Daily Life, Changes in the Body's Superpowers

At dusk, after spraying a round of alcohol, Li Qing returned home only at midnight.

"The distance is a little too far. It's inconvenient to observe the civilization's evolution and development in that world."

Li Qing began considering moving.

He had already planned to terminate his lease and return home anyway. Since this had happened, he might as well move closer to that workshop laboratory.

By his estimate, a single Great Flood might not completely wipe out that hospital room. After all, modern scientists in some country had already cultivated alcohol-resistant super bacteria in a laboratory years ago, adding bricks and mortar to bacterial freedom and diversity, filling the gap of no bacteria surviving in a Medical Alcohol environment. Humans had managed it—would those bacteria themselves be unable to cultivate such strains on their own?

So Li Qing planned to establish a revolutionary base and fight them head-on.

As for living in one of the rooms beside that sealed bedroom?

No.

Li Qing felt uncomfortable about it. It was inconvenient, and felt like living with a tiger. He had always been a light sleeper, and being a psychiatrist had kept him under tremendous pressure.

The next morning.

Li Qing had barely crawled out of bed when he started calling his friend. "Did you borrow it?"

"What, do you think I'm omnipotent Doraemon? How could it be that fast?" the other person grumbled. "This afternoon. This afternoon, alright? I'll get it for you."

There was nothing to be done. Li Qing admitted that he was being a little impatient. He just thought the sooner, the better. What if a Pillar Man escaped from the laboratory?

After hanging up, he went downstairs for breakfast.

He knew perfectly well that there was no right or wrong in this—only differing positions.

If they escaped, there really would be a huge problem. Once he wiped them out, he could build a controllable cell evolution pool. The one around his neck was the prototype.

Sigh. The road ahead was long and the burden heavy.

After breakfast, he drove near Ning Guochang's sterile workshop. He did not go inside, merely wandered around the vicinity.

After circling around for most of the day, he found a house not far away. This country was sparsely populated to begin with, and many suburban homes stood vacant. He quickly negotiated a lease.

The landlord was a kind, plump old lady. "Oh, you're a psychologist? You used to work at that psychiatric hospital in the city? Such a promising young man."

Doctors were among the highest-paid groups here. The old lady was quite the chatterbox, and seeing that Li Qing's circumstances were decent, she even wanted to introduce her daughter to him. Li Qing politely declined. He could not handle that kind of blind-date enthusiasm; somewhere in the dark, he had a premonition that he would end up taking over someone else's mess.

He soon began moving.

While he would not go as far as Ning Guochang and build a sterile workshop, he still tried to keep the furniture to a minimum and clean regularly. Otherwise, once his eyes completely became Microscope Eyes and he could see the microscopic world, the densely packed sight would be unbearable.

With no furniture, and a grown man with only a few clothes, the main things to move were the jars and containers for his new laboratory. After moving in, he bought a dishwasher and set it up at home.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The dishwasher began running.

It rinsed the dishes and chopsticks inside, cleaning this new forward base. By the time he had finished all that, the ultraviolet equipment still had not arrived.

Li Qing knew he could not rush it.

He began a new round of testing:

To stare directly at true terror!

He needed to stare continuously for seventy seconds before something happened. In other words, as long as he paid attention to blinking now, he would be safe...

He removed his blindfold, leaving on only his sunglasses, and stepped onto the street.

Walking through foreign streets where crowds flowed like water, blond, blue-eyed men and women passed by. Street performers entertained nearby, surrounded by Spectating crowds, while several young people practicing street running leaped around bridge pillars.

He activated his Microscopic Eye, and the entire world seemed to turn high-definition.

If the world had originally been like blocky 480p mosaic resolution, it instantly became 408,000p ultra-high definition.

What kind of world was this?

An indescribable Cthulhu-like distortion and evil.

The streets and humanity alike were covered in densely packed creatures, writhing like bacterial carpets, like a scene from the abyss of the Demonic Realm.

"How disgusting."

Having seen the true world beneath the surface, Li Qing put both hands in his pockets and watched people come and go on the street. Rather than showing fear, he fell into deep thought:

"If gods truly existed in this world, they could surely observe the microscopic like this too. Human women with pitted pores and densely packed little bugs crawling all over them—how could gods descend to earth and lay hands on such mortals?"

"The difference between gods and mortals is, in truth, a difference between species. Just as humans cannot lay hands on lizards."

He muttered speechlessly, "Come to think of it, if mortals were all these super-ugly men, how could Weaver Girl and the Third Holy Mother bring themselves to do it?"

But he himself was currently the same, covered head to toe in microorganisms.

By his own wild classification, he was at best a mixed-blood demigod: able to see the "real world," yet covered all over in the filth of the mundane world.

After all, humans relied on microorganisms to live.

An imbalance in gut flora alone could cause acute gastroenteritis.

An imbalance in facial flora alone could cause a breakout of insane acne.

Ever since human civilization had records, humans and microorganisms had always lived in symbiosis. Perhaps as human civilization developed, it would inevitably, at some point in the future—hundreds or thousands of years from now—allow humanity to evolve and completely cast off microorganisms?

After all, casting off the parasitism of microorganisms and becoming a spotless, pure body free of all grime was equivalent to casting off viruses.

As Li Qing thought, he could not help voicing a question from the depths of his soul:

"And in that sense, what exactly are people today?"

He was not pondering the ultimate philosophical question. He was thinking biologically: what was a human?

"We gave humans their definition, and we gave bacteria and microorganisms their definition. Perhaps bacteria plus humans are what truly make a complete modern human."

"The human body is an exquisite miracle. Humans and microorganisms are like the combination of 0 and 1 in a computer program."

"So when I shed the countless filths upon me, wash away every speck of dust, and become a truly independent, singular person, might I become the transcendent deity in Buddhist and Daoist teachings that has truly leaped beyond the human world?"

As he sorted through each piece of information, Li Qing grew somewhat excited. He felt that he had found his path.

—Remove the microorganisms from his body and become self-sufficient.

Next, he would continue his experiments, establish a microorganism civilization within this Test-Tube World hanging around his neck, and let them develop, evolve, and research technologies of self-evolution.

He wanted his body to evolve and break free from its dependence on microorganisms!

It was not merely for the Immaculate Golden Body, so he would no longer see densely packed creatures crawling inside his body. It was also for self-preservation!

As long as his body still depended on microorganisms, he would always have a hidden back door, vulnerable to accidents like Ning Guochang's.

"What a massive headache! I must plan every step with caution. One careless move, and I'll follow in the footsteps of death."

He suddenly laughed.

He really did have a big heart. He continued wandering this bizarre world's supermarkets, buying new daily necessities and looking at this fresh yet real world.

He had to enjoy this final time of farewell!

Because after some time, the duration for which he could gaze upon [Awakening] would inevitably shorten. Then he would have to seal his eyes completely, and he would no longer be able to see any of this.

He would also follow in Ning Guochang's footsteps and begin enduring psychological pressure.

What lay before him was learning how to relieve pressure. No one understood maintaining a healthy state of mind better than someone in his profession.

A mental breakdown was terrifying.

When psychological pressure became overwhelming, the mind made mistakes again and again, decisions went wrong, and in the end one brought about one's own destruction, just like Ning Guochang.

"Soldiers on the front lines suffer immense psychological pressure, so they relax by finding women. Should I find women from the bacterial flora to relieve mine? I can't. I can only bear the burden and march on alone for a while."

Li Qing wandered the streets for a while.

He discovered that perhaps because his Essence, Qi, and Spirit had transformed, even with sunglasses on, he drew noticeably more looks, and could hear sounds from farther away.

"That guy is wearing sunglasses, but he feels so handsome."

"His temperament is unbelievably good. Could he be some big star from China?"

"He isn't human, is he? He looks like he stepped out of a painting."

Quite a few female bacterial creatures with bizarre forms developed an inexplicable fondness for him.

Li Qing's expression turned strange.

His looks were merely somewhat above average. Although genetic evolution had indeed improved them a little.

But this was far too exaggerated.

"Ning Guochang seemed to mention that he hid away not only because he wanted to become a Celestial Dragon Person in a clean world, but also because some female monsters had improper designs on him?"

He could not help pondering the changes in his body again:

"Is it a hormone issue? Women instinctively pursue males with more perfect genes... Humans covered in microorganisms instinctively pursue deities of a higher life rank?"

"No wonder Cowherd stole the Fairy Maiden's clothes. Living abroad, I should protect myself too. I shouldn't hang clothes out on the balcony in the future either, in case I run into lovesick men and resentful women." He casually bought a hat and put on a mask, wrapping his entire head tightly.

Yet he found that the women on the street were still looking at him.

They were not drawn to his appearance. It was something deep in the unseen hormones, in their genes—mysterious beyond explanation. No wonder the old landlady had just tried to introduce her daughter.

At the same time, his pressure suddenly soared!

What beauties were these?

They were four-legged humanoid bacterial-carpet monsters covered in mites and microorganisms.

"No wonder Ning Guochang collapsed. If I had mysophobia and a fear of dense clusters, I'd collapse too!" Li Qing swept his gaze around, ignored several bold blond women who approached him, paid, and went home.

Women would only affect the progress of his biological genetic technology research.

Once he achieved a sterile body, the realm of the Buddha Golden Body where "all filth could not touch the body," and formed a protective halo of sterile vacuum around himself, then he could develop the technology for "sterile, clean, sweet young beauties" and discuss the topic of the opposite sex.

He returned home and found that the dishes and chopsticks in the large dishwasher had finished washing.

He took them out and examined them.

From a microscopic perspective, the dishes and chopsticks were remarkably clean.

"When Buddha sees a bowl of water, he sees eighty-four thousand insects; if one does not use this, it is like eating the flesh of living beings."

He sighed that he had made the right purchase. This was a divine tool. Once he had eaten and drunk his fill at dinner, he began preparing various experimental tools to study the test tube around his neck.

But he was quickly interrupted by a phone call.

Li Qing went out and saw his friend's car at an intersection. He knocked on the door, and the other person took out a tremendously heavy instrument shaped like a large flashlight.

His friend said smugly, "This is special equipment borrowed from the laboratory. Guaranteed to be powerful enough—shine it on skin for a while and it burns, shine it longer and Ultraviolet Radiation causes cancer."

Li Qing was stunned to hear that.

As expected of you, Doraemon.

Li Qing was also satisfied. He said he would treat him to dinner another day and they could keep drinking at restaurants.

After chatting for a while, Li Qing eagerly hurried toward the hospital room next door:

"I'd originally planned to check on my test-tube universe, but fine. The Purple Cloud Divine Lightning has arrived—shouldn't I chant an incantation? Mysterious lightning of the nine heavens, transform into divine thunder; resplendent heavenly might, summoned by this lamp. Ex-husbands, please undergo your tribulation."