Data Body

This had originally been an incredibly safe area. The void was vast, and the world barrier was even more immense. Anyone who encountered a world barrier would have long since tried to enter, and even if rejected, they would have left early on. Only Zheng Fan, who had been rejected by the world barrier yet lacked the ability to move freely through the void, had been forced to keep moving around it. That was how he had found this safe spot.

Disturbed by Zheng Fan, the nearly endless cards fluttering through the space rapidly gathered together. Even the Leomon card in his hand flew away; his strength was not enough to hold it back. In the end, the gathered cards formed a stack barely two fingers thick. Zheng Fan examined them with his senses. There were more than 120,000 cards here, though he did not know whether they had reached the full cycle of 129,600.

From what Zheng Fan could sense, Rookie Digimon were the fewest, numbering only close to ten thousand. Champion and Ultimate Digimon each numbered over fifty thousand. There were also more than a thousand Digimon whose auras surpassed the Ultimate level. Presumably, those were the legendary Mega Digimon.

Zheng Fan could sense that some evolutions were suited only to specific environments. For instance, a Digimon called Flamedramon had evolved from Tentomon in a sea of flames. Although Zheng Fan did not know what Digimon existed in Digimon World, he knew that getting Tentomon to reproduce such an evolution would be almost impossible. Perhaps it was precisely because Flamedramon no longer existed in Digimon World that he could sense its card so easily.

"This is bad. I still need data energy to enter Digimon World." Although he had obtained Digimon World's foundational information, the world barrier still rejected him. Zheng Fan had no choice but to transform his body into data energy.

Zheng Fan sat cross-legged. Perhaps "sat" was not quite accurate, since there was neither gravity nor direction in the void. Still, countless predecessors had established the cross-legged position as the most suitable posture for human cultivation. Even for members of the Demon Tribe who had assumed human form, this posture was the most suitable.

He circulated his cultivation method, drawing data energy from the cards into his meridians and slowly guiding it throughout his body. Now that his mind had reached the spirit level, Zheng Fan still could not control his constitution, but he could use his spiritual sense to forcibly restrain the energy flowing through his meridians, preventing his body from plundering it. He could also force the energy through strange, unusual meridians. Before his mind reached the spirit level, he could only circulate energy along the fixed routes of his cultivation method.

So-called advanced and basic cultivation methods actually differed little in how they absorbed and circulated energy. Advanced methods, however, could accept guidance from mental power and travel through unknown meridians, though they would inevitably be drawn back onto the "proper path" in the end. Basic methods were rigidly fixed to a single meridian route.

Zheng Fan knew that his flesh would soon be remade into a data body. He also knew that once the transformation was complete, he could all but ignore ordinary injuries. Thus, he did not allow his flesh to absorb the data energy he drew in. Instead, he used all of it to open up his meridians.

Two thousand years ago, Liezi had told the story of a sheep lost among branching paths. Now Zheng Fan faced just such a situation. Compared with a Primordial Beast's body, a human body was like a mung bean beside a watermelon. Yet its complexity was no less than that of any other living creature.

There were countless meridians within the flesh. Many could only be discovered when the corresponding part of the body was put to use. Zheng Fan was now following the method of the sheep lost among branching paths, splitting off a thread of energy whenever he encountered a meridian. Although some tiny meridians branched apart and rejoined, there were always more divisions than mergers. At least until the energy had circulated through his whole body, there was little chance of all of it coming together again.

Many people had experienced this: when focused on one thing, they paid no attention to anything else, even an injury to themselves. Only after Zheng Fan had circulated his cultivation method more than halfway did he feel his soul faltering. It was then that he realized he had split his attention not merely thousands but millions of ways. Fortunately, he was only examining his own body, and more importantly, some blocked meridians had prevented further branching, so the situation remained manageable.

Only after stabilizing his soul did Zheng Fan discover that his flesh had suffered even worse damage. Some meridians were entirely unsuited to carrying unrefined energy, while others ended in his internal organs. Recklessly experimenting like this was practically a recipe for destroying his body.

"Thank goodness," Zheng Fan sighed. Then he released his control over the data energy.

Every person's constitution could be considered a blessing from the Great Dao, because each constitution, when set on the right path, could produce an extraordinary genius seen only once in ten thousand years. Zheng Fan's constitution allowed his flesh to actively absorb energy and transform itself. First, this meant he could dispense entirely with training his flesh during cultivation. Second, its ability to adapt to its environment had virtually no upper limit. Of course, the second point required a certain foundation. Before he began cultivating, being surrounded by aggressive energies such as battle aura or sword qi would most naturally have resulted in his body shattering and his death.

Zheng Fan casually lay down, and the Baihui Acupoint atop his head and the Yongquan Acupoints on the soles of his feet began absorbing data energy. His feet had already become a data body. Logically, there should have been no such thing as Yongquan Acupoints beneath them, yet he could indeed sense the acupoints' existence. The acupoints in his hands were intact as well. But he could not sense any meridians in his data body. What a strange phenomenon.

Although an enormous quantity of data energy poured into his body, his flesh had an even greater appetite. Outside Digimon World, there was none of the world's suppressive influence that made everything data energy. Thus, after absorbing the data energy, Zheng Fan's flesh actually digested it. His flesh reached the peak of the emperor level.

"What a shame." Zheng Fan could feel how powerful his flesh had become, but this was not the progress he needed.

"I have to transform my body into data energy." Zheng Fan understood his situation. Although he seemed unaffected by the passage of time in the void, he still expended energy. Wandering through the void while waiting to die was not the ending he wanted. Nor did he have the ability to open a passage through the void, even one leading somewhere at random. Only by seizing an opportunity to enter a world could he find real hope.

Although his flesh had grown stronger, the injuries to his meridians and internal organs had not improved. Zheng Fan could not afford to worry about that now. He drew in data energy even more forcefully. This display earned him a little more recognition from the Digimon cards, but it also worsened the injuries to his organs.

Zheng Fan was no longer absorbing data energy solely through his Baihui and Yongquan Acupoints. Although he could not control the skin over his entire body, he could use both arms and both feet as connecting channels to set the data energy flowing.

Wave after wave of data energy struck Zheng Fan's body, only to be instantly devoured and converted by his flesh. It was like sending infantry to charge a raised position packed with Yuris in Command & Conquer: Red Alert. However many went in, that many died.

Naturally, Zheng Fan's flesh was the main battlefield. Although he had no control over this war within his body, he could still favor one side a little. Data energy was itself highly corrosive. With Zheng Fan's help, it finally exceeded his flesh's capacity to devour it and began transforming his flesh into a data body.

This was different from the previous two transformations. The first transformation, of his arms, had been the result of Andromon's modifications. The second, of his feet, had come from the overwhelming power of an Ultimate Digimon's Digicore. Moreover, both earlier transformations had involved power belonging to Digimon World.

This full-body transformation became a tug-of-war. Although any part transformed into a data body would not revert, his flesh at the peak of the emperor level was far stronger than the scattered data energy. Every tiny bit of progress was painfully difficult. Zheng Fan felt as though rats were gnawing and ants were biting at every inch of his flesh. Even when he had first awakened his body's unusual trait years ago, it had not been this agonizing.

In the void, once the pain left Zheng Fan unable to control his body, he could not even fall to the ground and roll around. Even the power of his spiritual sense recoiled from such agony.

Once the data energy had completely transformed his flesh, the most dangerous moment arrived. It began transforming his internal organs. Though those organs were as fragile as a mortal's and powerless to resist the transformation, reaching this stage delighted Zheng Fan. He even imagined a future battle to the death, taking an enemy's ultimate move head-on with his chest, then slowly restoring his damaged organs before the enemy's astonished eyes.

As Zheng Fan indulged in his fantasies, his eyes gradually dimmed. His aura began to dissipate as well. Yet he failed to notice anything wrong with his body. Paired with his smile, his fading gaze instead gave him a sleazy look.

Just as Zheng Fan was about to die, oblivious and lost in his fantasies, a Digimon emerged from the cards. It was pink all over, with a large head and two antennae. A Holy Ring encircled its neck, and pink wings spread behind it. This Digimon had no feet, and its body had a ghostly form, though it was solid. In fact, it was only as large as Zheng Fan's head. Had he been conscious, however, he would have sensed its terrifying power, which utterly surpassed that of Ultimate Digimon.

The pink Digimon blew a pink, heart-shaped bubble from its mouth, much like Monzaemon's Love Attack. After the bubble enveloped Zheng Fan, his aura began to stabilize. The bubble seemed to consume an enormous amount of energy. Not only did the pink Digimon begin to fade, even the cards looked as though they were about to fall apart.

"What... happened?" When Zheng Fan regained consciousness, he discovered that his body had become a complete data body. But losing consciousness at such a critical moment was clearly no good thing, even if nothing bad had ultimately happened.

"What was I thinking while my organs were being transformed? I was asking to die." Zheng Fan carefully reconstructed what had happened. "With my mental discipline, why would I start daydreaming for no reason? Something must have gone wrong." "That's it. My internal breathing stopped when my organs were being transformed. I must have passed out from oxygen deprivation."

Having deduced what had happened, Zheng Fan breathed a sigh of relief. At least he had not fallen victim to a sneak attack. At the same time, he grew wary and committed this incident firmly to memory.

"So you were the ones who saved me, weren't you?" Zheng Fan gazed at the stack of cards, which had grown from two fingers thick to three, his heart brimming with emotion.