Delving Deeper and the Lesson

The footprints electrons left within magic appeared as tracks formed from points into lines. Multiple tracks together made up a 'cloud' that wrapped around the atomic nucleus.

When a target electron, along with its parent atom, was drawn by Blade Tusk down to the outermost layer of the atomic aggregate, these 'clouds' abruptly expanded their range of coverage for some unknown reason.

This expanded state lasted only an exceedingly brief time.

Afterward, some electrons completely broke free of the atomic nucleus, becoming wanderers traveling far from home.

Others 'fell back' into their original tracks.

On the macroscopic level, this process of 'falling back' manifested as light emission and heat release.

At the atomic level, it manifested as a sharp surge in 'reactivity.'

Moreover, the phenomenon of 'electron cloud' expansion seemed more likely to occur on the very outermost layer of the atomic aggregate—that is, the part closer to, or directly on, the body's surface.

Based on these signs, Blade Tusk believed that electrons absorbed some form of energy from the air—or rather, the outside environment—thereby producing the phenomenon of 'cloud expansion.'

And 'cloud fallback' was the reverse of the above process. During, or before, the 'fallback,' electrons dispersed part of the energy they had previously absorbed in the form of light and heat.

Furthermore, the 'decomposition of water' and 'synthesis of water' occurring during this process should likewise have been accompanied by the absorption and release of energy respectively.

As for which one 'released energy' and which one 'absorbed energy,' Blade Tusk arrived at a preliminary conclusion after repeated observation: water decomposition was accompanied by the release of energy, while water synthesis involved the absorption of energy.

But why did these two reactions become more frequent alongside electron 'fallback'? Though he lacked solid experimental evidence, that did not stop Blade Tusk from offering a conjecture.

The reactions of 'water decomposition' and 'water synthesis' had been observed continuously even when no 'electron fallback energy' appeared.

So, could he make the following assumption?

First, there were two substances in the body, A and B, that absorbed and released energy, and under certain conditions, they could transform into one another.

Second, combined with his earlier observations of water molecules, this led to the following formula, which might hold true:

A + energy + other possibly involved substances = B + water + other possibly existing products. This was a process that absorbed energy and produced water.

B + water + other substances = A + energy + other substances. This was the opposite process: one that released energy and decomposed water.

The part where A transformed into B was defined as the 'forward reaction,' while the part where B transformed into A was called the 'reverse reaction.' Through their constant conversion into each other, they sustained the body's operation.

However, the energy brought about by electron fluctuations, or other variables arising during this period, stimulated the forward reaction, leading to the production of additional B.

The additional B, in turn, drove the reverse reaction, generating corresponding A.

The excess A then...

Thus, the conversion between A and B, along with the accompanying hydrolysis and hydration phenomena, was accelerated into a cycle.

In short, after all sorts of analysis, it could be summarized thus: electron fallback was indeed an effective means of increasing extra energy and promoting the rise of magic energy levels.

However, the earlier forward and reverse reactions should have been some form of energy metabolism within the body, and they necessarily took place within certain cells or cellular structures.

And that gave Blade Tusk a new concern. He worried whether this excessive operation might affect the lifespan of those cells or their corresponding cellular structures.

But the concern lasted only a moment. He quickly decided to head in this direction first and see where it led.

There were roughly several reasons for making this choice.

First, Blade Tusk had heard of something called 'quantum theory' in his previous life. Though he did not understand its specific contents very deeply, he remembered those sensational articles about 'the wonders of the microscopic world,' which made it sound as though much common sense from the 'macroscopic' world showed marked differences when placed in the 'microscopic' world.

The idea that 'cells would become excessively fatigued as a result' was merely a guess he had made based on macroscopic common sense. Whether such common sense still held in the world of cells, or on an even smaller scale, remained to be seen.

Second, he remembered that cells metabolized very quickly. He did not know whether they truly lived at dawn and died by dusk, but there did seem to be cells that needed replacing every few days.

Therefore, even if his actions truly caused cellular fatigue, whether that would afterward affect the lifespan of the body as a whole was still unknown.

Third, though the atoms and electrons indirectly controlled by his sea of consciousness numbered in the thousands or tens of thousands, that might have been no more than a drop in the ocean to the body.

So even if he worked those cells to death, to the whole body, it might amount to no more than scraping off a layer of 'film' while scratching an itch.

Finally, raising the Witch Doctor level was of vital importance. A slight degree of risk could not make Blade Tusk give up eating for fear of choking.

Now that the decision had been made, all that remained was the matter of application.

Based on his earlier conjecture regarding 'energy conversion,' Blade Tusk first assumed that there were some kind of 'power cells' in the body, specifically responsible for carrying out this process.

Using the rudimentary knowledge of cell structures from his previous life, he simulated a simple cellular structure in the meditation space. Then, looking at the cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus that possessed nothing but conceptual form, Blade Tusk fell into self-reproach.

Heaven have mercy, these were among the few intracellular structures he still remembered.

But facts were facts. He had no way to go back and study them all over again, so he could only painfully abandon the thought of refining it further.

Next, he gave this half-finished cell a definition—power cell—and assumed it was a unit responsible for energy supply and energy storage.

Afterward, he entered deep meditation and carried out a vague internal localization of it. During deep meditation, the cells within his body were permeated by the main consciousness and began conducting a kind of 'self-inspection.'

During this process, cells that confirmed they possessed the aforementioned functions would report the results in the form of information.

Cells that believed they did not possess those functions would remain 'silent.'

The reported information would ultimately converge in the sea of consciousness, where it would be received by the main consciousness's 'centrosome'—that was, Blade Tusk's 'controlled autonomous consciousness.'

Feedback came quickly. Thousands, tens of thousands of messages akin to 'It's me' were sent over.

"Ah, not bad."

Blade Tusk was quite pleased. After all, the more cells responsible for 'energy conversion' there were, the lower the risk of controlling a portion of them would be.

Then, information on the scale of a hundred thousand flooded in all at once, and his 'face' began to darken.

'That's quite a lot.'

Next came hundreds of thousands at a time, and his face had already turned green.

'Why are there so many?!'

Then came an immense volume of information, enough to wash away his sense of self, surging in all at once within an incredibly brief span of time.

This time, Blade Tusk could no longer spare a thought for marveling at it. He first stretched out his thoughts, trying to suppress the speed at which the information poured in as much as possible, but he soon realized it was useless. His thoughts were already beginning to blur.

If this went on, he might lose the very concept of "I" and become nothing more than a pure aggregate of cells.

Faced with such an unbearable price, Blade Tusk hesitated no longer and immediately cut off the meditation.

The facts proved that this worked.

If cells were users, then deep meditation was like creating a WeChat group made up of every user, while the controlled primary consciousness was the group owner.

And the command "self-check and feedback" activated the vast number of ordinary users who normally only lurked. An unimaginable torrent of information instantly flooded into the group owner's 486 computer, not only bogging down its processing speed but also threatening to burn it out completely.

Blade Tusk's act of stretching out his thoughts and withdrawing from meditation was likewise akin to throttling the network speed, then disbanding the WeChat group.

As a result, he was only struck by that initial portion of the information.

As for the feedback from the remaining cells, when the meditation was forcibly interrupted, it became a jumble of signals that had lost their transmission terminal, borne jointly by all the cells.

After returning to reality, Blade Tusk did not hold on for long. His clarity lasted only an instant before he fell unconscious with a nosebleed.

Before passing out, he vaguely realized that he seemed to have gotten something wrong. The "energy conversion" function might not have been an isolated phenomenon handled independently by some particular type of cell, but instead existed widely among the body's cells.

In the end, all those thoughts converged into a single idea:

'Why the hell didn't I study properly?!'

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