196: Han Li's remnant soul revives

The magic bottle drifted silently through the edge of the Universe, like a stubborn speck of dust, seeking a faint glimmer of life within the eternal darkness and danger.

Inside the bottle, the Mechanical Heavenly Dao maintained operations with absolute rationality and minimal energy consumption, while the faint, dim light deep within the Chaos Thunder Pool, like an untiring weaver, continuously nurtured those weak yet resilient new sequences.

Void moss slowly repaired the bottle walls, star-core worms gnawed on meteorite debris, and sensing crystals captured chaotic fluctuations... everything proceeded coldly and precisely.

At the heart of the Dao Fruit Tree, where metallic luster flowed and data-laden branches swayed in constant calculation, lay the metallic Dao core, wrapped and sealed layer by layer by countless roots and runic chains, containing a portion of the old Heavenly Dao's core and Han Li's remnant soul.

The Mechanical Heavenly Dao's method of dealing with it was simple and efficient: continuous suppression, slow analysis, attempting to strip away useful components, and discarding useless data.

This was an extremely long and low-priority background task.

However, change often occurs in the blind spots of rational calculation.

Inside that metallic Dao core, the Law structures of the old Heavenly Dao and the fragments of Han Li's remnant soul had not been completely decomposed and stripped away as the Mechanical Heavenly Dao had expected during the long process of sealing and analysis. Instead, they had developed an extremely subtle and logically unpredictable... symbiosis and mutation.

The cold rationality of the old Heavenly Dao, combined with the unyielding nature forged through myriad tribulations, the deep-seated intent to protect, and the brilliance of humanity that erupted in the final act of self-sacrifice contained within Han Li's remnant soul, did not annihilate each other under absolute suppression. Instead, like two diametrically opposed virulent poisons, they catalyzed, twisted, and underwent Fusion within the enclosed environment!

Especially when the Mechanical Heavenly Dao, in order to nurture new sequences, continuously extracted energy from the Dao Fruit Tree, indirectly causing extremely subtle, periodic energy fluctuations in the Law chains sealing the Dao core, the speed of this mutation quietly accelerated.

On this day, when the Mechanical Heavenly Dao performed its routine scan again, an anomaly alert sounded silently.

"Warning: Abnormal energy fluctuation in the Dao Fruit Tree core sealing unit."

"Frequency analysis: Non-aggressive, non-escape-oriented, similar to... structural metamorphosis?"

"Energy flow backward tracing: Pointing to the Dao Fruit Tree's own energy transport branches..."

The Mechanical Heavenly Dao's "gaze" instantly focused.

It saw that the cold metallic luster on the surface of the layered-sealed metallic Dao core was slowly fading, replaced by a warm, restrained, jade-like, lustrous white glow.

Inside, the chaotic and conflicting Laws and Soul Power seemed to have reached an eerie equilibrium and began to operate slowly in a completely new pattern.

Even more peculiar was that the roots and branches of the Dao Fruit Tree connected to it were not repelled by this mutation; instead, they seemed to be nourished and fed back, becoming more lustrous and resilient, and even began to actively and gently transport energy to it, as if... nurturing it?

"Unknown energy conversion detected... Dao Fruit Tree energy absorption efficiency increased by 0.7%, structural stability increased by 2.1%..."

"Activity of the old Heavenly Dao Laws within the Dao core continues to decline... activity of Han Li's remnant soul fragments is abnormally increasing... reorganization in progress..."

"Simulation results: Remnant soul fragments are undergoing structural remodeling based on the Dao Fruit Tree's energy and the Dao core's matter... target form unknown..."

The Mechanical Heavenly Dao was silent for a moment, then quickly reassessed.

"Threat level recalculated: Current mutation improves Dao Fruit Tree performance, and no aggressive intent detected. Threat level: Low."

"Value expectation: May produce a new high-value unit. Recommendation: Observe, provide limited energy support."

Based on the principle of value maximization, the Mechanical Heavenly Dao not only did not stop it but instead controlled the Dao Fruit Tree to slightly increase energy transmission to the mutating Dao core.

Receiving this subtle energy support, the speed of the mutation suddenly accelerated!

The lustrous white light grew increasingly intense, completely enveloping the Dao core and forming a cocoon of light.

Inside the cocoon of light, it seemed a life was gestating, emitting increasingly clear fluctuations of vitality.

Finally, at a certain moment, the cocoon of light reached saturation.

Crack... With an extremely faint crisp sound, a fissure opened on the surface of the cocoon of light.

Vitality and Dao Rhyme, so dense they could not be dispersed, gushed out from the fissure along with a soft white light!

Immediately after, the fissure widened, and the entire cocoon of light slowly bloomed like flower petals.

The light gradually dimmed, revealing the existence within.

It was a figure about the size of a three-or-four-year-old child, with skin as white and lustrous as jade, wearing a small short coat transformed from emerald green Dao tree leaves. With chubby hands and feet, its face was exquisite and perfect, yet carried a purity and bewilderment of someone unversed in worldly affairs.

His pair of eyes were an extremely rare seven-colored hue. Looking closely, it seemed as if countless tiny Law runes were born and extinguished within them, incomparably deep yet clear to the bottom.

He blinked his eyes, curiously surveying the strange world around him, full of metallic textures and flowing data. There was not a shred of fear on his little face, only pure curiosity.

He looked down at his own chubby little hands, then looked up at the massive Dao Fruit Tree, seemingly feeling a sense of kinship connected by Bloodline. He grinned, letting out a silent, happy smile.

[sequence 000: Dao Fruit Child]!

With Han Li's remnant soul as the core, fusing parts of the purified old Heavenly Dao Law fragments, and using the Dao Fruit Tree's energy and matter as his body, he had achieved Nirvana Rebirth in a desperate situation!

However, deep within those seven-colored eyes, there was nothing but purity and curiosity. Han Li's ten thousand years of memories, deep schemes, bone-deep attachments, and heaven-shaking magic power... everything had been completely washed and purified, leaving not a single trace behind.

[Forgetting the Past]!

He was not Han Li; he was merely a brand new, pure lifeform born from the remains of Han Li's Dao fruit.

The Mechanical Heavenly Dao's scan instantly locked onto him.

"New unit born. Energy Rank: Low (newborn). Intelligence Rank: Pending assessment. Law affinity: Extremely high (same origin as the Dao Fruit Tree)."

"Threat assessment: Near zero. Value assessment: Extremely high (potential for growth, significant beneficial effect on the Dao Fruit Tree)."

"Number assigned: sequence 000 (based on the uniqueness of his birth and correlation with the core unit, the Dao Fruit Tree)."

"Name: Dao Fruit Child."

Data archived. The Mechanical Heavenly Dao incorporated him into the management system but did not give him excessive "attention," merely allocating minimal resources and allowing him to move freely within this world inside the bottle.

The Dao Fruit Child wobbled as he stood up and curiously took his first step.

The metallic ground beneath his feet naturally gave rise to a wisp of gentle energy, supporting his tiny body.

He giggled, beginning to toddle between the branches and leaves of the Dao Fruit Tree. When his chubby little hands occasionally touched the hanging data-laden branches, those branches would sway happily, emitting an even softer glow.

Wherever he passed, even the cold and hard metallic ground seemed to become a bit more gentle and warm.

He seemed naturally to be a part of this Dao Fruit Tree, an elf transformed from the most precious fruit it had condensed.

His birth was not earth-shattering, yet it injected a completely different, pure, and warm vitality into this cold and rational world inside the bottle.

A child who had forgotten the past was reborn here.

Far away in a corner inside the bottle, in the Hall of Valor, Ink Snow's Divine Soul seemed to have sensed something and trembled slightly, but did not wake up, still silently guarding those countless points of memory light.

No one knew what kind of story this newborn child and the old acquaintance sleeping in the hall would unfold in the future.