The Martial Unity

Chapter 3679: The Essence of Life

It was indeed a question that countless people had asked in the past. But how many of those who sought answers understood biology as he had come to understand over the span of many, many years immersed in metamorphosis?

”Almost none.”

There was the Divine Doctor, who declared that planet Gaia was alive. Rui had never been able to bring himself to believe it, but he came to realize something truly profound.

”Is there more of a reason for me to be alive than Gaia?”

They were both at their root a complex soup of chemistry and thermodynamics. Gaia was perhaps even more complex than he, considering her scale and the esoteric dynamics involved in her being. She was perhaps the most complex soup of life he had ever seen!

Thus, what separated some complex soups from others?

”Life...” His pitch black eyes widened with realization. ”...is of those complex soups of chemistry that prevail.”

Countless chemical reactions occurred across the planet and across the universe. Most of them were ephemeral; they merely occurred once by chance and would never occur beyond pure chance.

There were some chemical reactions that managed to prevail beyond chance.

They tended to be complex chemical molecules that just so happened to be able to self-replicate.

Perhaps a complex amino acid that, when in contact with surrounding chemicals and compounds, could produce a chemical reaction that would cause more such amino acids to come together.

While all other chemical reactions that were shackled to chance would come and go, these self-replicating molecules could produce more and more of themselves simply due to a fluke combination of environment plus the laws of physics and chemistry.

As time went on, these self-replicating chemicals would continue to populate their environment and begin reacting with others to form more complex compounds.

Once more, a vast majority of those complex compounds would simply lack the ability to self-replicate. But those that did would replicate themselves, creating more and more copies of their complex selves, populating their environments.

This process would rinse and repeat as complexity bred complexity, which bred more complexity.

Amino acids, proteins, and eventually the first shred of RNA.

Eventually, it would create the first single-celled organism that could be considered alive.

In other words, everything was chemistry and physics, including life.

Life was merely chemistry that prevailed.

Life was merely chemistry that was adapted to its environment to prevail.

Life was merely chemistry that evolved.

His closed eyes opened for the first time in fourteen years as pure enlightenment dawned on him.

”Life is adaptive evolution.”

Words could not describe the sheer weight of this epiphany. The enlightenment dawned on him profoundly, completely paralyzing him with the bliss of understanding.

All life was adaptive evolution.

Just the act of living was adaptive evolution.

He closed his mind as he found himself on a path.

A path that he had walked for ninety-two years now. It was a path that wound through all manner of tribulations and hurdles, weaving through the world and beyond as it rose higher and higher to peaks beyond his fathoming.

Today, he had taken a profoundly deep step towards a higher peak on his Martial Path.

His understanding of adaptive evolution had reached unprecedented highs. So much so that almost everywhere he looked, he could see adaptive evolution. Love, nature, death, water, and now life.

He found adaptive evolution where he had never imagined it would be.

Where else would he find adaptive evolution if he truly looked hard enough?

He didn’t know.

But he could feel it.

”The power of a higher Realm awaits me.”

He could feel his Martial Art growing stronger with just this realization of the Essence of Life. Just how many countless adaptive evolution applications, principles, and techniques could he create with just this one enlightenment? It was so extensive that his Forge of Creation quivered with, well, life.

He couldn’t wait to maximize his potential.

”But for now...” His pitch-black eyes opened. ”I have one of two final steps to take.”

Over the past fourteen years, he had integrated evosapien physiology into almost all organs.

The nervous system and the brain were all that was left.

They were generally regarded as one organ by most biologists, for there was no clear delineation as far as composition went. The brain was just a large cluster of neurons, while nerves were just long strings of neurons.

”...I have made all the necessary preparations.”

He had solutions for each existing incompatibility already baked into the evosapien stem cells he would add to his nervous system and brain, but he knew from the past fourteen years that each organ came with its own set of unique challenges that he needed to fix from scratch.

Over the past fourteen years, he had not only comprehensively improved his medical and biological skills and knowledge, but had also modeled each and every single neuron and glial cell in his brain that he sought to replace. He had also integrated a lot of exotic pluripotent matter into his body that could functionally replace his entire body with it.

His body had changed forever.

It was transparent.

Ethereal.

It allowed light to pass through it as if it existed in a higher dimension.

As if he existed on a higher plane of being.

An unfathomable power had been born within his body.

It awaited him.

It awaited his control.

Now, he needed to replace his entire nervous system with that of the equivalent of an evosapien nervous system.

This was one of the more extreme changes, for there were more significant differences between the evosapien and the martialus when it came to the nervous system.

Evosapien nervous systems were more complex, possessing an additional dimension of control.

They were connected to every cell, vastly outstripping that of the more elementary interface his body currently possessed.

”Once I overcome this, I will gain the power of Anthea already.”

Just that alone would be enough to skyrocket to unfathomable heights of power. He could even imagine how much power he would gain when he completed replacing half his neurons with evosapien neurons.

He heaved a deep breath before activating Megamind.

”The time has come.”

RUMBLE!!!

The entire manifold shook as Rui began the semi-final stage of his metamorphosis.