Exploring Immortality Cultivation-Chapter 815 - 144: Ethical Issues Surrounding the Reconstruction of the Physical Body

Wang Qi still remembers, when he attended an elective course at Xinyue Immortal Institute, the main content included more than ten laws about "transcend tribulation", common methods, etc. Because the content of that class was somewhat interesting, he listened quite attentively.

That class specifically discussed the ethical issues one needs to face when replacing a physical body and transcending tribulation.

Possession is an absolute illegal act, and once discovered, it's the death penalty without negotiation, so it won't be discussed. Generally speaking, reincarnation is the least recommended. Putting aside how many cells are still active and how much protein has hydrolyzed in a corpse after death, just dealing with the social relationships of that corpse is an utterly troublesome matter.

The situation of a soul-attached beast is slightly better than reincarnation. Unless one's offspring also serve as one's inheritors, otherwise, the Demon Clan doesn't even care about their descendants or siblings. For cultivators of soul-attached beasts, those entangling social issues simply don't exist.

Fabricating a physical body is also a good option. For example, forming a body from clay or transforming from plants. This is equivalent to an alternative "demon body". Especially if it is clay, wood, and stone incarnation, it completely avoids issues like "children".

However, no matter what kind of transcend tribulation, this problem must be faced.

"Do the descendants of 'me' after transcending tribulation and reincarnation truly count as 'my' descendants?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

After all, the purpose of reproduction is to proliferate one's physiological descendants, to continue one's bloodline. This is the most primitive and basic instinct of life beings. If it's merely about continuing the spirit, then moral descendants, such as adopted sons and daughters, would have no difference with biological sons and daughters.

Unfortunately, whether on Earth or Shenzhou, the status of adopted children has never been equal to that of biological children.

So what counts as "physiological descendants"?

"The descendants of 'my' current physical body, or those of 'my' previous physical body? Or both? Or perhaps only the bloodline which 'my' subjective consciousness was born attached to counts as 'my' bloodline?"

This is a tangled mess that cannot be unraveled.

Not to mention, problems like "mitosis" and "fragmented reproduction" for the Human Clan, whether they count as avatars or offspring, are just absurd.

Of course, some cultivators magnanimously express that they don't care about this issue. Also, those who practice children accomplishments or bitter meditation don't really care either. Unfortunately, Zhen Chan is not on the path of pure cultivation. As a Sect Leader, he still has some sense of responsibility and doesn't completely disregard continuing the bloodline.

And to avoid such ethical issues, the best way is to use the original bloodline.

For someone like Wang Qi, coming from the Immortal Alliance and being a proper Modern Cultivator, rebuilding a physical body is actually a simple matter because when he entered the Immortal Institute, the Immortal Alliance collected his blood sample and stored it in the bloodline library. Whenever necessary, the Immortal Alliance can generate an identical bloodline based on his Bloodline Spirit Rhinoceros.

But Zhen Chan wasn't so fortunate. He was beaten to death alive back then, and without becoming immortal, his physical body couldn't be imperishable or indestructible, so his body had long returned to the biological sphere cycle, and before the ring that housed his residual soul ended up with Wang Qi, it had changed hands twice, so finding a bloodline sample is impossible.

Upon learning about this, Zhen Chan's face completely changed. He humbly asked, "Doctor Liu, is there really no hope?"

"Well, it's actually not entirely hopeless." Liu Huafeng thought for a moment and asked Wang Qi, "Were there many Evil Path Cultivators ten thousand years ago?"

"Evil Path Cultivators…" Wang Qi nodded his head, "Hmm, I don't really understand history. Old man, were there many cults back then?"

"There were some." Zhen Chan asked, "Why are you asking this?"

"If ten thousand years ago, suddenly, there were Evil Path Cultivators claiming their magic artifacts were made from the bones of Mahayana Realm corpses…"

Before Liu Huafeng could finish his words, Zhen Chan was already disgusted to the point of almost vomiting, "Are you saying, my corpse?"

"Ten thousand years ago was the last era of the Ancient Method, also known as the 'End of Law Era'." Liu Huafeng smiled, "Few Mahayana Cultivators fell during that period, apart from the two who died when the Holy Infant Sect rose, there's only... you."

This time Wang Qi was genuinely amazed, "You really have a part in history, old man!"

"This kind of historical significance I absolutely do not want." Zhen Chan wore an expression as if he had eaten something foul, "If I'm lucky, my corpse might have been refined into a magic artifact or a walking corpse by Evil Path people, and then my Bloodline Spirit Rhinoceros might instead be preserved because of… that form?"

Liu Huafeng nodded, "That's indeed the case."

"Powerful corpse refining monsters born between ten thousand and nine thousand years ago... evil path magic artifacts..." Wang Qi had already started "ferrying" around in the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm. Liu Huafeng, perhaps due to a healer's heart, kindly advised Zhen Chan, "Don't get your hopes up too high, because the Holy Infant Sect practices the Divine Tao of Innate Five Virtues, placing great importance on order. The first thing they do when they gain power is to eradicate all evil paths and demon paths in the world. Even if your corpse was refined into something extraordinary, it's very likely it was destroyed."

Zhen Chan's face was almost as dark as a pot bottom. He died suddenly, only managing to escape with his residual soul into the ring; his physical body was never taken care of. Originally, he wasn't particularly concerned with "resting in peace," thinking that even being worm food was a return to nature. But now that he thought about it... whoa, a Mahayana Realm physical body! What valuable artifact refining materials! The possibility that it was taken by some evil path cultivator and refined into a zombie, only to be smashed by the Holy Infant Sect, wasn't small!

How can one tolerate this!

It's hard to say if Zhen Chan was lucky or not, but in the end, Wang Qi didn't discover any powerful evil path magic artifacts emerging after Zhen Chan's death and before the Holy Infant Sect's dominance.

Since the original couldn't be found, the only option was to find one closest to the original.

However, at this point, Liu Huafeng made a special note that the so-called "closest" could only ensure that the primordial essence bloodline root [Y chromosome] and part of the bloodline rootlets [DNA] were basically consistent with the original.

The primordial essence bloodline root — the Y chromosome is probably the easiest one to mark among the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. Because it's always inherited from the paternal line, from father to son, son to grandson, endlessly and continuously. The surname is the marker of the Y chromosome.

As for the primordial bloodline root — the X chromosome, it's not so easy to trace.

Females have two X chromosomes, but only one really functions, the other gets inactivated and turns into bloodline root tumors [Bash's Small Body]. In different cells of the same individual, the inactivated primordial bloodline root [X chromosome] can come from the female parent or the male parent. As for which one is passed on to the next generation... that's truly a random process.

Trying to track maternal bloodlines through a person's primordial bloodline root... is practically impossible.

"So, the best case scenario is... I find my paternal lineage, but my maternal line..."

"Ten thousand years, reproducing for about five hundred generations. Each generation only has a fifty percent chance of passing down your maternal primordial bloodline root, you calculate the probability yourself." Liu Huafeng sympathetically shook his head.

Zhen Chan didn't even need to calculate. Two to the power of five hundred is definitely not a small number.

"Old man, I have to tell you another unfortunate news," Wang Qi said, "In reality, it's not so easy to find even the primordial essence bloodline root."

Zhen Chan's face****: "Why? Being surnamed Su should be enough, right?"

"Su Junyu is also surnamed Su, you want to go and say you're related and see if he acknowledges it." Wang Qi shook his head, "The primordial essence bloodline root is indeed marked by surname. But changing surnames, is that uncommon?"

Esteemed seniors or emperors bestowing a surname, marrying into a wife's family and changing surname, adopted sons, foster sons, house-born sons or slaves of noble families adopting the surname, mother remarrying and changing surname, changing surname to avoid disaster...

The reasons for changing surnames are really too many. It just forcibly increases the difficulty of bloodline research.

And even if it's the same surname, there are usually different origins. Take Earth for instance, the major surname "Wang" has at least seven origins.

The history of the Shenzhou Human Clan is far longer than Earth's, such ridiculous matters would only be more common.

Wang Qi then added, "Apart from inheritance, you also have to consider mutations. You must know, no offspring holds exactly the same bloodline as the parent. To say nothing of other factors, the sun of Shenzhou erupts every seventeen years, during which Shenzhou's life beings inevitably exhibit some small mutations — usually these are extremely minor, so minor that even magnified a hundredfold they wouldn't impact in a macro sense. Ten thousand years, once every seventeen years, about five hundred and eighty-eight times in total, maybe even five hundred and ninety-nine. Even if each one was a tiny change, after five hundred times, the bloodline root couldn't possibly be exactly the same as it was ten thousand years ago."

Zhen Chan finally couldn't bear it anymore, roaring, "You little brat, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you!"

"Old sir, there's no need to get angry about this. Actually, it may not be a bad thing. Even if we can't find your original bloodline, we can create something better." Liu Huafeng, probably used to such situations, comforted him, "You can think about it this way, since an exact match can't be found, we can just use something better as a replacement. I can recommend some heavenly gifted bloodlines, some half-demon bloodlines, the former paired with special cultivation methods can be very powerful, the latter, while starting slow, is suited for you, as you were originally a high-order cultivator, for you the brain is just an auxiliary organ, right? If none of those appeal to you, we also offer Human-Dragon Hybrids, the Dragon Clan is also a race with wisdom, innate spiritual wisdom, excellent development potential. However, that project has yet to produce a stable version, but on the other hand, we offer discounts..."

Wang Qi clapped his hands, "So this method is available too! Experiment along the way? Let's go, old man, let's go home, I still have some Mystical Thought Body in my bucket, that stuff is from immortal-level beings, far superior to yours..."

Zhen Chan gritted his teeth, "If I could compromise, then what was the meaning of coming here?"

Wang Qi blinked, only then remembering that Zhen Chan seemed to want a "human body." He could only look at Liu Huafeng and asked, "Um, Senior Liu, are these projects charged extra? Are they expensive?"

Liu Huafeng revealed a fox-like smile, "If old sir is willing to act as a volunteer..."