"You want energy, right? Fine, I'll give it to you. Let's see how much energy you can absorb."
After being through such wild ups and downs, Cole decided to go all in. There was no way back now anyway.
"Everyone, leave the medical bay. Concentrate all the Stellar Furnace's energy here."
As the order was issued, the Taotie soldiers began the modifications at a frantic pace. To keep Yuan from dying of energy deprivation during the process, they also pumped all the energy fluid into the medical bay.
Medical bay? No, it should be called a Light Energy Pool now. As the warship's Stellar Furnace energy poured in, Yuan's body underwent earth-shaking changes.
"Ding! Dark Energy Erosion symptoms weakening: Gene Chain has entered a state of quantum coherence, and cells are beginning to oscillate between different dimensions. Telomerase activity is abnormally high (regeneration speed has reached 900% of normal), Mitochria have mutated into radiation energy, White blood cells are devouring Radioactive Isotopes."
Cole's bloodshot eyes reflected off his visor as both hands gripped the railing of the observation platform.
Through thirty centimeters of lead glass, he seemed to hear Yuan roaring inside the Light Energy Pool—the sounds erupting from his ulcerated throat were not sound waves, but Quantum Noise ionizing the air into plasma.
Yuan's body, submerged in energy photons that had already liquefied, now looked more like the remains of some interstellar beast. The technician's biological scanner kept emitting mournful alerts:
Mitochondrial DNA: Photon Stream forcibly welds fractured points together, forming three-dimensional energy hubs Gene Chain breakage rate: rapidly decreasing! Dark Energy Erosion concentration: rapidly increasing Dark Energy Erosion level: 67% → 41% Photon conversion rate: 0.003% → 0.9%
"The Gene Chain breakage rate has slowed!" the medical officer suddenly screamed. "The Photon Stream is repairing the telomeres!"
"Energy Pool output has overloaded by 300%!" The technician's hands hammered dents into the console. "His Gene Chain is devouring photons! It's too fast."
"Good. Ignore the losses. Supply it at full power." Seeing that things appeared to be improving, Cole waved his hand, regardless of the cost.
The Taotie had been far too naive. They had no idea just how terrifyingly vast the Dark Energy unconsciously summoned by Yuan's radiation-mutated genes truly was.
In fact, even with the Taotie warship's Stellar Furnace supplying full power, it could only offer a small measure of relief.
Then, abnormalities quickly began to emerge.
"Sir, cooling system group seven is overloaded!" The technician's hands nearly struck sparks from the console. "Core Temperature has reached 120 million Kelvin—beyond that of a Blue Supergiant's core!"
Yuan soaked in the boiling photon fluid, fluorescent blue patterns surfacing beneath his ulcerated skin.
Each pattern grew amid the collision of Dark Energy and light, spreading across his body like living Circuit Boards.
A god of the Divine River Civilization had once said that as long as there was even a possibility, unimaginable miracles would always emerge amid the vastness of the universe.
And now, Yuan seemed to be creating a miracle that had never existed before.
The technician's electron microscope showed:
"The crystallization rate in his right arm has broken through the critical threshold!" The medical officer roared as he slammed the emergency brake button, only to discover Yuan's bones oscillating between a Quantum State and physical form—this was a sign that Dark Dimension erosion had breached the Three-Dimensional Barrier.
The constant bad news made Cole's expression turn incomparably grim. Worse still, they could not divert all the ship's energy to Yuan.
Otherwise, not only would the Gravity System fail, their warship would likely be immediately captured by the planet's gravity.
The more Cole thought about it, the redder his eyes became, until a mad idea filled his mind.
They were aboard a small Taotie warship. Its capacity to carry energy resources was limited, and they could not spend it all on Yuan, this bottomless pit.
But there was still a young star in this star system. Let's see whether you can drain a star dry as well.
"Move the warship closer."
Cole's abrupt words filled the Taotie soldiers' heads with question marks.
"Activate Backup Energy. Fly the ship beside the star. Run the detection systems at full capacity and calculate the closest distance the warship can endure."
"Yes, sir."
Following the route and distance calculated by the warship's central system, the Taotie quickly arrived at a suitable position. The system then began operating the Energy Collectors according to Cole's orders.
The starlight burned Cole's eyes until purple fluid seeped from them, yet he continued staring fixedly at the hellish scene beyond the observation window—the warship's twelve sets of collection wings pierced the Stellar Corona.
Crimson plasma torrents surged through the Alloy Conduits, pouring into Yuan's body like scarlet dragons.
"Energy transfer rate has exceeded the critical threshold!" The technician's hands swiped futilely across the console. "Conduits seven and nine are beginning to crystallize!"
Cole tore off two overloaded mechanical tentacles and plugged their severed ends into the Backup Energy interface. "Dismantle the Energy Generators! Divert all power to the Energy Collection Matrix!"
However!
"Warning! Warning! An unknown Gravitational Field has appeared around the warship. Local Gravitational Fluctuations are rapidly intensifying. Local Gravitational Fluctuation: 9.8m/s2 → 173m/s2 (continuing to rise)"
Just as the warship entered the star's orbit, the medical officer noticed something was wrong.
The direction of gravity in Yuan's Light Energy Pool suddenly reversed. Six securing bolts seemed to be pulled free by invisible hands, floating in midair and forming a regular dodecahedron.
"Sir! A Kronecker Crack has appeared in the third Engine Compartment!" The observer's voice carried a sob.
"That's... the embryonic form of a wormhole?" The medical officer furiously pulled up the Gravitational Wave Spectrum. Hundreds of closed Time Curves were weaving around Yuan's body.
While operating the instruments, he cursed loudly, "This damned Divine River Body! He's using Overflowing Dark Energy to create a powerful Gravitational Field. Wormholes are about to appear all around our warship!"
"All Gravity Detectors have failed!" The operator's hands hammered madly at the console. "The gravity direction inside the ship changes seventeen times per second!"
"Local gravitational constant anomaly!" The operator pulled up a holographic model, and hundreds of Gravitational Singularities appeared around Yuan's body.
"Our warship seems to have fallen into a nest of wormholes. At any moment, we could encounter something unknown from the other side. Sir, what do we do now?"
"Shut down all nonessential systems!" Cole tore apart three emergency power lines. "Connect the Backup Fusion Core to the Light Energy Pool!"
"The source of everything is that Divine River Body. As long as his genes calm down even a little, we'll escape the danger."
As the endless stream of energy poured in, Yuan's body bloomed with a light never seen before.
The genes mutated by radiation within his body were like land parched by drought, greedily sucking in the high-purity light energy.
"Damn it, why isn't it done yet?"
Gene Chain Entropy: -1.7×10^44erg/K Quantum Entanglement Dimension: 9 → 17. Sir, the target's vital signs are stabilizing.
Cole had not even had time to celebrate the good news when the Taotie soldiers' roars reached his ears.
"Gravitational Fluctuation has exceeded the detector's upper limit!" The technician's visor exploded from data-stream overload. "He's rewriting the local Cosmic Constant! The Gravitational Field has gone berserk!"
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