440: They're all crazy.

The Potion Department was in another corner of the underground space. It required a car ride to get there, but there was no underground rail system like the one in the Sinkhole Base's City of the Future. They had to take a car, and it took about twenty minutes to arrive!

From this, it was evident that the underground space of the Tiangong Group was quite vast. Ordinary people in Shuntian Prefecture would find it hard to imagine such a research base existing beneath them.

The atmosphere here was different from the Mecha Department. Everyone was working in an orderly fashion; every building was brightly lit with people coming and going. From time to time, bursts of loud shouting could be heard. Under Long Yuan's Divine Sense coverage, he could see some Xuan Practitioners participating in the project research were testing the potions. This scene looked exactly like a cult researching the effects of their potions!

Long Yuan's brow furrowed imperceptibly, but he certainly wouldn't say anything. This wasn't because he was applying a double standard, but because he already knew through information gathering that these Xuan Practitioners participating in the trials were basically "volunteers." Whether they volunteered actively or passively, at least the Tiangong Group wouldn't randomly grab people everywhere to be "potion ghosts" like a cult. Instead, they would recruit openly and offer generous compensation, while also trying their best to minimize physical harm to the "potion ghosts."

There was no other way. To develop truly effective potions, one definitely needed "potion ghosts" to test them. Whether it was a cult, Snow Eagle Country's technology groups, or the Tiangong Group, it was all the same; the only difference lay in how they treated their lives.

The group followed Prince Zhao to a laboratory. The main person in charge of the Potion Department, Cen Jing, quickly arrived and showed them the latest achievements of the Potion Department. This scene brought deep shock to many of them!

They saw some "potion ghosts" undergoing astonishing changes under the stimulation of the potion's power. Some became as sturdy as giant bears, some as agile as foxes, some as fierce as lions and tigers, and some could even grow wings to perform short-distance flight and leaps like birds. However, this flight ability was relatively short-lived, with certain limitations in both height and duration, still having a huge gap compared to Cultivators.

The sight of the beastification caused many people present to change color, especially Xu Ruoying, who had never seen such terrifying things before. She clung tightly to Long Yuan, letting out screams from time to time, her little face pale...

Actually, it couldn't be said she was timid. Even seasoned Jianghu veterans like Chang Hanshan and Ding Peng, who were used to big scenes, had solemn expressions and secretly sweaty palms when seeing these beast-men!

They imagined how they would deal with such beast-men if they had to face them. The good news was that they had finally seen real beast-men, so that if they suddenly encountered them in the future, they wouldn't be caught off guard and could think of ways to cope.

With good news came bad news. When they saw the astonishing combat power displayed by the beast-men, they suddenly felt that their so-called Warrior-level strength was really not enough. Having painstakingly cultivated to reach the current Warrior Realm, they thought they were already standing at the Peak level of Xuan Practitioners, but unexpectedly, these beast-men were practically all at the Warrior level. As long as they drank a bottle of potion, their combat power would immediately "shoot up," which was heart-stopping to watch!

Long Yuan also nodded secretly. It seemed the Potion Department's achievements were indeed above those of the Mecha Department. This should be related to the continuous research in medicine by healers in the Ming Dynasty and previous dynasties. It was no exaggeration to say that the Ming Dynasty's medical achievements were at the top tier on Blue Star. Therefore, although they were a bit late in researching gene potions, once they started, they were able to continue to exert effort to catch up, and by now, they had already achieved significant results!

However, despite this, compared to Snow Eagle Country, War Bear Country, and Flying Lion Country, the Tiangong Group was still far behind. According to Long Yuan's assessment, the current Rank of the Tiangong Group's potions could at best reach the level of second-tier potions in countries like Snow Eagle. Moreover, they were relatively singular, only used as beast-transformation enhancers for Xuan Practitioners, with no results in genetic modification. But for gene potions, the true measure of their achievement should be in potions that change genes—that is, potions that, once consumed, could completely change an ordinary person's Physique, granting them the ability to Cultivate Profound Skill. That was the true gene potion!

In addition, gene potions could also help Xuan Practitioners Awakening new abilities. For example, a Xuan Practitioner with only one ability could gain another, or even more, through gene potions. Of course, when a Xuan Practitioner's body could not withstand multiple abilities, there was another type of gene potion that could expand the Xuan Practitioner's Physique, enabling them to withstand the Awakening of more abilities!

However, this situation of having multiple abilities was not necessarily a good thing. It was a bit like Cultivators in the Cultivation World; those with multiple Spiritual Roots needed to consume more resources to Cultivate, and their Cultivation speed would also be affected. To reach the same height as those with a single Spiritual Root, the time and resources required would double or increase several-fold!

Therefore, in Snow Eagle Country, those Xuan Practitioners who wanted to Awakening more abilities for themselves were generally those in high positions who did not lack resources or time. These people, by Awakening high-quality abilities, formed a complement to their original abilities, thereby forming higher comprehensive strength.

There were even some powerhouses who skipped this step entirely by using the method of cultivating their own split-bodies, Awakening multiple abilities on the split-bodies, and Cultivating them to a high level. Finally, they would perform a transplant via consciousness uploading, thereby allowing themselves to possess a perfect body and powerful strength!

In Long Yuan's view, this method seemed even more perfect than Possession in the Cultivation World. Because in the Cultivation World, Possession was generally limited; a Cultivator only had one or a limited number of opportunities for Possession in their lifetime, and their Lifespan was also limited by the new body. If the Aptitude of the new body was poor, then the one who performed the Possession might not even live as long as their original Lifespan. However, transplantation in technological civilization could be performed an unlimited number of times, with the possibility of becoming stronger each time. After all, once their strength was great, they could obtain more resources and time to Cultivate better bodies for new transplants...

The head of the Potion Department, Cen Jing, was a spirited old man. A piercing light shone in his eyes. As he stared at the beastification scene, it was as if he were looking at a fine work he had created himself. His whole body was trembling slightly, and he was completely lost in a kind of underlying madness, with even the sparse hair on his head standing on end, showing the extreme excitement in his heart...

When he saw a beast-man with bird features fly up, circle in the air a few times, and then smash a Xuan Practitioner heavily to the ground, Cen Jing could not suppress the restlessness in his heart and roared excitedly. He shook the iron bars of the cage in front of him violently, wishing he could rush into the arena himself. His assistant also displayed the same behavior. This scene made the people around them look sideways and feel secretly shocked—could it be that these scientists were all madmen?!