Civilization's Fate Rests on Her

The two-hundred-meter-tall Lantern Goldfish Monster curled into a ball and hung motionless in the air, its huge eyes letting out uneasy whimpers.

"You want to go over?"

He-El asked with certainty, stopping his attempt to crush the Lantern Goldfish Monster.

He could clearly sense Ciri's revulsion at entering the monster's mouth and being wrapped in that phlegm-like pressure-resistant liquid.

The thick phlegm was a buffering fluid created by the Precursors. It could envelop and protect living creatures, allowing them to withstand the pressure of the seabed and the wormholes in the deep-sea trenches.

The entire Lantern Goldfish Monster had been designed to trigger Ciri's genes with infrasonic waves, protect Ciri, protect the Original Blood, and return to the Precursors' planet.

From the moment He-El crushed Knifehead, the planet on the Precursors' side had already fallen into panic.

No matter how they expanded their theories or studied the matter, they could not determine what kind of monster He-El was.

A human less than two meters tall possessed power greater than the monsters they had painstakingly engineered. How advanced did their genetic science have to be to create such a species?

They had once rampaged across a region of the universe and destroyed countless planets, yet they had never seen such terrifying genetic technology. What level of genetic science could create a being like He-El?

They were in a panic.

Different aliens had set their sights on the same planet.

They had set their sights on Earth, which the Precursors regarded as their final habitat and future home.

And these aliens were even stronger than them.

The Precursors had once argued fiercely.

One faction believed that this spacefaring alien was simply too powerful. His genetic technology surpassed theirs by far, and there was no way to contend against him. While their planet's resources could still sustain them for a while, they should quickly find another planet and avoid provoking a war with a higher-order civilization.

Another faction believed that if they could extract He-El's genes, it would be a tremendous leap forward for Precursor genetic science.

They might even be able to use genetic technology to modify themselves so they would no longer need to depend on planets for survival. Perhaps they could safely roam even through space itself.

Greed and fear, evolution and cowardice drove them forward together.

Terrified, they began probing cautiously, coveting He-El's genes.

Ciri became their point of breakthrough.

But just as they were about to control Ciri and make her leap into the Lantern Goldfish Monster, despair struck them again.

A force even stronger than they had imagined directly froze the entire natural environment.

The seawater stopped surging, becoming as smooth as a mirror.

The air congealed until it seemed about to turn into transparent jelly.

The Lantern Goldfish Monster they had created was lifted from the sea without the slightest ability to struggle.

Through the monster's huge eyes, the Precursors watched the scene here and faintly felt despair.

What kind of monster was this? What kind of overwhelming power was this? What kind of genetic technology could create a creature with such strength?

The Precursors, whose biological genetic technology far surpassed Earth's, understood even more deeply that a creature like He-El could not exist and should not exist.

No matter how they theorized or researched, he should not exist.

If he did exist, then it was genetic technology so advanced it amounted to a crushing advantage from a higher dimension.

"I want to go over and study them, record their genetic science."

After recovering somewhat from the discomfort of vomiting, Ciri moved away from the vomit, walked to He-El's side, and spoke.

He-El had once told her that after leaving Earth, he would focus on letting her study Krypton's biological genetic technology.

Krypton's biological genetic technology was so powerful that it could directly control a person's talents. Any ordinary Kryptonian who absorbed sufficient solar energy beneath a yellow sun could survive naked in space.

He-El could not be used as a reference. His various superpowers, like Doomsday's, were an extreme case.

Ciri did not know much, but seeing He-El withstand a nuclear bomb after barely more than a dozen hours, even other, weaker Kryptonians should probably be able to withstand nuclear bombs after a few years or perhaps a decade.

That was terrifying enough.

What kinds of creatures could withstand nuclear bombs so easily?

Only Kryptonians, probably.

After all, surviving nuclear bombs seemed to be a Kryptonian tradition. At least, that was what Ciri thought.

But even such powerful Kryptonian genetic technology did not mean the genetic technology of other species should be dismissed as worthless.

Every species' genetic technology had its own bright points worth learning from and recording.

The Precursor race possessed highly advanced toxic chemistry and biological mutation genetics. Using their own Precursor genes in combination with toxic chemistry, they created invasive lifeforms like monsters.

The Precursors' technology truly could not be considered weak. They were colonizing organisms that destroyed natives by deploying monsters, then occupied their planets.

The fact that such behavior had allowed them to develop into a civilization, occupy and ravage numerous planets, and still avoid being killed or wiped out was enough to prove they had strengths worth studying.

As He-El's chief biological genetics officer, Ciri was not some worthless subordinate who merely collected a salary. Searching for genes for He-El, expanding the gene bank, and building him a vast recorded genetic database were her responsibilities.

I, Ciri, have lofty ambitions too!

"Fine. You have four and a half years. Four and a half years from now, I will leave this Earth."

Sensing Ciri's ambition through telepathy, He-El nodded in satisfaction.

A subordinate with such strong initiative was exactly what he needed.

After all, counting everyone he truly acknowledged, he only had two subordinates.

Zero and Ciri.

He-El was undoubtedly strict when choosing his subordinates.

Even if he built the vast New Krypton Empire in the future, he would not casually choose important subordinates.

He could have many tools.

But subordinates were people who could accompany him into future battles, relying on one another through the long years.

At this moment, Ciri could be considered truly acknowledged by He-El.

He-El manipulated the biological magnetic field and pried open the monster's huge mouth, preparing to throw Ciri inside.

"Wait. I'll have someone bring protective gear."

Ciri glanced at the Lantern Goldfish Monster's gaping mouth. Inside its sharp split teeth was a massive lump of green buffering fluid, like an old wad of phlegm, making her frown deeply in disgust.

She immediately raised her communication watch, intending to have an assistant bring protective gear.

He-El remained expressionless as he slapped the back of Ciri's head, knocking her unconscious. Three hundred milliliters of blood mixed with psychic power seeped into her body through her pores.

"Why are you being so fussy?"

He directly grabbed Ciri and threw her into the monster's huge mouth, onto the green buffering fluid. She slowly sank, becoming wrapped in the protective liquid.

Through the eyes of the Lantern Goldfish Monster suspended by telekinesis, the Precursors were dumbfounded. They had never expected things to develop like this???

We've already been discovered. We were already despairing, preparing to face retaliation, preparing to run away.

We never imagined He-El would actually throw Ciri and the Original Blood test tube on her into the Lantern Goldfish Monster's mouth himself.

Should we take her or not?

Are you fishing for us?

Are you trying to find our coordinates and come kill us?

Or are you looking down on us?

Do you think we can't research anything useful?

Alien, say something---

The Precursors' thoughts were a mess, their emotions exceedingly complicated.

They had never seen such a confident creature.

He-El had never expected to make the Precursors wary. He directly threw the Lantern Goldfish Monster back into the sea, left the monster a sentence through psychic power that required no communication barrier to understand, then shot into the sky and departed.

"The survival of a civilization rests on her."