No, this was not a normal crystal …
Its crystalline surface was covered in wrinkles and cracks. There were also thousands of crystal wires wrapped around it, making it look like a dense neural network.
If the area where the monster's mastermind was located was like a huge brain with a diameter of hundreds of meters, then this crystal fragment was like the carcass of a walnut!
Then, this crystal fragment was like the carcass of a brain the size of a walnut!
And when Meng Chao stared at it deeply, it shone with a dazzling light. It was as if a non-existent eye had opened up and met Meng Chao's gaze.
Meng Chao felt a surge of bioelectricity surge through all his nerve endings.
He blurted out, "This is a crystalized neurosphere, and it's alive!"
Regardless of whether it was superhumans or superbeasts, when they were nourished by the essence of the sun and the moon, their spirit energy would accumulate in their bodies over a long period of time, and there was a certain chance that it would seep into their organs, limbs, bones, and blood vessels. Their original bodies would gradually gain a metallic and crystalline quality.
This process was known as crystallization, or in short, crystallization.
After crystallization, the functions of the organs would increase by leaps and bounds, and they could easily unleash power that was ten times or even one hundred times greater than that of normal organs.
This was the source of superhumans' power.
For example, Meng Chao had recently reached Spirit Vision Realm, which allowed him to gather his spirit energy on his retina, lens, and optic nerves so that these visual organs could all crystallize.
Usually, when superhumans reached the peak of Earth Realm, they would reach Spirit Gathering Realm, and when monsters reached Level Three Nightmarish Beasts, their organs would gradually crystallize.
The first organs to crystallize were usually the bones.
Many superhumans and Nightmarish Beasts could crystallize and cultivate their bones until they were as tough as steel so that they could release unparalleled power.
Then, it was the flesh and tendons.
After crystallization, the flesh and tendons could swell up by several times. They could even stretch for a few meters.
That was why superhumans who looked thin and weak could instantly transform into people who were nearly three meters tall. Their muscles bulged, and they looked like giants who had descended to the mortal world.
And the organs that were the hardest to crystallize were undoubtedly the brain and nervous system.
On one hand, the brain was as fragile as the spinal cord.
On the other hand, the brains of carbon-based intelligent creatures contained too many secrets.
If a large amount of spirit energy surged into the brain recklessly, the consequences might not be strengthening the brain, but bleeding in the brain, going through spirit energy deviation, losing control of the nervous system, endocrine imbalance, and other things.
Hence, when the brain and nervous system absorbed a large amount of spirit energy, they gradually gained a crystalline quality and formed crystalline neurospheres, which were the rarest supreme-grade materials.
Not only was it priceless, it was a priceless treasure.
In the past, Meng Chao and Qin Hu had gotten to know each other because of a crystalized neurosphere he harvested from a Golden Spirit.
The Golden Spirits were just normal monsters. Strictly speaking, it was impossible for them to form crystallized neurospheres.
However, due to a stroke of luck, the Golden Spirit had been active in a blessed land filled with spirit energy all year round, and it had been tainted with a few wisps of spirit energy, causing its nerve clusters to gain a crystalline feeling.
This was enough to change Meng Chao's family's fate.
And the crystal fragment in front of him was like a miniature brain. It might be small, but it had all its organs. It shone with a seven-colored light, and it looked like the ripples of brain waves that could be seen with the naked eye. It was the best among crystalized neurospheres.
Regardless of whether it was Meng Chao, who had the memories of his previous life, or the legendary martial arts legend Lei Zongchao, they had never seen such a perfect crystalized neurosphere with such powerful spirit energy ripples.
Both of them narrowed their eyes at the same time.
"This is … the carcass of the monster's mastermind?" Meng Chao gulped. His throat was dry, but his voice still quivered a little.
"That's right. I saw it with my own eyes. This is the only thing left behind after the monster's mastermind turned into a bubble and burst."
Shao Zhengyang paused for a moment before he said, "But we're not certain whether it can be considered the carcass of the monster's mastermind."
Meng Chao was a little stunned.
Since it was the only thing left behind after the monster's mastermind was reduced to dust, if it was not its carcass, what else could it be?
"We've tried to analyze the components of this crystalized neurosphere. Even though we don't know what material it is made of, we're certain that unless it has been under high temperature and high pressure for hundreds of millions of years, as well as spirit energy radiation, it would be impossible for it to create … such a perfect form and texture," Wu Haibo explained.
"When we read the information in this crystalized neurosphere, we verified our hypothesis. This thing is at least tens of millions of years old."
"What? Meng Chao was shocked.
The crystalized neurosphere looked like a mini brain, and it had a history of tens of millions of years or even hundreds of millions of years. It was definitely an ancient relic.
If it had really been the brain of some powerful lifeform in the past, then it should have been an ancient lifeform.
However, it was impossible for the mastermind to have lived for hundreds of millions of years.
Aside from a handful of plants, it was impossible for a carbon-based lifeform that looked like a giant queen ant to live for so long. There was no need for it either.
"This means that there's an ancient brain in the mastermind's body that doesn't belong to it?" Meng Chao was shocked.
"A more logical guess is that the ancient brain has been asleep for hundreds of millions of years. Once it gradually woke up, it released a mysterious power that's similar to brain waves and attracted the carbon-based lifeforms around it to its side. They slowly enveloped it, and its cells continued dividing, multiplying, and growing. In the end, it turned into the mastermind," Wu Haibo said.
Wu Haibo said. "To put it simply and crudely, the ancient brain woke up from its slumber of billions of years and felt that it needed a shell. Hence, it created the mastermind of the monster. Then, it used the mastermind of the monster to drive the larger superbrain and eventually, the entire mother body.
"By the way, the ruins research center named the brain with a diameter of hundreds of meters just now the superbrain, and this crystalized neurosphere is a microbrain.
"We believe that the microbrain is the core of the entire parent body system."
"Unbelievable."
Meng Chao gasped in amazement. "This brain is the size of a walnut, and it can drive a brain that's hundreds of meters in diameter, a parent body that occupies a circular area of dozens of kilometers, and even a monster horde?"
"It's not 'one'."
Wu Haibo corrected him. "By reading the information stored in the 'microbrains' and some other evidence we found in the depths of Relic No. 2, we speculate that to activate 100% of the functions and power of the 'parent', we'll probably need hundreds of 'microbrains' that are connected to each other in an unbelievable way to form a 'thinking unit array'.
"It's a pity that most of the 'microbrains' were destroyed in the primordial war, and the 'parent' only had 1% of its active tissues left. The last 'microbrain' was the only one that managed to escape the orbital attacks of space-based weapons and the corrosion of billions of years, luckily surviving to this day.
"Of course, this isn't really a pity.
"If two 'microbrains' were woken up at the same time and activated 2% of the active tissues of the 'parent', I'm afraid that it wouldn't be human beings who are studying it right now. Instead, they would've killed 90% of human beings and captured the remaining 10% of human beings into the laboratory and tied them to the operating table so that they could study them however they wanted.
Meng Chao thought about it deeply.
He closed his eyes, and a mysterious and grand picture appeared in front of him.
At the center were hundreds of translucent 'microbrains' the size of walnuts. They were connected to each other by crystal wires on the nanometer level, constituting an even, solemn, and precise cube.
In such a mode, not only did it avoid the shortcomings of a brain that was too large in size, could not dissipate heat well, and lacked mobility and defense ability, but it could also carry different 'shells' when necessary. It would be easier for the brain to expand, fight, and migrate.
The 'array thinking unit', on the other hand, was wrapped in a 'colossus' that was hundreds of meters in diameter.
The microbrains were in charge of calculations and deductions, while the brain was in charge of carrying out specific tasks. The division of labor was clear, and they worked well together.
Outside the giant brain was the mother's resource gathering center, resource refinement center, gene lab, biochemical weapon workshop, new recruit training camp, and soldier upgrade center of the ancient civilization and the monster civilization!
The world outside the mother body was naturally filled with endless monster hordes that covered the entire world through this ingenious system.
"The biochemical technology of the primordial civilizations has indeed reached the peak. With such technology, I'm afraid that only a few 'ancient people' with a few 'parent seeds' would be needed to cross the sea of stars and conquer a planet easily!"
Meng Chao gasped in amazement.
Even though the ancient civilization had transmigration engines and could teleport a city to the other side of the galaxy, Meng Chao believed that this sort of transmigration would definitely use up an astronomical amount of energy.
But Meng Chao believed that this sort of transmigration would definitely use up an astronomical amount of energy, and there would also be plenty of limitations. He might not be able to do it as he pleased.
If they were careless, the entire city would end up transmigrating to a place with a really bad environment that was not suitable for civilization to continue. In fact, it might even have powerful enemies lurking around. Wouldn't that be suicidal?
It would be much simpler and cheaper to send a few ancient humans with a few mother body seeds to transmigrate.
Even if these ancient humans ran into accidents, the ancient civilization would not suffer a lot of losses.
Wait …
Meng Chao suddenly caught the key behind Wu Haibo's words.
"You can read the ancient information in the microbrains?" He widened his eyes.
"Of course."
Wu Haibo smiled and said, "Many primordial relics contain a large amount of information from the primordial era.
"Entering the ancient ruins, coming into contact with the relics, listening to the ancient summons, and figuring out the mysterious pictures that appear in their minds is an important way for humans to learn from the ancient humans. It's also the key to how Dragon City managed to achieve a technological leap and even an explosion in just a short half a century and successfully turn into a spirit energy civilization.
"Besides, microbrains have always been organs that analyze and store information. After being nourished by spirit energy for billions of years, a lot of the information is still bright and new!"
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