A day later, a huge imperial research institute had been hollowed out inside the World Tree, the symbol of civilization's greatest achievement.
The sages were arguing.
"Impossible!"
"I disagree with doing this. I don't think making brains in this shape can extend our lifespans!"
"I disagree even more with your human experiments! The brain blueprint we designed is the orthodox one!"
Simply put, these single cells had evolved to this stage, and at this moment, they finally became aware of an extremely serious problem: they had never had brains at all!
So they wanted to build a home for their souls.
Otherwise, if things continued like this, their consciousnesses would remain attached to their cells like wandering ghosts, gradually dissipating.
But they began to erupt into arguments over what shape their brains should evolve into.
"The Holy Dragon's brain structure is correct! That is God's revelation to us! An Integrated Consciousness brain is the inevitable result of our evolution!"
"What? Are you insane? Do you know what this means?
"Leaving aside whether it will succeed, even if it can be done, are you planning to string the brains of tens of thousands of our people together?
"Collective consciousness—will we still be ourselves?
"If we can become the dominant consciousness within it and devour the consciousnesses of others to form neurons, wouldn't that mean that, in order to survive, one person would have to devour tens of thousands of their fellow tribesmen?"
"Yes, that's a lunatic idea. It should be forbidden!"
"I believe the normal path is to evolve a normal brain capable of housing biological consciousness. Having a proper vessel for the soul is the upright and proper solution!"
"No! Our Integrated Consciousness brain is God's revelation! The Holy Dragon is proof! God deliberately sent down the Holy Dragon so that we could imitate its structure!"
"No! Our normal consciousness brain is God's revelation! The sand-and-dirt behemoths larger than the Mite Behemoth are proof! God deliberately sent down those armored behemoths from the sand so that the mortals on earth could imitate their brains!"
"We're the ones with proof of the Divine Oracle!"
"We're the true revelation from God to the mortals on earth!"
Both sides flew into a rage.
The man insisted he was right, and the woman insisted she was right.
Everyone felt that their own side possessed God's true guidance and that they should research their own kind of brain!
They even went to find the emperor.
The emperor did not know what to do either, so he went to find the pope.
The pope was just as stumped. Only now did he suddenly realize, "We didn't have brains? We can die?"
He was very capable when it came to preaching through intrigue, playing politics, and caring for his subjects with a gentle spring breeze. But when faced with these matters, he was completely bewildered, so he went to find the Holy Dragon.
The Holy Dragon, however, was a pig. It had a cute and docile personality but disliked thinking. It ate and slept, slept and ate, and was just as confused. It wanted to contact the God of Light, but discovered that it had no means of contacting him on its own.
The entire meeting ended in discord.
The sages were no longer of one mind. Differences in their beliefs had caused factions to emerge, and they began forming groups to research their own brain structures.
Soon.
One sage secretly gathered several small groups and began conducting evil life experiments in secret.
They secretly captured a commoner, altered his structure, and added a large number of pain nerves, transforming his body into something incomparably sensitive and succulent. Then they began continuously tormenting the commoner's mind.
Fifteen hours later.
The commoner died from excruciating pain. His soul died, and his brain was dead.
These engineers witnessed it with their own eyes: the birth of a Muck Monster.
The immortal single-cell corpse seated in the driver's seat began crawling unconsciously after losing its soul. It devoured his exoskeleton armor—Fish—and reproduced chaotically on its own. This cancer cell spread throughout the body, devouring normal cells.
Fish turned into a pool of disgusting, Lovecraftian Muck Monster mermen, constantly writhing.
"A Demonic Beast! A Demonic Beast!"
The group of engineers kept retreating in terror. "Is this what our immortal bodies will look like after our consciousnesses die? In the end, will we all turn into monsters?"
Crack.
The door opened.
Several sages from other factions barged in. "You actually conducted such an evil act in secret? You killed a commoner to study his body after death? Arrest them at once!"
The other side flew into a rage as well. "You're so devious. Did you learn that from Atabia? Lying in wait for us? I'd like to see who dares arrest us!"
Li Qing rose with the sun and rested with its setting.
After breakfast, he did not go to the Crystal Wall's floor-to-ceiling window at the usual time to wait for the pope to send him information.
Instead, he began a new way of observing civilizations:
He possessed the sleeping Holy Dragon's consciousness, sat in a chair, and leisurely looked over the latest reports.
Li Qing pondered the recent information and found it very interesting.
I told you to properly overcome cancer cells, but you took the whole topic off course and started debating whether you even have brains.
As expected of engineers—they could draw inferences from one example.
He continued observing, a strange smile rising at the corners of his mouth.
"Pretty impressive. You captured people, evolved pain nerves in them, and then tortured their consciousnesses to death. After they died, they actually turned into a kind of chaotically reproducing immortal cancer cell?"
Their ability to act was astonishing.
But Li Qing did not know what kind of brain would be more useful, either.
After thinking about it, he decided that their ideological dispute was not bad. In any case, they only needed to remember to develop a cure for cancer.
Even so.
Li Qing not only refused to enlighten the people on the ground, but also increased their workload.
After leaving, he descended a Divine Oracle upon the Holy Dragon in a dream:
1. Have them develop a cure for cancer.
2. While they were at it, optimize the Tower of Babel technology and complete the genetic Life Blueprint for an elven giant god.
Li Qing's requirements were not high. It only needed to be about as good as the Emperor of Atabia from back then.
A severe patient with muscle atrophy who panted after walking two steps would do. The main thing was that it had to look beautiful and be intimidating.
When he first saw it, with its pointed ears, green hair, and tall, perfect figure, it had looked exactly like the perfect mythical creature from a movie, and he had immediately wanted one.
He was not a conventional man. He was a burly man who liked collectible figures.
His previous plan to create a little dragon had failed, but now that there was ready-made technology, how could he not make a life-sized humanoid collectible?
And of course, it was not because he was lonely in real life and wanted to find himself a doll.
He wanted to create a remotely controlled elven avatar so he could go out and play at being mysterious and supernatural. After all, when it came to making money from cancer treatments, he could not exactly go out in person.
The Elven Race of mythology happened to fit the local myths.
People believed in that sort of thing!
He could try setting up a storyline: a modern beautiful heiress encountered an Ancient Elven Race traveler from the [Otherworld], and the elf, moved by the wealthy woman's kindness, cured her cancer, then symbolically charged her a few dozen kilograms of gold—a movie plot.
The specific details still needed to be refined.
If he could add some Blood Race, dragon race, Devil Race, and God of Light elements, increasing the atmosphere of mystery and making the elf's arrival seem even more enigmatic, that would be ideal.
Rich people, after all.
Under the fear of death, it was perfectly normal for them to believe in gods and ghosts. Besides, they had watched so many Marvel movies, so there was probably something to work with.
He could casually fool them a little more: as long as they had enough Contribution Points, they might one day obtain Half-Elf bloodlines and live forever. Naturally, they would become fanatical.
Money was one aspect. Influence was another.
Ultimately, he still lived on this planet. He was a piece of Tang Monk's flesh. If he did not want to be discovered and placed on a dissection table, he had to make preparations before trouble arose, finding a way to protect and conceal himself.
Establishing an "Umbrella Medical Company" to secretly protect and escort the mastermind behind the scenes—himself—and serve him by providing the resources and materials needed to create worlds was the most important thing.
"Since this world doesn't have the Umbrella Corporation that Ning Guochang mentioned, the one that researches the Zombie Virus, I'll establish an Umbrella Medical Company myself."
"I'll recruit elites, tycoons, and geniuses from every field. Three or four peripheral members will be enough at the beginning! They'll be free. As long as they have enough Contribution Points, they can exchange them for things from the [Otherworld], bloodlines of various powerful races, lifespans, and miraculous medicines. If they can think of it, I can make it up."
"Furthermore, as long as their Contribution Points are high enough, those three or four people can even 'leave' Earth and travel to the various Multiverse Crystal Walls—the [Otherworlds]—to begin new lives."
"The only restriction placed upon them is that they cannot leak a single word of information to the outside world, because of the Three Corpses Brain God Pill."
With a rough plan in place, a secret organization that served him and advanced the progress of civilization began to take shape.
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