Ruan Mei carried Tingyun back to her spaceship. Derick's second clone followed them inside.
However, the ship wasn't large to begin with, and with the addition of Tingyun, it became even more cramped.
Seeing the lack of space, Ruan Mei's gaze fell upon Derick's second clone.
"How about I cut you into pieces and squeeze you into the gaps between the lab equipment? That should probably make some room."
Hearing Ruan Mei's self-muttering, Derick couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Hey, that's too brutal!
But before Derick could manipulate his clone to protest, Ruan Mei shook her head. "No, your body would just regenerate naturally. Cutting you up would only cause more damage."
The clone couldn't be cut, and Tingyun couldn't be thrown out, so the only option left was to toss the lab equipment.
Ruan Mei began to jettison her experimental instruments into the cosmos. To avoid his clone's fate of being dismembered, Derick quickly helped her throw things out. As he did, he wondered if these pieces of equipment, should they accidentally land on some remote planet that hadn't even achieved space travel, would become legendary divine artifacts. It was highly possible. Scraps that Ruan Mei wouldn't spare a second glance for could easily destroy a nation in a pre-interstellar civilization.
After a good portion of the equipment was jettisoned, they finally cleared enough space for Ruan Mei to begin treatment.
Derick's second clone sat to the side, quietly watching Ruan Mei work.
At that moment, the power of the Lord of Destruction, which Ruan Mei had suppressed earlier, flared up again. Ruan Mei's fingers lightly swept across Tingyun's body, and a sapphire light appeared at her fingertips. With a flash, the restless Destruction energy was subdued once more.
Only after doing this could Ruan Mei begin to treat Tingyun's physical injuries.
With the Destruction energy dissipated, Tingyun's wounds looked even more gruesome. Her body was in a state of fragmentation; it had only been held together by the Destruction energy before. Now, without that force, her entire body was beginning to break apart at the cellular level.
It was important to remember that Tingyun was no ordinary person; she was a Foxian of the Xianzhou Alliance. Her body also contained the blessing of Yaoshi, the Aeon of Abundance. For her to end up in this state despite such a blessing, one could only imagine the severity of the damage she had sustained.
Just as her cells were about to break apart, Ruan Mei took out another vial, pouring out the liquid inside to slow the disintegration of Tingyun's body.
But as she poured the liquid, the Destruction energy surged back with a vengeance.
Ruan Mei had to once again suppress the Destruction energy.
"A vicious cycle, is it? It seems I'll have to use a different method to treat her," Ruan Mei mused to herself, stroking her chin.
Ruan Mei turned her head and looked at Derick's second clone.
Patting its body, she said, "Come, swallow the Destruction energy from her body."
As she spoke, she poured a cell-treating medicine onto the critically injured Tingyun. As the medicine touched her skin, the Destruction energy became even more active.
Derick quickly manipulated his clone to swallow Tingyun, thereby absorbing the Destruction energy from within her.
"Mmm, very good. Keep it up," Ruan Mei said from the side in an encouraging tone.
She wasn't sure if Derick's second clone could understand her words. After swallowing the heavily injured Foxian girl, would it only consume the energy within her body, as it did with Cocolia, without harming her? Or would it just eat her whole in one go?
Ruan Mei had only saved her on a whim. No matter how her little darling reacted, she would accept the outcome.
On Derick's side, he was, of course, desperately trying to absorb the Destruction energy to save Tingyun. He wasn't Hannibal; he had no interest in eating people.
The Destruction energy of Phantylia was truly incomparable to ordinary energy. As Derick absorbed it, he felt immense pressure. His entire body felt like it was about to ignite, threatening to shatter his second clone.
Hold on! Derick thought to himself.
Fortunately, there wasn't a large amount of Phantylia's power on Tingyun. Additionally, although Phantylia was a Lord of Destruction, her power wasn't the explosive kind. Specializing in manipulating people's hearts, her energy was more insidious, a slow and steady invasion, which allowed Derick to gradually absorb it with his clone. If this had been the power of Ifrit, it would have exploded the moment it entered his clone's body.
After half a day, Derick finally managed to absorb all the Destruction energy from Tingyun's body into his clone.
Thank heavens. After Ruan Mei's constant feeding recently, my control over the second clone has improved a lot.
After finishing, and sensing that all of Tingyun's Destruction energy was gone from her body within his clone, Derick finally spat her out.
Derick still remembered that in the original game's plot, although Tingyun—or rather, the Forsaken—survived, her body still suffered from chronic pain due to the residual Destruction energy. Now that Derick had absorbed all of it, he hoped the future Tingyun wouldn't have to be tormented by pain.
He spat her out. The Destruction energy was gone, but the irreversible cellular damage was still ongoing.
Ruan Mei administered some more medicine to her and gently shook her head.
"It seems we can't go looking for those Denizens of Abundance for now. In this tiny spaceship, there's no way to continue her treatment. And you, little darling… hmm, after absorbing the power of a Lord Ravager, your body is starting to develop again."
Ruan Mei looked at the continued development of Derick's second clone with delight. It had just absorbed the power of a Stellaron, and now it had absorbed the power of a Lord Ravager. The improvement was significant. And with this increase in strength, the size of Derick's second clone had also grown considerably.
Ruan Mei walked over to the ship's display to check the star map.
Looking at the map of nearby planets, Ruan Mei's eyes lit up. She said softly, "Mmm, perfect. Not far from here, I have a backup research base. We'll transfer there for now."
Then, she piloted the spaceship towards her backup planet.
Derick silently watched the starry sky outside, waiting for the ship to arrive at the planet where Ruan Mei's backup base was located.
After a single jump, Ruan Mei brought Derick's second clone to a green planet.
"Alright, we're here," Ruan Mei said softly, looking at the planet.
The spaceship then landed.
They were surrounded by towering trees hundreds of meters high. Derick looked around and saw the shadowy figures of terrifying creatures, dozens of meters tall, moving among the trees. The appearance of these creatures was simply too strange. A lion's head on a shark's body, and most bizarrely, four legs protruding from beneath the shark's body.
No matter how you looked at it, this didn't seem like a creature that could have evolved in a normal world.
Clearly, this entire planet was likely Ruan Mei's testing ground. The creatures here were all cultivated by her.
The spaceship landed next to a house formed from intertwined vines. Ruan Mei led Derick's second clone and Tingyun inside. The exterior was an ordinary vine house, but the interior was completely different. Various metal and glass containers held unknown liquids, and the entire style had a science-fiction feel.
As Ruan Mei walked among the lab equipment, her entire demeanor changed. With a wave of her hand, Tingyun's severely injured body floated towards her. Ruan Mei prepared an operating table and began the next stage of treatment. At the same time, she didn't forget to glance at Derick's second clone standing by her side.
"You just stay here and quietly digest the power of the Lord Ravager. If you finish and still feel bored, you can go outside and hunt some creatures. The creatures here aren't very strong, so it won't be much trouble for you to devour them."
Hearing Ruan Mei's words, Derick said nothing. He silently had his second clone sit cross-legged on the ground and begin to digest the energy of the Lord Ravager Phantylia. His clone didn't have a sense of taste, and Ruan Mei had said the creatures weren't strong, so Derick had no intention of trying to eat them.
It was better to just quietly absorb Phantylia's power. The power of a Lord Ravager was the most fundamental.
Soon, the absorbed energy was transferred through the clone to Derick's main body.
Amphoreus, Okhema.
While Derick was controlling his second clone, his main body was still with Castorice, Cipher, and the others, mooching a meal off Mydei.
Incidentally, this idea had been Caenis's. And to prevent Mydei from kicking them out in a fit of rage, Caenis had Derick 'lure' Tribbie over as well. With Tribbie present, Mydei naturally couldn't refuse their request for food. However, as he cooked, his mouth wasn't exactly clean.
"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath.
Just then, another person arrived at Mydei's house. It was Krateros.
Derick hadn't seen him in a long time. Seeing him now, he noticed a strange combination of boundless energy and extreme exhaustion on his face. Derick felt that only the kind of overworked corporate drone from his past life, the kind who had successfully brainwashed themselves and bought their own black coffee to stay awake, could exhibit such a spirit.
Krateros saw Mydei cooking in an apron while Derick, Castorice, and the others held out their bowls, chanting 'hungry, hungry, food, food.' He felt a vein throb on his forehead.
"Teacher, what brings you here?"
Krateros looked at Mydei, then turned to Derick and said in a deep voice, "You two, the renovation work at Castrum Kremnos is mostly complete. You can go over now without having much to deal with."
He had come to hand over the shift. Previously, seeing Derick and Mydei run away, he had assumed they were worried about having too many affairs to handle at Castrum Kremnos. Now that everything was done, it was time for them to go and take a look. Even if they planned to hand over the work to their heirs in the future, they should at least show up and make an appearance.
Krateros had been wondering if Mydei and Derick were still training the Chrysos Heirs or planning the Flamechase Journey, and whether he should even bring this up.
But then he saw this scene: one cooking, the others eating.
Krateros was furious!
Seeing the old general's angry face, Derick felt a little embarrassed.
Just then, the energy from the Lord Ravager arrived. Derick's limit could be broken, and he was ready to accommodate the fourth Titan's energy.
He quickly said to Krateros, "General, it's not that we don't want to go to Castrum Kremnos, it's just that we're currently undergoing rigorous training."
Krateros glared at Derick.
Your so-called training is just eating here?
Derick looked at Krateros's expression and silently nodded.
Yes, this is training.
Krateros couldn't help but clench his fists.
Just as the old general was about to explode with rage and start swinging, Derick quickly tried to absorb the energy into his body to increase his strength.
Everyone clearly felt Derick's body change. The surrounding energy converged on him.
"This…" Krateros was a bit dumbfounded.
What's happening to Derick? Did he just level up… while eating?
Although Krateros's strength was not on par with Derick's, his eyesight was sharp. He could see that Derick was currently in a state of transformation, his power growing stronger.
Krateros's gaze snapped towards Mydei.
Mydei, what did you feed Derick?
Mydei, at this moment, was even more baffled than Krateros.
What the hell just happened?
However, he was certain of one thing: this was all Derick's doing and had absolutely nothing to do with the food he had cooked.
Soon, the convergence of energy around Derick ended, and he returned to normal. Although his height and appearance hadn't changed this time, the increase in his strength was undoubtedly significant.
"Derry-boy, how are you now?" Cipher asked Derick, her face a mixture of anticipation and concern.
At her side, Castorice was purely concerned.
"I'm fine. I've successfully compressed the Titan energy in my body. I… I can now accommodate a new Titan's energy," Derick said proudly to Castorice and Cipher.
Hearing this, Cipher jumped up in excitement.
"Quick, quick, Derry-boy, take the energy and Core Flame of the Titan of Deceit from my body. Hurry, I can't wait to see you drain me dry," she urged Derick.
Derick: "…"
_____
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