Lin Yan, a biology nerd, transmigrated to a world of cultivation while pulling an all-nighter running gels.
Good news: his portable lab came with him.
Bad news: his Heavenly Spiritual Root had become a Five-Element Root. He had all five attributes, but each was so weak it could barely be detected.
Worse news: he'd been assigned to tend the fire in the alchemy room.
Then he realized: the alchemy furnace's three-step temperatures, 95, 55, and 72 degrees, were exactly a PCR thermal cycle!
From then on, everything went off the rails. Others cultivated through insight; he did it by running gels. Others relied on instinct to make pills; he controlled the temperature to one decimal place. Others tested spiritual roots with glowing stones; he pulled out people's hair and ran electrophoresis tests
“What's running a gel?”
“Taking apart your spiritual root to have a look.”
“Do you have to run a long way?”
“...No.”
From a lowly fire-tender to second place in the tournament, Lin Yan redefined cultivation in the way of a biology nerd, alongside an old alchemist, a gluttonous fatty, a senior sister with a Heavenly Spiritual Root, and a socially anxious record keeper.
“If the alchemy furnace is a PCR machine, then the whole cultivation world is one giant laboratory.”
“Wait, then even ordinary people without spiritual roots, like my mother, could, ”
“In theory, yes.”
“Brother Yan, you're my real brother!”
