The Martial Unity

Chapter 3685: Submerged

He heaved a deep breath, calming himself. ”Before I can do anything, I must finish the neuron replacement process.”

It had gone so unbelievably smoothly that he even had the luxury to think about all these novel revelations and ideas about Transcendence. He quickly banished all matters regarding the Transcendent revelations aside as he quickly went about the brain replacement process.

His determination had boiled to the limit.

His motivation had hit the very ceiling.

His Martial drive had never been stronger.

Even when he put the Transcendent revelations, the feeling of euphoria never left.

It was an unspeakable satisfaction and anticipation.

It put him in a special state of mind so powerful that the speed and proficiency with which he replaced neurons continued rising without end. Somehow, he grew more and more efficient at the process with seemingly no limit in sight.

His mind and soul focused upon the task that he had set for himself. Even if things were going smoothly, it was too incautious for him to let his mind wander as he had. He would see this process through to the very end and ensure that everything to make sure everything went perfectly.

The smoothness of his procedure continued to rise as his very existence became invested in the process.

He would verify that a neuron wasn’t a part of a connection containing the predictive model of that very neuron. If it did, he would create a copy of the predictive model elsewhere in his brain.

Then he cleanly severed the connections of the neuron with other neurons using a quantum gravitational tweezer, proceeding to destroy the neuron in its entirety.

Then he would place the evosapien stem cell, triggering the chemical reactions that would cause it to transform into an evosapien neuron before making sure that it connected with the surrounding neurons.

He made sure that the new evosapien neuron acted exactly as the old human neuron through the predictive model, ensuring that everything was perfectly connected.

He did this over and over and over again.

Thousands, millions, and even billions of times, replacing both neurons and glial cells in his brain with evosapien stem cells.

A process that should have taken many years in and of itself took much less time because of Rui’s rising proficiency and the fact that it was absurdly smooth.

There was no rejection.

There was no biochemical incompatibility.

There was no genetic incompatibility.

Part of it might have been the fact that the problems he would have encountered in the brain were the same as those of the nervous system. After all, the separation between the brain and the nervous system was partly an artificial construct.

It could very well have been that the reason things were so smooth was that he had already mastered all the problems when dealing with the nervous system and the spinal cord.

That could explain why what should have been the most lethal and difficult part of the process turned out to be the easiest and smoothest.

He made sure to keep the Eye of Prophecy active at all times, ensuring that there was no way that he could miss any problem. Eerily, even the Eye of Prophecy did not detect any potential issues coming up. It continuously gave him the thumbs up, encouraging him to go through with the procedure at full speed.

Yet... as Rui continued, he couldn’t develop just the faintest inkling that something was off.

The neurons sat in his brain perfectly and silently, performing their role exactly as he had wanted them to.

He had started from the least important parts of the brain at its very exteriors before moving in towards his cerebral cortex, arguably the most important part of his brain related to consciousness.

He had saved it for the last.

He had always been excited about evolving the fundamental nature of his conscious experience with the evosapien neurons. Now, he was even more excited with his most recent revelations.

Consciousness was an information phenomenon that was most likely deeply connected to the Transcendent Realm in some way.

If he evolved the brain cells that corresponded to the phenomenon of consciousness, could he enhance his consciousness on an informational level as well?

After all, even if information existed separately, it clearly corresponded with material conditions.

If he enhanced his material conditions, then it was possible that he could fundamentally enhance the information phenomenon known as consciousness.

If that were the case, then he could potentially enhance his power in the Transcendent Realm greatly!

He recalled that the Martial Transcendents described that they were merely Martial Sages who had only set one foot, or even one toe, into a higher Realm.

If that were the case, then perhaps Rui could fundamentally overcome this shortcoming with the power of Anthea’s physiology. He recalled that Anthea was ascending to a whole new dimension of power that would have been enough to completely overwhelm Rui if not for his dwindling lifespan and his dying body.

Perhaps this was the source of that power.

Rui’s eyes grew intense as he realized just how much unfathomable power waited for him when he completed this procedure!

He accelerated, pushing himself to the very limit as he penetrated deeper and deeper into his brain with evosapien neurology.

Five percent.

Ten percent.

Fifteen percent.

Thirty percent.

Forty five percent.

By the time he reached replacing fifty percent of his brain, the only thing that was left was the cerebral cortex, the home for the neurochemistry of consciousness.

He resolutely proceeded, replacing half of his cerebral cortex with evosapien stem cells, all while ensuring that they behaved exactly as before, while simultaneously ensuring that his Large Soul Model anchored his Enlightenment of Self, ensuring that he never once lost it.

And then suddenly, it was complete.

It took eighteen months.

But by the end, he implanted the final evosapien neuron in his cerebral cortex.

”I succeeded...!” His pitch-black eyes lit up. ”I actually did it—!”

He froze.

He froze as the world disappeared.

The medical cocoon that he had gotten accustomed to in the past sixteen years.

It was gone.

Suddenly, he was submerged in a world of darkness.