I am Jinshan Youxia

Zhang Chengyi threw Xiangdao's body into the living room, took the three test subjects into the house next door, recited a series of rules, and then turned and left.

Because of his connections with the prison, he had already installed surveillance cameras all over the next room, so he could monitor the experimental subjects' every move from his own living room.

Seeing the mysterious man leave, Number Four revealed a peaceful smile: "It seems we'll be staying here for a while."

Number Three stared blankly at the clothes that had clearly been left for them in the living room. He should have wanted to run away or kill the mysterious man, but he felt no urge at all, and his body showed no sign of taking any action.

"I... seem a little strange, don't you think?"

“Yes, we’ve all become strange,” Number Four, usually the most irritable, replied, sounding unusually gentle. “But I don’t hate this feeling.”

"Without anger and excessive desires, it's as if I've been healed."

The reason he was so calm was because he was the only one whose progress, after being completely overtaken by the mold, had not been adjusted back to normal.

The situation is similar to that of people infected with the longevity bacteria; their violent emotions disappear, their dirty memories are modified and beautified by themselves, leaving behind a gentle and peaceful person.

“But this isn’t right.” Number Three covered his forehead. “It’s not a cure. We might have been hypnotized, or something might have been cut out of our bodies, causing us to be unable to think normally…”

His expression was one of deep conflict and pain. Having retained five percent of the decay process, he knew something was wrong. His memories weren't too problematic, but the conflict between his past personality and his present peacefulness was causing him pain at a conscious level.

Number Two, whose mold growth was at 10%, ignored the two of them, simply dressed himself, and began exploring the room, occasionally glancing at the surveillance camera above his head, trying to find a chance to escape.

Zhang Chengyi observed everything and quietly recorded it.

Chapter 309 The Boys' Adventure

In the open space of the park in Mazan-cho.

"Hey, don't you guys think the adults have been acting a bit strange lately?"

The boy in the gray sweater, sitting on the swing, asked.

"What's so strange?" The chubby boy sitting on the swing next to him asked in surprise. "Kenta, you're not thinking of going looking for the green-eyed monster again, are you?"

Kenta, a boy in a gray sweater, has a younger brother who is said to have encountered a terrifying green-eyed monster, which became a brief but popular horror story in this somewhat remote town.

It attracted the attention of many adults, but for some reason, it subsided quickly.

Kenta frowned, looking confused. "No, I mean, some adults look very strange."

The chubby boy shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

A tall boy wearing new sneakers was practicing kicking a soccer ball repeatedly on the sandy ground. Without even looking this way, he casually said, "Kenta is like this."

"Exactly! They said we shouldn't go to the back mountain because there are ghosts in the tunnels, haha!"

The boy, sitting cross-legged on the slide and wearing a baseball cap, laughed heartily.

The boys then started discussing it amongst themselves.

Kenta pouted. He genuinely felt there was danger. It was an innate intuition that told him where the danger was. He didn't know if he was right or wrong, but after his friends pointed it out, he immediately felt that he might be wrong.

As they were chatting, a boy named Ahui suddenly asked, "Do you know if anyone has moved into an empty house near the back of the mountain?"

“The last time I passed by, I saw several middle-aged men from out of town standing at the door. I was about to go over when they chased me away.”

“I know, I know,” the chubby boy raised his hand. “I was also chased away by them once.”

The sneaker-wearing boy chimed in, "Last time, my ball fell into the yard, and I didn't even see anyone. Suddenly, the ball was thrown out of the yard."

Everyone chimed in with their own comments, and apart from Kenta, who never went near the back mountain, everyone was incredibly curious about that mysterious family.

“Hey,” Ah Hui suggested, “Why don’t we go take a look? When I came over just now, I noticed that the old man who used to guard the door every day was gone.”

The boys, who were in their prime, almost unanimously voted in favor.

Kenta, the only one who objected, didn't think there was anything wrong with going over to see the new residents. At most, he thought it was too close to the back mountain. But in the end, he couldn't persuade his companions, and everyone went to the outsider's house together, chatting and laughing.

The small town of Moshan rarely has outside residents; most of them have moved out or are people who used to live in the town and have returned from elsewhere. The sudden increase in the number of people is bound to pique people's curiosity.

They were already outside the courtyard, and there was no annoying old man guarding it. They were about to go in and find out what was going on when Kenta said nervously:

"No, we can't go in." He shrugged, looking like a frightened quail.

Ahui said with a mocking expression, "You're not going to say there's a ghost in there again, are you?"

Kenta's lips trembled slightly, but with his friends all around him watching, he simply didn't have the courage to say anything.

"Let's go, Kenta, it's alright." The chubby boy, who was his neighbor, patted his arm to ease the tension.

Kenta forced a smile that looked more like a grimace and followed everyone, walking along the wall towards the courtyard gate.

There was no one guarding the gate, so Ahui took the lead, bent over, and ran inside. After entering the courtyard, he pressed himself against the wall and waved to his friends at the gate.

Soon, all the children entered the yard.

Even Kenta, suppressing his intense fear, followed them inside.

Led by Ahui, the boys tiptoed to the side of the house, where there was a living room with a courtyard and floor-to-ceiling windows. Traditionally, these were separated by shoji, or sliding doors. In the summer, the doors would be opened to sit in the living room and enjoy the view of the courtyard. Modern style houses floor-to-ceiling windows with large curtains.

The floor-to-ceiling windows were drawn with thick curtains, blocking out all light and making it impossible to see anything.

The boys walked over relaxed and exchanged glances.

Ahui climbed up to the edge, to the wooden floor where the indoor and outdoor spaces meet, carefully opened the French windows, and then lifted the curtains a little.

Before he could even look inside, he saw someone lying by the curtain. Startled, he quickly let go and turned around. He saw that his friends, who had been following behind him, were almost running out of the yard, while the most timid Kenta was kneeling down beside him.

Under his angry gaze, his companions returned one by one, as if his courage had returned with them. He pulled back the curtains again and slowly saw that the man lying on the edge of the window was the uncle who usually guarded the door, and there was someone else inside—

"What are you doing?" a curious voice came from behind.

Kenta swore it was the first time he'd ever seen his chubby friend jump so high.

“Green, green, green…” Ahui’s tongue was tied in knots as he looked at the green eyes of the adults standing behind him, his face filled with fear.

"mom!"

Someone shouted and ran towards the door without thinking, only to be grabbed by the back of the neck by the green-eyed man.

Kenta looked over and knew in his heart that the other party was the "monster" he had sensed. However, when facing the monster, he did not feel much fear, only tension and a sense of familiarity.

"Whoo~"

The green-eyed man did nothing; a gust of wind blew by, and the boys collapsed to the ground.

After seeing everyone fall to the ground, Kenta swallowed hard and said, "Are you... are you going to kill us?"

"It's you again, kid." The green-eyed man looked rather helpless. He reached out and patted Kenta's head, ruffling his bowl cut, and said, "Don't just barge into other people's houses like that next time."

"Especially you, don't come near my house until you grow up. Although you are very talented, you are not at the right stage to cultivate the microbial community."

Kenta nodded blankly and obediently said, "I understand."

"Go to sleep. When you wake up, you'll be at home." The green-eyed man's voice was very gentle.

Kenta felt a wonderfully pleasant smell fill his nostrils, his eyelids drooped uncontrollably, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw his father, with a stern face, sitting cross-legged in front of him. He quickly sat up cross-legged as well, bowed his head and said, "I'm sorry, I was wrong."

Whenever his grades were bad, his father's expression was always so serious and earnest, followed by a beating or a few words of scolding.

To his surprise, his father sighed, reached out and patted his head, his voice filled with complex emotions as he said, "Go eat."

At this moment, Kenta, unaware of what had happened or what awaited him, simply stood up with joy and left the room.

Chapter 310 Remodeling

The next day, in a dimly lit room.

"how do you feel?"

Zhang Chengyi looked at the man in front of him who had rejuvenated and asked a question.

The man touched his cheeks and forehead, looking somewhat lost. Hearing Zhang Chengyi's question, he quickly replied:

"It feels like I've turned back into my old self, and I feel a little... uncomfortable."

He felt not only uncomfortable, but also a faint sense of disgust. It was only because he knew this was his true self that he would have thrown up on the spot.

My real self has too many disgusting thoughts in my head.

"Try to adapt, and then become a better version of yourself." Zhang Chengyi understood their thoughts, but he simply said in a gentle voice, "Don't just think about relying on external forces to change your own will."

He doesn't believe that relying on oneself is the best approach, but rather that the process of strengthening one's will through self-reliance yields greater rewards and resolves many mental and spiritual issues.

This is his experience as a modifier who has traveled through countless worlds. It doesn't matter if ordinary people have some mental problems, but if extraordinary people have some mental problems, their mental problems will expand wildly as they continuously control stronger powers, until they become completely insane or commit suicide because they can't bear it anymore.

He had already learned this lesson in other worlds: ignoring spiritual development resulted in the creation of a group of madmen.

So after mastering how to limit the progress of the supernatural bacteria in the mind's decay process, he immediately restored the minds of each of the infected individuals to a barely normal state.

It's very simple. Just limit the nutrients the bacteria absorb. Set it so that each infected person retains 12% of their nutrients. This number is just right so that the infected person will not experience any psychological mutations.

As for how those whose mental decay had been adjusted back to 12% objected, he couldn't be bothered to care.

It's absolutely impossible to create another group of powerful madmen.

"Yes," the man replied, his face showing sadness as he bowed his head.

Even with his memory and thought processes unchanged, he still felt a deep-seated awe and obedience to the great being who changed his life.

However, the reasons for symbiosis are also significant. Essentially, these people who have symbiotic supernatural bacteria are humanoid bacteria, so it is only natural for them to obey the master of the bacteria.

Zhang Chengyi shook his head. There was nothing he could do. This kind of spiritual transcendence would inevitably distort the mind to some extent. He pulled out the test tube, inserted it into the man's vein, and slowly pushed in the enhanced bacteria.

Besides the fact that when the microbial community mutates, it will inevitably consume a large number of moldy souls that match its own growth to absorb nutrients, the microbial community after the mutation is completed will not have such a high demand for moldy souls.

The more moldy minds a host occupies, the faster it reproduces, and the more power the host gains in the same amount of time.

To use a more sophisticated cultivation analogy, the progress of a moldy mind is equivalent to aptitude and spiritual root, the microbial community is equivalent to cultivation techniques, and what is reflected in the body is cultivation level.

For example, the growth bacteria can account for up to 26% of the mold growth process, which means that this kind of "cultivation method" is only at the 26% level. It can only consume this much nutrition at most. No matter how good the aptitude is, the highest feedback to the body is 26%.

The enhanced bacterial colony from Experiment 4 can occupy up to 22% of the mold growth progress, the pheromone bacterial colony from Experiment 3 can occupy up to 25% of the mold growth progress, and the depleting bacterial colony from Experiment 2 can occupy up to 30% of the mold growth progress.

It's not that the higher the mold growth rate, the more powerful the bacteria are; rather, the more mold growth rate they occupy, the faster they affect the body. After all, the more nutrients they consume, the greater the boost to the body. Essentially, the effects of different bacteria are almost non-overlapping.

Just as strengthening gut microbiota can rapidly enhance the body and extend lifespan, it can never transform an elderly person into a middle-aged or young person as quickly as longevity microbiota.

Therefore, the upper limit of the gut microbiota only represents the rate at which it enhances the body.

Of course, most people can't even touch the upper limit. For example, ordinary people in the Demon Mountain Town, unless they are elderly, are mostly at the tenth stage of mental decay. They can't even fully nourish the bacteria when implanted with one type of bacteria. If they implant two types of bacteria, then it's even more impossible to touch the upper limit.