Chapter 41: Chapter 40: Evolver, Breakfast, Willing to Serve
Father Su An’s gaze wandered between Lin Feng, Chen Shanshan, and Ah Lian, completely overlooking Liu Qian, who had come to help.
After all, she was merely a mid-level Level 6 Enhanced Human, with a long way to go before becoming an Evolver.
Lin Feng helped Chen Shanshan up from the chair.
Father Su An looked at the girl with some surprise:
"Although she’s already Level 9, she’s seriously injured and needs a period of rest to recover before starting her evolution when she’s in good condition."
"The evolution process can take up to half a day or as little as five to six hours, exhausting both Physique and Spirit greatly. Forcing an evolution in her current state poses a significant risk."
Upon hearing this, Lin Feng asked in puzzlement:
"Are the Evolution Agents different from Enhancers? Can’t she just drink it?"
Father Su An chuckled:
"If all it took was consuming the Evolutionary Meat from a Tier One Desolate Beast, extracting the pure Energy Liquid, and drinking it to achieve evolution, wouldn’t direct consumption also suffice for advancement? Why go through all the trouble to synthesize the Evolution Agent?"
Under everyone’s puzzled gaze, the priest explained:
"The transition from Enhanced People to Evolvers is a magnificent leap in life levels, more than just an improvement in quality."
"Humans achieving evolution become new humans, already separated from ordinary Enhanced People, known as Evolvers."
"However, natural evolution is extremely difficult, requiring survival through several mortal crises in desperate situations before there’s a chance for a breakthrough."
"But this passive evolution has a very low success rate and a high mortality rate and was eliminated early in ancient times."
"The earliest Evolutionary Pioneers discovered that consuming the flesh of Evolution Beasts also accelerated the internal blood circulation, akin to taking a stimulant, rapidly boosting Physique power and thereby breaking the limits of Enhanced People to become an Evolver."
Saying this, Father Su turned aside, looking toward the round glass window of the chapel:
"But the consequences of doing so are extremely severe."
"Unlike consuming Enhanced Meat in the Enhanced People stage, as a Level 9 Enhanced Person, consuming the flesh of a Tier One Evolved Desolate Beast is akin to injecting a large dose of beastual hormone into a toddler, forcibly accelerating his rapid growth."
"Consequences range from leaving numerous aftereffects, such as life overdrawn, lack of stamina, uncoordinated body to more severe issues, influencing brain function, inability to maintain concentration, neurological and mental health diseases, etc."
"Moreover, the result of evolution is not only related to the energy concentration in each type of Evolved Desolate Beast’s flesh but also to the individual’s Physique and adaptability."
"In short, directly ingesting Evolutionary Meat poses numerous negative impacts on the Enhanced People themselves, with equally high risks."
"Thankfully, after years of research, humanity has successfully explored and optimized a complete set of evolution-modification surgeries, simplified into a potion injection model."
"And the technology for synthesizing and refining Evolution Agents is exclusively held by one of the Three Great Families of the Oasis, the Li Family, notably in Nongzhuang Village, and the Church."
"The Li Family’s refining technology comes from the breeding of Rock-Horned Horses, the refinement of Tier One Rock-Horned Horses."
"While we rely on the blessings of the Undying Saint’s Holy Spring, capable of cleansing the impurities in Mutated Desolate Beasts’ flesh, leaving only the purest Evolution Factor."
"Inject it, and you can achieve safe and stable evolution."
As soon as this was said, a bell quietly rang in Holy Spring Village.
Father Su An then bowed his head, drawing the prayer ritual of the Holy Spring Sect with his fingers on his chest,
lightly drawing circles and crosses.
While whispering:
"Praise the Holy Spring..."
Lin Feng and the others, unfamiliar with the Church, hurriedly mimicked Chen Shanshan beside them, bowing their heads in silent prayer.
As the chime of bells concluded three times, after brief prayers, Father Su An raised his head again, inviting:
"It’s breakfast time. We need to rest for a while before injecting the Evolution Agent. This time, you all helped greatly and are guests of the Church. Let’s have a meal together."
Lin Feng and the others looked at each other. The word "breakfast" seemed extremely foreign to them.
Though they had become affluent, they hadn’t become so extravagant as to eat breakfast every early morning.
If there’s no task in the morning, it’s mostly spent resting.
Usually, either eating before combat or waiting until hungry to eat, living outside for long makes it difficult to form regular meal habits, and they had accustomed to saving.
With Father Su An leaving, they looked at Lin Feng, who shrugged:
"Let’s go. There’s no harm in eating; it’ll be interesting to see how the food at Holy Spring Village is!"
The group followed the cultist a few steps behind Father Su An, leaving the chapel to the outside and walking into a row of houses converted from shipping containers on the right.
Outside these houses hung the words "Dining Hall," consisting of five vehicles, five sections of freight compartments.
Following Father Su An, they entered the last section into a compartment filled with children under ten years old.
The five-meter-wide compartment held two rows of tables, each table a meter wide, with chairs spaced every half meter.
A fifteen-meter freight compartment could accommodate 120 people simultaneously.
By this calculation, the kitchen with five freight sections could supply meals for 600 people.
Thus, it could roughly be estimated that Holy Spring Village’s population wasn’t large.
Most of them were children who came to study and learn.
The actual clergy combined with guards might only number around a hundred.
There was a big difference compared to the other Three Major Villages and the Deserters of Fifth Village.
The tail section of the compartment’s tables was not fully seated, with a third of the space empty, 30 to 40 seats.
Lin Feng and the group followed Father Su An, stepping inside and finding seats at the end of the line where the children sat in rows.
These children differed significantly from the elementary school students in everyone’s impression.
They were extremely quiet before eating.
No whispering and yelling, nor scratching and looking around.
It was likely the Church’s pre-meal etiquette.
Lin Feng thought.
Altogether a quiet dining environment, the mood lightens a lot, perfectly enhancing recent thoughts.
Through Father Su An’s introduction, Lin Feng quickly perceived two hidden factual pieces from the background of the Evolution Agent’s development.
Firstly, the synthesis and usage technology of the Evolution Agent is actually controlled by the upper echelon of the Oasis.
Secondly, to obtain the Evolution Agent and become an Evolver, one needs to gain their approval.
Whether by forming relationships, or Hunters exchanging bounty order rewards and Points to seize the chance for evolution...
One must submit to the extant governing order of the Oasis.
In other words, you must first prove your strength to the Three Great Families of the Oasis and the Church, then through affiliations or declarations of allegiance, truly earn the chance for evolution.
And should there be refusal, the consequences are imaginable.
Lin Feng heard the priest’s implicit message, yet it didn’t deter him from making choices.
In this barren and desolate Wasteland World, strong centralized governance is precisely necessary to maintain long-term stable order.
And defying order,
naturally, comes with corresponding costs.
As a food-laden tricycle parked at the back of the compartment dining hall, two Female Cultivators ladled a pot of white porridge from the food buckets.
The children inside the compartment stood one by one and queued orderly, accepting the full plates handed by the female cultivators from the innermost to the outermost.
As they were guests, coupled with the presence of Reverend, the Female Cultivators proactively delivered five servings of breakfast to Lin Feng’s group.
Lin Feng looked down to see a starch porridge made from plant tubers, filled with thin meat shreds, along with each person being served ten orange-red Sea Buckthorn Fruits.
A bowl of over half a pound of meat porridge with post-meal fruit, Lin Feng remembered never having eaten so well in his previous life.
After the breakfast distribution, before moving the spoon, came the customary gratitude prayer ceremony.
Everyone interlocked their fingers, holding them before their chest:
"Praise the Holy Spring!"
After a simple ceremony, they began eating breakfast.
Lin Feng impatiently picked up a spoon, tasting the warm meat porridge.
"Good taste, right? Come often if you get the chance."
Across Lin Feng, Father Su smiled as he spoke.
Lin Feng paused momentarily, then replied:
"Reverend, we would like to serve the Church."
"Hope you can intervene to handle miscellanies outside concerning Nongzhuang Village..."