you wanted to eradicate it… from the start, it was a dead end. Costs couldn’t be lowered; you could only prevent it. It was like getting sick—low-cost prevention before falling ill could avoid the need to spend a fortune on treatment later.

As for the prevention method, Zheng Yichen had already figured it out…

“Alright, your partner has returned. I’ll be going now.” At dusk, the Female Knight, who had stood like a cement pillar beside Dan Marina for most of the day, said somewhat disappointedly. Dan Marina was so attractive, yet the people staying in the campsite had held themselves back?

Even just coming over to chat would have been fine!

“Thank you.” Dan Marina said with her usual smile. The Female Knight stiffened slightly, then waved it off as if nothing had happened.

“No need for thanks. If you run into trouble here, just remember to find me.”

After she left, Oss and the others, who had been standing nearby, finally approached. They hadn’t come over earlier because the Female Knight was too distinctive, causing them to stop involuntarily. As for Dan Marina’s safety, people from the Sanctuary Church were generally trustworthy… usually, nothing happened.

Dan Marina also gave them the impression of being shrewd. Since nothing had happened during the day, it was even less likely in the evening.

By the way, all of the above were unreliable justifications. The truly reliable reason was that Green had overheard the Female Knight’s words! The matter was that someone from the church had specifically come to ‘protect’ the ‘weak woman’. Then what was there to worry about? Nothing could be safer than that.

The Female Knight’s strength was proportional to her appearance! The more intimidating she was, the more formidable she was in combat.

“Whew… that Female Knight is really… burly.” After making sure she was out of earshot, Green couldn’t help but mutter softly. Beside him, Garcia nodded in agreement. They had seen tough women before—most female adventurers were like that. But even though those women were strong, none were quite like this Female Knight… purely macho!

“…” While Green and Garcia were in agreement, Oss noticed something off about Fred’s expression. This usually silent man had actually stared a bit longer at that Female Knight just now. Oss had experienced this kind of reaction before—like when he first saw ‘Lena’, he had acted similarly for a while. Not just him, but his three former companions had too.

It was a normal reaction for any man upon seeing a beautiful woman. But… considering the Female Knight’s robust build… did this silent, rugged man have the aesthetic taste of the Dragon Clan!?

Well, that might be an exaggeration. Apart from the true Dragon Clan, there weren’t many hybrid dragon species. Let’s just call it a beastly aesthetic sense.

Looking at Green, who was muttering to himself after Garcia’s agreement, Oss decided to keep his discovery to himself. Better not say it out loud to avoid the green-haired guy blabbering about it later and getting chased by a Berserker wielding an axe…