This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!-Chapter 154 - Eternal Life
Chapter 154: Chapter 154 Eternal Life
Symbiotic Stones were a miraculous creation; they could replace failing parts of the human body, supply energy to the host, and extend their lifespan.
The principle of this energy supply was easy to understand. For instance, if a person had an incurable disease and their entire liver had necrotized, then the Symbiotic Stone could take the place of that person’s liver, allowing the body to return to normal function.
However, this function was limited to internal organs of the body and did not include the completeness of the limbs.
Depending on the size of the stone and the extent of the host’s missing bodily functions, the duration for which their energy would suffice also varied.
A complete Symbiotic Stone was a fully blue crystal. The one embedded in Corrigan’s forehead had turned black, signifying that the power of the stone was nearly depleted.
“I feel that my time is short,” Corrigan said, his tone laced with entreaty. “The power of this stone is fading, I need… a new Symbiotic Stone.”
“Symbiotic Stones are miraculous creations, even harder to obtain than Holy Relics…” Mansis turned away.
“Then go find one in the Great Void!” Corrigan grabbed Mansis’s shoulder, staring into his eyes fiercely.
A hint of pity showed in Mansis’s eyes.
Corrigan let go of his hand, sighed, and walked to the huge globe. His dry fingers gently brushed over the sphere, setting it into motion.
“Do you remember, Mansis, the year 1979?” Corrigan spoke slowly.
“I remember, that’s the year we met,” Mansis sighed.
In 1979, Corrigan was an octogenarian with esophageal cancer, while Mansis was just a 47-year-old researcher, frustrated and unaccomplished.
As the illness worsened, Corrigan’s fear of death grew daily. Over the past 20 years, he had invested a considerable sum in medical technology in search of ways to cure diseases and extend life.
At the end of the ’70s, the study of Spiritual Energy was not as advanced as it is today, with most research oriented toward military purposes and predominantly directed by the military.
When Mansis found a Symbiotic Stone and brought it to Corrigan, Corrigan saw a new possibility.
“Back then, you were the one who showed me a miracle, Mansis. You gave me hope, and now you can’t take it away…” Corrigan said.
Mansis had no reply.
Back in 1979, he held the Symbiotic Stone but didn’t choose to hand it over to the military or the Spiritual Ability Research Institute.
As a researcher without any results, his discovery would have been claimed by other scholars already in high positions.
He wanted to leave his mark in human history, to occupy a place in the world of spiritual studies. Thus, finding a tycoon to invest in him was the only option.
The moment the Symbiotic Stone was inserted into Corrigan’s forehead, his intestines, which had already lost basic function and were under great strain, were instantly replaced by the power of the stone, as were his kidneys, liver, spleen, and the nerves of his brain. Other organs, that were slowly deteriorating, started functioning normally.
Corrigan, desperate to extend his life, and Mansis, yearning to make a name for himself in human history, became the perfect partners.
Corrigan never interfered with Mansis’s research and provided unlimited research funding.
His only requested compensation was the Symbiotic Stone.
But as Mansis continued his research, he gradually understood the specific role of the Symbiotic Stone.
It was a stone that deceived the gods.
It didn’t function as previously thought, by replacing the host’s damaged and deteriorating organs. Instead, it merely deceived the host’s body into believing that all its capabilities were still normal.
Once the stone’s energy was exhausted, or if it was removed or damaged, the host would die immediately. In the end, the host would live with the terrifying countdown of life.
Just look at the state of Corrigan…
At 112 years old, his entire body resembled a long-dead, shriveled corpse. If this stone truly replaced his necrotic organs, by all logic, he should not have looked this way.
In other words, Corrigan had died of intestinal cancer at over 80, but the Symbiotic Stone deceived his body, allowing him to maintain his consciousness.
However, Corrigan’s body, riddled with necrotic organs, could deceive itself but not the laws of nature. Without nutritional replenishment, his body gradually rotted and withered into its current state.
This stone was a meme of self-deception, and it had the power to materialize that meme. It was not a means to prolong life; rather, it was more akin to a crystallization of a being’s homage to life itself.
However, Mansis was not prepared to tell Corrigan the truth.
“I am profoundly disappointed with the world. Everyone is researching how to use Spiritual Energy to kill each other faster and more conveniently but no one ever considers using it to extend their own lifespan. Mansis, tell me, why is that?” Corrigan shook his head, eyes betraying helplessness and fear of death.
“Humanity is not ready, Corrigan. Death is an insult to life, while eternity is a curse upon it… Life without death is meaningless,” Mansis responded, shaking his head.
“Nonsense! Absolute rubbish!” Corrigan suddenly shouted, knocking over a globe onto the floor.
Mansis took a small step back, eyeing Corrigan warily.
“In this world, no one has truly tasted immortality. To say that immortality is a curse seems to me nothing but a consolation for those who cannot attain it. If you could live forever, Mansis, live until the end of time, wouldn’t that be good?” asked Corrigan.
“Corrigan… Have you considered this? If humanity cannot eradicate poverty and hunger, if it cannot ensure true equality among people, if it cannot break down the barriers between classes, then the meaning of immortality differs for each individual… If the rules do not allow everyone to live with dignity, then the technology of eternal life is doomed to be nothing more than a new tool for rulership,” said Mansis.
“Mansis, that is humanity’s problem, not ours to fret over… Eternal life is the starting point for humans… If they aren’t ready, let them wait longer… but at least, I am ready,” Corrigan mustered a smile on his withered face.
Mansis fell silent for a moment, then walked over to the wall and shifted a portrait to reveal a hidden safe.
He glanced at Corrigan, who tactfully turned his head away, ensuring that he wasn’t looking at the safe while Mansis quietly worked the combination lock and extracted a package wrapped in oil paper.
The item in Mansis’s hand was roughly the size of a TV remote. He unfolded the oil paper, revealing the Symbiotic Stone within. The pure blue crystal emitted a captivating halo of beauty that was difficult to look away from.
Corrigan stared intently at the Symbiotic Stone in Mansis’s hand, his mouth slightly agape, his hand involuntarily reaching out towards the stone.
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Mansis lifted the stone saying, “This is the last one,”
“We will always find more,” Corrigan replied absently.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been up to these past two years, Corrigan. Tell me, did you have anything to do with the West Gold Building explosion?” Mansis asked.
“If you wanted to thwart me, you shouldn’t have offered me the Blasphemous Dagger under the guise of your duties,” said Corrigan with a smile.
“Is that a threat?” Mansis responded coldly.
“I’m simply reminding you,” Corrigan said.
“You and I are of a kind; we just pursue different things. I have found what I was looking for, and you have not… so why not cooperate, as intimately as we did forty years ago, instead of spouting high-minded principles and pretending to be humanity’s savior?” Corrigan mocked.
Mansis could not retort and merely glared fiercely at Corrigan. He then thrust the Symbiotic Stone into his hands.
“May God help you find what you seek in the Great Void soon enough,” said Corrigan with a laugh, contentedly placing the Symbiotic Stone into his coat pocket and putting his hood back on before leaving the office.
Watching Corrigan leave, Mansis sighed, sinking into deep thought.
Corrigan was right; he and Mansis were of a kind, both seeking something from the Great Void.
Corrigan sought immortality, Wang Ailin pursued supreme knowledge and the truth of the world, and Mansis sought a power that could lead humanity!
Human history, albeit brief, was replete with wars, oppression, and injustice. The insatiable gluttony of the wealthy and powerful classes for resources and their hindrances to grand endeavors had severely slowed humanity’s march towards the cosmos.
Humanity needed their own god, one to unite people globally in a genuine collective will, only then would they truly be ready to enter the Era of Eternal Life.
Mansis wanted to assume that responsibility, thus he needed the power capable of shouldering such a burden.
