My health recovery is incredibly fast.

"It's unimaginable what kind of hunting frenzy this news would unleash in the abyss of the Mediterranean if it were confirmed... The Temple would certainly spare no effort to capture these deep-sea predators..."

Hillenburg took another deep breath, slowly exhaled, and closed the notebook in his hand. "Let's not worry about that for now. Let's study the physiological structure of the deep-sea turtle in its entirety first."

He pointed to the alchemy room, where two observation chairs and an alchemy table were placed against the wall. "Go and move those three alchemical instruments over here. I'll expand the barrier a bit. Our research process needs to be kept secret at all times and cannot be disclosed to other alchemists and tower mages for the time being. I've already discussed this with Master Adanavardos."

"Okay, team leader, I'll go right away."

Xia Zuo stepped out of the barrier, reached out and touched the base of the observation chair, unlocked the hidden latch in the fixed position, and spent some time setting up the experimental site. Hillenburg's anti-peeping barrier expanded several times, accommodating the space around the two of them.

Master Lemon, who was directing the Tower Mages, watched Hillenburg's actions and shook his head slightly, seemingly lamenting the alchemical school's excessive caution... The Tower Mages weren't actually very interested in their secret research; no matter how difficult alchemy was, it couldn't be more profound than magic.

After Master Lemon helped seal the baby turtle, Adanavardos personally dissected the only experimental subject within Hillenberg's barrier.

He handed over the material that Hillenburg had already studied to his students, while keeping the part that Hillenburg had been unable to study years ago due to incomplete samples.

Then, Adanavados strolled leisurely through the alchemy room with his hands behind his back, giving pointers to his students, observing the tower mages manipulating magic arrays, or chatting with Master Lemon.

The two most qualified and prestigious masters of their respective schools of thought became the only two idle people present…

Oh! No, no, no!

There is another person who is even more leisurely than these two masters.

That's Rexor the Bald.

As the only member of the Demon Hunter school present, he didn't need to set up magic arrays or sit in the observation chair to examine the sample materials. He could simply cross his arms and coldly watch the clash between the alchemists and the tower mages...

Xia Zuo's gaze pierced through the privacy barrier, staring at the bald man for a moment, somewhat curious about how the Demon Hunter School had managed to achieve such a relatively detached status...

Under Shazo's gaze, Rexor slapped his forehead, as if he had remembered something. He walked to the vicinity of the privacy barrier and said, "Hilenburg, I have something to tell you."

Upon hearing the voice, Hillenburg poked his head out of the barrier. "Please come in, Rexol. I was just about to invite you to study the experimental samples together."

He beckoned Rexor and Shazo to his side, pointed to the three samples on the shelf, and said:

"As you can see, these three materials are the body parts that I was unable to study many years ago because the turtle carcass was incomplete."

Rexor's pupils suddenly contracted, and faint blue veins appeared on his face. This was the outward manifestation of him activating the Witcher School's detection methods. "Hmm... let me see... these three materials are unusual. They are all products of mutation."

Rexor turned to look outside the privacy barrier, his gaze quickly sweeping over the alchemists' sample racks. "But the other materials are just ordinary flesh and blood tissue."

"It's a coincidence, isn't it? Why is it that the missing parts of the turtle carcass were exactly the mutation sites, while those that remained were all ordinary creatures?" Hillenburg said.

"There must be some secret we don't know about here; it's definitely not just a simple coincidence."

Hillenburg looked at Xia Zuo and pointed to the first document, saying, "You study this deeply mutated gallbladder. Be careful with the bile inside; it may have strong acid-corroding properties."

"Yes, team leader." Xia Zuo picked up the sample with both hands, fixed it on the sample rack of the observation seat, adjusted the magnification of the lens, and attempted to further dissect the mutant gallbladder with an acid-resistant millimeter knife and needle.

During this process, he maintains a toxin-sensing ability to detect any potential toxins in a timely manner.

But even after he cut open the entire mutated gallbladder, exposing the hairy, light blue inner wall and collecting the light blue bile, he found no trace of toxins.

How do we distinguish between mutants and ordinary things?

This is knowledge from biological materials science, and needs to be judged in conjunction with organ function.

Take the gallbladder as an example.

The bile in the gallbladder is not produced by the gallbladder. The gallbladder is just an organ that stores bile. It absorbs water from the bile, making the bile concentrated several times, thereby reducing the space required to store the bile.

Under normal circumstances, the liver should be responsible for secreting bile, and bile should be green.

When the gallbladder stores bile, it does not change the color of the bile; it only makes the green bile even greener, turning it into a dark green.

However, the bile in the gallbladder of a young turtle is light blue.

There are two possibilities:

The first possibility is that the bile secreted by the liver of a young soft-shelled turtle is naturally dark blue.

This reason is untenable. Outside the privacy barrier, the alchemist responsible for dissecting the liver has determined that the bile secreted by the liver is green.

Then there is only the second possibility: the gallbladder of the young turtle is a mutant. It not only has the function of storing bile, but it can also process, refine or modify the bile secreted by the liver.

What does it mean when bile changes color from green to light blue?

This is also knowledge from biological materials science.

While learning these subjects on his own, Xia Zuo also summarized and categorized them using data.

Depending on the direction of the mutation, mutants generally exhibit three colors:

The first one is a very bright red, which, when viewed in sunlight, will resemble a tender pink.

This color mutant will make the host stronger, more determined, and less susceptible to pain, increasing strength and willpower attributes.

The second type is a light green mutant with very tiny black spots.

This color mutant is linked to agility and stamina, but is more strongly associated with agility. Its increase to stamina is generally only about half that of agility.

The third type is a light blue mutant that can enhance the host's spellcasting ability.

Note that the spellcasting ability here has nothing to do with mental attributes; it simply allows the host to cast learned spells faster and more accurately.

Specifically, monsters with light blue mutants can enter a shallow meditative state more easily and are less likely to be forced out of it. They also have better control over their energy consumption.

The three colored mutants will bring certain characteristics when the corresponding attribute values ​​are increased.

In the field of bioalchemy, this characteristic acquired due to mutated organs or tissues is called a special ability.

The mutation direction on the deep-sea turtle is the light blue mutation.

Considering the telepathic connection between the young and the mother, the appearance of a light blue mutation on the deep-sea turtle is understandable.

This mutation is ideal for enhancing the speed of telepathic attacks, ensuring that the young can send information about any emergencies at the nest entrance to their mother before they die.

Xia Zuo glanced at Hillenburg, who was studying the other two documents. Hillenburg's operation was highly skilled; he had already finished studying the first document and was now dissecting the second.

Xia Zuo spent some time writing a standardized research report, and then watched Hillenburg's operation with Rexol.

The first experimental sample identified by Hillenburg was the lung of a young turtle.

Judging from the appearance, color, and structure of the completely cut and flattened lungs, the pinkish color of the lungs enhances the strength and willpower attributes of the young turtle.

Xia Zuo felt that the willpower attribute should be strengthened more.

The reason is that if the willpower attribute is insufficient, the cub will have difficulty calming down and entering a shallow meditative state when faced with fear, and will be unable to issue a mental alarm in a short period of time.

Furthermore, the Willpower attribute can make the cubs bolder, reduce the disturbance caused by normal seawater flow, and raise the threshold for the cubs to sound an alarm. Instead of sounding an alarm at the slightest change, the cubs will only connect with their mothers when they are truly in danger.

Hillenburg was in charge of the second experimental sample…

Ok…

At first glance, it looks like a sticky, mushy piece of meat. Upon closer inspection, you can see the intestines, mucous membrane, and a stomach sac that looks like a small bulge. It should be a mutated digestive system tissue in which the large intestine, small intestine, and stomach are combined together.

As Xia Zuo watched the mutated tissue being sliced ​​open piece by piece by Hillenburg, he recalled the basic knowledge about turtles in bioalchemy, compared it with the anatomical diagrams in Hillenburg's notebook, and immediately nodded in sudden understanding.

Hillenburg, who was dissecting the experimental sample, noticed Shazo's movements and expression. He temporarily put down his scalpel, adjusted his glasses with the back of his clean hand, and said:

"You noticed it too, didn't you, Xia Zuo?"

"These baby turtles sealed in strange eggs are much smaller than the baby turtles I studied many years ago, all because they do not have the complete digestive system that normal turtles have."

"Its intestines and stomach were greatly simplified by an unknown evil alchemist using flesh and blood alchemy, transforming them into the mutated tissue that now functions as both intestines and stomach."

Rexor crossed his arms, rubbed his chin with his right hand, and asked:

"Hilenburg, can you identify the characteristics of this mutated gastrointestinal tissue?"

“Of course,” Hillenburg nodded and said.

"Even without further research, I have some speculations."

"Among marine monsters, this phenomenon of light blue mutation appearing simultaneously in the gastrointestinal tissue and gallbladder is quite common."

Chapter 58 Humans, Plants, and Alchemical Products

The deep-sea turtle's gastrointestinal tissue and gallbladder both underwent a light blue mutation, which enhances its spellcasting ability.

From the perspective of bioalchemy, this makes some sense.

The digestive system needs no introduction; everyone knows it's related to digesting food and providing energy to the body.

Bile secreted by the liver can directly participate in the digestion of food and improve digestive efficiency when gastrointestinal activity is relatively vigorous.

If there isn't enough food in the stomach to digest temporarily, bile will be stored in the gallbladder.

In addition, bile has another function: it can neutralize some stomach acid, preventing many adverse reactions caused by excessive stomach acid.

The gastrointestinal tissue affected by the mutation will also have an enhanced ability to secrete gastric acid.

It is understandable that the gallbladder, which can effectively aid digestion and balance stomach acid, would undergo mutations.

When both are simultaneously enhanced by mutation, their physical strength and energy will be more abundant, and their spellcasting ability will also be improved accordingly.

Hellenberger shared his research findings with Rexor and Shazzo, completing the dissection of the gastrointestinal tissue as he spoke.

“Let’s get back to the question you raised earlier, Rexol.”

Hillenburg used tweezers to pick up a thin, black object from the dissected gastrointestinal tissue. "What characteristics would this mutated gastrointestinal tract have? I think the answer lies in this hair-like thing."

"What is this?" Rexor's pupils contracted slightly. "It does look like a strand of hair. Deep-sea turtles... they shouldn't have hair, right?"

Hellenberger placed the "hair" on the sample holder, adjusted the buttons on the observation seat, and used a high-magnification lens to present the magnified image of the "hair".

Xia Zuo instantly noticed a tiny hair follicle at the root of the "hair strand." Overall, this slender black thing was indeed no different from an ordinary hair strand.

Xia Zuo quietly cast a detection spell on it.

The feedback indicated that, according to the Golden Finger, there was an 85% probability that this thing was a strand of human hair, a 12% probability that it was a root of some kind of plant, and a 3% probability that it was a man-made alchemical product.

Whether in the previous life or this life, identifying what an unknown thing is using scientific or alchemical methods is a very difficult task.

Often, after identifying the components, characteristics, physical reactions, and energy reactions of an unknown object, one uses these identification results to search for targets that match the characteristics among known objects, and ultimately determines the name, grade, and quality of the unknown object.

This is a common practice in both science and alchemy.

Within the territory of the Mage Temple, there is another method.

That is to use magic to identify items.

This spell is called "Identification," a high-level spell belonging to the detection school. It is the signature skill of the Tower Scholars and is not disclosed to non-core personnel.