Chapter 151: Chapter 151: Just Bear With It for a Bit, It’s Not Going to Kill You

"The stronger the Cold Energy Monster, the more its internal structure resembles spaghetti code."

"You Twelve Venerables are even more ridiculous. Relying on your ability to interfere with your own evolution by consuming cold energy, you dare to slap just about anything onto yourselves."

"The day the cold energy disappears for good, you’ll find out what it means to be a fish out of water."

Qi Suian discovered that the body of this giant bug, the Celestial Traveler Venerable, and even its core, were filled with a massive amount of chronic, obsolete data.

This data couldn’t just be discarded. After all, if the program runs, don’t touch it; otherwise, one tweak might stop it from running at all.

It wasn’t until Qi Suian took a closer look that he realized the Celestial Traveler Venerable discarded all its previous data with every evolution.

But it didn’t have a recycle bin; it just piled the new evolutionary data directly on top of the old, discarded data.

Through this constant cycle of updating and discarding, then updating and discarding again, its power grew.

But this created a massive weakness: an attack could be formulated at the genetic level using this obsolete data.

It might not kill them instantly, but it could certainly cause mutations.

However, to have such an ability, one would need to be a Venerable-level Cold Energy Monster. A Beast King’s power level wasn’t high enough to achieve that degree of interference yet.

More importantly, even if one could interfere with evolution, the entire process would require a significant amount of time.

Beast Kings simply haven’t lived as long as the Twelve Venerables.

"As pioneers of an entire system, you truly have no deep understanding of cold energy." Qi Suian was very disappointed.

He was disappointed because now he had to figure out a way to purge all the chronic, obsolete data from the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s core, leaving only the most recent data.

Otherwise, if he transplanted it into the power-bearing embryonic body, something would likely go wrong.

The Celestial Traveler Venerable, on the other hand, couldn’t speak because its curses were too foul.

Even Qi Suian was having a hard time listening to it. As expected of an old monster that had lived for who knows how many years.

So, for his own peace and quiet, Qi Suian broke it down into even more detailed components, using equipment to supply power and keep them viable.

Truthfully, his technique in this area wasn’t very refined, but thankfully, the Celestial Traveler Venerable was strong enough on its own, so its life force was naturally tenacious.

This was the only reason it could survive even after Qi Suian had separated it into all sorts of categorized parts.

Qi Suian carefully removed the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s core. It was a tough, blood-red substance with a texture like jelly.

It also grew tentacle-like nerves. Though the nerves were small, cutting through them was no easy task.

These nerves extended outward, forming a vast neural network that covered the entire Celestial Traveler Venerable.

Qi Suian didn’t need these nerves, but to maintain the viability of both the Celestial Traveler Venerable and its core, he couldn’t separate the two.

The two were a single entity; the loss of one would be a massive blow to the other.

Without its core, the Celestial Traveler Venerable would be critically wounded. Without the Celestial Traveler Venerable, the core would rapidly wither, lose its viability, and its effectiveness would plummet.

Therefore, Qi Suian had to purge the chronic data while the core was still inside the Celestial Traveler Venerable.

Immediately after completion, it had to be transferred into the power-bearing embryonic body.

The entire process was not only difficult but also had to be completed in an extremely short amount of time.

More importantly, there was only one set of materials. There was no room for trial and error, no rehearsals. If he failed, the only option would be to force the Celestial Traveler Venerable to grow a new core.

However, the quality of a newborn core would naturally be inferior to the one the Celestial Traveler Venerable had possessed since birth.

Sure, it was filled with chronic, obsolete data, but that didn’t mean the quality was poor.

It was precisely because the quality was so good that it could run so smoothly despite being built on spaghetti code.

Qi Suian had taken a liking to it at first sight.

So, before purging the chronic, obsolete data, Qi Suian sought help from his protagonist’s halo.

With the assistance of the AI, he was confident he could complete the task, but he wasn’t one to turn down a bit of good luck.

The entire purging process was indeed a massive undertaking.

Besides the difficulty of the surgery, he also had to prevent the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s body from feeding obsolete data back into the core.

After all, it was a part of its own body, and Qi Suian’s actions were bound to have a huge impact on it.

"You... AHHH!!!"

Intense pain forced a wail from the Celestial Traveler Venerable.

Qi Suian glanced over and saw that, stimulated by pain and supplied with sufficient nutrients, it had forcibly evolved the ability to create sound by vibrating the air with its Spirit frequency in a short time.

"Just bear with it for a bit. It’s not like I’m killing you."

"I can’t cut the nerves on your core. It hurts a little, I know, but it’s not a big deal." As Qi Suian spoke, he muted it physically.

Qi Suian was no stranger to the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s pain. Especially when his virus talent upgraded, the pain grew more intense with each level.

The pain the Celestial Traveler Venerable felt from his surgery on its core was nothing compared to the agony Qi Suian endured when his talent went from A-rank to S-rank.

"Your generation is just too soft. Back in my day, I..." Qi Suian stopped mid-sentence.

’He couldn’t recall a time he’d ever had to force himself to endure hardship. If anything, his past was all about being forced to enjoy good fortune.’

As for the pain after the apocalypse, that wasn’t enduring hardship for nothing; it could genuinely be converted into benefits.

"Ahem, just hang on for another half hour. I’m almost done," Qi Suian said, awkwardly changing the subject.

He had to admit, the power of the Twelve Venerables was a bit beyond his imagination.

He had thought their dual attributes would be at least 10 points, but after checking, he found they were estimated to be around 7.5, not even reaching 8.

As for the giant whale-like Cold Energy Monster Qi Suian had previously encountered on the Ice Continent, its stats were likely around 7 points.

You couldn’t judge strength by size. Some creatures were just born big, and while their base stats might be higher, it didn’t mean their subsequent growth would be as well.

As for the humans who practiced the Qi Cultivation Method, their upper limit was a little lower, with a dual-attribute cap around 7 points.

The 0.5-point difference in dual attributes was compensated for by the synergy between their own powers and the Qi Cultivation Method. However, it was uncertain how much of the gap this could bridge, and it wasn’t a direct attribute increase, but rather an enhancement through something akin to a passive skill.

The surgery progressed bit by bit. Qi Suian could even see with his naked eye that the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s core was gradually being optimized.

The most obvious change was its color, which was gradually growing purer.

It had been blood-red before, but as he cleaned it, the color deepened.

And the jelly-like substance was slowly transitioning into a solid form.

"AI, increase the nutrient supply," Qi Suian ordered after a glance.

Qi Suian purged the last bit of chronic, obsolete data from the core. The next step was to indirectly repair the core’s damage by replenishing the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s nutrients.

It was surgery, after all; saying there was no damage would be impossible. Qi Suian could only minimize the damage.

He wasn’t yet strong enough to perform it flawlessly.

Qi Suian then installed filtration valves on all the surrounding nerves and blood vessels to ensure only nutrients entered, not the obsolete data carried by the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s body.

He could have transplanted it directly into the power-bearing embryo at this point, but it would have affected the potential of the resulting power.

If he followed his plan, its potential would be at least SSS-rank, similar to his own Spirit enhancement.

As for X-rank, that was out of the question.

Of course, potential is one thing; realizing it is another.

The nutrient solution flowed through the equipment, continuously injected into the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s body. It circulated through the blood vessels before finally entering the core.

Replenished with sufficient nutrients, the core began to recover, even twitching occasionally.

The damage to its body also gradually healed.

As a part of the Celestial Traveler Venerable, it naturally inherited the Venerable’s tenacious life force and impressive regenerative abilities.

If it weren’t for the filtration valves Qi Suian had installed, it might have already become the Celestial Traveler Venerable’s power source once again.

"You are strange. Why not just take my heart?" After Qi Suian unmuted it, the Celestial Traveler Venerable voiced its confusion.

Following normal logic, Qi Suian should have just taken its core, not performed these incomprehensible actions with unknown methods.

"Oh, this? Just a little hobby of mine," Qi Suian said, not intending to answer its question.

"Then when do you plan to kill me?" the Celestial Traveler Venerable asked, changing its line of questioning.

This was its main goal.

Being tortured like this day after day, the Celestial Traveler Venerable couldn’t take it anymore.

Naturally, it was thinking that an early death meant an early rebirth.

A nice thought, but it wasn’t up to it. After all, it was restrained so tightly it couldn’t even budge.

It couldn’t escape, let alone kill itself.

"Let me check the time." Qi Suian observed the core’s recovery before saying, "Twenty-four hours."

Although it would only take about five hours to recover—his targeted treatment made the process faster.

The extra nineteen hours were naturally for observing any potential problems.

If there were no issues, Qi Suian would proceed directly with the transplant.

The Celestial Traveler Venerable couldn’t comprehend how long "twenty-four hours" was. After all, the previous cold energy era it came from was like a feudal, ancient time.

"This time tomorrow," Qi Suian explained, noticing its confusion.

After hearing this, the Celestial Traveler Venerable fell silent for a moment before asking, "Has the world changed a lot?"

"It’s alright. If not for the cold energy problem, ten of you wouldn’t be enough for the current nations to kill."

"But don’t worry. Since there aren’t ten of you, if you were to encounter the nations at their full strength, you’d probably be very well protected," Qi Suian said seriously.

This was no lie. After all, the Celestial Traveler Venerable was a one-of-a-kind specimen and an Extraordinary Creature. If it were to clash head-on with humanity, the most likely outcome would be capture, not death.

Especially if the higher-ups of the nations learned that the Celestial Traveler Venerable was immortal, they would definitely try to capture it alive at any cost.

The two words "eternal life" were not something any person in power could ignore.