Chapter 555 - 552: Disease and Evolution

Chapter 555: Chapter 552: Disease and Evolution

"Do you know how doctors of other races battle illness?"

"They don’t have healing abilities like we do. To cure a disease, they must gain a deep understanding of its cause. They stay with their patients, risking infection to record symptoms and trace the disease’s origin."

"They must find a cure and eliminate the endlessly replicating pathogens. They use their mortal bodies to stand against the tide of a spreading plague, racing against time."

The Administrator raised his left hand, looking at the symptoms spreading across it.

"But us? With just a simple wave of our hands, all illnesses are cured. Nothing else is needed."

"But even with such power, we still hide on the Hua Sheng Islands, filled with unspent compassion, waiting for one lost patient after another to arrive. Then, with a superior air, we cure diseases that seem incurable to them, basking in their adoration."

"We could have healed the entire world, but instead we’ve become secretive healers, trapped in this cage called ’protection’."

As he spoke, the ball of light that served as his head began to burn fiercely. The dazzling radiance tore a rift through the dim Matrix Tree forest.

"The Hua Sheng Islands are a species preservation zone for us healers! Protecting a group of rare creatures who can use the power of healing! The climate is perfect, water is abundant, and there’s even ’food’ dropped onto the islands from time to time. All the healers have to do is stay put, without a single thought in their heads..."

"We have never been in real danger, nor have we ever unleashed our full power."

"It’s time for this to change!"

The moment he finished speaking, the fiercely burning ball of light began to spread, engulfing the Matrix Tree beside him. The formless flames scorched the trunk, which began to twist as the outlines of one body after another started to appear upon it.

"What do you think you’re doing!?" Xi demanded, staring at the ever-growing flames.

The Administrator stood amidst the flames and raised his disease-riddled left hand.

"After being infected with so many diseases, I’ve realized something... We don’t actually need so many ’definitions of disease’."

"The Rainbow Virus causes an organism’s body to take on a rainbow of colors, but this shouldn’t be defined as a disease. If you can control this virus, an organism’s body can change color at will. Like this..."

As he spoke, the Administrator’s fingertips began to change color, shifting from the verdant green of a plant to the bloody red of flesh. It seemed he had completely mastered the Rainbow Virus.

"This is evolution, not a disease..."

"Then there’s Spiralvine. It’s a bond that connects animals and plants, allowing two types of lifeforms to merge until they are one and the same. There’s no hierarchy between animals and plants. I can become a plant when I want to be a plant, and an animal when I want to be an animal."

The Administrator’s fingers twisted and straightened, their texture constantly shifting between bark and flesh.

"There’s also Iron Blue Algae. It allows any creature to breathe through its skin, vastly improving oxygen intake. It breaks down the barrier between terrestrial and aquatic life, freeing all creatures from the constraints of their environment..."

"And Flashing Scale Fungus can make any creature grow scales..."

"They shouldn’t be defined as diseases. This is evolution!" the Administrator exclaimed excitedly.

"What’s more, any disease can be utilized, becoming a part of the patient’s body. If you just treat every illness as an opportunity for evolution..."

"...then disease itself will cease to exist!"

When the Administrator said this, both Mo Ling and Xi stood frozen in shock.

"What about physical trauma? Is a broken leg a form of evolution, too?" Mo Ling immediately retorted.

"Of course! Even disability is a form of evolution!"

"What about cancer? This world has so many fatal diseases. Death can’t possibly be evolution, can it?" Mo Ling pressed on.

The Administrator didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, he walked over to a flame-wreathed Matrix Tree and placed his hand on the silhouette of a body on its trunk.

"You’re all overthinking it. All you have to do is accept everything. If you don’t treat disease as an enemy, you can’t be defeated by it..."

The Administrator grabbed the form with his left hand and, with a hard push, shoved it directly into the tree trunk.

Immediately, shimmering scales sprouted from the trunk. Patches of blue appeared on the bark, and parts of it morphed into strange flesh. The leaves also began to transform continuously, becoming shells, teeth, feathers, cartilage...

But then, a smattering of blurry, colorful pixels spread across these new "leaves," gradually turning them the verdant green of true foliage. Although their shapes were still bizarre, from a distance, the difference was almost imperceptible.

"Featherblight, Shellscale, Hyperdontia... as long as you accept every disease, you will no longer be troubled by them. If cancer takes over an organ, just switch to another one. Once the body has fused with all things, no single disease can defeat the whole. Instead, it will be assimilated and become just another part of this body."

"At that point, disease itself no longer exists. And as healers, we will have fulfilled our duty."

"We just need to popularize this form. When all living beings exist like this, our mission as healers will be complete. Doctors all over the world will no longer need to battle disease!"

"Our healing abilities can accomplish this with ease. All we have to do is leave the Hua Sheng Islands, transform all other creatures into this form, and we can ’cure’ them completely!"

"We shouldn’t be hiding on the Hua Sheng Islands, sitting on this immense power, oblivious. Our power can heal an entire world—it can heal every living thing!"

Staring at the unrecognizable Matrix Tree, Mo Ling finally understood who was responsible for everything on Senluo Island.

’When your body is a junkyard of plagues, of course it won’t get sick!’ Mo Ling cursed inwardly.

Xi was clearly shaken by the Administrator’s speech. His light trembled ceaselessly as he gazed at the completely transformed Matrix Tree and voiced his doubt. "But... it’s not a Matrix Tree anymore."

"Of course! This is evolution!" The Administrator’s light flared even brighter. "When a single-celled organism evolves into a multi-celled one, is it still its original self? When a fish evolves into an amphibian, is it still its original self? The process of evolution is the process of abandoning the self. We have merely accelerated it."

"A single-celled organism becomes a multi-celled one to better adapt to its environment. We are turning individual organisms into fused lifeforms to completely defeat disease. Is this not the process of evolution?"

"We healers have the ability to do this—to drive the evolution of the entire Abyss. We should spare no effort to prove that we are not ’protected animals’ caged on the Hua Sheng Islands!"

The Administrator’s words grew increasingly fervent. The flames spilling from his glowing head scorched the surrounding Matrix Trees. As the bodily forms merged into the trunks, the trees all became unrecognizable, turning into what he called "fused lifeforms."

Xi felt a sense of helplessness. He knew that these stitched-together fused lifeforms, just as the Administrator claimed, would be impervious to disease. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was not the right path.

He stared intently at the ever-wilder flames, gazing into the very center of the Administrator’s ball of light.

Suddenly, Xi sensed a barely perceptible emotion. It was—

Emptiness...

"Administrator..."

"When you perform your healing, you infuse it with your own emotions, don’t you?"