Chapter 738: Ashura Path's Bloodline Martial Art

"At this point, even if I came forward and said it was all just my imagination, no one would believe me, would they?" Xu Zhi's expression shifted subtly as he watched the bustling atmosphere below the street, which felt as lively as a New Year's celebration.

He picked up a piece of meat and put it into his mouth; it melted instantly, tasting wonderfully sweet and delicious.

After all, it was perfectly logical.

The concept of "Buddhist lands" as radioactive areas, where beings are converted and assimilated, explained everything well.

The solar halo symbol behind them, combined with the sun being a source of radiation, served as a clear metaphor!

And now, with everything unfolding before his eyes?!

If one coincidence was just that, and two coincidences were still just that, then what about this situation? When all phenomena pointed in the same direction, there was no way to deny it.

"Perhaps it's destined, a 'Physics-Buddhism' and 'Chemistry-Taoism' continuously evolving the sandbox of ancient Chinese civilization," Xu Zhi mused, continuing to eat his meal calmly. "It's truly fascinating."

The taste was indeed amazing.

China was a nation of gastronomy, and now its cuisine had truly blossomed.

Xu Zhi gazed out the mahogany window at the street below, where a commotion was still unfolding, curses being exchanged. "Well, the Beast Realm is engaged in internal conflict. In an online game world, wherever there are people, there's always strife... a struggle between Buddhism and Taoism."

While one might call it internal consumption, it was also a glorious age of a hundred schools of thought contending and flourishing.

Wasn't it similar with the Hundred Schools of Thought in ancient times?

The collision of various philosophies and the struggles between factions would undoubtedly promote the broader development of the era.

Halfway through his meal, noticing the restaurant was empty of other patrons, Xu Zhi called over an idle treant waitress. "Have there been any interesting developments in your Beast Realm recently?"

The treant girl hesitated. "Young master, there are indeed some interesting things happening here, but my employer, the restaurant owner, told me not to slack off during work..."

Xu Zhi placed two divine stones on the table.

The treant girl immediately brightened, quietly pocketing the divine stones. "There are quite a few interesting things in our Beast Realm," she began. "You've witnessed the conflicts below, young master, so you must be aware of the history of our Asura Path.

"We obtained ancient traditions from the Ksitigarbha Temple within the Avici Hell, which revived our civilization and the ancient mythological system from hundreds of thousands of years ago: Buddhism and Taoism!

"But we are still exploring and developing them. Everyone believes themselves to be the true inheritors of the ancient traditions. Just recently, the Mechanical Buddhist Sect and the Electromagnetic Buddhist Sect have been desperately competing to recruit a new generation of disciples. Originally, the Electromagnetic Buddhist Sect adopted the method of 'Beast Taming.'"

"Beast taming?" Xu Zhi inquired.

"Indeed. Recently, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has become extremely concentrated, making wild beasts and plants incredibly strange and ferocious! They've also become quite dangerous, with many even gaining sentience and absorbing the essence of spiritual energy. Because of these wild spirit beasts, the Electromagnetic Buddhist Sect has introduced 'Buddha Rings' and embarked on the path of Beast Taming."

Xu Zhi was momentarily stunned, then chuckled, finding it very amusing.

So, this is an Artifact Crafting Sect, and that's a Beast Taming Sect? The Rosary Bead faction battling the Buddha Ring faction?

"This is an internal struggle within the Buddhist sects. The Taoist sects also have their own internal conflicts. I hear there's a group of radical, heretical sects, self-proclaimed 'Ancient Artificers,' who are researching artificial organs," the treant waitress said. "They are considered a very evil organization."

Xu Zhi was speechless. His face darkened slightly, utterly bewildered. What on earth was this?

Ar-ti-ficers!?

The struggles within the Buddhist sects were one thing, but the internal conflict within the Taoist sects involved the orthodox Taoists battling against hidden, heretical factions? Ancient Qi Cultivators against Ancient Artificers?

No wonder he hadn't seen any Taoist practitioners arguing in public. It turned out that those fighting the Taoist sects were already cults, lurking in the shadows.

"Artificers researching artificial organs... could it be similar to the innate talents found in the Heaven-Human Path or the Mortal Path?" Xu Zhi asked, intrigued.

"Similar," she replied.

The treant waitress pursed her lips. In reality, "artificial organs" was originally a research project conducted jointly by Akina Speed's "Alchemy Factory" and the Alchemy Emperor's "Source" of life. It was akin to Emperor Qi's bloodline plug-in organs, like a cheat code. One could install a plug-in organ, implanting an "artificial organ." But when the two grandmasters, the Alchemy Emperor and Akina Speed, developed this, others grew envious and wanted to emulate it, attaching extraordinary organs to themselves as plug-ins. This made it truly resemble an online game where equipment could be swapped—various organs, arms, legs—but they encountered many difficulties.

"So, what's the specific situation?" Xu Zhi asked, were they dead set on creating a real online game world?

"Aren't we from the Asura Path? Our race possesses infinite evolutionary possibilities! Each time we advance to a new stage, we change our biological form," the treant girl explained. "However, according to the radical views of the artificers, we are far from utilizing the full potential of our evolutionary forms!"

Xu Zhi listened intently, placing two more divine stones on the table.

The treant girl glanced around, secretly tucked the two divine stones into her bosom, and lowered her head to whisper, "In our Asura Path, each evolutionary stage typically doesn't result in a perfect form; our appearances vary widely. However, many of us develop a unique, powerful organ—a crystallization of our core evolutionary efforts, such as tentacles or the hardest bone. But when we evolve to the next stage, these are often lost!

"For instance, I'm currently a third-tier being. I've been diligently studying and researching, and as a result, I've evolved a fairly good root system." She pointed to her feet, which were dense, soft green tentacles resembling those of an octopus. She explained that they were highly agile, allowed her to run fast, and could anchor to the ground to absorb nutrients. "But I suspect these will most likely be gone when I evolve to the fourth tier, because I'm currently researching the evolutionary modification of tree bark, aiming to develop an even stronger, improved species."

The treant girl chattered on, "Of course, there are formidable Asura warriors whose knowledge is incredible. They continuously retain the gifted organs from each stage of evolution, eventually forming a cohesive whole. According to our conjectures, if a being undergoes seven evolutions, reaching the seventh-tier Heavenly Emperor stage, and each evolving organ perfectly integrates, it could ultimately form a super-powerful creature with an incredibly strong bloodline. But that's merely theoretical perfection, because our evolutionary skill is poor. We might manage the evolution of one organ, only for another to be lost in the next stage of evolution. If our skill wasn't so limited, we would have long since... long since written evolution papers and entered the 'Spore Evolution' system." That's what she wanted to say.

Players in the Wizard community generally studied biological evolution, but their overall skill level was not high, resulting in quite "disabled" evolved forms. After all, the evolutionary forms of Asura warriors were inherently imperfect and unnatural because they didn't evolve from spores from scratch but rather started their journey midway.

"So, you intend to..." Xu Zhi paused, surprised.

"Yes, detach these special, powerful organs, then evolve to the next stage... and then reinsert them later. Since they are originally our own organs, there's no rejection. Some even more radical individuals might purchase and attach organs from others, though compatibility could be very poor, and organ rejection might occur."

"It's quite frightening, isn't it?" the treant girl whispered.

Xu Zhi was somewhat shaken. During evolution, they would transform into individual organ parts, specializing in the development of a single organ, and then continuously reassemble themselves later? Truly, these players were ingenious enough to make their hair fall out! It was incredibly elaborate.

"An extremely interesting concept, no, its potential is terrifying. This way, one could likely form a creature composed of countless powerful organs, converging into a truly extraordinary bloodline being, representing a qualitative leap. While such an assembled or 'cosmetically altered' being might not possess the raw power of a naturally integrated one, it is undeniably formidable, and the method has a high potential for widespread adoption."

Xu Zhi was utterly astonished by this concept!

Powerful extraordinary bloodlines typically arose from accidental genetic opportunities, integrated as a complete whole. However, by continuously refining their individual organs and ultimately assembling and integrating them into an extraordinary being, their bloodline and genetic talent would likely be immensely powerful as well. Perhaps the most outstanding among them would not be inferior to demonic core bloodlines? They might not even be inferior to the Witch clan bloodlines?

"One could even develop powerful bloodline cultivation techniques based on the foundation of this creature's bloodline! Just as the Witch clan's bloodline led to the development of their Nine Revolutions Profound Art... No, wait, this seems feasible but is actually unrealistic. No matter how powerful an extraordinary bloodline is, an entire world of beings must possess that bloodline for its cultivation methods to be developed and perfected collectively. The number of individuals within a bloodline race determines how powerful their cultivation methods can become. An individual alone cannot establish or perfect a cultivation technique for an entire race. For instance, the Evil Eye gene from back then, which now appears to be a very low-level psychic bloodline with powerful dark and negative emotional effects, forcibly ascended to such heights through the efforts of countless geniuses over many eras."

If your extraordinary bloodline only had ten people? Or a hundred? How could you develop a cultivation method? It would be extremely difficult.

However, Xu Zhi found the prospect terrifying.

"They're learning from Emperor Qi's plug-in organs; these people are shameless..." Xu Zhi's thoughts drifted as he continued to listen to the treant girl's description for a while. Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he left the restaurant.

On the way.

"They are researching cultivation methods for organ integration, using the regenerative energy of Buddhist light and True Qi to achieve the most perfect possible re-integration, flawlessly inserting organs and equipping 'body mods.' That's the real challenge," Xu Zhi said softly.

Shangguan Man, the old woman with a face full of wrinkles, was greatly astonished. "What a brilliant idea! The Asura Path has now even developed its own racial bloodline cultivation method. This isn't just about cultivating the Buddhist or Taoist techniques, which integrate their ancient ancestral bloodline talents. No, this is an innate cultivation method belonging to their race, perfectly utilizing their unique bloodline."

Xu Zhi chuckled, "Indeed. They are now labeled as heretics, a result of a conflict of ideas. Although their approach is somewhat radical, it ultimately fully expands the evolutionary potential of Asura warriors."

What exactly is a bloodline cultivation method? It involves taking the advantages and characteristics of one's own bloodline and creating a unique cultivation technique.

Shangguan Man smiled slightly. "This cultivation concept is astonishing, truly worthy of applause! It's a bloodline cultivation method perfectly suited to their own race. However, possessing such a treasure invites trouble, and I also understand the reasons for the conservative faction's opposition. Because their Asura Path organ plug-ins, despite having very low compatibility—meaning they can only use their own, and using others' organs would cause rejection, let alone those from other races—the Heaven-Human Path and Mortal Path might not covet their organs specifically, but they would hunt them down to assemble them into extraordinary bloodline creatures."

Xu Zhi's expression remained calm. It was indeed so.

The nefarious powerhouses of the Heaven-Human Path and Mortal Path, upon seeing this collection of organ parts—so brimming with potential and infinite possibilities—would likely develop an interest in 'assembling parts,' akin to endless 'pet merging.' They would eagerly hunt and piece them together.

Currently, the Asura Path possesses the power to resist, while also spreading its doctrines to the other two paths. At the same time, there isn't enough immediate gain to incite the other two paths to wage war. For these various reasons, they could coexist peacefully. However, if they truly proceeded with this, the existing balance would be shattered.

The assembled Asura warriors were grotesque and strangely shaped, with hideous spiraling horns and myriad appearances, growing increasingly similar to the mythical Asuras.

As the two conversed, they journeyed on, arriving at an extremely secluded, dense forest. They passed through a dark, narrow cave and emerged into a vibrant green valley.

The valley was bustling with activity. Countless individuals had set up stalls, and numerous strangely shaped animals roamed about. They watched as extraordinary bloodlines and various top-tier organs were being sold.

"Sharingan, get your Sharingan here!"

"Kekkei Genkai: Dead Bone Pulse! You deserve to own it!"