I Am Also An Extraordinary Creature
Chapter 1075 - 785: It’s a Bargain

Chapter 1075: Chapter 785: It’s a Bargain

"If you want to study it, keep it." Zheng Yichen handed over the three needles to Ahn Ke.

Ahn Ke didn’t refuse and accepted them, saying, "I’ll return them to you after the study is complete. If no substantive results come from the research, these objects won’t mean much to me."

She was in logistics, not frontline combat, so keeping these in her possession would indeed be a waste.

Ahn Longling and Ahn Qi, however, could make better use of these items.

After leaving behind newly resurrected life, Zheng Yichen went home; it was time to arrange a suitable place for Du Gang. Luckily, Hazy City had already returned to normal, otherwise finding a proper arrangement here would have been quite challenging.

"For the next while, I’ll be spending time exploring this place, so you don’t need to worry about me," Du Gang said with a smile to Zheng Yichen. His primary purpose for coming here had already been accomplished, and now that he was here, he intended to take some time to properly interact with this world.

In day-to-day matters, there was no need for him to stay with Zheng Yichen. Two grown men could each focus on their own affairs without needing to stick together.

"Haha, well, I hope you have a great time," Zheng Yichen said with a laugh, not adding anything further as he left Du Gang’s residence.

Judging by the timing, it seemed he was about to be assigned a new task by Dusk. Zheng Yichen no longer felt the unease he once had about it—if there was something to be arranged, let it come.

After completing a task, he’d have ample free time again. For now, Misty City World’s situation warranted more attention and care.

Yet, this waiting stretched to half a month. During this time, his days were incredibly leisurely.

Every day consisted of training, contacting collaborators from other worlds, and researching Ark of Life technology with Ahn Ke. During this period, the features of Ark of Life had become increasingly prominent.

The reason was that the environment had stabilized, and Zheng Yichen himself hadn’t experienced any further environmental enhancements, which had slowed the speed of feature enhancements for the Ark.

While his body had ceased to strengthen, the Ark’s features continued to improve as time went on. This represented a form of evolution. When Zheng Yichen first gained the capabilities of the Ark of Life, they initially seemed weak.

However, these features persisted—anything beneficial to his robust physique was further reinforced by it.

Yet, when it came to resurrecting life, repeated confirmation revealed that soul assistance was indispensable.

Even when Zheng Yichen tried piecing together a fragmented soul from countless soul fragments, it could ensure resurrected life would face minimal issues.

Of course, such a pieced-together soul often crumbled due to its severe incompleteness. Without a soul, resurrection would inevitably run into problems. Souls were critically important.

However, Ark of Life lacked the capability to preserve souls—it could only retain Life Imprints.

In his experiments, even using alien souls did not result in significant issues. The initial batch of test subjects remained intact to date, surviving very well thus far.

Yet, alien soul cores caused the resurrected entities to feel extremely out of place, leading to conflicts between their souls and bodies. These conflicts persisted unless resolved.

A stronger soul might affect the body, while a stronger body could impact the soul. Synchronization between soul and flesh was the optimal state—without it, one would invariably overrule the other, reshaping it into its own form.

During this integration process, excessive conflict could lead to aberrations. However, if the aberration issue could be suppressed, gradual integration was possible. Importantly, the weaker a soul’s sense of self, the lower the likelihood of aberrations.

Ahn Ke had researched plenty of useful insights, but for Zheng Yichen, most of them were not particularly relevant; the most valuable benefit for him remained the Life Archive brought by Ark of Life.

Minor injuries didn’t need attention, and major injuries could be resolved efficiently using the Life Archive, which even rendered the serpent’s exuvia ability somewhat obsolete.

Not because the serpent’s exuvia was useless, but activating it consumed over ten times the resources required by the Life Archive.

While both offered similar recovery effects, the serpent’s exuvia persisted as an ultimate safeguard mechanism.

Life Archive had to be actively utilized, whereas serpent’s exuvia acted passively, proving essential against unforeseen strikes that exceeded personal expectations.

Moreover, the serpent’s exuvia restored at explosive speeds, nearly ruling out direct lethal attacks. In comparison, Life Archive’s recovery was noticeably slower.

Yet, it was certainly more economical...

One application of the serpent’s exuvia equated to roughly ten uses of the Life Archive.

"Hmm, looks like I’ve moved a step further away from death," Zheng Yichen mused, staring at a drop of solidified blood on his fingertip. The blood now resembled a ruby, strong enough to pierce through metal plates.

Yet, it was still blood, enhanced by the Ark of Life’s traits. It had exceptional storage capacity and durability, allowing it to last an incredibly long time in Misty City World’s current environment—hundreds of years, as long as it wasn’t destroyed.

Within it lay a Life Imprint used as a Life Archive, but without a soul, even activating the Life Imprint could not resurrect another version of himself.

Since he wasn’t dead, plus the Life Force within the blood was insufficient to resurrect his complete self. Normal resurrection required additional energy support.

Even meeting these requirements, forcibly resurrecting would result in an abomination akin to a bloody corpse, unless he personally oversaw the process and transferred his soul into the new body, in which case no bloody corpse would emerge.

As for his original body, if the distance was too close, it would cause a rapid siphoning effect, with his original body’s Life Force swiftly funneling into the new form.

If farther apart, another operational method could be used.

His fishing rod temporarily stored an immense amount of Life Force, likely due to its enhancement from the World Tree seed. However, it couldn’t store Life Force indefinitely—prolonged storage would cause assimilation with the World Tree.

While it could still return post-assimilation, the process represented an exchange, making perfect transfer impossible. At least a few percentage points would be lost, with losses increasing over time.

Whether this would happen if he truly died was uncertain—he hadn’t died before.

"What’s happening? I’ve been resting for nearly two months, even explored the southern forest twice, and still no new tasks?" Zheng Yichen found Tia in Dusk Cathedral.

It wasn’t that he was itching to be a workhorse, but his habits from prior routines had shifted, making him anxious about the possibility of Tia suddenly assigning him something overwhelming.

"Your native world has been invaded, so you can ’vacation’ even longer," Tia stated calmly as always.

"Wait—there’s such a thing?" Zheng Yichen raised a brow, using the Illusory Eye to contact Du Gang, who replied that he was unaware of such developments, as his world had been invaded recently and details were still unclear.

As for Dusk’s missions, receiving their directives was possible from virtually anywhere—location made no difference.

With such good fortune, Zheng Yichen had no plans to hold back; he resolved to enjoy the break thoroughly.

Feeling satisfied, he nodded and prepared to leave, but just as he turned, a hand landed on his shoulder: "You cannot leave."

?

Zheng Yichen was taken aback—this marked the first time Tia had initiated physical contact with him. When he turned to face her, Tia’s Dusk-colored eyes gazed directly into his own, showing his reflection in their glossy surface—within the reflection appeared another reflection of his gaze.

Under such circumstances, normal people wouldn’t perceive this, yet Zheng Yichen still saw it vividly, akin to two mirrors placed directly across from one another...

As Zheng Yichen attempted to focus further, Tia spoke: "You have something to do."

"...Does this count as walking right into a trap?" Zheng Yichen groaned, rubbing his forehead.

Tia shook her head. "You can treat it as following your instincts. Even if you hadn’t come here now, you would’ve received the directive eventually. You simply arrived early."

"Alright, then. Bring it on—let’s enhance my gear." Zheng Yichen took out some materials, a few of which consisted of damaged Destiny tools.

"How much does it cost?"

"21 merit points," Tia glanced at the enhancement materials and quoted a number, then asked, "Are you sure you want to proceed with enhancement?"

"Uh... I have a condition. Don’t use Destiny power for things like tracking, accuracy buffs, or predictions—just focus on enhancing resistance-related aspects."

This was what Zheng Yichen deemed the most practical use of Destiny power. Active applications yielded limited benefits, introducing complications such as oppositional interference that could either weaken or amplify outcomes.

Rather than risking instability, it was preferable to focus on defensive enhancements. By refraining from actively utilizing Destiny power to influence events, it could serve as a passive safeguard, countering external factors should they arise.

No reckless meddling.

According to Du Gang’s prior explanations, this approach practically equated to abiding by the metaphorical "laws"—using Destiny power disruptively would be akin to breaking the law, which carried compounded consequences.

After all, his use of Destiny power would solely protect himself; if adversaries refrained from employing Destiny measures against him, this enhancement would remain neutral.

But if opponents chose to "break the laws," then his defensive measures would prove invaluable.

"18 merit points."

After hearing Zheng Yichen’s requirements, Tia revised the price.

"Huh? It can go cheaper?" This outcome surprised Zheng Yichen somewhat.

"Enhancement, yes?"

Of course, enhancement proceeded without hesitation—Zheng Yichen handed over his equipment to Tia. As for the high costs, they were an expected reality; he typically enhanced his entire gear set rather than individual pieces.

After all, the base setup fees weren’t cheap, so enhancing the full set at once felt akin to a bulk discount event—a genuine deal. Doing it piece-by-piece wouldn’t yield the same savings, so there was no point in pinching pennies here.

Go big or go home—that was how it made sense.