My health recovery is incredibly fast.

[Plant Body] The reconstruction of the test area has been completed, and it has received the highest rating of 92 points.

Their main drawback is their over-reliance on the natural order.

Rexor secretly told Shazo that three times the amount of natural order as the target plot needed to be stored in the [Plant Body] beforehand in order to ensure successful environmental modification.

The teams 【Incinerator Body】 and 【Ever-Changing Body】 received the lowest scores, at 81 and 82 points respectively. The former was penalized for severe self-inflicted damage and an inability to coordinate with teammates, while the latter suffered from a shortage of raw materials—the Temple didn't have enough Shadow Energy to arm a large-scale army of Ever-Changing Bodies.

The teams 【Elemental Star Network】, 【True Vision】, and 【Deformation Metal】 received scores of 85, 86, and 89 respectively.

Although these three are also limited by the number of spellcasters and the supply of raw materials, their auxiliary functions allow them to act in conjunction with other types of spellcaster bodies, thus gaining a certain bonus in the rating.

Especially the [Transformation Metal] team from the Wild Hammer Alchemist Guild.

The spellcaster bodies they use can both cover the surface of the [vegetable bodies], providing them with additional protection, and act as scouts and protectors when the [vegetable bodies] modify the environment, making them excellent multi-functional teammates.

If it weren't for the limited production of Alchemy Dragon Blood, the [Transformer Metal] team could also achieve a score of over 90 points.

As for Rex's team...

What materials might be lacking when mass-producing pseudo-blood mages?

While the mutation potion that boosts vitality and the mental ocean fragments that create Blood Guardians will limit the number of pseudo-blood mages, this is only a soft ceiling that can be overcome using technological means.

The plan to establish a pseudo-blood mage legion has only one truly hard ceiling:

How many arcane mages would be willing to risk their lives to enter the anti-magic field and establish an advance base for the temple?

Teams like [Plant Body] and [Ever-Changing Body] all utilize the caster's body, which is essentially a spell clone.

The caster does not need to personally enter the anti-magic field.

They could easily hide in the safe temple territory and remotely control the spellcaster's body across the gray ocean to complete the arduous tasks assigned by the temple.

In theory, as long as the spiritual thread between the spirit and the caster's body remains unbroken, the caster can use this spell to create a clone that can go anywhere.

Furthermore, if the spellcaster's body dies in battle, the spellcaster will not be in mortal danger except for damage to their spirit and mental ocean.

If it weren't for the fact that Nyxath ​​hadn't brought the shrine into the hands of the Church of the Otherworld, the Temple would have preferred to use a spellcaster's body to penetrate the anti-magic field.

But things backfired.

Not only was Nyxat imprisoned for several years by the Church of the Otherworlders, but he was also forcibly transformed into a deep-sea turtle.

The possibility that he could have kept the secret of the shrine intact under the torture of the Church of the Otherworldly Demons is no more than 50%.

In other words, there is a high probability that the Church of the Otherworldly Demons knew about the existence of the shrine, and a small probability that they secretly created a replica of the shrine.

The purpose was to use the replica of the spirit shrine to sever the connection between the spellcaster's body and the real person when the temple sent the spellcaster's body into the anti-magic field, thus inflicting heavy damage on the temple's team and thwarting the temple's plan to counterattack the anti-magic field in one fell swoop.

Under these circumstances, sending a reliable human force into the anti-magic field became the only viable option for the Temple army.

The solution provided by Rexol's team thus gained its value.

Aksut ultimately gave the team a score of 87, one point lower than the [Transformers] team.

The reason is:

【Transforming Metal】As the caster's body, its controller is in a deep meditative state when controlling it, and can maintain a state of combat readiness 24 hours a day.

The pseudo-blood mage is human and has a limit to his energy, requiring him to take turns resting and on duty. He is slightly less mobile than the [transformer metal].

After all teams were evaluated, Aksut finalized the execution plan:

The advance legion, which establishes its forward base within the anti-magic field, consists of 10 [Plant Bodies] to rebuild the natural environment, 30 [Transforming Metals] to serve as guards, several [True Sight Eyes] and [Transformable Bodies] to serve as reconnaissance units, 10 full-strength pseudo-blood mage teams of 100 members each, and 10 [Furnace Bodies] to serve as strategic weapons.

Xia Zuo was very satisfied with the result.

Ten full-strength pseudo-blood mage teams of 100 members each would make a total of 1000 pseudo-blood mages.

These people will become the main fighting force of the forward legion, and will inevitably have to fight against the alien demons.

At that time, hehe, Xia Zuo will secretly provide them with some off-field assistance, subtly transferring some life force to the seriously injured pseudo-blood mage to save their lives.

This is a very worthwhile investment.

Imagine a thousand pseudo-blood mages withstood the attack of the demons, and their casualty rate was lower than the temple army's expectations. What would happen next?

Of course, we should deploy more troops to expand the size of the pseudo-blood mage legion.

The more pseudo-blood mages there are, the more experience, attribute points, and spell rewards Xia Zuo will receive, leading to faster leveling up, a surge in blood runes, and a steady increase in his blood magic proficiency. Appropriately sharing the enhanced blood magic with the pseudo-blood mage army will strengthen their overall power.

Finally, a situation of cyclical gain is formed.

Xia Zuo had a premonition that he might become the most leisurely and profitable person in this year-long war, gaining countless experience points every day simply by staring at the list of blood relatives.

I'll use blood magic, the Temple army will provide manpower, let's grow bigger and stronger, create glory together, the future is promising, the future is promising, hehe…

'What are you grinning about?' Rexor glanced at Shazo walking beside him.

"Ahem, nothing, I just thought of something happy." Xia Zuo coughed lightly, his smile fading, and followed the bald man towards the teleportation room.

The two were the first to arrive at the testing area, and when leaving the Arcane Grove, they walked at the back of the departing group, following the order of arrival.

[Plant Body] The group walked ahead of Shazo and the other two. Merlindora's plant body turned around as she walked and asked Rexor:

"Can I talk to Xia Zuo? His thinking is a bit different from ours."

Her voice is similar to that of a normal human woman, suggesting that an alchemical voice device was installed within her plant-like body.

Upon hearing Merlindora's words, Rexor immediately took a small step forward, standing between Shazo and Merlindora, and said firmly:

"No."

"Heh, as expected..." Merlindora's plant-like form chuckled softly, "[The natural environment determines the final form of living things...]"

"I said, no!" Rexor growled. Shazo, standing behind him, felt as if the bald man had transformed into a volcano about to erupt.

Merlindora glanced at the arcane mage by the roadside; a pale blue light emanated from beneath his mask, a sign that he was about to awaken.

"I hope your persistence pays off, Letho." Merlindora shook her head slightly, said nothing more, and turned her gaze forward.

"Hmph." Rexol snorted and walked forward with a sullen face.

Xia Zuo was somewhat bewildered by this sudden and abrupt conflict… He asked himself, 'Master, what happened?'

"We'll talk about it later." Rexol remained silent.

...

Gray corner secondary plane.

Inside the small wooden cabin at the foot of the ancient sea fortress, Shazo and Rexor appeared amidst a gray teleportation glow.

The bald man lowered his head and fiddled with the coded communication ring in his hand, saying in a somber tone, "I'll take you back to the temple. From now on, we'll meet directly at the teleportation room in the Mystic Grove; we don't need to gather here anymore."

"Master, what did Merlindora mean by what she just said?" Xia Zuo asked.

Rexor put down the cipher ring, stared at Shazo for a few seconds, and said, "Do you think we humans have an advantage in the war against the Otherworlders? The advantage I'm talking about isn't between humans and Otherworlders, but between humans and the non-human spellcasters we've seen today."

"I don't think... our advantages are obvious..." Xia Zuo thought for a moment and said:

"But the task of defeating the Otherworldly Demons must be undertaken by us humans. I have envisioned a scenario where the Temple defeats the Otherworldly Demons using a large group of non-humanoid spellcaster bodies. There might be a group of members within the Temple who worship and venerate these non-humanoid spellcaster bodies. They will eventually form a force that opposes humanity and splits our Temple."

Rexor was slightly taken aback. "Very good, Shazo, very good. I didn't expect your thoughts to be so profound."

Xia Zuo shrugged. "You said it yourself, that humanity is the foundation of the Temple's existence, which is why I've thought so much about this."

"Alright, let's briefly tell you about the hidden crisis in the temple."

Rexor walked to the wooden table and sat down, patting the chair to indicate that Shazo should sit down as well.

"Let me ask you a question, Xia Zuo."

"The spellcaster's body needs to establish a connection with the spellcaster's spirit in order for the spellcaster's physical body to control it in a meditative state."

"If one day you find that you can abandon your physical body and move only as a spirit and the body of a spellcaster, what would you do?"

"Abandon the physical body?" Xia Zuo scratched his head. "You mean sever the spiritual connection between the physical body and the spirit, leaving only the connection between the caster's body and spirit?"

“Yes.” Rexor nodded. “Let’s not discuss whether it’s feasible for now. Just tell me what you would do if you only had a spirit body and a spellcaster’s body. Think it through before you answer, Shazo. A spellcaster’s body doesn’t have a lifespan. As long as you can continuously supply raw materials, you can live in a spellcaster’s body indefinitely.”

“I am a pure-blooded mage, relying on the life force provided by my physical body to survive,” Xia Zuo said. “Therefore, I will try to find my physical body and then reconnect it with my spirit.”

"You say that because your spellcaster body is an elemental body."

Rexol held up one finger:

"Let's make an assumption: your spellcaster's body is no longer unrelated to flesh and blood; it's a powerful creation of flesh and blood, its vitality far exceeding any flesh and blood body you've ever seen. In this case, would you still try to reconnect your physical body and spirit?"

“I…” Xia Zuo hesitated.

“Look, you hesitated.” Rexor clapped his hands. “When a spellcaster’s body that could meet your needs and was more powerful than your physical body appeared, you hesitated between the human body and it. This is a problem that everyone with a powerful spellcaster’s body must face. Unfortunately, Shazo, you also have a potential tendency to split.

Xia Zuo was silent for a few seconds, then said, "...Master, what would you do?"

“I do not have a spellcaster’s body.” Rexor patted his chest. “Not only me, but none of us Witchers have spellcaster’s bodies. Even if we could endure the pain of splitting our spirits, we have no intention of creating spellcaster’s bodies. We are humans who hunt demons and monsters, not non-humans who hunt demons and monsters.”

At this moment, Xia Zuo gained a new understanding of the Demon Hunter School.

If the Temple were to split in the future, the Demon Hunter School would undoubtedly be the most steadfast defender of the human faction and the greatest adversary of the non-human faction.

“Master, I understand. If the worst day comes, I will stand with you.” Xia Zuo’s tone was firm.

He had no choice but to do it…

Because he may not be able to sever the spiritual connection between the physical body and the spirit.

This spiritual thread contains the cheat code.

The existence of the cheat system essentially forcibly binds Xia Zuo's physical body and spirit together. He can possess the bodies of other spellcasters, but he must retain his physical body.

“I hope you keep your word, Shazo.” Rexormosso, the bald man, said, “A split in the Temple isn’t guaranteed, but it’s not impossible. Some people might slip out of control…”

"You mean Merlindora?" Shazo asked.

Rexor nodded. "Besides her, there were the other spellcaster bodies you saw at the testing site. I admit that in the fields of alchemy and magic, those who condensed spellcaster bodies early on stood at the pinnacle of knowledge and theory. But precisely because of this, many of their ideas are both ahead of their time and dangerous."

Shaza pondered for a moment before asking, "What did Merlindora mean by that? [The natural environment determines the final form of living things.]"

Rexor took a deep breath and said in a low voice:

"Okay, let me tell you the answer."

Simply put, [on a piece of land that only has metal deposits and no vegetation, only extreme metal creations will be born; grass-based creations will not appear.]

"All organisms in a given natural environment can only grow and develop under the natural conditions provided by that environment, and eventually reach their theoretical final form."

"[During the long process of growth and development, there are countless variations, improvements, and mutations, which seem full of randomness. But when you stand at the end of biological evolution and look back at the process, you will find that what you previously thought was randomness was actually just deterministic events.]"