Above The Sky
Chapter 237 - 237 225 Teratoma Deformity 24

237: Chapter 225 Teratoma Deformity (2/4) 237: Chapter 225 Teratoma Deformity (2/4) “Is there an intelligent life form that can use fire, natives left over from the Holy Ground in the past?”

Without surprise, Ian glanced at the Iron coffin.

The fluid inside the Iron coffin was not static, but undulating rhythmically, with many blurry objects tumbling inside, giving off a nauseating thick greasy feeling.

Ian walked forward, approached the glass partition of the Iron coffin, and observed it from above and below.

At the top of the outermost coffin, he saw a line of Inscriptions that were somewhat difficult to make out.

[Temporary Cultivation Chamber]

Beneath it there was a block of rough text probably manually engraved with tools, hard to discern in full.

[Due to…lack of biomass…various departments…corpse…forgive…future…]

The signs of decay were very heavy, if it were not for Ian’s Silver Chip’s analysis and inference, he probably wouldn’t even be able to make out these few words.

“Cultivation Chamber…

What were the people of the ruins cluster cultivating here?

Wasn’t this supposed to be a space development base?”

Ian’s expression unchanged, the Spirit Energy Radiance lit up in his eyes, and the auxiliary perception system of the Silver Chip also enhanced his vision, allowing him to see clearly through the black water in the Cultivation Chamber.

Then he saw hair.

Dense like seaweed, mingled with a plethora of fingernails, teeth, bones, bizarre Flesh and Blood aggregates, and deformed internal organs…

Hair!

Inside the Cultivation Chamber was a thick tangle of various colored hairs, along with an assortment of organs, tissue, keratin layers, and calcified limbs composing complex components.

These components roughly assembled into a humanoid form, and at the center of this figure, a heart was even beating.

In other words, these disorganized organs were actually alive!

If it were a native of Terra, they would surely feel fear or even incredulity at this bizarre situation.

But Ian just slightly furrowed his brows: “Teratoma?”

“So many hairs and fingernails, is it a dermoid cyst?”

Teratomas are a peculiar type of tumor, to put it simply, a tumor where many seemingly normal organs and tissues grow, not limited to hair, bones, glands, and teeth, etc.

Of course, fibrous layers of fat, keratin nails, and cartilage are also not rare, in short, teratomas can have nearly anything, including eyes, fingers, and even miniature limbs, though the latter are much less common compared to hair and teeth.

Dermoid cysts are a more common symptom, which are cysts filled with hair.

And the rarer teratomas can even produce spinal cords and complete organ systems, hearts and blood vessels, even torsos and limbs — almost like an embryo.

Although Ian was an engineer, on Earth before transmigration, the Cyborg Retrofitting rate was astonishingly high, thus most engineers also had some basic medical knowledge, otherwise adjusting Cyber Retrofitting for others would be clueless.

When the human body becomes a part of mechanical engineering, medicine and mechanics begin to merge.

Of course, normally, teratomas are encapsulated within a membrane of tumor tissue, obviously not filling up an entire Cultivation Chamber with body parts… but if the entire Cultivation Chamber is regarded as a whole membrane, it is not entirely unacceptable.

Such a thing would not scare Ian, it merely struck him as odd: “What are they cultivating a teratoma for in the Cultivation Chamber?”

“Or is it that their cultivation base mutated, and then there was no one to manage it…”

As he thought this, the young man suddenly realized: “Wait, mutation?

That cheap uncle, Ossenna’s leg tumor, and the deformed Iron Bone that gestated within the tumor…”

“Could it be that mutation is a kind of peculiar teratoma…”

— Huh.

Suddenly a cold wind blew through.

Ian abruptly raised his head and turned to look behind him, having thought he heard the sound of wind just moments before, but upon looking, there was no sign of anything amiss.

However, he vaguely noticed that the bodies of the lizard group nearby seemed to have undergone some changes.

Had some of the flesh disappeared?

He hadn’t paid special attention before, so he couldn’t be certain now.

“What a pity, I didn’t bring a reference object.

If Shasha and Yisen Gard were around, I could have used Sprit Energy to check the situation.”

With his right hand, Ian held the Heavy Abyss Iron Sword, his teacher’s favorite longsword.

Although it wasn’t high in power level, it was most suitable for users from The Unyielding Fortress—solid, thick, capable of sustaining high Origin Quality bursts, and it felt very good to smash people with.

He turned back toward the stone bridge and stood on the bridge deck looking at the lizard bodies.

There was nothing unusual about the corpses; blood still flowed, joining the Parasitic River.

The pale red blood of the Cyan Armored Lizards, upon entering the river, even made the blue of the water richer, clearly attracting many parasites to feed.

The cold wind blew out from the caverns in gusts, echoing in the hollows.

Ian surveyed the area but found nothing wrong.

He returned to the great hall and did not leave, but instead stood in place and silently waited.

Time passed slowly.

During this process, Ian gradually held his breath, controlled his Origin Quality, and slowly transitioned to a state resembling that of stone.

Sand Armor Apprentices, after storing sufficient nutrients and water, could lie in ambush in one area for a week without any harm, their breath-holding akin to that of real stones which didn’t need to breathe and could extract the required oxygen from their body’s stored water and fat.

Even to the most sensitive individuals, Ian would seem only to be asleep at most—normal perception would never consider him a living creature.

Soon, more than ten minutes passed.

The faint glow from the walls remained steady.

Whoosh…

Suddenly, a strange wind noise came from the other side of the bridge, cold and damp, mixed with an uncomfortable scraping sound.

It sounded like the slight noise of fingernails scraping against rock.

Without making a sound, Ian turned his gaze to the other end of the bridge, to the cavernous space between the towering stone pillars, no longer looking at the ground but lifting his head instead.

There, he saw a vague black figure wrapped in fur, hidden in the shadows, and thus indiscernible in features.

This figure glided silently from pillar to pillar, the movement accompanied by a subtle Wind Element Origin Substance stir, which caused the cold winds and noises from earlier.

The figure was exceedingly cautious and careful, having lain low since detecting the noises.

Now, without sensing any other sounds, the figure gradually began to move, gliding toward the great hall.

The target was Ian who, even with his eyes closed again, could sense a putrid evil wind drawing near, carrying a scent tinged with joy and greed.

To the figure, the boy now seemed like a corpse, devoid of any signs of life, just a morsel of tender, delectable flesh—a hundred, a thousand times tastier than the lizards which had been parasitized and stripped of their most essential vitality.

The figure continued to approach.

Even more so, it raised its hand and silently reached for the boy’s face.