"In order to study whether ordinary people would have any special reactions after eating Yaobikuni's flesh, Nobuhide cut off Yaobikuni's skin and flesh and let the experimenters eat it."
As soon as Xuan Zheng finished speaking, the carriages of the "Asai Car" and the "Shimada Car" fell into a very brief silence...
"Let the experimenters...swallow the flesh and skin of eight hundred nuns?" Finally, it was Ating who asked in an incredulous tone.
"It means exactly what it says." Xuan Zheng laughed, "Eight hundred nuns ate mermaid meat and gained immortality."
"What will happen if we eat the skin and flesh of the eight hundred nuns who ate the mermaid?"
"Nobuhide is eager to know the answer."
"It's so easy to find experimenters."
"There are many humiliated people who are regarded as untouchables and ignored by everyone. It is easy to capture a large number of experiment subjects."
[Note: Eta: The untouchable class in Japan during the Edo period, who could only do very low-end labor, is mentioned in Volume 5 of this book.]
"Nobuhide managed to capture some Eta and forced them to eat the flesh of Yaobikuni."
Xuan Zheng then showed his little finger to everyone.
"This experiment... encountered both great success and great difficulties right from the start."
"Just by feeding the flesh of eight hundred bhikkhunis the size of the experimenter's fingertips, the swallower will have extremely strong recovery abilities and his physical fitness will be greatly enhanced."
"However, perhaps it is because what he swallowed was the flesh of Yaobikuni, not real mermaid flesh, so he did not have strong recovery ability like Yaobikuni described in the ancient book, so that he could not die."
"If the brain is damaged, or if too much damage is inflicted in a short period of time, death will still occur."
"But even so, this is also extremely exciting good news for Nobuhide."
"However... the joy didn't last long before difficulties arose."
…
…
"No matter who they are, male or female, strong or weak, anyone who eats the skin and flesh of eight hundred nuns will eventually vomit blood and die suddenly without exception."
Toyotomi Nobuhide sighed softly, as if recalling some depressing memory.
"The person who died the fastest died not long after eating the skin and flesh of the eight hundred bhikkhunis."
"If I can't use the 'power of immortality' for myself, then what's the point of me finding the eight hundred nuns?"
"So, I picked up the ancient book again."
The frustration on Toyotomi Nobuhide's face disappeared, returning to that intriguing smile.
"Isn't it clearly written in that ancient book? The Eight Hundred Bhikkhuni took the medicine made from the prescription given by the witch doctor of the Tang Dynasty, and successfully suppressed the 'immortal power' in her body, allowing herself to die smoothly."
"I'm guessing: the reason why he died suddenly after eating the flesh of the Eight Hundred Bhikkhunis is that the human body cannot withstand the strong 'power of immortality'?"
"Just like people will feel sick if they take a medicine that is too strong."
"After all, this is the flesh of Yaobikuni, not real mermaid meat. It's not a 'formal' way to obtain 'immortality'."
"Then - if I try to reproduce this medicine and let the experimenter eat this medicine together with the flesh of the Eight Hundred Bhikkhunis, can I suppress the 'power of immortality' to a level that the human body can withstand, so that the ordinary person can smoothly absorb the 'power of immortality'?"
"The contents of the prescription are roughly mentioned in that ancient book."
"Although it is a little incomplete, it is enough to try to restore this prescription."
"For this, I tried to find all the famous doctors I could find."
…
…
"Nobuhide spent several years to restore this prescription."
Xuanzheng laughed a few times again.
"It was under the recommendation of Master Xianyuan that Xuanzhi and I joined the Toyotomi clan and participated in the research on the 'power of immortality'."
"Before I joined the Toyotomi clan, I had many acquaintances in Koyasan and Koyacho, so I was often invited from Kyoto to Koyasan or Koyacho to treat the people there."
"After a few visits, I became familiar with Master Xianyuan without realizing it. Because of this, I was valued by Master Xianyuan and was introduced to Nobuhide by him."
At this point, a look of reminiscence slowly emerged on Xuan Zheng's face.
He seemed to recall some beautiful past, and the gloomy smile on his face turned into a joyful smile.
"After joining the Toyotomi clan and seeing the 'power of immortality' with my own eyes, I felt for the first time that this world is indeed vast."
"In places you don't know, there may be something indescribable lurking that can instantly shatter all your past common sense."
"'Immortal Power' - I have exhausted all my past knowledge, but I still cannot explain the source and principle of this mysterious power."
"After seeing with my own eyes how incredible the 'power of immortality' is, there is only one thought left in my mind: I want to spend the rest of my life studying the 'power of immortality'."
"So, I pulled Gennao with me almost without hesitation and agreed to join Toyotomi and work for Nobuhide."
"Nobuhide summoned all the doctors he could. He spared no expense and invested unimaginable manpower and material resources to restore the formula."
…
…
"To conduct experiments on the 'power of immortality', a large number of people are needed to carry out the experiments."
"So, I asked Master Xianyuan to help me collect the experimental subjects."
At this time, Toyotomi Nobuhide sat cross-legged on the ground so that his eyes were level with Lin again.
"Xiao Lin, you should understand, right? It's more convenient to entrust these monks with kidnapping. After all, they are professionals in this area."
"Otherwise, Takano-sei's reputation wouldn't be so bad."
[Note: Koyasan monks who traveled around the country to spread their faith. Many Koyasan monks were swindlers, so this group has a bad reputation.]
"Master Xianyuan used his connections and dispatched all the monks he could to help."
"Because Koyasan is located in Kansai, Master Xianyuan and his men mainly help me collect experimental subjects in Kansai."
"At first, we looked for those Eta who wouldn't be noticed by many people even if they disappeared."
"After that, it became difficult to capture more evil spirits, so we had to start with ordinary civilians."
"Oh, by the way - Master Xianyuan also helped me get a lot of helpers to help me collect experimental subjects."
"for example--"
Toyotomi Nobuhide sneered at Lin in front of him.
"The abbot of Nara Honzoji Temple: Yunhe. He is the old monk who made you a wanted man."
Hearing this familiar temple name and this familiar person's name, Lin's eyes twitched uncontrollably.
"Yunhe and Master Xianyuan are close friends. After all, Nara and Koyasan are very close."
"After Master Xianyuan persuaded Yunhe to come to help Toyotomi, Yunhe has given me all his help."
"Not only did they use the temple's facilities to help me collect a lot of experimental subjects, but they also helped me gain a foothold in Japan."
"When I first met Yunhe, I didn't have many bases in Japan, and I hadn't yet established a stable and large-scale base in Japan."
"When I officially established a base in Japan, Yunhe used his connections to help me a lot."
"He even said that he wanted to give me their temple treasure: Enma, which was said to have been one of Taiko Hideyoshi's hidden swords."
"I have a lot of good knives on hand, and I don't want to owe him too many favors. So I declined his offer of the knife."
"Yunhe really helped me a lot, and I returned the favor by giving Yunhe a lot of good things."
"Yunhe is a bit lustful. Before he even met me, he had already started to secretly abduct and imprison beautiful girls for his own enjoyment."
"So I gave him some nice stuff."
"Besides that... I also helped him become immortal."
…
…
"In the end, Nobuhide managed to successfully restore the prescription bit by bit according to the records in the ancient book."
"Nobuhide named this pill that can suppress the 'power of immortality' - 'Henryamaru'."
"...I see, so this is the origin of the 'Henwakamaru'..." Ogata, who had been a quiet listener, suddenly interrupted and said, "After restoring the 'Henwakamaru', you immediately developed the improved No. 2 Maru and No. 3 Maru, right?"
"Wow... You even know about the A-Maru and the B-Maru. That's right, according to that ancient book, the first restored Henrakumaru can successfully suppress the 'power of immortality', but the suppression effect is quite ordinary. Even if you eat it, few people can successfully absorb the 'power of immortality'."
"Nobuhide named this initial Henwakamaru 'A-Maru' and asked for further research on Henwakamaru with better effects based on 'A-Maru'."
“So, Pill B, Pill C, and Pill D were developed one after another.”
…
…
"I am a person who never hesitates to help my friends."
"When we had just successfully developed the C-pill, Yunhe was diagnosed with an incurable disease - hemoptysis."
[Note: Bloody cough: refers to tuberculosis. Before the advent of antibiotics, tuberculosis was an incurable disease.]
"There is no medicine to cure the bloody cough."
"Yunhe has helped me so much, I can't bear to watch him die like this."
"Besides... we have never experimented to see whether the 'power of immortality' can cure terminal illnesses in the human body."
"So, I gave the skins and flesh of the eight hundred bhikkhunis and the Binghao pill to Yunhe."
"Anyway, if I don't do anything, Yun He will definitely die, so I might as well give it a try."
"Ha, this matter is also a secret among us Toyotomi clan."
"Only a very few people know that I also gave the skin, flesh and pills of Binghao to Yunhe Yaobai Bhikkhuni."
"I didn't have much hope that Yunhe could successfully absorb the 'power of immortality'."
"Although the ability of the C-pill to suppress the 'power of immortality' is far superior to that of the A-pill and the B-pill, there are still only a few people who can successfully absorb the 'power of immortality' after swallowing the C-pill."
"Unexpectedly, Yunhe survived."
"He has an old body with a terminal illness, but he was able to successfully absorb the 'power of immortality'."
"After successfully absorbing the 'power of immortality', Yunhe's bloody cough miraculously healed."
"Yunhe's success story tells us that whether or not one can successfully absorb the 'power of immortality' is not related to physical fitness, but to physical constitution, and that the 'power of immortality' can indeed help eliminate diseases in the human body."
"After learning that Yun He successfully absorbed the 'power of immortality', I wanted to summon Yun He and have my doctors carefully study this rare 'person who successfully absorbed immortality'."
"But I didn't expect that only half a month after Yunhe was reborn, you suddenly appeared, killed Yunhe, and destroyed the Benxiang Temple."
"Xiao Lin, you caused me to lose an important friend..."
Although Toyotomi Nobuhide said this, there was no anger on his face. He just smiled bitterly and shrugged with regret.
…
…
"Nobuhide's goal is to develop a Henwakamaru that has a high success rate in absorbing the 'Power of Immortality', while also allowing the absorber to have strong recovery and physical fitness at the same time."
"So, although the success rate of absorption of Dinghao Pills is extremely high, it cannot make the absorber have a strong physical quality. It only has recovery ability. Moreover, this recovery ability will become weaker and weaker over time until it disappears. In Nobuhide's eyes, it is naturally unqualified."
"The development of Dinghao Pill can be considered a failure."
"But... Nobuhide did not ask us to continue developing the Henwakamaru."
"It's not that Nobuhide doesn't want a more effective Henwakamaru."
"It's because I can no longer continue to research the 'power of immortality'."
Xuan Zheng let out a low laugh that seemed to be mocking himself.
"After so many years of research, the eight hundred nuns' slices of meat...are almost running out ."
Xuan Zheng raised his right hand and touched his neck.
"When Dinghaowan was successfully developed, only the part above the neck of Yaobikuni's body remained."
"The eight hundred nuns are running out of extra meat for our experiments."
"So after the success of the Dinghao Maru, Nobuhide ordered all the experimental sites for researching the 'power of immortality' to be destroyed and all the test subjects to be cleared out."
"Only the Ding-No. Field, which was responsible for the Ding-No. Pill experiment, was attacked by unknown persons on the day of destruction, causing a small number of experimental subjects to escape. Fortunately, most of the escaped experimental subjects were caught and successfully cleaned up."
Chu Guang, who was sitting in the "Shimada car" and was the instigator of the "attack on Dinghao Field", subconsciously gritted his teeth at this moment.
After hearing what Xuan Zheng had just said, everyone present, without exception, had an unpleasant look on their faces.
For the so-called experiment, a person's body below the neck was cut into tens of thousands of pieces, and the body below the neck was eaten completely...
This kind of thing has exceeded the imagination of Ogata and others.
"Since we can no longer conduct experiments on the 'power of immortality' and research new and better Henwakamaru, Nobuhide can only use the best C-number pill among all the Henwakamaru currently available to allow his trusted subordinates to obtain the 'power of immortality'."
"He had many of his subordinates eat Yaobikuni's meat slices and Binghaowan, but in the end, only Yoshihisa, Lao Furen, and Zuoemon succeeded in absorbing the 'power of immortality'."
"After the research on Henwakamaru was stopped, the research on the 'power of immortality' was also completely stopped ."
"And this... was also the fuse that led to the breakup between Nobuhide and I."
Xuan Zheng slowly lowered his head and then laughed at himself again.
"It was for the purpose of studying the 'power of immortality' that I decided to join the Toyotomi clan and serve Nobuhide."
"Now you tell me: Don't study the 'power of immortality' anymore. What does this mean?"
"So, when I learned that the research on the 'power of immortality' had been suspended, I immediately ran over and had a big fight with Nobuhide."
"Eight hundred bhikkhunis still have one head left, and can sustain research activities for about another month."
"I asked Nobuhide to give it one last try. Maybe in this last month, we can make a huge breakthrough in the research of 'immortality power'."
"But Toyotomi was not moved at all by my proposal."
"Finally, because I refused to give in, the Toyotomi clan, who were extremely angry with me, imprisoned me in the prison of Koyasan."
"… This is how you and Nobuhide got together." Ogata said, "So – you agreed to help us for free just to get revenge on Toyotomi Nobuhide?"
"That's right!" Xuanzheng suddenly raised his head, widened his eyes, and raised his voice by an unknown degree, "I worked for Nobuhide just to study the 'power of immortality'!"
"I can tolerate him speaking ill of me!"
"I can tolerate him putting me in jail!"
"But I can't tolerate him stopping his research on the 'power of immortality'!"
"Studying the 'power of immortality' thoroughly is my ideal, even if it takes me the rest of my life to achieve it."
"For this, I even abandoned the disciple whom I have always treated as my own son!"
"But Nobuhide treated me like this!"
"Let me ask you - if it were you, what would you do?"
"Are you going to swallow your anger in silence?"
"Or should we fight back to the best of our ability?"
Xuan Zheng gritted his teeth, flames of resentment burning in his eyes.
"Although I am just a weak doctor, I also know the principle of 'an eye for an eye'!"
"Humph..." Asai, who was in charge of driving and always had a foul mouth, sneered very blatantly, "This is such a common excuse..."
"...We now understand why you are willing to help us." Genichi said solemnly, "Now... can you tell us in detail about using Xiaolin as a human pillar?"
"Ah, this..."
The strong look of resentment that was originally on Yu Xuanzheng's face slowly dissipated, and his expression slowly turned back into that extremely uncomfortable smile.
"While researching the 'Henwakamaru', we made... another unexpected discovery."
"Whether or not he successfully absorbed the 'power of immortality', his body will decay like a normal person and return to nature, but the speed of decay will be much slower than that of a normal person."
"In a very accidental situation, we discovered that - perhaps because they did not use the formal method to obtain the 'power of immortality', all the people who died suddenly after eating the flesh of the eight hundred bhikkhunis, their bodies would turn into a terrible... 'poison'."
"If their bodies were thrown into the water and ordinary people were allowed to drink the contaminated water, they would become insane, extremely aggressive monsters with terrifying recovery abilities."
"Because after turning into such a monster, both eyes will turn purple, so we call this kind of monster 'purple eyes'."
"When Nobuhide learned about this, he immediately asked us to investigate it."
"After investigation, it was determined that only by throwing their bodies into the water could such destructive power be produced."
"Whether it was buried in the ground, exposed in the wild, or burned, there was no abnormality."
"We speculate that the bodies of those who died suddenly after eating the flesh of the Eight Hundred Bhikkhunis turned into such a terrible 'poison'. It is very likely that the human body failed to absorb the 'immortal power', which caused the 'immortal power' to undergo a special mutation when it combined with the human body."
"Because we have tried to sink the bodies of those who have successfully absorbed the 'power of immortality' into the water, and then let ordinary people drink the contaminated water, but these people did not turn into purple eyes."
"Only the bodies of those who failed to absorb the 'power of immortality' will pollute the water."
"The purple eyes have no mind, and their physical fitness has not been enhanced, but their recovery ability and their blood are very terrifying."
"Anyone who accidentally lets Zimu's blood enter their body will vomit blood and die - the symptoms are exactly the same as those of someone who failed to absorb the 'power of immortality'."
"So we conclude that Zimu is a monster that has been contaminated by the mutated 'power of immortality'."
"They have the mutated 'power of immortality' in their bodies, so their symptoms are so special."
"But the Purple Eyes are, after all, a defective product of the 'Power of Immortality'."
"In our research, we found that the purple-eyed creature still has many fatal weaknesses."
"Their first weakness: They are afraid of absorbing the blood of those who have achieved the 'Power of Immortality'."
"To put it simply - if you smear the blood of people who have successfully absorbed the 'power of immortality' such as Yoshihisa, the branded woman, and Saemon on a weapon, and then use such a weapon to attack Murasakime, the injuries Murasakime suffers from this weapon will not recover."
"As for the principle behind this... we guess that it's because the orthodox 'immortality power' can suppress this mutated 'immortality power'. It's similar to 'fighting poison with poison'."
"And the second weakness of the Purple Eyes... and also their most fatal weakness, is that they don't live long."
"According to our research, the average lifespan of purple-eyed creatures is basically only four years. After four years, all purple-eyed creatures, without exception, will die of organ failure."
"The symptoms of death are exactly the same as those of a person who has died of natural causes at the end of his life span."
"We speculate that this is related to the human body's inability to withstand the mutated 'immortal power'."
"However - although the Purple Eyes are just a defective product of the 'Power of Immortality', Nobuhide still developed a strong interest in the Purple Eyes."
"Therefore, Nobuhide decided to do a bold experiment: if a river is polluted, can the people who depend on this river for their livelihood be turned into 'purple eyes'?"
"then……"
"So you chose to carry out this experiment on Chou Island in Kii." Ogata took over Genzheng's words and answered for him.
Xuanzheng seemed to be used to the fact that Ogata and the others knew a lot of things. He just laughed a few times and then continued:
"That's right. We chose to conduct this experiment on Butterfly Island."
"I happened to be very interested in Zimu at that time, so I took Xuanzhi and went to Die Island under a pseudonym."
"For the sake of convenience, we call this kind of corpse used to pollute the water source a 'human pillar'."
"The person chosen to conduct experiments on Butterfly Island is a girl."
"We will dump the girl's body into the upper reaches of the river where the residents of Butterfly Island depend on for survival, and then wait for the results of the experiment."
"As a result, I didn't expect that - not long after the experiment began, I suddenly learned that the C-type test site in Ezo, which was dedicated to the development of the C-type Maru, had been a great success and the C-type Maru had been successfully developed."
"Oh, I forgot to mention that at that time, Pill C and Pill D had not yet been developed. The Butterfly Island experiment and the development of Pill C were carried out simultaneously."
"I was eager to see what the C-Maru looked like, so I asked Nobuhide to allow me to go to the C-Experimental Site in Ezo, and let someone else continue to observe the experiments on Choujima."
"At that time, Nobuhide and I were still very close, so Nobuhide quickly gave me a reply and allowed me to go to the No. C test site to observe the experiment."
"So I took Xuanzhi and left Die Island in a hurry and rushed to Ezo."
"However... when we first arrived at Ezo, Xuanzhi... suddenly abandoned me."
After hearing about Gennao's current situation from Ogata, the complicated expression that had appeared once on Genmao's face appeared again on his face at this moment.
"At that time... I had actually already noticed that Xuan Zhi's mental condition was not very good... But... I hoped that he could stay with me and study the 'Power of Immortality' with me."
"After I found out that Xuan Zhi had suddenly left, I tried to find him once."
"But it was no use. After we found him once, he ran away again immediately."
"In the end, I just gave up and let him do what he wanted to do."
"Oh, sorry, I seem to have strayed from the topic."
After Xuanzheng mocked himself for a while, he continued:
"The experiment on Butterfly Island can be said to be a great success."
"After drinking the polluted river water, all the residents of Butterfly Island turned purple-eyed."
"This result... can be said to have surprised Nobuhide."
"Because he finally found...a way to easily defeat the Edo Shogunate."
"Do you know Kanda Josui?"
"Two hundred years ago, when the Edo Shogunate was first established, in order to build the shogunate into a large city that could easily accommodate a million people, the shogunate used the Inokashira Pond as a water source and collected the water from the pond and brought it to the foot of Edo Castle."
“This waterway was named Kandajosui.”
"All the people in Edo get their daily water from Kandajosui."
"Having witnessed the great success of the Choujima experiment, Nobuhide formulated a battle plan which he named the 'Edo Battle'."
“The content of this plan is not complicated.”
"Throw the human pillar into the Kanda River and make the ruling center of the Edo Shogunate directly like Choujima."
Although he had heard Gensho's rough explanation of what the "Edo Battle" was when he was on Mount Koya before, Ogata couldn't help but feel a chill in his teeth after hearing these words again.
"Then what's the purpose of throwing the lord into the Kanda River as a human pillar?!" The impatient Asai couldn't help but yell, "From what you just said, it shouldn't matter who becomes the human pillar, right?!"
"Hmm... well..."
The smile on Xuan Zheng’s face…slowly became weird.
"The reason is very simple..."
…
…
"...Did you go to so much trouble to capture me just to use me as a 'human pillar' and throw me into the Kanda Jomizu?!" Lin growled at Nobuhide.
"Yes." Nobuhide smiled and nodded very frankly: "Because... think about it - compared to throwing some irrelevant people into Kanda Josui, it is obviously more appropriate to throw someone who has a deep connection with our Toyotomi clan into Kanda Josui."
"After all, it would be more meaningful for us Toyotomi people to launch a sharp counterattack against the Edo Shogunate, right?"
"This way, there will be a sense of historical beauty!"
After saying that, Nobuhide showed Lin a very bright smile.
This sunny look was just like what he had just said to Lin: "Sister, happy birthday to you, I love you."