"Hold on. Let me gather my thoughts." Chen Feng remained in a daze for a long time. When he awoke from his daze, he forced himself to calm down before starting to ponder this matter. "Firstly," Chen Feng started with a solemn expression, "the formula they got is confirmed to be the one we modified, right?"
The employee nodded his head with a heavy mood. "Yes. In this formula, sighing grass is not used. Rather, it was de-optimized, replacing the sighing grass with a whole bunch of other trash materials."
Chen Feng had a solemn expression. "Secondly, the price of all those trash materials has increased, right?"
The employee checked the data. "Yes. Although the replacement materials are all the most useless for humans—materials that even when thrown on the ground, nobody would want to pick—even after increasing the growth of these materials, the monthly sales volume of these materials is still astonishing terrifying."
Chen Feng: "…Is the ancient race this rich?"
He was amazed.
"No idea. But presently, in human markets, a lot of rare treasures originating from the ancient race have appeared. Our scientists have used these things to ascertain the level of technology the ancient race is at, their quality of life, and the environment in which they stay. Due to the huge amount of ancient race treasures that have appeared, we have obtained quite a large amount of information. It can be said that even though we have never seen an ancient race member before, they are already a transparent species in our eyes. Presently, we are in the midst of figuring out their weaknesses," the person from the Research Agency stated proudly.
So that's the case. Chen Feng exhaled in relief. It was good that there was still something to be gained from releasing that modified formula to the ancient race. However, the entire ancient race's increase in strength caused him to feel rather anxious. This wouldn't do. Even if humanity had been enriched thanks to the modified formula, even if humanity had progressed deeply in their research on the ancient race, this was, after all, still the power of beyond.
"Based on the information we obtained, a lot of people in the ancient race managed to comprehend the power of beyond in less than 10 attempts." The employee's head ached as well. "Several of their well-known geniuses even comprehended the power of beyond in a single attempt. As for those not as well known, they still managed to comprehend it in around five or six attempts."
"A single attempt…"
Everyone was stunned. That was, after all, a weakened version of what they were using. Even among humans, those scoring 99 points in potential would still require at least several dozen bottles before they managed to comprehend the power of beyond, yet a huge number of the ancient race had comprehended the power of beyond in less than 10 attempts? How ridiculous was that? How… could it be so easy?
The formula the ancient race had obtained was the modified version, and the cost of production had also been manipulated so it would be much higher. How exactly did these ancient race fellows work? Chen Feng had no idea. However, there was indeed a person who should clearly know exactly how this happened.
Du—
Chen Feng contacted Qin Hai directly. After a long time, Qin Hai answered the call. With an odd expression, he gazed at Chen Feng before sighing. "I truly admire you."
"????"
Chen Feng was dumbfounded. Admire? What was there to admire?
"This beyond X scheme of yours is too smooth," Qin Hai lamented. "I once tried imagining how bitter the battle between humans and the ancient race would be. However, I truly never imagined that you would use such a method to eliminate the entire ancient race…"
Chen Feng remained stupefied. "???"
What? What did this mean?
Qin Hai continued with a complicated expression. "I'm talking about your scheme. The ancient race is finished."
"Ah???" Chen Feng was still stupefied. He had just received news that the entire ancient race had comprehended the power of beyond. Why was it that when it came to Qin Hai, he was instead saying that the ancient race was finished?
Chen Feng had an expression of amazement. "My scheme?"
"You don't know about it?" Qin Hai had an odd expression. "Wasn't the formula obtained by the ancient race something you secretly arranged for them to obtain?"
Chen Feng nodded. "Yes, that's indeed so."
"If so, that's your scheme, then." Qin Hai forced a smile. "For the present ancient race, their economic strength has completely collapsed. The entire civilization has collapsed, returned to the primitive era…"
Chen Feng was shocked. "Why?"
"Because of your beyond X gene reagent." Qin Hai forced another smile. "It's truly too expensive. In the start, they did not think much about it. However, when bottle after bottle of gene reagent is consumed, the combined cost is truly high. Crucially, the various factions of the ancient race had initially preserved a balance of power. When someone with the power of beyond appeared in one of them, the other factions had had to ensure that the same happened to them as well. As such, almost all factions went crazy in their purchasing of gene reagents just to obtain the power of beyond even if it would bankrupt them. Naturally, all of them are still putting on a façade that they are as well off as before, claiming how they succeeded in less than 10 attempts, while in truth, they only succeeded in their comprehension after several thousand attempts." Qin Hai sighed. "As such, the entire ancient race is so poor they have to eat tree bark as meals nowadays."
Chen Feng: "…" What in the world? For real? He was aware of how terrifying an economic collapse was, even when it was happening to the ancient race rather than to humans.
"At the beginning, the various factions had merely reduced the number of servants they employed and the wages paid. Everyone had yet to feel like something was wrong with this, but then, gradually, more and more refugees appeared. These people wanted to stay alive as much as anyone, right? As such, arson, murder, robbery, all these crimes appeared, throwing the entire ancient race into chaos. Even now, the experts of the ancient race are still occupied with suppressing the chaos in their respective territories. Despite the strength and the huge amount of experts those major factions have, their territories were still thrown into quite the chaos, since the ancient race was having trouble even getting a full meal now, as they are striving to merely stay alive now," Qin Hai finished.
As for Chen Feng, his mouth was stuck agape. This… had actually happened to the ancient race? One ought to know that when he'd first thought of this scheme, he had merely intended to suppress the growth of the ancient race so he could make a long-term plan, yet who could have guessed that the ancient race was actually this crazy? But then, this was not necessarily good for humanity. The ancient race's economy had collapsed and sunk into chaos.
It might seem fine for humanity, yet the moment the ancient race experts were done suppressing the chaos, the ancient race, whose economy had collapsed, would lay their eyes on humanity. With the present strength of the ancient race…
"How long will they need to suppress the chaos?" Chen Feng asked suddenly.
Qin Hai shook his head. "No idea. The chaos is progressing with a snowball effect, but since the ancient race experts have been strengthened with the power of beyond, I suppose they will not need long for that."
"Oh." Chen Feng sank into contemplation. Ancient race…
"You only need to be somewhat vigilant about this and that will do." Qin Hai frowned and continued, "By the way, I don't know if it's because of the chaos or something else, but those ancient race experts that I know have seemed somewhat different recently."
Different? Chen Feng's eyes shone. Yes, why had he forgotten that?
"They feel somewhat weird nowadays. Somewhat…" Qin Hai could not think of the word to be used to describe them.
Chen Feng smiled. "Feminized?"
"Yes!" Qin Hai continued, "Eh? How come you know about that?"
Chen Feng laughed. "Hehe." He had initially believed that this scheme would take a long time to work. After all, if they were to consume the gene reagent in an ordinary fashion, at least a hundred years would be required for it to produce any substantial effect within the ancient race. Unexpectedly, the ancient race was so crazy in their pursuit of strength. Thanks to their hunger for strength, they had instead pushed themselves to the brink of elimination much earlier than expected. If it was truly as Qin Hai had described, then the ancient race indeed no longer had a future.