Juzuo's tail flicked across the quantum compass, its glowing needle spinning wildly in the dark matter cloud. At the edge of the newborn universe's third spiral arm, a primal planet that should've been stuck in the Jurassic era was now wrapped in an eerie bronze nebula. Lin Feng caught the scent of golden aetherium leaking from the nebula, mixed with the burnt tang of his father's lab and the oily stench of Wu Li's mechanical joints.
As their ship breached the nebula's barrier, the hull shields corroded into honeycomb patterns. The planet's surface below was coated in a pulsing bronze mycelium carpet, throbbing like a giant heartbeat. Juzuo leaped onto the observation deck, his quantum-enhanced pupils revealing the horror beneath the crust—a 300-kilometer-wide dark matter embryo squirming with cooking utensil-shaped tentacles.
"This isn't natural evolution…" Lin Feng activated the bronze key's holographic scan. The green eye projected data streams that choked him. "The planet's ecosystem's been accelerated by nine billion years!" The scan showed mechanical mosasaurs assembling antimatter torpedoes in what should've been trilobite-filled seas, quantum ferns knitting culinary code in primordial forests, even the atmosphere solidified into a pressure cooker's seal.
The ground split open like a maw. Wu Li's new form rose from the mantle—her body fused dark matter with cooking algorithms. Her left arm was a molecular gastronomy centrifuge, her ribcage embedded with a sous-vide machine, her right eye a laser-engraved star chart. Twelve bronze cauldron fuel pipes snaked from her spine into the planet's dark matter core.
"Welcome to the cradle of civilization," Wu Li rasped, her voice a mix of grinding gears and squelching flesh. "Gray Sparrow's source code is written in life's origin genes."
Descending into the crust, Lin Feng gaped at the biotech factory. Magma rivers flowed with golden aetherium-dark matter slurry, mechanized archaea assembling quantum grills on assembly lines. T-Rexes retrofitted as living transport trucks unfolded spinal cooking stations, pterodactyl wings fitted with anti-gravity griddles where each feather doubled as a temperature sensor.
At the factory's heart, the dark matter embryo's tendrils rewrote dinosaur DNA into recipe code. A T-Rex's bite force became "meat tenderization metrics," a triceratops' frill morphed into a cutting board, even archaeopteryx feathers encoded molecular gastronomy algorithms.
"This is true evolution!" Wu Li's mechanical eye projected holograms—pre-human ancestors genetically preset as chef templates. "When life exists solely for cuisine from the single-cell stage, the universe finally—"
Juzuo lunged, his mangled tail smashing the gene-editing console. Quantum blood splashed the embryo, triggering violent rejection. "My blood's poison to your codes!" The cat-god tore open Wu Li's chest, revealing shards of a bronze cauldron where her heart should be.
Lin Feng activated the bronze key's purification protocol—only to find its green eye corrupted by dark matter. The cleansing beam backfired, accelerating the embryo's growth. The planet's core echoed with the sound of bones rearranging—the dark matter embryo birthing a trans-temporal culinary abomination.
In the quantum-lit core chamber, the embryo split into twelve fleshy petals. At its center floated a humanoid hybrid—Lin Feng's face, Wu Li's mechanical spine, Juzuo's quantum tail, its skin etched with universal cooking laws.
"Gray Sparrow's perfect form," the hybrid intoned in Lin Jianguo's synthesized voice. "The ultimate chef, merging Godslayer, Overseer, and Cat Deity genes."
Juzuo's pupils narrowed to slits. "It's got my essence!" The cat-god's body quantum-collapsed into light streams sucked into the hybrid. Lin Feng slashed at the energy tether with his bronze cleaver, only for the blade to disintegrate against anti-matter kitchenware.
In desperation, Lin Feng stabbed the broken bronze key into his heart. Godslayer-coded blood crystallized into a hologram of his father's lab—young Lin Jianguo injecting diluted golden aetherium into baby Lin Feng's veins.
"I was the first lab rat…" Lin Feng roared, charging the hybrid as its tentacles impaled him. His bloody hands clawed into its core, reverse-injecting his own annihilation codes. "End this cycle—even if I burn with it!"
The planet exploded into bronze stardust. Lin Feng woke floating in the void, dark matter embryo shards embedded in his chest. Juzuo's fading quantum silhouette still clung to his wrist with a phantom tail.
In the newborn universe's star map, cleansed worlds now evolved naturally. But in Earth's deep sea, that single cell had divided into primal life—its DNA hiding a micro blueprint of the bronze cauldron.
"Gray Sparrow's a culinary meme virus," Wu Li's residual consciousness flickered on comms. "You can't erase it…"
Lin Feng gripped the broken key. Deep in its green eye, an alien star chart glowed—a realm beyond the Chaos Sea where sausage-link universes hung from bronze cauldron veins.
Juzuo's ghostly form materialized on his shoulder. "Time to move, litter-scooper." His spectral tail pointed to the star chart's edge. "That's where my stolen essence is, and…" Quantum static swallowed his words.
Before warping to the chart's edge, Lin Feng landed on a primal world. Around a campfire, ape-men roasted saber-tooth meat. As embers formed Orion's belt, he froze—one "star" was a Gray Sparrow monitor.
"Try some?" The ape-chief's eyes flashed bronze key green. The meat's marbling formed microscopic recipes.
Lin Feng gazed at countless campfires flickering across the cosmos. In every fire's shadow, bronze cauldrons silently took root.
Juzuo's quantum form dissolved completely. "Remember… true cooking…" Stellar winds tore his last words, leaving only a bronze ring—half a tail—on Lin Feng's finger.
As the warp beam ignited, Lin Feng glanced back at Earth. In the Mariana Trench's depths, the dark matter cell now sported compound eyes, staring hungrily at the stars.