345: A document

This time the harvest wasn't much, just an extra title and a mysterious document.

That title was a bit special; it automatically fused into the Path of Slaughter as soon as it was claimed. Its inherent effects didn't weaken, but other than gaining an extra entry, the Path of Slaughter title didn't change much.

Other than that, there was nothing. The items dropped by the System this time weren't as many as what Zhou Yan had picked up himself.

However, the road was still long. With this little interlude over, it was back to the initial boring journey.

Also because of boredom, Zhou Yan pulled out the dropped document, wanting to pass the time.

Project Number: Top Secret Archive ████-B.

“Even if it's a fragment, you can't just swallow the title right from the start.”

After a brief complaint, Zhou Yan continued reading.

Subject Name: Research on Cross-Species Life Origin Fusion and Phenotypic Expression (“path of evolution” Plan).

“Oh? An unexpected gain?”

“Could it be related to the path of evolution? Does this mean my path of evolution can be completed?”

Zhou Yan continued reading, but as his interest began to rise, the further he read, the more he felt something was wrong.

Chief Researcher: Gongsun Heng

Security Clearance: A-Superior.

Log Record Start: Year ████, 17th Day of the Frost Moon.

Original Experiment Goal:

To explore and quantify the compatibility and mutation boundaries of life forms (Human, Yao, Beast) at the basic Origin level, and to establish a predictable Fusion model, aiming to break through inherent evolutionary paths and create new life forms with multiple advantages and controllability.

The ultimate goal points toward the artificial definition and reshaping of the “Life Origin”.

Experiment Materials and Methods:

1. Sample Sources:

Human Race (H): Voluntary donors (███ individuals, all signed “Informed Consent Agreements”), death row inmates (██ individuals).

Yao Race (Y): Captured low-Rank to middle-Rank Yao Beasts, covering terrestrial, aquatic, and avian classes, totaling ███. Confirmed to possess stable Yao Cores and basic intelligence.

Beast Race (S): Ordinary wild beasts and unevolved Yao Beasts, totaling ███, as a control for the basic life template.

2. Fusion Method:

A combination of the “Soul Grafting Method” and the “Flesh Casting Method”. Extract the essence of the donor's Origin and perform forced catalytic Fusion within the selected subject.

The implantation subject is a corresponding receptor embryo or adult that has been pre-treated and has life activity at the threshold. Detailed catalytic Formation and technique parameters are in Appendix ███.

3. Observation Indicators:

Survival rate, morphological stability period, mana adaptability (Unit: Cycles/Hour).

Behavioral lineage analysis (Based on the “Abnormal Behavior Classification Manual”).

Origin fluctuation spectrum (Manually recorded by a Soul Transformation Stage observer, once every twelve hours).

Anatomy and Origin tracing at key nodes.

Experiment Records (Excerpts):

【Phase One: Basic Binary Fusion】

Year ████, 23rd Day of the Frost Moon to 9th Day of the 12th Month:

Experimental Group H-Y (Human-Yao): ██ cases performed. █ cases survived. All products manifested as Half-Demon forms.

Characteristics: Retained about 70%-85% of the Human Race's phenotypic form, showing some Yao Race features. Intelligence levels were close to or slightly lower than the average Human Race, but emotional stability significantly decreased.

Origin spectrum showed the Human Soul and Yao Physical Body in an unstable entangled state. After about ██ days, one side tended to overwhelm the other, leading to morphological regression or mental collapse.

Conclusion: Fusion is feasible, but the products are unstable. The conflict between the human Soul and the Yao Physical Body is intense, making it difficult to form stability.

Experimental Group H-S (Human-Beast): ██ cases performed. ██ cases survived. Products were humanoid beasts.

Characteristics: Bipedal walking, possessing crude tool-using abilities, but the phenotypic beastification rate exceeded 90%. Language function was lost, and social behavior regressed to the level of a beast pack. Qi absorption efficiency was extremely low, nearly non-existent.

In the Origin spectrum, traces of the Human Soul were faint, almost submerged by beast nature.

Conclusion: Fusion led to a severe dilution of humanity. Products leaned toward a beastly substrate and failed to trigger potential evolution.

Experimental Group Y-S (Yao Beast): ██ cases performed. ██ cases survived. Products showed extreme polarization: about ██% manifested as Yao after Bloodline regression, and about ██% regressed directly into pure wild beasts.

Conclusion: Without high-level intelligence or special external forces to maintain it, the Yao Race Origin tends to collapse toward a more basic and stable Beast Race form.

【Phase Two: Ternary Induction and Gestational Intervention】

Year ████, 15th Day of the 12th Month:

New Hypothesis: If a human Soul is introduced for directional induction during the embryonic period, when life forms are most plastic, is it possible to bypass the long natural Cultivate process of “Beast to Yao” or the inefficient forced Fusion process, and directly anchor the “human” form and “humanity”?

Year ████, 22nd Day of the 12th Month:

Launched the “Directed Humanization Induction” experiment series (Code: Ren). Selected █ each of pregnant Saber-toothed Tigers (S-██), Iron-backed Wolves (S-██), and Shadow-scale Pythons (S-██) in their Middle Stage of pregnancy (about 40%-60% through the term).

Operation: While maintaining the mother's life state, use the Minimally Invasive Spirit Needle Technique to simultaneously inject standardized extracted “Human Soul Units” and trace amounts of stabilizer into selected embryos (1-2 per litter).

Control Group: Other embryos from the same mother, injected only with an equivalent amount of life-sustaining spiritual fluid.

Year ████, 28th Day of the 1st Month to 15th Day of the 3rd Month (Birth and Juvenile Observation Period):

Ren-1 to Ren-6, Samples: ██ offspring born alive. Subversive results appeared!

All experimental group offspring, within █ hours after birth, rapidly shifted their phenotypic form toward human infants! Limb structures and facial features all showed significant humanoid characteristics, with only a few maternal beast traits remaining.

The Saber-toothed Tiger offspring (Ren-1) even exhibited the crying patterns of a human infant.

Intelligence Testing (Full Month Period): Experimental group offspring showed cognitive learning abilities far higher than ordinary beast cubs, even surpassing some Half-Demons.

The success rate of responding to simple human language commands (such as “Come”, “No”) reached 73%. Control group offspring behaved entirely as ordinary wild beast cubs.

Origin Spectrum Analysis: The Human Soul waveband became the dominant fluctuation. The Beast Race Origin fluctuation was strongly suppressed and “modified”, presenting a... parasitic or scaffolding state.

It wasn't a simple mixture; rather, the Human Race Origin was using the beast life to reshape itself!

Year ████, 22nd Day of the 4th Month:

Conducted a deep spiritual resonance test on Ren-3 (Iron-backed Wolf humanized form). Used the “Heart-Questioning Formation” to project basic human moral dilemma images.

Results: When faced with the image of “sacrificing the few to save the many”, Ren-3 showed significant emotional fluctuations (instruments recorded brainwaves similar to a human child's anxiety) and tried to use clumsy humanoid gestures to prevent the “sacrifice” in the image from happening.

In contrast, the pure wolf cubs in the control group only showed hunting interest in the moving objects in the images.

Recorder's Note: It... is trying to make a “choice”. Based on something that isn't survival instinct.

【Phase Three: Breakthrough and Fantasy】

Year ████, 10th Day of the 5th Month:

Repeated experiments to expand the sample size, covering mammalian, avian, and reptilian beast embryos, totaling ███ cases.

The success rate stabilized at ██.██%. All successful cases pointed to the same result: transcending the morphological and instinctive limits of the “beast” to directly produce individuals with a high degree of Human Race phenotypic form and Elementary human behavior.

We are not “fusing”, we are performing a kind of... overwriting or compiling!

Year ████, 1st Day of the 6th Month:

Core Discovery: Tracing failed cases (incomplete humanization or early death) revealed that the purity or activity of the injected “Human Soul Units” was below the threshold.

Further experiments proved that not all human Souls are effective. Only Soul breaths carrying a specific information “imprint”, which we tentatively name “Humanity”, can trigger this directed humanization process.

The carriage rate of “Humanity” in the Human Race is about ██%, unrelated to cultivation or Bloodline, and randomly distributed. It cannot be directly observed by any existing instruments and can only be confirmed in reverse through the biological effects it triggers.

Year ████, 15th Day of the 6th Month:

Bold Inference: “Humanity” is not a hollow concept learned through culture or constructed by society! It is a real, existing Origin entity with information-coding capabilities.

“Humanity”! It can be “activated” within a suitable life substrate and forcibly rewrite morphology and behavioral expression, leading to the “human” paradigm!

Beasts and the Yao Race are merely life forms that lack this “seed” or have a dormant “seed”!

In that case, is so-called “Cultivate” the process of continuously strengthening, refining, and expanding this “Humanity Entity”? And is the “Shapeshifting” of the Yao Race an attempt to mimic or steal the phenotypic effects of this “entity”?

Recorder's Note: My hands are trembling; we have touched upon the taboo of taboos. Life is not born equal! There exists a hidden, preset “Right Path”!

Final Experiment Results (Preliminary Conclusions):

1. “Humanity” can be preliminarily defined as a special entity with powerful morphological and behavioral directional programming capabilities.

2. Introducing “Humanity” during key developmental periods (such as the embryonic stage) can forcibly “compile” Beast Race (and possibly Yao Race) life forms into an expression pattern based on the Human Race, bypassing conventional evolution or Fusion steps.

3. “Humanity” is one of the essential boundaries distinguishing “human” from “non-human”. To possess and manifest it is to be “human” (regardless of biological Origin).

Conversely, those who lack it or cannot manifest it will forever wander outside the category of “human”, no matter how similar their form may be.

4. “Humanity” is an entity, a path, a cage, and a miracle. The ultimate direction of life variants is pulled by its invisible force. The endpoint of all Fusion experiments vaguely points toward it.

Warnings and Unresolved Questions:

The feasibility of actively transplanting or strengthening “Humanity”? Consequences?

If this discovery is made public, it will cause a devastating impact on the existing social structures and ethics of humans, Yao, and beasts.

Sample Ren-7 showed ████ abnormality and has been isolated. Recommended raising the project's danger level to “██”.

Log Status:

Reincarnation is not inherently active... it is controllable... Gods and Immortals might truly exist... Ren-series samples! Perhaps we are replicating... [Record incomplete]

Appendix: All Ren-series samples were collectively contained in ███ on the ██ day of the 7th month, Year ████, due to “uncontrollable mutation risks”.

Chief Researcher Gongsun Heng went missing on the same day.

Project “path of evolution” is frozen indefinitely.

Annotation: This log is sealed. Gongsun Heng's conclusions are too dangerous, bordering on madness. The “Humanity Entity” theory shakes the Dao Foundation and must never be leaked.

However, ███ is unsettling.

Perhaps we really have opened a box that should not have been opened.

Notify the Truth Cult to raise the danger level of the containment.

The search for “Humanity” will move to top-secret status. —— 9th Day of the 8th Month, Year ████.

Closing the report, Zhou Yan sat in the carriage and closed his eyes.

“Doesn't this world have an Underworld?”

“Then what kind of nonsense are they researching? They could clearly do things with Xuanhuan, but they insist on using science. No wonder they're all lunatics.”

Even though he said that, Zhou Yan knew that if the Truth Cult were really that useless, they wouldn't have been able to secure their status as one of the Six Demonic Sects.

If a disorganized group from the Truth Cult could create a “Sui” that extends the path of time, then no matter how much Zhou Yan looked down on the School of Life, he couldn't ignore their research.

After resting his eyes for a while, Zhou Yan finally couldn't help but curse.

“Damn it, they're sick!”

“Researching this and that all day, they've dragged me into a suspense horror drama again!”

“They're sick!”

Because of the filter, the people around him didn't feel anything. Only Zhang Fei, who was walking at the very front, closed his eyes and covered his ears, retaining only the bare minimum of his five senses.

Seeing him like this, Zhang Wei also had a face full of disgust.

“No, what kind of act are you putting on now?”

Zhang Fei just smiled slightly and said to Zhang Wei beside him.

“You don't get it, do you? This is the reason why your father here has lived so long.”