Chapter Forty: Nirvana

Ahdonsa made a snap decision, immediately abandoning most of his split forms and focusing all his energy on the one within the laboratory. Here, resources were most abundant, and this was the split form that he had studied most deeply, making it the ideal place for a desperate gamble.

To the outside observers, the mysterious advisor at the laboratory’s center suddenly collapsed onto the floor, his body convulsing violently like an epileptic. Moments later, his flesh began to swell and fester, bubbling like a mud pit. Most of the researchers retreated from the lab in alarm, calling loudly for the biohazard security team to clean up the mess.

Only a handful of the more curious researchers donned heavy white biosafety suits and, through the plastic barrier, observed the utterly transformed Ahdonsa. His body was riddled with festering scars—not just his flesh, but even his bones were warping, stubborn osteocytes dissolving and reshaping under the force of mutation, bone spurs piercing through the surrounding soft tissue.

His abdominal cavity had been corroded open by cancerous cells, pus oozing between the mangled organs. His lungs and heart were entangled, seemingly devouring each other; his stomach gaped with a large hole, hungrily sucking at the writhing intestines; blood vessels had turned into strange vines, quietly winding around every organ, lying in wait.

One researcher’s face twisted in horror. “What… what kind of monster is this?”

But another exclaimed with excitement, “Can’t you see? It’s evolution—the most primitive evolution! This man is reenacting the entire history of life with his own body!”

A third dismissed him with a sneer, “No way this is evolution. The evolution of Earth’s biosphere is a strict process, from self-replicating molecules to single-celled life, then to multicellular organisms. This is nothing like that.”

“Fool, this is evolution in reverse! From mammal to reptile, then from reptile to arthropod… Look, look—that’s a coelenterate worm! If we wait a bit longer, we might see algae or even archaea!”

“Nonsense, this is just cellular dedifferentiation! They’ll soon die from these wild mutations.”

“Why don’t you keep your mouth shut, you bottom-feeder from a third-rate university!”

The two researchers nearly came to blows on the spot, completely ignoring the blaring alarms.

No one noticed the petri dish that had seemed lifeless, now changing swiftly but imperceptibly. Tissues writhed, shifting between deformity and normalcy, until suddenly a tender, pink structure began to spread. This was the earliest coelenterate structure of eukaryotic life.

Under Ahdonsa’s guidance, the unstable cells finally regressed to this primitive, yet highly stable, coelenterate form. The simple structure of such creatures possessed immense compatibility, effectively bearing the burden of rampant genetic mutations and providing Ahdonsa with precious time to buffer and absorb the mutations, gaining mastery over them rather than letting them run wild.

While these vast mutations brought disaster, they also rapidly filled the blank spaces in Ahdonsa’s genetic record. In just a few minutes, he had acquired more than a hundred thousand new genomic sequences.

Genetic mutations are disordered, random, and rare; they are neither inherently good nor bad, only distinguished by whether they suit the environment.

The more detailed and massive the gene pool, the more options Ahdonsa had at his disposal—he could combine any genetic traits he desired, shaping life to his will.

Ahdonsa’s goal was perfect life—absolute perfection, without a single flaw.

But at this moment, he was forced to begin anew from these lower life forms, step by step mastering the powers of the second stage, taking a solid stride toward the final point of evolution.

The overwhelming vitality of the coelenterate form gradually suppressed the frenzied cells. Ahdonsa was steadily regaining control over this body, but the constant mutations were exhausting its resources—nutritional replenishment was now urgent.

Suddenly, the rotting corpse convulsed violently, and countless tendrils shot out, wrapping the researchers tightly. The force was so immense that their struggling feet were dragged across the floor.

“A monster! It’s a monster!”

“Don’t worry, these biosafety suits can even stop bullets!”

But Ahdonsa’s tendrils deftly unfastened their suits from the outside, peeling them away like bananas, then stuffed the screaming humans into his blood-soaked abdomen.

Though there was no digestive tract, the new digestive fluid Ahdonsa secreted was like nitric acid, effortlessly liquefying human flesh into protein, which was then absorbed through highly permeable villi.

Tens of thousands of mutations had given Ahdonsa entirely new possibilities—even his digestive fluids were now at least twice as efficient as before.

Now, at last, Ahdonsa had truly set foot on the path of evolution.

———

Outside the now-sealed laboratory, chaos reigned throughout the company.

“Are the pipes and ventilation ducts sealed?”

“They’re sealed.”

“Has the lab waste from the past three days been dealt with?”

“Currently undergoing analysis.”

“What about the accident investigation?”

“Not a single clue. The experiments inside couldn’t possibly have triggered this kind of biohazard mutation.”

“I…”

Security consultant Wang Qiuhan, roused from sleep in the middle of the night, nearly let loose a string of curses.

He wiped his face, steeling himself, and continued, “So what’s the situation inside now?”

The laboratory director behind him hesitated, “Three researchers volunteered to stay and manage the scene, but for some reason, we’ve heard nothing from them.”

A chill ran down Wang Qiuhan’s spine as foreboding took hold. “What about the surveillance? The lab has at least eighteen cameras running around the clock.”

“All signals lost.”

“Pull up the last footage before the signal cut. I want to see it.”

“Yes, sir.”

His tablet immediately gained access and began playing the feed.

The footage was crystal clear—which only made it more shocking. A mass of rotting, dark red flesh shot out several tendrils, seizing the researchers and dragging them into its depths, peeling them like bananas. Then the tendrils violently smashed all the cameras.

A bone-deep chill surged through Wang Qiuhan. His first reaction wasn’t fear, but absurdity.

Such a creature belonged only in movies. He had always scoffed at this sort of amateurish science fiction, his professional training leaving him contemptuous of such flights of fancy. And yet, now it unfolded before him as if some parody had bled into reality.

If not for his trust in his subordinates, he would have thought someone had pasted special effects from a film to fool him.

He looked helplessly at his staff, who could only return his gaze with equal innocence.

But the company’s highest-level biohazard alarm still rang in his ears—there was nothing fake about that. If this alarm wasn’t handled perfectly, it could explode into a national emergency.