Book 3 Chapter 4

The best way to modify humans

"What's the method?"

Bilyeon, who pretended to think for a moment, grinned and said.

"Isn't it our task to think about that from now on?"

"In other words, you have no idea. How irresponsible."

Jang Hong chastised Bilyeon for his irresponsible and absurd idea.

"It's not like there's no method at all!"

Instantly, all eyes turned to Hyoryong. He had been skeptical earlier, but his thoughts seemed to have suddenly changed.

"When it comes to modification, changing physical reactions through drugs is the most promising. It's also the most feasible."

"Ah, right. You mean strengthening physical functions through drug administration?"

Jang Hong was indeed someone he could talk to. Hyoryong nodded and continued.

"Exactly. By continuously administering various drugs to the human body, observing the physical reactions, and changing the concentration, ratio, and components of the drugs. Of course, in this case, we would have to be prepared for numerous trials and errors. And physical abnormalities too…"

"But, but that's a bit scary."

Yun Junho's complexion turned noticeably pale, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He too possessed the discernment to distinguish between earnest talk and jokes. And, at this moment, his discernment and judgment were painfully clearly warning him that the words Hyoryong and Jang Hong were exchanging were serious.

"Scary? We'll use plenty of anesthetic, so there won't be much pain. You'll just wander around in dreams, intoxicated by the medicine. Of course, we must be careful about side effects and drug addiction."

Hyoryong, speaking about things that were terrifying to Yun Junho, the subject in question, with a serious face as if they were nothing special. His face was filled with the will to convey that he was being sincere and not joking.

"But with just our medical knowledge, wouldn't drug therapy for constitution improvement be a bit dangerous?"

Jang Hong raised a question about the obstacles likely to arise in the practical execution stage.

In fact, attempting human constitution improvement through drug therapy with such meager medical knowledge, which barely extends to applying wound medicine to simple cuts, lacerations, or contusions and loosely bandaging them, or applying a poultice to sprains or strains, was preposterous. If this went wrong, it would be an act worthy of being called murder.

"Well, you might lose a couple of senses, like your optic nerves becoming paralyzed, losing your sense of taste, or going deaf. If things go wrong and we assume the worst, perhaps one of your limbs will become crippled, or you'll be paralyzed from the waist down. In the absolute worst-case scenario, maybe full body paralysis, becoming a vegetable? I doubt you'd even die. It's no big deal, is it?"

Hyoryong said it in a truly nonchalant tone, as if he were describing an ordinary day's routine.

"No, it sounds like a very big deal. It feels extremely dangerous and scary."

"Hmm, you're greatly doubting the safety of this method then."

"How could I not doubt it?"

Jang Hong nodded understandingly and said.

"Frankly, for that problem, we should seek expert help. If we're talking about a master of drug therapy, it would be most reliable and certain to ask for the help of a researcher in developing poisonous humans or a researcher in developing zombies. Honestly, there are no others as knowledgeable as them about the correlation between drug administration and human biological changes. They are the top authorities in that field. Of course, they are extremely rare."

"Where can we find such rare people?"

Yun Junho, with a pale complexion, asked cautiously. His current heart's desire was that their plan would fail miserably because they couldn't find such rare people. However, his desperate hope was shattered, and he had to groan under the debris. The answer allowed no room for delay.

"Here!"

Jang Hong and Hyoryong pointed their index fingers at the floor simultaneously.

"Here?"

Bilyeon and Yun Junho also pointed at the floor in confusion, looking bewildered. Then Jang Hong explained confidently.

"Yes, here. We can find them immediately within Cheonmu Academy. Here, countless studies in all sorts of strange fields and the development of martial arts that would be considered bizarre outside are being conducted like grains of sand on the riverbank. We can find them here immediately."

Yun Junho shuddered, feeling a sense of dread at the glorious fact that he might make a significant contribution as an experimental subject to the research and development of poisonous humans or zombies.

His mind was filled with thoughts of how to escape this incredibly dangerous place – which was very exciting and stimulating for Bilyeon and his companions – to the point where other cognitive functions were completely paralyzed.

However, whether Hyoryong knew or pretended not to know Yun Junho's distressed state, he continued to elaborate on his thoughts. The plan was now moving beyond the realm of imagination and becoming increasingly concrete.

"When it comes to poisonous human research, it's the ultimate goal that anyone devoted to poison arts dreams of. The most famous researchers of poisonous humans currently would be Dang Gunhyeok, the 'Poisonous Hand, Heartless Doctor' of the Sachun Dang Family, and Pi Cheolha, the 'Evil Poison' of the Poison King Clan. These two are the most famous masters and rivals in the martial world for poison arts and research on poisonous humans. Since Pi Cheolha, the Evil Poison, is from the sinister faction, he's out of the question. Dang Gunhyeok, the Poisonous Hand, Heartless Doctor, and his followers are currently conducting research on poisonous humans here at Cheonmu Academy. I hear they also occasionally help Yakwangdang. A master of poison arts is also a master of medicine. Poison and medicine are separated by only a sheet of paper, and their origins are the same. If we ask him, improving constitution through drugs might not be impossible."

"What about zombie research?"

Jang Hong, who felt doubtful that Hyoryong was only talking about poisonous human research while setting aside zombie research, asked. His tone suggested that zombie research was not even on his radar.

"Ah, of course, there are researchers of zombies here. If you were to definitely find a place that conducts zombie research, it would probably be only Cheonmu Academy. If you did that sort of thing elsewhere, you would immediately be branded as a member of the sinister faction and beaten to death, and your sect would be destroyed or, at best, be sealed."

Yun Junho and Jang Hong nodded in agreement with his words. In the Central Plains society, where corpses were regarded with reverence and sanctity, zombie research – in the eyes of ordinary people – which played with corpses, was unlikely to be well-received.

The very idea of developing zombie techniques, initially combined with Taoist arts for the smooth transport of dead bodies, for combat and killing purposes, was inherently difficult to accept as justifiable. How could the act of violating and desecrating the bodies of the deceased be justified?

However, because zombie techniques offered excellent killing power and combat effectiveness for the investment, and had low maintenance costs, they were also a field that the sinister faction consistently researched. Therefore, the orthodox factions couldn't help but research zombies as well, even if they didn't want to. They couldn't afford to be unilaterally defeated with their eyes wide open. Thus, with the idea of knowing yourself and your enemy for victory in a hundred battles, Cheonmu Academy is probably the only place in the entire martial arts world where zombie research is officially tolerated.

"While zombie research is also proficient in the use of drugs on the human body, it's research conducted on dead bodies, whereas poisonous human research is a discipline studied on living humans. This difference is as vast as the distance between heaven and earth. So, unless you intend to turn Junho into a corpse, poisonous human research has much higher potential."

"I see. I hadn't thought of that point."

Jang Hong readily agreed with Hyoryong's words and nodded. They needed a living Yun Junho, not a dead corpse of Yun Junho.

Absurdly, they were attempting a method of human modification that was unprecedented, barbaric, unclear, and whose success rate was uncertain and incredibly dangerous.