Chapter 00056: Reforging the Spirit Root Gene
# Reforging the Spirit Root Gene
Chapter 56
Novel: After the Myth
Chapter 56: Reforging the Spirit Root Gene
As if hearing Ding Huan's desperate cries, Qu Yi's finger twitched slightly.
Through his tear-blurred vision, Ding Huan caught that faint movement.
He wished he could slap himself a few times right then and there.
Death and life were different.
At least Qu Yi's life force hadn't completely dissipated yet.
As long as there was still life force, his injury-recovery gene serum might still work.
Moreover, the fact that Qu Yi's finger could move meant she still had some awareness.
The gene serum he carried contained a trace of divine beast bloodline, specifically for injury recovery.
He should have immediately given Qu Yi this injury-recovery gene serum instead of wallowing in grief.
Without hesitation, Ding Huan set down his backpack and took out the bottle of injury-recovery gene serum he had prepared for Qu Yi.
He opened the bottle, pried open Qu Yi's lips, and poured the gene serum into her mouth.
If Ding Huan had done this to their daughter's corpse right from the start, Qu Yonghe and Yan Quan would have definitely stopped him.
Qu Yi was already dead.
No medicine would be of any use now.
Wasn't Ding Huan just desecrating their daughter's body by forcing some unknown medicine down her throat?
But the look of utter grief on Ding Huan's face made Qu Yonghe and Yan Quan unable to stop him.
Perhaps this Ding Huan really had been Yi Yi's lover while she was alive, but Yi Yi had been too shy to tell them about it.
After pouring the entire bottle of gene serum, Ding Huan carefully lifted Qu Yi's neck to help the serum spread throughout her body.
"Teacher Ding, Yi Yi is already gone," Qu Fei said softly, trying to comfort Ding Huan.
She hoped he would stop this futile effort.
Ding Huan acted as if he hadn't heard, continuing his actions.
Time passed slowly.
After Qu Fei's single attempt at comfort, no one else spoke, not wanting to disturb the scene.
At this moment, not just Qu Yonghe, but Yan Quan and everyone else present became certain - Ding Huan must have been Qu Yi's secret lover.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be showing such uncontrollable grief.
Yan Quan even felt a pang of guilt.
Had she been too strict with Yi Yi? Otherwise, Yi Yi would have told her if she had a lover.
Only Qu Fei knew that Ding Huan definitely wasn't Qu Yi's lover.
Ding Huan remained as still as a statue.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes...
After half an hour, Qu Yonghe couldn't help but speak up, "Teacher Ding..."
Before he could finish, Qu Fei exclaimed excitedly, "There's color in Yi Yi's wrist!"
All eyes turned to Qu Yi's wrist, where a faint blush of color had appeared on her previously pale skin.
Soon, they noticed the color wasn't just on her wrist - it was appearing on her palm too.
This meant Qu Yi's blood was starting to flow again - a sign of life.
"Yi Yi's face..."
Yan Quan covered her nose as tears streamed down her face again.
She saw color returning to Qu Yi's face too.
Qu Yi was coming back to life.
"Teacher Ding, did you save Yi Yi?" Qu Fei asked in disbelief.
Ding Huan let out a long breath of relief.
Thankfully, he still had that bottle of injury-recovery gene serum prepared for Qu Yi.
"Qu Yi is alive," Ding Huan's voice trembled slightly.
At his most desperate moment, even contemplating death as he prepared for the next human gene experiment...
Qu Yi's words, "After I die, please donate my eyes to him... Let him see the beauty of the world through my eyes..."
Had given him new life.
It wasn't that he regained his sight, but that he came to believe even the ugliest world has beauty.
He found hope for life again, a desire to pursue beautiful things.
Even though for the next two hundred years he struggled between life and death, living in torment, eventually being hunted down and forced to self-destruct...
That longing for light and a beautiful future never left him.
"Thank you," Ding Huan said these three words again to Qu Yi lying before him.
Only he understood the true meaning behind them.
Qu Yi's survival was his redemption, his hope for the future, his belief in beautiful things, even his faith in pursuing immortality.
If Qu Yi had died today, no matter what beliefs he tried to hold onto, that deep longing and pursuit within him would have crumbled.
Without that belief in love and beauty in his heart, what would become of him?
He could never reach higher realms.
This was both intuition and the understanding of life gained through two lifetimes.
So today, he wanted to thank Qu Yi once more.
He also thanked the Fire Qilin.
The injury-recovery gene serum containing a trace of divine beast bloodline hadn't let him down.
As if hearing Ding Huan's words, a trickle of blood seeped from Qu Yi's dull, sunken eyes.
"Teacher Ding, what's happening with Yi Yi now?" Yan Quan couldn't bear the suspense any longer.
"Yi Yi will be fine. Please prepare a gene lab for me and buy some medicinal ingredients. I need to make some medicine for Yi Yi."
Perhaps influenced by Yan Quan and Qu Fei, Ding Huan unconsciously started calling her Yi Yi too.
"We have one! We have one at home!" Qu Yonghe responded excitedly, almost incoherent in his joy.
When others talked about gene experiments, it was nonsense.
But when Teacher Ding spoke of gene experiments, it was a heaven-sent opportunity.
Who in this world wouldn't want a bottle of gene serum made by Teacher Ding?
If Qu Yi's body wasn't still recovering, Ding Huan would have wanted to give her the anti-toxin gene serum right away.
But he worried that combining the two serums might cause conflicts that Qu Yi's body couldn't handle.
After some hesitation, Ding Huan decided to wait until Qu Yi fully absorbed the injury-recovery serum.
...
Ding Huan brought some blood samples taken from Qu Yi to the Qu family's gene lab.
The Qu family indeed had a gene lab, and a decent one at that.
In this era of rampant gene beasts and gene serums, gene labs were standard for wealthy families.
The Qu family wasn't exactly wealthy, nor did they specifically have a gene lab as standard.
But the Qu family had plenty of money.
They were famous nationwide for their cold weapons.
Some in the Qu family business had suggested expanding their cold weapons factory into the gene serum industry.
The gene industry wasn't just a trend - it was the sunrise industry of the future.
The Qu family wanting to enter the gene serum business wasn't wrong - everyone was thinking the same way.
Qu Yonghe himself was tempted, so he bought a complete gene lab setup, ready to make a splash in the gene field.
Unfortunately, while money could buy gene labs, talented geneticists were few and far between.
Any geneticist with real skill had already been scooped up by the Gene Alliance, the top ten Blue Star academies, or major research institutions.
For a private enterprise to find top gene talent? That was just a dream.
Especially for a cold weapons family business trying to break into the gene industry.
As for Geng Qianxing from Yujiang University, he was an anomaly - an undiscovered gem.
Such cases existed, but were extremely rare.
In fact, even if Qu Yonghe found someone as talented as Geng Qianxing, once they achieved results, the Qu family wouldn't be able to keep them.
If not for Ding Huan's intervention, Geng Qianxing's fate after developing the endurance gene would have been disappearance.
...
What Ding Huan really wanted to make was the Spirit Root gene serum, not the physical enhancement genes he'd made for Fang Chong and the others.
The reason he had Qu Fei buy some ingredients was that he worried Qu Yi might not be able to integrate the Spirit Root gene.
Qu Yi's condition was caused by failed alien gene integration.
After failed alien gene integration, could she still integrate the Spirit Root gene? Ding Huan wasn't sure.
Ding Huan already had the ingredients for the Spirit Root gene serum - he'd prepared them back at Beilong Mountain for Qu Yi.
He just hadn't had Qu Yi's blood samples until now.
Among the ingredients Ding Huan prepared was a precious mutated gene ingredient - mutated bayou.
That mutated bayou plant was so valuable that even the golden-faced stump-tailed ape guarded it as a treasure, containing components that could strengthen meridians.
Making the Spirit Root gene serum for the second time was much easier than the first.
It only took Ding Huan one day to complete Qu Yi's Spirit Root gene serum.
...
Carrying the finished Spirit Root gene serum, Ding Huan returned to Qu Yi's sickroom.
Qu Yi had clearly improved - not only had her bodily functions recovered, she could even drink some liquid nutrient serums.
What worried Ding Huan was that one of Qu Yi's eyes was completely empty, and the other showed no signs of improvement.
"Teacher Ding, is Yi Yi in danger?" Yan Quan asked nervously.
Ding Huan first gave Qu Yi the anti-toxin serum before answering, "She'll be fine. She just needs some time to recover."
"Teacher Ding, you must be exhausted. You haven't rested at all these past two days. Why don't you go rest first? We'll take care of things here. If anything happens with Yi Yi, we'll call you."
Qu Yonghe knew Ding Huan hadn't rested a single minute since arriving.
Ding Huan said, "I'll rest here. I need to cultivate for a while. Please leave for now. Don't disturb Yi Yi's recovery until I come out."
Ding Huan didn't want any third parties present while integrating the Spirit Root gene serum with Qu Yi.
(That's all for today's update.
Good night! Still requesting monthly votes!)
(End of Chapter)