Beyond the world, Li Qing casually answered the Divine Oracle, then silently sensed that newly born batch of Integrated Consciousness lifeforms.
These artificially induced second [Awakenings] were unexpectedly just like the naturally second-[Awakened] Saint Dragons. At any time, he could possess them and observe them in secret, and at any time descend upon them and control them.
"My control has completely come together all at once."
Li Qing was pleasantly surprised.
Previously, he could only create one second-awakened dependent in an entire week.
Now, eight thousand had appeared in one breath.
He could even secretly possess these sages and "look on" through them, using each as his eyes to observe the entire world more conveniently, switching between his dependents' perspectives at will. It was simply too comfortable.
"The population has become sparse, though. Let's see what they'll do."
At this very moment.
The era truly began to move forward.
In a sense, all the previous eras had been crippled, incomplete eras.
They had no brains.
Only now had truly complete life emerged.
As second-[Awakened] new humans, every one of them possessed a neural-network lifeform formed from the fusion of forty thousand brain cells. They had forty thousand Integrated Consciousnesses, with themselves as the primary consciousness, and their computational power had reached a terrifying level!
Although it was not as exaggerated as increasing their processing speed forty thousandfold, it had still risen by several hundred times. Such immense computational power gave these programmers a qualitative leap when compiling and writing tedious lines of code.
Many programmers had experienced this:
Most of the time, it was not that their intelligence was insufficient—it was that writing strings of code was simply too annoying!
Now, they had solved this problem perfectly.
Looking at the rotting city, outside the church, the various Saint Positions spoke:
"There is no life left in the world. Only we remain. The world is too desolate, nothing but ruins, without a trace of vitality."
"Since we brought about the world's destruction, let us create the world."
"Exactly. We have been studying brains all this time. The subject our Lord gave us saints of the earth was to study the elven blueprints. Now it is time to complete it."
Soon.
They felt that their research had become incredibly easy.
"It's this simple!"
They laughed.
"Indeed. We compiled such a large stretch of genetic sequence with ease."
After this leap in life, igniting the Sacred Fire was like turning an abacus into a calculator. They were practically like the gods themselves, constantly creating, improving, and compiling the structure of the elves.
"They already have eyes, ears, mouths, and noses. Next, the elves' method of nourishment will use meat as their primary energy source, supplemented by radiation synthesis and photosynthesis, maximizing their absorption of solar energy and the natural power of sunlight."
"As for their size, let's set it at the size of our former human bodies."
"What about reproduction?"
"How about using the Tower of Babel technology?"
"Too slow. Creating them one by one would be downright foolish."
"Why not let them be born on the World Tree? We can modify the World Tree so that it bears fruit, with each fruit transforming into an elf."
"Not bad."
"This World Tree is perfect."
The saints soon stood at the summit of the World Tree, discussing endlessly and planning the future of the entire civilization.
If the Earth humans' related biological cloning technology during the era of building the Tower of Babel had still been able to see the tail end of it, then after their computational power increased, they had already left Earth's humanity hundreds of years behind.
Civilization had taken flight completely.
The fourth day.
The saints finally completed the project that had been stuck for more than half a month.
They created the first primitive elves of the first-generation version. Although they were stiff and their skin was as hard as wood, they possessed eyes, ears, mouths, and noses.
They transformed themselves into these primitive elves and no longer used Consciousness Waves to sense the world.
For the first time, they heard the world's subtle sounds.
For the first time, they smelled all kinds of scents, cried out with their own voices, and saw the colors of the world!
"We have become complete beings!"
They knew that this was a historic juncture!
On the seventh day of the new era.
Dissatisfied with the inefficient method of transmitting sound through their mouths, they began creating an entirely new genetic transmission technology:
Genetic storage.
Modern human code used binary zeroes and ones to become all forms of writing, numerical values, symbols, images, sounds, and video, interpreting all the information in the world.
They, however, began trying to use a genetic quaternary language, represented by 1, 2, 3, and 4, compiling, reading, writing, storing, and transmitting information in DNA.
Three days later.
They succeeded again.
For them, who were proficient in genetic compilation technology, converting it into code was as natural as water flowing downhill.
They built the simplest language decoders into their bodies. Their communication now consisted of lightly pointing a finger at one another and shooting a strand of DNA into the other person. Through decoding, the recipient could receive images, films, and information.
A light point of the finger could transmit information.
This was already akin to the saints of mythology.
"This is an ability only a Saint Position can possess!" they communicated.
At this moment.
Their genetic-storage technology had matured, completely surpassing modern humanity's.
One had to know that in 2017, George Church, hailed as the founder of first- and second-generation gene-editing technology and the godfather of genomics, had likewise converted binary digital language into the four-base language of DNA, stored DNA in E. coli, and extracted it after dozens of generations of reproduction, reconstructing it into an animation of a horse running.
At the time, it had sent tremendous shockwaves and reverberations through the entire scientific field.
Compared with silicon, DNA was the ideal carrier for data storage. Ordinary physical storage devices often had a service life of less than ten years, while DNA could preserve genetic information intact for more than a hundred years, consuming only one hundred-millionth the energy of a flash drive.
Even more astonishingly, one gram of DNA could store 220 million high-definition films.
And in 2019, Huawei announced the establishment of a strategic research institute, which included research into DNA storage technology. It sought to use DNA storage to break through ultra-large storage-space models and coding technology, smashing through the capacity wall.
October 2022—just over a month ago.
A Chinese scientific research team had also achieved a breakthrough in biological storage technology, successfully storing ten high-definition Dunhuang murals in DNA.
Yet now, this civilization of biological technology had needed only ten days from beginning its study of genetic storage to reaching this point!
And this storage method was destined to become the indispensable foundational written technology of their biological civilization.
Outside the laboratory, Li Qing watched this scene, marveling inwardly:
"After passing through the cocoon-breaking transformation period, they've begun a second eruption of civilization."
"They're finally beginning to break away from the savage era and enter the information age. All kinds of outrageous biological technologies, like something from mythology, are beginning to appear."
Writing was the foundation of civilizational development. Documents allowed the wisdom of generation after generation to accumulate, letting those who came later stand on the shoulders of giants.
Humanity recorded history on stone tablets, giving rise to the earliest origins of human civilization, with records spanning more than five thousand years.
Earth recorded history in fossils within its strata, giving rise to the earliest records of biological evolution, with forty-six hundred million years of history preserved in the fossil murals of its geological layers.
The civilization before him, meanwhile, was recording history within its body through a quaternary language.
And this was merely their beginning.
Inside this laboratory room, they once again became fanatical sages of civilization, pursuing truth and exploring the laws of the world. They began copying their own structures, continued studying brains, and kept optimizing and shrinking the one-centimeter embryonic brain from before.
Unfortunately.
When the first version of the elves was fitted with this kind of brain, their intelligence was still somewhat low.
Even so, these scholars of the trees happily walked through this created earthly world, gazing at the various tribes, accepting the worship of the tribal people, and enlightening all living beings.
They experienced the delight of gods.
"The Tree of Life! It gave birth to us!"
"The sacred creators of heaven often walk among the human world."
Some foolish and wooden elves were hastened into adulthood as well, entering the Tribal Era and fervently worshiping the immense Tree of Life—the mother who gave birth to all living beings.
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