Terrifying Deified Creatures

In Lu Zhiyu's laboratory stood a redwood tree. Lu Zhiyu had placed the soul of the Tree of Life upon this tree, conducting various tests and observations every day to understand the properties of the soul.

Inside a test tube sat a drop of bright red blood. Lu Zhiyu had been observing it for a very long time. This was a Deified Cell he had created, extracted from his own body and nurtured using the mental power he had gained through meditation over the past few days.

Ever since he had deified his brain and gained a mental power space, Lu Zhiyu's meditation speed had progressed significantly. His mental power and his will-personality had fused into a soul, creating a more stable structure that allowed Lu Zhiyu to enter the Zero-Dimension World for long periods without fear of assimilation.

Previously, increasing his mental power by a single unit took over ten days. It had taken Lu Zhiyu several years to reach a mental power scale of 128. Now, a single day of meditation increased his mental power by one unit—a more than tenfold increase compared to before, a qualitative leap.

However, even so, Lu Zhiyu had calculated that to deify all the cells in his body, he would need approximately 6,400 units of mental power. His brain cells accounted for only one-fiftieth of his body; even at his current pace, it would take Lu Zhiyu seventeen years to deify his entire body and reach the next stage.

Regarding the properties of the Deified Cells, Lu Zhiyu had already discovered several characteristics. The first was that the cellular portion of the Deified Cells themselves showed no abnormalities; the anomaly was that they had been deified, carrying the properties of mental power and Lu Zhiyu's own imprint of will at the cellular level.

The second characteristic was that Deified Cells possessed extremely strong erosive properties. Regardless of what other organism they came into contact with, they would immediately erode the other's cells, transforming the life form toward Lu Zhiyu's own biological structure.

The third characteristic was that Deified Cells possessed immense plasticity and controllability. He could make any adjustments or controls to the Deified Cells under his command. Eventually, Lu Zhiyu would be able to adjust his genes at will, strengthen his abilities, and grant himself various powers that appeared as if they belonged to gods and myths.

Upon understanding these properties of the Deified Cells, Lu Zhiyu was incredibly excited: "With such powerful plasticity and controllability, as long as I figure out the genetic templates of some powerful creatures, I can transform into other organisms, turning myself into a giant dragon capable of shapeshifting, changing my form at will."

Lu Zhiyu then thought: "No, it's more than that. As long as I understand the operation of natural laws, the principles behind electricity and fire, and then record them into my genes just like a program, I can add all sorts of extraordinary abilities to myself. Not abilities derived from the flesh like genetic inheritance, but true mastery over lightning, fire, metal, magnetic energy, and gravity."

If they were ordinary cells, they certainly could not withstand such arbitrary modification, but Deified Cells were different. Lu Zhiyu could control them to the most minute level, adjusting, strengthening, and modifying them at will, and their powerful regenerative capabilities could withstand such modifications.

As long as Lu Zhiyu's mental power was strong enough, he could act like a true god, manipulating the laws of the world, controlling wind, rain, lightning, and thunder, overturning the earth with a wave of his hand, or shattering stars with a single strike.

Furthermore, after deifying all his cells and becoming a fully deified organism, his body would essentially have no fatal weak points. Even if most of his body were destroyed, as long as a portion of his cells escaped and possessed sufficient energy, he could regenerate, becoming a truly immortal being as described in myths—an existence akin to a god.

This was why Lu Zhiyu was so anxious to completely transform himself into a deified organism. Looking at the Deified Cells he had created, Lu Zhiyu felt as if he had opened Pandora's box.

The road to transforming himself into a deified organism was still very long and could not be achieved overnight. However, Lu Zhiyu could currently begin to attempt certain things or start preparing to collect data to pave the way for his future as a deified organism.

Lu Zhiyu beckoned, and an Ant-Man guarding the door immediately walked over. Lu Zhiyu hesitated for a moment, then used a syringe to extract his Deified Cell blood and injected it into the Ant-Man's body.

Lu Zhiyu opened a Nutrient Pool made from a freezer, let the Ant-Man lie inside, and then closed the pool to carefully observe the creature's changes.

Lu Zhiyu immediately saw the Ant-Man's body collapse all at once. Next, the thin, firm body began to swell. Lu Zhiyu could feel that its cells were undergoing violent changes.

His Deified Cells began to rapidly assimilate the Ant-Man, affecting all its cells like radiation, assimilating its original cells and breaking down and rearranging its genes. A single drop of blood was enough to completely erode the Ant-Man.

Lu Zhiyu could feel his longevity genes and his human genes constantly assimilating the Ant-Man, thoroughly changing its life form toward his own. Its body size began to shrink, muscles began to grow at its joints, and a large amount of muscle began to replace the original exoskeleton, gradually generating skin.

"It's too miraculous. How is this possible? A single drop of blood can achieve this much. This erosive power is simply terrifying!" Lu Zhiyu could imagine that if he were a true deified organism, even if he died and his corpse were scattered across a barren continent, it could grow into countless lives.

A deified organism powerful to the extreme might even influence others at a fundamental level just by being looked at or approached, causing them to shift their life forms toward his own, becoming his thralls and never escaping his control. If this ability isn't that of Gods and Devils, what is?

"Oh no!" Lu Zhiyu seemed to sense something.

Lu Zhiyu watched as the Ant-Man's body suddenly collapsed, the entire creature falling apart on the ground and turning into a puddle of flesh.

Lu Zhiyu reached out his hand and saw individual, invisible cells flying out from the Ant-Man's remains, gathering in the air to re-condense into a single drop of red blood.

Lu Zhiyu sighed: "It failed!"

Just now, Lu Zhiyu could feel that the imprint of his will within the Deified Cells, carrying its intense erosive power, had clashed with the Ant-Man. The fusion was unsuccessful, the transformation failed, and the genes collapsed instantly.

Lu Zhiyu put his deified blood back into the test tube, plugged it with a cork, and sat in his chair to ponder: "The Ant-Man has low intelligence, but it is not without it. Against such an external invasion, the body will exhibit an animalistic instinct to resist, which is why it clashed with my imprint of will!"

"In other words, as long as I find someone who will not resist my will at all, I can fundamentally transform them into a thrall possessing my bloodline. Why does that sound a bit like the ways of a religious fanatic!"