While surprised, Su Wan did some mental calculations.
She only saw a hibernation pod in the laboratory; Chu Ming was lying inside. Zhang Ying had nowhere to hibernate. She had waited for ten generations, and even if each generation lived for fifty years, she had already spent five hundred years in this laboratory.
It's unimaginable that someone could wait for five hundred years in this prison-like laboratory for love. How did Zhang Ying manage to do that?
"How...how did you manage to survive here?" she couldn't help but ask.
Zhang Ying said, "It's very simple. My body is also a clone. I only retained my consciousness. I don't want him to see my old and ugly appearance. We agreed that I would only change bodies to welcome his awakening whenever the goddess comes here."
Chu Ming just said that she is the eleventh generation goddess, which means that Zhang Ying has changed bodies at least eleven times.
Su Wan was even more surprised: "What about when the goddess doesn't come?"
Zhang Ying said, "I just watched him in the hibernation pod, waiting day after day, until the next generation of goddess came here... Then he returned to the hibernation pod, and I continued to wait. Waiting for the day when his life factors were completely replaced."
Surprised, Su Wan asked, "Why did you go to such lengths to replace his life force?"
“He suffers from an illness that I cannot cure,” Zhang Ying said, her voice becoming somber. “He was born with a genetic defect, missing a crucial chromosome, and his lifespan is very short.”
Su Wan asked, "Can't even cloning solve this problem?"
As soon as she said it, she understood.
A congenital chromosome deficiency means that this man was born lacking certain genes. No matter how powerful cloning is, it can only replicate the original's defects exactly.
“Cloning can only replicate his body, but it cannot provide chromosomes that were not originally there,” Zhang Ying explained. “Only by returning to my time and space and correcting the chromosomes of the clone can his illness be completely cured.”
“Now you should understand what I’m asking for.” Zhang Ying looked at her through the glass wall. “Chu Ming’s life essence doesn’t belong to the future and cannot support his consciousness. I need the life essence of a modern time traveler.”
Su Wan finally understood.
No wonder every generation of goddesses has the right to ask a family of divine healers to cure someone; the price for this exchange is to provide their own life essence to Zhang Ying.
"Each generation of goddesses can provide about 8% of the life factor. Now that 92% has been replaced, the remaining 8% will be provided by you."
Zhang Ying spoke somewhat urgently, pressing her palm against the glass wall, "In these five hundred years, I have only spent two months with him. After this extraction is completed, I can take him back to the 24th century, correct his defects, and rebuild his body."
"Can you guarantee you'll cure A-Jin?" Su Wan asked, as this was her biggest concern.
“I can cure any injury or illness except for genetic defects,” Zhang Ying said, raising her face. “Only I can operate the equipment in the lab. I am your only hope. Let me extract your life factor, and I will cure your husband.”
A flicker of joy crossed Su Wan's heart, but her expression quickly returned to calm: "What would happen if I lost my life force?"
Chu Ming looked at Zhang Ying and asked, "Should we tell her?"
Zhang Ying said, "This is just a mutually agreeable transaction. I've told every generation of goddesses this."
She looked at Su Wan: "Su Wan, life factors can not only carry consciousness through time and space, but are also the key to maintaining life... You can learn from your mother what will happen to you."
Su Wan's heart began to race.
The original owner's mother was a goddess of the previous generation. After escaping from this place, she contracted an unknown disease that no doctor could cure and she could only gradually die.
Everything became clear. Mother should have agreed to let Zhang Ying extract the life factor first, but then changed her mind and fled the sacred land. She escaped to the northernmost part of the Great Jin Dynasty and used talismans to seal the box containing the transmitter, but to no avail.
“To ensure Chu Ming can leave with me,” Zhang Ying’s voice rang out from behind the glass wall, “I will extract all your life force, and you will die.”
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