Chapter 825: Major Breakthrough
Earth Snake sighed and continued, "The teacher meticulously divided a single 'native' into many portions, marked each one carefully, and then fed them to different 'natives.'"
"Some 'meticulous' he is," Qiao Jiajin commented from the side.
"At first, he discovered that the one who ate the head could obtain 'Immortal Arts.' Then he further divided a single head into many pieces and repeated the same experiment. Finally, he concluded—only by accurately eating the eyeball could a 'native' have a chance to gain an 'Echo.'"
After saying this, Earth Snake glanced at Qi Xia again and said, "I often wonder... why the 'eyeball'? There are so many organs on a person's body, yet what stores each person's 'Immortal Arts' is neither the most complex organ for thinking—the 'brain'—nor the core organ that powers the body—the 'heart'—but rather the eyeball. Even my teacher couldn't answer this question."
Qi Xia found this laughable.
"Earth Snake, do you really believe in your teacher's so-called 'scientific research'? In a place where science doesn't matter at all, someone actually does research and smugly announces 'research results.'"
"You can't say that... The teacher did make a major breakthrough... And this place really does need 'scientific research'..."
"How amusing," Qi Xia said with a cold smile. "'Echoes' exist, 'Immortal Arts' are born, 'Divine Powers' appear, 'Divine Beasts' take flight, 'time' stops, and 'the dead' are resurrected—yet at this moment, Heaven Snake is curiously asking 'Why are Immortal Arts stored in the eyes?'"
"This..." Qi Xia's question left Earth Snake speechless.
Qi Xia continued, "It's like saying, in an era full of airplanes, the latest research direction of scientists is 'how to ensure raindrops don't hurt when hitting your head'—equally ridiculous."
"That may be true, but no one can answer the questions you're curious about," Earth Snake said. "My teacher only did his best, within his abilities, to unravel the mysteries of this place."
"Are you saying... even 'Heaven Snake' regards these questions as mysteries?" Qi Xia caught the key point from Earth Snake's words.
"Yes." Earth Snake nodded. "Even though the teacher has the strongest desire for exploration among all the 'Heavenly' levels, he still encounters many mysteries."
Qi Xia shook his head after hearing this. "Maybe his desire for exploration isn't as strong as you think. He's just a fake scholar stuck in his own ways."
"But he did succeed," Earth Snake said. "After discovering the secret of the 'eyes,' the teacher soon ran into another problem."
Earth Snake pulled the topic back to "Heaven Snake's research." It turned out that after the first experiment, Heaven Snake repeated it several times in the same manner.
But the experimental results changed again. He accurately dug out the eyeballs of the "natives" and fed them to other "natives," only to find that doing so didn't guarantee a one-hundred-percent chance of obtaining "Immortal Arts"—it only slightly increased the probability.
After many more experiments and follow-up investigations, Heaven Snake finally reached his ultimate conclusion: The owner of the eyeball must have become a native while possessing "Immortal Arts." In other words, for a native to obtain an "Echo," they would have to eat the eyeball of an "Echo user."
"I still don't get it," Chen Junnan said, frowning after listening. "Even if that old bastard figured out that 'Echoes' are stored in the eyes... why did he turn you into this?"
Chen Junnan pointed at Earth Snake's body, and Earth Snake turned around again at that moment, looking at everyone with his eyes below his neck.
"Why can't you understand such a simple logic...?" Earth Snake said. "The teacher deduced that since 'Immortal Arts are in the eyes,' we could try to implant these eyes into ourselves. If the implanted eyes could 'survive' in our bodies, then naturally we would obtain the 'Immortal Arts.'"
"That logic is both obvious and fucking stupid..." Chen Junnan gritted his teeth. "Even if that old bastard really thought that way, shouldn't he have implanted the eyes on the face?! How could they 'survive' on the back?! Am I the stupid one, or is he the stupid one?"
Qin Dingdong sighed after hearing this. "The fact that you even said 'implant on the face' is already stupid enough..."
"I..." Chen Junnan paused. "Damn, that old bastard has me all confused."
"Yes." Earth Snake nodded. "The teacher did initially consider implanting the eyes on our faces."
"Huh?" Chen Junnan was completely stunned.
"But his research findings needed to be kept secret," Earth Snake said. "If all of us 'Snakes' went out with a face full of eyes, anyone would see the problem. So he had to choose more concealed locations."
After saying this, he revealed a despairing smile and added, "Want to see the eyes on my thighs? Unfortunately, none of them 'survived'—just a bunch of bloody holes left."
"No thanks..." Chen Junnan waved his hand. "Let's just talk normally."
"Fine, you brat." Earth Snake nodded. "Although what you said makes some sense, the teacher's 'implantation' was hardly the normal kind of 'implantation'..."
"What?"
"Remember the first 'native' who obtained 'Immortal Arts'?" Earth Snake chuckled. "Guess what 'Immortal Art' he got?"
The group exchanged glances, then shook their heads.
"It was 'Grafting,'" Earth Snake said. "What a perfect 'Immortal Art'! A cultivation technique that could originally only work on plants—here it could directly transplant organs."
"How absurd," Chen Junnan commented. "If your 'Grafting' is so amazing, why did all those eyes implanted into you end up dead? Since the 'native' is called the strongest 'Echo user' by you guys, shouldn't he have succeeded every time?"
Hearing this question, Earth Snake's expression darkened again.
"That's how I left a weakness," Earth Snake said hoarsely. "Originally, I didn't have to implant eyes all over my body... But the teacher found that none of the eyes implanted into me could survive—he discovered my secret. From then on, I entered a living hell."
At this point, Qi Xia had a thought. "You mean 'rejection'?"
"Yes." Earth Snake nodded. "Qi Xia, I myself already 'have' something. How could I accommodate a second one? Even if it's transplanted... how could it survive?"
"'Rejection'?! What kind of logic is that?" Chen Junnan interrupted. "All those old bastards up there have a ton of abilities! Why don't they get rejection?"