Chapter 362: Terrifying Technological World

This is an extraordinary technological system, combining a "chip brain" and a "circuit board CPU," which holds unlimited potential.

"However, simply embedding sorcery isn't enough."

Xu Zhi closed his eyes, pondered for a moment, then opened them again. "It also needs an Evil Eye gene to cultivate into a wizard... So, Fenba, you must be a two-gene life form: the Evil Eye gene and the system gene."

Soon, Xu Zhi integrated the Evil Eye gene into Fenba.

Furthermore, he opened its brain and programmed "meditative cultivation" into it.

Unlike human brains, silicon-based life forms can be easily programmed with instructions, neural reflexes, stress responses, and even modified memories. For silicon-based life, this is a formidable advantage: skills can be mastered effortlessly without a long, tedious learning process, as if by biological instinct.

From the Zerg sub-brain, Xu Zhi learned about silicon-based life: "This is the strength of silicon-based life! They don't need to learn to teach their descendants; they call this method 'inheritance'."

Now, this new species possesses the unique "inheritance" ability characteristic of silicon-based life forms.

Time flew by, and a hundred years passed.

Outside, the world continued to evolve, and the passage of a century had gradually accustomed people to the fears. Xu Zhi, meanwhile, ventured out only occasionally; his main goal remained to periodically visit the underground lava sandbox to check on the experimental subject, Fenba, constantly testing cultivation methods and improving the "inheritance."

Over these years, he had programmed meditation into its memory. However, realizing that daytime wasn't suitable for meditation, he integrated it into the creature's "sleep mechanism" at night, allowing it to meditate naturally while sleeping, much like breathing.

"Strengthening through sleep is like cultivating while idling... If meditation time is sleep time, then during the day, while walking and exercising, it should train its body."

Xu Zhi again opened Fenba's brain and rewrote its system and behavior patterns.

From then on, every step and subtle movement Fenba made during the day would subtly train every muscle in its body, forming a physical cultivation akin to Pan Xuexian's, leading to holistic life training and evolution of its life level.

"In this way, by embedding cultivation into daily life as an instinct, no deliberate training is needed. Generally, after reaching adulthood, its physical body would be at rank five, and its sorcery at rank six."

Xu Zhi calmly stroked the colossal beast Fenba. "This type of fearsome, divinely favored AI-intelligent creature, with its specialized cultivation program, has been designed to its current perfection. Of course, it will take 120 years to reach adulthood."

Moreover, he discovered that as Fenba grew stronger, by the age of sixty or seventy, it gradually developed intelligence akin to an infant's, transcending its beastly nature to become a true intelligent AI...

In essence, it had gained intelligence.

"Who would have thought that this flesh-and-blood behemoth has a crystal hard drive for a brain?"

Xu Zhi smiled.

During Xu Zhi's experiments, by the second night of species evolution, and with careful nurturing, special planktonic species began to appear, along with some aquatic reptilian life forms.

Splash!

Dressed in an exquisite black wizard's robe, Xu Zhi gazed at the coastline, as if transported back to the distant Triassic period. Suddenly, a small black insect was washed ashore, its seven or eight tiny mantis-like black legs weakly struggling.

"You'll do," he murmured.

Xu Zhi bent down, picked it up, and calmly said, "You are the progenitor of all future extraordinary life. The strong beings of this world will all be your descendants, carrying your initial bloodline as their gene."

Xu Zhi slowly carried it back to the laboratory, walking along the gravel-like desert.

Next, he allowed it to reproduce rapidly. Tens of thousands of its descendants were separated into individual glass test tubes, where they continuously fused with the "system" gene to produce silicon-based chips.

Finally, in the 1845th batch, a successful mutant was born, its genes fused, with a tiny crystal in its brain.

Xu Zhi wrote various wizardry spells, ancient Daoist techniques, and even stellar magic into its brain... filling its mind with all the knowledge of spells and embedding it deep within its genes.

Xu Zhi tossed it back into the ocean, quietly observing. "Continue to evolve. In the sea, split into various forms of life: reptiles, plants, creatures that fly in the sky, those that swim in the sea..."

"The program has already been written into its genes; its descendants will inherit a portion of its genetic talents..."

It was like the ultimate source of a talent library.

It branched out and proliferated, continuously giving birth to descendants in the evolving Genesis, which would then spread across the entire land.

In just a few short years, the insect died of old age, but its descendants, each still possessing a crystal brain, carried the sorcery and Daoist techniques as if etched into their DNA, making them nearly impossible to erase.

Of course, they only carried a portion of it.

"The colossal beasts have already emerged. Soon, the animals and plants of this world will become semi-intelligent, AI-driven flesh-and-blood life forms. But... I still feel something is missing," Xu Zhi murmured, slightly frowning.

These beasts only began to develop intelligence after cultivating to rank four or five.

And they were very rare.

"I still feel there's a lack of a large population of lower-tier species inherently endowed with intelligence—that is, humans."

Xu Zhi sighed. As intelligent beings, humans cannot completely transfer their flesh-and-blood brains into chip brains.

"I'll just have to find a way to solve this."

Xu Zhi pondered for a moment. After countless experiments, he had gained some insights into silicon-based life and found a solution.

Time flew by again, and three more years passed.

Xu Zhi observed two newborn ape-like creatures, representing two distinct races: one, ancient humans, and the other, humans from the wizarding world.

They were, in essence, East and West.

Their brains were still flesh-and-blood, but they had an additional, seemingly useless, fleshy growth within their heads. At the right moment, this growth would activate, gradually harden, and replace their brains, becoming a crystal.

"Since it can't be there from the start, I'll let you develop slowly, with a gentle, gradual activation."

Xu Zhi chuckled, "However, even without siliconization, most people will be incomplete, but there's still a certain probability that some will be born directly with a perfect system brain."

Xu Zhi placed them on the land, allowing them to reproduce in peace.

Soon, the entire land underwent rapid changes, teeming with life and becoming lush. The hot environment created a unique ecosystem.

The trees were tall and vibrant, almost entirely adorned with red leaves.

The creatures on the land were nearly hairless, but due to mutual predation, they possessed hard, black carapaces.

The extraordinary colossal beasts lived in the lush forests and vast grasslands. They even possessed significant intelligence, beginning to compete for territory among themselves. In their fierce battles, their innate Daoist techniques were terrifying: meteor showers, storms, darkness, and light ravaged the land, as if disaster struck daily. Some extraordinary colossal beasts had even begun to carve out new territories, expanding the world's surface.

Meanwhile, the ancient ape-people also began to hunt.

These two groups of ape-people were among the lowest-tier life forms. Fortunately, the colossal beasts paid little attention to such lowly creatures.

They were extremely intelligent, hiding near the treacherous lava rivers and tributary basins. Due to the beasts' inherent fear of fire, the colossal beasts were too lazy to approach this desert region, allowing the ape-people to barely survive. As the heat persisted, they reproduced generation after generation, quickly shedding their abundant fur to reveal smooth bodies.

Living near the lava also accelerated their civilization's development. With natural furnaces providing high-temperature flames, they could smelt iron ore and metals, directly entering the Iron Age.

"The lava river is our mother!"

They excitedly communicated in their crude language, holding their iron spears high.

The first decade.

Everyone was a blacksmith, crafting pushcarts, iron weapons, and even precise springs, leading to the emergence of weapons like bows and crossbows.

In just twenty years.

They discovered a special substance, sulfur, and used it, found near the lava, to create gunpowder!

The colossal beasts' battles grew even more intense, shaking the very foundations of the world.

"We must escape this world!"

They roared, beating their chests while wearing animal hide skirts.

They secretly used gunpowder to continuously blast open an underground passage. Following the course of the lava river, they dug inward, spending a full seven years migrating until they reached a new place.

This was the other end of the upstream lava flow. They brought along prepared plants and animals, began to reproduce, and established settlements to live.

The other world, downstream, remained the territory of the colossal beasts.

The world seemed to return to a peaceful state for ordinary beings, free from those world-destroying creatures.

"They are escaping, escaping the extraordinary world I created, but that's only natural! The world is so vast, all rock, enough for them to carve out passages and hide in another land." Xu Zhi's expression was calm, devoid of disappointment. "They haven't pursued extraordinary civilization; instead, they've embarked on a path of technology based on gunpowder and iron."

The only thing missing from the lava world was rainfall.

However, the Rubik's Cube creatures had now taken on the role of water gods in this world, providing regular rainfall.

In the sixtieth year of the empire.

Without external enemies, conflicts erupted between the two major human races, leading to the First World War, the "Battle of Merkel." Muskets and cannons, cavalry and swordsmen battled furiously, resulting in mutual devastation. This great war lasted for a full thirteen years. Ultimately, the two nations separated, with the lava river as their boundary, establishing distinct paths of habitation, named the Eastern Human Empire and the Western Human Empire.

Due to this war, the mature application of firearms emerged with unimaginable speed.

They reproduced at a frenetic pace, began to build civilizations, established city-state systems, and started smelting steel using lava, creating composite metals.

Excavation equipment appeared, and both empires issued decrees:

"Any excavated land shall belong to the excavator, who will also possess three hundred years of land-use rights! Become a lord of that place!"

"Become an imperial lord?"

Instantly, the entire world flocked to it.

Not only would the excavated land be theirs, but they might also unearth valuable metal ore veins.

In this medieval-steampunk era, countless wealthy merchants, capitalists, and companies initiated a "gold rush." Many raised funds, and even common people became zealous. In just ten years, some made immense fortunes, while others lost everything.

By this time, the territories they continuously opened up had expanded outwards to one hundred acres!

They reproduced like locusts; the world was too vast, requiring only expansion and pioneering, with no need for birth control or restraint.

Even the Eastern and Western Empires opened a difficult smuggling route, climbing along the rock walls above the lava rivers to secretly transport goods, though it was very dangerous.

Originally, this era's development was long and slow.

However, in the 114th year of the empire, in a Western slum, a Eurasian child named Linweis was born. By the age of one, he had learned the languages of several major nations; by seven, he had discovered the existence of electricity and how high temperatures could generate it.

At twelve, he invented alternating current and founded an electronics company.

Simple electrical appliances began to appear.

Soon, because of this god-like child's arrival, the world instantly leaped into the Industrial Revolution!

Linweis established Linweis Limited Liability Company. He invested in mining, healthcare, and various other fields, researched electrical engineering, invented the light bulb, perfected glass, and discovered mechanical effects...

In every field, astonishing discoveries were made.

"How can there be such a brilliant man in this world?"

"He must have opened God's forbidden zone!"

"This is the man closest to God!"

The era hurtled towards technological advancement.

"This is the speed of technology; the development of a technological age can happen in an instant..."

Xu Zhi watched this scene. "The power brought by the lava is immense! The metallic substances and sulfur from the lava mines directly propelled them into the age of gunpowder and iron... Their era was like jumping directly from Earth's 1800s to the 2000s. From primitive agrarian feudal civilization, there was an instantaneous explosion of civilization, with televisions, firearms, and even airplanes appearing."

What's more, this was a man with AI-like intelligence.

By the 120th year, radio communication emerged.

Electronic devices also appeared, including black and white televisions, old-style cameras, and even cars, along with various other modern equipment.

Linweis, too, reached his old age.

He dedicated himself to the medical field, achieving many breakthroughs. What was most perplexing, however, was that in his later years, he seemed to go mad, abandoning science to dedicate himself to the study of theology and religion!

"Finally, the research is complete."

Linweis took a deep breath, looking at the scanned transparent image in his private hospital.

It was a scan of his own brain.

In his brain, there was an octagonal hard mass where the pineal gland should be. His hands began to tremble. "My pineal gland was mutated from birth!... This is also why I'm so intelligent, with an eidetic memory and terrifying hyperthymesia. If I wish, I can even recall memories from when I was one year old, or from any given day... Perhaps, the mutation of the pineal gland can open the 'heavenly eye,' unlock wisdom, and grant supreme abilities."

This white-haired old man, who had reached the pinnacle of the empire, caressed his temple, gazed at his pineal gland, and murmured, "Does... God truly exist?"