Life Alchemy, The Descent of God

"This shouldn't happen, this shouldn't happen. How can my mind be so foolish?"

"They have no ability to create at all. It feels like a large chunk of their souls is missing. Is it this mysterious domain of consciousness creation that we haven't touched yet?"

"There's a problem with how their brains are built."

The Emperor and the leaders of the two factions analyzed continuously.

They couldn't find the correct blueprints for the brain at all.

So, they simply stopped looking.

A life form consists of a brain and a body.

Researching the brain led nowhere, so they began to research the body.

The first generation of elves had green skin all over, were stiff and relatively hard, and had low light absorption efficiency.

The second generation elves had soft skin, nimble movements, green hair, and willow-like, semi-pliable branches. Their light absorption efficiency was high, already comparable to ordinary plants, although they still needed to eat a small amount of food daily.

With the combined efforts of their eight thousand saints, the body structure of the elves was pushed forward time and time again.

Common elf skeletal code, muscle code, accelerated growth code...

And other universal basic life codes became clear and transparent before their eyes.

At this moment.

Countless elves below were worshipping. Above the World Tree of Life.

These scholars shed their giant elven mecha shells, revealing their true forms: a humanoid shape made of forty thousand single cells.

Individually, these large-pixelated, bizarre humanoid wizards worked in this microscopic laboratory hall, visible only under a microscope. They held strange test tubes, conducting research.

These were specially made single-cell test tubes, each containing a segment of DNA.

These spherical, round-bottomed flasks were neatly arranged on transparent green cell walls. Within each cell bottle, a gene fragment floated, representing pupil color, skin color, muscle, bone... these codes.

"Hand me the number thirty-seven pupil color test tube, and the number forty-nine skin color test tube," the leader of the Human Reason Faction said calmly.

A wise man nodded, retrieved the two test tubes, and shook the short gene chains inside. "This ratio should be sufficient this time. The body of the third generation elf should be a truly perfect creation, incredibly stable and complete."

Now.

They had systematized the study of life genes.

And they called it "Life Alchemy"!

Just as Newton laid the foundation for the edifice of classical physics.

They had now entered a completely new field and laid the foundation for classical bio-alchemy.

"It's a pity. The [body] holds almost no secrets for us anymore, only the accumulation of new gene fragments remains. But the [brain] still cannot fully create true consciousness and soul."

The body could now be shaped at will, but the mysterious domain of the brain, the soul, was the most captivating part.

Their burgeoning civilization had stalled again!

They were once again in a period of stagnation, waiting for technological accumulation, constantly climbing, before they could finally leap over the dragon gate and usher in the next, third, great explosion of civilization.

Li Qing "observed" them holding flasks and conducting experiments, as if seeing the most primitive, evil sorcerers.

It was simply outrageous!

In Li Qing's words, "These guys were already so fierce when they didn't have brains, now they're going all out!!"

These bacteria, experimenting with combinations in "DNA cell bottles" in the biological realm, had entered the level of creation, completely surpassing the life forms on Earth.

But it wasn't enough!

Outside the laboratory, Li Qing gazed at the glass window from afar and suddenly showed a hint of curiosity:

"Let me add a little more fuel to the fire. You all have DNA memory, so how can you not have a DNA computer? Let me see what your limits are."

DNA computers appeared a long time ago. Some people simply had no idea how insane the cutting-edge technological race among modern human nations was.

They even thought that if it hadn't entered the stage of widespread civilian use, it didn't exist, and was just an urban legend.

On October 26, 2021, China's quantum computer research achieved another breakthrough. "Jiuzhang" and "Zuchongzhi" II were hundreds of trillions of times faster than supercomputers.

When the country could even develop quantum computers, DNA computers naturally existed as well.

DNA storage and DNA computation are currently the most promising biological research projects in life sciences.

In 1994, James Watson built the first DNA computer.

In 2004, a DNA computer emerged from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In 2009, in the United States, a bacterial computer was developed using E. coli.

In October 2011, in Great Britain, biological logic gates were developed using bacteria. Logic gates are the basic components of silicon circuits, meaning biological computers could be fully realized.

In theory, a 1.5 ml test tube could hold one trillion DNA computers, with a computing speed of one billion operations per second, and an energy consumption of only one billionth of traditional computers.

If successful, you could stick a band-aid on it and have a portable computer!

Although, in terms of size and computing power, these computers were still no match for the quantum computers next door, so the focus was currently more on quantum computers.

Now?

DNA memory sticks have appeared, so we can try out DNA computers.

Li Qing felt a surge of excitement, as if an unprecedented veil was being lifted. If any scientist were here, they would go mad!

"Since you're my people now, tell them the principles behind DNA computer technology. It's not that their technology isn't advanced enough, but rather they haven't had the idea, and don't even recognize the existence of computers."

At this moment.

The other wise ones were all researching, only the Holy Dragon was slacking off, sleeping in the church.

And in its dream, it received a Divine Oracle, a gentle figure bathed in radiance telling it some extremely profound prophecies.

At this moment.

The Holy Dragon summoned them and said:

"God says, humans who have lit the holy fire on earth, you may need a little revelation."

"God will bring the Apocalypse."

Soon, all the wise ones from every civilization gathered here.

Before the Crystal Wall, they prostrated themselves in worship and began to hold a church ceremony, calling for God's descent.

And below the World Tree, on some of its trunks, branches, and leaves, the elf tribes living there looked on.

"What are the gods worshipping?"

Although the beings who created them had never called themselves gods, in their eyes, they were already gods worthy of the name.

But now, the gods themselves were like them, worshipping a higher god.

Regardless of the stirrings in the primitive elf tribes.

Li Qing had prepared the setting for a lecture.

He hadn't been idle these past few days.

He had welded steel plates onto the entire living room.

Furniture?

Non-existent.

The entire living room was empty, enclosed by silver steel plate walls.

And considering that they no longer used psychic waves, having evolved eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, they could directly see Li Qing's vast and immense form. This was no small matter.

Gods should be mysterious and not to be looked upon directly.

So he prepared a super-strong flashlight, placing it behind his head and shining it at them, blinding their eyes, shrouding himself in a hazy golden Holy Light.

But hurting others ultimately hurts oneself.

To prevent himself from being blinded, Li Qing wore the sunglasses he always had on.

At this moment, he sat in his black executive chair, looking down through the glass window, preaching to them.

Rumble!

The entire world was illuminated.

Everyone saw outside the giant Crystal Wall: a God sat on a black throne, with countless silver chaos reflecting behind it. Infinite golden divine light emanated from its back, piercing through the Crystal Wall, sacred and glorious. The lush green forests and rivers of the entire land were brightly lit.

Let alone the mortals on the ground, even those at the Saintly rank felt their eyes were about to go blind under the combined effect of the silver steel plate walls' reflection and the strong flashlight, daring not to look directly at the deity.

Emperor Minis, in later generations, left behind his own description of that sacred scene, which he would never forget: "Before, we relied solely on consciousness waves to sense the gods in a black and white world. We never imagined that when we saw the colorfulness of the entire world, we would discover that the descent of God was so dazzling! Behind Him was a huge golden divine halo, emitting endless radiance. God cannot be looked upon directly!"

Li Qing watched them prostrate themselves on the ground with closed eyes, praying.

He felt a sense of satisfaction. This is exactly what I want, for you to not dare to look up. Then he began to organize his thoughts.

The things to be said were brief: the principles of logic gate circuits, the principles of modern computer hardware and software, and the basic principles and technology of DNA computers.

However, the expression could not be like that.

Circuit diagrams?

Logic gates?

Impossible to say it like that.

This was not Theology!

Outside the Crystal Wall, the walls were filled with endless silver reflected light. The God sitting on the throne of chaos spoke:

"These are exquisitely depicted Divine Rune patterns, containing the truths of the world."

"This is a scripture, drawing patterns, composing divine spells, and setting up formations. Magic circuits can become Divine Artifacts, nurturing Artifact Spirits within them."

While speaking superstitious words, he was giving a scientific lecture on computer principles, a complete guide to circuits.

To them, it was like being in a trance!

And the words that followed were even more enlightening, giving them a research direction and the key to opening that door.

God continuously spoke the truth, and at the end, left them with a passage that stirred their hearts:

"When you comprehend the truth and condense this kind of spiritual Divine Artifact, holding your exclusive Divine Artifact, you will become the lowest form of God!"

God!

Become gods.

Their hearts burned with fervor.

This was also the grand vision Li Qing had painted for them.

These fellows had already ruled this world, acting as if they wanted to call themselves gods, but fearing to offend the Outer Gods, they only dared to say "Saint."

If they really managed to create a biological computer and were given the motivation, what was wrong with calling themselves gods?

After Li Qing finished speaking to them, he left.

As expected, they went mad.

A day later, they began to imitate, creating the simplest logic gates, resulting in integrated circuits within biological bodies, which they called: Divine Runes.

Three days later, they built a simple calculator capable of ordinary computations, which they called: the first-generation Artifact Spirit, possessing rudimentary intelligence.

Six days later, they manufactured a simple computer that could assist in calculations, which they called: Divine Treasure Tool.

This was very scientific. A month later.

With continuous research, coupled with the various computer principles and data Li Qing provided, they finally succeeded.

They donned elven shells and, after transforming into elves, each created their own innate Divine Artifact. Some made theirs into crowns and wore them on their heads, some made theirs into scepters and held them in their hands, and some made theirs into necklaces and hung them around their necks.

"Incredible! Specific magic circuits can create a form of auxiliary intelligence, that's an innate Artifact Spirit! We have our own exclusive Divine Artifacts!"

They had embarked on a different path.

"We have become lesser gods!"

They shouted on the Tree of Life. Their intelligence experienced a secondary computational growth, and their civilization underwent a second great explosion.