Elysia selflessly loved humanity.
"Yuan, you'll support me too, right?"
Elysia knew that Chang Yuan and Vill-V were friends, so she had to ask for his opinion first.
If Chang Yuan disagreed, Vill-V would definitely refuse to help her.
"...I really can't argue with you. Fine, let's do it your way."
In truth, Chang Yuan didn't believe this approach would significantly reduce the damage caused by Herrschers to civilization.
After all, if every Herrscher went all out, the Ninth Herrscher's fate would be the norm.
It had completely devoured an entire continent.
And what the Ninth Herrscher could do, most Herrschers were capable of as well.
For example, the Seventh Herrscher's flames burned an entire state for seven days and nights.
If she hadn't been killed quickly, a little more fire would have been enough to reduce the entire state to ashes.
So, while this method wasn't useless, its effectiveness was minimal.
But seeing Elysia's determination, Chang Yuan couldn't refuse and had to agree.
"I knew Yuan would agree."
Seeing that Chang Yuan had agreed, Elysia knew Vill-V wouldn't refuse either.
As soon as they returned to Fire Moth's headquarters, Elysia rushed to Vill-V's spiral workshop.
Meanwhile, Chang Yuan went to Mobius's lab, where she was already examining slices of the serpent's body.
"Mobius, you couldn't wait to start researching as soon as it arrived?"
Seeing Mobius in her lab coat and mask, Chang Yuan raised an eyebrow.
"So, what do you want? If it's nothing important, don't disturb me."
If it weren't for Chang Yuan's importance, Mobius would have kicked him out for interrupting her work.
"This is the Third Herrscher's accompanying Honkai beast. It can regenerate indefinitely as long as it has enough Honkai energy.
The reason it's dead now is probably because it ran out of stored Honkai energy. So, while researching, keep an eye on its Honkai energy fluctuations.
If the Honkai energy becomes abnormal, immediately chop it into pieces to force it to consume energy to heal."
"You're saying it can regenerate indefinitely!"
Mobius completely ignored the warning.
What caught her attention was Chang Yuan's mention of infinite regeneration as long as there was enough Honkai energy.
This was eerily similar to her dream of infinite evolution.
Perhaps she could uncover the secrets of evolution from this.
"Exactly. Research all you want, but Vill-V's MANTIS project is almost complete. Be careful."
"Tsk, got it. But is it really okay for Vill-V to be this much of a genius?"
After working with Vill-V for so long, Mobius had come to understand just how monstrous she was.
After just a month of self-taught biology, Vill-V was almost on par with Mobius during her student days.
Now, Vill-V's knowledge of biology might even surpass hers.
"Mhm, that's why I call Vill-V a monster among geniuses. If she were a bit more rational and less human, I feel like she could create something truly world-shaking."
Compared to the absolutely rational Dr. Mei, Vill-V would struggle to surpass her.
After all, some plans required absolute rationality and even a degree of inhumanity to conceive.
And Vill-V clearly wasn't that kind of person, so in some ways, she couldn't surpass Dr. Mei.
"Alright, you've said your piece. You can leave now."
After her moment of reflection, Mobius began ushering Chang Yuan out.
Seeing this, Chang Yuan didn't linger and headed to Vill-V's spiral workshop.
Vill-V had already completed the prototypes for all the Divine Keys.
So, with the Third Herrscher's core in hand, they could immediately create the Third Divine Key.
Thinking about how the original Third Divine Key had a lipstick mode, Chang Yuan still didn't tell Vill-V to avoid adding such features.
After all, if the Divine Keys didn't have some quirky functions, it wouldn't feel right.
Of course, this was only as long as it didn't affect the Divine Key's core functionality.
"Hey, Chang Yuan, why did you agree to Elysia's idea?"
Seeing Chang Yuan arrive, Vill-V gave him a helpless look.
She could see exactly how Chang Yuan felt about Elysia.
But that's why she didn't understand why he had agreed to Elysia's request.
If they went through with it, Chang Yuan might only see Elysia once a month.
That wasn't even the main issue, since he could visit her anytime.
The real problem was that Elysia would undoubtedly lead by example, pushing herself to the limit.
She would end up utterly exhausted.
"Hey, Vill-V, Yuan already agreed. Don't try to make him change his mind."
Seeing Vill-V questioning Chang Yuan, Elysia quickly interjected, afraid he might be persuaded.
"Don't worry, Elysia. I won't go back on my promise."
With a faint smile, Chang Yuan looked at Vill-V.
"It's fine, Vill-V. If it comes to it, I'll go with Elysia. When she's tired, I'll take over, and vice versa. Problem solved, right?
Besides, I heard your MANTIS project is progressing well. Once it's successful, maybe Elysia and I won't have to work so hard."
"Wait, where did you hear it was going well? Out of 100 people, only one succeeds. That's a 1% success rate. How is that 'going well'?"
Hearing Chang Yuan describe her project as successful, Vill-V couldn't help but twitch her mouth.
A 1% success rate? How could he call that successful?
What Vill-V didn't know was that, in the original story, this success rate was actually quite high—much higher than when Mobius first proposed the project.
"1%? That's pretty good."
Hearing that the success rate was as high as 1%, Chang Yuan couldn't help but admire Vill-V even more.
Good grief, she had already accomplished everything Mobius could do.
So, what was Mobius's role now? Just to add the 13th member to the Flame-Chasers?
For a moment, Chang Yuan couldn't think of what Mobius could still contribute, since Vill-V had already taken over her tasks.
"By the way, Vill-V, why don't you discuss your findings with Mobius? You're both at the top of the field in biology. Maybe you'll make some groundbreaking discoveries together."
"Oh, right. Having someone else offer suggestions from a different perspective could be really helpful. I've been so focused on working alone that I forgot about collaboration."
With Chang Yuan's reminder, Vill-V realized she wasn't alone in this.