"This brain... isn't too bad after all."

John left his lab and went to see his father. His father was in his study reading a anatomy book. Their living situation had been upgraded for quite some time since Du became a doctor.

John handed a piece of paper to Du.

"This is...?"

"A list of materials I need."

Actually engraving runes on his body was complicated.

Back when John used formations. It was mainly for math and simulations. There was another aspect to it. Those were artifacts. Think of the device manager of a computer. A computer without an input and output is completely useless.

An input would be things like your keyboard, mouse, or microphone. The output would be things like the speaker, and screen.

So John needed to design artifacts... but you might be imagining this incorrectly. These objects weren't required to be big.

John could make an artifact the size of a skin cell.

John wasn't planning on doing something so simple as becoming a runic warrior. He had the tools needed to observe things at the atomic level.

But messing with things was harder. Evolving the Insanity Virus was possible through selection of the traits he wanted to survive and endless generations.

It was more like a bacteria then a virus in essence.

John planned on turning his entire body into a sort of machine. Not made of metal, no. He would create a body made from formations.

"Deoxyribonucleic acid..."

"In almost every single cell... there lies the instructions needed to build and maintain itself. I am made up of many cells."

"That's it!"

"The second step is to change my DNA. No... I am not thinking big enough! I know from experience that it is possible to have a body without cells. My abyssal body in the past is the ideal form. Being able to survive in the void, abyss, and vacuum of space. It is a power I should reclaim."

John wasn't planning on modifying his DNA and how his RNA transcribed it. No... He was doing something a bit scarier.

He planned to throw away using a biological body entirely.

There are many systems to the body. Such as the digestive system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, endocrine system, skeletal system.

John had already changed one of these systems.

The nervous system! He had overclocked it to the absolute limit using his special method. What he planned on augmenting wasn't this system... but the other systems.

Get rid of them entirely! Normally this might interfere with his dantian and make it impossible for him to progress. But he was already without spiritual roots... this left him with less reservations.

John planned to replace each system with an improved version.

Think of how in the past he had gotten diamond grade skin... how he had gained fairy grade bones. Was he not just trying to do something similar here? But without a system.

So where does John start? Well there are a few problems he needs to work out.

For example. If he makes his bones more dense. They will become heavier. This will mess with his movement.

If he makes his muscles too big... it could effect his form.

This universe was special in that he didn't use the main elements or energy particles to create this universe. He instead used spiritual elements.

There was a dumbed down version of the elements from his experiences himself of a cultivation world. This meant that xylo, fotia, gi, metallo, and nerono did exist in this universe.

But John didn't plan on using these as the ingredients of his body.

John was in his room surrounded by chalk boards. On each board was his re-imagined version of the human body's systems.

He directly removed systems like the digestive system and switched them up completely.

"When designing a body. One must account for every scenario. The human eye can only see a very small spectrum of light compared to what exist."

"If I change my eyes... and increase the amount of data they recieve. Then my reality will look entirely different."

"The same can be said for tactile sensations. The brain through its nerves can feel pressure, vibration, pain, and temperature."

John thought to himself that there was also implied sensations that the brain imagined itself. The receptors in our skin can't feel wetness for example. But we 'feel' wet through changes in temperature and touch.

"What I want to create is a body similar to my abyssal body. But also one human..."

In John's mind in front of his throne was his body. He rotated it and slowly took it apart. It broke down into the various systems.

There was also Theseus paradox here. If he replaces all the parts over time. Is he still the same person? John knew the answer was yes! He would always be John Destinatus. No matter if his soul or body was warped beyond recognition.

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"The first step to creating something is often the destruction of something else."

Making things requires energy.

The structure requires materials.

But John wasn't building a house here. The rules were a bit different.

"Plants!"

The physical body of a plant. The roots, stems, and flowers. It is created from water and carbon dioxide in the air.

"I must make it so my body 'grows' like a plant."

"Am I not just re-inventing the wheel here? The body already naturally grows..."

"But I want a body without cells. I want one that can survive any environment."

John tapped his throne in his mind.

"How would I go about this..."

Then John had a flash of inspiration.

"Cancer."

"A disease where cells divide uncontrollably. What is useful isn't the cancer itself. But the methods used to treat it."

"Cancer can come in many forms. But the shape and size of cells is often distorted from its normal counterparts."

"What is interesting is apoptosis itself."

"Cancer cells can ignore the signals that tell them to self-destruct."

"Immortal."

"Now that I think about it. Everything has a built in 'self destruct'. The key is making a body without one."

John developed a special drug that was essentially chemotherapy. Except he himself had no cancer cells. So what was the purpose of this?

He was trying to slow down the process of his cells dividing. John then began to look into his options for building his special body.

John used spectrophotometry to record down his own genome in a process that took around 10 hours even with his processing power.

He used ethidium bromide to create DNA stains. He then used UV light to excite it to make a visualization of his genome.

Soon he had his entire genome in his spiritual palace.

He began to make changes to random segments. So... how did he simulate what these changes did? He didn't! He could use enzymes to modify his DNA. But he couldn't change the DNA in each of his cells on a whim.

He found that the complexity of DNA was actually more complicated then he remembered.

This world had evolved differently and the DNA behaved differently as well.

So he planned to cut out such a complex actor from the roots. He created a drug he called 'Destinabicin'.

What did this drug do? It was similar to doxorubicin, epirubicin, and mitoxantrone.

It would interfere with the mitosis of his cells. It does this by interrupting chemical processes involved in cell division and even messing with the control centers that make the cell divide.

Cancer cells often have extra and longer centrioles.

Destinabicin wasn't simply a anti-cancer drug though. It was... also a immune system inhibitor.

John became extremely sick from this experiment. He lost his hair and became skin and bones. His experiment seemed to not be going well.

His immune system was also heavily compromised. Making him catch a variety of diseases.

"Great risk... great reward."

After a few months...

He was close to death.

"I feel it... death is hanging over my shoulders."

"Now should be time..."

He slowly moved his hand through the drawer by his bed. Every movement took lots of effort. He pulled out a special case. He entered the password.

Another virus!

He called this virus 'Project GOD'.

This virus was the key to discarding his mortal coil. His cells were already broken down and his defenses were nonexistent.

He had a myriad of diseases.

This injection just added another one to the list.

You must remember though... John is a genius! He put himself at risk for a reason.

The way he designed this virus was different then how a virus normally behaved. This didn't reproduce more of itself. It instead invaded the cell and directly edited the instructions.

It would then use the organelles of the cell to construct a carrier for itself. So instead of reproducing, it was acting like a pirate. Taking over the 'ship' and then sending a 'escape boat' to other ships. Taking over them in the process.

Similar to a virus. But also different in exactly how it functioned.

So what did this virus change the values of his DNA to?

Null! Zero! It was wiping out the instructions for his cells itself. This was merely a step. The next part would rely entirely on John.

But the same mechanism it used to invade other cells. It also used this mechanism to leave something behind.

It was the entire runic library! On every cell invaded by 'Project GOD'. There was an entire operating system of runes engraved.

Thanks to John enhancing his nervous system. His thinking remained clear even with such a weak and sick body.

Li Du looked at John laying in his bed.

John whispered:

"now..."

Du grabbed both of John's hands and began to channel Qi through his body. Millions of his cells had runes engraved on them at a micro level.

These cells lit up and began to do something unthinkable.

Cells often split apart and replicate themselves. What John was doing was unintuitive. He wasn't having his cells reproduce. He was having them do the opposite!

They were fusing!

His body was becoming a single cell.

As the Qi was channeled through his body. It also damaged it.

John's nervous system was acting like a god. John was manually controlling the formations on each cell. There were around 200 million cells that made up his skin with the runic library on them.

John was controlling EVERY single cell with his runic library.

He was using his father like a spiritual root.

The spiritual energy generated by the yin and yang of the universe was saturated over the world.

His body began to devour it greedily.

300 million skin cells became 200 million. Then 100 million.

Five hundred thousand.

Two hundred thousand.

A hundred thousand.

Fifty thousand.

This continued until John's skin became a single organism. One that operated on the pre-programmed logic of his runic library that he had created himself from scratch.

The same process happened with the muscle fibers. Except they didn't fuse completely with the skin. John's body was becoming similar to an abyssal body.

His bones were the next to transform. The virus specificially targeted his marrow. Even the blood cells in his body got an upgrade.

In order to survive in an environment without breathable air. One would need some way for the brain to continue functioning without oxygen.

Cultivators could use Qi to keep their brains alive and kicking.

John wasn't a cultivator though.

His blood cells had become black and each one looked like a blackhole. Each was also a disk with his runic library inscribed.

John used his nervous system to connect the various systems in his body. His nervous system had been uprooted and he lost a lot and gained a lot of functionality in the process of changing his body.

His digestive system had been removed entirely. All waste would be released into the air from his skin.

His respiratory system had been constructed to be a pseudo-spiritual root. It could breathe in spiritual energy and store the energy in his 'fat'.

He no longer relied on a circulatory system. But blood continued to flow throughout his body. The blood would pass through his lungs and collect spiritual energy from them. This would then flow to his brain.

Different atmospheric pressures could mess with the flow of his blood. His blood could clump together by design and continue to flow even with different pressures. It was also by design that if he was in an environment with no spiritual energy. It would pull stored energy from his 'fat' temporarily.

He no longer had DNA or RNA. He wouldn't age... but he could shift his body through commands from his nervous system.

His nervous system was the main limiting factor.

Neurons themself are quite long lived. With the reconstruction of John's body. His genius virus also lost functionality.

But it was like learning how to ride a bike again. Now that he had felt 'it'. He could cause his brain to enter a similar state. Although it would not be permanent.

With the upgrade of his body. His brain also became naturally quicker and had less things to process. A lot of subconscious actions were removed entirely.

A lot of processing power was free to use.

"Well... I now have a perfect body. I am also a genius. I also have left a backdoor in the macro organism that is my body. I can adjust my body through mental commands. Cultivation is now on the table."

"But still... my soul is ordinary. I don't feel safe yet!"