Chapter 27

The rainy season in Borneo is humid and stifling. In a small town on the edge of the primeval forest, heavy rain was pouring down, and the muddy streets were filled with locals struggling to make their way. Among the scattered street shadows in the distance, a three-story building stood out, towering over the dilapidated houses around it, making it particularly noticeable.

Chen Ang held an umbrella over his head, completely shielding himself from the cold wind and drizzle. The locals saw him and respectfully bowed their heads, walking around him. A few foreigners passed by, casting curious glances at him.

After all, in the torrential rain, wearing a spotless outfit was somewhat strange. With Chen Ang's appearance and demeanor, clearly not a local, he stood out even more.

"Shamans, stop looking," the leading young white man shouted, drawing their attention back. They quickly lowered their heads and followed him into the bar. Inside, a faint voice questioned, "Where is Jin Song? Damn it, we don't have time left; the blooming period of the Blood Orchid is almost over!"

Chen Ang ignored them. These clueless protagonists, having chosen to explore, must be prepared to face the dangers of the jungle. Driven by greed, they were not innocent.

Nature does not follow human laws. For the principle of survival of the fittest, Chen Ang also needed to show respect.

"Darar!" A local respectfully bowed to Chen Ang and said in the local dialect, "Amanra invites you. He has found the records of the Dragon King."

'Darar' in the local language means the messenger of the spirits—shaman.

Chen Ang smiled faintly and replied in the same dialect, "I know, you can go now!"

With the locals' reverent gazes, he stepped through the mud and disappeared into the night. The young man who delivered the message bowed his head, looking at where Chen Ang had stepped. The muddy ground was covered with water, but there were no footprints. He bowed deeply in the direction Chen Ang had left.

Amanra was the great shaman of the area, inheriting the traditions of herbal medicine and witchcraft for dozens of generations. He had the reverence of a deity among the locals and had significant control over the indigenous people of the jungle. Chinese civilization had a profound influence on this wild land, and even a great shaman like Amanra had to respect Chinese sorcerers.

In the presence of Chen Ang, Amanra's magical herbs and illusions were ineffective. He both respected and feared this young Chinese man, whose power to control life and disease made him seem divine.

He bowed his head devoutly and presented Chen Ang with a roll of old bark, "Master, the records of the Dragon King have been found. This is the totem offered by the Gould tribe, depicting the shadow of the Dragon King and the blessings of the deity, His blood."

Chen Ang opened the bark and saw it was painted with dark brown pigment, depicting twisted shadows that seemed to dance like dragons and snakes. A vivid, strange pattern was prominently displayed, a flower with roughly six petals, as red as fresh blood.

To preserve the vivid colors of the pigment for nearly a century and still look lifelike, the witchcraft of Borneo was indeed mysterious!

Chen Ang touched the rough bark, feeling a slight numbness on his fingertips. "The bark of the arrow poison tree, the venom of the poison dart frog, the droppings of bats, the blood of crocodiles, and the heart's blood of a human. The rough and primitive witchcraft and herbal medicine have some secrets in the application of poisons."

Amanra held a lamp for Chen Ang, illuminating the broad map in front of them. "Under the gaze of the deity, the blood of the Dragon King mixed with various poisons and herbs can create an elixir of immortality. The great shaman of the past lived for four to five hundred years before dying. Later shamans forgot the order of adding the herbs and lost the elixir."

The dim light cast a colorful, mysterious pattern on his face. "My teacher, the aged Tattara, struggled to live for over two hundred years and passed this secret to me."

Chen Ang snapped his fingers lightly, and a silver circular robot buzzed through the air, casting a warm white light that filled the room. Behind them, a large ship was docked at the pier, casting a long shadow on the deck.

Amanra saw the shadow and excitedly bowed, lying prostrate before it.

Blue vertical pupils suddenly opened, and the shadow swiftly pounced, covering dozens of meters in a single leap, arriving in front of the two men. A massive snake, over thirty meters long, with a dark green scaly body, raised its head to the height of two men and stopped obediently before Chen Ang. Its head, as large as a car, affectionately brushed against Chen Ang's fingertips.

Feeling the coolness of the snake's body, Chen Ang smiled and lifted his leg, stepping onto the snake's flat head. He looked down at Amanra and ordered, "Go collect some witchcraft herbs; we will need them soon."

The snake, with Chen Ang on its back, disappeared into the river.

Deep in the dense jungle, countless secrets lay hidden. Even in the 100 years since the industrial society and rapid technological development, the sea and the rainforest remain places unexplored by humans, a treasure yet to be discovered. In the primeval forest of Borneo, the Blood Orchid is a natural wonder.

This mythical plant, believed by locals to grant eternal youth, can break the limits of cell division, extending life. A group of giant snakes living where it grows have become large, long-lived, and even more intelligent.

However, Chen Ang knew that these seemingly terrifying creatures were almost helpless against humans. Their large size and reliance on powerful physical strength to kill prey made them easy targets for human intelligence. Their poor concealment made them even less capable of survival than a rat.

Gliding lightly over the treetops, the wide robe provided excellent air resistance, allowing Chen Ang to soar over the jungle with ease. A single step on a treetop could propel him over several miles, a journey that would take nearly an hour of arduous trekking through the rainforest.

In this state of movement, Chen Ang approached his target in a nearly straight line.

After a few leaps, he stopped at the edge of a narrow canyon.

A blood-red, strange flower caught his eye. This plant, clinging to the cliff, had a thick stem and did not look particularly remarkable. Its branches bore a few blood-red flowers, scattered along the cliff face.

It looked like most tropical plants, but Chen Ang faintly detected a peculiar fragrance. This scent triggered an intense hunger in his body, as if every cell was craving something.

Silently, Chen Ang's pupils turned a deep blue, and the hunger disappeared. Under the control of his brain, the true signals from his body's nerves were reinterpreted. A flood of hormonal reactions and sensory data was rapidly processed and analyzed by his brain. Some unusual physiological indicators caught Chen Ang's attention.

"Special molecules causing neural signal disruption, are they pheromones?" Chen Ang murmured. "Attracting specific attention from certain creatures to gain opportunities for reproduction and protection."

Chen Ang walked past the giant snakes without attracting their notice, as if on a leisurely outing. The steep cliff that might be an obstacle to others was no hindrance to him. With a couple of leaps, he even stepped on a snake to climb up to the Blood Orchid.

Snakes have poor static vision and mainly rely on thermal imaging and scent to detect prey. With his pores sealed and his body's yin-yang energy balanced, Chen Ang appeared no different from a rock to them. In their dynamic vision, Chen Ang blended into the background, making him hard to spot.

Even if Chen Ang aimed a gun at their heads and fired, they would die without understanding why. Chen Ang looked at these clumsy giant snakes and sighed inwardly: These cowards are far from enough to protect the Blood Orchid from human discovery.

Chen Ang reached out and plucked a petal from the Blood Orchid, placing it in his mouth and chewing it. A faint bitter liquid seeped out, and in Chen Ang's perception, his body continuously analyzed it. If someone could see Chen Ang's thoughts, they would be amazed by the series of complex formulas and symbols scrolling through his mind.

His body's functions, operating at a cellular level, rapidly processed the different components of the Blood Orchid, analyzing and breaking them down. The human body is an extremely precise composite instrument, with advanced sensory organs capable of professional-level biological analysis.

Although Chen Ang's control and perception were limited to the cellular level, it was enough to analyze some aspects of the drug. Of course, compared to the specialized Sixth Genetic Laboratory, there was a significant gap, but it was sufficient for preliminary research.

The trace substances of the Blood Orchid quickly took effect in Chen Ang's body. After cells were infected with the special blood-colored substance, some could not withstand it and died, while others underwent internal changes. Soon, in Chen Ang's perception, a fierce gray cell began to divide rapidly.

It attacked and infected other cells, dividing rapidly in a short time, consuming large amounts of nutrients. From a few dozen cells, it quickly grew into a tumor of tens of thousands of cells. Under Chen Ang's control, the blood vessels cut off the tumor's nutrient supply, and the keratin quickly isolated the tumor from other cells.

A small lump of flesh fell from Chen Ang's right arm, landing on a giant snake below.

A small sprout grew from the snake's scales, and Chen Ang watched the snake's muscles tremble violently. The lump had moved to the snake's head, sprouting and growing into a blood-red fleshy crown.

The blood-crowned snake struggled fiercely, stirring the water and creating huge waves. Its golden vertical pupils turned blood-red, and it looked at Chen Ang with a fierce gaze, opening its mouth and lunging at him.

A larger snake pounced from the side, biting the blood-crowned snake's vital point. Its eyes, a deep blue, showed human-like intelligence. It nimbly dodged the blood-crowned snake's coils, tearing open the snake's body, revealing pink muscles and black veins spreading throughout the blood-crowned snake's body.

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**End of Chapter**