Inside Capsule Corp's highest-spec medical room, the air was filled with disinfectant and the faint, refreshing scent of some kind of premium nutrient solution.
Lin Fan lay on a soft treatment bed, several fine tubes attached to his body, slowly delivering nano-medicines to repair his tissues and energy supplements.
His face was still pale. His eyes were closed, and his long eyelashes cast a small shadow beneath them. His breathing was weak but steady.
His battle with Mercenary Tao had left him utterly drained, with severe external and internal injuries. If he hadn't forcibly succeeded in Foundation Establishment at the last moment and experienced a leap in vitality, he would probably have died.
Bulma sat beside the bed, her eyes still red, as if she had just finished crying.
She held a tablet displaying detailed charts of Lin Fan's vital signs. With her other hand, she carefully touched his bandaged arm with her fingertips. The arm had once had a terrifying through-and-through wound, but now only tender new flesh remained beneath the medical gel.
"What a monster..."
She muttered under her breath, her voice tinged with lingering fear and disbelief. "You were hurt that badly...and you actually survived...and recovered so quickly..."
Amid the faint hum of the medical equipment, Lin Fan's consciousness had long since sunk within his body.
A look inside revealed that his body was in utter disarray, yet it brimmed with vigorous vitality.
Many tiny meridians had cracked under the energy shock, his muscle fibers had torn extensively, and his bones bore several hidden injuries.
At the same time, an energy far purer and richer than the True Qi of the Qi Refining Stage—Foundation Establishment True Essence—flowed gently yet powerfully through his now much wider and sturdier meridians, nourishing damaged tissues and healing hidden injuries wherever it went.
This Foundation Establishment True Essence was more than ten times purer than his previous True Qi!
If his previous True Qi had been a stream muddied with sand, then his True Essence was mercury, refined through countless trials until every impurity had been removed: concentrated and tranquil, yet containing far greater power.
Every wisp of True Essence seemed to possess a life of its own. It was more closely connected to his spiritual sense, responding to his commands like an extension of his limbs.
He guided his True Essence through one cycle after another, consolidating his early Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation while speeding up the absorption of nutrients delivered by the medical solution and converting them into energy of his own.
The process was slow and meticulous. There was no rushing it.
After who knew how long, Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath, slightly foul with impurities.
He felt that most of the pain inside his body had eased. Though he was still weak, his foundation was now stable, and there was no longer any risk of his cultivation falling.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with Bulma's wide-open blue eyes, brimming with curiosity and a desire to investigate. She was practically right on top of him.
"Wow! You're awake!"
Bulma jumped, then abruptly leaned back before excitedly moving close again. She nearly shoved the tablet in her hand into Lin Fan's face. "How do you feel? Anything different? Come on, tell me!"
Her barrage of questions left Lin Fan a little helpless. He moved his still-sore body slightly and said in a low voice, "I'm all right...I'm not dead."
"What do you mean, 'all right'?"
Bulma cried out in protest. "Do you have any idea how absurd the energy readings inside your body were just now? One moment you seemed about to explode, and the next you were as calm as a deep pool! And that hole in your chest! It healed on its own! No human being should be able to recover that fast!"
She waved her tablet, which displayed all sorts of graphs and spectrum analyses Lin Fan couldn't understand. "Look! These are your cellular activity readings while you were unconscious. Your peak was over a hundred times higher than an ordinary person's! And the wavelength of this unknown energy... It's so stable, it's unscientific! It's completely different from the wave pattern of your 'True Qi' before!"
She stared at Lin Fan with shining eyes, as if she'd discovered the ultimate secret of the universe. "So this is what you meant by 'Foundation Establishment'? What does it actually mean? Building a foundation? Was your body 'rebuilt'? How? Where did the energy come from? What's the principle behind it?"
Lin Fan looked at Bulma, who was on the verge of falling into a research frenzy, and sighed. He knew he wouldn't get any peace unless he satisfied her curiosity. After thinking over how to phrase it, he explained in terms she could understand as best he could:
"You could think of it as...an optimization and evolution of one's life level. Breaking out of the old framework and building a more efficient, more powerful foundation. The energy becomes more concentrated, and you gain greater control over your body. Your recovery and perception improve, too."
He pointed to his healed wound. "As for the recovery...it's just one manifestation of what this new foundation can do."
"Evolution? Optimization?"
Bulma blinked and quickly recorded it on her tablet. "Like a genetic mutation? Or like Saiyans getting stronger after recovering from injuries?"
"There are some similarities, but the essence is different."
Lin Fan shook his head. "It's not passively triggered by external stimuli. Instead, you guide the energy yourself and reshape yourself from the ground up. It's a...natural result of cultivation."
"Evolving by your own will..."
Bulma murmured, her eyes growing brighter and brighter. "That's way more scientific than the Saiyan concept! No, it's less scientific but way cooler! Wait!"
She suddenly remembered something, sprang to her feet, and ran over to a complicated-looking machine. She pushed it toward him. "Quick! Let's measure all your detailed readings again! Cellular energy levels, energy radiation spectrum, neural response speed, metabolic rate...everything!"
Lin Fan looked at the cluster of probes glinting with a cold light and felt a headache coming on. But Bulma's gaze, brimming with scientific fervor and offering no room for refusal, left him with no choice but to cooperate.
Beams of light swept back and forth across his body, and various sensor patches were attached to his skin.
"Incredible... Your cells are three times stronger!"
"Energy concentration...unmeasurable! The instrument's upper limit is too low!"
"Brain activity...good heavens, the speed of these neural impulses..."
"I've never seen this energy wavelength before! It's stable, yet extremely active!"
Bulma stared at the readings on the screen as one figure after another exceeded the limits, exclaiming constantly, her cheeks flushed with excitement.
Lin Fan simply closed his eyes and continued guiding his True Essence to repair his body, paying no attention to what was going on around him.
He could feel that after Foundation Establishment, his body was like a container that had been enlarged and reinforced, able to hold and convert more energy.
The Qi Recovery Powder he had prepared earlier was already far less effective. It looked like he would have to start preparing more advanced pills.
Then there was the Z-1 alloy flying sword blank. He had previously nourished it only with Qi Refining Stage True Qi, so progress had been slow.
Now that he had Foundation Establishment True Essence, the process would surely be much more efficient.
More importantly, his battle with Mercenary Tao had made him feel just how dangerous this world was.
He had to grow stronger as soon as possible! Early Foundation Establishment was nowhere near enough!
Dr. Gero...the Red Ribbon Army...and the even stronger enemies who might appear in the future...
Lin Fan felt an increasing sense of urgency.
"Are you done yet?"
He couldn't help asking Bulma, who was still frantically recording data.
"Almost! Just one last scan of your entire energy field!"
Bulma didn't look up. Her eyes were fixed on a complex three-dimensional model of the energy distribution on the screen as she muttered, "This energy structure... It's so fascinating... If I could simulate it... If I could put it to use..."
Lin Fan looked at her, completely absorbed in her work, and shook his head helplessly.
It seemed he was destined to follow the path of Scientific Cultivation.
He just didn't know what kind of trouble might arise if the "Foundation Establishment Stage Data" Bulma had recorded with such fervor fell into the hands of someone with ulterior motives...
The medical room hummed with the sound of equipment: one person focused on healing and consolidation, the other engrossed in data analysis.
Beneath the brief calm, undercurrents still surged.
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