Chapter 682: Brain Girl

At the very moment the gods ascended Mount Shu, and Armin and his companions were researching new demon core bottle technology, Xu Zhi’s own progress proceeded without delay.

Footsteps echoed. He returned indoors from the snowy landscape, walked through the living room, entered the study, and placed the Gorgon Medusa on a nearby white ceramic chair.

Xu Zhi then picked up a small knife to take samples. Bending over, he cut off some tissue and carried it to the experimental table, placing it under the Ishtarite's specialized energy microscope for examination.

“Has a new leap in evolution been completed during this time?” he wondered.

“Yes, there has indeed been unexpected progress. While it remains a massive aggregate organism, the integration of its various tissues is now close to perfect.”

“Previously, it was merely a crude, Cthulhu-esque entity. Now, it's finally showing a clear trend towards maturity, even though only a little over a day has passed, which is half of the original three-day deadline.”

With a single stroke of his small knife, a tiny piece of tissue fell to the ground. What had been motionless skin flakes, once severed and fallen, now wriggled and crawled on the ground like sea coral tentacles. It was utterly bizarre.

While she outwardly appeared to be a harmless, beautiful, fair-skinned, petite girl with snake hair, her discarded skin tissue pulsed and twitched on its own.

“Outwardly, she no longer appears to be an aggregate monster at all. Even if she walked down a street on Earth, she would simply be an exceptionally eye-catching middle schooler, drawing gazes and perhaps eliciting illicit desires. Yet, in reality, she remains a vast aggregate life form composed of 129,600 individual organisms, all coordinated by Medusa's single consciousness.”

Some might ask, "Isn't this just a Ninth-Order World?" Could it be that Medusa, like the Shu Mountain Sword Immortals, has inadvertently aligned with the path to the Ninth Order?

In fact, it is completely different. Because her path represents a more intricate, subdivided step.

She is composed of 129,600 independent organisms, each capable of cultivating its own realm, reaching the Seventh-Order Heavenly Emperor, Eighth-Order Mythical, or even Ninth-Order World. That's right; even though each organism is minuscule, perhaps possessing as few cells as a pixel life form, it remains an individual entity.

And when each of her component organisms cultivates into a Ninth-Order World, that will mean 129,600 "worlds." Only then will Medusa truly embody a complete Ninth-Order World. But would that still be considered a single world? It would be a staggering 129,600 worlds! While others' Ninth Order signifies a single world, hers would encompass an entire universe! This subtly aligns with the concept of the Great Thousand, a vast cosmos.

This is why she is considered the strongest in later stages; the terrifyingly high combat power ceiling of her realm is not without reason. It also indicates Medusa's ambition has swollen to its absolute limit, soaring to outrageous levels.

Since the laboratory was already set up, he decided to check her body and observe her evolutionary progress. Of course, examining her body was the first step in his work with Medusa.

“Given the current situation, she still needs to refine some minor details, requiring more than another day of evolution.”

Xu Zhi retrieved a large number of petri dishes, took samples from various tissues throughout her body for record-keeping, and stored them on a nearby special specimen shelf. The biological specimen shelf was an integral part of Xu Zhi's laboratory preparations. After all, even in a crystal wall system world, or especially a soul world, studying biological populations is essential.

“For the remaining day and a half of evolution, I won't let her return to the courtyard for further refinement. She will continue her evolution in my bottle laboratory.”

Xu Zhi bent down again, picked up the Gorgon Medusa from the chair, and approached a glass bottle next to the bookshelf. The bottle was about half his height, like an urn, and he placed the entire snake-haired girl inside.

“Curled up with her legs hugged to her chest, she fit perfectly squatting inside the glass bottle, given her petite stature.”

Dressed in a black robe, Xu Zhi picked up a clipboard and pen. As he watched the scene, he meticulously recorded data like a rigorous scientist, muttering, “Indeed, my calculations for the dimensions were just right.”

“I’ve successfully installed a person into this ‘brain’ realm.”

“Next, I will adjust the virtual fantasy within this ‘brain.’ I'll calibrate the world's data—gravity, attraction, the propagation of ability particles, and the demarcation of realm breakthroughs—based on the envisioned scenes within this ‘brain’.”

Xu Zhi stood before the glass bottle, his hand hovering over the demon core's pale blue electronic virtual screen. He continuously adjusted the world parameters, as if operating a demon core computer.

“Currently, is there anyone more suitable than Medusa, who is right here in the courtyard, to serve as a ‘guinea pig’ for this experiment’s data monitoring? No, there isn't.”

“At the same time, she will also be completely immersed within this new world.”

Although it was a mental universe, Xu Zhi still tried his best to adjust its parameters to be identical to those of the real universe. Why? The reason was simple. It was to use the mental universe to simulate reality.

Just as in Caroline's "Eternal Life of the Grim Reaper," she also adjusted real-world data to be as identical as possible, making it impossible for people to distinguish between truth and illusion. If the data were inconsistent, any powerful beings cultivated within that simulated reality would become utterly useless upon entering the real world, unable to be summoned, rendering the entire endeavor meaningless. Your simulated powerful beings would only be able to exist within their virtual universe. Stepping out of a lower dimension and into reality, they would be nothing.

Therefore, at this moment, it was akin to using a supercomputer to simulate a civilization as closely aligned with real-world parameters as possible, ensuring it would be fully applicable in reality.

“Although the primary data parameters are unmodifiable, secondary data such as gravity, air density, and geographical structure can still be adjusted to achieve environmental diversity within each crystal wall system world.”

Xu Zhi pondered continuously, his expression solemn. He meticulously adjusted all parameters within the bottle, then re-observed and confirmed that the world set for Medusa was flawless before finally relaxing.

“I apologize for the inconvenience.”

Xu Zhi walked out of the study and returned from the kitchen with a scoop of water, which he poured into the massive glass bottle. He then added a large quantity of various animals, green vegetables, and plants, along with some salt. Splash! The liquid filled the bottle by one-third, reaching Medusa's lower abdomen as she sat curled up inside. Xu Zhi then sealed the glass bottle with its lid, effectively enclosing the entire Gorgon Medusa within a massive "brain."

“It looks so much like pickled vegetables,” Xu Zhi mused, his expression suddenly shifting. He gazed at the glass bottle, where a small amount of water and plants now encased Medusa. He composed himself and added, “This certainly isn't for eating.” The most crucial point was that he almost certainly felt this concoction wouldn't taste good.

However, Xu Zhi's thoughts were, after all, influenced by conventional notions and unable to break free from that mental framework. An ordinary person entering this scientific laboratory would surely not have Xu Zhi's first reaction. They would undoubtedly curse him as a pervert and a madman, seeing someone trapped and admired in a glass bottle as clear imprisonment and immediately calling a crime hotline. Regardless, from a normal human perspective, the sight of a mad scientist in a mysterious rural Earth laboratory conducting a terrifying, Genesis-like "bottle experiment" would simply feel utterly bizarre.

“First, I’ll set up the true ‘universe in a bottle’.”

Next, Xu Zhi carefully placed two more glass bottles on the shelf and connected them with glass tubes to Medusa's large bottle beside them.

“It's finally done,” Xu Zhi murmured. “The preparatory work is complete. It's time to wake Medusa.” He stood up, gazing at the Gorgon Medusa curled inside the glass bottle.