As he surveyed the various organelles, Bai Mo suddenly discovered a type he had never seen in any biological textbook illustrations before. Pushing the resolution of his All-Seeing Eye to its absolute limit, he finally discerned the function of this new organelle.
This spherical organelle would inhale Spirit Qi and then output another observable form of energy. This energy flowed into every corner of his body, absorbed and utilized by his various tissues, becoming the hard currency of energy exchange within him.
Meanwhile, the mitochondria, which had previously supported all of the body's energy consumption, began to recede into a supplementary role. Bai Mo suspected that, if this continued, these new organelles might completely replace mitochondria, fully taking over the vital task of energy supply, thus allowing him to evolve into a life form that no longer required oxygen but instead relied solely on Spirit Qi for survival.
"Since it's a new type of energy formed after Spirit Qi is processed, I'll name it 'Spirit Energy'," he casually decided, drawing the name from a novel he had once read.
After half a day spent absorbing high-concentration Spirit Qi at the volcano's crater, Bai Mo suddenly experienced a peculiar premonition. The Spirit Qi would undergo a grand eruption in another half a day, around midnight. After that eruption, everything would begin to change, and a new era would dawn.
The beasts on the volcano seemed to have more or less sensed this information as well, each exerting their utmost effort to frantically absorb the Spirit Qi.
But no matter how hard the humans and beasts on the volcano tried, the seemingly endless Spirit Qi continued to spew from the crater, as if mocking their hubris, their desire to drink dry an entire ocean.
With this strange premonition, Bai Mo cherished the remaining half-day during which he could freely absorb high-concentration Spirit Qi even more.
While absorbing Spirit Qi with all his might, he kept his All-Seeing Eye active, scanning every corner of his body, attempting to uncover more profound secrets of Spirit Qi.
More and more cells within his body began to develop organelles capable of converting Spirit Qi into Spirit Energy. The internal structure of his former energy-absorbing skin also underwent significant changes, transforming into a configuration better suited for faster and more efficient Spirit Qi absorption. Other organs, too, showed varying degrees of evolution after absorbing Spirit Qi.
Undergoing the baptism of Spirit Qi, each region of his brain underwent unique changes. The cellular structure of the memory-governing region became more robust, and its activity increased.
From a macroscopic perspective, this enhanced Bai Mo's memory; many things he previously had only a vague impression of could now be recalled with clarity, though he was still far from photographic memory.
The regions responsible for perception evolved in conjunction with their corresponding sensory organs.
Bai Mo's earliest abilities, his x-ray vision and super-vision, had always been treated as two separate powers that needed to be activated individually, because his brain's perceptual system couldn't keep up. This meant he either chose super-vision to observe distant objects or x-ray vision to scan nearby ones; he couldn't combine their advantages.
However, this evolution of his brain's perceptual system along with his eyes integrated the two abilities into one, transforming into an unrestricted vision with a radius of approximately three hundred meters. This allowed Bai Mo to observe anything he wished within three hundred meters, regardless of obstructions.
As this was remarkably similar to the Divine Sense described in cultivation novels, he directly adopted the name, christening this vision "Divine Sense" to replace his extremely chuunibyou-like "All-Seeing Eye."
But the changes to his vision didn't seem to stop there. Bai Mo noticed that the world he observed began to take on a rather bizarre, kaleidoscopic appearance.
Combining his knowledge of physics, he surmised that his eyes' evolution might have also broadened the wavelength range of visible light, allowing him to "see" the infrared and ultraviolet worlds, perceiving light at more frequencies.
Beyond vision, he also discovered that his brain's emotion-governing region had undergone some unknown changes.
Through his Divine Sense, he found that the cortical structure of the emotional region was undergoing significant structural shifts. However, not being a brain scientist, Bai Mo couldn't infer the function of this evolved part from structural changes alone, leaving it for future experiments to explore the results of this mutation.
Just as he was meticulously examining each functional area of his brain, a sudden "boom" echoed in his mind. The sound had no discernible source; it seemed to resonate directly within his soul.
It was a single, simple syllable, yet from that one sound, Bai Mo sensed that it was the bell tolling for the dawn of a new era.
Without time to observe other bodily changes, he quickly directed his perception towards the volcanic crater. He found that even with his Divine Sense, now boasting a nearly three-hundred-meter radius, he still couldn't perceive the changes deep within the volcano. It was as if his vision was obscured, his perception blocked by the excessively dense Spirit Qi.
Bai Mo didn't know how far this ringing sound propagated, but if he could read the hearts of all living beings on Earth, he would realize that this soul-stirring clang had, in fact, been heard by every single creature.
After the bell of the new era tolled, violent Spirit Qi began to surge forth from the volcano.
The nearly colorless Spirit Qi erupted like a tsunami. First to bear the brunt were Bai Mo, and the dragon and tiger that had been lingering on the mountaintop. Faced with such an overwhelming, earth-shattering impact, all three resolved to hold out until the last moment.
But under the Spirit Tide's impact, they only managed to hold for a single second before being swept away. Carried by the current, they were hurled down the mountain, crashing into obstacles at high speed until they finally stopped nearly five kilometers from the volcano.
After a while, Bai Mo, lying on the ground, regained his senses. He propped himself up with his arms and slowly began to recall what had just happened.
Although he had been submerged in the Spirit Tide and violently slammed into obstacles, leaving him covered in wounds, the immense gains he made far outweighed the value of all his previous evolution compared to that one second of perseverance.
From the Spirit Tide, he learned the essence of Spirit Qi and the existence of what he termed "Spiritons!"
Bai Mo had always suspected whether Spirit Qi was a special kind of energy, especially since his energy-absorbing skin couldn't absorb Spirit Qi at all before he activated its oxygen-absorbing function. Now, he finally had his answer.
Spirit Qi was a substance that integrated information, matter, and energy.
The information contained within it, Bai Mo decided to name "Spiritons." The essence of Spiritons was information about all things in heaven and earth. When loaded onto energy and then mixed with matter, it transformed into Spirit Qi.
It was precisely because Spirit Qi contained Spiritons, which carried information about all things, that it could induce living beings to evolve.
However, why Spirit Qi came into existence remained an unsolved mystery...