Chapter 32

Ling has already circled around inside the body of the round shield worm. There was almost nothing edible inside the worm except for those multicellular structures that resemble pipes.

These pipes run throughout the entire body of the round shield worm, including within its segments, covering every corner of its body except for the area around the esophagus. However, Ling believes that the esophagus area was probably destroyed by the virus.

Moreover, all the pipes are connected to a large central structure. At first, Ling did not understand the significance of this, but after observing for a while, she gave up and started eating them.

It was only when Ling's devourers bit into these pipes that she slowly began to understand their function.

Inside the pipes, there were not only a large number of blue cells but also many fats and oils, various food particles, and a significant number of immune cells.

These immune cells looked different from those Ling had seen before. They were very small, only slightly larger than viruses. They were likely the reason why the pipes were not affected by the virus, as they secreted a sticky substance that prevented the virus from getting close.

But why were the other organs inside the round shield worm destroyed by the virus? Ling believes that these immune cells might only be responsible for defending the pipes, while the immune cells responsible for defending other organs were blocked by Ling's forces, leading to the destruction of the other organs.

Ling doesn't know why these immune cells only stayed in the pipes and didn't go to other places, but this is not her main concern.

Ling's main concern is the function of these pipes, to see how the composition of the round shield worm differs from her own cells.

These pipes are primarily used for transporting nutrients, so they are distributed throughout the body.

This method of nutrient transport seems very effective. Ling's method of transport involves connecting the combined cells to fat cells and letting them pass nutrients to each other, which is much slower. For example, larger devourers take a long time to fully absorb nutrients.

What Ling finds most powerful is the large structure connected to the center of these pipes. After eating part of it, she discovered that it is almost entirely composed of muscle-like cells, meaning it can contract or expand, acting like a pump to quickly move nutrients and cells through all the pipes to every part of the body.

What is a 'pump'?

Regardless of this strange term, this structure is indeed very good.

Yes, as long as these pipes are combined into a cyclic structure, and a place for storing food is set up at one point, the central muscle structure can continuously contract, allowing the cells circulating in the pipes to continuously supply nutrients to the body.

There must be a place inside the round shield worm where food is stored and connected to these pipes, but Ling didn't find it, probably because it was destroyed by the virus.

But this structure is indeed very effective.

Ling's devourers are composed of pure muscle cells and pure lethal cells in the mouth. They are very powerful in terms of single-cell damage and strength, but they also consume energy quickly and easily enter a state of fatigue, requiring a long time to recover before they can act again.

The carrier's outer skin is a type of hardened cell. Because it is hardened and cannot move, it does not consume energy. However, the tentacles that move the carrier are also pure muscle structures, and if they are continuously active, they can easily become fatigued.

But with this structure, the muscles might be a bit weaker than before, but they can move for a long time and quickly repair damaged areas.

It feels very good. Although the part she ate is not enough to repair 30% of the carrier, she feels that killing this worm was worth it, as she learned a lot. If the other parts hadn't been destroyed by the virus, she would have learned even more.

Next time, she definitely won't use the virus.

While Ling was thinking this, her cells had almost eaten everything left inside the round shield worm.

The surrounding ice layer was slowly melting, and Ling was almost done repairing the carrier. Although there wasn't much left of the round shield worm to eat, Ling had stored a large amount of fat cells, which was enough to repair the entire carrier.

The group of green cells in the 'feeding circle' on the carrier's outer skin also survived this crisis because they were on the other side, and the round shield worm didn't eat that part. Ling noticed that they were doing very well, and with the light shining through the ice, they were dividing more.

Ling was considering whether to create more feeding circles.

But the most important thing now is to create the cyclic pipe structure.

After repairing the carrier, Ling began to form the pipe structure she learned from the round shield worm inside the carrier's hollow body.

First, she formed the central part with muscle cells that can quickly contract and expand. Ling found a new term to describe this part: 'heart.'

The heart is mainly divided into two layers. The upper layer is responsible for drawing water from the pipes and then squeezing it into the lower layer, achieving the purpose of circulation.

Next, she formed the pipe structure with basic cells. They are all interconnected and connect to various parts of the carrier's inner wall, allowing nutrients to be delivered to the entire carrier at any time.

Ling's previous method was to form some nutrient-absorbing tentacles in the rear part of the carrier. They mainly devoured food and passed it from cell to cell, which was much less efficient than using water flow to transport nutrients through pipes.

The term for the pipe structure is 'blood vessels.'

It feels a bit strange, but Ling decided to use this name.

Ling doesn't plan to put as many cells in the blood vessels as the round shield worm did, to leave more space for transporting food.

Speaking of food, Ling formed an oval structure called a 'sac.' This sac can open and close and is connected to the blood vessels. Food is usually placed in the sac, and the cells passing through the blood vessels take the food and distribute it to other areas to replenish nutrients. Fat cells can also be placed in the sac.

Ling usually completes the design and construction at the same time. Now, the inside of the carrier looks like a space filled with pipes, but Ling also sees a disadvantage in this structure. If the blood vessels are damaged, the contents inside might uncontrollably spill out. In such a case, Ling can only stop the heart from contracting and wait for the blood vessels to be repaired before resuming circulation.

Therefore, Ling needs a stronger defense to prevent enemies from attacking these blood vessels.

Speaking of defense, this is Ling's biggest pain point.

Although the skin structure she formed can prevent various attacks from single cells, including spikes and toxins, it was easily torn off by the round shield worm.

The outer shell of the round shield worm is extremely hard. Although its movements are not as flexible as tentacles, no attack can damage it except at the joints.

Ling not only needs to study the internal structure of the round shield worm but also its external structure in detail.

How did it grow such a hard shell? Ling's cells cannot achieve this level of hardness, whether it's the diggers or the conical cells.

Maybe constantly digging through hard objects could evolve this ability?

But Ling doesn't want to wait that long. She wants to know now how these hard shells are formed.

Whether it looks or feels, it doesn't seem like a cellular structure.

Completely incomprehensible, and she can't eat it or break it to see what it's made of.

Since that's the case, Ling decided to use it. Maybe using this thing could help her evolve.

How to use it?

Very simple.

Ling just needs to let her cells move into this shell. The virus only destroyed the cells inside the round shield worm, but the shell was not damaged at all.

...Right!

Ling might be able to make it move again, just like when it was alive!

As long as she forms the cells inside! Place muscle cells in the segments, and the muscles can move. Then, place the heart and blood vessel structures inside the shell...

Although she doesn't know what the other organs of the round shield worm are, that's not important. Ling knows that muscles and nutrients are the foundation of movement.

As long as enough cells are placed, the entire round shield worm can be 'revived'!