Super Gene

Han Sen was amazed. Seeing a creature bring its children to eat was an incredibly rare sight, one that few people would ever be given the honor of seeing.

When the snow turtles began to dig into their food, the screech of a bird came out of the sky. A golden bird dropped into view. As if it had been searching for the turtles, it came down at an extremely high speed with its talons raised and ready to snatch them.

Pop!

Before the threatening bird reached them, the big snow turtle shot a beam of frost towards it. In the next second, the bird turned into a block of ice. From the height it fell, it hit the ground hard and shattered into nothing but bits and pieces.

”Holy smokes! It’s a super creature,” Han Sen was staring at the turtle with wide eyes.

This was the first time Han Sen had ever seen such a large amount of super creature babies all in one place. There were eight of them and now, Han Sen was afraid to even breathe. The last thing he wanted was for the snow turtle to take notice of his presence.

The silver fox was frighteningly powerful, even as a baby. But here, there were eight super creature children and their mother. Woe to him if they thought Han Sen to be hostile.

Seeing the golden bird shatter into crumbs of ice, Han Sen felt a shiver run down his spine. Being afraid to breathe, he gave the task over to his cells so he could continue watching the nine turtles eat.

After the small turtles ate the red mushrooms, the bodies of the creatures started to glow red. At first, the turtles were as white as the snow itself. But now, they looked like blood turtles.

The small turtles were really young, as their size suggested. Thus, they couldn’t eat much, and after eating a mushroom about the size of a man’s fist, they were full. But the big turtle was really hungry, and it ate about ten mushrooms before it turned red.

It looked like the turtles were all satisfied, and when they were, the big turtle buried the red mushrooms beneath the snow again. Then it led the small turtles back to the ice cave where they had first emerged.

Han Sen waited until they had all entered the cave and swam down beneath the water. The big turtle went in last, and before it went down deep, it let out another frosty beam to reseal the ice where they had come out. No one would have been able to tell something lived under there.

Han Sen waited for a while longer, and when he confirmed there was no more movement, he ran to the area where the snow turtles had eaten and dug his way down to the red, fist-sized mushrooms.

They seemed like mushrooms you would cook. They were the size of a fist, and they glistened with a sparkling clarity. They also emanated a lovely smell, and Han Sen wagered they would taste pretty good.

Han Sen used to follow a certain botanist, and through him, he learned many of the tips and tricks one could use to identify plants, herbs, and mushrooms. He looked at the red mushrooms and noticed there were only three left. The rest had already been eaten by the turtles.

But judging from the way they looked, they didn’t seem poisonous. There were many strange plants back at the shelter that Han Sen wouldn’t dare eat.

Han Sen pulled out a bag and picked a single mushroom to put inside it. He didn’t take any more, but he prepared to take the mushroom with him, thinking it might become useful.

He covered the others with snow once again and summoned his Golden Growler. He collected and reassembled the body of the shattered bird and placed it upon the Golden Growler. It looked like a sacred-blood creature, and even if it was only a mutant, Han Sen didn’t want to waste it. This was free stuff that he wasn’t going to pass up.

Back inside the Crystal Palace, Han Sen asked Zero to cook the golden bird’s meat. Then, he heard the announcement, ”Sacred-blood Golden Wing Bird flesh has been consumed. Sacred geno points obtained is zero.”

Because he ate so little, he was unable to increase his sacred geno point total. But that still made Han Sen quite happy. Although he had failed to hunt the red-scale dragon, the free collection of a sacred-blood Golden Wing Bird made up for it.

He ate a whole meal of the sacred-blood Golden Wing Bird, but his point total did not increase. There was still a lot of meat left, however, so Han Sen prepared it and got ready to eat it all slowly. The bird wasn’t that big, after all, so he figured he would be able to eat it all within ten days.

Back in the Alliance, Han Sen found a way he could contact Professor Sun Minghua. Although Professor Sun had spent his entire life in the First God’s Sanctuary, he had yielded incredible results for the world of botany, and this was something few would understand. Han Sen gave him the details of the red mushroom he had collected and told him about the turtles. He wanted the professor to find out whether or not the mushrooms possessed any beneficial traits that would apply to him.

It was a shame that he could not carry the mushroom out of the shelter; otherwise, he would have brought it for the professor to see.

Professor Sun intently listened to Han Sen’s description of the mushroom and then asked a few questions. After a brief pause, he said, ”According to what you have told me, this red mushroom sounds like it could be something quite powerful.”

”Professor Sun, is there any way you could tell me if this red mushroom can benefit humans?” Han Sen thought these snow turtles had the ability to find rare plants to eat.

The food that super creatures consumed had to be good stuff, but humans were biologically different than creatures, so Han Sen wasn’t sure whether or not humans could eat it.

”The shelter’s plants have great power. They should be quite effective on humans, but the bodies of humans are very different. It is difficult to say whether the effects will benefit you or ail you.”

After that, Professor Sun stopped. He hesitated for a while, but then began talking to Han Sen again. ”I have something to tell you. But after I do, I want you to forget I told you this. And I absolutely do not want you telling others.”

”I understand,” Han Sen responded dubiously.

Professor Sun then said, ”In the Third God’s Sanctuary, there are some amazing plants that can improve your genes. But still, humans have yet to fully uncover which are beneficial and which are harmful. The way such food is eaten is important, as well. If eaten incorrectly, the benefits you would expect to receive can instead become deadly.”

Han Sen thought what the professor said was quite strange, and so he replied, ”If humans cannot determine the effects a plant will impart, how can we find out which ones can improve a human’s genes?”

”I won’t answer this question, but after you visit the Third God’s Sanctuary, you will understand.” Professor Sun seemed to dodge Han Sen’s question, and he quickly changed the subject. He only told Han Sen a few simple methods he could use to help determine what consumption of the red mushroom might do.

Han Sen felt curiosity swell in his heart. There were quite a few surpasser humans, a few hundred thousand at least. Despite this, information regarding the Third God’s Sanctuary was quite limited. Surpassers never talked about it, and there was very little information about it to be found in the Alliance.

Now, with Professor Sun not willing to talk about the Third God’s Sanctuary anymore, Han Sen’s curiosity about the place increased.

According to the advice Professor Sun gave him, Han Sen was going to give the red mushroom to another creature to try out. Maybe then he would see the effects it could impart.

Han Sen then thought to himself, ”I wonder if the silver fox would be willing to eat it?”

Back in the Crystal Palace, Han Sen picked up the silver fox and placed the red mushroom in front of its mouth. He was eager to see how it would react.