OUTSIDE OF TIME

517 Everything Follows the Environment (1)

Accidents always appeared suddenly, stirring up waves that flooded one’s mind.

Xu Qing was listening to the Deputy Governor talk about the history of the human race. This was the first time he had heard of the human race’s past. He was instinctively immersed and wasn’t prepared at all when he heard the name he didn’t want to hear the most.

From the Deputy Governor’s words, it seemed that this person… had once made a major contribution to the human race.

Xu Qing wasn’t that great. His thoughts were very simple. He would find that crow and kill it.

As for what the other party had done in the past, whether it was really as the Deputy Governor had said or it was fabricated by later generations. Xu Qing felt that there was no need for him to think about it.

Perhaps there was indeed a concept of good and evil in this world, but most of the time, things weren’t that simple between humans, but rather complex.

So, good and evil were rare in the true sense of the word, and they were mostly rooted in differences in standpoints.

In order to survive, a person snatched the last white pill of another person. As a result, that person mutated and died. The robber continued to commit such acts and eventually managed to survive.

In the eyes of everyone who was killed by him and the world, he was evil.

However, after he survived, he went on to do many good deeds that saved even more people. In the eyes of those people, he was a good person.

So, was he evil or good?

Some things were not easy to distinguish. This was because no matter what choice was made, it would be considered wrong by someone. The act of distinguishing itself contained different standpoints.

The answer to a question from different perspectives was different.

Xu Qing had seen too many real-life cases when he was young and was also ignorant about this.

Although he hadn’t understood everything yet, he knew the direction.

Stick to his heart.

It was enough.

If you want to kill me, I’ll kill you.

If you try to rob me, I’ll kill you.

If you want to harm me, I’ll kill you.

You killed my parents, so I want to kill you even more!

Xu Qing lifted his head from his lowered posture. His gaze was clear as he looked at the Deputy Governor.

After the Deputy Governor finished narrating the history of the human race, his gaze fell upon the outstanding talents gathered in the hall. Coincidentally, at this moment, his gaze landed upon Xu Qing.

The two of them looked at each other.

The Deputy Governor nodded.

“Next, I will explain to you how to survive in a desperate situation by relying on vegetation. Of course, the limitation here is that the desperate situation you’re in contains vegetation.”

“This is actually very common. The number of vegetation in the Wanggu Continent surpasses the myriad races themselves.”

“If you can stand at an absolute height and look down upon the entirety of Wanggu, you will discover that even after the eradication of myriad races, Wanggu remains relatively unchanged. However, if all vegetation were to be wiped out, the changes in Wanggu would be extremely obvious.”

The Deputy Governor’s voice was hoarse, and against the backdrop of his aged figure, this voice seemed to carry the weight of time itself, gradually seeping into the minds of all those present.

“I won’t teach you specific methods. You have to figure that out on your own after class. I’ll only present you with a framework. This is also the direction of my research over the years.”

“That is… to change the characteristics of a plant. For example, turning an ordinary plant into a medicinal herb, a spirit grass into a poisonous grass, or a poisonous grass into a spirit grass. This will give you one more way to save yourself in a dangerous environment.”

Xu Qing fell into deep thought. He had thought about this direction before.

According to Grandmaster Bai, he could use the technique of balancing yin and yang to change the properties of the herbs. This change could be achieved by using other herbs to match with the harvested herbs according to their different properties.

However, this method had some flaws. There were some medicinal herbs that couldn’t be changed by adjusting the two extremes of yin and yang.

While Xu Qing was pondering, so too were the others.

Although everyone’s attainments in plants and vegetation were ordinary, they still had some understanding of it. After all, in this world, alchemy pills were indispensable.

The Deputy Governor smiled and looked at everyone. After that, he waved his hand and took out a flower pot. There was a small red flower in it.

The stem of this flower was green. It had three petals, each of which had many small scales like that of a fish. Due to the scales, the red flower gave off a demonic feeling.

“Red Phosphorus Flower.” Xu Qing recognized it at a glance. This highly toxic flower was rare and was one of the plants that couldn’t be altered by adjusting the two extremes of yin and yang.

“Watch carefully.”

The Deputy Governor took out a small bottle and poured the liquid inside into the soil. As he observed the changes in the red-scaled flower, he continued to pour different medicinal liquids.

After doing this, he waved his hands; immediately, his dense cultivation base energy spread out and augmented the flower pot, accelerating the absorption of the medicinal liquid by the red phosphorus flower in the soil.

Gradually, a miraculous scene appeared.

The color of the red-scaled flower gradually shifted to white and a fragrant aroma wafted out in all directions.

Everyone in the hall was amazed, while Xu Qing was shocked.

This scene looked simple but the more one understood, the more shocked they would be.

Xu Qing was very clear that the yin-yang extreme technique couldn’t change the red-scaled flower. However, the method used by the Deputy Governor had actually achieved this. This caused Xu Qing’s eyes to reveal an intense glint.

“Do you understand?”

“If you want to change the state of a medicinal herb, you don’t need to use a drastic approach, nor do you need to transform it externally by harmonizing yin and yang. In my opinion, what is needed is to transform it in a subtle way.”

“Subtly, you change the environment it is in and change its nutrients. Let it slowly absorb them without knowing it and influence it from the inside.”

“To be precise, it wasn’t me who changed its state but its own strength that changed its state. What I did was to create an environment and nutrients that guided its direction.”