Super Gene

Han Sen looked in the direction that Son of Fate’s gaze had stiffened, and noticed it was Zero who he had seen. She had emerged from the Tree King and was now approaching them.

Zero had already returned to her human form, but her hands held a red knife.

The knife was around a foot long, and it was completely red. It had skeletal characteristics, and its color made it look like a bone that had been soaked in blood.

Han Sen frowned, unsure why Son of Fate would be so scared upon seeing Zero.

”Impossible! Impossible!” Son of Fate was screaming like a madman, and he looked horrified.

Han Sen looked at him, ready to tell him to shut up, but before he could, a red flash cut across his vision. When his eyes steadied their focus, he saw the blood-bone knife lodge itself in Son of Fate’s heart.

Son of Fate twitched. All the blood in his body began to course towards his heart, forming a coagulated lump. Then, his skin shrivelled and dried out, becoming another unrecognizable, skeletal husk of a corpse, just like the rest in the area.

Han Sen’s eyebrows jumped. He did not know where Zero had gotten this knife, but she had callously murdered Son of Fate with no given reason.

Zero walked in front of Son of Fate and pulled the bone knife out of his heart.

”Why would you do that? You killed him!” Han Sen asked, with his eyebrows furrowed.

”He deserved it,” Zero answered.

”Whether or not he deserved it is irrelevant; I asked you why you killed him, so tell me,” Han Sen asked again.

Zero looked at Han Sen but did not speak. She merely looked at him the same way she always did.

Han Sen looked at her bone knife and asked, ”Where did you get that from?”

”It was inside the tree,” Zero answered.

”You punched a hole into the tree so you could retrieve this knife?” Han Sen was surprised, and so he asked for confirmation.

Zero nodded.

”How did you know this bony knife was inside that tree?” Han Sen asked.

Zero had never been to this area of the Second God’s Sanctuary before, so how could she know the knife was there?

”It was calling for me.” Zero swung the bone knife.

Han Sen reached out his hand, attempting to grab the knife and saying, ”Let me take a look.”

But Zero quickly withdrew her hand and snapped, ”Don’t touch it!”

”Why not?” Han Sen frowned, thinking Zero was behaving abnormally.

”You will die,” Zero said, with a queasy amount of gravitas.

Han Sen froze. He wasn’t sure what she meant; would he die if he touched it, or would she kill him if he laid a finger on it?

Looking into Zero’s clear eyes, Han Sen pondered which she meant. He was leaning towards the former, however, as he didn’t believe Zero would simply kill him.

Han Sen didn’t ask any further questions. Instead, he returned his focus to the corpse of Son of Fate. He plundered his pockets in search of any notable loot he might have possessed.

Son of Fate’s body was not heavily clothed, and much of what he wore was already in tatters. After his body had dried up, the clothes were like loose strips of fabric crumpled across a twisted branch. There was nothing to be found.

But when Han Sen looked at Son of Fate’s back, he was shocked. The tattoo of the nine-life cat had completely disappeared.

Han Sen checked every nook and cranny across his body, but he could not find anything remotely similar to the tattoo he had seen earlier.

”Do you know who this man is?” Han Sen looked at Zero and posed the question.

She shook her head. Han Sen believed she did not know anything, so he didn’t ask again. He approached the coffin Son of Fate had been in.

The coffin seemed to have been constructed from the wood of the local Dark Haunted Trees, but there was nothing else of significance. The coffin was empty.

Unable to find anything there, Han Sen instead turned his attention to the Tree King and started walking in its direction. No longer did it drain Han Sen’s lifeforce, so he walked right up to it without trepidation.

He observed the hole that Zero had punched into it, and noticed how eerie it looked. It seemed like an infinite abyss, where no light could reach. Looking back at Zero, he saw that she was just following him in the casual manner she always did. Gritting his teeth, Han Sen entered the hole.

The interior of the tree was big, but there did not seem to be anything special on the inside. There was nothing notable there for Han Sen to find.

”Strange.” Han Sen frowned and looked at Zero. He wanted to ask her more questions, but it was unlikely she would answer him directly.

Unable to find anything, Han Sen decided to ride atop his Golden Growler and go off in search of the missing Liu Fang and Wang Jiangang. When he found them, they were still in shock, but uninjured. The curse of the woods seemed to have been lifted, so Han Sen was able to lead them out.

The Dark Haunted Trees and bugs did not look any different than they used to, but nothing prohibited their exit. In fact, they found the borders of the forest relatively soon. The forest was only a few hundred miles wide, at the most.

Liu Fang and Wang Jiangang’s joy was only suppressed by their relief, after leaving the forest. They believed themselves incredibly fortunate to have survived in the forest all that time, including the dangers that had followed Han Sen’s arrival. But still, an uneasy feeling over the ordeal had managed to latch itself onto Han Sen’s mind.

Zero’s blood-bone knife had vanished from her hands, too, Han Sen noticed after some time. He wasn’t sure where she put it.

”If the nine-life cat’s necklace is a relic of the Blood Legion, that means I will be able to practice the Blood-Pulse Sutra,” Han Sen thought, excitedly.

Although he had already learned the Dongxuan Sutra, the more he learned the better. What’s more, the strengths of the Blood-Pulse Sutra could benefit his next-in-lineage, if he ever had a child.

Han Sen followed the Blood-Pulse Sutra and held the nine-life cat necklace for its practice. It took him half a month before he could label himself a beginner, so it was clearly going to take quite some time before he unlocked its first gene lock.

He practiced it frequently, on his trip towards Blue-Crystal Shelter, and six days later, he found a second-generation super creature down near a riverbank.

It looked like a serpent-wyrm, and when it flew above the river, it attempted to eat Han Sen.

Han Sen and the silver fox quickly beat it up, however. And because he had grown fond of smashing the skulls of his opponents lately, Han Sen made sure to turn into a silver ape to lay the smackdown.

”Super Creature Riverbank Wyrm killed. No beast soul gained. The flesh of this creature is edible, and you may harvest its Life Geno Essence. Consume its Life Geno Essence to gain zero to ten super geno points randomly.”

Han Sen refined the wyrm’s Life Geno Essence and received six super geno points. He only needed two more points to max out now.

The flesh of the creature was shared between the silver fox and the fairy.

”Soon, I will reach the Third God’s Shelter. I hope my luck holds out.” Han Sen was a little worried, but he still had the lotus symbol on his forehead.

He went to a nearby human shelter to restock his supplies and ask around for where he might find more super creatures.

Han Sen heard a strange tale, one that seemed worth checking out. He was told of a mountain that was repeatedly thunderstruck, night and day. If there was a super creature there, it was most likely one that adhered to the elements of thunder. If that was true, then its slaying would prove beneficial to the silver fox.