Chapter 52: Knowledge Changes Fate
Creating Life!
A domain only the gods could touch—an absolute forbidden area!
Unlike alchemy, which creates puppets and golems, this was about creating a real, living being. Even though alchemical creatures could appear lifelike, they were fundamentally different from true living beings. While they might possess high intelligence, they couldn't reproduce, had no natural instincts, and, most importantly, lacked spirit.
Without spirit, there is no potential for growth. From the moment of their creation, their future was limited by the creator. No matter how powerful they became, they could never break free of this limitation. This is why alchemical creations, at their core, are nothing more than puppets or golems designed for combat—they cannot be considered true living beings.
But what if an alchemical being could reproduce and was indistinguishable from a human? Would it then be considered a true living creature?
From a modern scientific perspective, the creation of artificial humans or clones is already part of the technological landscape. If we set aside ethical concerns, humans now have the capability to easily create their own kind.
However, in the context of the magical world, the gods created humanity and all living beings, allowing life to flourish and multiply. If humans were to gain such power, it would undoubtedly be seen as blasphemy—a theft of divine authority.
But who really cares about that?
Who even knows if the gods still exist? And even if they do, what does it have to do with him?
The only thing Rod cared about now was whether this idea was feasible.
Alchemy has a long history, with its rudiments dating back to the time of the gods. After thousands of years of development, it has been refined to its peak by countless alchemists. However, no one has ever successfully used alchemy to create a real, living being—not even the smallest ant.
Even the greatest alchemists, capable of creating creatures powerful enough to destroy a kingdom, could spend their entire lives and still fail to create a small, helpless infant.
If Rod could achieve this, it would be a monumental milestone in the history of alchemy—a crowning achievement. Alchemists would practically worship him like a god.
Though the difficulty was immense, it wasn't impossible.
"Knowledge really does change fate. Even after crossing into this world, you can't afford to be an ignoramus," Rod muttered to himself.
Creating a complete living being required an immense amount of knowledge. The basic theoretical knowledge he had from university was nowhere near enough to support the creation of life. He needed more books to fill in the gaps in his understanding—not just biology, but also chemistry and physics.
If he could fully master these critical disciplines, his skills in potion-making and alchemy would undergo a qualitative transformation, reaching a level no one had ever achieved.
In this, Rod had one incomparable advantage: an entire world of knowledge stood behind him. He had access to a vast amount of information and theories to test his ideas.
"All it takes is studying. Worst case, I'll just buy more books."
During his lunch break, Rod went out and got himself a huge pile of textbooks from various disciplines. He also printed out countless academic papers and materials from online sources. He even went to large libraries, scouring the shelves for any useful books.
After spending half a day gathering all this, his personal space was now filled with a mountain of books. Rod didn't care whether or not the knowledge was immediately useful—his goal was to learn it all.
Sacrifice!
Sacrifice!
Sacrifice!
He pulled out book after book and sacrificed each one.
After sacrificing over a hundred books, Rod finally stopped. He rubbed his aching temples, a pained expression on his face.
Though his mind could still handle it, his brain had reached its limit. The flood of information from the books had overloaded his mind, pushing it to the edge.
His brain now felt like an overclocked computer, running at full capacity, teetering on the brink of crashing.
He would need a lot of time to process and absorb all the complex, profound knowledge in his head. Otherwise, his brain might shut down.
Rubbing his overheated forehead, Rod sighed in frustration.
It had only been a hundred books, and already his brain was overloaded. If he wanted to sacrifice all the books in his personal space, it would probably take him ten days to two weeks.
How many books are there in the world? He doubted he'd be able to read all of them in his lifetime.
"I overestimated myself."
He had thought that modern science would be easier to grasp than magic, but now he realized how wrong he was. Understanding modern science turned out to be far more challenging than learning magic.
Magic, after all, is about finding and exploiting the loopholes and rules of the world. A simple spell could be broken down into a few gestures and incantations, with each gesture and word producing a certain effect. Learning that was easy.
The real difficulty lay in how precisely one could manipulate magical energy to cast the spell.
But science? Science was far more complex. Without careful study, one could barely comprehend the surface of it. And with deeper study, one would realize that what seemed difficult before was just scratching the surface.
However, this wasn't without benefits.
Both alchemy and potion-making followed the same principle: [Understanding] → [Deconstruction] → [Reconstruction]. These were three progressive steps. Different materials could be combined through magic to create entirely new elements.
Magic could easily perform the last two steps—[Deconstruction] and [Reconstruction]. But the real key was the first and least obvious step—[Understanding].
Only with sufficient [Understanding] could one create whatever they desired.
For example, if someone wanted to create a diamond, how would they use magic to achieve that? Pure alchemy alone would make this task almost impossible. But if you took a piece of carbon and, using alchemical power, subjected it to immense heat and pressure, changing its structure and density, you could create a dazzling diamond.
Science provided the conclusions; magic executed the process.
That was the essence of combining magic and science.
The books Rod had just absorbed contained a wealth of foundational knowledge in chemistry and biology. Cross-referencing this information with his alchemical and potion-making skills had already significantly enhanced his theoretical understanding of both disciplines.