Super Gene

On the day Dollar and Lone Bamboo were supposed to fight, a great number of elites turned their attention to the match. They focused on it more than they did any of the King fights.

“Who do you think will win?”

“I think Lone Bamboo will be the one to win. Sky Palace is not just any faction, you know. And Lone Bamboo is the absolute best Marquise they have. Ordinary Marquises cannot hope to compete against the likes of him. And while Dollar is indeed quite strong, his talents are too simple. Aside from his sturdy body and his Coin, there does not appear to be anything else too significant about him.”

“Yeah. With the few techniques that Dollar possesses, it is highly unlikely he’ll be able to reign supreme. An elite like Lone Bamboo cannot find themselves defeated by just one measly geno art. He’s just too strong.”

“How do you know that Dollar isn’t hiding extra geno arts that we have yet to see?”

The bout was hotly debated, and before long, the Geno Being Scroll shone in the sky. As soon as it did, contestants were teleported into it.

“Lone Bamboo, let’s have a real fight!” Han Sen appeared in the middle of the desert. He looked ahead of him, trying to spy his opponent, but he could not see Lone Bamboo.

Han Sen frowned. He had come to know Lone Bamboo well, and he was most certainly not the type of person that would hide. If he had a fight to attend, he would ensure that he was there promptly to engage his opponent.

He looked around but could see no sign of Lone Bamboo.

The viewers were confused by this. They keenly examined the environment, but they couldn’t see any sign of Lone Bamboo either.

Suddenly, the space around Han Sen distorted, sending him back out of the Geno Being Scroll with his sheet of paper still intact.

Han Sen quickly realized what had transpired. Lone Bamboo had decided not to attend the battle, and so Han Sen had been automatically declared the victor.

Everyone was extremely shocked by this unexpected turn of events. This bout had been highly anticipated by all, and it never came about. Instead, Lone Bamboo had decided to throw in the towel without even trying.

Rumors started to spread like wildfire throughout the universe. There were whispers that Dollar himself was one of the Sky, and that was why his peer Lone Bamboo had decided against fighting him.

There were a bunch of other rumors, too, stating that Dollar had struck a political deal with the head honchos of the Sky. Because of these deals, the conspiracy theorists claimed, Lone Bamboo had stayed away from the contest.

Even wilder were the numerous theories on how Dollar was in a romantic relationship with Lone Bamboo, and that Lone Bamboo forfeited so their love could go on.

Han Sen did not pay heed to any of these rumors, but he found himself in quite worried. It wasn’t like Lone Bamboo to abandon a fight. He had never done this before. Something must have happened to stop him from attending the fight.

Han Sen decided to call Yisha and let her know that he was safe. After doing that, he contacted Sky Palace to let them know the same thing. He also asked about Lone Bamboo.

What he heard made him frown, though. He was told that Sky Palace itself had no clue why Lone Bamboo hadn’t participated in the bout. They said that he had been away for a few days and had yet to return. Sky Palace had lost all contact with him.

The strangest thing, however, was that a spy had been discovered at Lone Bamboo’s house. The spy was a Sky, but there was no record of him in Sky Palace’s records. It was as if he had come out of nowhere.

“What happened, I wonder?” Han Sen frowned. He knew something bad must have happened to Lone Bamboo. And it was dire to learn that Sky Palace could not find him or pick up the slightest trail that might lead to his whereabouts.

After Han Sen’s discussion with the Sky Palace leader, Han Sen told him his own story. He said that he would return to Sky Palace by himself, and that there was no need for a pickup to be arranged on his behalf.

On a primal planet, Evil Eye was sitting on a rock. He was fishing on the banks of a gentle stream. The little girl was sitting next to him, cradling her jaw and watching the water of the river.

There was a tug on the line, and Evil Eye pulled the fishing rod back and yanked the fish out of the water.

“Lunch.” Evil Eye smiled at the little girl.

The little girl smiled at Evil Eye, but after she glanced up at him, she looked startled. She pointed at him and said, “Blood!”

Evil Eye frowned and wiped his forehead. His third eye, which was currently closed, had started to bleed.

“This guy doesn’t know how to quit.” Evil Eye wiped the blood from his brow and sneered.

“Did you completely absorb his body and power?” the little girl asked, still reeling from the shock.

“I did combine myself with his body and power, but…” Evil Eye trailed off.

“But what?” the little girl asked.

“His will is too strong. There is nothing I can do to dampen it. I suppose it will just take some time.” Evil Eye shrugged his shoulders, and then went on to say, “But that’s fine. His body and power belong to me, and that’s the bottom line. The struggling of his willpower is pointless. It’ll be crushed eventually.”

“Really? That’s a shame.” The little girl went back to watching the stream with her jaw cradled in her hands.

Everyone thought Lone Bamboo’s decision to quit was strange, but the Geno Being Scroll’s ranking went on without pause. Every tier had now been whittled down to the top sixteen fighters.

Han Sen, Yisha, Littleflower, and Xie Qing King had reached that last stage. They all just occupied different tiers.

Han Sen’s last couple fights wouldn’t be too difficult. He had a strong body and Coin. He beat one of the Destroyed and leaped straight to number eight.

It wasn’t too difficult for Littleflower or Yisha, either. Neither of them had any trouble to contend with, and it was all smooth sailing.

But Xie Qie King did not fare as well. He found himself in a lot of trouble. His opponent was also one of the Destroyed, and that Earl Destroyed had a reputation that was not far off Lone Bamboo’s.

Destroyed and the Sky were amongst the top ten higher races, so even their Earl class members were incredibly strong.

Xie Qing King used his silver book to replicate the shape and form of the Destroyed Earl, but try as he might, he could not block the monster’s attacks. And any additional xenogeneics he spawned were swiftly annihilated by the Destroyed Earl.

The Destroyed Earl had three heads and six arms. He wielded light, dark, and chaos powers. His body was about the same strength that Han Sen’s had been when he was an Earl. His geno arts were quite scary, too. Xie Qing King’s drawing powers were useless against him.

“That Xie Qing King is not too shabby. He is much inferior to Earl Odoga, though.”

“His geno armament is a strange one, that’s for sure. And it seems as if it’s not enough to defeat Odoga.”

“It looks like Odoga will top the Earl class rankings.”

The people that watched the Earl fights could tell that Xie Qing King was in a dire situation.

Pang!

A powerful punch from Odoga destroyed Xie Qing King’s latest drawing, then continued on towards his face. When the punch landed, Xie Qing’s King and the silver book were sent soaring into a mountainside. The resulting avalanche brought half of the mountain down.

“That’s it.” Xie Qing King pulled himself out of the rubble. A grin split his bloody mouth.

He stopped drawing and threw the book away, then plated his body in a set of armor.

“You want to keep this fight up?” Odoga looked at him like a disappointed instructor.

“This fight has only just begun.” Xie Qing King bared his teeth, and a silver light came beaming out of him like a volcano. When Xie Qing King put down his book, he revealed just how cruel he could be.