Elsewhere.
"What is this? What kind of monster is this?"
In the vast universe lay an expanse of dark, profound emptiness.
A Dao Attainer wore a terrified expression as he kept teleporting and fleeing. "An infectious evil cosmic organism, a viral disease... These are terms one nearly forgets after becoming powerful. How could such an evil, tyrannical, horrifying monster possibly exist in this world?"
"This simply defies all reason!"
He continued running.
But as he ran, a golden radiance gradually appeared across his body.
His body was undergoing an unimaginable, drastic mutation.
His four genes seemed to have suffered some terrifying invasion, altering the structure of his life.
"Gene modification! It really is gene modification! A genetic virus! It is changing the very foundation of my life level. But once genes are integrated, aren't they forcibly fixed in place?" In his tens of thousands of years of life, he had never seen anything so bizarre. "What kind of strange creature is this terrifying, evil being trying to turn me into?"
Light bloomed from his entire body.
Of his four genes, he had cultivated only two Gene Systems to their limits, using them to break through to the ninth order.
Yet one of the genes he had cultivated only to the fifth order was gradually twisting, turning into some mysterious and terrifying gene. A black crystal was slowly being forcibly grown within his mind.
"Ah!" Intense pain began to spread.
"Th-this is madness!" He ran frantically, growing increasingly deranged. "What exactly is this thing?"
Splash.
He suddenly stopped, completely infected.
Meanwhile, in the void elsewhere, the Three Pillar Gods flickered in and out of sight. "So that's how it is. As expected, we can only forcibly infect and distort their weakest gene, assimilating it into our Magic Core Gene. If all