In Doctor Octopus's underwater laboratory.
"Lord, are you sure about this?"
Octavius stood in the laboratory, looking at the instruments before him and Bai Qi standing beside him. "If you'll forgive my words, Lord, adding magical elements to the experiment will make the process extremely unstable, and you are very likely to create a monstrously powerful deformed creature."
After obtaining the fire essence and solar authority from Quetzalcoatl, Bai Qi came to Octavius's underwater laboratory to personally supervise the cloning experiment.
With Bai Qi overseeing, the experiment's progress noticeably quickened. His subordinates dared not slack off, fearing that if Bai Qi became displeased, their lives would be forfeit. Moreover, with Bai Qi present, Octavius no longer feared the consequences of creating bizarre, deformed clones.
A month passed. Seeing that the experiment remained bottlenecked with no breakthrough in sight, Bai Qi prepared to personally intervene and micromanage.
However, Bai Qi was not ignorant. He didn't just start issuing commands; he first thoroughly understood the experiment from Octavius and several other lead scientists. After all, Bai Qi was merely the proposer of this experiment, while Octavius and the others were the practitioners.
He then learned about the current difficulties.
The problem was that both Superman's and Bai Qi's genes were too powerful. Upon contact, they would clash violently. Even with Xiaoyu's genes added as a bonding agent, these two powerful genes could not be fused.
Of course, external intervention was possible, but the result of such intervention was the creation of one deformed monster after another.
Among the twelve talismans Bai Qi possessed, only the Yin-Yang balanced Tiger Talisman could perfectly resolve this issue.
Having fully understood the source of the problem, Bai Qi prepared to micromanage and fuse the three genes using the Tiger Talisman.
"I have made up my mind."
Bai Qi looked at Octavius beside him and said, "Don't be so nervous. This is just an experiment. Even if it fails, it will still have value."
Octavius nodded and began operating the instruments before him.
As the instruments whirred to life, the experiment quickly entered its critical phase, and the three genes began to interact.
As expected, the moment the three genes met, they clashed violently, especially Bai Qi's and Superman's genes, which were locked in a fierce struggle.
Seeing this, Bai Qi quickly activated his magic to intervene.
At first, even Bai Qi struggled. After all, The Holy Lord's primary focus was magic; it was quite difficult for him to be involved in scientific research.
Unsurprisingly, the first experiment failed, creating a formidable deformed monster.
Bai Qi showed no mercy, crushing it in its cradle before it could even open its eyes.
The subsequent attempts also ended in failure, but the repeated experiments provided Bai Qi with valuable experience, and he began to grasp some of the nuances.
"Lord."
Just as Bai Qi was preparing for another round of experiments, Octavius suddenly spoke, "Lord, we are running low on materials. With this next one, we will only have enough for three more experiments. If you are not confident, I think..."
Bai Qi understood Octavius's meaning.
His own genes were easy to obtain; he was present and could donate blood anytime for materials. However, Superman's genes were more problematic. If they ran out, he might have to ask Lex Luthor for them.
After deliberation, Bai Qi resolutely declared that the experiment would continue.
If they stopped the experiment or became timid due to insufficient materials, the experiment would likely never succeed.
This time, Bai Qi put in one hundred and twenty percent of his effort.
Drawing upon the extensive experience of previous failures, Bai Qi preemptively strengthened Xiaoyu's genes to act as a buffer before the three genes came into contact.
The moment the three genes met, he decisively intervened, unleashing the maximum output of his magic, allowing the Tiger Talisman's power to directly act upon the genes.
Finally, after Bai Qi had poured an immeasurable amount of magic into it, the three genes fused together.
One minute, two minutes, five minutes, thirty minutes, one hour.
Time ticked by, and the stable gene chain showed no signs of collapse.
"Is this... success?"
Octavius could hardly believe it, tears welling up in his eyes.
How long had it been? How much effort had he poured into this? Finally, it was complete.
The most critical step of the experiment was finished. The remaining tasks were straightforward.
Although it would only take following the established procedure to quickly clone a powerful individual, Bai Qi was not satisfied.
While Bai Qi's time was pressing, it wasn't yet a matter of life and death. Since he was doing it, he wanted it done perfectly.
Because some of Superman's genes were included, while inheriting Superman's myriad strengths and advantages, the clone also possessed his weaknesses, namely a fear of Kryptonite. Although the inclusion of Bai Qi's and Xiaoyu's genes meant the resulting clone wouldn't be as defenseless against Kryptonite as Superman, it would still be affected.
Therefore, when Octavius eagerly wished to proceed, Bai Qi stopped him.
With Bai Qi's further fine-tuning, a perfect gene sequence appeared before him.
Over the next week, the clone was successfully manufactured. Its appearance was that of an adult female, about ninety percent similar to Xiaoyu.
Cultivating from infancy would be too time-consuming, and Bai Qi did not have that much time to wait for a child's growth.
Thus, the clone was designed from the outset to be an adult. Although the clone was only a week old by human reckoning, its body and appearance were that of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl. She wore a special solar suit, and the artificial sun within the incubation chamber and the connected cosmic cube continuously supplied her with energy.
Bai Qi approached the incubation chamber and, looking at the sleeping girl within through the glass, was highly satisfied.
Beside him, Octavius introduced the girl's various physical indicators.
Firstly, with Superman's genes, her physical capabilities were undoubtedly top-notch. As for her appearance, consider this: a being blessed by both righteousness and darkness, how could she be ugly?
Furthermore, Bai Qi's genes and her unique soul gave her a strong affinity for magic. Upon her birth, the surrounding free-floating magic particles surged into her body like mad. Within seconds, a small-scale magic vortex formed. Had Bai Qi not intervened, the magic particles within several kilometers would have likely been vacuumed dry.
Truly a born mage, terrifying indeed.
Memory and basic knowledge of the world were also not an issue. Once her stability was confirmed, Bai Qi would have Eternal Flame visit her. Through telepathy, Eternal Flame would provide one-on-one tutoring for the girl.
Of course, such matters were usually handled by implanting information via instruments, or in better cases, using goblins. However, given the girl's unique situation, Bai Qi trusted Eternal Flame.