Comprehensive network wizard, magic emperor.

Chapter 276 The Passes Are Hard to Cross, the Road to Immortality Is Long

There's an old saying circulating in the multiverse: as long as you have enough Calamity Coins, you can live forever until you get tired of life.

For online gamers, the trading platform offers a variety of life-extending solutions that can easily break through the limits of one's innate lifespan, ranging from a few months or years to centuries or even millennia.

However, immortality remains a challenge and will not become readily available simply because the Internet offers infinite possibilities.

[Strange Lily] has quite a few life-extending spells in mind, such as transferring her soul to another creature through the sixth-circle necromancy spell "Demon Soul Pot," or creating a clone of herself through the eighth-circle necromancy spell "Clone."

This method of extending lifespan by constantly replacing bodies with younger ones often has many drawbacks, such as soul conflicts or the awakening of clones.

She also thought of the infamous "Iolum Longevity Spell," which increases the caster's lifespan by depriving a living being of their life. However, the effects of this spell can be distorted or negated, causing the lifespan gained to plummet and leading to rapid decay.

Besides these, spellcasters have two other common ways to extend their lifespan: one is to transform themselves into an undead lich, and the other is to become a chosen one of the gods. The former has many drawbacks, while the latter requires dealing with superiors, being at their beck and call, and having little freedom.

The longevity options that the game offers players, such as taking elixirs, changing races, and using artifacts to extend life, may seem dazzling, but they are all essentially the same few types: replenishing innate vitality, changing races and bodies, and receiving blessings from gods and demons. These options are effective in any world.

The lower the player's level, the higher the price they have to pay for longevity, and the cost of each life extension increases over time.

True immortality can only be attained by a very few powerful individuals. These individuals not only possess immortality but also often create a path to it, no longer passive recipients but adding brilliance to the multiverse.

Tiflin leaned closer to examine the paramecium created by the mage. This single-celled creature, despite enduring multiple destructions, remained vibrant and seemed to possess immortality. She thought to herself, "This thing's lifespan is definitely not short."

If billions of immortal cells were to come together and form a living organism, it would surely possess eternal life.

“Brother Mage…” [Strange Lily] slowly rubbed her trembling arms, “Are you a genius?”

Linbo looked back at Tiflin and replied with a smile, "It's just the first step."

"Can I learn it?" [Strange Lily] clasped her hands together, her eyes brimming with tears as she pleaded.

The monk pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "Probably not."

"Alright. Never mind then." Upon hearing this, Tiflin dropped his pitiful act and spread his hands with a carefree smile. "By the way, what level are you now, mage?"

"Just reached level 12."

"Sometimes I really suspect you're actually a legendary player."

The halfling nodded in agreement.

With the massive experience gained from the high-difficulty Purgatory dungeon, the average level of the entire team has been pushed beyond the dungeon's level cap. Currently, only a few players in the team have not been fully penalized by the level penalty.

After the three map runs this month, some teammates have already left, and no new players have joined the channel. At this rate, it seems unlikely that we will be able to gather a ten-person team to unlock the Inferno difficulty next month.

Lin Bo felt a little regretful about this, but he would still continue exploring the map, as the time spent in the dungeon was worth cherishing. The experiment of creating single-celled organisms using the Philosopher's Stone as chromosomes could be considered a success.

We need to continue observing the state of the immortal paramecium to ensure that it possesses the functions of a normal organism, mainly the most basic feeding and metabolism, but excluding reproduction and division.

The immortal cells created by the enchanted genes do not die and are extremely difficult to destroy. Therefore, they do not need to reproduce to ensure survival. The Philosopher's Stone, which is a chromosome, does not divide itself but always remains unchanged. The runes engraved on it cannot replicate itself.

The advantage of this is that it can greatly reduce cellular waste produced by metabolism.

However, there is a major drawback: it cannot allow the ascended body to replicate and divide from a single cell, gradually developing and growing.

Every cell of the ascended body needs to be sculpted, a task of immense scale.

It seems feasible to treat billions of Philosopher Stone fragments as a whole and enchant them with the same frequency, thanks to the effect of the Life Control Technique, but Lin Bo has never tried it and dares not guarantee the success rate.

Looking at the carefree paramecium on the filter paper, the monk pondered that the mountains and rivers ahead were difficult to cross, and the slight joy brought by success was nothing more than a fleeting spark that would be extinguished in an instant.

The transition from single-celled to multicellular organisms is a significant hurdle.

Different types of cells require different genetic blueprints to build, and all the blueprints are piled up in chromosomes. Accurately determining what is needed and selecting the correct blueprint from this mountain of books is a very complex problem.

The genetic code instructions for selecting a specific blueprint are extremely complex, and when converted into a spell, they become incredibly long. Even though Lin Bo repeatedly simplified them, it still takes hundreds of incantations to replicate one of the instructions.

Fortunately, he had a simpler solution: by finding out the true name of each cell, he could simplify the spell into two or three sentences.

Just like categorizing books in a library and selecting them according to labels, you can see what you need at a glance without having to go through all the books, which is a huge improvement in efficiency.

Lin Bo equipped the monk with an optical microscope, sampled living cells for observation, and whispered dragon language through the light shining through the cells to carefully describe the structure of the cells.

The cells' true names are all in Gudorei, completely suppressed by the Dragon language. As long as Lin Bo uses his sensory abilities to capture the cells' silenced words, he can quickly discover their true names.

Some large cells are relatively easy to detect, such as muscles and nerves, as they can be sensed by touch. However, small cells are more difficult to detect by touch and are often colorless and odorless, making them impossible to identify.

Therefore, we still need to try to restore the true names of those small cells by disassembling the true name runes of flesh and blood.

This process is extremely demanding and tests computing power. Lin Bo conducted it all in the East Cliff Grottoes, sitting next to the server array in the server room.

He has identified one-tenth of the hundreds of cells in the human body, and as his understanding of the composition of the True Name Rune deepens, his efficiency is also gradually increasing.

If he were to fully grasp the secrets of the evolution of the True Name Runes in the future, he might be able to deduce the true names of all things, and even the true names of the universe. That would undoubtedly be a far more vast and complex undertaking than the path to ascension.

(End of this chapter)