Gene Activation

Inside the Ancient Castle's Great Hall.

Yifu Ye Zhen sat with his eyes closed on the cold throne, seemingly lost in thought.

"Stay put."

Jie Xing herded the group of humans to the center of the hall, then looked toward Yifu Ye Zhen, who sat on the cold throne. "Yifu, I've brought them."

"Computer."

Yifu Ye Zhen opened his eyes and held out his hand.

Jie Xing knew better than to argue. He handed Yifu Ye Zhen the computer he had taken from the group.

With the computer in hand, Yifu Ye Zhen began examining its Firewall Program.

Jie Xing stood quietly below, saying nothing so as not to disturb Yifu while he worked.

None of the others tried to escape. Their faces were ashen.

They had never imagined their opponent could be so terrifyingly powerful.

"Little brother, does it hurt?"

Feiran glanced at Intelligent Being Feiran, who lay on the ground nearby, arcs of electricity flickering across his body. She sat down without a care for appearances and gathered Ye Yun into her arms. His abdomen had been pierced by a Laser Sword, and blood poured from the wound. Her body trembled uncontrollably as two tears slid down her cheeks, her voice choked with sobs.

How had things come to this?

"I... I want to sleep for a little while. Th-then I'll wake up, and it... it won't hurt anymore." Ye Yun forced a smile. His lips were stained bright red, and so were his teeth.

"Don't sleep. We won't sleep, okay?"

Qiya grabbed his slender, long-fingered hand. "You're the only son in the Old Hu Family. If you dare fall asleep, I... I won't forgive you."

"I... I miss my teacher. I miss my mo-mother... Puh!"

His voice grew weaker and weaker. At the end, he couldn't help spitting out a mouthful of blood, and the focus in his eyes slowly faded.

It was as if he could see his teacher, along with the image of his mother—so blurred in his memories that she had nearly disappeared.

He was grateful to that ancient Bronze Tower and the Black Hole for letting him learn that the universe he lived in was merely a grain of sand in another world.

"Little brother, little brother, don't... don't go to sleep! Do you hear me? I told you not to sleep! Can't you understand what I'm saying? You haven't married me yet! Dad's gone. Are you going to leave me too?"

Seeing Ye Yun slowly close his eyes, Feiran shook him with all her strength. Her tears broke loose and streamed down her beautiful face, her voice hoarse.

She bent over and pressed her forehead against his. "You... you said you'd protect me. Don't go to sleep, okay? P-please! Ah, why..."

Qiya trembled. She hadn't really heard what her sister had said. With a quivering hand, she checked beneath his nose.

"Whoosh."

In an instant, she snatched her hand back in fright, her mind ringing. "N-no, impossible. It can't be. He must have fallen asleep. Yes, my little brother's just asleep."

"This..."

Professor Qin Hui and Professor Jianjie exchanged glances and shook their heads in silence.

Qin Yan, Zhuo Ran, and Qi Yang fell silent, their spirits low.

"Little brother, I'll tell you a secret that only Dad and I know. Wake up for me, okay? The secret is that you're not Dad's biological child. He found you by the sea and brought you home, but he raised you as the Old Hu Family's future son-in-law. Do you know why he always told you to listen to me? It's because he was raising you to be my Future Husband, so you wouldn't disobey me after we got married."

"And he also said that all our children, whether boys or girls, had to take the Hu surname. Stop sleeping, okay? When we have children, they can all take your surname instead. They don't have to be Hu. If that sounds good to you, wake up, okay? I'm begging you, don't go to sleep. I... I've already told you such an important secret."

Feiran cradled his head, her eyes full of pain. She recounted the story from years ago, her body trembling uncontrollably as tears trickled from her eyes.

The people around them—

When they heard Feiran reveal the secret, disbelief filled their eyes.

Ye Yun wasn't Professor Hu Ming's child?

Was he Professor Hu Ming's adopted son-in-law?

But—

Feiran paid no attention to anyone else. Her vacant gaze remained fixed on the young man lying quietly in her arms, "asleep."

She wanted to take a good look at Ye Yun.

"Your body has sustained extremely severe damage. The Gene System has detected it and is forcibly activating the source of light radiation stored within you."

A ethereal voice echoed through the boundless, star-filled galaxy. It was grand and imposing, as if it had been amplified by a subwoofer.

Ye Yun stared blankly at the scene before him. Black armor slowly spread over his body, smooth and finely textured, with the same quality as the armor from Armored Hero. Its material also looked a lot like the black armor worn by the warriors of the League of Heroes in League of Heroes: Descent of the Heavens.

A warm, comforting energy flowed through his body, upgrading and evolving his life genes without pause.

He lowered his head to look at the armor slowly forming over him. Isn't this my armor?

"Who are you?"

He remembered hearing a voice nearby and looked around in confusion.

There was nothing like this artificial intelligence voice in his memories.

He had been born in the form of a Super Soldier, so he had never experienced anything like this.

"I am the Shenhe Gene System, warrior."

The ethereal voice sounded again.

"No, you're not the Shenhe Gene System. The Shenhe Gene System has a male voice, not a female one."

Ye Yun remembered the prompt from when Ge Xiaolun activated his Super Gene in League of Heroes. The voice had clearly been male. When had it become female?

"Right, I remember now. I was fighting someone. I was protecting something extremely important."

Suddenly, Ye Yun recalled that he had been guarding the Initial Source Code.

"Did you win?"

The clear, ethereal female voice sounded curious, as if a real person were talking to him.

"No. Looks like I got taken out in one hit."

His face fell. He drew the Black Longsword from the sheath on his back. It was equipped on his armor—there was no mistaking it for anything else.

"Useless."

Hearing that he had been taken out in one hit, the ethereal voice scolded him.

"He was a First Generation Super Soldier. I-I'm just an ordinary mortal."

Ye Yun blinked innocently. He had already figured out who the owner of that voice was.

That way of speaking—

He would never forget it in this lifetime.

"An excuse for incompetence."

The ethereal, beautiful voice was filled with disappointment and frustration.

"Can I get back to my peak strength? This feels like the power I had as a child."

He put away the Black Longsword and clenched his fist, frowning deeply.

Wasn't this strength far too weak?

"Insufficient energy. I can't restore your power. For now, I've unlocked your Invincible Body and Super Gene Code, but essentially, you're still a First Generation Warrior," the Gene System's indistinct female voice said.

"Then I'll stay a First Generation Warrior. As long as I have the Invincible Body, that's enough."

Ye Yun nodded in satisfaction. He liked the Invincible Body.

It made him nearly impossible to kill. You'd have to chop his head off.

And his Super Gene Code had been unlocked too.

"Continue fighting."

As the words fell—

A huge, slender palm, its intricate crisscrossing patterns like countless dragons, swept down from above.

It kicked him out of the Dark Dimension.

Outside.

"Look!"

Qi Yang noticed something astonishing: Ye Yun's injuries were visibly healing.

In less than a few minutes—

The wound in his abdomen had healed completely.

What kind of recovery speed was that?

The others looked on in shock, unable to believe how quickly the wounds on Ye Yun's body were healing.

"Cough, cough!"

Feiran, still weeping, paid no attention to any of it. She sat dazed on the ground, Ye Yun in her arms.

"Hey, sis, sis, look!"

Qiya saw Ye Yun open his eyes slightly. He had stopped breathing and spat out black, congealed blood, but now he was coming around. She nudged Feiran, who had been staring blankly, her face streaked with tears. A smile appeared on Qiya's face, impossible to hide.

"Hm?"

Hearing the group chatter, Yifu Ye Zhen looked displeased.

Seeing his expression, Jie Xing walked toward the humans who were disturbing Yifu's work. A Spiral Blade appeared in his hand, spinning at high speed.

Looks like he needed to kill one or two of them to make an example.

Otherwise, they wouldn't know who was in charge.

Ye Yun opened his eyes and pushed away Feiran's hand, which had been cradling his head. He slowly got to his feet as if nothing had happened, then suddenly fixed his gaze on Jie Xing!

"Uh... you!"

Feiran's face was streaked with tears. She stared at Ye Yun, who had just climbed out of her arms, disbelief and shock in her eyes.

He'd been on the verge of dying just moments ago. How had he suddenly come back to life?

"What?"

Jie Xing was startled too. Hadn't Ye Yun just died?

Then what was going on?

"Now it's my turn to fight back."

Ye Yun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes like blades as he stared at Jie Xing three meters away. He transported the Black Longsword from his Dark Dimension.

Like lightning, he charged at Jie Xing with the sword in hand.

"Thud."

In an instant—

Jie Xing had only just begun to dodge when a surging force smashed into his chest.

"Crack."

The sound of steel breaking rang out from Jie Xing's chest. The Black Longsword had cut him in half at the waist.

Ye Yun planted a foot on Jie Xing's head. The eyes in the now-lifeless head had already lost their light. With one stomp, he crushed it, electricity crackling across the remains.

The Black Longsword in his hand weighed at least a ton.

Take Ge Xiaolun's Void Greatsword as an example: the brute from Fei Leize could barely lift it, almost needing both hands. Angel Yan, on the other hand, tossed it in one hand as if it weighed nothing.

It was clear that the weapons used by Super Soldiers weren't something ordinary people could easily lift.

What chance did Jie Xing have when that sword struck him?

After all, Jie Xing was still made of steel. Against a weapon weighing a ton, he was bound to go down.

"Oh, now that's interesting!"

Yifu Ye Zhen, who had been working to crack the Firewall Program, had naturally noticed what had just happened.

He had nearly lost track of Ye Yun's figure.

Just how fast was he?

He set down the computer and studied Ye Yun, who was completely unharmed and holding a Black Longsword as if nothing had happened. "Are you human, or an Intelligent Being? Or perhaps a bioengineered weapon?"

"Does it matter?"

Ye Yun stared at him, his voice cold enough to freeze the hall.

He really had Yifu Ye Zhen to thank this time. Otherwise, he never would have learned that he could activate his Super Gene this way and successfully return to being a First Generation Warrior.

"True. It doesn't matter."

Yifu Ye Zhen ignored Jie Xing's death as if nothing had happened and casually began chatting with Ye Yun.

Feiran, Professor Jianjie, and the others stared at Ye Yun, alive and well with the Black Longsword in hand, as if he were a monster.

Jie Xing had been taken out in one hit?

All Yifu Ye Zhen had done was beat him up, and now he was this powerful?

Could he be like the protagonist in that movie Kung Fu from decades ago?

The villain had beaten him to a pulp, and just as he was about to die, he somehow unblocked his meridians and became an unparalleled master?

Did it have to be so ridiculous?

"Whoosh!"

The next moment—

Yifu Ye Zhen moved, swift as lightning and loud as thunder, lunging straight for Ye Yun's head.

"Trying to win with strength, speed, and agility? Today, I'll show you what it means to be a Super Soldier in every way."

A mocking smile appeared on Ye Yun's handsome, charming face.

After all—

His Super Gene had been made for battle.

His speed, strength, and agility were all terrifyingly high. By the time he reached the Third Generation God level, he would even be able to travel at the speed of light.

As he spoke—

He quickly calculated the trajectory of his opponent's attack. His sword swept down diagonally like a roaring Glaive.

"Thud."

A muffled sound rang out.

A shockwave spread through the air. Ye Yun's sword struck a rippling wall, producing a crisp clang.

Ye Zhen's eyes grew serious.

His magnetic-field ability had no effect on this human's weapon?

"Hmph."

Ye Yun gave him no chance to react. He stepped forward, and the air howled as he cut through it.

Ye Zhen saw only a blur before an attack slammed solidly into his magnetic-field defensive barrier.

In an instant,

the impact sent him staggering backward.

Seeing this,

Ye Yun attacked even more fiercely, swinging the Black Longsword in his hand in a sweeping arc and pressing forward.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

Suddenly,

wings made of overlapping, diamond-shaped crystal feathers appeared on Ye Zhen's arms. He used magnetic force to rise into the air, staring coldly at Ye Yun as diamond-shaped crystal feathers formed from energy shot toward him one after another.

"Clang, clang, clang."

The crisp ringing echoed through the Great Hall.

Ye Yun swept his arm, and a wall of energy appeared before him to block the enemy's attack. His expression barely changed as he stared coldly at the Intelligent Being, Ye Zhen.

Energy would eventually run out.

He raised the longsword in his hand and gently stroked the familiar blade with his left hand. A flicker of flame flared up, and Dark Energy poured into the sword without end.

The next moment, he vanished from everyone's sight, as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth.

When he appeared again, he was already behind Ye Zhen. Dark Energy surged along the Black Longsword in his hand as he slashed toward Ye Zhen's head.

"Hum."