163: Chapter 163 A Colony of Mushrooms, the Supreme Old Mushroom

Everyone turned to look back.

They saw an old man wearing thick reading glasses and a Zhongshan suit, his hair frost-white. He stood there with bright, spirited eyes, holding a thick notebook in his hand.

"Teacher! Why are you awake so soon?"

Director Cai Minghui hurriedly stepped forward to take the notebook from his teacher.

Although electronic information is advanced nowadays and tablets and computers are everywhere...

...Professor Shen Wanyu was still accustomed to recording things in a notebook.

Professor Shen Wanyu waved his hand. "Since I will sleep forever after death, why sleep for long while I'm alive?"

As he spoke...

...he walked up to Jiang Chen and Xue Yao, looked them over, and said with some emotion, "The outstanding youths of today are getting younger and younger."

"This is the person in charge of the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals mecha, and this is the commander of the Sister Li aircraft carrier," Commander Li Jing helped introduce them.

"Hello, Professor."

Jiang Chen and the other greeted him politely.

Willing to travel thousands of miles for scientific research in this harsh winter environment was indeed worthy of respect.

Professor Shen Wanyu nodded. "I've heard of the Heavenly Soldier Project. I didn't expect the person in charge to be so young. He looks about the same age as my student here; it's truly rare."

"Of course, my student's research in crop science is currently the best among young people in the country."

Professor Shen Wanyu said this...

...and glanced at Director Cai Minghui with a bit of pride.

Clearly...

...he was very satisfied with this student of his.

Although Jiang Chen was also very young and had great achievements in the field of mecha...

...everyone has their own specialty, and his own student was also quite good.

Jiang Chen smiled and asked for advice, "I really don't have any insights into crop science, but you just said that everything has a spirit, and mushrooms are the same. What did you mean by that?"

Jiang Chen asked curiously.

Although he had witnessed the magic of life no. 1 and experienced the power of the Terracotta Warriors' high-energy particle beams, the idea of mushrooms having nerves caught his interest, as if he had made a new discovery.

Professor Shen Wanyu walked to the laboratory door, looked at the large mushrooms inside, and said, "This was originally my highest-level academic achievement from my personal research, but now, I don't mind chatting about it with you young people."

"Teacher..."

Director Cai Minghui was very surprised. If his teacher's discovery were published, it would definitely be even more shocking than life no. 1.

If life no. 1 opened a window...

...then his teacher's discovery definitely smashed down a door.

The magnitude was completely different.

As long as his teacher published the academic work alone, he would surely leave a name for the ages.

But now, even before the academic work was fully written, he actually planned to speak about it.

This made Director Cai Minghui, who could only have his name as a 'little assistant' on the last page, feel anxious.

Teacher.

This is a monumental achievement!

You can't say it.

If someone else beats us to it, you'll definitely regret it deeply.

However...

Professor Shen Wanyu didn't care.

Not to mention whether Commander Li Jing, Jiang Chen, and the others could understand...

...even if they did, they wouldn't be able to write the relevant papers.

"These mushrooms and Lingzhi were cultivated later; their ancestors were all a single patch of colonies."

Professor Shen Wanyu said slowly.

"I found this patch of colonies while I was out on a scientific expedition. You could call it the first generation of primitive colonies!"

"Just a small patch."

"After bringing it back for research, I found that not only can this thing propagate into mushrooms, Lingzhi, and so on, but it also seems to possess high intelligence."

"For example, if I place some nutrient solution in front of it, it can actually choose the shortest route to reach the solution and then consume it."

"Skipping several hundred days of research in between..."

"By now, these colonies can already map out urban traffic maps."

"And these urban traffic maps are even more perfect than the ones optimized by our top engineers... Wouldn't you call such a colony 'spirited'?"

Professor Shen Wanyu suddenly changed the subject and stated the result directly.

Everyone was a bit dazed.

Going from a patch of colonies to finding the optimal route for nutrient solution...

...was still understandable.

But skipping a lot of details and jumping straight to mapping urban traffic... wasn't that a bit of a leap?

In fact...

Not only were Jiang Chen and Xue Yao confused...

Commander Li Jing also had a look of disbelief. "Professor Shen, you're joking, right? How can colonies draw a map?"

"I'll take you inside to see, and then you'll know."

Professor Shen Wanyu had someone help Commander Li Jing, Jiang Chen, and Xue Yao change into hazmat suits before leading them inside.

They walked to a spot in the middle.

There was a large urban traffic map.

Upon closer inspection...

...it was clearly the urban traffic map of Zhujiang City, detailed down to every subway station.

Zhujiang City has 287 subway stations.

It took several years of planning and construction to complete back then.

"This is just an electronically printed urban traffic map of Zhujiang City."

Xue Yao saw it at a glance and didn't understand.

Professor Shen Wanyu smiled slightly. "Go around to the back and take another look."

Everyone suspiciously walked to the back of the map.

The back was a whiteboard with a large number of colonies clinging to it.

Their colonial filaments and fluids were already spread across the entire whiteboard, dense like blood vessels.

At first glance, it seemed like nothing.

But after seeing the urban traffic map on the front, everyone immediately saw the connection.

"Holy crap, isn't this the same traffic map as the one on the front?"

Commander Li Jing was stunned on the spot.

Jiang Chen also frowned.

Such clever colonies?

Jiang Chen wasn't quite sure.

He walked back to the front and looked at the traffic map again.

After a bit of comparison...

...he was finally certain.

This thing had actually drawn a map using its own colonial filaments.

"Could it be artificial?"

In her shock, Xue Yao couldn't help but raise a doubt.

How could these colonies draw such a perfect urban map?

You have to know...

...the urban traffic map of Zhujiang City cost the planning efforts of countless experts.

These colonies...

...did it all on their own?

Where did they get their nerves and intelligence?

Professor Shen Wanyu wasn't surprised at all. He casually turned on the projector and said, "In here is a video record of the entire colony's changes, at ten times speed."

Everyone looked over.

It showed that after researchers placed nutrient solution at key traffic points...

...they just left the colonies to one side.

As time accelerated, the colonies began to spread frantically.

And the paths they spread along were individual roads.

As countless colonial paths appeared, all the nutrient solution was consumed.

A traffic map then emerged.

After comparison by the researchers, the fit between this traffic map and the actual one reached 90%.

The remaining 10% was after the colonies had optimized it.

In other words...

...the current urban traffic map of Zhujiang City has irrationalities.

It can still be optimized.

"What incredible colonies!"

After watching the accelerated video, Xue Yao couldn't help but gasp.

After the video was accelerated, it looked as if they had a plan in mind, drawing with divine precision without any hesitation or worry about taking the wrong path.

"They are indeed quite impressive."

"This thing... it couldn't be a transformation of Old Fungus Lao, could it?"

Jiang Chen nodded in deep agreement.