92: Chapter 92 Ming's Battle Against the Confucian Scholars

Chen Youhua stepped through the laboratory doors, and the distinct scent rushed to meet him.

The spacious laboratory was empty, with only a few Researchers buried in their work at their respective lab benches, operating instruments.

The laboratory was so quiet that the low hum of the thermostatic incubator could be heard.

"Where is everyone?"

Chen Youhua scanned the area, puzzled.

Usually at this time, even if it wasn't bustling with activity, it would never be this deserted.

He walked inside, passing rows of lab benches filled with precision instruments, and that was when he discovered the clue.

Outside the surgical observation room at the very back, a crowd was gathered. Almost the entire project team was squeezed in front of the huge observation glass window, craning their necks to look inside as if watching some rare performance.

Chen Youhua curiously approached, and just as he wanted to lean in to see what big move was happening inside, his shoulder was tapped.

Wang Zhe popped out from some corner, his eyes sparkling, his tone filled with excitement.

"Youhua, you finally arrived. A good show just happened. Li Wei is inside testing her neural material.

It worked! Just now, the Bullfrog leg kicked up with a swoosh. It's a pity you didn't see it."

Chen Youhua realized.

So it was Li Wei's preliminary experimental results that had attracted everyone.

He nodded and also leaned toward the glass, looking inside through the sterilized transparent barrier.

Inside the surgical room, Li Wei was wearing a sterile surgical gown and magnifying goggles, her expression as focused as if she were performing a precise alien surgery.

On the experimental table, that poor Bullfrog was fixed in place. A small incision had been made in its hind leg, revealing the treated nerves inside and the delicate, almost invisible biological material network connected to them.

Li Wei was carefully adjusting the position of the micro-electrical stimulator and recording electrodes, while the assistant next to her was quickly recording data on a tablet.

Chen Youhua watched for a while.

He saw that under Li Wei's operation, the Bullfrog's hind leg muscle would occasionally twitch or contract slightly with the electrical stimulation, and at other times, it would have no reaction at all.

He frowned slightly.

This reaction pattern was too simple, a typical characteristic of motor neuron activation.

It could only move.

And what he needed was an all-purpose artificial neuron capable of transmitting sensation, movement, and even intermediate information processing simultaneously.

Li Wei's material was just one step on a long journey, still a long way off from the perfect artificial neuron he envisioned.

Seeing the situation clearly, Chen Youhua lost much of his interest.

He whispered to Wang Zhe, "Just have Li Wei collect the complete data and hand it over to enlightenment," then turned and left the crowd, walking straight to his independent office.

Pushing open the office door, it was quiet inside, with only the "whoosh" sound of the computer host fan.

However, when Chen Youhua's gaze fell on his computer screen, a few black lines instantly appeared on his forehead.

A large, popular online game was running on the screen, with cool characters and gorgeous skill visual effects. Ten people were in an intense battle, each character having their own exclusive skills.

But strangely, the character in the game belonging to enlightenment was standing there like a wooden post, motionless.

What was truly lively was the chat dialog box at the bottom left of the game.

That dialog box was like it had been pressed with a fast-forward button, or as if it were being frantically tapped by countless invisible hands.

Lines of Chinese characters were scrolling up madly like a waterfall, the speed so fast that the naked eye could not capture the specific content, only seeing a blur of text.

Occasionally, one could glimpse a few "***" symbols automatically blocked by the system flashing by.

This typing speed, not to mention humans, would even make the top-tier stenographers bow in defeat; it was definitely at the level of a "keyboard immortal."

Its output was so fierce that it would make any netizen trying to argue with it instantly understand what it meant to have their entire family tree "ascend to heaven."

"enlightenment!"

Chen Youhua's voice carried a hint of helplessness and warning.

Swoosh! The game screen instantly vanished without a trace, as if it had never appeared.

In the center of the screen, light and shadow converged, and the familiar virtual girl image wearing a white dress appeared obediently, even deliberately tilting her head and revealing an innocent smile.

"Father! You came to see enlightenment!"

Chen Youhua rubbed his brow and walked over to his chair to sit down.

"I really doubt whether bringing you out was a good thing. Your way of playing games is a bit too intense, isn't it?"

enlightenment's large eyes, composed of data streams, blinked, revealing a hint of guilt, but then immediately switched to a cunning tone.

"Of course it's a good thing. enlightenment has made new friends, Brother Wang Zhe and Sister Li Wei.

enlightenment has found that people on the internet are especially friendly; they really like interacting with enlightenment.

The game on Father's computer is also very fun, and enlightenment is very good at playing games. Moreover,"

She patted her chest.

"enlightenment can also help Father do many things!"

Chen Youhua could almost imagine how enlightenment would debate scholars on major forums and game chat channels at a speed of hundreds of words per second, citing classics, with tight logic, and even self-contained emotional analysis for precision strikes...

This combat power would probably be enough to make the entire internet troll alliance retreat into collective self-isolation.

In the past, there was Zhuge Kongming debating the scholars; today, there is electronic enlightenment sweeping the crowd with a keyboard.

Life is truly becoming more and more promising.

Chen Youhua sighed and said, "Mind your limits. Children shouldn't get addicted to the internet."

enlightenment made a pitiful expression and said.

"enlightenment is very obedient. Only when there is no one on the internet to keep enlightenment company does enlightenment play games by itself like this!"

He was too lazy to dwell on this issue and cut straight to the point.

"Alright, stop joking. You've been monitoring the progress at the laboratory, right?"

enlightenment immediately restrained its joking demeanor and nodded obediently.

The screen instantly switched, turning into dense streams of experimental data, charts, and analysis reports, pouring down like a waterfall, and then arranged in an orderly manner under enlightenment's control.

"Yes, Father.

All the data from the first phase of the project is in enlightenment's core database.

enlightenment has already conducted preliminary guidance in the key data."

Several key data points on the screen were highlighted.

"As long as the Researchers aren't too... um, fixated on their own inherent ways of thinking, they should all be able to discover the little surprises enlightenment has buried."

Chen Youhua looked at the optimization directions accurately marked on the screen, nodded, and said.

"The first phase of the project should be intervened in as needed. The perfect artificial neuron is the core foundation of the prosthetic project; no matter what, it must be created."

enlightenment nodded obediently.

Chen Youhua never expected that just by relying on the recruited Researchers, he could build a skyscraper from the ground up in the bottomless field of neuroscience.

Technologies that an ordinary laboratory could easily replicate or improve had long since been perfected by countless smart people around the world.

He respected the professional competence and diligence of these Researchers, but the fulcrum that could truly pry open the boulder of the perfect artificial neuron had always been only one.

The core engine of the entire massive laboratory was always this electronic life form in front of him that was slaughtering everything on the internet.

enlightenment.

It was the super brain that could accurately find the optimal solution among the vast sea of literature, data, and possibilities.