Chapter 971: Reproduction and Cultivation

“I passed the Stargate Council’s selection, didn’t I?” Jeffrey touched his nose, trying to suppress the pride in his heart. “Now I’ve been sent out to study. They said after I finish learning, they’ll let me work in the Star Observatory Tower.”

“Is that so?” Saul’s gaze locked onto the short, fat tail of the red worm that was exposed and constantly wriggling. “Then congratulations to you.”

He suddenly raised his left hand. The skin on his fingertip quickly receded, revealing a section of white finger bone. Before Jeffrey could react, he lightly touched the red worm’s tail.

Jeffrey only had time to move his eyeballs before his entire body trembled violently like he’d been electrocuted, then fell straight down.

Saul and Jeffrey had originally been standing on the street, but the instant Saul exposed his finger bone, the two were transferred to high altitude.

Therefore, when Jeffrey fell, his entire body was plummeting toward the ground.

However, a gray semi-transparent tentacle wrapped around his body, letting him float in mid-air.

Even though Jeffrey had fallen, Saul’s left hand still hadn’t left the red worm on his neck.

At this moment, the red worm that no one could originally touch was constantly trembling, also as if it had been electrocuted.

Douglas’s hint was obvious – places that could quickly provide red worms with large amounts of pollution were either the abyss or starry sky.

But Douglas probably couldn’t imagine that Saul carried the most polluting anchor point from the abyss on his body.

Saul had already guessed that the pollution source the Stargate Council used to create deactivated red worms was also anchor points.

Because they had jointly controlled the Borderland with the Tribunal for a long time, anchor points produced every time Storm Eyes erupted would be collected by these two organizations.

It was also because of so many years of accumulation that the Stargate Council could create so many deactivated red worms in such a short time after discovering red worms.

Slowly, the violently trembling red worm finally stopped moving.

Just to be safe, Saul didn’t immediately move his hand away, but waited a while longer before letting his skin re-wrap the anchor point.

At this time, Saul switched to his right hand to grab the motionless red worm. A star-shaped eye emerged from his right palm the instant it touched the red worm.

Saul’s fingers felt no feedback, but his soul body clearly sensed he had grasped something light and airy.

Then Saul pulled hard, and the red worm that now only had a small red tip left was yanked out by Saul.

The unconscious Jeffrey convulsed, and dark red blood began flowing from his seven orifices. A rotting smell also spread with the flowing dark red blood.

Saul tightened his tentacle and lifted Jeffrey higher.

He was already dead.

Or rather, when Saul left the Star Observatory Tower and saw Jeffrey excitedly saying he’d been chosen by the Stargate Council, he was already dead.

What was alive was merely the thinking inertia belonging to a wizard apprentice. The red worm could give the remaining consciousness a possibility to continue, but this continuation would eventually be exhausted. At that time, the red worm might leave the original host and seek the next target.

Someone like Jeffrey, a second-level wizard apprentice, could probably only hold on for a few months. While third-rank wizards could persist for many years.

“But did the Stargate Council send him out just to wait for his death?” Saul put away Jeffrey’s corpse – there wasn’t even his own soul left inside.

“Or did they want to wait for Jeffrey to die so the red worm could continue eroding other people?”

The Stargate Council cultivated red worms of various sizes, but obviously the larger red worms were more useful. A red worm that had only grown on Jeffrey for a few months couldn’t satisfy the Stargate Council’s requirements.

Saul’s sudden removal of Jeffrey had already alarmed those secretly observing Jeffrey. But when they rushed to the street, they couldn’t see where Saul and Jeffrey had gone, and could only wander the streets in confusion. Some were obviously going to run back and report this matter.

Meanwhile, Saul in the high altitude clearly saw the panic of several people in the city below.

He said nothing and directly teleported again, returning to Byron’s side.

Byron was currently in the laboratory measuring the size changes of the red worm on his body. Discovering Saul had appeared in the room, he only glanced up casually before lowering his head to continue his experiment.

He was already used to Saul, who could teleport, suddenly appearing beside him from time to time.

Saul walked forward and waited until Byron finished measuring before taking out Jeffrey’s corpse and the newly obtained red worm.

“I’ve confirmed that the method Douglas provided is correct.”

Byron glanced sideways at Jeffrey. During his time at the Stargate Council, he had seen too many such corpses.

“This red worm only counts as a larva.”

Saul nodded. Kismet had also told him this knowledge.

“Red worms complete growth similar to molting by completely devouring a wizard. And this time I also figured out that parasitized wizards actually die the moment they’re parasitized by red worms.”

Red worms, this special existence that only had consciousness, could mimic the consciousness of the parasitized person, making those who couldn’t see red worms completely unable to discover that people around them had already been replaced by worms.

“But what I’m seeing now are basically adult or larval forms. Have you seen the initial form of red worms?” Saul asked Byron, since Byron had been working at the Star Observatory Tower for a long time.

The source of thɪs content is 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⟡𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵

But Byron shook his head, “They say it’s an egg form, but none of us have seen it. It’s probably a secret only known to those Chairman Alick trusts most.”

“That’s somewhat troublesome.” Saul sat in a nearby chair, looking at Jeffrey’s corpse. “To consume black tide pollution, these few worms aren’t enough. But we can’t possibly use wizards’ lives to cultivate red worms like the Stargate Council does.”

Possessing the Inertization Formula and Soul-Fixing magical formations, Saul had always believed wizards were the main force against black tide pollution. Using wizards’ lives to exchange for worms was something only Alick, who was bent on escaping, could do.

However, if he could command and control large numbers of red worms, it could also help wizards counter the most dangerous pollution sources.

“First find larval red worms. We need to understand red worms’ reproduction methods so we can find ways to obtain sufficient quantities of worms.” Saul said to Byron, “Senior, you continue researching how to make red worms continue growing.”

Byron took several notebooks from beside the experimental table and gave them to Saul, “People who can see red worms won’t be parasitized by red worms, but red worms will lie on us. The half-elf taught me to feed red worms with chaotic consciousness, which can make them grow larger and larger.”

“Chaotic consciousness?” Saul quickly flipped through the notebook once and immediately understood Byron’s meaning. “What the half-elf feeds the worm on you is the already chaotic elven consciousness from the world barrier?”

Byron sighed lightly, “Yes, completely chaotic, mixed into a mess that can’t be separated. Although toxic and dangerous, it’s nutritionally rich for the worms.”

(End of Chapter)

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