Super Gene

On the final side of that construct, there were no diagrams or depictions. Instead, there was only text and a lot of it.

Han Sen believed this might have been the second half of Life Door at first, but he soon realized it wasn’t. It was a simple, poignant text that concerned itself with destiny.

They both read what was written there, but it failed to provide any revelations. Nothing transpired, following its reading.

Old Qiu and Xu Yanmeng ended up running over to them, as they had been fretting with worry ever since they departed.

“The text speaks of fate, and a cycle of sorts. Perhaps it is associated with the shelter’s geno core, in some way,” Mister Li said.

With a lengthy sigh, Han Sen drooped his head in disappointment. Then, they returned to the primary group and continued with their expedition.

Caution and wariness of the fellowship were still at red-alert, following the events near the base of the tower. No one dared to speak, in fear it might provide the moment of distraction necessary for an evil force to swoop down upon them.

They eventually came to a very tall wall in front of them, behind which was a winding maze. This wall was so tall, its top was buried in the clouds someplace, obscuring any estimate of its exact height.

There were three entrances in the wall which they could use. They decided to enter the path that the previous group had gone through successfully, which was the middle way.

Three people had made it back taking this way, after all, even if they were on the brink of death when they did. They believed this would be their best course of action.

Mister Li pulled up a map and led everyone through the entrance.

Not long after, they found a dead body sprawled on the floor. Strangely, despite its haphazard placement, there were no obvious wounds or signs of injury.

“Is this guy from Outer Sky Shelter?” Zhong Sanxiao queried.

“Yes,” Xu Yanmeng answered.

“How did he die?” Wang Zhao asked.

They assumed he had suffered a similar fate to their own compatriot near the tower, but they could not find any carvings or text on the walls. This was an even weirder death.

“The three people who made it out informed us that if you accessed the incorrect passage, you would be attacked by a strange force. Yet we have taken the right path. The presence of the body is disturbing, yes, but fret not. We are where we’re supposed to be,” Mister Li explained to the group.

“Maybe he triggered a trap and was killed. Strange-murder-force or no, we should still watch our step,” Xu Yanmeng said.

They followed the map, and it wasn’t long before they came to the exit that had correctly been indicated to them on the parchment.

Mister Li was leading them from the front, and just before they reached the end, something suddenly rose up out of the ground.

“What is this? Nobody mentioned anything about a wall prohibiting our passage,” Mister Li said, with a frown.

“It looks like there is text on the wall,” Old Qiu said.

The wall had two lines of text on it. The first consisted of four words, and it said, “The Wall of Destiny.” The other line said, “Destiny reveals the way for the fortunate.”

“Only the lucky ones can get by? What is that supposed to mean?” Wang Zhao said, with a frown. He wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Perhaps it means something else,” Mister Li said.

No one could offer up another explanation, however. And no one wanted to risk dwelling on the meaning behind any amount of text in that shelter. So, they planned to go back and attempt to venture another way.

As they walked, they soon realized they were lost. They were struggling to get back to the way they had come in, and the map offered no sound guidance.

“Mister Li, you have a map. How can you not navigate your way back?” Wang Zhao said.

Xu Yanmeng asked, “What are you trying to say?”

Zhong Sanxiao said, “What do you mean what are you trying to say? Is he speaking in tongues, man? Your precious Mister Li has a map, and yet the dunce has led us astray. Who voted this guy should be our leader, anyway?”

“And you have eyes and half a brain, don’t you? The path has changed. We didn’t come this way. We might not even be able to follow the map, anymore,” Old Qiu said.

“We didn’t come this way? We didn’t come this way because he obviously can’t read a map! The old man is blind and half senile, and thanks to him, we’re now lost,” Zhong Sanxiao said.

Mister Li finally spoke. He turned his head away from the map and turned around, saying, “There is nothing wrong with the map nor my ability to read it. It’s this place; it shuffles and warps to misguide our way. A strange magic is at work here; stay vigilant.”

The map was indeed useless now. Nothing marked on it corresponded to the way they were now traversing.

Still, nothing dangerous seemed to occur. They walked for a whole half an hour before Zhong Sanxiao suddenly felt the urge to exclaim, “Motherf*cker! Why are we back here?”

Everyone looked at him, and then saw what he was referring to. There was a wall with text upon it, one that read: “The Wall of Destiny.”

“It looks like we have to go past this wall somehow,” Mister Li said.

“This place is f*cking cursed! Game over, man! Game over!” Zhong Sanxiao spat on the floor, beginning to lose his composure to the nagging worry that gnawed on the minds of them all.

“Let’s take a timeout for a minute. We need to figure things out a bit.” Mister Li gestured for everyone to take a load off and relax for a bit.

Everyone sat down then, bringing out a bite to eat.

Han Sen brought out a sacred-blood geno fruit to munch on while he studied the wall.

When he was finished, an announcement played.

“Nine-Sky Fruit consumed; Sacred Geno Point +1.”