Perhaps to keep the specimen fresh, Shatuo brought over some dry ice and scattered it beside the frog specimen. Wisps of white mist drifted through the air.
The dry ice slowed the blood flow around the wound in the frog's abdomen.
"Dissecting animal specimens is about studying their biological structures and habits. In doing so, we can grasp the evolutionary secrets inscribed upon living organisms over the long history of nature, use our own Energy Magnetic Fields to simulate those evolutionary secrets, and achieve evolution beyond natural history, creating our own body of academic knowledge!"
As Shatuo spoke, he deftly drew the frog's internal organs out of its body with remarkable clarity.
The bright-red organs stood out starkly against the pristine white tray!
Shatuo's dark face turned abruptly toward Reilo, who was watching intently. He smiled in surprise. "I thought you'd be nervous. A lot of people find it too cruel the first time they dissect an animal specimen."
Reilo replied, "My father was an excellent hunter!"
"Good!"
Shatuo nodded and said nothing more, beginning his explanation of the frog specimen's internal organs.
"This is the frog's heart. It pumps blood through the vessels to every part of the body. The heart is the source of life. Intelligent creatures everywhere have worshipped it as a totem since ancient times, including us humans."
After a pause, Shatuo continued, "One of the essential differences between Magical Beasts and ordinary beasts is their hearts! A Magical Beast's heart gives birth to a kind of energy crystal, which we call an Energy Crystal. Scholars in the Balda Duchy are trying to use Energy Crystals in place of a scholar's Energy Magnetic Field, bypassing the need for scholars to have a Medium Companion."
"Medium Companion..."
As far as Reilo knew, almost every high-ranking scholar had a Medium Companion of his own.
Mentor Gubo's Medium Companion was Jiahei, Wushuang's was the giant eagle named Little Shadow, and Senior Sister Bailing wanted to buy an Ice Elves Fox as her Medium Companion. Reilo still hadn't seen Senior Brother Shatuo's Medium Companion.
"Oh, right! Senior Brother, where's your Medium Companion?"
Shatuo was in the middle of his lecture when Reilo suddenly asked, his face full of curiosity. He paused, then slowly drew an unremarkable snail from deep inside his sleeve as Reilo watched.
"This is my Medium Companion. I found it by chance while exploring the Hengduan Mountains—a mutated Rock Snail. I named it Dingding."
The snail was only about the size of a baby's fist. It looked black and completely unremarkable.
Woken by Shatuo, the snail slowly extended its soft feelers from its shell. It moved so slowly that any animal in nature could easily kill it. Yet Shatuo had chosen it as his Medium Companion. Perhaps there was something special about it that Reilo hadn't noticed.
"Senior Brother, you're amazing!"
Hearing his junior brother's praise, Shatuo thought Reilo had noticed something about the snail. He shook his head helplessly.
"Your senior brother is dull-witted. It was only through our mentor's kindness that I managed to achieve a few meager accomplishments. I can only work twice as hard to avoid disgracing our mentor when I'm out in the world. But you, Junior Brother: a Medium Companion is practically a scholar's second life. Its innate gifts will permanently affect the nature of a scholar's Energy Magnetic Field, so you must choose carefully when the time comes!"
Shatuo's earnest warning drew a nod and an "Mm" from Reilo.
"By the way, what does Dingding eat?"
Reilo planned to buy some food Dingding liked when he came back the next day.
"Uh, Dingding eats Energy Crystals, so you'd better not worry about it."
Hearing that Dingding ate Energy Crystals, Reilo was at a loss for words. His father was an excellent hunter, so Reilo knew how valuable Energy Crystals were.
One summer, his father had returned from a hunt and excitedly brought out a glittering stone. He told Reilo that it was an Energy Crystal that could only form inside a Magical Beast. Even the lowest-grade one could fetch at least one gold coin!
At the time, Reilo had naively thought all Energy Crystals came from Magical Beasts. Only later did he learn that the amount obtained by hunting Magical Beasts was insignificant compared with the quantity mined from crystal deposits.
Reilo couldn't help asking, "Senior Brother, where do the Energy Crystals underground come from?"
"Hmm..."
Shatuo thought for a moment, then furrowed his brow. "Scholars who study Natural Law and the Evolution's Profound Meaning have different views on this. Those who study Natural Law believe these Energy Crystals formed gradually when the energy of nature was subjected to high temperatures and pressure during shifts in the earth's crust. Those who study the Evolution's Profound Meaning believe the crystal deposits accumulated from ancient Magical Beasts buried after death. Each side has its own arguments, but there's no definitive answer yet."
"Oh!"
Reilo nodded, pondering the formation of crystal deposits as well. Which school of thought was closer to the truth?
"Junior Brother, leave these matters to the Royal Academicians to worry about. Now, let's dissect the kidneys. These inconspicuous little organs produce urine and remove toxins from the body. They also have an endocrine function, producing adrenaline, biological hormones, and so on. Adrenaline is a powerful stimulant with severe side effects. I hear that the scholars in the Balda Duchy studying Human Potential..."
Throughout the day, Reilo kept taking notes in his journal and asking all sorts of strange questions.
Seeing his junior brother's intense curiosity, Shatuo felt a complicated mixture of envy and longing.
Compared with his junior brother's lively, curious nature, Shatuo had long since lost count of how many times their mentor had criticized him over the years for lacking a fervent reverence for the Law of Truth and the desire to conquer it.
Shatuo tirelessly taught Reilo the basics of animal dissection and the frog's unique physiological structures. If time hadn't been limited, Reilo could probably have spent several days studying this one frog alone.
Reilo had never imagined that such a little frog could hold so many secrets!
A frog's tongue was strip-shaped and usually ten to fifteen centimeters long. Its tip was forked and covered in mucus. It caught insects at super-visual speeds, so ordinary people could hardly detect the movement and might think the frog had "sucked" the insect into its mouth.
A frog's eyes possessed Dynamic Vision, making it almost blind to stationary objects. Its specialized nervous system blurred and ignored objects that remained relatively still. But against moving targets, its Dynamic Vision gave it an advantage beyond what ordinary creatures could imagine: it could rapidly determine a target's position, speed, and direction, then assess it down to the finest detail!
The Linear Brain-Eating Worm found in some frogs was an exceptionally terrifying parasite. Anyone who ate an infected frog raw was extremely likely to become infected, and within a few months, the horrifying parasite would devour its host's brain completely!
After a little stimulation, the severed frog leg twitched with a reflexive kick...
The last part, especially the explanation of the frog's brain—things like the cortical gray matter, pyramidal cell layer, polymorphic cell layer, and internal granular layer—left Reilo feeling completely bewildered.
It was only at night that Reilo finally finished his first day of introductory lessons. He walked through the dark toward his little hut.
He rubbed his forehead. Though Reilo's eyes were heavy with exhaustion, they held a wonder he had never felt before.
The door to an entirely unfamiliar world was slowly opening before Reilo—a world the Festival of Light could never hope to reach.