aircannonsinc Chapter 330 Microbial Consciousness, 3 Major Talents
Chapter 330 Microbial Consciousness, 3 Major Talents
Chapter 330 Microbial Consciousness, Three Major Talents
On the White Cave observation deck.
Before Ye Yang, who was sitting cross-legged, as the ball of light contracted for the last time, the last trace of the [True Fate Origin] was completely transformed.
The third clone has finally taken shape!
A white, fluffy dumpling the size of a basketball rolled to the ground, with a small white mushroom growing on it.
It's not like enoki mushrooms, which are thin and long; it's relatively large, just small.
And just after the white-fuzzy mushroom rolled around on the ground, it crumbled into pieces, leaving only its stem—
Ye Yang: ? ? ?
"Is the third avatar born from a sixth-tier [True Origin] really this fragile?"
He scratched his head and quickly began to carefully sense the consciousness of his third clone.
The consciousness of the third clone was very weak; it was a dazed and confused existence, perhaps even weaker than that of a newborn human infant!
After all, even a newborn human baby has a nascent brain structure, while this white tuft is just a clump of mycelium.
The faint consciousness was only possible because the mycelium itself could generate spiritual power. Only the accumulation of this extremely weak spiritual power could barely support that almost non-existent sense of consciousness.
"It seems there's no problem with the fruiting body falling off; the mycelium is the main body." Ye Yang sensed that there was no major issue and was relieved.
He used his magic to pick up the broken mushroom pieces from the ground and threw them back to the clump of mycelium. Gradually, the fragments merged into it and disappeared.
While feeding the mycelium with food, Ye Yang carefully sensed the surroundings.
Perhaps it is because the current third avatar is not yet able to bear Ye Yang's complete consciousness, and naturally cannot bear his Great Dao, nor support the operation of his true meaning.
Therefore, the three-part fungal form has not yet aroused the rejection of the true intent of martial arts.
On the other hand, these mycelia are still too primitive; they haven't evolved the ability to perceive the external environment or to think.
There was almost no information that could be fed back to Ye Yang's other two clones.
Therefore, it did not trigger the rejection of the true intent of the other two clones.
In short, given that the third clone is currently brainless, there is no need to consider the issue of true intention rejection for the time being.
However, since the third clone has no brain, it cannot bear Ye Yang's consciousness, and Ye Yang cannot truly control this body made of mycelium.
It can only be made to follow the instincts of the mycelium.
If you want the third clone to grow a brain, you have to feed it some brains first! Fortunately, Ye Yang was prepared and had already dug out 10 brains and sealed them away.
This is also thanks to the fact that he is not an ordinary body-tempering cultivator.
After practicing general body-forging techniques, the spirit and body become one, and the soul and body are intertwined at the most microscopic level. Therefore, many body-forging cultivators can absorb matter and energy to regenerate quickly even if they are beaten down to only a drop of blood.
The soul is still the same soul, only the state of unity between spirit and body has been destroyed, resulting in a significant drop in cultivation level.
Ye Yang cultivates the true meaning of martial arts, where the soul is not integrated into the body, but rather the essence of the body is integrated into the soul.
As long as the true meaning of the physical body is incorporated into the soul, the physical matter and energy can be discarded and replaced at will, just like changing clothes.
Therefore, Ye Yang was able to continuously harvest his own brain, destroy and regenerate it, without affecting his physical cultivation level.
"We have to wait until the third clone's instincts differentiate into super-adaptive bacteria before feeding it to the brain, otherwise it will just digest it as food."
After feeding Ye Yang a brain and finding it had no effect, he came to a conclusion.
They took out spiritual crystals, monster meat, and spiritual herbs, and put them all into the carpet woven by mycelium on the ground of the viewing platform.
Soon, countless white hairs spread out, covering the food and converting it into nutrients.
Five hours later, countless white mycelia withered and died, while in the center, a large amount of life essence gathered, forming a large bulge as tall as a person.
"According to the data sent along with the strain, the original strain has now passed through its most vulnerable and delicate stage. After differentiating into a super-adaptive bacterial community, it will begin to show its true terrifying nature."
Under Ye Yang's watchful gaze, the bulge finally ruptured, and a large number of new mycelia, like silver threads, spread out, devouring and digesting the bulge containing the last bit of essential energy in just a few seconds.
He just watched, deliberately not feeding it anymore, letting the mycelium instinctively feel the pressure to survive.
Just ten seconds later, the silver mycelium that had spread everywhere and could no longer find any digestible food turned black!
At first, the black had a hint of green, you could say it was a pale green, but it grew darker and darker over time! Eventually, it became a deep, dark black!
"White holes emit endless radiation, serving as an inexhaustible source of energy. How could the super-adaptive bacteria have evolved the ability to absorb and capture this radiation energy so quickly?"
Seeing all this, Ye Yang was secretly shocked.
The color change of the hyphae represents their ability to capture light, and now, across the entire spectrum, the hyphae are almost entirely black.
With an energy source, the mycelium began to multiply and expand, even reaching Ye Yang's feet, attempting to devour and digest him as well.
The third clone, driven entirely by instinct, can be ruthless enough to turn its own people against anyone.
"Too weak. It has absolutely no power to resist my true intent. Compared to a fully formed Void Fungus, it is far inferior."
Ye Yang shook his head, but he also knew that he couldn't expect an infant to fight against an adult boxer.
The third clone doesn't even have a brain.
However—in its fungal form, the growth rate will be astonishing.
Ye Yang discarded the second brain, which was immediately digested and decomposed by the super-adaptive bacteria. However, Ye Yang could barely sense some life information, which was also recorded.
Sure enough, after consuming the brain, the bacteria learned a lot.
The presence of simple neural structures, photoreceptor cells, and the ability to synthesize spiritual substances immediately increased the strength of the mycelium several times over, reaching a level close to that of a fifth-order body-tempering cultivator.
"One isn't enough? Then have another one."
Ye Yang then threw in the third brain.
This time, the bacteria seemed to instinctively know that the brain was a good thing, and did not immediately break down and destroy the brain structure.
Instead, having already learned the basic structure of neural networks, they began to allow fungal cells to gradually invade the brain and replace its neurons.
Simulate its advanced structure.
Finally, a mycelium mimicking a brain appeared before Ye Yang.
Before there was even time to marvel at this astonishing learning ability that relied solely on instinct, the moment a brain grew in the third body, capable of carrying Ye Yang's consciousness—
For the first time, Ye Yang clearly perceived himself in the form of a fungus.
It was a strange, inhuman feeling, yet as thin as a cloud.
Aside from one's own thoughts, there seems to be very little in the outside world. It's only because of the photosensitive cells that evolved earlier that one can barely distinguish changes in the brightness of the light outside.
Without hands or feet, without muscles to move, without even the sense of touch or hearing, only countless fungal cells emanating spiritual energy, all spirituality converging at the central mimicry brain, forming the consciousness of the fungal leaf-shaped Yang.
"To truly understand myself as a fungus, I must first abandon myself as a human being —"
Ye Yang frowned, looking somewhat uncomfortable.
Looking down, he saw countless mycelia of the third clone, including the mimic brain, all of which were now flaming with white flames.
That wasn't flame; it was just a large amount of spiritual energy emanating from his martial arts essence as it refined his third clone.
"The conflict has finally begun."
Ye Yang could only endure the discomfort and activate the power of the "Trinity" divine ability to transform into a clone form.
A pool of mycelium quickly melted and contracted, transforming into chunks of flesh. With the help of the true meaning, it then transformed into eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, returning to human form.
"Replenish your vital energy, then continue."
The two Ye Yangs looked at each other, sharing the same thought, but talking to themselves.
One of them took out rare and precious materials, while the other silently accepted them and refined them, integrating them into his body.
Having briefly experienced the sensations of being in a fungal form, it was indeed difficult to accept. However, Ye Yang knew he had to break through his preconceived notions once again and embrace this new identity.
After silently replenishing itself, the third clone once again used the power of the "Trinity" technique, transforming into a fungal form.
This time, the true meaning of martial arts is not an aid, but an obstacle!
In the second brief experience, the fungus caused Ye Yang's entire body to ulcerate, and then it transformed back into human form.
The third time — the fourth time —
Ye Yang hadn't even used up all the knowledge he had accumulated last time, but now, with each attempt to understand the form of fungi, he felt his incredibly solid true meaning gradually loosening and crumbling, while a new realm of thought was also brewing.
The fifth round of true meaning nirvana was what Ye Yang left for his third clone.
However, it now seems that a single true rebirth may not be enough to fully adapt to the primordial fungus, a unique life form that is constantly changing and evolving at a high speed.
The original strains are incredibly adaptable!
In human form and the original Golden Horned Beast form, it is easy to understand one's own talents and abilities and form a stable understanding.
However, the original strain was different. Ye Yang discovered that its life potential was limitless, as if it had stolen the most essential evolutionary power of life. In various environments, its performance always exceeded his expectations.
Ye Yang's understanding of the initial formation of the original strain has become a constraint, holding him back!
In fact, for primitive microorganisms, consciousness, intelligence, and cognition are merely means of adapting to the environment, abilities that have evolved to help them survive and develop better.
If you need it, then mimic the brain and increase your intelligence.
Without it, one returns to chaos and ignorance, and everything reverts to instinct!
In many cases, the original strains that have completely returned to their instincts are the strongest form, having lost all constraints!
On the contrary—
Ye Yang, born as a sentient being with intelligence, has self-awareness as his primary quality, which he cannot relinquish.
This means that, theoretically, the limit of fungal leaf eclipse is always one step lower than the purest fungal community.
This is merely the theoretical upper limit; with Ye Yang's current understanding, he cannot even touch that limit. Simply accepting this entirely new and different understanding is already incredibly difficult.
"The 8,627th time —"
Ye Yang changed his form thousands of times, gaining entirely new experiences, and finally formed a self-awareness system based on a microbial community consciousness with a mimicry brain!
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the microbial community's form, but it is the existence that Ye Yang can accept to the greatest extent at present, a compromise between body and consciousness.
Ye Yang finally accepted himself as he was: besides being a human and the first Golden Horned Beast, he was also a mushroom with a brain.
He immediately opened the illusory gates of the heavens with his consciousness, descended and devoured the world, and then his consciousness reacted against his true intention, reversing and inverting the order.
boom!
All the incarnations of the dungeons melted into the radiance of the Great Dao, leaving not a trace behind.
Under the special mechanism of the Gate of All Heavens, Ye Yang's consciousness lingered in an infinite void, an eternal moment.
"Life—infinite—"
He murmured something, and once again crossed the boundary between life and death, returning to the true meaning.
The fifth True Nirvana has been successfully completed!
Opening his eyes, he saw two Ye Yang statues standing facing each other.
The first clone is a human body, while the third clone is a humanoid form composed of a large number of interwoven and stacked black mycelium.
"Unfortunately, with my current abilities, this is the best I can do for now; I haven't been able to control the complete fungal form."
Ye Yang said with some regret.
The complete form of fungi is the most primitive and savage, lacking a mimicry brain and completely driven by instinct—the will of the fungal community!
From the entire microbial community down to a single fungal cell, everything is perfectly governed by the will and instincts of the microbial community.
Without the need for a brain or thought, through endless adaptation and evolution, all answers are recorded in instinct, which is also the form closest to the chaotic essence of all things in the universe.
However, although he couldn't do it now, Ye Yang knew he would have another chance in the future.
The infinite plasticity of the original strain meant that the only limitation for Ye Yang was his own perception, and this perception could be overturned and started over.
"Quantitative change can lead to qualitative change. My current fungal body is still too small. And without a mimicry brain, it is purely an abstract will formed by the collective mental power of countless fungal cells."
"If the size is large enough, and the gathered spiritual power is sufficient to contain my complete consciousness, then I will be able to attempt to control the fungal form without relying on a mimicry brain!"
While thinking, Ye Yang of Fungi artificially selected and guided the hyphae to evolve in a specific direction.
Through thousands of previous attempts, he had already figured out the most fundamental talent of the original strain.
Abilities like parasitism and mimicry are simply characteristics of the mycelium as a life form.
Just as the Demon Slayer race is an energy life form without a soul and is therefore not afraid of soul attacks, these are not talents, but life characteristics.
Primitive strains generally possess three inherent qualities:
1. Mutation.
Fungal cells can undergo completely random mutations based on an existing life spectrum! Trillions of cells divide and mutate wildly within an extremely small area, with most dying. But if even a single cell mutates in the correct direction, that result will rapidly spread throughout the entire fungal community!
2. Latent.
Fungal cells can actively conceal a portion of their genetic information, either by not expressing it or by actively exiting the recessive state and beginning to express it.
What is manifested is that a cell that possesses both the "human" and "primordial bacterial" life substances can express only the "human" life substances, split into human cells, and give birth to a life form that is no different from other humans!
When needed, the countless cells of this person will stop expressing the life substances of the human and begin to express the life substances of the primordial bacteria.
It transforms back into countless mycelia.
3. Reverse transcription.
At the cost of losing a portion of the cells' reverse transcription ability, these cells replicate the genetic material of another life form into their own life material.
It's like "copying" someone else's source code and inserting it into your own.
Clearly, for this talent to succeed, the strength of the copied object must be within the range that the body's cells can withstand.
Ye Yang estimated that if they were to devour the world, it would become a contest of life gene multipliers.
What Ye Yang is doing now is using his "mutation" talent to make a cluster of mycelium evolve in a specific direction, giving it higher activity.
"Wow, that was fast." In just over ten minutes, Ye Yang had obtained a clump of yellow mycelium.
These mycelia are incredibly active, and despite being relatively fragile, they are remarkably resilient!
"Normally, even if these mycelia are separated from me, they are still connected at the level of soul and are still a part of me. But if there is a distance between two worlds, the souls cannot connect, and with the mutation of the laws, it has a completely new possibility."
As Ye Yang spoke, he threw the "Pathfinder" into the Devouring World.
This time, he will directly create primordial bacteria that can adapt to the environment of the world's laws!
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