CHAPTER 492: REVISED: CHAPTER 470 EXTRAORDINARY STRUGGLES, DIVINE FAVOR ASCENDS!

As a key engineering project, Frick College of Liberal Arts is naturally of brick and tile construction, located next to the military camp.

Having inspected Frick Grammar School and finding no issues, Horn thought about heading back to the Mechanical Palace for an afternoon nap.

While crossing the wooden bridge over the Parra River, Horn caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of several Mechanical Palace staff tinkering with something by the riverbank.

"What are they doing?"

"Cleaning up the slime," Raphael glanced over, "The rainy season is approaching, the air is humid, and many slimes have appeared.

Also, Hilov has been holed up in the Mechanical Palace doing experiments every day, and there’s a lot of debris in the wastewater. Slime, with its decomposing nature, is attracted to gather at the drains.

But it doesn’t matter much, we just clean it up every two or three days; we’re used to it."

"Oh, is that so." Horn nodded, as if remembering something, and smiled at Raphael, "Hilov has been asking me to visit the lab these past few days. Why wait and see, since there’s nothing else to do, let’s go have a look."

This morning, Hilov had just drawn a few drops of her own blood for the so-called Demon-Loving Fungus experiment. It’s uncertain what the results are so far.

"Yes, Your Excellency."

Entering the Mechanical Palace, reaching Hilov’s laboratory, Horn could see the heavy, thick iron door.

The two Cheka at the door saw it was Horn, naturally didn’t obstruct him, and smoothly opened the door to let Horn in.

"Ah, Horn, you’re just in time." Hilov just removed her leather goggles, and at the moment her peripheral vision caught Horn, her ears and head lifted simultaneously.

"Just in time? Why?" Horn casually pulled up a chair to sit down, this way he could look directly at Hilov’s face.

"Do you remember a few days ago I told you I’m about to solve the mystery of the Blessed? Do you remember that?"

Horn answered reluctantly, "I remember."

"Liar." Hilov extended her snow-white finger, tapping Horn on the nose, "You never remember what I say."

"There’s nothing I can do, it’s a passive skill developed from practicing with Jeanne, and I can’t turn it off."

"Passive skill... you’re speaking nonsense again?" Hilov rotated her wheelchair, taking a folder from the shelf, and handing it to Horn.

"About the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus, after several experiments, I’ve summarized some of its patterns..."

Listening to Hilov’s live explanation and looking at the experiment brief in his hand, Horn’s expression gradually became serious, gradually understanding the operational mechanism of the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus.

First, there needs to be a wound on the body to facilitate the assimilation and entry of the Demon-Loving Fungus. Previously, through drinking and smearing, the fungus couldn’t survive long.

Second, Horn himself needs to be present, preferably injured, to facilitate the spread and infection of the fungus.

Third, the toxicity of Horn’s Demon-Loving Fungus is too low, getting killed off by the body’s mechanism before taking effect. It’s best to use it with other pathogens, ideally infecting a wound.

"Remember the first batch of infected? Most of them had injuries or illnesses in the high mountains, already injured or sick, so the infection was rapid.

Remember many who got your Witch disease but didn’t awaken as Blessed?

That’s because their vitality was too strong, eliminating your fungus.

During the Pavia battle, there was a sudden increase in Blessed, because there were many injuries, too many pathogens for the body to handle, allowing the fungus to take advantage and mingle, creating many Blessed.

Later on, fewer Blessed appeared in battles because the number of Extraordinary increased and the widespread use of garlic essential medicine resulted in effective elimination of your fungus."

Due to the lack of adequate biological and medical knowledge, Hilov didn’t have the concepts of immunity or virus, often having to explain with medical and biological knowledge from the Ancient Aer Era.

But from the report’s perspective, while descriptions were inaccurate, the patterns summarized were correct.

"So does this mean..." Horn leaned forward from the chair, eagerly awaiting Hilov’s response.

"Yes, after solving this problem, in principle, we can now mass-produce Blessed." Hilov’s cheek muscles twitched slightly, her tail proudly arched.

Mass production of Blessed...

Upon hearing these words, the sounds in Horn’s ears blurred, thinking it was a term he’d hear only before his death.

"Well done, Hilov, well done!"

Horn rushed to Hilov’s side, lifting her from the wheelchair, making her face blush, before carefully placing her back into the wheelchair by her armpits.

Who would have thought that in just a few months Hilov could accomplish this. The intelligence of all Beastmen is said to be possibly one stone, and Hilov occupies one and two-tenths of that.

No wonder Horn was excited; this could be one of his trump cards in dismantling the Church’s Extraordinary hegemony.

When the extraordinary exists as a natural phenomenon, the idea of eliminating the extraordinary becomes a joke.

Horn could kill everyone who knows the breathing technique and burn every book related to the breathing technique and Divine Art.

Yet, these things lie beneath the surface of nature, someone will inevitably discover them again, and put them to use once more.

Can Horn’s decree command nature?

Horn has always carefully controlled mortals’ perception of the extraordinary, not because he is an Extraordinary himself and driven by self-interest, but because he cannot eliminate the extraordinary.

He believes that understanding and utilizing the extraordinary, then popularizing it, is akin to how fire burns people, but instead of extinguishing or denying fire, people should harness it.

Hilov was encouraged to research and establish a system of natural theology, spreading the scientific research methodology... even boldly allowing the use of death row inmates for human experiments.

The goal of all this was to seek and discover the laws of the extraordinary.

This effort finally yielded its first bud— the Demon-Loving Fungus.

Others might not yet see its potential, but Horn already has.

If the Demon-Loving Fungus could be cultivated in large quantities and made into something like a vaccine, which could then be widely administered to all mortals under the Salvation Army, what would happen?

Five million Thousand River Valley People, five million Wizards, five million Alchemists and Holy Gunmen!

Eventually, perhaps it could even become a mandatory practice, where every newborn is injected with the Demon-Loving Fungus, transforming the entire nation into a nation of Wizards.

By that time, not even Witches could spread witch disease to ordinary people, rendering all stigmatization and judgment of Witches a thing of the past.

All Witches could live healthily in the sunlight, no longer needing to hide.

This is Horn’s solution to the Church’s extraordinary hegemony and the extraordinary’s dehumanizing effect—

Turn everyone into an Extraordinary, forcibly lowering the upper and lower limits of personal power.

When everyone becomes extraordinary, the theme of "extraordinary dehumanization" ceases to exist.

This method alone could phase out the breathing technique itself, turning it into something akin to a physical exercise or even gymnastics.

However, Horn’s wild notion was soon doused by a cold bucket of water from Hilov.

"No, it’s impossible to produce in large quantities for the time being, let alone reach the numbers you mentioned."

"Why?" Horn asked, still bewildered, "Can’t you take a culture medium and cultivate a batch of Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus in large numbers?"

"You can’t cultivate it, remember? The Demon-Loving Fungus can only reproduce in a high-magic environment, in a low-magic environment it will cease all activity to preserve itself," Hilov said, pulling apart the fur stuck together with oil at the tip of her tail.

Horn realized that any environment with magic power would bind to living organisms, making mass production with a culture medium impossible.

The living culture medium is another matter entirely, where the organism itself and the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus undergo simultaneous transformation to become the second generation Demon-Loving Fungus, which loses the ability to distort nerves.

Simply put, the first generation Demon-Loving Fungus is food, while the second generation is what’s excreted after eating the food, lacking sufficient nutrients.

This meant that Horn would be the sole production facility for the Holy Favor Demon-Loving Fungus for a long time.

But since the problem of existence had been solved, all that was left was to gradually develop it until it could be used, and Horn could wait.

"Then how did you conduct those experiments?" Horn recalled Hilov’s experiments.

"I use them as needed; when I need to experiment, I just take some blood or scrape some tongue coating to use," Hilov’s wolf tail suddenly swished, a sign of her happiness.

"Horn, if you want to turn someone into a Blessed, just spit into their wound."

"Huh?" Horn was left baffled.

"Think about it, the spit contains auxiliary bacteria, and the nasal and throat contain Demon-Loving Fungus, spitting it into someone’s wound is more effective than our post-configuration, isn’t it?"

Spitting into other people’s wounds to infect new Blessed... what the heck is this?!

Yet, after considering it, Horn couldn’t help feeling an indescribable absurdity, because he realized that Hilov’s words actually held some truth and feasibility.

The Demon-Loving Fungus needed other bacteria as a cover, and the nasal passage just so happened to have other bacteria, while the throat contained the Demon-Loving Fungus.

This mix didn’t even need Hilov’s temporary preparation.

But Horn still found it hard to accept at the moment; others would entice followers with "Join the glorious evolution!" while he would go with "Here... spat!"

Darn it, I thought jumping around was disgraceful enough, but how can there be an expert here?