Special Effects of the Cell Enhancer

While taking stock of his spoils, Sea Emperor also discovered Pa Ma's Smart Watch in Kepu's Storage Space.

Gu Ding remembered that Kepu had said that Pa Ma was researching a drug to kill the virus, so he had Sea Emperor invade Pa Ma's Storage Space and find the relevant information.

At the same time, Gu Ding also informed Ma Dike about Pa Ma and sent him a copy of all of Pa Ma's research data.

Ma Dike is S-Ranked pharmacist. While his talent in potion-making is Gu Ding to Gu Ding's, he is far more experienced. Most importantly, Ma Dike has excellent connections within the Medicine God Alliance. Even if he cannot deduce the formula for the virus cure himself, he can seek help from others.

During these past few days, Gu Ding hadn't been idle either; he had been frantically improving his apothecary level. Only apothecaries of A-rank or higher could truly understand the information Pa Ma provided. Gu Ding had tried to study it for a while, but found himself completely baffled.

Others study the formula first, thoroughly understanding it before concocting the potion. But Gu Ding learns potion-making in the opposite way: he concocts the potion first, then uses the results to understand the medicinal properties of the ingredients in the formula. Therefore, to understand Pa Ma's information, he must first learn to concoct A-grade potions, and then deduce the medicinal properties of those A-grade potion ingredients.

For ten consecutive days, Gu Ding spent his time in Medicine King Valley, all his practice materials provided free of charge by Ma Dike. After ten days, he finally completed the refining of all the standard A-grade potions. A-grade potions were the highest level of intermediate potions; the refining of S-Ranked potions required the intervention of mental power. A pharmacist whose mental power was insufficient could never become S-Rank Pharmacist.

After completing the refining of all the Grade A potions, Gu Ding had gained a considerable understanding of the materials used in Grade A potions. He once again reviewed Pa Ma's information. This time, he finally understood the general outline.

Pa Ma has conducted some research on this type of virus and discovered that it likes to attach to the DNA strands of its host, but is difficult to kill specifically. Therefore, she devised a method to significantly reduce the adhesiveness of the viral tentacles, rendering the virus unable to attach. Over time, the virus would starve to death due to lack of nutrients. Her idea was to create a mildly corrosive agent that wouldn't damage the Gene Chain but would effectively disable the virus's attachment ability. This approach is actually feasible when the virus is difficult to kill.

Upon seeing her line of thought, Gu Ding immediately came up with several ideas. He was intimately familiar with all potion materials below Grade A, and three or four combinations flashed through his mind. But none of them were feasible. The formulas he conceived would all have a corrosive effect on the user's Gene Chain.

Just as Gu Ding was still pondering this question, he suddenly heard the voice of the Sea Emperor.

"Gu Ding, I've prepared the antidote."

Upon hearing the Sea Emperor's words, Gu Ding remembered that after he advanced from the ninth to the thirteenth rank, the Sea Emperor had granted him several privileges, one of which was the advanced gene bank privilege. He had also stored the virus from Kepu's body in it and conducted a series of analyses.

"I copied the virus in Kepu's body many times and tested its characteristics. After about ten days of testing, I finally found a way to easily kill this virus." Sea Emperor certainly wouldn't joke about something like this.

"This virus is extremely sensitive to high temperatures. In a petri dish, temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius can cause it significant damage. Temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius can kill it 100%. Therefore, based on this characteristic, as long as the internal temperature of the infected person's body exceeds 45 degrees Celsius, all these viruses will die."

"Pa Ma is Seventh Order Gene Body, and her internal environment exceeds 45 degrees Celsius, so it won't have much of an impact on her," Gu Ding nodded. "Therefore, the potion we need to make now is one that raises body temperature... Cell Enhancer can actually achieve this; accelerated cell division raises body temperature!"

Gu Ding hadn't expected that the solution to this virus would be so simple. He immediately contacted Barn, arranged a meeting on a different planet, and asked him to help unblock Pa Ma.

The next day, the spaceship docked on a small planet, and Barn arrived shortly afterward.

"I didn't expect you to have such a strong talent as an apothecary. You've created an antidote so quickly. You must be very confident to have called me over." Barn knocked on the door and entered the Golden Eagle.

Gu Ding grinned at Barn but didn't reply. After all, it wasn't him who came up with this method, but the Sea Emperor, and he was a little embarrassed to accept such praise.

Barn walked to the ice coffin and placed his hand on it. After a moment, a crack appeared on the ice coffin. The crack grew larger and larger, quickly spreading across the entire ice coffin until it finally shattered completely. The ice crystals automatically turned into mist and dissipated. The frost on Pa Ma's body also visibly faded away.

Gu Ding immediately injected a vial of Perfect Quality C-Grade Cell Enhancer into Pa Ma's body.

"This is... Cell Enhancer?!" Although Barn wasn't a pharmacist, he recognized what Gu Ding injected into Pa Ma.

"Yes," Gu Ding then explained the principle, leaving everyone dumbfounded. In fact, before this, Liliath and the others also did not know what the antidote Gu Ding was talking about was.

Pa Ma, Seventh Order Gene Body, should normally have received D-Grade Potion, but Gu Ding was worried that D-Grade Potion wouldn't be effective enough, so he directly injected her with a grade C serum. Moreover, this bottle of Perfect Quality serum was something Gu Ding had just concocted the day before. Gu Ding didn't have many other serum ingredients, but Gu Ding had plenty of Cell Enhancer and similar materials. Pa Ma was already at the peak of her Seventh Order Gene Body, just a step away from reaching the eighth tier. A Perfect Quality serum wouldn't cause any side effects after injection, so Gu Ding felt comfortable injecting her with it.

After the drug was administered, Pa Ma's cells began to divide rapidly, and her body temperature rose quickly.

The temperature soared from the original 36 degrees to 37, 38...

In less than three minutes, her temperature soared to 45 degrees Celsius, but that wasn't the end of it; her body temperature continued to rise.

Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight...

It wasn't until it reached 65 degrees Celsius that it finally stabilized, and the Sea Emperor was monitoring her condition.

"Very good, the viruses in her body are dying off in large numbers. As long as the temperature is above 45 degrees Celsius for half an hour, all of these viruses will be completely Death Ray."

Everyone waited patiently on the sidelines. Barn didn't leave either, fearing that if Gu Ding failed, he would need to re-freeze Pa Ma himself.

Half an hour usually passes quickly, but this half hour made everyone anxious and hoping it would end soon.

After reaching 65 degrees Celsius, Pa Ma's body temperature began to slowly decrease, and after half an hour, it dropped to about 55 degrees Celsius.

"The virus in her body has been completely cleared," Sea Emperor said after examining her. He brought good news, but Pa Ma remained unconscious.

About an hour later, Pa Ma's temperature finally returned to normal, and she finally opened her eyes. When she saw Gu Ding, she was clearly startled.

"Senior Sister Pa Ma! You're finally awake." Gu Ding grinned.

"You're Gu Ding?" Pa Ma asked in disbelief. "How did I get here?"

Seeing that Pa Ma had indeed returned to normal, Gu Ding recounted what had happened. After listening, Pa Ma remembered some things as well. The two chatted casually for a while, and then Gu Ding asked Lily and the others to stay with them.

Gu Ding himself walked out of the cabin with Barn.

A Peak-rank God, and a pinnacle among Peak-rank God, had immediately dropped everything to help him simply because of a single word from him. This made Gu Ding realize that Barn's feelings for him were definitely not as simple as just liking him.

Barn seemed to have guessed what Gu Ding was thinking. As soon as he stepped out of the cabin, he spoke up, "I know you have many questions, but I'm sorry, I can't give you the answers. Actually, I don't know much about you. But I do know one thing: your strength is far from enough to unravel the mystery. To put it bluntly, you're not even qualified to see the mystery right now."

"Alright. I have a question. If you're not comfortable answering it, you can remain silent, but please don't lie to me." After saying this, Gu Ding paused, took a deep breath, and then spoke again, "Are they... still alive?"

Barn knew perfectly well who the pronoun "they" referred to, and he remained silent for a long time, seemingly hesitant to give an answer.

Gu Ding clenched his fists in frustration, but in his heart he was asking himself, "Can't you even give me an answer to such a simple question?" He himself didn't know who he should be asking this question to.

Barn saw the resentment in Gu Ding's eyes, and he finally nodded, unable to bear it any longer.

"Thank you!" Gu Ding finally loosened his fist, and his emotions gradually calmed down.

"That little girl is alright now, I should be going." Barn didn't say anything more and disappeared in a flash.

Gu Ding also informed Ma Dike of Pa Ma's recovery before turning back into the cabin.

"Senior Sister Pa Ma, you should rest well during this time. We're going to the Oul Star Region this time, and it should be safe before we enter the Oul Ruins. There's also Auction House there, so you can go and have some fun with Lily and Elsa." Gu Ding was still not comfortable just leaving Pa Ma on a random planet, so he suggested that they go to the Oul Star Region together.

~~~

(Sigh, some friends in the group have commented that they don't really like these recent side plots. Actually, I wouldn't write meaningless side plots just to reach a word count. The purpose of this side plot is twofold: firstly, to resolve the plot hole about Kepu, and secondly, to raise money for the Auction House —the protagonist is just too poor. Thankfully, this part is over, and we can return to the main plot. I know very well that everyone wants to see the protagonist clash with the Federal Government, the increase in the protagonist's team's bounty, and the addition of new members. No matter how I write it, my main plot will not deviate from these points, so you can rest assured.) (To be continued...)