CHAPTER 193: CHAPTER 193: DRAGON SOUL SAINT MASTER_1

"Something feels odd lately," Wang Linchi thought. He had felt as if something had passed by his building two or three times in the past few days. He went to check it out but found nothing, and could only let it be in the end.

It must be zombies. He was at the core of Zone 7 Base, and with the Soul Devices he had arranged for concealment, plus his own Thought Field, his presence was extremely well hidden. Even those at the Daylight Level might not necessarily have been able to see through his setup.

Even if they weren’t zombies but Awakeners, Wang Linchi didn’t care. After all, most Awakeners were primarily focused on killing and wouldn’t likely come here.

After three tedious months, I have finally succeeded. Honestly, if this meteorite weren’t alive but inanimate, its quality would at least be Legendary Level.

Dead meteorites are just ordinary stones, holding no value. Only living meteorites can reach the Legendary Level. Therefore, after he crafted it into the Dragon Soul Saint Main and added Tianshin Grass, it reached Mythology level. However, this current Mythology level was somewhat inflated—it needed Growth.

[Dragon Soul Saint Main (Mythology level)]

[Adaptive Evolution: Accelerate positive selection evolution under environmental changes]

[Autonomous Growth: Automatic Growth while assisting Growth]

The Dragon Soul Saint Main currently only had two effect entries, but this was just the beginning. With the ’Adaptive Evolution’ effect entry, it would start to accelerate its positive selection evolution, continuously developing new effect entries. According to his estimates, there was no upper limit to the effect entries. For instance, what might initially manifest could be just Minor Toxin Resistance, but with gradual evolution, it could become Advanced Toxin Immunity.

Of course, what was more important was that with the second effect entry of the Dragon Soul Saint Main, he could start to ’Hang Up’ and cultivate. However, unlike System-style ’Hang Up’ upgrades, where the Dragon Soul Saint Main essentially assists his operations, this was only effective for the Soul Forging Method and secret techniques. Soul Skills wouldn’t work. After all, the essence of Soul Skills lies in techniques formed through Mental Interference. If one doesn’t practice them, merely theorizing is nonsensical.

Compared to the Stand-in and Coiling Dragon, the Dragon Soul’s effect entries had no upper limit. It was no longer confined to ten effect entries but would continuously strengthen.

It would be good if the Great Ruins weren’t here.

Wang Linchi sighed. If the Great Ruins didn’t exist, with these three Soul Phase Plugins, he could even evolve abilities to resist limits on cell division, soul attrition, decrease of spiritual power, and more. This implied he could achieve immortality. By relying solely on ’Hanging Up’ to cultivate, a thousand years later, with the array of effect entries he would have evolved, he could show even those at the Daylight Level what ’Power Big Flying Brick’ truly meant.

But he had lost that opportunity.

However, it didn’t matter. Although the current situation was desperate, there was still a slim chance of survival, wasn’t there?

Next, what I need is to have the Dragon Soul Saint Main evolve effect entries such as High-Speed Cultivation and Rapid Cultivation.

Once these Cultivation-boosting effect entries appeared, they would allow him to enhance his strength more quickly. Evolving them was also relatively straightforward. He just needed to adapt his Physique to the corresponding Cultivation intensity. Then, he could accelerate the positive selection evolution, allowing the Dragon Soul Saint Main to cooperate with him in evolving this ability.

What a pity, the Saint Master can’t use it. Otherwise, he could also become a passive monster like me.

It wasn’t that Wang Linchi was withholding it, but rather that he really couldn’t give it. If he did give it to the Saint Master, who knew what monstrous form it might take due to the ’Adaptive Evolution’ entry. He wasn’t worried about himself because he could actively interfere with the positive selection evolution. The Saint Master, however, could not. It had no brain; it was just a Stand-in. It couldn’t correctly identify and interfere to determine if this positive selection was usable.

Positive selection meant adapting to the environment to better survive, not to live a better life. So, sometimes bizarre changes occurred, like evolving Fish Gills or fur. Wang Linchi didn’t need these organs and could interfere.

However, it wasn’t certain for the Stand-in Saint Master. Its Physique was originally strong, so its evolution speed would be faster. Perhaps in the middle of a battle, the Saint Master would transform into a three-headed, six-armed, scale-covered creature, with a body full of miscellaneous organs. By then, even if he wanted to cut them off, it would be too late. It would likely trigger effect entries like Limb Regeneration, Organ Regeneration, High-Speed Regeneration, and so on. If you cut one part, it could grow three more. Wang Linchi wouldn’t even have time to interfere. And as numerous effect entries piled up, the evolution speed would become increasingly faster.

There was an inherent difference between him and the Stand-in Saint Master, so Wang Linchi’s situation couldn’t simply be applied to the Stand-in Saint Master.

The drawback of the Dragon Soul Saint Master’s ’Adaptive Evolution’ was that because it evolved too quickly (for the sake of survival), it didn’t guarantee the future. The effect entries on the body might not withstand the test of time and could become a burden.

As for devolution, one first needed the corresponding ability. Otherwise, how would Wang Linchi modify it? The ’Adaptive Evolution’ was derived from the Tianshin Grass Mother Plant. Since the plant itself didn’t possess high-speed devolution capabilities, he simply couldn’t create it.

Fortunately, he could interfere himself, so he didn’t have to worry about problems arising. In the future, he could look for an opportunity to add the devolution ability. At that time, he could install it onto the Saint Master.

As for when exactly, that was uncertain. Finding an evolutionary ability might be relatively easy, but finding a devolutionary one was somewhat fantastical. Unless he went to some uninhabited ancient Secret Realms.

Of course, there was no opportunity to install a devolution ability now. The reason he was doing this was to gamble: if the world couldn’t withstand the Impact of the Great Ruins and he hadn’t escaped, he would rely on this ’Adaptive Evolution’ to develop resistances related to the Great Ruins, allowing him to survive within them.

My body is having a bit of trouble enduring further changes.

In just a few minutes, the Dragon Soul Saint Master had evolved dozens of effect entries, such as ’lowest-grade disease resistance,’ ’lowest-grade bacterial colony symbiosis enhancement,’ and a whole series of other entries. However, they were all very weak. After all, it had just begun; how could it improve so quickly?

The evolution efficiency is quite satisfactory. Not only delayed evolution, but I also need accelerated evolution entries, Wang Linchi suddenly remembered.

If he were truly swept away by the Great Ruins, the evolution speed must be fast—fast enough that Wang Linchi would have already evolved the corresponding resistance capabilities the moment he came into contact with the Great Ruins. Otherwise, if he hadn’t successfully developed an effect entry for Great Ruins resistance, or if the effect entries were all lowest-grade, secondary-grade, or primary-grade, they would be largely ineffective.

Normally, it definitely couldn’t evolve too quickly, but during life-preservation moments, it had to be fast.

This ’wanting it both ways’ plan gave Wang Linchi a bit of a headache. And this headache, in turn, caused it to evolve a ’lowest-grade thought acceleration’ and a ’lowest-grade dopamine pacification’ effect entry.

"Heh, I have to say, this ability is quite intelligent," Wang Linchi remarked. His thinking had indeed sped up a tiny bit. Whenever he felt stressed or had a headache, his mental state would recover.

What kind of Cattle and Horses-exclusive effect entry is this? The more you work, the happier you get; the more you’re squeezed, the happier you become, right? Wang Linchi directly disabled the ’lowest-grade dopamine pacification’ effect entry, prohibiting not only its evolution but also its use.

As a result, three minutes later, it produced another ’lowest-grade endorphin pain relief.’ This thing was used for pain relief, body temperature regulation, and other effects, meant to suppress the pain caused by overly rapid Cultivation efficiency. Wang Linchi casually disabled it again. If it only provided pain relief, that would be one thing. The problem was, this thing had other functions. Enhancing the pain relief capability also meant increased secretion of it, leaving Wang Linchi somewhat speechless. He had still underestimated the Dragon Soul Saint Master’s ’Adaptive Evolution’ ability.

If this was truly installed on the Stand-in Saint Master, it might evolve a pile of things just from walking a few steps, no battle needed. The Saint Master’s Physique was inherently illogical. Its ability to walk and run entirely depended on it not being a normal creature. Therefore, the first step of ’Adaptive Evolution’ would be to make the Saint Master ’normal.’

Wang Linchi didn’t need the Saint Master to be normal. What he needed was for it to be able to fight and block blows. Becoming ’normal’ wouldn’t necessarily be better; on the contrary, it might create corresponding liabilities. For instance, the Saint Master had no vital points. Even if its head was gone, it would be fine; at most, it couldn’t use the Pig and Dragon Talismans. If it evolved a heart or a brain, destroying them, even if not fatal, would result in severe damage. If it then evolved a respiratory system, that would be even more of a death sentence. The Saint Master originally didn’t need to breathe, so this would just add another vulnerability out of thin air.

Positive selection isn’t about being ’positively suitable’; it’s about adapting to the environment, not your desires.