Gene Potion

"Is this... the power of the universe?"

Luo Feng sat on the cushion, having just completed the ceremony to become Qin Yuan's disciple. He still couldn't calm himself. Qin Yuan's words thundered through his mind again and again.

Billions of galaxies, countless races, Universe Masters, the supreme rule... every term battered furiously at the limits of his understanding.

Qin Yuan sat back down on the cushion opposite him. Seeing the light flickering in Luo Feng's eyes, he was quite satisfied. The young man had accepted new things even faster than he had expected. He was indeed the peerless genius who had made it all the way to the end in the original story.

"Now that you're my disciple, I'll give you your first lesson today," Qin Yuan said.

Luo Feng immediately straightened up, his expression attentive.

"What do you think you lack most right now?" Qin Yuan asked.

Luo Feng thought for a moment. "Strength. I'm only a Quasi-Martial Artist right now. I don't even count as a Martial Artist."

"Wrong." Qin Yuan shook his head. "What you lack most isn't strength, but understanding."

"Understanding?"

"Understanding of power, of the universe, and-of yourself." Qin Yuan raised a finger. "You have no idea how much potential you possess, or what true power looks like."

He stood and walked to the center of the warehouse. "Get up and attack me with all your strength."

Luo Feng froze for a moment. "Teacher, I..."

"Don't worry. You can't hurt me." Qin Yuan's tone was calm, as if he were stating the obvious. "Give it everything you've got. That's an order."

Luo Feng took a deep breath and stood. He knew how vast the gap between him and his mysterious teacher was, so he hesitated no longer and assumed a fighting stance.

He crouched slightly, lowering his center of gravity and drawing his right fist to his waist. His whole body was like a bow drawn to its limit.

This was the opening stance of Crushing Fist, a basic fist technique taught by the Dojo of Limits.

"Ha!"

Luo Feng let out a roar and shot toward Qin Yuan like an arrow loosed from a bow. His right fist whistled through the air, driving straight for Qin Yuan's chest!

That punch contained the full force of his 1,200-kilogram punch, as well as all the emotions that had built up over the past three days.

Yet when his fist was still ten centimeters from Qin Yuan's chest, it could advance no farther.

A thin, pale-gold film of light appeared out of nowhere in front of Qin Yuan. Luo Feng's fist struck it without raising so much as a ripple. Instead, the recoil sent a numbness through his arm.

"This..." Luo Feng's eyes widened.

"This is a Divine Power Shield," Qin Yuan explained. "The most basic application of power at the Universe Master level. The strength of my Divine Power Shield right now is roughly equivalent to... hmm, the core density of an ordinary star."

Luo Feng sucked in a breath.

The... core density of a star?

"Again," Qin Yuan said. "Use your feet this time."

Luo Feng gritted his teeth and spun, sweeping a roundhouse kick toward Qin Yuan's head. The result was the same. The pale-gold film of light didn't budge.

"Keep going. Elbow strikes, knee strikes, headbutts-any attack you can think of."

For the next ten minutes, Luo Feng tried every attack he had ever learned. Fists, feet, elbows, knees, shoulders, back... like a tireless fighting machine, he attacked the pale-gold film of light in a frenzy.

Qin Yuan stood there without moving, not even blinking.

At last, Luo Feng ran out of strength. He braced his hands on his knees, panting heavily as sweat dripped from his cheeks onto the floor.

"W... what do you think?" Qin Yuan asked.

"I'm too weak," Luo Feng said between breaths. There was a trace of frustration in his voice, but more than that, a fierce unwillingness to accept it.

"No." Qin Yuan shook his head. "You're very strong."

Luo Feng raised his head and looked at him in confusion.

"An ordinary Earthling teenager faced a power far beyond his understanding, and his first response wasn't fear, but to attack with all his strength. Even knowing it was useless, he could still keep going for ten minutes without stopping." Approval showed in Qin Yuan's eyes. "That kind of character is worth more than your punching power."

He walked over to Luo Feng and turned his hand over. A fist-sized crystal bottle appeared in his palm. It contained an emerald-green liquid that gave off a faint fluorescent glow and flowed slowly inside the bottle, as though alive.

"What's that?" Luo Feng asked curiously.

"A Gene Potion," Qin Yuan said. "The lowest-grade Gene Optimization Fluid in the universe, suitable for Apprentice Level life-forms. Drink it, and your Gene Level will undergo initial development. Your physical abilities will make a qualitative leap."

"Gene... Level?"

"It's the standard used in the universe to measure the strength of a life-form's essence," Qin Yuan explained. "An ordinary Earthling's Gene Level is roughly between 0.5 and 1 times. Quasi-Martial Artists and Martial Artists are between 1 and 3 times. Wargods can reach 5 to 10 times."

He paused, then continued, "The truly powerful beings in the universe, on the other hand, all have Gene Levels of a thousand, ten thousand times or more."

Luo Feng stared at the bottle of emerald-green liquid in shock. "Then this potion..."

"It can bring you directly to a 10-times Gene Level," Qin Yuan said. "In other words, drink it, and your physical strength will reach the peak level of an Earth Wargod."

A 10-times Gene Level! Peak Wargod!

Luo Feng's hand trembled slightly. He had trained hard for years and was still some way from becoming a Martial Artist, yet now a single bottle of potion could bring him straight to the level of a Wargod?

"This... this is too valuable," Luo Feng said.

"Valuable?" Qin Yuan laughed. "In the universe, this stuff is roughly equivalent to a bottle of mineral water on Earth. You can't use the truly valuable things yet."

He pressed the crystal bottle into Luo Feng's hand. "Drink it. Then I'll teach you how to absorb its medicinal power."

Luo Feng looked at the potion in his hand, then at Qin Yuan. Finally, he nodded firmly.

He pulled out the stopper, tilted his head back, and drained the emerald-green liquid in one gulp.

The moment the potion entered his mouth, a scorching sensation spread from his throat down to his stomach, then erupted like a volcano, spreading through his limbs and bones!

"Ah-!"

Luo Feng couldn't help letting out a low roar. He felt every muscle, every bone, every cell in his body being torn apart and reassembled. The pain was far beyond anything he had imagined, as if countless knives were cutting wildly through his body.

"Keep your mind focused!" Qin Yuan's voice rang in his ear. "Feel the flow of the medicinal power and guide it along the route I tell you!"

A gentle power passed from Qin Yuan's palm into Luo Feng's body, guiding the raging medicinal power along a specific route. Qin Yuan was using a sliver of his Divine Power to help Luo Feng clear his meridians; otherwise, with what Luo Feng could withstand in his current state, the medicinal power would very likely have made him burst.

Time passed, second by second.

Black impurities began seeping from the surface of Luo Feng's body, toxins and waste expelled during the gene optimization process. His muscles grew firmer at a speed visible to the naked eye, and faint cracking sounds came from his bones, a sign that their density was increasing sharply.