Creation, Destruction, and the Colossus Beyond the Crystal Wall

"Hey, it's me. Yeah, I haven't left yet. It's fine, let's get together again in a couple of days." Li Qing contacted several friends from school, obtained some basic instruments and tools, set up a small laboratory in his room, blinded the experimental mice so they would not look around, implanted crystal cores into their flesh, and observed whether the mice would be possessed...

Over the following days, he repeatedly experimented and tested for hidden dangers.

Whoosh, whoosh.

Late at night, heavy rain suddenly began to fall outside.

Under the faint incandescent light of the crude laboratory, Li Qing made notes in his diary.

[First, the eyes. Before fully mastering this power, the eyes are uncontrollable. Seeing microorganisms will awaken their intelligence.]

Ning Guochang had already provided a solution: he could wear specially made eye patches to forcibly keep his eyelids shut, then put on sunglasses outside them to conceal the abnormality. That would basically prevent accidents.

As for being unable to see?

That was not a problem.

Ning Guochang had kept his eyes closed throughout their conversation, yet he could still see. It was probably a kind of spiritual Mind's Eye.

Li Qing's gaze shone brightly as he continued writing:

[Next is the sterile workshop he left behind.]

[Although he took most of them away to self-immolate, there may still be remnants of Kaihui's civilized kingdom inside. Calling it a microscopic universe would not be an exaggeration.]

[A civilization may already be developing within it—the Kingdom of Atabia? I don't know what forms of life or systems exist in there, but in any case, Pangu, who split heaven and earth apart, is dead. The civilization he created must be dealt with!]

After writing this, Li Qing rubbed his forehead.

"If I took the benefits, I have to shoulder the obligations. I need to destroy that workshop laboratory, but this mess won't be easy to clean up."

Ning Guochang had built that workshop with the compensation money from his parents' car accident. He had not cut any corners: high-grade bulletproof glass, steel plates welded shut around the walls, completely sealed.

But so what?

He could not simply leave it unchecked.

As that civilization developed, it would certainly try to seek out the boundaries of its "round heaven and square earth," and it might very well evolve powerful acids capable of corroding a passage out of the workshop.

He could not allow the civilization to escape the laboratory.

Who knew what sort of civilization it would eventually become?

If it got out of the lab, it might be zombies, xenomorphs, Predators, Godzilla, Ultraman...

And how to deal with it was another complicated problem.

Set off a bomb and blow the workshop apart? Burn the room with gasoline?

This was the USA. Setting aside the matter of him going to prison, that might help them escape and grant them freedom.

Open a small hole and shine Ultraviolet Radiation inside? Spray alcohol mist? Toss firecrackers in there? Exterminate the biological civilization within?

Each of these world-ending hypotheses required practical testing.

Li Qing rubbed his temples, feeling somewhat troubled.

At the same time, starving them to death was impossible.

Ning Guochang had secluded himself and lived inside for so long that he had already stockpiled enormous quantities of supplies: canned food, instant noodles, sausages, military rations. The water itself was a giant Petri Dish, and those bacteria had no shortage of energy at all.

The next morning.

Li Qing began preparing for a minor operation.

The moment the crystal core was implanted, an immense tearing pain erupted from his brain. At the same time, it felt as though countless Consort Rongs were jabbing needles into his eyeballs over and over.

More than half an hour passed.

His bedsheets were drenched in sweat. He barely managed to crawl up, roll his dry eyeballs around, and make his way to the bathroom mirror. He could not help saying:

"So beautiful."

His eyes were brimming with life. They seemed to contain the stars of the night sky, possessing an endless pull that drew one's gaze inward.

They did not look like human eyes at all.

His pupils were enormous, with almost no visible whites, like the disproportionately large pupils of a two-dimensional manga character.

His vision had also surpassed ordinary human 5.0 vision by far. His eyeballs seemed filled with countless new cone cells, like an eagle's 10.0 eyes, allowing him to easily spot a rabbit ten kilometers away.

The next instant.

Almost instinctively, his two eyeballs stretched out of their sockets like writhing deep-sea worm tubes, inspecting their surroundings like snails.

At that instant, his vision was unsealed, observing the world like an almost 360-degree panoramic camera.

"Holy shit!"

Li Qing was so frightened that he immediately squeezed his eyelids shut.

Yet there was no agonizing pain like a door crushing his eyeballs. His eyes automatically slipped back into their sockets, and then his eyelids closed over them as though by instinct.

"These giant eyeballs are fucking ridiculous!"

Li Qing sat back down on the bed and gave his nerves time to settle.

Complaints aside, as a psychologist, his mental fortitude was naturally not low.

From the moment he made up his mind, he had already planned to stop being human.

After all, humans had limits—especially bottom-rung workers like him, the kind you could grab a whole handful of anywhere.

"These eyeballs are nothing. They actually feel pretty cool." Li Qing got to his feet, went to the lab bench, and began testing his true ability. His eyes instinctively magnified, magnified, and magnified again.

Click.

A microscopic world beneath the microscope appeared before him.

Countless microorganisms crawled densely within it.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

After observing them for more than a minute, it was as though they had been crazily stimulated by the mysterious rays of some bizarre creature.

The bacteria suddenly seemed to gain intelligence. They began to move with soft rustling sounds, inspecting their surroundings like newborn infants.

"These Single Cells really came alive!"

"Ning Guochang only needed three seconds. I'm still very weak, yet I need to stare for more than seventy seconds before I can [Awaken] microorganisms and give rise to consciousness?"

He tried to control them.

After that, Li Qing spent an entire day researching, conducting experiments with all kinds of variables.

He completely understood his ability.

1. [Awaken] microorganisms.

His gaze contained an unknown, spiritual, evil radiation Light Ray. He had to continuously shine it upon and stare at them for over seventy seconds before he could awaken their intelligence.

For now, it only worked on bacteria. Other viruses, and even various cells, would not work.

2. Control quantity.

Currently: 0.000013 grams.

Any amount exceeding his control limit would gain freedom. He would be unable to locate or sense them, leaving them beyond his control.

After repeated tests confirmed that both points were absolutely effective, Li Qing finally stopped worrying.

"I can start building my guard force."

Li Qing also found a specially made test tube the size of his pinky finger. It was filled with culture solution, and a colony of microorganisms had long been multiplying within.

He opened his eyes again.

Seventy seconds.

After awakening the intelligence of all the microorganisms inside, he closed his eyes again and sealed the special test tube.

Thus, a sealed microscopic test-tube universe was formed.

Li Qing hung the glass vial around his neck. He could take it out at any time to observe it, and he was not afraid of accidentally smashing it. Tempered Glass was not so easily damaged.

At this moment, the tiny creatures around his neck sent out simple consciousness.

"So warm." "God is watching us." "So comfortable." "Did you give us life?"

They were all gentle, innocent infant Consciousness Waves.

"Yes, I gave you life. I created you. Hurry and build your miniature kingdom." Li Qing sent Consciousness Waves to the small vial around his neck without any pretended awkwardness.

Moral education had to begin in the cradle.

Look at Ning Guochang.

He was the negative example: born but never taught, and he ended up raising a pack of rebellious brats.

As for the development of their civilization beyond education, Li Qing planned to let nature take its course and observe the evolution of these tiny Single Cell embryos.

How should he put it?

It was like watching a pet egg hatch in a raising game.

These cells would build a [Cellular Civilization], continuously alter their genetic fragments, and might even evolve into advanced mammals—dogs, cats, lions, humans. Perhaps they would evolve into elves, dragons, qilin, or all sorts of other things.

By then, dusk had arrived.

Li Qing finally turned his attention to the outside world:

"I've tested the superpower here, and I've created a world in the test tube as well. We'll see what species appear later. Now I need to go to Ning Guochang's sterile workshop and carry out some targeted world destruction..."

More than ten minutes later.

He put on sunglasses and drove to Ning Guochang's former house. Through the enormous Tempered Glass window, he peered inside again.

This time, he could finally see the sterile workshop world through Ning Guochang's eyes.

Special biological mushroom houses stood one after another, forming a dreamlike fairy-tale forest. Within it, traffic flowed endlessly. It was magnificent, vast, and spectacular... This was a civilized world!

Moreover, the creatures inside were actually all humanoid!

Semi-transparent slime humans, using four flagella as limbs, with a winding genetic sequence curled like intestines inside their transparent bellies—they had an eerie Lovecraftian aesthetic.

"Humanoid fungal species? This is insane. Is their remaining microscopic kingdom civilization really that exaggerated?"

He did not dare look for too long.

After all, if he exceeded seventy seconds, another accident might occur. He immediately picked up the Electric Welding tool he had prepared. "I'll weld a small opening into the door first. Only then can I spray alcohol inside to sterilize it."

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The welding began.

Streak after streak of golden lightning flickered beyond the world.

A high-frequency roar erupted.

Together with enormous heat, like the eruption of a massive volcano, it instantly burned the nearby inhabitants to death.

The people of more than half the Kingdom of Atabia blankly raised their heads. Amid the boundless clouds and mist where the sizzling lightning burst forth, a vast and towering giant god stood, looking down upon their world.

"What is that?!" some citizens cried out.

It was an unimaginably bloated, obese colossus. Beyond the chaos outside the world's crystal wall, it was surrounded by endless lightning and molten lava.

"A giant beyond the wall!"

"Another god! The one who once spoke with our missing Creator God!"

"This is an Evil God, come with malicious intent! The citizens in that region were instantly reduced to charred husks amid the demon's electric arcs and terrifying tearing sounds!"

All the citizens were stunned. They ran out of their homes and looked at the vast, horrifying thing beyond the Wall of Atabia. It towered high and majestic, its full form impossible to see.

"Kingdom Guard, deploy! To the front lines!" A tall hero stepped forward. Seeing the people die, he was overwhelmed with grief and fury as he roared, "The Evil God beyond the heavens is invading our nation! We Atabians are brave warriors, not cowards! Just as we did back then, we must crush these vast giant gods!"

Sizzle, sizzle.

Under the Spectating eyes of the multitude, a cavalry force rushed over, yet Li Qing paid them no heed.

He continued drilling an opening the size of a finger into the door.

They could not approach at all. The thousand-degree flames from the welding were enough to destroy any microorganisms near the small opening. Then Li Qing welded a specially prepared high-precision piston switch onto it.

From now on, that small hole would be the sole passage connecting the room to the outside world.

In any case, he would rather die than enter personally.

Then he connected an enormous alcohol spray tube directly to the opening. Carrying an alcohol tank on his back, he began pumping gas through the pipe. "Bacteria, intelligent Single Cells, please do not alter your genes or continue evolving. Please drink your medicine and follow your ex-husband into destruction."

Gurgle, gurgle!

Massive amounts of atomized alcohol sprayed into the room.

The mist transformed into a wave of frigid air that swept inward, gradually condensing until it ultimately became a torrential downpour.

The kingdom hero who had led his troops toward the entrance was the first to bear the brunt of it. A terrifying tide of death instantly corroded the entire force. It was as though they had encountered the most dreadful acidic substance; their corpses rotted away, leaving no flesh behind.

"That is???"

The citizens of the entire Single Cell kingdom stared in horror at the distance. "That was Gerhans, the great hero who conquered nature and defeated the Mite Behemoth! How could he be killed in an instant?"

Whoosh, whoosh!

The torrential rain finally poured down in full force, surging with the mist of death.

A tsunami swept across this prosperous land.

It instantly engulfed countless creatures. Forests of fungal vegetation shaped like brachiopods, horsehair worms, and coral reefs suffered catastrophic destruction.

Thunder, golden light, lightning, floodwaters.

"God is punishing All Living Beings upon the earth, destroying this world." An Atabian watched the sky tear open as vast white floods of mist descended from above. In agony, he prostrated himself and begged, "We pray for the gods' forgiveness!"

Wails, screams, suffering, despair, mournful cries, furious roars—the mushroom cities across the land were thrown into chaos. All Living Beings fled, racing from the cities atop flagellar mounts, yet they could not outrun the floodwaters that blotted out the sky behind them. The entire world became a kingdom of death and despair.

Rumble!

All Living Beings upon the earth were corroded into rotten ruin, swept by the floodwaters into the distance.

Before dying, they saw that Evil God beyond the crystal wall. With enormous eyes like blazing furnaces, it coldly overlooked the entire world. Then, carrying incomparable pressure, it slowly turned and departed, uttering the mad ravings of an Evil God—words no Atabian could ever produce or understand.

"Ultraviolet Radiation tomorrow."