Mysterious Radiation Wave

At this moment, the amphibious land-and-air sprinkler car on his neck—a crude Dragon—emitted warm light spots, pleasant little stars, as if some of it was being absorbed by his mental power.

This feeling was very strange!

If he had to make a comparison, it was like the feeling of his [Awakening] on them, and now they were [Awakening] him in return.

"What's going on?"

Li Qing was startled.

Recently, he had been experimenting daily with this stitched-together Dragon in a bottle-universe:

He stared at them every day.

Even though they had already Awakened, he still tried to continue to [Awaken] them, to see what changes would occur if they were nurtured to a certain extent.

Seventy seconds were enough for Awakening, but he forcibly stared at them for twenty minutes every day. This experiment had only lasted a week, and now this mutation had occurred.

"What's going on?" Li Qing asked the Vassal guards on his neck.

"Ah, I don't know~~"

A simple and cute consciousness wave came back.

Li Qing fell silent on the spot!

Inside the Dragon's mind, there were countless single-celled pilots. Usually, when he asked this group of little cuties, they would all start talking at once.

But now, there was only one voice in the test tube!

There was only one life left inside.

Since they were his core Vassal troops, he wasn't worried about rebellion. He directly opened the test tube and poured out the life form that was the size of a large ant.

"Ah? What is this?"

The little cutie's voice was full of confusion.

He wiped the platform with alcohol, spread the ant on it, and picked up a delicate and sharp hook knife:

"Don't move, let me see your brain, let me see what's going on inside. Where did the other brain pilots go!"

"Ah~ Oh~~"

"Ah~ Oh~~"

"I can open it myself~~"

It emitted a strange, dazed, and cute conscious sound.

Li Qing realized that he didn't need to cut it open; the other party was very cooperative.

Its brain split open directly.

Under microscopic observation, Li Qing discovered that the original group of pilot cells had all connected into one mass within the brain, forming a pomegranate-like structure made of gemstones.

"They've undergone a secondary Awakening, becoming an integrated consciousness??"

Li Qing was surprised.

Inside the brain, the single cells had connected into a single piece, like composite neurons.

Next, Li Qing began to test it.

He discovered that after becoming an integrated consciousness, the intelligence of this large conscious entity hadn't skyrocketed. There was no situation where three ordinary people could outsmart a genius. However, its computational thinking in certain aspects had soared.

Its thinking speed was very fast, likely due to the integrated consciousness.

"This is too interesting!"

Li Qing was somewhat delighted. "I even feel that as long as it develops admiration and worship towards me, it can emit some mental power to feed back."

He immediately realized what was happening.

This was the original ability of the Zombie Lord!

Ning Guochang had mentioned that in his parallel world, as a mentally controlling Zombie Tyrant, the subordinate zombie life forms he controlled would provide him with mental feedback.

But in this world, Ning Guochang thought this power had disappeared because single cells couldn't feed back to him.

Now, it occurred to him that the ability hadn't disappeared.

It was just that the consciousness of single cells was too weak; it required a true, large-scale Vassal life form to provide feedback.

"Thinking about it this way, I feel like I can see a path to becoming stronger. Finally, I'm a qualified Zombie Tyrant."

Li Qing pondered.

"It's just a shame that there's a limit to the number of Vassals I can control."

"Currently, it's 0.00078 grams, and one integrated consciousness already occupies a portion of the control quota. The consumption is too high! I estimate that creating just over ten of them would consume all my Vassal slots."

This was not worth the gain.

It was better to disperse them among the high echelons of the church, making it convenient to rule the world as a behind-the-scenes manipulator.

However.

Li Qing was quite excited.

If the Zombie Lord's abilities haven't truly disappeared, doesn't that mean I can still use them?

Li Qing recalled the abilities Ning Guochang had described.

As a Zombie Tyrant Lord who had occupied Phoenix City, he had terrified the surrounding survivor camps. The power to control Vassals wasn't simple.

First, Vassal Perspective.

The controlled zombies would become the Zombie Tyrant's eyes and ears.

Second, Consciousness Descent.

Consciousness would temporarily link with a zombie, descending into the controlled zombie.

"Let me try it first." Li Qing frowned slightly, staring at the Dragon, his consciousness slowly probing into it.

Crack.

The next moment, Li Qing felt as if he had entered the body of this stitched-together Dragon, observing its movements from a first-person perspective.

"Ah, Father is by my side."

The other party seemed to sense Li Qing's consciousness attaching itself to him.

Li Qing discovered it was indeed possible!

He continued to adjust the consciousness ratio, and eventually, the Dragon's consciousness no longer noticed Li Qing peeking. It couldn't sense his presence at all.

From now on, he could peek whenever he wanted.

He began to attempt the next operation: controlling the body.

"Ah, no, it hurts, no..."

The other party's consciousness was resisting instinctively.

Li Qing entered the consciousness and manipulated the body, finding it incredibly fun.

He was like a child with a new toy, pressing buttons on a remote control, constantly playing with the toy car – forward, backward, swimming, spraying water.

Through repeated tests, Li Qing discovered that his control range was even shorter than that of a third-rate remote-controlled car.

Beyond ten meters, his consciousness became blurry, and he couldn't distinguish between people and animals in his vision.

Beyond fifteen meters, the connection was completely lost.

This WIFI signal was ridiculously weak.

After a series of tests, Li Qing stroked his chin and concluded, "This is too pathetically weak."

He remembered the Zombie Lord abilities Ning Guochang had told him about.

The signal emitted was a special wave, covering a range of forty li, comparable to a ground base station, easily transmitting commands to its Vassals and inciting zombie hordes!

As an intelligent zombie, he had even easily deciphered WIFI and various signals, intercepting military information.

Yet, after mutating in his hands, it had become as ridiculously weak as Telekinesis lifting a wisp of cotton!

He was clearly a control-type Zombie Lord, yet controlling a small ant, beyond ten meters, it would instantly twitch, and he couldn't distinguish between people and animals in its vision. His remote-controlled toy car was more agile.

However, it wasn't all bad. The Crystal Core had mutated during its journey through time, weakening its abilities by several thousand times in all aspects, but also increasing its precision by several thousand times. Now, it could even turn single-celled bacteria into Vassals.

He remembered hearing about Ning Guochang's cause of death in a parallel world.

He had attacked a survivor base, and the military, along with a group of scientists, had deciphered his signal waves and even interfered with his frequency bands. As a result, the zombie horde he had incited within a forty-li radius went out of control. His core guard team lost contact and couldn't return to defend, leading to an enemy decapitation strike.

Li Qing had found it incredibly ingenious at the time. Writing a doomsday novel from the perspective of a villainous Zombie Lord, what a concept. If that zombie king also collected wives, school beauties, and CEOs, it would really hit the mark.

But if it were true now...

Li Qing could only chuckle, "He was too complacent. No wonder he was surrounded and annihilated by the military."

He thought that if the Ning Guochang of that parallel universe, as a Zombie Lord, had established a laboratory, donned a white coat, researched his own signal waves, developed superpowers, and engaged in information warfare with the enemy, constantly improving himself, adjusting, and evolving his consciousness wave frequency, would he have ended up like that?

Being a local tyrant who occupied a city and lived off his innate abilities, without rigorously researching his own powers, he was bound to stagnate like Shang Zhongyong.

"Anyway, once I have money, I'll establish a laboratory to research this signal wave, scientifically and based on evidence, probe my consciousness wave, and then evolve and transform it."

"I'm really too limited. It should be at least a hundred meters!"

Li Qing complained for a while. "If it were me, I would constantly research the controlled consciousness wave, maybe even create a new WIFI for my Vassals to connect to and be actively controlled by me."

"However, this Dragon becoming like this is quite interesting." Li Qing mused, "Now I can throw it in and use it as a medium for temporary descent, allowing myself to enter it."

From a giant's perspective, it was certainly not the same as viewing civilization from the perspective of a commoner.

With that, he organized all his plans and headed to the adjacent laboratory, intending to embark on a true "otherworld" exploration.