Chapter 432: 394. Nurturing a Body

394. Chapter 394: Nurturing a Body

Li Yi spoke lightly, but he too began to feel urgency; he realized he needed to prepare himself.

After entering the building, he took the elevator directly to his room on the top floor, then retrieved from his storage artifact the machine called the Cradle of Life, brought back from World Six. He felt it was time to prepare a new body for himself—better safe than sorry.

Lan Ji's projection appeared in the room. Though Lan Ji was currently piloting the Thunder Fighter in battle, this fourth-generation AI possessed immense computational power, omnipresent and capable of handling multiple tasks simultaneously without interference.

"Hello, Master, welcome to the Cradle of Life," Lan Ji's sweet voice sounded.

"I need to create a new body. Extract my blood for genes, add the silver anomalous fruit and intermediate gene serum," Li Yi said, waving his hand as the last few lantern-sized silver anomalous fruits and the intermediate gene serum appeared beside the Cradle of Life.

"Would you like to perform gene programming?" Lan Ji asked. "The Cradle of Life can combine your genes with those of Shan Yi, the male beast, the Li Jiao Dragon, and infuse them with energy from the silver anomalous fruit to forge the most perfect body possible. Current precise calculations show a seventy-five percent success rate."

"What, turn me into a monster? No thanks," Li Yi immediately refused.

Though gene programming was beneficial, the AI Lan Ji had overlooked the most critical factor: soul compatibility.

Only a body cloned from his own genes would achieve the highest harmony with his soul—just like his original body. Adding foreign genes would cause bodily mutations and reduce soul adaptability; who knew what chaos might follow?

Of course, gene modification had its advantages: though it might turn you into a hybrid, your physical potential would increase dramatically.

"Understood, Master. Initiating life nurturing," Lan Ji said, activating the machine to collect Li Yi's blood and extract energy from the silver anomalous fruit.

Only moments passed before silver radiance wove within the Cradle of Life, dazzling and brilliant, and within it, a new body was being nurtured. To Li Yi's surprise, this new body's divine bloodline strength surpassed even his own—no, far surpassed it; the purity of the bloodline was almost unbelievable.

Its entire form had turned silver.

"Energy insufficient. Nurturing process slowing. Estimated time: twenty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-six." Just then, an alarm sounded from within the Cradle of Life.

"Insufficient energy?" Li Yi's gaze shifted. "What energy is lacking?"

"Insufficient unknown silver energy," Lan Ji replied.

"I knew it would come to this," Li Yi muttered, his lip twitching.

The nobles of World Six had used the Cradle of Life only to nurture ordinary bodies, but he was now nurturing a body infused with divine bloodline—this would never be easy.

Yet he had already invested so much; he could not let it fail now.

Li Yi then pulled out all his remaining silver anomalous fruits and tossed them into the machine to extract their energy.

As large quantities of silver anomalous fruits entered the machine, silver energy surged again; the new body rapidly resumed its development. But the system warned again of nutrient deficiency, forcing Li Yi to supply massive amounts of extraordinary nutrient solution as sustenance.

He thought that would be the end—but the machine warned once more of insufficient energy. Upon asking Lan Ji, he learned this time it required vast amounts of cosmic energy.

This left Li Yi, experiencing body-nurturing for the first time, with a blackened face.

There was nothing to do—he had to stay beside the Cradle of Life and channel cosmic energy into it. Fortunately, he had awakened his divine bloodline and possessed a fragmented wonder, granting him abundant cosmic energy. A normal cultivator would have had no idea how to obtain such energy.

This channeling lasted an entire day.

But the day was not without result: he saw a baby's body, roughly one year old, take shape—translucent, woven with silver radiance, extraordinary and divine, naturally attuned to cosmic energy. With each heartbeat, vast amounts of cosmic energy gathered around it, as if it inherently possessed a cultivation technique.

Yet Li Yi, fearing cosmic energy contamination on Earth, continuously channeled only pure cosmic energy, never relaxing, afraid the new body might be tainted.

But it was foreseeable.

This new body's potential was undoubtedly terrifying.

After all, he had used every last divine fruit.

"Too slow," Li Yi glanced at it, his lip twitching again.

At this rate, he'd need at least ten or more days.

No.

He didn't necessarily have to wait until the body matured to age twenty.

He could use it once it reached seven or eight years old—though then Li Yi himself would be a child.

"And the later it grows, the more energy it requires. With my current resources, I doubt I can sustain it beyond seven days," Li Yi thought inwardly.

His earlier fantasy—using the Cradle of Life to nurture mythic beings—now seemed utterly impractical. Not only was energy supply a problem, but a body without a soul was merely a vegetable. If he only raised a mythic beast to eat, it would be a terrible waste.

The law of energy conservation guaranteed he'd lose money.

Unless the thing he nurtured possessed unique properties, it simply wasn't worth it.

Yet though his dream had shattered, the Cradle of Life's value remained immense.

Li Yi persisted until the third day.

Looking at the three-year-old child, he sighed helplessly, for Lan Ji had again warned of insufficient energy—this time, lacking yet another special silver energy.

But Li Yi had already exhausted all his silver anomalous fruits; he simply couldn't afford to raise this child any longer.

If he gave up now, could he get half his resources back?

"Energy insufficient. Nurturing speed slowed," Lan Ji said, smiling, her voice still sweet and pleasant—but Li Yi's head throbbed.

Helpless, he pulled from his storage artifact a massive, entirely silver giant Peng bird.

Its enormous body instantly filled the entire floor.

Though the silver Peng bird had been dead for some time, its body remained fresh, its entire form shimmering with silver radiance. Having lived in the Sacred Bones Ground, it had devoured countless anomalous fruits; had it not been struck dead by golden lightning, Li Yi could never have killed it.

"This is the last energy source. Let it nourish the body as far as it can—I can't afford to keep raising it," Li Yi said.

"Absorbing new unknown energy," Lan Ji said.

A tendril extended from one part of the Cradle of Life, touched the silver Peng bird, then liquefied and spread, infiltrating its corpse and extracting its energy, channeling it into the machine.

The once-powerful silver Peng bird began to wither visibly, its silver radiance dimming.

All its essence was being plundered by the Cradle of Life.

Fortunately, with the Peng bird's energy supply, Li Yi could finally breathe easier.

For the Peng bird's body contained not only silver divine bloodline power, but also abundant vital essence and vast cosmic energy preserved within its flesh.

"This should last several days."

Seeing this, Li Yi immediately ordered Lan Ji: if energy extraction completed, halt nurturing. He was already bankrupted by this new body—he could no longer afford to sustain it.

"Understood, Master," Lan Ji replied, still smiling, her voice sweet.

Li Yi abandoned the matter, stepped onto the Peng bird's body, squeezed into the bathroom for a bath, rested briefly, then donned the Li Jiao Dragon Armor and stepped out of the room, ready to inquire about the progress of the Heaven Tilt incident—after all, two days had passed with no movement outside, and he was uneasy.

When he reappeared in the first-floor lobby, he saw many people already gathered.

"Li Yi, you've finally finished your cultivation! If you hadn't come out, I was going up to find you. Engineer Zheng said surveillance from the Investigation Bureau shows the Heaven Tilt incident will occur either tonight or tomorrow morning—we must prepare for this wave of impact," Lin Yue said immediately, walking over.

"Sister Lin, I know. Lü Lu Jue told me earlier. Personnel are settled, supplies are stocked. Since the Heaven Tilt hasn't started yet, I took time to handle some personal matters," Li Yi said.

"How's it going in the Four Seas and Eight Provinces?" Lin Yue asked.

Li Yi replied: "Everything is taken care of."

Lin Yue thought for a moment and said: "If things get desperate, couldn't we evacuate early? I'm worried we won't have time to move if something happens. Let's flee first, wait until we're certain there's no danger before returning."

"That's a viable option," Li Yi said.

But Zhao Zhao Lingfu immediately stepped forward: "Lin Yue, this won't work. If we leave now, we're telling everyone in Tianchang City we're fleeing across dimensions. Countless people will try to follow us. Once word spreads, panic will erupt and everyone will scatter—this will cripple the city's defense. We cannot bear that responsibility."

Li Yi's expression darkened instantly. He could imagine it: hundreds of thousands of people flooding toward the Ghost Street in the danger zone—a scene he could never control.

Moreover, no one knew how the future would unfold. If his actions triggered citywide chaos and massive casualties, he truly could not bear that responsibility.

"Zhao Zhao Lingfu is right. One move affects everything. We must wait until after the Heaven Tilt," Li Yi said.

Lin Yue realized her mistake, a shiver of fear running through her. She whispered: "Thank goodness you didn't reveal the existence of the dimensional portal—if the news leaked, we'd be finished. We might not even escape."

Li Yi nodded deeply in agreement.

He wasn't that noble. Before such a great disaster, protecting those around him was already his utmost effort.