Chapter 44 The True Name of Flesh and Blood

With the crispy fish skin and the tender, piping-hot fish meat entering his mouth, as his lips and teeth closed, juices rich in flavor factors spilled onto the tip of his tongue, filling his nose and mouth with an intoxicating aroma.

Though no salt had been sprinkled, the intrinsic flavor of the meat itself was already more than rich enough.

Lin Bo chewed carefully. Ever since he began practicing the apothecary's tongue-cognition technique, his eating speed had slowed down considerably. Perceiving medicinal properties had become a habit, and listening to the language of food served as an exquisite form of seasoning.

The moment the narrative of the fish skin and meat unfolded on the tip of his tongue, another intense, savory mushroom flavor rose abruptly like a rebellious army, and the world of his taste buds was enveloped by the overwhelming whispers of mushrooms.

When the two voices met, the language of skin, blood, and flesh was suppressed into intermittent fragments.

Lin Bo had long since discovered that true names possessed the property of infinite divisibility; the scales, skin, flesh, and bones of a single fish each had their own true names, just as the organs and tissues of the human body each possessed their own respective names.

He had imagined that if he could master the true names of biological flesh, blood, skin, and nerves, it would undoubtedly be of immense help in treating injuries and illnesses.

Lin Bo had once tasted his own blood, attempting to probe its true name, only to fail because he could not find another substance capable of silencing the blood.

When a liquid was diluted by another liquid, its voice became muffled and difficult to probe. Mixing in certain irritating liquids also altered the liquid's fundamental properties and components; once its original flavor was lost, it became impossible to probe its true name.

Just like fish skin and meat after high-temperature roasting, their true names would inevitably undergo slight alterations, differing from their true names in a living state, and could not be generalized.

The words spoken by the two substances were both a confrontation and a joint performance. If one side thoroughly overwhelmed and destroyed the other, causing the true name to transform or vanish, there would be no way to probe it at all.

Originally, Lin Bo thought he would not be able to find a way to probe the true name of flesh and blood in the short term, but now the answer seemed to have jumped right before his eyes.

The mimetic mushrooms produced by the omnipotent fungal strain, while possessing the exact same compositional components as the original material, also imbued it with their inherent fungal substances, providing an indescribably complex flavor.

The lively and enthusiastic chatter of the mushrooms successfully forced the flesh and blood into a state of silence, while also showing Lin Bo a glimmer of successful hope.

He slowly finished the food on his plate, dumping the cooled fish bones back into the fungal mat. The mycelium acted like a white swamp, swallowing the oil-gleaming fish bones whole.

The mage lightly touched the fungal mat and praised, "(Magic Language) Delicious."

"Happy... Happy..." The whispers of the mushrooms sounded like the rising bubbles of a carbonated beverage.

"(Magic Language) Request, another mushroom."

"Feed you... Feed you... Like the feeder... Unconditional devotion..."

Another codfish mushroom with a peculiar look emerged from the fungal mat and grew.

This time, a silver blade of light flashed in mid-air, and the bloody fish meat on the iron chopping board was sliced into delicate, thin strips, neatly arranged on the dinner plate.

The mage deformed an iron pellet into a pair of chopsticks, their ends connected by a fine thread, which could be easily separated with a gentle snap, just like disposable chopsticks in a restaurant.

A mouthful of the raw, bloody fish slices entered his mouth and was chewed. The fresh, sweet natural flavor blended with the extreme umami of the mushroom; though the former was pressed into a hasty retreat, it persisted endlessly as the underlying baseline.

Lin Bo closed his eyes and crossed his legs.

A moment later, he opened his eyes and chanted in a low voice, "(True Word) Flesh and Blood."

The fish slices on the plate flew up into the air. First, a portion shattered into mud amidst high-frequency oscillations and fell away, while the remaining fish slices stretched into slender noodles before returning to their original shape and falling back onto the plate.

The mage finished eating the raw fish on the plate, then pressed his left palm against his right forearm, using his tactile sense to perceive the muscles beneath his skin.

"(True Word) Flesh and Blood."

A bundle of muscles was driven by the speech-spirit, twisting like a living snake. A wave of intense neurological pain, akin to being scalded by fire, washed over him. Lin Bo restored the deformed muscle to its original state, and the pain gradually subsided.

Whether it was the flesh and blood of a fish or that of a human, their true names were identical. However, having tasted whale meat a few times and experienced only silence, Lin Bo guessed that the true name of a whale's flesh and blood might be different.

Now, he had found the shared true name of blood and flesh.

Lin Bo rolled up another piece of fish skin and chewed it in his mouth. Following a process identical to the previous one, he obtained the true name of skin.

"(True Word) Skin."

Different substances had varying degrees of compatibility with different spell-arts, which depended on the characteristics of the substances themselves.

Just as rock had a very low acceptance level for the Art of Life, requiring a massive expenditure of spell power to reshape its form, skin also had rather mediocre compatibility with the Art of Flow. It took Lin Bo a great deal of effort to tear a loose, dangling layer of thin skin from the roof of his mouth.

However, skin showed a relatively high affinity for the Art of Life; he could contract his pores and make micro-adjustments to his facial features, deciding whether he wanted single or double eyelids with just a thought.

Setting aside the true names of various infinitely subdivided organs and tissues such as fascia, hair, and nails, there were still two most important subjects that needed to be probed: bones and nerves.

Bones were hard and difficult to ingest, making it impossible to probe their true names via the sense of taste, so he would have to think of another way.

Nerves were slender, and only the brain and spinal cord could be tasted. Lin Bo planned to wait for the hurricane to pass and order a sheep's head from the butcher shop in town.

Of course, fish also contained nerves, and the omnipotent fungal strain must have already recorded the genetic information. It was simply that Lin Bo had not mastered the corresponding true name, rendering him unable to make the mycelium produce nerve-mimetic mushrooms.

He lingered in the mushroom garden for a moment before beginning today's dungeon-clearing task.

The players in the dungeon channel had already cycled through a new round, and many familiar nicknames had not bubbled up for a long time. [Agilent] and [Scavenging Brings Me Joy] were still advertising in the channel, while that Paladin, [Bulwark], was still frequently leading newcomers through the map of Purgatory.

He watched everyone chat, smiled for a moment, and then activated the dungeon teleportation portal.

Ever since mastering the true name of steel, the enemies in the mechanical factory no longer posed any threat.

Lin Bo had once attempted to chant the true name aloud to directly control the steel shells of the robots from a distance, but this failed due to the obstruction of the paint, and the exposed neck bones of the low-level mechanical guards were also electroplated.

To directly manipulate these machines, he had to get close and use his tactile sense to perceive the steel beneath the paint and plating.

However, he undoubtedly had a better solution.

The iron pellet in his hand stretched into a willow-leaf-shaped spike, silently cutting through the air and drilling into the gap in a mechanical guard's neck bone, subduing the enemy in a single strike.

Passing through the first and second floors was like taking a leisurely stroll. Upon reaching the third floor, facing the sword-guards and shield-bearers was only slightly more troublesome.

The iron pellets in the mage's hands flew out in pairs, striking the ankles of a sword-guard and stretching into two loop-cables that interlocked, binding its legs tightly together.

With a flick of his finger, the iron rings flew up, dragging the sword-guard and hanging it upside down in mid-air, pulling it right in front of the mage.

Lifting a hand to press against the sword-guard's back, he knew the distribution of its internal components like the back of his hand. At the moment of contact, reaching through the maintenance cover plate, he twisted a few steel structures and directly cut off the machine's power, paralyzing it.

The shield-bearer possessed a heavy body and was difficult to drag. Finding its defense airtight after trying a few new moves, Lin Bo realized that his old tactic remained the most time-saving and effortless: getting close in mid-air and stuffing a bomb straight into the gun barrel worked every single time.

It was only a pity that he still needed to chant two true names, preventing him from conquering everything with a single universal trick.

After finishing the map run, Lin Bo handed the collected mechanical wreckage over to his online friends as usual.

Their tacit understanding was fully embodied in their chat logs.

[Beacon Guest]: Hmm?

[Scavenging Brings Me Joy]: Hmm!

[Synthesized Network Prompt: Friend trading channel is opening, teleportation portal opening countdown...]

He did not linger long at the East Cliff Grotto. The babbling roar of the sea waves warned the mage right at his ear that the torrential downpour under the command of the hurricane was about to strike once more.

This time, he did not plan to return to the lighthouse for shelter; instead, he intended to take the opportunity to probe the true names of more natural phenomena.

The clouds in the sky appeared to drift slowly, but in reality, the heavy cumulonimbus clouds were being driven at an extremely fast speed by colorless, gale-force winds.

Lin Bo looked at the gulls circling and hunting at low altitudes in the near-shore reef area. The lower the atmospheric pressure, the more fish would approach the surface.

He wanted to remind the gulls to pay attention to safety and return to the grotto early to avoid the rain, but he did not speak bird language, and moreover, they possessed sufficient survival wisdom, so he dismissed the thought.

The mage put on his mask, chanted his true name, and soared into the air, the flock of gulls circling beneath his feet amidst a flurry of cries.

"Goodbye, human," they said.