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Chapter 134: Black Crow

After completing the detailed body scans of the contestants sent into the repair pods, Bai Mo, supported by his spiritual sense, began performing minimally invasive surgeries on multiple contestants simultaneously, excising a portion of the Spirit Hubs from within their bodies.

Bai Mo had already experimented with similar surgeries numerous times on the prisoners sent to him previously, so he could always precisely control the excised amount, ensuring that the experimental subjects' abilities remained largely unaffected after the surgery.

Each contestant entering the repair pod would stay inside for twelve hours. Excluding the first hour for repair and two hours for body data scanning, he was left with only a brief nine hours for surgery. It was fortunate that he had become skilled enough to perform multi-threaded operations, controlling scalpels with his psychokinesis to conduct multiple surgeries simultaneously, otherwise performing hundreds of surgeries in a single day would be an utterly impossible task.

Moreover, due to the randomness of the draws on the first day, the combat power between opponents was often vastly disparate, and most matches concluded very quickly, often within a few minutes. In the ten-plus hours of daylight, nearly two thousand matches were held across fifty arenas.

"Hello, I'm Secretary He, Mr. Cheng's secretary. Mr. Cheng asked me to inquire how many Xuanhuang Fruits can be made from the Spirit Hub samples obtained today?" Just as he finished the most recent surgeries, such a voice sounded in Bai Mo's earphone.

"Around seventy. The main reason is that we can't let the contestants grow suspicious; many of the Spirit Hubs must retain most of their original mass, which means there isn't enough material to create a complete Xuanhuang Fruit."

"Seventy a day. With so many days of competition left, reaching the target of five hundred shouldn't be a problem."

"They still dare to eat Xuanhuang Fruits after knowing how they're made? That's not much different from eating people," Bai Mo chuckled from his end.

"Mr. Bai, you jest," Secretary He replied with a laugh. "As the leaders themselves said, this society has always been one where people 'eat' people; it's just that before, they only 'ate' people's surplus value. To avoid being eaten, one must stand at the top of the food chain."

"Yes, Mr. Bai."

"Hua Taishan's path seems viable as well. If the cultivation of spiritual will is the main focus, then there truly isn't a need to learn relevant natural science knowledge from scratch. The further one progresses on the path of Spirit Hub cultivation, the higher the demands for knowledge become. Developing Spirit Arts corresponding to Spirit Hubs requires extensive knowledge reserves, a deep understanding of the human body, physics, chemistry, and even Spirit Qi and Spirit Energy themselves. These knowledge requirements restrict the ascent of the vast majority of people."

After hanging up the phone, Bai Mo recalled the conversation Hua Taishan and Hua Changjiang had on the main stage that morning. They hadn't expected that Bai Mo, sitting hundreds of meters away in the medical zone, would actually be able to hear their discussion.

"The method of strengthening the Life Field itself through the cultivation of spiritual will is good, but the crucial problem still lies in the method of cultivating will. For something so intangible and elusive, strengthening it through training is simply too difficult."

After a few minutes of thought, he decided to put such matters aside for now. For him, a materialistic researcher, something as idealistic as 'will' was simply too ethereal; it was better to focus on the surgeries at hand.

He remained busy until three in the morning. Only after finishing with the last contestant who had been sent over in the evening did Bai Mo finally have time to step out of the medical room where he had spent the entire day.

Since the medical room concealed numerous secrets, it was naturally guarded by several teams of Central Government exclusive guards, stationed at every corner. As he watched these guards, who worked three shifts around the clock, continuously watching over a vast amount of wealth that wasn't their own, a faint sigh of emotion rose in his heart.

However, the sentiment lasted only a few seconds. After exchanging greetings with them, Bai Mo walked out of the medical zone and began to wander around.

"It's only been a few months since returning from Italy. Before I left, there were probably no more than fifty Ability Users with Life Fields in the entire Huaxia. But today, during the competition, hundreds of contestants alone were covered in these 'big turtle shells.'"

During the opening ceremony today, he had roughly scanned all the contestants with his spiritual sense and discovered that several individuals seemed to be faintly able to sense his probing. In terms of pure power, he no longer held much advantage; after all, his primary ability wasn't combat-oriented.

"Excuse me, are you a contestant too?" A large man in sunglasses appeared behind Bai Mo, asking in not-quite-standard Chinese.

Bai Mo had noticed him earlier but, seeing that he was also out for a stroll, simply didn't bother with him, though he was a bit curious why someone would wear sunglasses at three in the morning.

"No, I'm a medical staff member. Just got off work," he replied with a smile.

"My intuition tells me you're very strong. Why aren't you participating in the competition? Why choose to be a doctor instead?"

"Why should I participate? Compared to fighting, I still prefer to quietly read a book," Bai Mo countered.

"Because only through battle can one know who is the strongest!"

"What if you become the strongest? If everyone already believes you're the strongest, do you still need to prove yourself through battle?"

"Are you implying... that you believe you are already the strongest? Heheheh..." The large man in sunglasses grinned sinisterly. "Then I'll just have to experience that for myself." He began to loosen his joints, causing the surrounding air to crackle and pop.

"I seem to hear faint mechanical whirring from your body. Have you undergone such modifications?" Bai Mo asked, his face expressionless, as he faced the over two-meter tall man.

The man in sunglasses hadn't expected the person before him to suddenly ask such an unconventional question. He had assumed the other party only had two options: either fight or cower, so he froze for a moment upon hearing it.

"It seems you have indeed undergone human mechanization. That also appears to be a very interesting direction; unfortunately, I've been too busy lately to open new research topics." He continued to speak of unrelated matters. "If there's an opportunity, could you introduce the research organization behind you to me?"

"Oh, by the way, what's your name?" Bai Mo realized he often forgot to ask for someone's name first when conversing with them.

"My name is Black Crow! And I'm the one who's about to knock you flat!" Black Crow's patience seemed to have run out. The warlike man could barely restrain himself.

"Let's communicate using mental waves instead; speaking is too slow." With that, Bai Mo directly transmitted the method of communication via mental waves to Black Crow.

"It's truly comfortable without the barrier of language. To repay you for providing this method of communication, I will go all out."

"Are you sure fighting medical personnel won't get you disqualified from the competition?" Bai Mo chuckled.

"What does it matter? I'm only here to fight strong people. The weaklings I encountered today? I could take out a hundred of them with one hand! It was completely boring! Fighting someone strong like you is what truly gets me going!" As soon as he finished speaking, Black Crow's already significantly bulging muscles became even more explosive. His entire aura almost solidified into a tangible form, pressing down on Bai Mo like an unstoppable blade.