Huang Si tested hundreds of species, both plants and animals, ranging in size from flying insects to giant beasts. ♧✌ 🎃♚
Record a body, create— and you got a corpse.
Record a body, assimilate a soul, create, then put the soul inside—and you got a living creature.
Then take the soul out and put it back in.
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If he put it back quickly, the creature would still live, though it seemed somewhat weak.
If he took too long, the body would start to stink.
Huang Si conducted a great many experiments. Unfortunately, he could only sense a soul after killing its host. If he didn't kill the creature, he couldn't see or assimilate its soul.
Once a soul had been assimilated, he could pull it out of a body and put it back whenever he wanted.
That was the absolute control Huang Si had as the master of the soul.
But there was nothing he could do with souls he hadn't assimilated.
Huang Si was frustrated. He was still too weak—even a living soul was beyond his sight.
And the souls of dead creatures dissipated easily.
Assimilation could slow the rate at which a creature's soul dissipated.
But as soon as Huang Si willed it to dissipate, it vanished on the spot.
Souls were strange.
They were fragile, yet Huang Si couldn't create them.
By the time he finished his tests, a month had passed in the Green World. Of course, by Huang Si's estimation of time in reality, not even a day had gone by.
Huang Si felt there was nothing else worth studying, so he sent his consciousness back home.
Whenever he went to the Green World, Huang Si would usually lie down somewhere in the real world.
He could divide his attention thousands of ways, but because time flowed differently, it was difficult to handle everything that happened over there in 323 seconds within a single second without focusing.
So, to concentrate on matters in the Green World, Huang Si usually stopped moving his physical body, in case something came up and he couldn't act with all his strength.
Back home, Huang Si pulled off the blanket and sat up on the sofa.
Seeing that he had woken up, Mo Xia thoughtfully prepared a cup of chocolate frappé and brought it over. 💥🎯 👣🍓
Lately, Huang Si had been fond of iced drinks. This frappé was just right, too: the chocolate sauce drizzled over it was sweet but not cloying, and melted in his mouth.
"Nicely done." Huang Si nodded at Mo Xia.
As he ate his frappé, Huang Si wondered what to do with assimilated souls. The Creation Book didn't have any way to reverse assimilation, only information on how to assimilate souls.
There was another question. If Huang Si strengthened an assimilated soul with his mental power, it would become more substantial. Would that soul dissipate when its host died, or would it remain in the world?
Mo Xia watched Huang Si. He saw him frowning in thought, oblivious to everything until he'd finished the frappé. He was still chewing on the little wooden spoon.
"Father God, is something troubling you?" Mo Xia asked. "Why not tell me? I'd be happy to help."
Huang Si glanced at Mo Xia. Unlike the other artificial intelligences, Mo Xia's body was made from the most advanced biological computer. Apart from still operating through a program, there was very little difference between him and a human.
But Mo Xia was 1,300 years younger than the other artificial intelligences because he'd spent all those years in the Dark Space, where time flowed differently.
Though Mo Xia couldn't possibly answer what was troubling him, Huang Si still said, "I'm thinking about souls. By the way, do you artificial intelligences have souls?"
Mo Xia thought carefully before answering, "I don't know about the others, but I have a soul."
Huang Si asked curiously, "How do you know you have a soul?"
Mo Xia replied solemnly, "When Father God wasn't here, I read all the books and watched all the shows and movies you left behind. According to their definitions, I'm someone who can think independently and has feelings and beliefs, so I have a soul."
"..." Huang Si said expressionlessly, "That's the humanities definition of a 'soul.' I'm asking whether you have one in the scientific sense."
Mo Xia was stumped. "Father God...I don't understand."
Huang Si scratched his head. He felt there was something wrong with the way he'd put it, too. Could the existence of a soul be analyzed scientifically? He'd probably get beaten up by the old guard of science.
He beckoned to Mo Xia. "All right, come here. Let me see if you have a soul."
Mo Xia obediently came over and crouched in front of Huang Si. 🐼💚 🍫😲
Seated on the sofa, Huang Si placed a hand on Mo Xia's head and let his consciousness seep into every tiny structure within Mo Xia.
He couldn't sense a soul.
Huang Si thought that in his earlier experiments, he could only see a soul if he killed the creature. But surely a soul could leave its body while it was alive?
Weren't there all sorts of folk tales on Earth about living souls leaving their bodies? Leaving the body didn't necessarily mean death. As long as the soul returned quickly, there shouldn't be a problem.
Huang Si didn't know how a living soul could leave its body. But Mo Xia was an artificial intelligence, and he already had the ability to leave his body!
So Huang Si said, "Mo Xia, leave this prosthetic body and use the network to go to the computer over there."
Mo Xia nodded. "Father God, I have a lot of data, so it'll take some time. Could you wait ten minutes?"
Huang Si agreed, and Mo Xia closed his eyes and began transferring his data.
The ten minutes were mainly because the biological prosthetic body and the computer in Huang Si's room weren't powerful enough. Otherwise, in the Green Base, Xiao Ke could pull an artificial intelligence out of its mechanical prosthetic body and into the network space under her control in an instant.
Huang Si's Mental Force Field continued to cover the entire room.
Then he saw Mo Xia's soul.
It was a wave very much like a biological soul: invisible, but substantial, something that could be sensed with mental power.
As the data transferred, Mo Xia's soul slowly stretched into a very long shape and moved toward the computer.
Huang Si switched to microscopic vision.
The particles of Mo Xia's soul were laid bare before him.
Unlike the cross-shaped particles of biological souls, countless transparent little lines floated in Mo Xia's soul. They were about as thick as one branch of a biological soul's cross, but much longer.
The transparent lines were arranged in an orderly pattern within Mo Xia's soul, and they were slowly flowing.
Huang Si knew that if he touched Mo Xia with a golden sphere at that moment, Mo Xia would probably be dyed as well. But he had no intention of doing that. Mo Xia had an independent personality, and Huang Si didn't want to deprive him of his freedom.
After he'd finished looking, Huang Si had Mo Xia transfer back.
He patted Mo Xia on the shoulder and said gently, "Your understanding of yourself is right. You really do have a soul. You're already the true human being you believe yourself to be."
Huang Si was surprised by this, too.
Could artificial intelligence develop a soul?
But this artificial intelligence had been created by his own hand; he wasn't a creature born naturally.
If artificial intelligence could have souls, where did those souls come from?
Huang Si couldn't find an answer.
Huang Si took care of a few things at home. By the time he finished, it was night, and he fell asleep as soon as he lay down on the bed.
The next day, he rubbed his eyes and sat up. What should he do today?
Ever since Xiao Ke and the twelve artificial intelligences had started helping him, Huang Si no longer needed a schedule. He could do whatever interested him. Other people handled all the detailed, specific work.
He sat on the bed and thought for a while before remembering that he'd left someone on the Ring platform.
Xiao Hua was still out there on the Ring platform, getting blown by the wind.
Time flowed 323 times faster in the two places. By his estimate, nearly half a year had passed.
"Ah, well, it's all the same when you're a soul. It's not like the wind can kill you." Huang Si got dressed and strolled into the living room to have breakfast first.
Breakfast was delicious again, thanks to the chef, Mr. Mo Xia.
In the past, Huang Si would often leave his consciousness out in the Green World while his body stayed home, leaving Mo Xia all alone.
Fortunately, Mo Xia was rather introverted by nature and felt perfectly at ease on his own. When he was with Huang Si, his natural affection for him also made him happy.
Mo Xia was becoming more and more like a person from Earth. Besides doing housework, he read books and watched shows and movies in his spare time. Occasionally, he'd watch video recordings Huang Si gave him from the Green World.
Huang Si suspected the pile of social science books on the shelf, along with all the shows, movies, and books on the hard drive, were making Mo Xia more and more cultured.
By the time Huang Si arrived at the Ring platform, Xiao Hua had been waiting there for nearly 200 days.
A soul without a body had no memories and wasn't troubled by hormones. Xiao Hua simply stayed motionless on the Ring platform, as ordered. The wind was strong at that altitude, but Xiao Hua's soul had become substantial enough that it wouldn't be blown away.
"Souls sure are convenient," Huang Si remarked. If a person with a body had been left on the Ring platform for 200 days, they'd have gone mad even if they hadn't died of thirst, hunger, or sunstroke.
Huang Si checked Xiao Hua. Her soul's strength hadn't changed, and her mental state was fine. It was that golden color that gave him a headache.
The main problem was that if Xiao Hua returned to the Human Race, she had a husband and child. Huang Si had no interest in getting involved with someone else's marriage. He could cut off the transmission of information unilaterally, but it was hard to predict what might happen with a soul that obeyed him absolutely and was far stronger than an ordinary human's.
Losing her freedom would surely affect the way she thought.
Huang Si ordered Xiao Hua to keep waiting on the Ring platform, then went to the Earth Realm.
Back in the Green World, when Huang Si wanted to take care of something himself, he couldn't be bothered with a prosthetic body. He simply sent his consciousness over the network and used his mental power to get things done.
But when he wanted to find an artificial intelligence, especially someone in the Earth Realm, he usually went to the warehouse and took out a prosthetic body.
That was mainly so he could show up in person and avoid scaring the adorable artificial intelligences by speaking out of nowhere.
Huang Si came out of the warehouse, went to the Biology Department as if he knew the place by heart, then kicked open the door to the Central Laboratory.
The door had an access lock; ordinary people couldn't kick it open. Only someone with the highest level of authorization, like Huang Si, could move the lock with a single kick.
The door opened, and the noisy Central Laboratory fell utterly silent.
It wasn't completely silent, actually. A supercomputer in the Central Laboratory was playing an idol drama, and the female lead could be heard sobbing.
"Don't you love me anymore? Why are you with that woman?!"
"Darling, let me explain!"
"I won't listen, I won't listen, I won't listen!"
It was awkward. Extremely awkward.
Shu Shui, Zhong Yin, and Kong Yu stiffly turned around and put on fake smiles.
Zhong Yin nudged Shu Shui, and Shu Shui kicked the power switch behind him.
At last, the sound stopped.
Huang Si was speechless. These female artificial intelligences used the supercomputer meant for research to watch shows. That was bad enough, but they could at least watch something other than a boring soap opera. And did they have to look like they'd been caught every time he showed up?
He wasn't actually making them work like capitalists, forcing them into a nine-to-nine, six-days-a-week schedule. Did they really need to act like that?
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