Free Web NovelChapter 502: Chapter 495: Speculation
Although the full extent of a King Level’s recovery and regenerative abilities remained unknown, Zhou Yuanjue had reason to believe—based on the feedback from Zhang Dongwei’s experience and the fragmented descriptions of King Level beings in historical intelligence—that unless one could find a way to completely destroy their will, a King Level could be reborn from even a single remaining body part, like an arm or a piece of flesh.
Limb regeneration was child’s play for such beings.
After all, even for the current Zhou Yuanjue, regenerating a limb was not an impossible feat. Without the weakness of a head, he could accomplish many unimaginable things.
They possessed unpredictable physical structures and bodies with no fatal flaws, now that the brain’s weakness had been eliminated. Their modified anatomy was difficult to comprehend, granting them special abilities and, most likely, a near-Immortal Life Force.
Such beings were indeed extremely difficult to deal with. They had transcended the conventional understanding of "life."
Aside from the useful information Zhou Yuanjue extracted from those fragmented sensory clips, the remaining insights were of little use to him.
He desperately wanted to know how the genes were recombined, by what means, and in what structure. Unfortunately, since Zhang Dongwei had relied on the Celestial Demon Race’s Bloodline Atlas to break his limits, he was completely unaware of these key details and couldn’t truly grasp the principles involved. This was even more true for Zhou Yuanjue, who had only received incomplete, fragmented insights.
Still, based on the information he had managed to piece together, Zhou Yuanjue had made a crucial gain. He now had new theories about how to break through that shackle.
"The brain..."
Zhou Yuanjue muttered to himself. For humanity, the brain had always been an unavoidable barrier on the path of evolution—and the greatest difficulty.
When a regular Martial Artist broke through to Saint Awakening, the most difficult part was to "light up" the Niwan Palace between the eyebrows. This was because it represented the center of the brain, the seat of the will. Only by hovering between life and death could one see through it, unlocking the brain’s powerful abilities and elevating one’s state of life.
Later, through his own established system of instinct, Zhou Yuanjue deduced the principle by which Saint Awakening unlocked the brain’s functions.
The brain is the organ that governs the body and is also where human instinct and the subconscious are most concentrated. Only by entering a state of neither life nor death can one briefly suppress the brain’s instincts, undo the body’s self-preservation shackles, and release one’s own magnetic field to influence the surrounding environment.
But even after reaching Saint Awakening, despite the newfound power of human consciousness, understanding of the body’s most mysterious organ—the brain—remained extremely limited. All sorts of profoundly mysterious and peculiar abilities could barely affect it, rendering it a forbidden zone.
Even someone as powerful as the current Zhou Yuanjue, who could claim his consciousness had complete control over his physique, down to every last cell of his torso, would not dare say he understood the brain all that well.
’Perhaps the secret to the King Level is inextricably linked to the brain.’
Zhou Yuanjue theorized that if the goal was to evolve the body, it would be impossible to succeed while such a massive vulnerability existed.
’Then, how exactly can one explore the brain?’
For a moment, Zhou Yuanjue seemed to have no real leads. The brain was a forbidden zone that no one, since ancient times, had ever been able to fully comprehend.
He could only continuously review the insights transmitted by Zhang Dongwei, trying to find some clues within them.
Finally, he focused on Zhang Dongwei’s most distinct sensation at the very beginning of the evolution.
A sense of detachment.
At first, he believed this sense of detachment—of consciousness separating from the body—was some kind of binding ability used by Doctor Nightmare to keep Zhang Dongwei from struggling. Later, however, he came to believe that wasn’t the case.
’What if this feeling was actually a normal part of the ascension process?’
Consciousness detaches from the body, and the body seems to come alive on its own, performing a series of operations.
The feeling was like consciousness breaking free from the body’s shackles, observing one’s own self from a third-person perspective.
’Breaking free from the shackles...’
’In fact, the brain itself is our greatest shackle...’
A glimmer of light flashed in Zhou Yuanjue’s eyes.
For an ordinary person, the brain is paramount. Thought and consciousness are inseparable from it. The brain controls all bodily functions; it is the center of consciousness and the seat of instinct. Without it, an ordinary human simply cannot survive.
But for top-tier individuals, this was not the case. As the place where consciousness first grew, the brain was actually their greatest shackle.
It’s like a house that human consciousness resides in. For the weak, this house is a safe haven. But for those who aspire to supremacy and evolution, this house is a prison.
This was true for Saint Awakening, and it is true for the second shackle as well.
’The body is a precision machine, but it has limits; there are many aspects of its hardware and mechanical structure that can be modified. Human consciousness is the operator of this machine, and the brain is its cockpit. To make it easier for a novice pilot to operate, the machine is equipped with numerous automated programs that help it run on its own. These automated programs are what we call "instinct" in the human body.’
’These automated programs are certainly very useful for maintaining the machine’s normal operation. However, a program is just a program—it’s rigid and mechanical. It can only help the machine perform routine functions. If you want to push the machine’s capabilities to their maximum, the pilot needs to take control themselves.’
’This is the meaning of the Martial Dao: to help the pilot grow stronger and understand the machine better. When the pilot breaks through the barrier of autopilot and successfully becomes the master of the machine, they have reached the realm of Saint Awakening.’
’At the peak of Saint Awakening, the machine’s capabilities have reached the limits of its hardware. At this point, to go any further, the only option is to fundamentally modify the machine’s hardware. This is the body’s second shackle.’
’But if the pilot is trapped inside the cockpit, unable to step outside, how can they ever truly modify the entire machine?’
’It’s actually a very simple principle. Therefore, the first critical step to breaking the second shackle must be to figure out how to open the cockpit door, allowing the pilot to step out and gain complete control over the machine.’
’In other words, to let consciousness completely break free from the shackles of the brain.’
As Zhou Yuanjue slowly pieced everything together, he suddenly felt a sense of profound clarity. Perhaps everything that seemed so complex had a very simple solution after all.
