The Tree of Life

"The fetal movement has stopped, and the signs of life have disappeared!"

"No, no! It failed again!"

Lu Zhiyu watched several newly created lives disappear before his eyes, and it hit him hard. There was nothing wrong at the genetic level: the life template was complete, and the overall framework was sound and reasonable. So why did they keep failing?

After starting his Longevity Gene Editing Plan, Lu Zhiyu had begun trying to create a long-lived intelligent species by adding selected plant genes to the New Humans template.

Plants had far greater regenerative abilities and vitality than animals. Even if cut into several pieces, they could grow back as long as they had water and sunlight. Plants could be found both underwater and on land, in the depths of winter and the heat of summer—even in barren deserts. They lived for a long time, and, more importantly, could maintain the peak of their lives for ages, right up until the very end!

The life-form Lu Zhiyu had designed inherited these traits from plants. It had immense vitality and could live for a thousand years. Its youth would last until the final century of its life, when it would finally begin to age!

They didn't need to eat much to sustain themselves. A little sunlight and water were enough to keep them alive. They were perfect creatures, perfect beyond measure. Lu Zhiyu considered them his crowning achievement, yet they still wouldn't come into being!

"Could the problem be the mother?"

Lu Zhiyu suddenly realized he might have gone down the wrong path. These creatures were unlike ordinary animals. It wouldn't work to have them gestate in the wombs of other animals, as animal embryos did. Inside an animal's womb, their plant traits couldn't receive the nutrients and vitality they needed.

Lu Zhiyu immediately changed the direction of his research and began figuring out how to design a plant that could directly gestate these creatures. That way, these strange, long-lived beings could be born and grow right from a plant!

"This idea of mine is a little crazy! An intelligent life-form growing out of a plant!"

Lu Zhiyu stood up at once, left the laboratory on the fourth floor, and headed downstairs to the library to look up information about plants. He needed to organize his thoughts.

Quite a few Ant-Men were coming and going in the Space Castle, carrying out their daily assigned tasks. They never spoke unless spoken to, and never asked Lu Zhiyu why. Over time, he had started treating them like robots, barely noticing them at all.

"Number Twenty-Three, bring me plant specimens 1289, 2358, and 256. Put them on the table in my lab. Also, ask the kitchen to prepare me lunch!"

As soon as Lu Zhiyu entered the library, he called out to an Ant-Man who was sweeping. The Ant-Man immediately set the broom aside and hurried off.

Lu Zhiyu headed straight for the library. After glancing over the shelves of books on plants, he lifted a hand, and several books flew off the shelf and into his grasp. His mental power had reached the point where it could affect the physical world and move objects, though only small, light ones.

Carpet covered the entire library, which was spotless. The carved woodwork and ceiling were both made of wood, giving the place an artistic feel. Once given their assigned programs, the Ant-Men made excellent craftsmen and servants. They could perfectly handle most tasks you asked of them—as long as those tasks didn't require much thought.

Lu Zhiyu sat at the central wooden table, with a bearskin rug spread on the floor. He snapped his fingers, and the lights above quickly came on. Then he opened the books and began to read. As he skimmed through the thick stack at incredible speed, their contents streamed into the Wisdom Sub-Brain, which organized the information Lu Zhiyu wanted and presented it to him.

"This plant's traits are a little like those of the Zerg Race's Broodmother. Maybe I can borrow from its design."

Lu Zhiyu kept tapping his fingers on the table. In his mind, the Wisdom Sub-Brain followed the flow of his thoughts, feeding him a wealth of information and data. In no time, Lu Zhiyu had worked out the basic approach for his entire plan.

Just then, an Ant-Man brought over a tray of food and set it on Lu Zhiyu's table. Then it went back to its cleaning task.

Two weeks later, Lu Zhiyu made landfall on another of the five continents in the Maria World, choosing one of the larger ones. The largest continent was the Alan Continent, along with the one beneath his feet. The other three either had unusual terrain, harsh environments, or too little land.

Of course, the seas were dotted with countless small islands, but Lu Zhiyu wasn't going to count them. He had already drawn a map of the entire Maria World and hung it in the bedroom of the Space Castle. Most places on it remained unnamed. He had named a few continents simply to tell them apart, but had no intention of naming the rest. He would leave that to the life-forms of this world.

The continent beneath his feet was called the Yala Continent by Lu Zhiyu. It lay in the eastern part of the Maria World, where the sun rose. The sunlight and temperatures were just right for life, and vast forests grew thickly across the land, where wild beasts roamed freely.

Lu Zhiyu entered a stretch of wetland forest on a plain. Birds sang and flowers bloomed amid the dense woods. It seemed as if winter never came to this world—a true paradise for animals.

The moment Lu Zhiyu stepped inside, he saw all kinds of creatures and plants, some familiar and some not. After all these years, most of the plants and seeds he had transplanted here had become native to the land, changing their appearance to suit their ecosystems and growing conditions.

Lu Zhiyu walked into the heart of the wetland forest and found a beautiful valley. In the valley lay a lake as smooth as a mirror. Grass covered the ground, small red and yellow flowers bloomed, and dandelions scattered their seeds across the sky on the breeze.

"This is the place!"

Lu Zhiyu nodded, pleased with the spot he had found. A sapling appeared in his hand, and he carefully transplanted it into the grassy depths of the valley.

"This is where life on this continent will begin. Your name will be—the Tree of Life!"

P.S. I'm frozen stiff! Begging for votes through my tears!