Chapter 40: Ruan Mei: Can We Obtain His Sperm Cells?
Inside the pristine, sterile confines of Ruan Mei's private laboratory, a series of holographic screens projected cascading streams of complex biological data. She had just completed the preliminary analysis of the blood and hair samples collected from Leon.
"This... it is simply incredible..."
Ruan Mei spoke softly to the empty room. Her usually steady voice carried a faint, uncharacteristic tremor of excitement. She leaned closer to the high-powered microscopic viewer, her eyes reflecting the glowing readouts.
Under the machine's intense magnification, the external structure of Leon's cells did not appear significantly different from ordinary organic biological matter. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, they possessed a terrifying capacity for accommodation. Not only did these cells maintain an astonishing level of vitality outside a host body, but they also emitted a faint, captivating golden luster during their continuous process of division.
The analytical data indicated that each individual cell contained an unknown, self-sustaining energy fluctuation. Looking at them was like staring into a microscopic universe, with stardust shimmering within the cellular walls.
"Such vigorous life force..." Ruan Mei murmured, her gaze locked on the screen.
As a scholar who had dedicated her entire existence to studying the fundamental essence of life, Ruan Mei had never encountered such a peculiar, rule-breaking sample. She carefully extracted a single drop of his blood, placing it into a pristine petri dish before adding a few drops of a specially formulated, highly concentrated nutrient solution.
To her absolute astonishment, the cells devoured all the nutrients within mere minutes. The liquid vanished, absorbed entirely, yet the cells themselves showed absolutely no changes in mass or structure.
"Such strong accommodating properties..."
Curiosity piqued, Ruan Mei attempted a different approach. She gently channeled a thread of power from the Path of Erudition, infusing the conceptual energy directly into the sample. The golden cells swallowed the Path energy instantly, leaving not a single trace behind.
Ruan Mei's eyes flickered with a strange light. She turned away from the workstation and moved toward a heavily secured containment unit, extracting a sealed vial containing a collected remnant of the Propagation.
Ever since she had been observed by Nous, Ruan Mei had left her homeworld behind, choosing to live the life of a wandering recluse. No one in the universe knew exactly what question she had asked the Aeon of Erudition, but ever since that fateful encounter, her temperament had grown increasingly detached from mortal concerns. She became entirely immersed in her research, studying nothing but the pure essence of life itself.
Over the years, incredibly diverse forms of life had emerged from her countless simulations. Some burning lives became flowing fire, crouching and darting playfully around her ankles. In those moments, she sometimes felt as though she were the fire itself. Other flowing lives transformed into liquid light, swirling gracefully around her slender wrists, making her feel as though she had become the light.
Some lives, simulated directly from pure knowledge, even attempted to develop their own independent thoughts, consciousness, and emotions. They would sometimes cry out clamorously, laugh with joy, or wail in despair, their conceptual forms merging directly into her body.
But she could not feel them.
To her, life ultimately existed only briefly. It flickered into existence and faded away in an instant, leaving behind nothing but data for her endless experiments to continue unabated.
Sometimes, her casual research would shake the very foundations of established biological systems across the cosmos. Her experiments had permanently altered many planets, giving birth to flying whales, roaming deer, startled flowers, and vast, planetary-scale plant root systems. Her creations had long since surpassed the experience and imagination of ordinary organic life.
She had been constantly pushing the absolute boundaries of her understanding of life, all for a single purpose: to draw closer to It. That single glance from Nous was unforgettable.
Aeons... what kind of existence were they truly? Were they, too, just another form of life?
Ruan Mei was utterly obsessed with the concept of Aeons. She harbored a deep, burning yearning to one day create an Aeon herself, just as Zandar, the first member of the Genius Society, had supposedly done.
Because of this obsession, Ruan Mei had been secretly conducting highly dangerous experiments. She had acquired a remnant of the Propagation and used a portion of its genetic material to cultivate a clone of the Starcrusher Swarm King Skaracabaz.
Unfortunately, it was a flawed creation. The clone was only capable of briefly replicating the terrifying power of the Propagation. Though it possessed the raw strength of an Emanator, its structural instability meant it could exist for less than a single minute before completely dissipating into dust.
That failed creation was currently buried deep within the Seclusion Zone of the Herta Space Station, locked away in a stasis pod. She planned to find a suitable time to dispose of it permanently, preferably without alerting Herta to its existence. If Herta found out she had bred a Swarm King Emanator on her station, the puppet master might actually get angry.
Ruan Mei cherished her few friends, and she preferred not to test their patience.
"There is very little left of the Propagation remnant..." she whispered, holding the sealed vial up to the light. "I hope this research yields a breakthrough."
Using a pair of precision manipulators, Ruan Mei extracted a cluster of cells from the Propagation remnant and carefully introduced them into the petri dish containing Leon's cells.
In the very next moment, her usually calm eyes widened in absolute disbelief.
Leon's cells surged forward and completely devoured the cells of the Propagation remnant!
The entire process offered zero resistance. The golden cells simply swallowed the foreign matter and settled back down.
One had to remember, those were the cells of the Propagation Aeon, Tayzzyronth! Even though the Aeon had perished long ago, its remaining cells still contained unimaginable, aggressive power that would normally consume any organic matter they touched. Yet here, they were the ones being eaten.
"Just what kind of person are you?" Ruan Mei breathed out, leaning over the console. "This is truly fascinating..."
A faint, highly unusual blush crept up Ruan Mei's normally placid, porcelain face. It had been a very long time since she had felt this level of pure, unadulterated excitement. The last time her heart had beaten this fast was when she successfully replicated the Starcrusher Swarm King.
Although that experiment had ultimately proven to be a defective product, filling her with a deep sense of regret, that intoxicating thrill of discovery was now surging through her veins once more.
She spent the next hour trying various extreme methods, bombarding the sample with different energies and materials. She discovered that Leon's cells could devour absolutely everything introduced to them. Yet, despite consuming massive amounts of energy and matter, they showed no signs of growth or division whatsoever. They acted like a microscopic black hole, accommodating all things without changing their own state.
"Ruan Mei, any discoveries?"
A chime echoed through the lab as Herta's virtual projection materialized near the workstation, her hands resting on her hips.
"A significant discovery," Ruan Mei replied, forcing her voice to return to its usual calm cadence, though her eyes still gleamed. "His cells are extremely special. They can accommodate everything, but they refuse to grow."
Herta tilted her head. "Refuse to grow?"
"I have tried multiple methods," Ruan Mei explained, gesturing to the readouts. "These cells absorb all nutrients and energies, but they consistently fail to form tissues. In fact, the raw nutrients I have provided over the last hour are more than enough to cultivate several complete, complex tissue samples."
She paused, her gaze drifting back to the golden cells on the monitor. "I suspect his cells are under some kind of absolute restriction, preventing them from developing from the cellular stage into complex tissues, let alone replicating into new individuals."
It was as if Leon's biology had been placed under a supreme prohibition. To Ruan Mei, this indicated that his fundamental life level far surpassed the ordinary universe. In the presence of a higher life form, lower-level cells could only submit and be devoured.
But what truly puzzled her was that even Aeon-derived cells, like those from the Propagation remnant, could not escape being devoured.
A life form higher than an Aeon's remnant... Ruan Mei harbored a very bold, almost terrifying conjecture in her heart. However, this theory was far too audacious, so she kept her silence, choosing not to share it with Herta just yet.
"As expected, he is special," Herta remarked. She was not a biological expert by any means, but she easily understood the gravity of Ruan Mei's words.
Ruan Mei turned to look at the holographic projection. "Can we obtain his sperm cells?" she asked suddenly.
Herta blinked, momentarily taken aback by the bluntness.
Ruan Mei's mind was already racing with possibilities. If his somatic cells could accommodate all things, did his reproductive cells possess the exact same property? If so, could they still combine with another organism's egg cell to form new life? Or would they simply devour the foreign egg cell directly upon contact?
This singular idea sparked an intense, burning interest within Ruan Mei, stirring a deep impulse to conduct the experiment immediately. If his sperm cells did not possess the aggressive devouring nature of his somatic cells, she could conduct countless new experiments with them.
A quiet, dangerous thought surfaced in the back of her mind.
'If my own egg cell were combined with his sperm cell... what level of existence would the created life achieve?'
Assuming her audacious conjecture about his life level was correct...
Ruan Mei's complexion grew increasingly flushed, her skin glowing with a feverish excitement that she could barely suppress. Her hands gripped the edge of the console tightly.
"Haven't obtained them," Herta said, shrugging her projected shoulders. "I even gave him a custom Herta puppet for his personal use, but he hasn't touched it to this day. He might speak frivolously and act like a fool, but he probably isn't the impatient, lustful type."
"Where is he now?" A starlight-like gleam flashed in Ruan Mei's beautiful eyes.
"In my Space Station," Herta replied. She studied her colleague's flushed face. "What, you want to go find him yourself?"
Herta was somewhat surprised by the active attitude, but upon second thought, it seemed perfectly reasonable. When encountering a truly interesting research topic, Herta knew she would act the exact same way.
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