In the southeastern corner of the martial arts course was a corner hidden by a towering tree that was dozens of meters tall.
It was a seven-story reinforced concrete building that was as thick as a fortress. It was covered by mutated Boston creeper vines, and there were vines crawling out of the windows. It looked a little desolate.
This was once the main lecture building of the martial arts course.
There were seven floors above ground, and there were three floors underground for martial arts labs.
Later, Agricultural University rose to power and became Monster University. With the support of funds and resources from all sorts of places, they built more, bigger, and more luxurious lecture buildings and labs. This place gradually became empty and turned into a dormitory and classroom for refresher courses.
Gu Jianbo settled down the students from society and brought Meng Chao into the depths of the lecture building. He opened a door covered in rust and creaked. Then, they went up the spiral staircase and entered the damp darkness underground.
"Big Brother Bo, you hid a secret base like this?"
This was the first time Ma Hong and the other students from society learned about it, and they insisted on going down to take a look.
Gu Jianbo could not argue with them, so he called Ma Hong to be his representative and went down with him.
The three floors underground were as cold as a morgue.
When they sucked in a breath, they felt as if ice was stabbing their nostrils.
Dark light illuminated the two sides of the long and narrow corridor. There were all sorts of blood vessels and nerves that had been completely stripped off and soaked in preservative. They could be seen densely packed together, and it was a bone-chilling sight.
Gu Jianbo brought Meng Chao and Ma Hong to a lab that could only be opened with a password.
It was filled with all sorts of cultivation equipment that looked like torture tools.
At the center was a machine that looked like an electric chair used to execute criminals.
Gu Jianbo brought out two stacks of experiment notes and drafts from the safe in the corner. He also brought out two huge files.
In the files were a thick stack of medical records, test results for various physiological parameters, and scans of various organs of the body.
There was also a yellowed photo.
In the photo, the handsome Gu Jianbo was ten years younger, and he was holding hands with the beautiful Li Yingzi, who was also ten years younger.
They were standing with a high-spirited young man. They looked in the direction of the red sun, as if they could see a beautiful future, and they smiled happily.
"His name is Zong Ye. He was the most outstanding student in our batch, and he was far stronger than me."
Gu Jianbo touched the photo gently and mumbled, "In truth, he was the leader of Project 1024. I was just dragged into it by him."
Meng Chao nodded. "I saw that he was the one who published the first articles."
"That's right. Many people say that more than ten years ago, Agricultural University's martial arts course was the era when Ms. Li and I, the Gemini Stars, shone brilliantly and suppressed the monster controller course. In truth, there was no such thing as the Gemini Stars. At best, we are two satellites that reflect the light of Zong Ye, the supernova. "
Gu Jianbo smiled and said, "Zong Ye is Dean Zong's youngest son, and he's also the most outstanding one. When he was a junior, he reached Heaven Realm and became a four-star superhuman."
"What?!" Meng Chao was shocked.
In the Transcendent Realm, every three levels was a big step.
Many of the talented prodigies in universities managed to reach three-star realm before graduation and reached the peak of Earth Realm.
But moving from Earth Realm to Heaven Realm was not just about accumulating spirit energy. It was also not as simple as clearing a few more spirit meridians and strengthening a few more organs.
He had to have a deep understanding toward his vitality magnetic field, soul power, mind, and will before he could push the realm of carbon-based intelligent lifeforms to a brand new level.
It was unbelievable for him to reach Heaven Realm during his junior year.
"Zong Ye's talent and brilliance are ten times better than mine. His rebellious nature and ambition make him like a volcano that will erupt at any moment. He instills fear in others, but he's also incredibly attractive," Gu Jianbo said.
"Zong Ye thinks highly of himself and believes that only Li Yingzi and I can somewhat understand his thoughts in Agricultural University's martial arts course. We often discuss the most cutting-edge martial arts ideals together. In the eyes of others, we're an iron triangle that never leaves each other's side, but only we know that Li Yingzi and I have been completely shocked and convinced by him.
"Soon after he reached Heaven Realm, on a stormy night, he suddenly came to me and Li Yingzi and said that he thought that he had gone down the wrong path.
"We were naturally shocked.
"At that time, he had fought against ten people alone and utterly defeated the monster controller course. He even broke many of the records of the martial arts course over the past few decades. Even the universities in the area and Dragon City University, which is located to the west of the city, have heard of his name.
"If he had gone down the wrong path, then who else in Agricultural University's martial arts course would be walking down the right path?
"But he didn't say a word. He brought out a notebook that looked like it had scribbles on it and talked about a brand new fighting philosophy. Here, it's this one."
Gu Jianbo picked up a monster leather notebook with a peeled cover and carefully flipped open the title page.
There was a row of words written in a flamboyant style. [Only death is the limit of life!]
The words were written with great emphasis, and they seeped into the back of the paper as if they had been branded on it.
"Zong Ye's saliva flew everywhere. He talked about it for an entire night, and in the beginning, we didn't agree with his ideals."
Gu Jianbo sighed. "Cultivating branch meridians to fight might sound nice, but if you think about it carefully, you'll know that it's impossible. Branch meridians are thin and fragile. There's no way you can clear them in a simple and crude manner, just like how you cultivate main meridians.
"Even if you do clear them, the runoff volume of branch meridians is small. How can you release enough spirit energy? If you can't even release a single skill, how can you fight against the powerful fighters of the Beast Soul Style and Overkill Style who have killing moves all over the place? "
"If anyone else had brought out such a ridiculous thing, Li Yingzi and I would have immediately thrown it into the trash, but it was Zong Ye, a brilliant martial arts genius.
"Once again, we were convinced by his bold thoughts and endless eloquence, and we were dragged into a high-speed train that traveled at lightning speed into unknown territory. That was Project 1024." Meng Chao was engrossed in the story.
Meng Chao was engrossed. "What happened next?"
"Then, he died," Gu Jianbo said calmly.
"What?!"
"The cultivation method for superhumans that Dragon City figured out over the decades is mainly to take medicine with a lot of spirit energy, then use meditation, stance training, and fighting to refine it. If it's a university or a mega corporation, they will provide cultivation cabins and use bioelectricity to stimulate the cultivator's nerves and blood vessels to speed up the flow of spirit energy so that they can charge and strengthen their spirit meridians. But this method is mainly suitable for main meridians," Gu Jianbo said with a sigh.
"Zong Ye had a wild imagination. He changed the formula of the medicine and the structure of the cultivation cabins. He reduced the density of the medicine and the strength of the bioelectricity in hopes that he could clear and strengthen the 1,024 branch meridians.
"But he underestimated the complexity and fragility of the branch meridians. He also underestimated the bone-chilling pain when he cleared the branch meridians and the interference it would bring to his mental strength index.
"In the end, before we graduated, he went through spirit energy deviation during an experiment, and his body exploded and died. He only left behind half of his unfinished graduation thesis, along with a lot of medical records and research materials.
"It was only after we read the medical records that we learned that the extreme experiments had severely destroyed his body a long time ago. Fine internal injuries had accumulated in his blood vessels and meridians. He might have seemed healthy, but he was draining his life madly, so the flames of his life, which could last for one hundred years, were burned to nothing in just a few short years!
"He knew very well that he did not have long to live.
"In one of the letters he wrote to us, he stated that he knew the devastating price he would have to pay if he pushed Project 1024 forward.
"But he optimistically predicted that he still had a few years to live, and it would be enough for him to last until Project 1024 was completed. Then, the brand new martial arts ideals would shine brilliantly. At that time, even if he was crushed to pieces as an offering, it would be worth it."
Meng Chao took the medical records Gu Jianbo handed to him with trembling hands, and he read them in shock.
The shocking data and images clearly showed how a talented and unparalleled martial arts genius cruelly and cruelly destroyed his own body, step by step, step by step toward his own destruction.
Every time he experimented, he felt as if he had jumped into a meat grinder and cut himself into pieces. He dissected each of his organs and nerves.
It was only by doing so that he could obtain firsthand data to change the density of the gene medicine and adjust the strength of the bioelectricity so that he could change the cultivation machine that was suitable for clearing main meridians into one that was suitable for cultivating branch meridians!
"Honestly, I didn't believe that Project 1024 would succeed. From the first day, I was very skeptical, and I often complained about it in front of Zong Ye."
Gu Jianbo smiled. "But when I saw how badly mangled he was in the cultivation cabin, I felt that we should carry on his will. We can't let Project 1024 come to an end just like that, or else, wouldn't Zong Ye have died for nothing?
"As for Li Yingzi, she was filled with grief because of Zong Ye's death. She believed that it was Project 1024 that caused him to go through spirit energy deviation, and the two of us were accomplices who caused his death. She blamed herself deeply, and from then on, she turned to beast soul fusion and never looked at Project 1024 again.
"At that time, Dean Zong Yue was already in charge of the martial arts and life science department. He was naturally heartbroken over his youngest son's death, but he grew up in an era filled with the flames of war, so his view of life and death was even more indifferent. He did not completely reject Project 1024.
"Since I was willing to continue Zong Ye's research, he didn't object to it. Instead, he brought out quite a lot of resources to support me. If the project really succeeded, Zong Ye's soul in heaven would be pleased, right?"
When Meng Chao heard this, he asked curiously, "If that's the case, why did the project stop?"
"Because I don't have 'talent'," Gu Jianbo said with an empty gaze.
Gu Jianbo's eyes were hollow as he said, "After Zong Ye's death, many people transferred all the praise and glory to me. I also swore that I would carry on his will and complete his unfinished business.
"But in the depths of my heart, I knew very well that the difference between me and Zong Ye was just too great.
"A talented student like me can only charge forward on the path others have planned for me. I can only get full marks on test papers that only have one correct answer. I can only understand the rules of the game perfectly and obtain victory.
"But if there were no test papers and no rules, I wouldn't have been able to do anything on a blank canvas.
"In the years that followed, Project 1024 was pushed forward sloppily. I seemed to have researched a lot of medicine formulas and modified some cultivation machines. I even occasionally treated some patients whose spirit meridians had withered and helped them clear three to five main meridians. I published some articles to make up the numbers and obtained countless honors and praises.
"But all of this was just superficial knowledge. I couldn't be like Zong Ye and touch the soul of Project 1024. I couldn't change the current fighting model and change it completely!
"I was anxious, and my soul was tormented. Even in my dreams, I could see Zong Ye's expectant gaze. In fact, I was incredibly jealous of him. We were both known as geniuses and the leaders of Project 1024, but why was there such a huge difference between us? The real geniuses had long since died, and I, who survived, was useless. I was just a person who fished for fame!
"I was plagued by these demonic thoughts, and I became eager for quick success. My research style gradually became radical, and in the end, I made a huge mistake.
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