A Scroll of Infinite Glory

Chapter 196 The Violet Gene Tree

It is another spacious and bright underground building, decorated with lights everywhere.

In the entire room, only a nutrient tank filled with sky-blue liquid stood in the center. A young and strong man was immersed in it naked, his eyes, which shimmered with a light blue luster, were open for a long time, and he did not need to blink because of the medicine.

He clearly had a well-proportioned and tall frame, with muscles like meticulously polished marble, tightly arranged and attached to the bones, and thick platinum-gold hair that floated in liquid like seaweed.

The four walls were divided into many identical screens by a grid-like dotted frame. Whichever direction the man's gaze moved in, the static image on that screen would immediately resume playing.

Each screen represents a thrilling battle, some of which were once well-known and talked about in Violet State, but many more are pirated videos collected from all over the world.

The battlefields are incredibly diverse, ranging from ancient caves covered in moss to the dark depths of the sea where they dance with coral reefs, to battles fought amidst a hail of bullets in desert oases.

There are one-on-one battles, one-on-many battles, and large-scale melees, showcasing countless fighting techniques.

If these videos were carefully edited and watched individually at varying speeds, many viewers might find them incredibly exciting, experiencing an adrenaline rush and bursting with joy.

However, without any post-production editing, the camera sometimes shakes and rotates violently, greatly reducing its watchability.

Even the most avid fans of combat sports can be satisfied with watching one or two matches a day; any more than that would inevitably become tedious and boring.

If you force them to watch videos on ten screens in one day, it will take at least half a month before they can regain their interest in fighting.

This man has been living like this for over a thousand days and nights, day after day. Even when it's time for his designated rest, those images and sounds linger in his senses.

He wasn't crazy; in fact, he was quite calm.

A screen in the center of the east wall is playing a video of a battle that took place last year in the coastal mountains of the ancient Donghua Kingdom.

A pretty young girl in a dark blue uniform floated in mid-air. Her work badge, hanging from a blue ribbon, was visible on her slightly raised chest. The name "Xu Xiaorou" was written in the name column, indicating that she was a member of the forest patrol team.

However, her uniform clearly belonged to the international paranormal disaster investigation organization "Red Star Beast".

The truck she was chasing carried a sleek, white four-antlered deer. Several poachers leaped out of the truck, and a short-staff fighter wearing a red headscarf was the first to strike, unleashing a vacuum blade with his staff.

But after just one glance from Xu Xiaorou, he froze into a frozen ice sculpture and crashed to the ground.

Icicles burst from the ground, supporting the truck's chassis and suspending the four wheels in the air, causing the truck body to rise rapidly.

The remaining poachers lost their will to fight and tried to escape, but how could their movements be faster than a human's eyesight? When the girl's gaze swept over them, the chill traveled from their souls to their bodies, and they all turned into ice sculptures.

At the end of the video, a hoarse voice offers advice.

"Xiao Rou, why did you use the Shocking Calamity again? We've already punished you by sending you to the branch office, and you still haven't restrained yourself. These people dared to smuggle themselves into the country to capture spirit beasts; they were already facing life imprisonment. If you use the Shocking Calamity, they'll all become vegetable-like beings, which is a waste of our funds..."

The girl's strength is exquisite, but it is clearly different from the usual fighting styles. You can't learn any special skills just by watching the videos.

The man's gaze lingered on that screen for only a moment before turning to the videos of other fighters.

As he was studying intently, his pupils suddenly contracted, and then his gaze became unfocused.

Originally suspended in the liquid with an upright posture, its muscles relaxed, its head drooped and its body bent over, as if it had become a dead fish.

An alarm immediately sounded outside the nutrient tank.

The sprightly elderly scholar pushed open the door and walked quickly to the nutrient tank. He glanced at it and was immediately shocked.

The young man's previously stable vital signs plummeted, almost straight down, making him look like a corpse.

However, when this nutrient tank was built, similar situations had been considered. The scholar's fingers flew across the operating platform as he worked busily, first injecting a super-high concentration of cardiac stimulant directly into the tank, and then providing electrotherapy stimulation to the brain.

The loose body trembled, and two minutes later, it blinked very slowly, a look of terror suddenly appearing on its face.

The scholar standing outside the nutrient tank felt a chill run down his spine under that gaze. His bent finger hovered over the next button, but he hesitated to press it, afraid to make any move.

The scholar could guess that the other party was currently caught in a state of confused thinking mixed with fear. If he made any rash moves, it would probably provoke him to attack indiscriminately on the surrounding targets.

The tension made the scholar forget to breathe. Just as his face grew increasingly red and his forehead was covered in sweat, the young man in the nutrient tank finally calmed down.

Once the man had sorted out his thoughts, he opened his mouth and exhaled a string of bubbles.

The scholars quickly began operations, rapidly lowering the level of the blue liquid while simultaneously filling it with oxygen-rich air. Then, amidst the sound of mechanical exhaust, they opened the tempered glass door on one side of the culture tank.

A young man—Irving—came out.

"Boss, what happened to you just now?"

The scholar hurried over and handed him a dry towel.

Irving wiped his face, then unfolded the towel, rubbed his hair, and said, "Tasting death... ah! It was a truly terrifying feeling."

A look of reminiscence crossed his face. He paused slightly, goosebumps rising on his smooth, poreless arms. After several seconds, he continued, "No wonder ancient Buddhism says there is great terror between life and death. Even if this isn't a complete death, it's at least a hundred times worse than those activities I used to deliberately seek thrills."

The scholar asked curiously, "Boss, is your original body already dead? I've been wanting to say this for a while now, the difference between your old body and this one is getting bigger and bigger, like the difference between a sardine and a whale. Could the death of that old body really have such a serious impact on this one?"

"That was a spiritual experience, and thanks to the empathy spell provided by Shenwu Guiyi, the senses and memories of my two bodies are completely connected. This body will accept the feelings of the other body without any resistance."

Irving tapped his forehead. "So it's like my brain here was just tricked by the memories on the other side and actively attacked this body."

After achieving some success in cloning technology, Owen split his brain and used the separated brain tissue, along with the magical data of the Divine Martial Unity, to create a clone.

Unlike the relationship between other clones and their originals, Owen's clone and his original shared a brain from the very beginning, shared all their memories, and even their senses were connected by magic.

Although he only has one self-awareness, he can do completely different things in two places: in one, he indulges in pleasure, ruins his health, and indulges in depravity; in the other, he strictly restrains his desires and devotes all his energy to pursuing higher combat skills.

However, for now, and for the foreseeable future, he will only have a body left.

Irving tossed aside the towel and led the scholar away from the room, which was surrounded by screens.

It was just a matter of crossing a threshold, but it felt like entering a completely different world.

The decor on the other side of the wall is by no means a monotonous and dull white, but rather extremely luxurious and magnificent. The bonsai and rockery in the corner are all carved from a single piece of warm yellow jade, and decorated with small animals carved from agate and emerald.

The ground was covered with red carpet, and the walls were resplendent with gold. Many oil-painting-style portraits were hung on the walls, and the similarly dressed curly-haired gentlemen's busts added a touch of aristocratic castle atmosphere to the place.

Surrounded by well-dressed guards and maids, Owen's body wasn't indulging in pleasure, but he had plenty of people at his disposal.

He lay down on the sofa, raised his legs, and placed them on the table with his legs crossed. Immediately, someone pushed a cart to bring him clothes.

Owen waved his hand, separating the maid, grabbed his clothes and threw them onto the carpet beside him, then reached out his right hand to the other side and beckoned with his finger.

The guard brought over a tablet computer that was already turned on, and Irving directed him to stand across the table and start a video call.

The other end took a while to answer, and the screen showed a handsome young Asian man with striking features, but his temples were gray and there was a dark spot under each eye.

"Irving, what's up?"

Shenwu Guiyi frowned when he saw Owen sitting naked and reclining. "Your body is usually extremely restrained, but today you want to see me like this. Could it be that your old body died and all your senses have merged into one?"

Irving clapped his hands with a smile: "As expected of you, you can guess the current situation from such a small detail."

Shenwu Guiyi asked, "Who did this?"

"Nominally, it's three people hired by Violet's bunch of old, useless servants, plus a good mayor who did a good deed..."

Owen thought for a moment about how to describe Guan Luoyang, and his smile became even more pronounced: "He is an international friend who cares a lot about the dignity of fighters."

Shenwu Gui knew from his expression that the person who had paused at the end was the target of his anger and determination to kill. He said, "Then it seems I should mourn for that person first. If he fails, who knows what kind of stories you will tell him in the future."

"You're wrong. Those who only know how to fight with pens and mouths should be destroyed with rumors. But those who killed me once in a fair and square way, of course I should defeat them with my fists in a fair and square way."

Irving opened his arms, but before that, "we should first make this body complete the planned upgrades, just like a knight polishes his armor, prepares his sword, and fills his hungry stomach before going into battle."

Shenwu Guiyi said kindly, "Then you'll have to wait patiently for a while. Hopefully, the person you want to kill will still be in Violet State by then."

Irving shook his head: "Friend, you are very observant about what happened to me and can draw inferences from it, but you don't seem to be so sensitive to things that might involve you."

Shenwu Guiyi's eyebrows twitched, and he asked, "What do you mean?"

"My former self was guarded by an odd number of troops. That island was practically my territory. You've been there before, so you should know the strength it possesses."

Owen said, "While I was killed by outsiders, the island's defenses were being held back by those three mercenaries."

"What merit do those self-proclaimed nobles have to hire three people of this caliber? I can assert that their so-called employment is probably the opposite; it is the three of them who, after arriving in Violet, suppressed those old nobles and used their power to achieve their own goals."

"Besides the project we're working on together, what other interests does Violet have that would make them go to such lengths to intervene and investigate?"

Shenwu Guiyi rubbed his brow and said, "You mean to say that I lured them here?"

Irving shrugged. "Obviously. Hasn't your family always had a formidable enemy?"

Shenwu Guiyi remained silent for a moment, his face revealing a deep-seated hatred mixed with contempt and fear, and said, "Alright, you can send more people to assist us, and we'll speed things up as much as possible."

"My brother, you should have done this a long time ago."

Irving laughed, turned off the video call, and looked at the scholar next to him. "Gather all the best researchers and go help."

Throughout the entire exchange, he never mentioned that some of the information on his island might have been searched and taken away by the enemy.

This is to gain an advantage in negotiations, and also because the information is not actually that important.

Although Guan Luoyang and his team might be able to piece together the contents of the "Violet Gene Tree" project by combining the confessions with the available information, they would not know the specific location where the project would be carried out.

If those three mercenaries were subordinates of Shenwu Mohe, then they should have known about the plan long ago, but they were just unsure who Shenwu Guiyi's collaborator was.

"Violet is a whole state, and you are just four people. As long as I order those clones to stop going out, even if I mobilize all the old nobles' forces and start searching inch by inch, it will take at least half a year to find anything."

Thinking of this, Owen felt a pang of regret for his most elite men. "I just wonder if the executioners will have a chance to escape?"

………………

Of course,

There is no chance.

The executioner had already vanished into thin air, but Hellclaw was fierce. Despite being severely injured in the attack by Faki and the other two, he still managed to turn Jubei into a pool of blood and leave covered in blood.

After Guan Luoyang met up with Faqi, he heard them talk about this matter, but he saw that neither of them showed any anxiety or sadness on their faces.

Half an hour later, Hellclaw came back on its own.

His body shape became extremely strange at this time, as if many tree roots and vines were wrapped around his body. Upon closer inspection, those tree roots were actually excess muscle tissue that had merged with his skin.

And another head grew out of the side of his neck, which was Jubei's face.

"This guy's physical body is impressive, but his willpower is so-so. After being seriously injured, I took advantage of his weakness and he's now in a deep sleep."

Jubei raised his hand and moved his foot, a hint of excitement appearing on his gloomy face. "Once I completely devour him, my strength should increase significantly compared to before."

Guan Luoyang stared at the two-headed man, his expression unreadable. Was its vitality really that strong? It seemed that if he wanted to kill it in the future, he couldn't rely solely on physical attacks; he'd have to handle the aftermath more carefully.

"Since you can parasitize him, can you obtain his memories?" Guan Luoyang asked.

Jubei's expression turned strange, as if he had just eaten a piece of cotton candy that tasted like mud. He said, "His memories don't contain any secrets about the organization behind the scenes. They're all about group sex, murder, and shopping. He can't even remember who he killed."

Jubei didn't dislike this lifestyle; in fact, he found some of the scenes in his memory quite fascinating. However, it was rather frustrating that after all the effort he had put into parasitizing his opponent, he hadn't obtained any useful information.

"Then it seems I'll have to check the intelligence I've gathered first."

Guan Luoyang and his team searched through the documents in several prominent buildings on the island, leaving behind an island in disarray and ruins. Before dawn, they returned to the yacht.

More than an hour after they left, the Violet Sheriff cautiously approached the area.

During the day, major news stories about the New District Security Bureau and Irwin Island bombarded various television channels.

On the yacht, professionals borrowed from the old nobles were reviewing the documents.

Those documents contain many records of interactions with various parties, including overt business dealings and covert entanglements. Only a small portion mentions the cloning base and related plans.

Guan Luoyang watched from the sidelines the whole time, not giving Fachi and the others a chance to play tricks. After combining the information and making reasonable inferences, he came up with a plan called "Violet Gene Tree".

The plan involves Shenwu Guiyi providing metaphysical information and a special fruit that is said to grant immortality, which, combined with Owen's genetic technology, will be used to cultivate special embryos.

These embryos must possess both the unique characteristic of drawing mysterious underground power from special fruits and the characteristic of growing at a rapid pace like human genes.

Once successfully cultivated, planting it will allow participants to obtain vast underground energy and possess an immortal life force that coexists with this land.

"I never imagined that besides cloning fighters, they had such a grand scheme behind them."

Faki looked shocked, as if he had just learned that Violet had such a plan. He said worriedly, "It's a pity that it doesn't mention at all where those embryos will be cultivated."

Tie Bo said, "Continue searching for Brad; perhaps we can get some information from him."

Faki looked at Guan Luoyang: "Mr. Guan, we will mobilize all the old nobles' forces to investigate any unusual situations in Violet, but if there are any suspected targets, we will still need to trouble you to confirm them."

Guan Luoyang said, "After the battle on the island, Owen's organization must be on high alert. Violet is a state, not a town, and it's sparsely populated. If he's hiding so well, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time finding any clues."

Faki sighed, "But we have no choice but to search. Who knows if absorbing the mysterious underground energy will affect the entire Violet State? Even if it weren't for the commissions from those nobles, I wouldn't want to sit idly by and watch an unknown disaster strike."

"Good!" Guan Luoyang praised loudly, "You mercenaries all have this kind of benevolence and ambition, so I naturally cannot refuse. Send people to search, and I will help confirm any doubts."

Farch shook his hand gratefully.

Next, everyone went about their own business. Guan Luoyang left the yacht and went to the city to relax. He found a place and opened the chat software on his phone.

[Bronze: How's it going? Are you having a good time over there?]

[Luoyang: Not very good, and I didn't encounter many opponents that were worth fighting against. However, the situation may change later.]

[White Copper: Hmm, sounds like you've gotten involved in some long-planned troublesome affair?]

Guan Luoyang briefly summarized the situation here.

[White Copper: Mysterious underground energy. Could it be referring to the feng shui veins created by the combination of human energy and the earth's vital energy? The arrays and spells that utilize these veins are quite common in Eastern metaphysics and magic. Is it really necessary to go to such lengths?]

[Luoyang: You know that's just using borrowed strength to perform a technique; it doesn't enhance one's basic attributes. But this seems to be a method that can dramatically increase one's physical strength, allowing one to rise to the top in one step. After Chunhua obtained that lantern in the underground palace, didn't she talk to us about the Divine Martial Family? They have quite a background. This plan shouldn't be underestimated.]

[Bai Tong: So what are you planning to do? Shall we call some people to come with you and find him, and snatch the fruits of his plan?]

[Luoyang: There are only a few of you. I called you to ask if you know any trustworthy hackers on your dark web that specializes in selling supernatural information?]

[White Copper: Hiss, I get it]

………………

After a period of busy work, Faki sensed the strange activity of the witch puppet and immediately summoned his teammates to gather in one room.

The words of the divine warrior Maha emanated from the witchcraft doll.

"I've found the item. I'll set off to meet you there. Once I arrive, no matter where they hide the seeds, they won't be able to escape its detection."

Faki and his two companions were overjoyed to hear this.

Jubei said, "Then, shouldn't we find a way to eliminate Guan Luoyang? We can't really let him share the spoils with us later, can we?"

Faki pondered, "Captain, please tell us exactly where you landed and when you arrived, so we can make arrangements..."

After careful consideration and discussion, the group devised a plan to target Guan Luoyang. Only then did they put away the witchcraft dolls and remove the feng shui energy field that isolated the inside from the outside.

But as soon as they stepped outside, they were found by the anxious noblemen's men.

"Oh no! The project information for the Violet Gene Tree has been made public online."

Faki's expression changed drastically: "What?!"

………………

"A city poisoned by violence, a fighting capital for fighters everywhere."

Guan Luoyang looked at the news spreading like wildfire online, browsing through the comments whether people believed it or not, and chuckled, "Since you guys are fighting every day anyway, let me add a prize for you."

(End of this chapter)