Chapter 139 Star Core Body Forging

Heavenly Court Fortress, Special Intensive Care Unit.

It was eerily quiet here, with only the low-frequency hum of the rows of precision instruments, like a swarm of flies circling one's ears.

Outside the isolation glass wall, Chen Weiguo's face, usually as majestic as iron, seemed to have aged ten years in an instant. He stared fixedly at the young man on the hospital bed, the military cap in his hand already squeezed out of shape, his knuckles turning white, yet he was completely oblivious to it.

On the bed, Lin Yuan's appearance could only be described as "tragic."

He didn't look like he was asleep; he looked more like a piece of porcelain that had been shattered and then crudely glued back together with low-quality glue. His skin was covered in web-like black cracks—those weren't wounds, but some kind of energy leaking out from within his body. Every inch of his skin was disintegrating and turning to sand at a visible rate, only to be forcibly repaired by the surrounding ring of field-maintaining nanobots.

This tug-of-war between destruction and repair repeated tens of thousands of times every second.

"It's useless, General."

Academician Wang pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, his voice as hoarse as if it contained a handful of coarse sand. On the holographic data tablet in his hand, the curve representing vital signs was diving all the way down, a piercingly bright red.

"Conventional medical methods have already failed. Even if those nanobots operate at maximum power, they can't keep up with the speed of his body's collapse." Academician Wang pointed to the mess of data on the screen. "He has swallowed too much antimatter energy. Although that 'core' was contained by some unknown means, the leaking radiation has already seeped into every one of his cell nuclei."

"Speak plain English." Chen Weiguo didn't even turn his head, squeezing three words out of his throat.

"He is disappearing."

Academician Wang took a deep breath and cruelly revealed the truth. "Disappearing on a physical level. Antimatter is neutralizing his flesh. In two hours at most, he will turn into a pile of elementary particles; not even ashes will remain."

Chen Weiguo turned around abruptly, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Academician Wang like an old lion driven into a corner. "So there's no hope? Huh? All of humanity gathered the best doctors and the best medicine, and all we get is 'no hope'?!"

"If there were a way, even if it meant trading my life for his, I wouldn't blink an eye!" Academician Wang's emotions also broke down, and he slammed the data tablet onto the ground. "But these are the rules of physics! This is a universal axiom! Who can negotiate with the laws of physics?!"

The corridor was dead silent.

Only the shattered data tablet was still sizzling.

Li Na covered her mouth, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, her shoulders shaking violently, yet she didn't dare make a sound.

Meanwhile, on Earth, it was already late at night.

There were no official announcements and no news notifications, but an unspeakable sadness seemed to link everyone through some kind of spiritual network. Most of the neon lights in the cities were extinguished, replaced by the faint glow of countless candles behind windows.

Billions of people were strangely silent at this moment.

They were waiting.

Waiting for a miracle that might never come.

...

"So noisy..."

An extremely weak, yet somewhat punchable voice suddenly drifted out through the intercom inside the isolation chamber.

Chen Weiguo's entire body stiffened, and he almost thought he was hallucinating. He lunged at the glass wall, pressing his entire face against it. "Lin Yuan?! You brat, you're awake?!"

On the bed, the man who looked like shattered porcelain struggled to open a slit of his eyes.

Those eyes that were once full of spirit were now as cloudy as if covered in a layer of dust, but deep within them, that same madness to punch a hole in the sky still hid.

"Old Chen..." Every time Lin Yuan spoke a word, the cracks at the corners of his mouth would split open, oozing black blood droplets. "Can you... lower your voice? I'm already about to fall apart... if you shatter me further... does it count as a workplace injury?"

"Cracking jokes even at a time like this!" Chen Weiguo's eyes reddened as he shouted while slapping the emergency call button. "Doctor! Where the hell did the doctors go! Get in here!"

"Don't bother."

Lin Yuan managed to lift a finger and wagged it. "The old man is right... conventional means can't save me. I feel like... a leaking ball that can't be sewn up."

Chen Weiguo's hand froze in mid-air, his lips trembling, unable to say a word for a long time.

"Don't put on that funeral face, it's bad luck." Lin Yuan took a few heavy breaths, his gaze passing Chen Weiguo to look at Academician Wang standing behind. "Old Wang, that Antimatter Core... it's still in the warehouse, right?"

Academician Wang was stunned and nodded subconsciously. "Yes... it has been sealed by an isolation force field. That thing is extremely dangerous."

"Bring it here."

Lin Yuan's next sentence made everyone's hearts skip a beat.

"What are you going to do?" Academician Wang's eyes widened, thinking he had misheard. "The radiation equivalent of that thing right now is enough to kill an elephant. If you even touch the edge of it, you'll be instantly vaporized!"

"My current body is only slightly better than being vaporized." Lin Yuan grinned, revealing a row of blood-stained teeth, his smile grim and crazed. "Since my body has already been thoroughly corroded by antimatter, then don't think about how to expel it."

He paused, a flash of ruthlessness appearing in his eyes.

"Better to channel than to block; better to consume than to expel."

"System panel, open for me," Lin Yuan muttered in his mind.

The pale blue light screen that only he could see appeared dim and lusterless at this moment, covered in red warning pop-ups.

[Warning: host is in critical condition.]

[Warning: Gene chain collapse at 98%.]

[Suggestion: Immediately use points to exchange for 'Consciousness Upload' and abandon the physical body.]

"Abandon my ass."

Lin Yuan directly ignored those warnings. His will, like a blade, cut straight into the section he had never dared to use—[002: Gene Ascension Sequence].

He had only unlocked the basic level of this section before, which had strengthened his physique. At the top of that complex gene tree, there was a gray ultimate talent wrapped in countless chains.

[Ancient Titan Art: Star Core Body Forging].

The description was just one sentence: Use the fire of a star as a furnace and destructive energy as a hammer to reforge the mortal coil.

"Old Wang, bring that core here, and prepare a set of maximum-power energy transmission tubes to plug directly into my spine." Although Lin Yuan's voice was weak, it carried an unquestionable madness. "I'm going to... forge that thing into my bones."

Madman.

A complete and utter madman.

Academician Wang felt his head buzzing; this completely defied all medical common sense and biological principles. This was like someone drinking paraquat, and the antidote plan was to pour a bucket of concentrated sulfuric acid down his throat, hoping the two poisons would fight each other.

"No! Absolutely not!" Academician Wang roared. "There is no theoretical basis for this! Once the antimatter energy goes out of control in your body, this won't be saving someone—it'll be detonating a human nuclear bomb! The entire fortress will be blown to the sky!"

"Then do you have another way?"

Lin Yuan asked back.

Academician Wang went silent.

"If not, then listen to me." Lin Yuan's breathing became more and more rapid, a sign that his body was about to completely disintegrate. "Also, Old Chen... cut all non-essential power to the fortress. There might be quite a commotion later, and I'm afraid there won't be enough electricity."

"Lin Yuan, you're gambling with your life." Chen Weiguo looked through the glass, his gaze incredibly complex.

"When have I not been gambling with my life?" Lin Yuan looked at the ceiling, double vision already starting to appear. "It's just that this time... I'm the house."

Chen Weiguo was silent for three seconds.

These three seconds felt like a century to everyone.

Finally, the old general who commanded all of humanity's armed forces abruptly took off his hat and slammed it onto the control console.

"Do as he says!"

"General?!" Academician Wang looked at him in horror.

"Execute the order!" Chen Weiguo's eyes were red, veins bulging on his neck. "Cut power to all living quarters and industrial zones! Allocate all energy to the ICU! Move that damn Antimatter Core over to him!"

"If something happens, I'll die with him!"

...

Ten minutes later.

The entire Heavenly Court Fortress fell into darkness.

Only the ICU was lit with a piercing white light.

That fist-sized Antimatter Core, emitting a faint red glow, had been placed in a special magnetic confinement device, hovering above Lin Yuan's chest.

A dozen thick alloy probes pierced through Lin Yuan's spine and limbs. There was no anesthesia, because his nervous system was already nearly necrotic and didn't need it.

"Preparation complete." Academician Wang's hand was trembling as he operated the mechanical arm. "Lin Yuan, I'm going to unlock the magnetic confinement now and guide the energy injection. This process... will be ten thousand times more painful than death by a thousand cuts."

"Come on."

Lin Yuan closed his eyes.

"Start!"

As Academician Wang pressed the confirm button, the hovering core suddenly jolted. A visible stream of black-red energy, like materialized magma, surged frantically into Lin Yuan's body through the tubes.

"Arghhhhh—!!!"

A scream that didn't sound human instantly pierced through that thick layer of bulletproof glass.

It wasn't just pain.

It was the feeling of having every bone in the body shattered, ground into powder, and then recast with magma.

[Detection of high-energy destructive substance injection!]

[Gene sequence recombination forcibly initiated!]

[Warning! Energy overload! host consciousness is about to collapse!]

The system's notification tones exploded frantically in his mind, and red warning boxes stacked up densely, nearly obscuring Lin Yuan's vision.

In reality, Lin Yuan's body instantly arched like a shrimp. All the cracks that had originally healed split open, and before the black blood could even flow out, it was evaporated into a bloody mist by the high temperature.

"Voltage unstable! Energy backflow!"

"The suppressor exploded!"

"The fortress's main power grid is overloaded! The transformer is smoking!"

The ICU was in total chaos; sparks flew everywhere, and alarms blared through the air.

That mass of antimatter energy was too violent; it didn't want to be absorbed at all, it only wanted to destroy this mortal body that attempted to imprison it. Lin Yuan's skin began to carbonize, revealing the pale bones beneath, and those bones actually began to melt and turn black the moment they touched the black energy.

"Stop! Stop it! He can't take it!" Li Na cried out, wanting to rush in, but she was held back firmly by two guards.

"We can't stop!" Chen Weiguo stood before the control console, his hands gripping the surface with all his might, his teeth nearly shattering. "Stopping means death! Keep increasing the pressure!"

By now, Lin Yuan's consciousness had sunk into a state of chaos.

The pain had vanished, replaced by an extreme void. He felt himself floating in a black ocean, surrounded by monsters wanting to devour him.

Give up?

As long as he let out a breath, all the suffering would end.

"Screw you..."

In the chaos, Lin Yuan's conscious form condensed into a small figure and raised a middle finger to the boundless darkness.

"That's my body! Those are my bones!"

"In my territory, if you're a dragon, you coil; if you're a tiger, you crouch!"

"Swallow... for me!!!"

In reality, Lin Yuan, who had already stopped breathing and was charred like coal, suddenly twitched violently.

[System Notification: Gene Lock, forcibly opened.]

[Passive skill 'Deep Space Salvage' mutation activated... Categorizing antimatter energy as 'strengthening material.']

[Remolding initiated.]

"Beeeeeeep—"

The ECG monitor emitted a sharp, prolonged beep.

That green wavy line representing life turned into a flat line without any fluctuations at this moment.

"Heartbeat stopped." Academician Wang slumped into his chair, his face ashen. "Brainwave response... gone."

It was over.

The man who had created countless miracles and just crippled the alien fleet had ultimately failed to survive the backlash of the laws of physics.

Chen Weiguo looked at that straight line, his body swaying as if his spine had been removed. He opened his mouth, wanting to call Lin Yuan's name, but couldn't make a sound.

Li Na stopped struggling, looking like a puppet that had lost its soul.

The entire fortress seemed to die at that moment.

However.

Just as Academician Wang's hand trembled, preparing to pull the switch and declare the time of death.

"Thump."

A muffled sound, like the beat of a war drum, suddenly came through the speakers.

Academician Wang's hand froze.

"Thump!"

The second sound. It was louder and heavier than before, making the surrounding glass vibrate slightly.

That wasn't an ordinary heartbeat.

It was like the roar of magma surging deep within the Earth's crust.

Everyone stiffly turned their heads to look at the screen that had already zeroed out.

The gray straight line representing death didn't continue to extend. At the far right of the screen, it suddenly surged upward without warning, and the color was no longer the green representing life, nor the red representing danger.

It was... a blindingly brilliant gold.

"Zzzt—"

Inside the ICU, on that body which had turned into "charcoal," a crack suddenly split open in the layer of black carbonized skin.

A golden-red light stabbed out through that crack, illuminating Chen Weiguo's face, which was twisted in shock.

"This..."

Academician Wang looked at the frantically soaring data, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg, an unintelligible cry coming from his throat:

"The energy readings... are off the charts?!"