First Step

After blasting the Giant King to death, Lin Shen felt the surging power of the Heaven Sacrifice within his body recede like the tide, and he could not help frowning inwardly.

"No wonder it was an imperfect super-gene talent Fire Seed. After sacrificing so many lives, it vanished after killing just one Giant King. It really wasn't perfect enough." Lin Shen did not dare linger. He turned and gave the Gene Mutation Egg a shove, then headed down by the path he had taken from the back mountain.

The giants who had rushed halfway up the mountain did not dare pursue him. They could only watch helplessly as Lin Shen disappeared beyond the mountaintop.

The Gene Mutation Egg rolled downhill in circles, and Lin Shen could barely keep up with it. He worried that it might break if it kept rolling like that.

Fortunately, the Gene Mutation Egg was far tougher than he had imagined. It rolled faster and faster all the way down the mountain, then crashed into a massive boulder over ten feet high, smashing it into pieces. The egg itself was completely unharmed.

After coming down the mountain, Lin Shen wiped the stone dust from the Gene Mutation Egg and found not a single mark on it.

"As expected of Crystal Gene Level." Lin Shen praised it inwardly as he pushed the Gene Mutation Egg in the direction he had come from.

Before he even returned to the beach, he encountered Wei Wufu in the Steel Forest. Wei Wufu could actually walk now, though he clearly had not fully recovered yet, and his legs still seemed somewhat unsteady.

"Why did you come over here?" Thinking something had happened over there, Lin Shen hurriedly asked.

"Sound. Find you," Wei Wufu said.

Lin Shen relaxed when he heard that. Wei Wufu had probably heard the sound of him blowing up the Giant King and come looking for him out of concern.

"We'll talk after we get back." Lin Shen spoke as he pushed the Gene Mutation Egg onward.

When the two returned to the pile of reefs, Tian Xin was still lying there without moving. The effects of the Pressure-Point Strike were still ongoing.

"A Crystal Gene Egg?" Tian Xin was slightly surprised when he saw the Gene Mutation Egg Lin Shen had pushed back.

Crystal Grade Creatures were not rare, but finding a Crystal Gene Egg was far from easy. Yet Lin Shen had obtained one in such a short time. Tian Xin had no idea where he had found it.

Lin Shen did not say that it was a Mutated Crystal Grade Egg. He pushed it into a corner and hid it there first.

"Friend, what do you think about what I mentioned earlier? If we cooperate, there's a great chance we can obtain the treasure chest left behind by the Ancient World King..." Tian Xin urged Lin Shen even more eagerly.

He no longer believed Lin Shen was merely Steel Grade. He thought Lin Shen's Steel Body was just a facade, and that he was actually Crystal Gene Level—nor an ordinary one at that.

"After all that talking, just what kind of being was this Ancient World King?" Lin Shen chatted with Tian Xin halfheartedly.

Over the following period, Lin Shen learned quite a bit about the universe from Tian Xin. The more he heard, the more alarmed he became.

Lin Shen had once thought Crystal Gene Level beings were already big shots, but to the races of the universe, there was not much difference between Crystal Gene Level and Steel Grade.

Steel, alloy, and crystal gene were collectively known in the universe as Gene Mutation Creatures, the lowest class of beings.

But that did not mean the gene mutation stage was unimportant. According to Tian Xin, this stage was precisely the most crucial one. It was the stage of laying foundations. Only with a sufficiently strong foundation could one go farther and become stronger in the future.

Take the Celestial Race, for example. They were born at Crystal Gene Level. Only an extremely small number of Steel Grade or Alloy Grade infants were born among them, and those were all considered congenitally underdeveloped.

Lin Shen kept chatting with Tian Xin, but never mentioned searching for the Ancient World King's corpse.

He understood the situation clearly. With their current strength, compared with an existence like the Ancient World King, the gap was as vast as heaven and earth. If the Ancient World King had left behind some method or trap, they might not even know how they died.

Lin Shen still adhered to his earlier decision. Once the Teleportation Device could be used, he would teleport straight back. Staying alive came first; everything else could wait.

Third Brother and Fourth Brother were currently missing. They should have come to this planet as well, but the planet was so enormous that finding them would be like looking for a needle in the sea.

If they had perished here, Lin Shen would have to shoulder the heavy responsibility of continuing the Lin Family line. He could not risk his useful body on an adventure with no certainty of success.

Tian Xin could also tell that Lin Shen had no intention of searching for the Ancient World King's corpse. He only wanted to pry information out of him.

Yet his life was in Lin Shen's hands, and he did not dare refuse to speak. He was so frustrated that he nearly vomited blood.

Under Lin Shen's threats and inducements, Tian Xin revealed quite a few secrets.

According to Tian Xin, gene mutation was merely the first small step toward leaving one's planet.

Humans were carbon-based lifeforms and heavily dependent on oxygen and the environment. Without gene mutation, it would be difficult for them to survive on other planets in the universe.

This planet merely had stronger gravity, while its environment was otherwise similar to places where humans could survive.

Some planets had extremely thin oxygen, or even no oxygen at all. Humans who had not undergone gene mutation simply could not survive in such places.

Then there were environments of extreme heat, extreme cold, and all kinds of radiation—none were places ordinary humans could enter.

They talked until the countdown on the watch was nearly over, and Lin Shen had gained a relatively broad understanding of the universe.

"Are you really not going to search for the Ancient World King's treasure chest? That is a supreme treasure capable of letting you directly cross the boundaries of your racial class..." Tian Xin still tried to persuade Lin Shen.

"Something may be good, but you still need to be alive to enjoy it. I have no fortune to enjoy the Ancient World King's treasure chest. Go look for it yourself." Seeing that the countdown on his watch had ended and it indicated that teleportation was available again, Lin Shen greeted Wei Wufu, picked up the Gene Mutation Egg, and prepared to teleport back.

"Don't go... Undo this for me first..." Tian Xin said anxiously.

"It will naturally be undone when the time comes." As Lin Shen spoke, he activated the Teleportation Device with Wei Wufu and left this place.

He did not kill Tian Xin for two reasons. First, killing him would not be easy. Without the enhancement of the Heaven Sacrifice, Lin Shen's strength was not enough to kill Tian Xin, who rivaled a Mutated Crystal Grade being. Second, Lin Shen had other plans and had never intended to kill Tian Xin in the first place.

By the time Tian Xin regained control of his body, Lin Shen and Wei Wufu had long since departed.

Light and shadow spun before Lin Shen's eyes. When his vision returned, he found himself in a pitch-black cave. Apart from a glow resembling a window far ahead, he could see nothing at all.

"Old Wei..." Lin Shen called out several times, but no one answered. He could only push the Gene Mutation Egg and cautiously walk toward the glow. The glow gradually grew larger, like an open doorway.

There was clearly light, and he was already very close to the doorway, yet the surrounding area remained so dark he could not see his own hand before his face. Nor could he see the scene outside the door.

After testing it several times and confirming there was no danger in passing through the light door, Lin Shen pushed the Gene Mutation Egg out.

The scene before his eyes changed once more. Lin Shen found that he had returned to the mountain range outside the canyon, but the watch on his wrist had vanished without a trace.

He looked back. There was no light door, nor any pitch-black cave. The area was empty, with only a small hill several hundred meters away. Such a tiny hill did not look as though it could contain such a long cave.

Wei Wufu stood not far away, and there was no one else nearby. Lin Shen walked several more steps in that direction, but there was still nothing there. He could not return to the black cave either.

"Looks like if we want to go in again next time, we'll have to find the Black Bird to guide us." After exchanging a few words with Wei Wufu, the two took turns pushing the Gene Mutation Egg toward the canyon.

When they reached the flower path, Lin Shen suddenly heard a crack. A fissure had actually appeared on the Gene Mutation Egg.