Gu Ding's New Ability
Liliath slowly opened her eyes and saw Gu Ding smiling at her. "I knew you'd be alright."
Then she saw the old man next to Gu Ding. "Is he... our new member?"
Gu Ding always liked to recruit strange people, so even if she recruited this old man, Liliath wouldn't find it too strange. Therefore, she raised this question the moment she saw him.
"My name is Caesar." Caesar smiled faintly. Liliath and Tiny from back then were practically identical.
"You are... Grandpa?!" Although Liliath had never met Caesar, she had often heard her mother mention this name. He was her father, a demigod.
"Tiny told me about you. Actually, we've kept in touch, just never met. Less than a year after we got married, she messaged me saying she had a daughter. She even sent me a picture of you..." Caesar said, projecting the picture onto the screen. It was a tiny baby, still in swaddling clothes. Her skin was pink and she looked very cute.
"Later, your father was expelled from the family, and his spaceship crashed on the way out. I thought you were also... I never expected that fate would be so kind to me, allowing me to meet you again." Caesar had always believed that Liliath and her parents had died in that disaster.
"When she saw the interception, my mother knew something bad was going to happen. She immediately put me into an invisible Escape Pod, and I was the only one who survived," Liliath explained. "I watched as the dreadnought disintegrated into pieces in the flames... Later, my Escape Pod crashed on an Administrative Star. I changed my name to Liliath and began to wander, trying to become stronger. Then, I met Gu Ding ..."
Gu Ding then walked to the door and greeted the others, "Lily's awake, everyone come in!"
Even Caesar, who always preferred quiet, did not raise any objections this time.
Bigge and his group all squeezed in.
When Liliath saw Elsa, she was visibly taken aback. Her gaze secretly swept over Elsa's chest, which seemed completely out of place for her age, and a hint of envy flashed in her eyes, but she still extended her hand. "Hello, my name is Liliath. Are you a new member?"
"My name is Elsa, nice to meet you!" Elsa extended her hand as well.
"Elsa, what do you usually like to eat?" Liliath was starting to suspect that breast size might be related to diet, so she decided to ask Elsa for advice.
"Hehe, Elsa eats twice as much as me, and she's not picky at all," Bigge interjected when the topic of food came up.
Liliath ignored Bigge. She looked at Elsa with some anticipation.
"Bigge is right, but we Viking Clan have huge appetites. My Old Dad eats a hundred times more than me. We eat everything, but our favorites are meat and fish..." Elsa suddenly felt she had something in common with Big when they started talking about food.
"Viking Clan?" Liliath had seen some information about this race before. "Can your people really tame dragons?"
"Most people tame Subdragon Clan after they reach adulthood. Currently, only my father and two other warriors in the tribe have tamed true dragons. However, of the three dragons, my father's Aku is the strongest, even though it is not yet fully grown."
Hearing Elsa say this, Liliath was now quite certain that Elsa's father was at least a demigod, because dragons, once fully grown, possessed power comparable to gods, and even in their youth, their strength was enough to rival that of a demigod. Therefore, it seemed that Elsa's strength was also considerable.
Gu Ding and his group left the cabin, leaving Elsa and Liliath to chat.
"Gu Ding, you really need to get stronger." After leaving the cabin, the Sea Emperor's voice reached Gu Ding's ears. "I just checked Lily's physical condition. She has jumped from Fourth Order Gene Body to the peak of Sixth-Order Gene Body. The double Spiral Gene Chain in her body has also become a triple helix. Your current bounty is comparable to that of a peak Ninth-Order Gene Body martial artist, which is seriously inconsistent with your actual Combat Strength."
"It's been about a month since the last Energy Crystal Orb was implanted. I think it's about time. And after this advancement, Sea Emperor, you can teach me how to cultivate Source Power?" Gu Ding knew that what the Sea Emperor said was true. Even in the Long Teng Universe Country, his Combat Strength wasn't top-tier. In this Boundary River, it's a dog-eat-dog world, and there are far more strong individuals. Although he had gained a powerful member like Elsa, Gu Ding didn't intend to rely on his companions for protection. Moreover, Elsa's words to Big when she challenged Bigge before joining the team, "You look weak," made Gu Ding realize his own weakness.
"There's only one sixth-order crystal bead, but quite a few seventh-order ones. You hunted them all when you Time Reversal, there are ten of them. Lily and Elsa are having a great time chatting right now, how about we wait a little longer?" The Sea Emperor counted the number of Energy Crystal Orb.
"This time I'll ask Robert to help me with the implantation." Gooding felt that Robert was more suitable for this kind of work than Liliat.
Robert was pulled aside, Gu Ding made the request to have the crystal bead implanted. Robert readily agreed, as he disliked being idle. He had been helping to look after everyone and hadn't had much time in his own lab, so he was naturally happy to help Gu Ding.
The two borrowed Bigge's portable kitchen and began the transplant.
"Let's implant one sixth-order crystal bead and three seventh-order crystal beads first, and see if we can break through to the sixth order in one go." Gu Ding decided to take a risk.
Sea Emperor did not raise any objections, because he knew that no matter what kind of power entered Gu Ding's body, it would be completely absorbed by that strange virus.
Robert's speed was terrifying. With just a flick of his finger, he made a perfectly placed cut on Gu Ding's neck and then inserted four crystal beads. The whole process took less than ten seconds.
Thanks to its High-Speed Regeneration capabilities, the wound on the neck quickly disappeared.
The virus reappeared, consuming all four crystal beads within minutes, and causing significant changes within Gu Ding's body. His Innate Gene Lock ruptured twice, propelling Gu Ding from Third-Order Gene Body to a fifth-tier one. Cellular strength and vitality also increased further. His Cell Comprehensive Index rapidly improved.
The Gene Chain that originally contained the berserk ability has finally undergone another morphological change, and it seems to have been strengthened again.
Meanwhile, another Gene Chain also began its first morphological change, followed by a second and a third such morphological change.
After all the changes were completed, Sea Emperor checked Gu Ding's physical data:
Projecting this set of data, Gu Ding was still not very satisfied. He originally thought he should be able to advance to the Sixth-Order Gene Body, but he was still stuck at the fifth tier. "Continue, implant all the remaining seventh-tier crystal beads."
Robert nodded, then made another cut on Gu Ding's neck and stuffed the remaining seven crystal beads inside.
As the Sea Emperor had predicted, after the seven crystal beads were devoured by the virus, they no longer attempted to break through the Innate Gene Lock, but instead further promoted the evolution of the Gu Ding Block's abilities.
After the gene chain related to the iron block's ability completed its morphological change, it triggered changes in the three surrounding gene chains.
After this transformation was completed, only one data point in Gu Ding's body changed: his original Iron Block ability was transformed into Advanced Iron Block.
"This ability seems to be able to counter attacks from Source Power..." Gu Ding was slightly surprised when he saw the ability of the Advanced Iron Block. Although it did not meet his expectations this time, his overall strength seemed to have really increased a lot.
With a base combat power of 3000 points, plus the 4x bonus from Berserk, the bonus from the currently usable eighth-tier Limitless Body Technique, and the 2x bonus from Armor, Gu Ding's combat power can be amplified to 480,000 points. Ninth-Order Gene Body typically have Combat Strength between 100,000 and 1 million points. Gu Ding has thus reached ninth-tier Combat Strength. Once he uses the ability of the Advanced Iron Block, his defense will be amplified again, reaching nearly 10 million Combat Strength. Only top- Tenth-Order Gene Body beings can harm him, but to kill Gu Ding, it would likely require a gene-based being of Eleventh Order or higher.