Three Levels

"Success!"

Huang Si felt a surge of wild joy. Finally, the small-scale processor experiment was a success. This was the first small processor he had designed and manufactured himself, intended primarily for use in automated robotic arms and robots. It could be said that this was the starting technological point for all future automated machinery.

Having completed a major task, Huang Si decided to go eat and drink, then take a rest.

After drinking some water and frying a few small cookies, Huang Si took the opportunity to check his internal status. He seemed to recall that some time ago, he had leveled up and the Creation Book had sent him a fragment?

Creation Power cap: 2780, recovery rate... 388?

Huang Si let out a surprised sound. He no longer needed to calculate his recovery rate through time; he had a clear grasp of the power within his body, and he could perceive the recovery rate of his Creation Power just by paying a little attention.

However, a recovery rate of 388—wasn't that a bit too monstrous?

To create a bucket of batteries, he now only needed 5 points of power.

That meant the power he recovered in one hour could produce a full 76 buckets of batteries?

Huang Si imagined what 76 buckets of batteries would look like filling a room. Hmm, they could probably fill an entire living room plus a kitchen. That much in just one hour was terrifying.

Furthermore, with such a fast recovery rate, didn't that mean if he slept for too long—say, over eight hours—his Creation Power would easily hit the cap?

Wasn't this just like a mobile game, forcing players to burn their stamina?

"Hmm? Why did I start making jokes? It's been a long time since I felt like this."

Huang Si smiled. He hadn't experienced this feeling in ages—a long-lost sense of peace, comfort, and happiness.

For the past six months or so, Huang Si's mind had been filled with distortion, madness, destruction, and darkness.

Now, it seemed he had made it through?

It was like climbing a mountain; after reaching the peak, if one didn't truly collapse, one would instead feel a sense of relief.

But this result still left Huang Si extremely astonished.

One had to remember that his initial Creation Power cap was only 100, and his recovery rate was a mere 4 points per hour.

With a cap of 2780 and a recovery rate of 388, life was no longer a struggle to make ends meet; he could afford to use more power for experiments and mass production.

Huang Si pondered, feeling as though he had stumbled into a mountain of treasure, his happiness feeling almost unreal.

"Hmm?"

Huang Si sensed that the Creation Book seemed to have a new record, so he went to the living room and reached out a hand—

The book flopped down from the top of the cabinet, landing perfectly in his palm.

Huang Si: "...What the hell?"

After trying a few more times, Huang Si finally understood one thing.

His consciousness could now influence the macroscopic world!

It was telekinesis!

Although the ability was still hit-or-miss, it was already a massive step forward.

Because this was a true superpower; Huang Si felt that everything he had played with regarding molecules before was weak in comparison.

Beyond that, Huang Si could clearly feel that his perception had become much sharper, and his thinking speed was many times faster than before.

Looking at his room, Huang Si even had a faint feeling that he could grasp the entire situation within the room.

"Perception must be linked to soul strength. After all, microscopic vision is also a part of perception."

After sensing his current state, Huang Si flipped open the Creation Book.

The situation on the first page had changed slightly:

Owner: Huang Si
Source Compatibility: Bloom

As it turned out, there was a line of small text beneath this:

Soul Essence Level: Perceive

Huang Si's attention lingered on this line of small text, and he immediately sensed that a certain page in the book contained relevant information.

With a thought, the book automatically flipped to that page.

The page read:

Soul Essence Level Classification:
Beginning: Initial glimpse of the path, imitating objects and shaping forms.
Bloom: Clear vision and deep insight, moving the minute and crossing barriers.
Perceive: Observing the myriad, manipulating objects with the heart.

There was nothing written after that.

Huang Si looked at it for a while and could more or less understand the meanings of "Beginning" and "Bloom." "Clear vision and deep insight, moving the minute and crossing barriers"—wasn't that describing his observational abilities, his influence over the microscopic world, and his ability to penetrate objects?

As for the "Observing the myriad" level of "Perceive," after thinking about it carefully, it didn't seem hard to understand. Wasn't that exactly the sharp increase in perception and mental acuity he had just experienced?

The latter half of the phrase "commanding matter with the mind" likely referred to the spirit manipulating physical matter on a macroscopic level.

Huang Si had not expected that he would skip two levels in succession while on the verge of a mental breakdown, and even obtain a fragment of the Origin.

However, according to the settings of the Creation Book, he should have received a third fragment upon reaching the third level.

It was very strange. Huang Si flipped back to the page recording the distribution of fragments. According to the Creation Book's settings, there should have originally been seven fragments. Although he did not know if there were seven levels in total, if his soul strength reached a certain limit marked by the Creation Book, the fragments would be distributed.

However, the records showed "Remaining fragments all missing"?

It seemed he would have to fend for himself from now on. Huang Si shook his head; this was only a minor matter.

It was already April 29, 2020.

Huang Si stopped dwelling on the matter of the fragments and continued with his various research and development projects.

The increase in soul strength brought the greatest benefit by providing much convenience to his research work.

For instance, he could finally attempt to analyze biological cells.

Now, as long as Huang Si stood there and focused his attention, he could grasp everything within a radius of about two to three meters around him in real time.

The disturbance of the air, the evaporation of water, and even the reproduction and growth of bacteria—he could perceive them all through his consciousness.

Speaking of bacteria, Huang Si had to be thankful that he hadn't completely wiped them out when he used the UV lamp earlier.

Otherwise, there would truly be no other living organisms in this room besides himself.

Huang Si could observe his own body, even freely viewing his blood vessels, organs, subcutaneous tissues, and any other structures.

However, unless he read the massive rubbing directly from the Creation Book, Huang Si could not copy or record anything—whether it was his own body, or fragments like hair or blood.

This might be related to the permissions of the Creation Book. As the owner of the book, Huang Si was likely viewed as a single entity within it, so parts of his body were not permitted to be recorded.

In this way, the only organisms available for study were the bacteria that had originally been in the room.

Ever since he noticed this, Huang Si had specifically prepared a nutrient-rich petri dish, catching the bacteria from the air one by one and raising them in the dish.

With his current consciousness, seeing and catching bacteria was truly simple; with a single thought, the bacteria were captured by his intangible intent.

As for the bacteria originally on his own body, except for the E. coli that hadn't been completely caught, all others had been arrested and detained.

Then, he would occasionally take them out to observe and attempt to replicate them.

Bacteria were fragile, and because Huang Si's current soul strength was too high, his precision seemed insufficient.

At first, he directly permeated the petri dish with his consciousness, and as a result, he nearly wiped out the entire bacterial family by accident.

After this mistake, Huang Si continued to raise the remaining bacteria properly. Later, when conducting experiments, he would only take a portion out to use, leaving the rest to continue reproducing.

On May 3, 2020, Huang Si analyzed the DNA and RNA structures of the bacteria. After recording them, he was already able to replicate bacterial DNA with a single thought.

On May 6, Huang Si pulled his perspective back slightly in the microscopic world and looked at the double-helix structure that he had completely straightened out with his intent.

A strand of DNA was actually quite long when straightened, and it took Huang Si quite some effort to be able to fully resolve it with his intent.

With a thought from Huang Si, another identical DNA strand was produced.

Then, he stared at this DNA strand. Under his control, the connections of the double-helix structure broke apart, and then, with a gentle cut of his intent, he intercepted a segment of it.

Next, Huang Si broke a part of another DNA strand and spliced the single strand he had just cut onto it.

Connecting chemical bonds was harder than breaking them. In a living organism, enzymes usually handled this task. However, Huang Si had not yet grasped the principles of enzymes and had to do it himself.

After failing several times, Huang Si finally succeeded in grafting the DNA.

"Not bad. I feel like I'm already a graduate student in bioengineering."

The breakthrough in DNA cutting and grafting technology meant that Huang Si could modify the genes of organisms.

However, due to a lack of data, the research was too difficult, and Huang Si currently did not know what specific role each gene segment played.

But his abilities were not just for show; his intent could directly analyze an entire strand of DNA.

Bacteria reproduced so quickly that he could completely replace a certain strand at any time and observe the reaction of the bacteria's growth.

If the bacteria had genetic defects or similar hereditary diseases, Huang Si could even compare the data of two homologous DNA strands from two bacteria in real time to see exactly where they differed.

June 1, 2020.

"Failed again. What exactly is wrong?"

Huang Si could now analyze the entire structure of a bacterium, whether it was the cell wall, cilia, cytoplasm, various organelles, or the most complex nucleus—nothing could hide from his eyes now.

Yet, he discovered a very strange thing.

He could record the composition of this bacterium and create a copy.

But the moment the bacterial copy was born, it was in a dead state.

Logically speaking, Huang Si could now be said to be replicating the bacterium perfectly at the atomic level.

He had even restored his own save state, and he hadn't died, so why would the bacteria die?

Huang Si thought for a moment and reached out to kill the bacterium that served as the original template for the replication.

But the bacterial copy did not come back to life either.

Huang Si frowned. Why was this? He could record it, but the copy was dead the moment it appeared. Was it related to consciousness, spirit, or the soul? Did bacteria have souls too?

This path was a dead end.

Originally, Huang Si had wanted to use bacteria as a foundation to evolve an entire chain of biological evolution, but now, this path was completely blocked. The bacteria he had on hand could still only reproduce through primitive division.