Devouring and Fusion
"The Fifth Sequence!"
There aren't many people who have entered the Fifth Sequence; it's already considered the core of the current ranks, or even the main fighting force.
At this level, Sequence Holder have broken free from rigid fighting techniques and no longer engage in sparring to exchange moves. Instead, they can switch freely and unleash the power of their genetic weapons to a great extent.
The use of Dragon Elephant Combat Technique by people like Ren Yisheng to manipulate things in different ways originated from this stage. If it were before the Fifth Sequence, people like Ren Yisheng would only have one trick up their sleeve.
The freedom of combat techniques was not Zhang Xuezhou's main focus; he was more concerned with the physical enhancement brought about by the Fifth Sequence.
For Zhang Xuezhou, who took a shortcut to cultivate his physical body, his physical body was already extremely powerful, but the advancement in his cultivation sequence still brought positive benefits.
His physical strength is increasing, his resistance to blows is improving, and his jumping ability, reflexes, and running speed are all improving to varying degrees.
This is like an alternative form of Demon Power growth; the enhanced abilities do not overlap with or conflict with the content of previous cultivation.
"It's the pelican's genetic type!"
Zhang Xuezhou was no stranger to pelicans. As the silly bird he encountered when he first entered Qinmeng, this ferocious beast almost caused his death in Qinmeng.
The bad thing was that the pelican he encountered was very strong; the good thing was that the bird was a bit silly.
Zhang Xuezhou didn't need the ferocious extracts from the pelican and toucan, but the advantage of the silly bird was that it was relatively easy to capture; this type of bird-like creature was among those they had captured before.
Zhang Xuezhou was somewhat pleased, after all, he had no shortage of blood serum to advance to the Sixth Sequence.
However, his body has already mutated into that of a pelican, which means that when he attempts to break through to the Seventh Sequence, he will inevitably be unrelated to pelicans, thus eliminating one of the few bird-based ferocious beast extracts available.
There were gains and losses in the matter.
"This kind of gene that devours and grows is very rare. You could keep an eye out for any connection to that giant tree!"
The emperor, having come into contact with the basic theories of genes, offered Zhang Xuezhou a reminder.
If this gene-phagocytic behavior is unrelated to Donghua University, then there is only one answer left.
Not only Zhang Xuezhou had access to the video records passed down by the giant tree, but the Emperor had also viewed them and offered relevant insights when Zhang Xuezhou compared them with the gene map.
"That giant tree's growth pattern does indeed lean towards devouring," Zhang Xuezhou nodded, "But why do I exhibit genes that lean towards a bird-like combination?"
"Perhaps it wasn't like this at the beginning; it was the influence of nurture that led to a biased growth," the Emperor said. "Without a trigger, I even suspect that your genes were relatively neutral in their initial state!"
Zhang Xuezhou had once pondered that Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon were alien creatures with terrifying survival abilities even after their flesh and blood were torn apart, but the red-skinned creatures he had seen were like humans, and their physical structures did not possess any special characteristics.
The Soul-Locking Pillar, which was twenty miles long and towering, was later confirmed to be the form of a giant tree seed after it grew, and the countless dead souls were also part of this giant tree.
These soul-devouring entities can continuously devour their own kind and be reborn in a cycle.
"Then I can only be thankful that my unique Gene Sequence combination doesn't make me human," Zhang Xuezhou complained.
"Man-eating Cultivation Method have always existed," the Emperor shook his head and said, "The practice of sacrifice and furnace cultivation has existed for a relatively long time in the history of cultivation. The Emperor Qin of the Southern Jambudvipa Continent was a very decisive emperor. He ruthlessly cut off this practice during his generation and took away all the cultivators involved!"
"You seem to know a lot about the Emperor Qin?" Zhang Xuezhou asked doubtfully.
"He has some connections with Kunlun and has even been Kunlun before. We talked for three days, and he said he wanted to do something!"
The Emperor nodded.
For the emperor, a hundred years is not a long time in the monotonous years; it feels like yesterday.
The Emperor Qin commanded a legion of slaughter, many of whom possessed methods of self-sacrifice and cultivation. This was a group of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dangerous and fanatical war madmen, making it virtually impossible for them to establish good order.
During one of the Emperor's casual remarks, Zhang Xuezhou heard another version of the Emperor Qin and gained a different understanding of the sudden collapse of the Qin Dynasty.
Despite seemingly achieving unification, Emperor Qin did not enjoy the freedom and unbridled life they imagined. Instead, he faced similar headaches, which ultimately led to the rapid collapse of the dynasty.
Look at this!
This topic was mentioned briefly, then quickly relegated to the back burner.
Zhang Xuezhou examined past stone specimens in the laboratory.
These specimens showed no abnormalities under normal circumstances, but whenever Zhang Xuezhou approached, an active substance would ooze from the stones, and they would even twitch like muscles.
"This could be a fragment of its remains," the Emperor said. "This specimen looks like a stone, but it could actually be a piece of wood, or perhaps an ordinary stone stained with the blood of a giant tree!"
"If that's what you mean, then the more I look at it, the more it seems to be true," Zhang Xuezhou nodded.
Only those who have come into contact with the memories of the giant tree could make such absurd judgments.
There were other people around Zhang Xuezhou and the Emperor, but no one could interrupt their conversation, even the Qin Dynasty they casually mentioned, which was different from the dynasties in the history of the Scarlet Alliance State.
"It might still be alive," the Emperor said.
"It is indeed possible that it is alive!"
Zhang Xuezhou nodded.
Compared to ten years ago, these overflowing turbid substances are less active. Even with Zhang Xuezhou nearby, they no longer jump around, but instead slowly crawl closer like earthworms.
"The Willow God's true form is very different from his, but there are some similarities," the Emperor pondered. "If you have the opportunity to meet him in the future, you can communicate with him and see if you can obtain a reference!"
"The Willow Goddess didn't even glance at me in the main hall of Jade Pool Palace; she seemed rather unapproachable," Zhang Xuezhou said.
"You can't expect a tree spirit to be very talkative," the Emperor laughed. "He's like that with everyone, and he's also hard of hearing; he often hears the first sentence but not the second!"
"This problem is quite serious," Zhang Xuezhou said.
"The Willow God has many flaws, but he is the most complete in terms of record-keeping, clearly recording everything he knows, especially regarding himself," the Emperor said. "If you ask other great gods, they might only vaguely remember some important things from the past, but the Willow God will have a complete and traceable visual memory, able to answer your questions to the greatest extent possible, and even allow you to refer to the images imprinted on his mind!"
"It seems his strengths are quite obvious!"
Zhang Xuezhou nodded, indicating that he would definitely inquire about the matter if he had the opportunity to contact the Willow God, and see if it could be compared with the giant tree.
"This phagocytic substance is very interesting. Could I have a specimen to play with?"
Zhang Xuezhou and the Emperor continued their conversation about the arrangement of events, while Luo Burang became genuinely interested after listening to their descriptions.
For someone like him who is constantly researching, a fresh product can drive away tedious and repetitive tasks.
If the substance he ingested were some kind of metal or some kind of microorganism, it wouldn't mean much to him. But the specimens that Zhang Xuezhou took out, which he called wood, were overflowing with active tissue, a kind of tissue that resembled human muscle.
Luo Burang vaguely sensed the possibility of a fusion of different genes.
This could potentially lead to the development of genetic traits truly belonging to humanity, rather than the inferior, hybrid bloodline that those meteoroid beings refer to as.