The Martial Unity

Chapter 3960: Consciousness is

RUMBLE!!!!!

The gu voraciously consumed every iota of bacterial life that it could get its hands on. It wasnʼt accustomed to consuming such a strange and unusual form of life, and it almost didnʼt recognize these bacterial creatures as life, requiring some prodding to consume them. The white blood antithesis cells of his Gene Realm continued to target and strike each and every single one of the strange bacteria it came across.

The bacteria of the deep biosphere did not rely on standard chemical processes to survive, forcing the white blood antithesis cells to adaptively evolve genetically while dealing with each and every single one of the bacteria. The bacteria of the deep biosphere were anaerobic, oxygen-free, making them completely different from the bacteria of the surface. They derived oxygen from the nutrients available to them in the crust and the mantle, often relying on ancient organic matter buried deep beneath the surface from ancient lifeforms. On top of that, instead of deriving their energy from the combustion of chemical compounds with oxygen, they derived their energy by absorbing the energy from the magma and lava of the mantle.

They were surrounded by energy, allowing them to smoothly absorb it without needing to generate it with painstaking combustion reactions, as bacteria upon the surface did.

Most importantly, it allowed them to fight back without tiring.

And fight back, they did.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The blood-red suns in Ruiʼs eyes sharpened as a wave of resistance began slowing down the expansion of the Poison of Yin and Yang. The gu began facing more and more resistance, reducing the number of bacteria it could consume as the white blood cells found it more and more difficult to cull cells.

The bacteria had begun wising up to their attacks as the information on how to deal with the Poison of Yin and Yang began spreading through the entirety of the deep biosphere at a rate that defied the causality of communication.

RUMBLE!!!!!

Countless bacterial cells had begun trying countless different strategies to resist the Poison of Yin and Yang.

Some tried active combat.

Others tried evasion.

Some tried mustering their numerical advantage.

Others tried resonating with the esoteric substances present in the crust and the mantle below the Panama Continent.

Most strategies failed.

But the bacteria did not need a trillion strategies to fight back. It just needed two.

One for the gu and one for the white blood cells.

And that was enough.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as the bacteria began fighting back using the strategy of numbers. Because they were nearly a thousand times smaller than the average bacteria on the surface, they couldnʼt possibly stand a chance alone. Thus, they began coming together, forming units of thousands to confront the white blood cells of the Gene Realm.

RUMBLE!!!!!

Each time a white blood cell attacked them, they would band together and confront the cell directly. The moment the two micro-combatants made contact, the bacteria would begin spreading across the surface of the white blood cell.

They would cover it up with their bodies in a layer of microorganisms, completely drowning each and every individual white blood cell in thousands and thousands of bacteria.

Together, they would use their appendages to attack the white blood cells all at once, allowing them to puncture the antithesis cells, killing them on the spot. RUMBLE!!!!!

For the gu, the bacteria adopted a different strategy.

The complete opposite.

Because the mantle could be so hostile to complex chemistry, the bacteria of the deep biosphere had an ʼoffʼ switch to their metabolism and life. They could functionally stop being alive and turn their bodies into extremely durable chemical compound units with no sign of life. The chemical programming of these bacteria was such that they could maintain this condition indefinitely until environmental factors changed, allowing them to restart their life when the time came.

This strategy was one of the countless strategies that the bacteria had tried against the gu.

It worked.

The gu simply ignored bacteria that were ʼswitched offʼ and let them off the hook. Both the yin and yang aspects of the Poison of Yin and Yang were being adaptively evolved to by the alien virus.

RUMBLE!!!!!

”Darwinian strategic evolution.”

Ruiʼs voice was one of knowing awareness. Darwinian strategic evolution referred to the evolution of strategy through the survival of those who adopted and would spread the best strategies. On top of that, the alien virus could spread the best strategy in a very active manner among the bacteria.

The alien virus was an emergent lifeform that existed in the integration of the native deep biosphere and the alien esoteric matter. It existed in the network of communication between bacterial cells, serving as an inhuman and alien consciousness spread across all of Panama.

The moment a bacterium discovered a successful strategy and a successful tactic within that broad strategy, the emergent consciousness of the alien virus would immediately spread that information to every other bacterium of the deep biosphere.

It was a realm of adaptive evolution on a scale that not even Rui had ever achieved before. And at the same time, it was no different from what the brain did on a smaller scale, was it not?

It was what every network of information, every form of integrated information, every form of consciousness did.

Networks of integrated information, abstract or discrete, emerged from and for adaptive evolution.

”Consciousness is adaptive evolution.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The blood-red suns shining with blinding brightness within the depths of his ethereal eyes as a profound enlightenment dawned on him.

”Consciousness is Water.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as the enlightenment opened a new dimension of adaptive evolution for Rui. ”If consciousness can emerge in a widespread network of bacteria and esoteric matter, then…” His eyes blazed with power. ”Then it can exist within a network of poison as well.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

He immediately began sending messages to his the white-blood cells as he created a new technique with the Forge of Creation on the spot. A new kind of poison, unlike anything ever seen by the world.

RUMBLE!!!!!