Still Belongs to Humans

Chapter 38: 1.38 Still Belongs to Humanity

North of Yue is Xiang, and when connected, they form the Huguang Province System.

The conflict between the gene colonies fleeing north from Yue and the gene colonies here has become vicious—oh, it's escalated to the extreme, breeding irreconcilable hatred.

The species of the two regions have undergone extensive targeted evolution.

For example, some have evolved specifically to blend perfectly with the mud for ambushes, or developed spikes that perfectly fit the limb spacing of their opponents.

This vicious evolution has severely depleted the ecosystem's resources and energy potential. Therefore, the total Node Creatures from the hundreds of small and medium-sized gene colonies originally in Xiang have awakened from Dongting Lake.

At the bottom of Dongting Lake, a central point, multiple Scaled Python Bodies, extending and rolling out in a four-hundred-meter radius, became active. This creature isn't an Apostle-level being, but it's definitely a regional overlord. Its powerful Life Radiation affected all the small and medium-sized gene colonies.

And these gene colonies, descendants of the great node, fed back a large amount of biological energy.

A lot of silt churned up from the lakebed, and settled organic matter rose to the surface, along with many egg-like objects resembling Toad Eggs.

These eggs opened green Leaves under the sunlight, becoming Duckweed. The Duckweed rapidly spread and filled the lake surface. As their proliferation rate peaked, large whirlpools appeared underwater, devouring the Duckweed.

The creators of these whirlpools, through this nutrient acquisition, completed their development in the water. They crawled ashore awkwardly, appearing at first glance to be a group of Giant Salamanders. However, over the next few days, they continuously devoured surface creatures, their hind limbs elongated into Ornithischians, and their heads grew larger with increased biting force, transforming into Tyrannosaurus Rexes.

Further north, in another center with powerful Life Radiation on the upper Yangtze River—Yu City.

What were once skyscrapers standing by the river have now been replaced by the main trunk of a giant tree. Giant Tree Number One, with all its skyscraper fragments wrapped and consumed by tree tissue, At the top of one of its highest fused giant tree-buildings hangs a "fruit" four meters in diameter. This fruit has a human brain and eyes. This is the highest ruler of the Yu City gene colony, the Prime Spirit.

Now, she is looking south, in the direction of Dongting Lake.

Below her, 43 Priests are seated on the upper branches of the giant tree! These Priests largely retain human appearances, with only details like their hair, pupils, nails, and the scales/fur on their skin exhibiting characteristics of other creatures.

Prime Spirit: "The Dragon of Dongting Lake has moved. After this awakening, it will not merely clean up its territory but will also expand into surrounding areas before its dormancy period ends..."

The Prime Spirit turned her gaze to her lower left, sending a Telepathy query to her children: "How should we respond?"

While asking, she directed her expectations primarily towards the two closest Symbiotic Human Priests, Long Ximin and Qi Shengxun.

Before Long Ximin could ponder, Qi Shengxun stepped forward eagerly: "Prime Spirit, the awakening of the Dongting Lake Tyrant is due to an anti-natural force rising from further south. They are not inherently our enemies; we should guide them."

Prime Spirit: "Guide?"

Qi Shengxun: "The humanoid gene colonies in the far south are currently damaging the natural ecosystem, which is contrary to our ways. If we can make them understand our path of life when they are still weak, it will be much better than trying to contact them when they have deviated further from our path."

The Prime Spirit looked at Long Ximin.

Long Ximin turned to Qi Shengxun: "From a genetic perspective, they are new colonies evolved from human genes. Do we really want to engage in fierce conflict with this existence that shares similar genes with us right now?"

Qi Shengxun: "In terms of genetic similarity, those downstream are too."

Long Ximin: "It's different. The Old Humans downstream are not a Gene Colony." -- In Yu City's mind, if they haven't formed a colony, they are just a group of bacteria with human cell genes.

Qi Shengxun calmly stated the crucial point: "But those existences in the south are not Mother's children, nor are they our brothers."

Long Ximin silently retreated, stopping herself from speaking.

The Prime Spirit looked at the other Priests: "Do you have any other opinions?"

In the mental echo at the Apex of the giant tree, the other Priests did not object to Qi Shengxun.

The Gene Colony in Yu City possesses the ability to utilize industry, which is extremely rare globally. If one looks far into the distance from Yu City, certain giant Pyramid Buildings sealed by green can be seen among the mountains. These were not built during the Civilization Era but rose from the ground during the Pandora Period. Now, they are sealed along with the buildings from the Civilization Era.

If they deem it necessary, they will still smelt steel. However, the high temperatures and waste gas from steel smelting are extremely repulsive to the Gene Colony, and their attitude towards workshops producing Metal Items is like that of a spittoon.

Currently, when confronting the Human City-States downstream of the Yangtze River, they prefer to grow silicon-based crystalline Hardwood. After grinding and processing, it is inserted into their bodies, becoming sharp Ram Horns. They will also have flying beasts throw some Corrosive Substances for aerial attacks.

Pandora Era, Year 134, September 4th.

Qi Shengxun, carrying the Prime Spirit's suggestion, headed south. In the dense, vine-covered wetlands and swamps north of Dongting Lake, he slowly sat down and began to radiate as a small Node Creature.

As the lake surface churned for twenty minutes, a Large Worm in Dongting Lake surfaced. A mountain of flesh several meters high wriggled in the swamp, leaving a deep, black Humus indentation.

Facing such a Monster, Qi Shengxun's gaze showed a hint of fear, but he quickly opened his arms and met it. His body embedded itself into the worm's body, and then they melted into each other through the Life Radiation.

There seemed to be light during this process, but in reality, it was not visible electromagnetic waves, but the perception brought by Life Radiation to the mutated creatures.

The two sides completed Gene Fusion, which is the communication between two Gene Colonies.

For humans, this process of communication is unimaginable. However, for Gene Colonies and the individuals within them, this is not death but represents the colony fulfilling its goals.

North of Dongting Lake, the Corps from Yu City crossed the Yangtze River. These creatures, moving on the ground like Centaurs, upon entering the Yangtze River, their Upper Body, originally human-like, revealed numerous red slits in the rib area. These slits opened and closed, functioning as Gills. This force arrived at the shores of Dongting Lake and merged with the tens of thousands of native war beasts of Dongting Lake into one.

But if one looked closely, the two teams were still clearly distinct, divided into two commands. The one commanding the north was still the Gene Colony from the north.

Although Qi Shengxun's body was devoured, his represented existence had not disappeared within this life collective.

Perhaps it can be analogized with Earth's politics: this is a Dual Empire. When a country's Royal Family inherits a king from another ethnicity, the two countries are unified at the highest political level, but they are still two different ethnicities. When an era passes, they will separate again, like the Huns and Austria.

Although these are biological colonies, the movement of tens of thousands of Large Individuals weighing over several hundred kilograms constitutes large-scale troop operations. Even though many of them are Devourers with excellent digestion and no dietary restrictions, they must undergo large-scale fat accumulation and digestive system modification before moving.

Yue Region, Zhushui Jiao, the southernmost outpost.

Beneath a cluster of red brick chimneys, Wei Keng stared at the Fuel Manufacturing Equipment. From one Reactor to another, passing through various heating chambers and catalyst reactions, and finally entering the Distillation Tower, he finally produced fuel.

Wei Keng looked at the slightly foul-smelling liquid in the pottery pot and couldn't help but sigh, "If it were just five years after the Pandora Era, and the major city-states still had a large number of internal combustion engines, my oil refining would be equivalent to refining gold. But now?"

Half an hour later, three Wei Kengs formed a small team. One group poured fuel into a pitch-black engine, another picked up a solid iron crankshaft and began to crank the black engine. Bang, bang, dada da, this simple diesel engine started to run. Sitting on this crawler tractor, as the speed reached ten meters per second, the wind carrying the tractor's black smoke blinded the eyes of Wei Keng sitting in the driver's seat.

What I want to show off, I must show off completely.

Around him were guests from various cities invited by Wei Keng.

By showcasing his own manufactured vehicles this time, he wanted to show the surrounding forces that he was no longer technologically backward, and to remind those behind the scenes not to do foolish things.

According to Wei Keng's knowledge, or rather, information gathered from various merchant groups, Jian City and two other city-states were still unwilling to give up.

Within a year, nearly three to four thousand laborers came south from various city-states. Under Wei Keng's organization, they expanded farmland, opened roads, and mined raw materials for production. Especially the factories that were put into operation, they demonstrated what super-production capacity meant.

Taking the textile factory as an example, that factory with only seven or eight machines had an efficiency in mechanically tanning fibers that was much higher than manual labor. Linen and cotton cloth, while satisfying the consumption needs of the Wei Keng Collective, were also dumped to the surrounding city-states.

Food, clothing, and security, Wei Keng could provide them all, which had already turned Wei Keng's stronghold cluster into an effect of a human pump.

Young adults continuously poured into Wei Keng's strongholds from old ones to try their luck. For the civilians of various city-states, there was no significant feeling. They only felt that there were more goods brought by the merchant caravans, there was nothing to do in the cities, and there were fewer people fighting in the dark places.

However, the lords of various city-states had a deep understanding that they could no longer issue absolute commands to the lower classes.

Before Wei Keng arrived, the upper echelons of the city-states could order people in the city to collect wood and salt from dangerous areas under the pretext of cutting off food supplies.

These city-state elites still retained some knowledge of human society before the Great Destruction, so they knew the terms 'Industrial Scissors Difference' and 'Urban Effect Radiation'. Unlike the upper echelons of the modern Great Qing, who were bled dry without even knowing where their arteries were cut.

Therefore, these upper echelons who realized the crisis seemed to have made several attempts to connect.

In this regard, Wei Keng also maintained full vigilance, because Wei Keng himself knew that if his model continued for a few more years, it would be able to kill them.

If they don't jump this year, they won't have a chance to jump later. As for whether they would struggle before dying, Wei Keng would not gamble that they had no bullets in their guns.

Just as Wei Keng was waiting for the upper echelons of these city-states to attack him, he found that his attention seemed to have shifted again.

On September 27th, at the Qingyuan Stronghold, Wei Keng set up a logging squad to collect wood, which was then transported downstream by water to provide fuel and chemical raw materials.

This morning, he encountered a merchant caravan. The leader of the caravan said there was a major event and they had to temporarily halt their journey and bring them into the stronghold.

After the caravan leader sat down and received sufficient benefits, he played coy for a while before revealing the news that "a large-scale southward migration of gene colonies has appeared in the northern direction." Wei Keng glanced at the mysterious merchant in front of him and immediately associated him with 'clickbait'.

However, after so many unfortunate events during his travels, Wei Keng rationally understood that his luck was indeed very bad, and it was better to believe something than not to believe it.

The subsequent developments confirmed for Wei Keng that perhaps all of this was true.

Shaoheng City, this is the northernmost city-state in the Yue Region, with a population of sixty thousand! In this era, it is definitely a large city. It is connected to the Gan Region to the north by a passage, which can transport important technological materials from the major human city-states in the downstream Yangtze River Area to the north, making it a key point on the trade route.

However, the merchant caravans of this city are no longer active. There is only one possible explanation: it is surrounded by unknown gene colonies, and humans are defending on the city walls. The humans in the traditional city-states of this world are different from Wei Keng.

Wei Keng's group of one hundred people was large enough to traverse the jungle. They could even open fire on Gene Colonies, continuously attacking their external targets. In the jungle environment, the telepathic communication rate between Wei Keng's individuals was enhanced, making them feel like a single entity. They wouldn't experience the fear of facing the jungle alone. Furthermore, Wei Keng could sense the enemy's position in the Northern Yue mountains through Life Radiation, effectively "seeing" danger. However, the merchant caravans here, if they made the slightest mistake in the jungle, would be surrounded by Giant Beasts, and even Life Radiation could destroy them.

He single-handedly destroyed four small Gene Colonies, then set fires, flooded areas, and forced back the medium-sized Gene Colonies in the region that dared to attack him, aside from himself. As a result, Wei Keng unconsciously overlooked something.

And now, Wei Keng had been prompted! A large city of sixty thousand people could be blockaded by Gene Radiation! The humans in this world were different from him; they lacked unified thought and determination.

Wei Keng couldn't help but recall his state immediately after arriving. What if he hadn't had determination? What would have happened?

After all, he hadn't forgotten the things from his previous life, which was why he collectively erupted when faced with threats.

Wei Keng couldn't help but hypothesize: "If I weren't so prone to sudden outbursts, perhaps we would have scattered. Of course, in that case, what would have been our fate here? The fact that a few individuals died in this world is a clear indication."

At this moment, Wei Keng felt a trace of confusion: "So, I wasn't wrong?" However, this question touched upon emotional scars, and he didn't want to think about it.

Now, Wei Keng's presence in this world was not just about leaving behind some Industrial Production facilities and management; it seemed there were also some answers that needed to be verified.

In various strongholds, within different factory buildings, the Wei Kengs all raised their arms thoughtfully! They looked at the blue veins beneath their skin...

Regarding blood exchange, the people who came to him did it once a month, but they basically avoided Wei Keng.

But now, Wei Keng was seriously considering whether he could integrate more with the local populace. He opened the system to inquire: "System, does my Gene Radiation have any effect on the people around me?"

Bai Linglu switched off the system's AI response and snatched the microphone to explain: "If the genetic gap between species is very small, mutual radiation is harmless. When different people's genes construct proteins, apart from the Embryonic Development and growth stages, differences between individuals are formed. However, after developing into adults, the endocrine system, muscle, and visceral tissues within each person's organization are within a fixed range based on different living habits. Therefore, although they are affected by your Life Radiation, this influence primarily regulates the Biological Clock and mental state, rather than Thought Replacement or Appearance Replacement."

Wei Keng was silent for a long time, then sighed: "So, in the eyes of the humans in this world, am I an anomaly?"

Bai Linglu: "If you don't break anything, then you might always be considered an anomaly in certain aspects."

After Wei Keng finished his conversation with (what he thought was) the system.

In various factories, Wei Keng walked towards the hired workers and said, "Everyone, let's sing a song."

"Unity is Strength..."

The song that had annoyed him during Military Training in his previous life was now his morale-boosting song in this world.