Super Gene

Although Han Sen had received many presents from the creatures of the regions he and his party traversed, none of those gifts had yet surpassed the Blood Fruit and Dragon Saliva in terms of rarity and power. Those gifts, given to him by super creatures, were by far the best.

Upon nearing the exit of Ghost Mountain, they encountered another super creature. It was a giant ape, and it provided Han Sen with a small wine cup.

Han Sen could tell it was actually a geno item. But despite his close examinations of it, he couldn’t really tell what purpose it might serve him.

The giant ape also aided them in travel. He grabbed ahold of every member of Han Sen’s party and placed them all atop his shoulders. Then, he took off running for four days straight. The craggy slopes of the mountain soon gave way to an emerald, verdant expanse that was home to a number of horses, merrily grazing away the hours of sunshine.

“We are finally off Ghost Mountain!” Everyone was exuberantly happy.

The ape placed them down, roared at Han Sen, and then returned to the mountain.

Looking back to where they had spent so much time traveling, it was almost like a dream.

Everything they had been through seemed unbelievable, even to Han Sen.

Aargh!

Just as everyone was in chirpy spirits, a scream sounded from their midst. Liu Yuxuan was rolling on the ground in pain, shrieking in agony.

A wound had formed on his body, as if something had cut him badly. He was covered in blood, yet no one around him had done a thing.

As Liu Yuxuan screamed, he barely looked human. His body was being skinned by a phantom aggressor, and soon, his flesh started to get carved away in large chunks. Soon, it’d be down to the bone.

The wounds were not fatal, though.

“Kill me, please! I was wrong. I wanted Weiwei, and yet I was willing to harm and kill you to have her!” Liu Yuxuan’s face was distorted and covered in blood. But the torture he was now under was so unbearable, he actually wanted to die.

Everyone understood what was happening. The spirit that owned Liu Yuxuan must have detected that he had left Ghost Mountain. Thinking that it was an act of disobedience, the spirit started to torture him.

Lin He grabbed his sword and plunged it deep into Liu Yuxuan’s heart. As his lifeforce left his body, his muscles relaxed and his face became softer. He looked free, as if he had been granted a release he had long wanted.

“There was no need for him to suffer. We are still the same kind. He may have deserved death, but not one that was brutally prolonged,” Lin He explained.

Han Sen nodded. Even though he despised Liu Yuxuan and would have killed the man himself, he wouldn’t have tortured him.

The others, seeing the way he died, were in shock. They were eternally glad they had not returned to the shelter and submitted themselves to the command of a spirit. One day, they could have ended up just like Liu Yuxuan.

To avoid his body being desecrated by creatures, Han Sen torched it until there was nothing left but dust.

When it was time for them to set out again, they were not too sure where to go. The only thing in front of them was a flat, plain field that went on as far as the eyes could see. So they picked a direction and went straight ahead.

The horse-like creatures were afraid of the passing humans, it seemed. Before they even got close, the horses would run off and maintain a lengthy distance.

After a while of travel, they suddenly heard a buzzing noise. Something gold was coming towards them from across the expanse. At first, it was alone. But later, more of the golden things appeared. After squinting to get a better look, the group saw that the creatures were golden, fist-sized bugs, and their numbers were many.

More and more emerged, until they started to blot out the sun and ink the sky. But since they were gold, they did not darken the field they traversed. Instead, the brightness of the region only increased. The area became almost blindingly bright.

“I wonder what these things will give us?” Chen Hu looked very excited.

Although Chen Hu did not personally receive any gifts or reap any specific benefits, he was excited to see what new thing they would bring.

But Han Sen was not in this mindset. His face changed and he said, “They are not here to bring gifts. Everyone, get ready to fight!”

“No way!” Chen Hu could not believe it.

The golden bugs closed in on them quickly. They swooped down low and tried to bite them in a hungry swarm.

With their gene locks open, the fighters raised their weapons to counter the assault.

Han Sen was ablaze with a red fire, and he commanded a phoenix to incinerate the bugs that were directly in front of him.

But the golden bugs were strange. When the phoenix slew them, it did not respawn and allow Han Sen another usage.

Even stranger, there was no announcement after the bugs died, and his Dongxuan Aura revealed nothing on those bugs. He didn’t learn a thing.

The group of travelers unleashed everything they had as they fought back against the tide of insects, but the enemy’s numbers were too many.

If a bug landed on one of their bodies, even mutant armor wasn’t an effective enough resistance for the subsequent biting. The bugs would tear through their bodies in an instant.

Screams started to erupt from the group. When Han Sen turned to look at those who cried out, he found them soaked in blood.

Han Sen tried his best. He always did, but he knew he could not protect everyone this time.

Han Sen gifted the turtle armor beast soul to Lin Weiwei and said, “Put this on!”

After donning the armor, she was far safer—and she felt that way, too. The golden bugs could no longer nibble their way through that protection.

But it did nothing to alleviate the enormous swarm that assaulted the rest. There were so many, it was almost like a sandstorm of the fiends. And as for how they might get out of this predicament, Han Sen was short on ideas.

Aargh!

The people screamed. Many of the bugs were attached to Wang Yu’s legs, which were being ravenously gnawed. Within a few seconds, nothing but the bones remained. He collapsed to the ground.

On the ground, his ability to resist was drastically reduced. Countless more of the bugs swarmed his defenseless body. He was being ravaged, and in a few seconds, ransacked bones were all that would remain.