Super Gene

It didn’t take long for the humanoid tree to absorb the mound of dust. Its previously dull and unremarkable lifeforce then began to resemble the person Han Sen had just slain: Hezhi.

Han Sen was not sure if it was exhaustion playing tricks on his eyes, but he could then swear he was seeing the tree shrink to take on the form of Hezhi himself.

And it did, but fortunately, it did not replicate the mindset of the person Han Sen had just killed. It looked like Hezhi now, but it just stood in place without motion, where it had absorbed his remains.

Han Sen took a step back, just in case. The last thing he wanted to do was trigger or invoke the ire of something he did not have to.

After stepping back a bit, Han Sen decided now might be a good time to return to the forest of statues in that plaza. The wolves that hounded him to the garden had dispersed, after all.

Provided they stayed gone, Han Sen should have no issue returning there. He might even be able to get back to his teammates.

But as Han Sen began his return trek, he suddenly saw the brain-carrots leaping off their harboring trees to stand upright on the ground before him. It looked like the entire garden did not want Han Sen to return, for all the trees and plants began to close in around him. The way back was closed off.

So, Han Sen decided to walk forward in the way he originally had been. He spoke aloud to the garden, saying, “Okay, I’ll play it your way. I’ll see where you wish to lead me.”

As Han Sen walked the path through the garden he had originally been on, the rest of the botanical residents returned to their initial positions, too, as if nothing had changed at all.

After walking for a while, however, the garden began to take an unexpectedly pleasant turn. In fact, it started to look pretty.

The flowers soon looked like butterflies, and the trees were sculpted like beautiful carvings and wooden furniture. It was like something you’d see in a fairytale. It looked almost unreal.

Han Sen soon came to a lake. Its surface was still, glassy, and blue like a clear summer’s sky. At the center of the lake was a stone tablet. In front of it stood a man.

This person wasn’t someone Han Sen was familiar with, and as he walked closer to get a better look, he saw that the man was clad in sparklingly white, clean clothing. He wasn’t the sort of person you’d expect to see in such a sordid shelter.

“My child; you are finally here,” the man in white clothing said.

“Are you talking to me?” Han Sen asked.

“Of course, my child.” The man seemed to be speaking to Han Sen, but his attention seemed affixed to the stone tablet he was in front of.

Han Sen thought it weird, that the man continuously referred to him as my child.

“Who are you?” Han Sen asked, with a frown.

Han Sen knew this was not someone whose voice he had heard before, and neither was it a person he had seen before.

“I could ask you the same, but only my children are capable of coming here. So, that is what I can best assume you to be.” The man in white clothing spoke in a very relaxed manner. He spoke as if he had awoken from a restful slumber, and was at peace and tranquility.

“Speak plainly. It has been a long day, and I’m not in the mood for games.” Han Sen spoke with a stern voice, primarily because he could not stand being called my child any more than he could stand being called boss.

“I am a shadow, and I have waited for your arrival for quite some time,” the man in white clothing said.

“My arrival? Me? You know who I am?” Han Sen thought the man was very strange.

If it wasn’t for the mist skating gracefully across the lake, Han Sen would have been able to scan the man and get a clear reading of who or what he might have been.

“Yes, but it does not matter. You are here; therefore, you are my child,” the man in white clothing said.

Han Sen was getting annoyed. The man was speaking quite a bit, but he wasn’t actually saying much.

Han Sen summoned his crystal egg with the desire to throw it at the man.

He’d had enough of being called his child, so he cared little for who the man believed him to be. He wanted to shut him up so he could continue with the expedition.

Before Han Sen could lob it, though, the man suddenly said one more thing which stayed his arm. He said, “This is the only thing I can give you.”

The man walked into the tablet as if he was a ghost, passing through a wall.

The stone tablet had once been empty, but was now scrawled with a few additional words.

“God has returned…”

Han Sen was quite surprised to see the words of Life Door now appear on the tablet. He peered at the tablet a little closer then, and before his eyes, the entirety of Life Door began to show up on the stone.

The words appeared one by one.

Han Sen was delighted, though, and he quickly tried to remember everything that was written down.

After reading it all, he felt as if his Blood-Pulse Sutra was starting to run by itself and generate a brand new geno core.

Han Sen always believed he was going to create a geno core with it, but there was something prohibiting him from completing the process. There was always a snag he was getting caught on.

But now, just seeing Life Door written before him on such a pristine lake, it had freed up whatever was hindering his progress. The Blood-Pulse Sutra got to work producing a new geno core with no trouble now.

“This place really is connected to Blood Legion. That man must believe I am a part of Blood Legion,” Han Sen thought to himself, as he read the text and did his best to memorize it.

When the text was all revealed, his Blood-Pulse Sutra began to fire on all cylinders. The process of producing a brand new geno core was well underway.

The black crystal was also triggered, prompting more of that black fluid to taint the mixture.

This was the first time Han Sen had the ability to watch the geno core produce. Before, he had always been under fire and unable to, and he found it remarkable how much the substance created looked like a supernova.

Han Sen was rather shocked when he laid eyes on the finished geno core.