Chapter 317: Spiritual Root Sickness, the Body-Snatching Bug

After reading the basic information on the Spiritual Root disease, Qi Suian quickly arranged for all the sick from the Taiping Heavenly King Army to be brought over.

He had the smart brain to thank for its speed. Any later, and this group of Ninth-Grade Mages suffering from the Spiritual Root disease would have been disposed of.

Although the proportion was low, there were still nearly ten of them.

With similar symptoms, they were naturally worried it was a contagious disease. An outbreak in the army would have to be dealt with immediately.

Any later and they'd probably have been buried already.

Once he had the patients, Qi Suian devoted some of his energy to studying them.

Although evolving his Abyssal Form was Qi Suian's top priority, researching the Spiritual Root disease was also very important to him.

The most straightforward reason was to see if he could resolve the crisis of the New World Pass's limited-time event ahead of schedule.

Aside from the time in the Cold Winter World when he proactively dealt with the Taiyin Red Blood Dragon that hadn't yet consumed the World Cold Energy, he had survived the New World Pass's limited-time events in other Doomsday Worlds purely by luck.

The power gap between him and his enemies was so vast it was unbearable to look at. How could he rely on strength? Of course, he had to rely on luck.

Therefore, if he had the chance to eliminate this kind of crisis in advance, he naturally had to take the initiative.

Now that he sensed this doomsday was related to the Spiritual Root disease, Qi Suian couldn't possibly just sit back and wait for death.

His plot armor had saved him many times. Relying on luck certainly didn't require much brainpower, but luck wasn't omnipotent.

A single failure would spell eternal damnation for Qi Suian.

He would leverage his luck, but he wouldn't depend on it.

His trump cards could be weak, but he couldn't rely on them for everything.

The Mages suffering from the Spiritual Root disease were surprisingly cooperative, mainly because Qi Suian claimed he could cure them.

And in fact, he did treat them.

It wasn't a cure on the genetic level; he simply anesthetized the patients and excised the diseased areas.

In other words, he treated the symptoms, not the root cause.

Because the medicine he used was potent enough, the patients felt no pain.

First, he gave them hope. Then, Qi Suian would gravely add that the disease wasn't cured and that severe cases could still be life-threatening.

Through a combination of bluffs and threats, he had them wrapped around his little finger.

Of course, his success came so easily because of his own status, position, and power.

He was the Taiping Celestial King, not to mention a 'Third-Grade Mage.' Of course they would be convinced.

Had it been some nameless nobody, they wouldn't have believed a word.

'How long has it been? Not even twelve hours, I think.' Qi Suian looked at the Mage before him. Outwardly, he looked perfectly human, but the inside had already changed.

The most obvious change was that his internal organs had fused with the Spiritual Root he had refined.

The changes to his appearance, by contrast, were minimal.

Qi Suian suspected that his original theory—that Spiritual Root gene fragments were invading the human body—was wrong.

In fact, it was completely and utterly wrong.

The true pathology was far more severe than he had imagined.

At this point, the Ninth-Grade Mage's body had completely transformed into a structure resembling a chrysalis.

His organs had fused together, like an insect, becoming a living entity that was now absorbing and replacing its host.

Even though his internal organs were gone, the host felt little and hadn't even noticed the transformation.

If the activation of the Spiritual Root hadn't caused its gene fragments to partially combine with the host's human genes and cells, resulting in externally visible mutations, no one would have ever noticed a problem.

If things proceeded as expected, this new Spiritual Root-organ would continue to expand, replacing the Mage's flesh and bone until it finally broke out of its chrysalis, leaving behind nothing but a sheet of human skin.

This transformation gave Qi Suian a strange sense of déjà vu, reminding him of the movie *Alien*.

'Like a xianxia version of *Alien*?'

Of course, the Spiritual Root didn't absorb the host's genes to evolve. Its own genetic fragments were far more powerful than any human's.

"I just don't know how intelligent they are," Qi Suian muttered.

Since the Spiritual Root within the host had not yet fully developed, Qi Suian had no way of determining its level of intelligence.

'So they're just swapping out the bird, but keeping the cage.'

It was the first time Qi Suian had encountered such a thing, and he was powerless to stop it.

Every Mage in the Spirit Root World had an Extraordinary Life Form within them—called a Spiritual Root, but in reality, a parasite.

Ordinary people didn't have one, but hereditary Spiritual Root gene fragments still flowed within their bodies.

Even without a Spiritual Root implanted as a seed, they were all potential candidates.

If they were captured and injected with a Spiritual Root, they would become a perfect chrysalis.

'Based on my observations, it takes about seven days for a Lower-Grade Spiritual Root to completely devour a Ninth-Grade Mage.'

'I just hope that, like the xenomorphs from *Alien*, they burst out of the chest once fully developed and don't inherit the original host's memories.'

'Otherwise, the humans of the Spirit Root World are basically doomed.'

If they really did maintain a human appearance and inherit memories, then these Spirit Root Worms would absolutely lay low.

Once they had devoured even the First-Grade Mages, effectively wiping out the Mage population, the humans of this world would have zero chance of victory.

As for a solution, there was one, of course: just have every Mage commit suicide right now.

After all, without a host, a Spiritual Root cannot develop into its adult form.

'Thankfully, I didn't follow the original template. Instead, I modified it and used a Spiritual Root version of the Abyssal Virus as the foundation.'

'But now that the doomsday is kicking into high gear, I need to perfect my Abyssal Form as soon as possible.'

'Otherwise, once the Spirit Root Worms form their own power base, it'll be difficult to even gather resources.'

"Smart Brain, what's your take on this?" Qi Suian needed resources, so he naturally turned to the Smart Brain.

[Recalculating plan...]

[To accelerate your progress, you will require more valuable Mage Families to serve as a resource supply.]

[However, this requires the Taiping Heavenly King Army to wield greater influence.]

[The current rate of expansion is, in fact, already quite rapid.]

[Proceeding further will likely trigger a 'harvesting' action from the Mage Families.]

[The advantage is that you will acquire a large batch of resources in a short period.]

[The disadvantage is that subsequent 'pig-butchering' schemes will likely fail to lure in other, more valuable Mage Families.]

[You must weigh your options carefully.]

The Smart Brain hadn't offered a recommendation, which implied it was confident it could provoke the Mage Families invested in the Taiping Heavenly King Army to make the first move.

Then Qi Suian could slaughter them and have his feast. But if he did, it would be much harder to trick other Mage Families into taking the bait next time.

"Let's harvest this first batch of families and worry about the rest later," Qi Suian said, choosing without hesitation to take the meal.

As far as he was concerned, playing the long game didn't guarantee a bigger fish.

The entire pond might get blown up, after all. What fish would be left then?

It was better to just kill and eat what he could now.

Moreover, once he perfected his Abyssal Form and possessed even greater power, he wouldn't need to use the Taiping Heavenly King Army as a tool for extortion. He could just kill directly.

After all, having a faction like this meant he had to share the spoils with those under him.

If Qi Suian were to abandon the faction, not only would he not have to share, but even his own men would become his fuel.

"When can we make our move?" Qi Suian asked.

Although he was thinking of just storming their gates, the Smart Brain was thinking several steps ahead.

It wanted to lure in another wave of Mage Families to be slaughtered like pigs, and that required preparation.

[Estimated preparation time: seven days.]

Seven days. Qi Suian could afford to wait. It was also the perfect amount of time to observe the full transformation process of the Spirit Root Worm.

For a Ninth-Grade Mage, the process from onset to complete transformation took ten days.

Qi Suian wasn't sure about the higher grades, since so far, only Ninth-Grade Mages had shown symptoms.

And even then, it was only a portion of them. Qi Suian had yet to determine if the outbreak was due to individual factors or was simply random.

All of this would require sufficient time to verify.

After all, Qi Suian had only had the sick Mages for less than twenty-four hours.

How could he possibly confirm so much data in such a short amount of time?

"Good. Make the preparations as soon as possible. Time waits for no one."

"We have the upper hand when it comes to this Spiritual Root disease. See if you can leverage this opportunity to make another killing," Qi Suian said, his eyes narrowing.

[Possible, but only on the condition that you develop a drug capable of suppressing the onset of the Spiritual Root disease.]

[Simultaneously, you will need to withstand demands from Second- and First-Grade Mages, as well as pressure from numerous other factions.]

"The latter isn't a problem. The main issue is that the First- and Second-Grade Mages will be difficult to handle."

"We can just sell the formula as a one-time buyout and rake in a huge profit."

"But the First- and Second-Grade Mages, with their immense power... if we ask for an exorbitant price, they'll certainly refuse to pay."

"They might just try to take it by force."

"Worse, they might kill us to silence us and monopolize it for themselves." Qi Suian didn't know much about psychology, but he understood the greed of the Mage Families.

In their eyes, for such a treasure to fall into the hands of a mere Jianghu Mage like Qi Suian was a travesty; how could they allow such immense profits to be shared?

It had to be controlled by the Mage Families, not shared with those Mages who had no status or backing.

If others wanted to use the medicine, fine. They could either buy it from the Mage Families at an exorbitant price or become a retainer, in which case they would be given a paltry, stingy amount.

Qi Suian had seen plenty of these tactics within the Taiping Heavenly King Army; the scions of the great families were all extremely adept at using them.

Using the classic carrot-and-stick approach, they had cultivated quite a few double agents within the Taiping Heavenly King Army—men who were drawing two salaries.

After all, no one was optimistic about the Taiping Heavenly King Army's future. The Jianghu Mages were only in it for the benefits, so of course they had to plan an exit strategy for themselves.

And recruitment by the scions of the great families fit perfectly into those plans.

Sometimes, a man wanted to pledge fealty but couldn't even find a door to knock on. Now that young masters and misses were personally recruiting for their inner circles, of course they would bow their heads and swear allegiance.

[Therefore, you require sufficient strength to act as a deterrent.]

Qi Suian, however, shook his head. "I can't manage that. But I do have another solution."

"First, we'll only sell the gene-suppressing drug for Ninth-Grade Mages. We sell the formula to the Mage Families at a high price."

"Then we sell the finished medicine to the Jianghu Mages, aiming for small profits and high volume."

"That way, we profit from both sides," Qi Suian said.

As for the Spirit Root World having no concept of intellectual property? What if the formula gets leaked everywhere?

He didn't care. The drug only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. Besides, Qi Suian just wanted to make one big score; he wasn't thinking about the long term.