1221 Becoming the stars

In the Northern Plains.

A doctor in a white coat knelt on the ground and held down a lamb as he explained to a large group of nomads, “This lamb’s current symptoms are typical of lamb dysentery. It’s an acute toxemia caused by pneumocystis bacteria. In addition, salmonella, E. coli, and streptococcus can also cause illnesses that often lead to mass deaths in sheep flocks.”

A herdswoman hesitated for a moment before saying, “You mean they were not taken back by the gods? That’s what our ancestors have told us for generations. A lamb that dies within a month of its birth is someone who sinned in their previous life. Therefore, the gods in Heaven punished it to suffer in this life.”

The doctor in the white coat did not know whether to laugh or cry. “This has nothing to do with the divine. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the god in our midst.”

!!
With that, everyone turned their gaze to Yan Liuyuan. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan simply said with a smile, “Perhaps they might have really committed evil in their previous life, but I wasn’t the one who arranged for them to suffer in this lifetime.”

The doctor smiled knowingly, but the nomads said solemnly, “Master is benevolent.”

The doctor was speechless.

Yan Liuyuan smiled at the doctor and said, “Let’s continue teaching everyone about disease prevention.”

“OK,” the doctor responded respectfully and nodded. Then he continued, “Everyone, please take note. Usually, two injections of two or three milliliters of formaldehyde vaccine for lamb dysentery will be administered 20 and 10 days to the ewe before it gives birth. This way, the newborn lamb will gain passive immunity against the disease.”

Ever since the grasslands formed an alliance with Fortress 178 in the Northwest, several teams from Fortress 178 had come to help build the basic infrastructure of the nomads’ society. Wang Fugui even personally made a trip here to catch up with Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu.

What surprised Yan Liuyuan was the teams that Old Wang brought along had actually carefully studied what was needed in the grasslands.

They started helping the nomads set up hydrological monitoring sites and tried to perfect animal husbandry practices with scientific data.

More importantly, Old Wang brought to them experts in livestock epidemic prevention who imparted their knowledge to the nomads.

What was most important to the nomads? Their livestock. Their livestock was everyone’s property. If any of the livestock were to die, it would feel as terrible as someone having their money stolen.

Moreover, these people had received special training before coming to the grasslands. For example, they could not show any sarcasm when faced with the feudal ideology of the nomads’ society. They also had to treat Yan Liuyuan with an attitude towards the divine to ensure that science and theocracy would not clash.

Wang Fugui was a smart person. He knew that Yan Liuyuan was now grown up and needed to uphold his authority as lord of the grasslands.

Therefore, if he wanted to do business here, he wouldn’t be able to last long by relying on friendship alone. He would still have to learn how to follow the local customs so that the nomads would not ostracize him.

If he wanted to befriend the nomads, he would have to respect them first. That was the principle he had to adhere to.

Hassan asked softly next to Yan Liuyuan, “Master, are these people really reliable? We’ve been herding sheep for so long. Surely we’d know better than them, right?”

Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, “Hassan, you have to learn to understand science.”

This lord of the grassland ruled through divine authority. However, the difference between him and a quack was that he was a true god.

Therefore, Yan Liuyuan was able to appear more confident during his rule. He was not afraid that science would challenge his authority at all. This was an era where gods and science coexisted.

Moreover, Yan Liuyuan knew very well that the so-called divine was actually created by science.

He had regained his memory earlier than Ren Xiaosu, so he knew how much effort his father, Dr. P., had put in to save his life.

After he fell sick, Yan Liuyuan could clearly remember that his father’s face became visibly haggard.

His father had used all the knowledge he learned in his lifetime to find a cure for him. But after the successful experimental treatment on him, his father nearly died in Laboratory 39.

During that period, Dr. P only slept three hours a day. He was either busy carrying out experiments or making preparations for the experiments.

Therefore, no matter how much Yan Liuyuan was revered by others, he knew full well his father had used science to give him his power.

However, the difference between Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu was that Ren Xiaosu was stricken by cancer while Yan Liuyuan had leukemia.

So after Ren Xiaosu’s bone marrow was transplanted into him, even though the “Blood of God” achieved a new equilibrium in his body, he did not have a strong physique like Ren Xiaosu.

At this moment, Bulan Zir galloped over on a horse from afar.

When Bulan Zir got closer, he immediately reported, “Master, hundreds of our cows suddenly ran away. This has never happened before. We couldn’t stop them at all.”

Yan Liuyuan frowned. “When did this happen?”

“About two hours ago. I rushed back from the ranch,” Bulan Zir answered.

“Which direction did they go?” Yan Liuyuan asked.

“South.”

As they spoke, everyone suddenly saw the wolves that were originally wandering around the perimeter heading south.

After all this time, the Wolf King seemed to have grown bigger in size.

About half an hour later, the wolves dragged more than a dozen cows back to Yan Liuyuan. The cows had been bitten to death, and their necks were dripping with blood.

Yan Liuyuan took a look at the wolves and realized two of them were injured.

“Did you encounter resistance while capturing them?” Yan Liuyuan asked the Wolf King.

The Wolf King nodded slowly.

“That’s strange,” Yan Liuyuan said as he placed his palm on the head of a cow. But at this moment, a silvery liquid-metal seeped out of the cow’s head and tried to get inside Yan Liuyuan’s palm!

But before the silvery liquid-metal could come into contact with Yan Liuyuan, a similar silvery liquid-metal gushed out of Yan Liuyuan’s palm and wrapped around the hostile liquid-metal.

A lot of people habitually neglected that if Yan Liuyuan wanted to, the nanomachines in his body were also enough for him to form armor with. This was a gift from Ren Xiaosu.

Every time he thought about how his brother tried his best to make it safer for him, a smile would appear on Yan Liuyuan’s face.

At this moment, Yan Liuyuan’s nanomachines wrapped the liquid-metal that was trying to attack him into a ball. The silvery ball was held up in his palm like a rotating ball of water.

Hassan and Bulan Zir said in shock, “Master, this is…”

“There’s no need to be surprised.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Let’s see who’s behind this.”

In that instant, Hassan and Bulan Zir suddenly realized Yan Liuyuan’s pupils had turned into the starry sky. It was as though an entire world was evolving in his eyes.

As the river of stars flowed deep within his pupils, Hassan even felt like he saw the fleeting image of a comet in his lord’s eyes.

Yan Liuyuan was trying to use his willpower to analyze the nanomachines in his hand and obtain Zero’s information from them.

It was just like what Zero did to humanity.

However, doing this was far more complex and difficult than he had imagined.

Suddenly, Hassan discovered Yan Liuyuan’s long hair had started breaking up finely at its ends. It was as though his entire body was about to turn into the stars in the sky.

No, it was about to become a universe that encompassed the stars.

“Master?” Hassan probed.

However, Yan Liuyuan ignored him. His originally waist-length hair was only at half its length now.

“Something’s not right!” Hassan reacted and immediately ran to the royal tent not far away. “Xiaoyu! Xiaoyu, come and see what’s wrong with my master!”

When Xiaoyu, who was teaching Tsetseg how to fold clothes in the royal tent, heard this, she immediately ran out in a panic. “What’s the matter, Hassan?”

“Quick, have a look at Master. His hair is turning into the stars.” Hassan said in fear, “We don’t get what’s happening, so we came to look for you.”

Xiaoyu ran over in a mad dash to where Yan Liuyuan was. As the ground was uneven, she even fell down and scraped her hand.

But she did not care. She did not even look at the wound on her hand as she continued running madly towards Yan Liuyuan.

“Liuyuan!” Xiaoyu shouted hysterically when she saw the starlight shimmering at Yan Liuyuan’s hair tips.

This call was like a pebble suddenly dropping into a calm sea.

Yan Liuyuan’s eyes immediately returned to their original black color, and the starlight dissipating from his hair also came to a stop. He smiled at Xiaoyu and said, “Big Sis, I remember from Mr. Zhang’s lessons that every atom in our bodies originates from a supernova. Isn’t it really interesting that the atoms that formed our left hand might have come from a different star than the ones that formed our right hand?”

With that, Yan Liuyuan reached out to help Xiaoyu tidy up her messy hair when she stumbled over just now.

Xiaoyu’s eyes turned red. She slapped Yan Liuyuan’s hand away and said angrily, “Why are you saying this now? Didn’t we agree you wouldn’t overexert your powers? You scared me to death, y’know?”

Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, “I’m sorry, I just find this AI very interesting. As long as you’re by my side, I’ll be fine.”

In just a short time, Yan Liuyuan seemed to have figured out the mastermind behind these nanomachines, even though the price he had to pay was a little heavy.

According to Li Shentan’s prediction, when humanity’s willpower reached 70% of its total capability, humans would reach the transformation threshold between their physical states and world consciousness.

That was the dividing line between man and god.

And right now, Yan Liuyuan was standing right in front of this line, which he could cross at any moment.

Perhaps this was the true definition of a demigod. They were only a step away from becoming a true god.

At this moment, Xiaoyu looked at the carcasses of more than a dozen cows at the side. “What happened here?”

“It’s not important anymore.” Yan Liuyuan shook his head. He turned around and said to Hassan, “Pack up, we’re migrating to the Northwest.”

Xiaoyu was puzzled. “Liuyuan, we just settled down here. What happened?”

“I’m not sure what will happen, but no one will be spared in the face of a catastrophe. Big Sis, we should be with my brother at this time,” Yan Liuyuan said.

All of this felt a little familiar to Yan Liuyuan. It seemed like it was the same situation in the valley as well. They had just found a new home back then and saw a glimmer of hope in their future.

In the end, after all they had obtained and wanted to protect, they had to start all over again.

Yan Liuyuan looked at the plains, the tents that had just been set up, and the fluttering flags of the Imperial Court.

The herdsmen were still seriously learning about animal husbandry while the wolves were resting on the meadows farther away. The children were no longer afraid of the wolves as they circled around them and sang nursery rhymes. Meanwhile, the huge wolves looked like the guardian angels of the nomadic children.

They allowed these children whose faces were flushed red from the sun’s rays to climb up and down on their bodies.

The children tugged at the Wolf King’s fur and clumsily climbed onto its broad back. Then they slid down its soft fur like they were playing on a slide.

The Wolf King did not get angry and just willingly acted as a slide for the children.

Actually, Yan Liuyuan understood that only by ending this sorrowful era would he not have to suffer the same sorrows over and over again.

Yan Liuyuan turned around and said to Xiaoyu with a smile, “Don’t worry, we will end this suffering together with my brother this time.”