novelraw Chapter 754 - 727: The Evil Path
Chapter 754 - 727: The Evil Path
In the dead of night, all was silent.
From afar came the faint rumble of factory machinery.
Chen Shouyi lay on the bed, practicing the most basic form of meditation and self-improvement.
A vast and microscopic image of the human body down to the molecular level was reflected in his mind, every detail visible. An astronomical amount of information surged into his brain like a tide.
Every part of his body, including his brain, was illuminated without a shadow in sight. Each cell was like a small light bulb connected to electricity, emitting a faint yet profound glow of will.
It was as if each cell were an independent life form.
At this moment, his thoughts were drawn to the neural network that emanated electrical pulses intermittently.
His nerve fibers were astonishingly thick, and the nerve endings were incredibly dense, resembling tree roots filled with tendrils and branches.
If the brain determined intelligence, then the nervous system, including the spinal cord, determined agility.
Both of these were his weaknesses.
Unfortunately, the former could be compensated for by burning Faith Value, but for the latter, except for more diligent practice, there was no solution yet.
This resulted in a feeling of inadequacy during every battle, never at his fullest.
Suddenly inspired, he thought: "Maybe there is a solution!"
He opened his eyes, which sparkled with light.
Even as a high school dropout, he knew the factors affecting the speed of nerve transmission were mainly related to height, the thickness of nerve fibers, and the myelin sheath.
Height.
This was immutable.
Even if it could be changed, he wouldn’t want to become shorter.
Thickness?
He sensed himself and found he was already quite thick.
Almost double that of an average person.
And more concentrated.
Most importantly, directly modifying nerves was too risky.
The nervous system is quite complex.
Every nerve activity involves complex chemical reactions.
Every different pulse frequency represents a different signal transmission. When numerous nerve cells work in harmony, a person can see, hear, smell, taste, feel pain, and even feel happiness and sadness.
It’s a chaotic and complex system, where a single move can affect the entire body.
In contrast, the myelin sheath is much simpler.
It only has three functions:
Firstly, to support axons and surrounding tissues, such as insulating between adjacent axons to avoid interference, akin to wrapping insulating layers around exposed wires.
Secondly, to speed up the transmission of action potentials through a mechanism known as "saltatory conduction";
Thirdly, to guide axon regeneration in cases of damage.
Even if broken, it doesn’t severely affect nerve transmission.
At most, it slows signals down by about fifteen times.
In fact, some invertebrates, like certain cephalopods, crustaceans, and insects, have nervous systems completely devoid of myelin.
Similarly, mammalian pain and temperature sensation nerve fibers and postganglionic sympathetic fibers also lack myelin, though these nerves are often present in the same nerve bundle with myelinated fibers.
The more Chen Shouyi thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, so he couldn’t lie down any longer.
He pulled two little ones out from his chest and placed them beside him, then got up from the bed, pacing back and forth in excitement.
The experiences of the past days left him feeling powerless and desperate, compelling an urgent desire for strength.
Now, his training speed was grinding to a halt, nearly stagnant, forcing him into unorthodox paths.
He suddenly paused, walked to the desk, picked up a cup of cold water, and drank it all.
"Let’s give it a try!"
...
The two main principles of natural evolution.
First: Evolution is directionless and random.
Second: Good enough is sufficient.
Life is nature’s miracle, yet it is also imperfect, rough, even cobbled together.
Since humans have walked upright, the problem of difficult childbirth has plagued human history like a nightmare.
In ancient times, childbirth was akin to stepping into death’s door for women, a situation resolved only with the advent of cesarean sections.
Conversely, this also interrupted natural selection, leading to a dramatic increase in the proportion of large-headed infants and making natural childbirth increasingly difficult for women over the past century.
It can be said that since the rise of civilization, humanity has deeply intervened in its evolutionary process.
...
Chen Shouyi did not rush but instead focused his mind inward, carefully observing the structure and functioning of the myelin sheath on the nerve fibers.
Within seconds, he understood clearly.
In such deep observation at the molecular and even atomic levels, biology held few mysteries, everything lay in exquisite clarity before him.
He found that the myelin sheath’s ability for "saltatory conduction" of signals was primarily because of the non-myelinated regions between two Schwann cells (a type of glial cell). This part of the axon was exposed, facilitating local currents between adjacent nodes, allowing electrical signals to transmit in a jumping manner and greatly accelerating the speed of information transmission.
It became straightforward after this.
He immediately devised three strategies.
Firstly, reduce the number of myelin sheaths on nerve fibers, streamlining the structure.
For instance, if it originally required a dozen leaps, reducing it to six or even two would undoubtedly greatly increase signal transmission speed.
Secondly, remodel and enhance Schwann cells and nodes of Ranvier on the myelin sheath to make them work more efficiently.
Thirdly, create some form of superconducting structure.
However, Chen Shouyi still had no clue about the latter two.
But the first could be attempted immediately.
Chen Shouyi took a deep breath and chose a small finger on his left hand for experimentation.
Nearly half of the Schwann cells were silently decomposed by his thoughts, exposing the nerve fibers within, then nearby Schwann cells were lengthened to cover the original space, and the structure was fixed.
The remodeling was simpler than imagined.
All the cells within him were at his command, including neurons, most with just a thought to complete.
In just a couple of seconds.
The little finger was entirely modified.
However, when he opened his eyes, he found the finger not only didn’t become more nimble but rather became sluggish and numb. He struggled to bend it, feeling and thinking several steps slower, his brow furrowed:
"I knew it wasn’t that simple." He thought reflectively:
"Where exactly did it go wrong?"
"Could it be that removing too many nodes pitted against the efficiency of nerve signal transmission?"
He continued experimenting.
"It affected the membrane potential!"
...
"What else haven’t I considered?"
...
Time slowly passed, the sky gradually brightened, and Chen Shouyi lay in bed with no intention of getting up.
He lay there until noon.
He suddenly opened his eyes, filled with delight.
He finally succeeded.
The feeling was akin to shedding a heavy shell. He quickly opened the attribute panel:
Strength: 26.0
Agility: 26.6
Physique: 26.0
Intelligence: 26.0
Perception: 24.7
Willpower: 24.7
Energy Accumulation: 63.35
Faith Value: 21450.2
Inherent Abilities: Self-Healing (Super): 50.01%; Giant Battle Body (Super): 99.99%; Atmospheric Control: 55.01%.