Chapter 25: Lifeforce overdraft

Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire

“What? My life potential is being consumed?” Feng Lin was extremely shocked. The strengthening of his cells led to his increase in vitality. He only felt a sense of wellness he had never felt before.

But right now, the A.I. was telling him that his lifeforce was overdrafted, leading to his life potential being consumed by his growing cells. How could he accept this?

He hurriedly asked, “How should I resolve this?”

“Other than consuming a great number of nutrients, there are no other methods.” The A.I. replied.

“How much nutrients do I need exactly?” Feng Lin questioned closely.

“Unable to determine the amount needed, as much as possible!” replied the A.I.

He was unable to gain any more answers from the A.I.

Feng Lin pondered before he asked again, “In that case, if a gene’s potential isn’t fully developed, is there a direct relation with the lack of nutrients?

“That’s right. According to mythological gene theory, genes control the structure of life and need nutrients to transform and evolve. Now that you are so strong, you must have exhausted the accumulated nutrients in your body. According to my observation and the results of the earlier scan, I discovered that your genes were strengthened but you are lacking enough nutrients to cause your body to transform. Hence, if you continue to cultivate in this manner, your body will soon be completely depleted of nutrients; you might be crippled and your lifeforce damaged. This will also limit the growth of your vitality stats. By right, given how strong your genes are, your vitality stats shouldn’t be merely at 1.5!” the A.I. replied.

“How much should it be exactly?” Feng Lin’s heart stirred, how could he not be cautious? This involved a crucial point of whether he would grow stronger or not.

“At the very least, 4.0!” the A.I. answered.

“WHAT?” Feng Lin was shocked.

Right now, his current vitality stats was only 1.9, yet the A.I. said that his vitality stats should at least be 4.0. How can there be such a large disparity?

This was simply illogical.

However, the A.I. was not a living thing, it wouldn’t be possible for it to joke around with you.

“Why is this so?” Feng Lin asked.

The A.I. answered, “Genetics are the cores of life. They control the origin of life. Once a gene is awakened, it would control the hormones and nutrients in the body to create new cells to strengthen your organs. This is the reason why strengthening your awakened genes would lead to an increase in your vitality stats! But of course, the prerequisite was that you must have enough nutrients to sustain the growth of your cells. For example, if a gene is a building, nutrients would be the bricks. Without enough material, it’s impossible for the construction of the building to be completed. At the same time, without enough nutrients, no matter how strong your gene is, your vitality stats wouldn’t be able to increase either. According to the conjectures of genetic scholars, adding one genetic point to a basic gene would at the very least, boost your vitality stats by 0.1! However, this was under the situation that the host is lacking sufficient nutrients.”

Feng Lin’s heart trembled, wasn’t he in this situation now?

He hurriedly asked, “What if there are sufficient nutrients?”

The A.I. gave him a reply that shocked him, “In that case, the boost to your vitality stats would be infinitesimally close to 1.0! If there were sufficient nutrients, your vitality stats would increase even further.”

“It’s actually 1” Feng Lin was truly shocked. It was about ten-times his current rate. He discovered that his earlier thinking was too simple.

Genetic development wasn’t so simple. Not only must he continue to strengthen his awakened genes, but he also had to provide his body with sufficient nutrients to allow the genes to maximize their growth potential.

Every time he used a genetic point to strengthen one of his genes, he only had an increase of 0.1 to his vitality stats. The other students might have a much higher increase rate.

Although the answer of 1.0 was merely a theoretical value, as long as there were enough nutrients, the increase rate shouldn’t be too far from it.

Also, even if the other students had an increase rate of 0.5 when they strengthened one of their awakened genes, that would still be five times more than him!

He instantly felt extremely depressed. Those people that were proclaimed as geniuses in the respective classes who had also participated in the illusory martial pagoda, it was impossible for them to have strengthened their genes more times compared to him. But why were their vitality stats higher?

The problem was still ultimately the lack of nutrients.

This was the negative point of having no one to guide you. If it wasn’t for the warning by the A.I., he would still be ignorant of this.

After knowing this fact, it could be said that he hadn’t come to the illusory martial pagoda in vain.

However, in order to consume nutritious stuff, he would need interstellar coins. Things would be pretty troublesome.

Feng Lin was very clear about what sort of background he was from. There was truly no way for his family to provide him with nutritious food. They were all consuming the lowest-grade nutrient fluids.

Such low-grade nutrient fluids might be able to fill one’s stomach, but the nutrient content in them was simply too low. Thus, it was impossible for his body, or in this case his gene, to grow.

If he wished to continue cultivating, he had to eat better food. As an example, maybe consuming mid-grade nutrient medicine or high-grade nutrient fluids?

No, these were still far from sufficient.

He needed more high-level tonics such as super protein, flesh from cosmic beasts, energy potion, etc.

However, all of this cost money. He simply needed more interstellar coins!

Feng Lin soon came to realize that his birth in a poor background like the Feng Clan had severely restricted his development. However, he wasn’t complaining.

“While the world spins in orbit, a superior man makes relentless endeavors for advancement.”

The path of cultivation was incomparably long. It was impossible to walk far on it if one kept wanting to depend on others. One could only depend on oneself.

So, he should think of more solutions to earn money next.

If he didn’t have enough nutrients and continued to strengthen his genes without giving a damn, it would mean that he was draining the pond to get the fish; he would be risking his life and risking his cultivation.

After being clear about this point, Feng Lin naturally wouldn’t make such a stupid choice. He silently determined that before he consumed enough nutrients, he wouldn’t strengthen his genes rashly.

After a while, Feng Lin’s physical strength gradually recovered to a certain point. He then stood up exhausted as he walked out of the cultivation building.

At this moment, the other students also exited respectively. All of them had the looks of exhaustion on their faces as though they had just experienced a tough war.

Those head teachers were dispatching bottles and bottles of nutrient medicine to them.

Feng Lin glanced closely at the bottles and discovered that they were the newest batch of nutrient medicine named as the Green God Type-3 nutrient medicine. It was said that this was made from the distillation of many valuable plants in the universe and had many different types of nutrients mixed within. Just a single bottle would cost above 1,000 interstellar coins and was worth roughly about ten-days of nutrients intake for a human.

“Take this!” The female head teacher tossed a bottle of nutrient medicine over.

“Teacher, this…” Feng Lin caught it and hesitated. This was too valuable.

“The illusory martial pagoda exhausts too much strength. This is the compensation given by the school to all the participating students, allowing you guys to recover faster. Stop being so wishy-washy, just take it since we are giving it out.” the female head teacher spoke

Feng Lin felt somewhat strange with regards to the female head teacher’s change in attitude.

However, he naturally wouldn’t miss out on such a good opportunity.

Feng Lin wasn’t someone pretentious. He received it and said, “Thank you, teacher!”

After speaking, he turned and departed, not noticing the cold gazes directed at his back.

After he left, he started heading in the direction of his home.

Staring the bottle in his hand, Feng Lin felt more and more thirsty. He panicked and felt that he was so hungry that he could eat a cow.

That alluring scent was nothing short of torture. After that, he couldn’t resist any longer and opened the bottle cap and drank everything in one gulp.

Once the nutrient fluids entered his stomach, he instantly felt itchy all over, as warm currents circulated around his body.

An expression of satisfaction appeared on Feng Lin’s face, but the feeling of hunger kept surging up.

He still wanted to drink more!

One had to know that a bottle of nutrient fluids contained nutrients enough for an ordinary person to last for ten days. However, other than feeling a little change to his body, Feng Lin didn’t feel any difference in comparison to not drinking it.

From this, one could see how severely depleted of nutrients he was.

His sole objective now should be to make money to allow him to consume enough nutrients. Feng Lin felt a sense of urgency.

“Hold it right there.” Just as he exited the school gate, a group of people suddenly appeared before him. The person in the lead was tall and handsome, however, the tyrannical expression on his face spoiled his handsome looks somewhat.

It was none other than the top-ranked student in Feng Lin’s class, Zhao Kai!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep