The Science of Cultivation - Chapter 39: Toxins (Patreon)

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It didn’t take long for the auto-analyzer to finish processing the small piece of flesh from the bedridden test subject. Li Lang only took a brief glance at the results before he frowned.

“These results…The flesh itself is poisoned by a strange toxin, but it couldn’t figure out how the toxins infiltrated the body at all. Is it possible for Qi to carry toxins?”

“I have no idea, Master. I wish I could help, but I don’t remember anything from before meeting you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just voicing out my suspicions.”

There were no other reasons that came to Li Lang’s mind, so he tentatively concluded that Qi overdose was when Qi somehow carried poison into the flesh itself. 

“So if these new toxins are the cause of death from Qi overdoses, then does that mean we can eliminate Qi overdosing entirely if we can find an antidote…?”

The new revelation shocked Li Lang into quickly analyzing his own flesh next. He felt fine, but he wanted to see if these toxins were built up in everyone who cultivated.

The auto-analyzer often examined his blood, but it was the first time it was analyzing his flesh, so it took longer than usual. As his flesh was infused with the same level of Qi as himself, it naturally took several hours.

By the time night fell, the results found were entirely consistent with the previous results.

Li Lang’s flesh also had trace amounts of the same toxin, but at such a negligible amount that it wasn’t considered a health hazard yet.

I’ll need to run a few more tests to be sure, but this most likely means cultivating will slowly infect your flesh with these toxins…How did it take so long for me to come to this conclusion? Is this young brain still affecting me? Never mind that for now. Focus!

The preliminary results kept Li Lang up all night, dwelling on them.

It had a wide range of implications on the process of cultivating and how aptitude came into play.

Li Lang suspected that the reason people with higher aptitude could cultivate much faster was either due to their bodies being more tolerant of the toxins or they somehow incurred less of it over the course of cultivating. 

With some time left before he had to finish his mission and return to the sect, Li Lang didn’t hesitate to investigate all his test subjects again the next day.

Many of the newer subjects had a lower cultivation than him, so the tests went much faster than his own. It only took two days for him to finish analyzing all his current test subjects.

As the data was neatly laid out before him in Ruby’s artifact space, a trend could easily be observed. Li Lang couldn’t help but smile at the breakthrough he had reached. He memorized the results and quickly jotted them down on a piece of paper in the real world and showed it to Wei Ping.

“It seems our research is finally paying off.” 

Wei Ping took a moment to read over the new information, and a look of realization quickly hit him as well. He had proven to be a smart boy who was a quick learner.

“A-are you sure the r-results here are accurate? How d-did you even g-get them?”

“Don’t worry about that. Just know that those numbers are accurate.”

“...Then d-does that mean people w-with higher aptitude h-have higher tolerance o-or do having m-more spiritual r-roots help filter out these toxins?”

Li Lang beamed at his partner’s astute observations.

The sheet he had written had all the information pertaining to the subjects and the amount of toxins present inside their bodies.

After several tests, Li Lang found that cultivating caused the practitioner to absorb a minute amount of waste and toxins as well. It was spread out evenly throughout one’s flesh, and could normally be flushed out by the body after some time. This was shown when Li Lang tested the bedridden subject again the next day and found his toxin level had gone down.

From the data collected, one could surmise that the amount of toxin within their subject’s body was directly correlated to how much time has passed since they last cultivated. The consistent results were telling, and they concluded the act of cultivating absorbed some residual toxins into the body as well.

“Not bad. We’ll have to figure out if those with higher aptitude either have better tolerance or if they absorb less of it somehow. However, we can work on that later. For now, our next step is to figure out how to deal with these toxins first so we can cultivate as fast as those of a higher aptitude. This means we’ll be looking into how to deal with these toxins.”

“B-boss, if we could do t-that, then aptitude wouldn’t e-even matter anymore!”

“I’m not so sure about that. I don’t think we can eliminate all the toxins without consequences. We’ll just be dealing with the symptoms, and things may change in other realms of cultivation. I don’t have enough information to make any conclusive statements, but from what I heard, aptitude will still matter a lot in the other realms.”

“...That is t-too far off f-for us to think about r-right now.”

“You’re right. First things first. Dealing with this toxin. It’s a kind I’ve never seen before, but I’m confident we can find a way to deal with it.”

Li Lang grinned at the next obstacle they faced in their research to speed up their cultivation despite their low aptitude. 

Discovering ways to combat toxins was just in his ballpark. As a biodefense researcher, Li Lang had ample experience dealing with pathogens, vaccines, and various measures to keep humans healthy. It was a vital part of how humanity had conquered the stars so quickly, without succumbing to strange diseases. 

For the next few days, the cultivation experiments were paused as Li Lang brought forth his full expertise in the matter. He gathered as much information as he could about this newly discovered toxin before his time in Xiang Yang came close to running out.

“I should be able to formulate a working drug prototype by the time I return. Then we can start the clinical trial next time.” Li Lang confidently declared as Wei Ping saw him off.

“T-that’s…a little q-quick for such an i-important medicine.”

“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Li Lang simply flashed a confident smile before departing from the city to accomplish his sect mission. He didn’t bother to elaborate, as it wasn’t something he could explain.

How could I even explain that the secret artifact I possess gives me access to my old lab, and I  happen to specialize in dealing with various biological threats like toxins?

As Li Lang exited the city and got on his way to complete his task, he quickly reined in my excitement. He was close to figuring out a way to break past the limit his aptitude had imposed on him, but he knew from his talks with Elder Cao that cultivating wasn’t that simple.

He currently faced a bottleneck that couldn’t be addressed, even if his research succeeded. Elder Cao’s advice about how live combat could stimulate his ability to manipulate Qi hung in his mind.

It was the reason he had even taken this beast extermination mission he was currently headed for.

The young boy walked down the road while occasionally checking in with his map. He traveled for half a day before arriving near his destination.

“The maps say it should be in this area…How should I find these Garb Wolves?”

Li Lang glanced around the woodland area the road had cut through, searching for any clues. Travelers had reported a pack of Garb Wolves were terrorizing the route, which was quite common the further one got from any town. 

Alone in the woods, Li Lang carefully investigated the area in a daze until the sky began to dim.

“I should set up camp for the night and search again tomorrow morning. The sect says this area is thin in Qi, so there shouldn’t be any powerful Qi beasts.”

It wasn’t hard for Li Lang to spot an outcrop in the area where he swiftly set up camp. He was alone, so he didn’t dare to sleep, but resting by a fire was much better than not. Once he settled down, he took out a pill and consumed it.

It was one of the pills he refined that he learned by analyzing the pill he had received in the previous sect competition. It was a variant of a Nourishment Pill, called the Stimulant Pill. It not only replaced meals, but also allowed them to stay awake throughout the night without getting drowsy.

He leaned against the rock and glanced around. It was quiet, with only the sound of wind and crackling of fire. With his mind still sharp, Li Lang took this time to think about his future plans.

Considering my research bears fruit, how do I deal with the sect? Do I give them my research results?

Despite never having cared about politics, Li Lang was still mindful of the implications of his research results. He had always kept an eye out to avoid losing his research funds due to political maneuvering, but this time, it could affect his life.

No one was sure if the sect would be happy to discover a way for people of low aptitude to cultivate through the Energy Gathering realm at similar speeds to geniuses. After all, the demographic of powerful cultivations was heavily skewed toward those with heaven-gifted aptitude, and they may not want to see the rise of those they looked down upon.

Before he could count his chickens, he also had to consider how resource-intensive it was to craft this hypothetical antidote.

If Li Lang had a choice, he would definitely share his results, as that was how science prospered. Throughout history, societies that promoted selfishness, keeping findings to oneself, all eventually stagnated or even declined when met with setbacks.

As he struggled with this dilemma late into the night, a howl suddenly rang out from a distance.

Hmm…Should I go to them or wait until morning?

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