Super Gene

Dollar’s fights were in full-display across the breadth of the bronze scroll, and the sight of his gold body now elicited a very different reaction than it had before. He had reached the first place of the Marquise tier, proving himself to be the strongest in existence.

The video stopped at the precise moment Dollar and Lone Bamboo moved to engage each other with their fingers. And then, before the eyes of all, the video shattered. The view zoomed closer on the gold body until his image was the only thing seen across the entire bronze scroll. It shone so brightly, anyone from any corner of the universe could see it clearly.

Ten minutes later, the gold body was removed from sight, and Dollar’s name appeared atop the Geno Being Scroll’s scoreboard.

First Place Marquise: Human – Dollar

Out of all the tiers, that had been the longest fight. Other tiers had already crowned their first places. The being to claim first place in the Viscount tier was Han Littleflower. This was the first time that Han Sen had gotten to lay eye^ on Han Littleflower.

Lone Bamboo sat beside a rolling stream. The little girl gazed at Lone Bamboo with a conflicted look in her evil eyes. “Who are you?” Lone Bamboo asked the little girl.

“I am the flower,” the little girl answered.

“What flower?” Lone Bamboo asked.

“Butterflies can’t live without flowers. If they tried to, they’d die. I am that flower,” the little girl answered.

Lone Bamboo nodded, and he seemed to understand her. He looked at the little girl briefly, before rising to take his leave.

“Why don’t you just kill me? Shouldn’t you hate me?” the little girl asked Lone Bamboo’s shrinking shadow.

“Ever since a little girl left me, I have vowed to never take the blood of another young girl,” Lone Bamboo said coldly. Without looking back, he kept walking away.

“If you do not kill me, then I will surely be the one to kill you!” The little girl’s body flashed. Her hands turned red, and she came soaring over to Lone Bamboo’s back.

Pang!

When her hands came into contact with Lone Bamboo’s back, her fists left behind two red marks. But even so, Lone Bamboo seemed as if he had barely noticed her.

The little girl’s shock gave way to rage, and she screamed at Lone Bamboo’s back. “You are stupid not to kill me, you know that? I will avenge Evil Eye’s death one of these days. You will come to regret this!”

“The only regrets I have are the times when I was stupidly not myself.” Lone Bamboo waved his hand at her, as if he was saying goodbye. “If killing me in revenge is what you seek, then I earnestly advise you to get stronger. For as long as I live, the opportunity for you to claim the vengeance you desire will be available to you.”

The little girl stared at Lone Bamboo’s back until he faded from view completely.

The Geno Being Scroll fights came to an end, at long last. Han Sen took a detour and arrived at Sky Palace.

The Sky Palace leader was happy to have Han Sen return in good health, and during their meeting, Han Sen took the opportunity to ask about Sacred.

“Leader, I have heard that the Purple Eye Butterfly hails from Sacred. Can you tell me a little about what Sacred is like?” Han Sen did his best to make it sound like he asked the question out of simple curiosity. He didn’t want to risk the leader looking into his mind and reading his true thoughts.

The Sky Palace leader retreated into thought for a moment, and then went on to say, “Sacred was once a grand, powerful faction. They held the very top spot in the geno hall, but they fell into disarray and collapse a long time ago. Many races don’t know a thing about the ancient Sacred, and I must confess that not even I suspected one of their generals was still alive.”

“Were the ten generals of Sacred deified?” Han Sen pretended as if this surprised him.

“They were, indeed. And there were more than merely ten of them. The ten generals were simply the strongest of their ranks,” the Sky Palace leader said.

Han Sen was quite surprised by this, and so he said, “To have such power, and yet they still fell… Who could have done that to them?”

“Nobody knows. The answer to that question is something many of the elders have sought to learn. And scour the universe as they might, nothing has been explained. If they had learned the truth, perhaps there wouldn’t be such a barren system.” The Sky Palace leader let out a long sigh.

“Sacred is in the barrens?” Han Sen was shocked. He forced himself to stop thinking.

“All of the Barrens is territory that once belonged to Sacred,” the Sky Palace leader said with a nod. “That Viscount in first place could be a genuine heir of Sacred. If you ever encounter him, be careful. He may not yet be a Marquise, but we do not know if they have any more such people in the ranks of Sacred. We are all going to have to be careful.”

Han Sen took his leave and started mulling things over.

“The Barrens used to belong to Sacred? That means Littleflower must be there. The entrance to the sanctuaries is there, as well. Nine-Life Cat is associated with Sacred, and on top of that, he can enter the sanctuaries. Does Sacred have something to do with the existence of the sanctuaries?” Han Sen spent a lot of time thinking those questions over, but he couldn’t discern much. He couldn’t confirm any of the guesses he managed to come up with.

The only lead he had at the moment was the location. But getting through the Barrens might very well be impossible if you weren’t deified.

The entrance to the sanctuaries was in the Barrens someplace, and so Han Sen collected as much information about the region as he could. All the races said the same thing, though. If he wasn’t a deified elite, then it was best not to even think about venturing there. Even King class elites might meet a swift death by traversing such a place.

If the place hadn’t been so terrifying, then the crystallizers would have made it back into the gene universe ago. They wouldn’t have died as soon as they made the journey.

Han Sen gave up on thinking about forging a path to the sanctuaries, but he hadn’t expected Sacred and Littleflower to be in such a dangerous area.

“F*ck! So what if it’s in the barren systems? No one should be able to stop me from searching for my own son!” Han Sen growled angrily as he went to the White Jade Jing.

He needed to be King class before he could even think about going to the Barrens. If he didn’t at least reach that height, death would surely find him there. So, his priority for the time being was to get better.

Coming into the White Jade Jing, he entered the second White Jade Building. When he reached the seventh floor, he saw Lone Bamboo. He smiled and said, “It’s a shame that you fell short of first place.”

Lone Bamboo responded resolutely, “It is. But what happened is simply driving me to become even stronger for the next time.”

“You are boring. Can you not make a more exciting promise, like saying you’ll beat Dollar?” Han Sen smiled.

“I think beating you first might be useful. After the White Jade Jing shuts down, how about you and I go spar?” Lone Bamboo looked at Han Sen.

“Um, I have important things to do. Perhaps next time?” Han Sen was not interested in fighting Lone Bamboo. This was especially true since the man now possessed the purple eye godlights. Without making use of super god spirit, it was unlikely Han Sen would actually be able to defeat Lone Bamboo.