Chapter Three: A World Within a Jar, Shaping the Forces of Creation

After a long, dreamlike slumber, Luo Zu finally understood the true nature of his divine power. It was not the Inner World, nor was it Biosphere No. 9527, but rather a World Within a Jar and the manipulation of Creation itself.

The reason he could awaken to this truth in his dream was not due to the battle between the two sorcerer-demons, but because his power had finally absorbed enough spiritual energy to reveal itself and recognize Luo Zu as its master. Had it not, it would have remained merely an Inner World forever.

Thus, he owed this awakening to the breathing technique he himself had devised, allowing spiritual energy to be delivered to his power more swiftly.

But Luo Zu now faced a new dilemma: spiritual energy was still insufficient.

Unlike Fire Child’s flame-spitting, which required little spiritual energy to wield recklessly, the World Within a Jar and the manipulation of Creation could only maintain the most basic operations at first—a tiny Inner World and the survival of its microorganisms.

With proper understanding, he could now attempt greater changes, but this brought the problem of spiritual energy to the fore. Luo Zu needed more.

However, his own breathing technique limited him; he could not draw in spiritual energy at will.

After much deliberation, Luo Zu devised another method.

“I don’t need a perfectly crafted world or a vast creation. I should do what matches my capabilities—let’s create a miniature kingdom,” Luo Zu thought, opening his mind to new possibilities.

A larger scale required more spiritual energy, and so did any act of creation. But what about the scale of a microorganism? The spiritual energy required would be almost negligible.

With a direction in mind, Luo Zu immediately set to work.

He found a microorganism within his World Within a Jar and attempted to use his power of Creation upon it.

With a pop, the microorganism perished instantly.

His long-planned blueprint had not even begun.

If such a tiny organism could not withstand the process, perhaps he could use an insect. But the size of an insect—was still too big.

It had to be a microorganism.

After some thought, Luo Zu drew upon his meager biological knowledge from his previous life.

“A… cell?”

He hadn’t expected that, in this mystical and immortal world of the Primal Wilds, cells truly existed.

Thinking it over, with the existence of microorganisms and fungi, cells seemed only natural.

With the help of his Creation power, Luo Zu observed the cells on the surface of his own skin, carefully removed one, and placed it within the World Within a Jar.

His power could not be used in the real world of the Primal Wilds; it required coordination with his World Within a Jar, to be used within his “Inner World.”

“But no matter how my somatic cell changes, it’s still just one. I need proliferation, but then the size issue arises again, and my power of Creation can’t be used on something that big.”

After pondering for a full cycle of day and night, Luo Zu finally came to an understanding before the wall of his own cave.

“What if I make it even smaller?”

He pushed the cell to a more minuscule state.

He unleashed his power of Creation—

Success.

The cell shrank to a thousandth of its original size.

Still not enough, Luo Zu felt. He needed to go smaller.

Over the following month, Luo Zu repeatedly used his Creation power, causing the cell to divide and shrink further.

Finally, it was reduced to a ten-millionth of its original size.

At such minuteness, it was invisible to the naked eye. If not for his World Within a Jar, Luo Zu would not have been able to “see” it at all.

In truth, even at the size of a normal cell, the human eye could not see it. At least, none of Luo Zu’s companions could—not that their powers were as “unorthodox” as his.

After shrinking the somatic cell to a ten-millionth of its original size, Luo Zu began a new plan.

He would have these tiny cells reassemble into a human body.

This body would survive and reproduce within the World Within a Jar, practicing the breathing technique Luo Zu had invented, thereby slowly improving it.

The main issue was that Luo Zu had too few companions. He couldn’t experiment directly on them, nor could he expect sparks of wisdom through communication; their intelligence was mostly primitive, focused on survival and expanding the tribe. They barely had time for anything else. They cooperated with Luo Zu’s breathing technique only because it visibly made them stronger, improved their hunting efficiency, and lowered casualties.

As for other tasks, they could scarcely help.

Thus, Luo Zu could only create a miniature kingdom, its inhabitants sharing his body’s structure, to simulate and test his breathing technique.

For the next year, Luo Zu studied his body’s structure. The breathing technique had another benefit—it allowed him to look inward, from skin and flesh to blood and bones, to organs and facial features. Only the brain remained too fragile and mysterious to observe clearly.

After thorough study, Luo Zu finally managed, in the third year after understanding his divine powers, to create a human body as thin as a strand of hair.

Unfortunately, this body lacked any complex thought; its brain was exceedingly simple.

Yet that was enough. Progress comes step by step, and Luo Zu had a long lifespan, with plenty of time for trial and error, for waiting.

During this period, Luo Zu also performed simple restructuring on some microorganisms, prompting them to develop into multicellular forms.

Thus, within his Inner World, no larger than a football field, many strange and bizarre things began to appear.

After another three years, Luo Zu at last managed to create three thousand miniature humans in his Inner World.

A closer look would reveal that their features bore some resemblance to Luo Zu himself, but their behavior was singularly focused—they devoted themselves solely to practicing the breathing technique Luo Zu had imparted.

After several months of observation, Luo Zu was surprised to find their efficiency in practicing the breathing technique was much higher than his own or that of his companions.

Why was this?

Was it their scale? The environment? Some other variable?

After another month of experiments and observation, Luo Zu reached a conclusion—they were too pure.

Their simple brains resulted in pure minds, unclouded by distraction, focused wholly on the breathing technique.

This was both good and bad.

Their practice was too by-the-book, all of it based on Luo Zu’s ideas and methods.

But what Luo Zu truly wanted was innovation, new perspectives, breakthroughs.

Though this generation of miniature humans was a failure in that regard, the process had given Luo Zu much experience in creating life.

Miniature Humans 2.0 was soon underway.

To study intelligence, Luo Zu resolved to attempt an inward look at his own brain.

He wanted to see what his own “brain flower” looked like.

But just as he was preparing, the last elder of the settlement suddenly summoned all its members.

Luo Zu, immersed in his “research” project, was also called forth.

The first gathering of the settlement convened in the flickering firelight within the cave.

At the meeting, the elder announced his intention to embark on a new journey—he was leaving the settlement.