“What’s happening?”
He suddenly felt a deathly stillness in the air outside. There was an empty sensation, as if all living things had vanished, as if the end of the world had arrived.
He became utterly unnerved.
“What on earth is going on? Even if Du Xue failed, she couldn't be in danger. She’s one of the strongest people in this world; no one can kill her… The formless Pillar Gods can't do anything to her either! And the Pillar Gods wouldn't kill her, because destiny wouldn't kill the strongest of its own kind…”
He kept speculating, “The Pillar Gods are absolutely rational, so they wouldn't get angry at betrayal; instead, they’d choose to forgive her!”
He lay hunched in the glass enclosure, staring intently outside.
Silence.
He didn't dare go out, but couldn't resist sending a message online.
“Something strange has suddenly happened in the Ancient Lava Lands! Cute Girl, Alchemist Emperor… everyone, the final battle to conquer Cybertron was a few days ago. We were supposed to overthrow destiny, but Du Xue went and never returned.”
Upon hearing this, the netizens were startled and began discussing it heatedly. The post quickly garnered attention, as the events in the Ancient Lava Lands and the war among the Six Realms had always been one of the hottest topics in the entire *Spore Evolution* game.
“Did you set a flag?” someone suddenly asked.
Balloon Fish: “???”Confused but sensing the underlying meaning, he quietly asked what that meant.
“You don't get it? A flag is one of the three fundamental forces of the universe!”
“Oh! Like an old soldier gently telling his comrades before going to battle: ‘This is my last time on the front lines. After this, I’m going back to be with my family using the money I’ve saved.’”
“Or a brave cowboy, donning his battle attire, embracing his beloved girl, and expertly twirling his revolver: ‘After this duel, I’ll go back and marry you.’”
Balloon Fish’s face darkened. Could heartfelt words of concern no longer be spoken?
However, netizens who understood the genuine concern and focused on the situation itself felt this was highly unusual. With Du Xue missing, it was feared that an unprecedented major event was about to erupt in the Ancient Lava Lands.
“Guys, let's bump this post up so more people see it, and the big players will notice too!”
“Spam ‘Protect’ in the public chat!”
“Go, go, go! Like this post, bump it up!”
“When one is in trouble, everyone likes!”
This message was quickly manually stickied, attracting attention and replies from the major players.
Cute Girl: “This is bad news, and I have even worse news. I was just about to mention it myself: Dream God, Luo Caiwei, and Vinaki have all lost contact! (Stunned)”
Alchemist Emperor: “Yes, they’ve lost contact! All communication suddenly ceased.”
When these two super-boss players appeared, everyone immediately felt a chill. All the invading otherworldly beings had vanished? And Du Xue, from this world, had also disappeared? Having provoked the Three Pillar Gods, what exactly was happening in that land? It felt like a horror movie; their throats tightened with fear in an instant.
It was somewhat thrilling. It reminded them of the man-machine war, where Go masters battled AlphaGo!
Cute Girl spoke again: “It looks like a terrifying mutation has occurred in the Ancient Lava Lands. Our Six Realms might not be safe either! It’s likely a counterattack from the Pillar Gods, and a true world war is about to begin, about to break out!”
Alchemist Emperor: “Yes, this is the most terrifying world war in history. If we don’t handle it well, we will all die, and the Six Realms will be destroyed!”
Everyone instantly grasped the gravity of the situation. The Three Pillar Gods were still incredibly powerful, truly terrifying.
Cute Girl: “Don't panic, everyone. First, Balloon Fish is the only one left in a glass enclosure who still has a connection to the Lava Lands, but it's clear he doesn’t know what’s happening because he’s hiding. A fish in a glass bowl cannot know what’s outside it.”
Balloon Fish immediately realized: “Are you telling me to go out? To see what’s happening in the Ancient Lava Lands? To broadcast it? But if I go out, I might get infected with the virus and be instantly overwhelmed.”
He hesitated. Honestly, he didn't believe Du Xue would die. Something might have happened, but the probability of death was less than one percent, because as destiny itself, the Three Pillar Gods absolutely, unequivocally would not harm Du Xue! The Pillar Gods were utterly pragmatic, always calculating gains and losses to promote the brilliance of their race’s civilization. The death of high-level deities like Du Xue, Daughter of the Prosperous Forest, and Subaru would be an unspeakable loss—the culmination of their world-line deductions, elites cultivated over generations, all for naught. If Du Xue was fine, but he went out and met with misfortune, *that* would be truly terrifying and irreversible.
“You have no choice,” Cute Girl said. “You might not yet understand the gravity of the situation! It’s time to reveal some terrifying information. According to intelligence sent back by Dream God, we've discovered a very terrifying and bizarre secret.”
Dream God? It suddenly dawned on everyone. Indeed. Vinaki, Luo Caiwei, Pseudo-Neighbor, and other grotesques were creating chaos everywhere, but where was Dream God, their leader? There had been no sign of her. Was she on a super-secret mission for the Six Realms?
Cute Girl explained: “Actually, Dream God has always lived in people’s minds, in dreams, stealing intelligence, studying the biological structure and infection characteristics of the Pillar God virus. Our goal in doing this was to prevent the possibility of the virus deeply infecting and inversely invading us, to find measures to protect against the virus and be prepared for any eventuality.”
“But Dream God discovered a very bizarre and terrifying truth.”
Screenshot. An image was posted. It was a diagram of the internal brain structure of a Lava Demon Core creature. The structures in the cranial dissection diagram were extremely precise and detailed: a demon core suspended within, along with brain buffer fluid and various suspended tissues.
“Isn't this just a normal demon core brain structure diagram?”
“Yeah.”
“Demon core creatures undergo a metamorphosis! The pineal gland in their fleshy brains crystallizes into a demon core, and the brain itself becomes a soft, buffering fluid, like an airbag.”
“So this is what it truly means… to have a brain full of water? (dog emoji)”
The netizens were all discussing. “There’s nothing to study here?”
“It's just the original demon core brain structure diagram!” They had seen it dozens of times, if not more.
Cute Girl, however, shook her head. “You bunch of annoying kids, do you know what kind of forum this is?! It’s a forum of knowledge! A forum where learning makes me strong! We’re all highly educated individuals here, so use your brains and think seriously! Knowledge is the power to everything!”
“Remember, we’re deducing civilizations, developing extraordinary civilizations! Only then can we develop, rule all realms, and become truly dominant!”
Everyone immediately began to ponder seriously. It was true; there was a saying: knowledge changes destiny.
Suddenly, someone looking at the image said, “Huh? Guys, from another perspective, doesn't this brain dissection diagram look like a complete cell?” This was from a student studying biology.
“Intriguing, though I don’t fully grasp it,” replied the others.
In a university laboratory somewhere, a student during an experiment class shook his head, rapidly typing on his phone. “Anyone who's studied biology knows that a cell is made up of three main parts: the cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus.”
The others still didn't react.
“Look, doesn't the round skull resemble a cell? The skull is the cell membrane, the demon core inside is the nucleus… and the gooey brain buffering within, isn't that the buffering cytoplasm?”
Everyone’s minds exploded! Who among them hadn't received nine years of compulsory education? Who hadn't learned about biology? They quickly looked back at the entire brain dissection diagram, and the more they looked, the more they realized the structure of the entire brain was indeed that of a single cell.
Three major structures, corresponding to three major structures!
The student continued to type rapidly on his phone: “As a student of both mystery novels and biology, if we follow this line of reasoning, it’s as if a headless person strangely has… a complete cell growing on top of their head? With a cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus?”
“Not only that, honestly, upon closer inspection, it perfectly matches the three main functions as well!”
“The skull perfectly corresponds to the protective function of the cell membrane, the brain fluid perfectly corresponds to the buffering function of the cytoplasm, and the demon core perfectly corresponds to the genetic information storage function of the nucleus!”
Their thoughts raced. They looked again at the beings of the Ancient Lava Lands… They couldn't bear to look directly anymore! It was as if, on average, people didn't have heads, but rather complete cells growing on top of them…!
“What on earth is this…!” Their chests felt filled and heavy with fear, trembling. Blood surged wildly to their ears, gurgling, and their teeth were clenched so tightly they couldn’t even exhale.
“By the Creator, what in the world is this?!” Countless people sat in front of their computers, their eyes wide with terror.
In this terrifying *Spore Evolution* game, their worldview and understanding had just been shattered once again. The shocking mystery of the Lava Lands, hidden for countless ages, was a terrifying truth stranger than any grotesque…
Humans with cells on their heads!!!
[5 minutes ago] Chapter 1472: Where Does the Soul Lie
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