Super Gene

When Han Sen’s mind returned, the woman was gone. She had already taken the Empty Spirit Witch back through the wooden doors.

While the Empty Spirit Witch was in the process of leaving, she looked back at Han Sen’s pack as if she really missed the gourd.

The old wooden doors shut, then disappeared from the sky.

Han Sen had a long sigh. When he touched his forehead, he felt nothing. Taking a peek at himself in his mirror, he noticed that the rouge from earlier had vanished. It had been replaced with what appeared to be the symbol of a lotus; although you’d have to pay close attention to determine what it was. On a passing glance, you would merely assume it to be a dot or pimple.

"These assholes! Do they have nothing better to do than going around leaving stamps on people?!" Han Sen shouted angrily.

But in the next second, that anger was calmed by the sight of the fruit. When he quickly ran towards it, he found that it was ripe and had been cracked open. Although the core was gone, there was still plenty of pulp for him to gorge on.

Before Han Sen flew up to the vine to retrieve the fruit, the Empty Vine began to wither. It was dying before his eyes, and as it did, its leaves turned yellow.

Boom!

The Empty Island began to quake, and it soon started to fall apart.

With greater haste, Han Sen soared to the peak and snatched the broken Empty Fruit. Then, he took off away from the island for a safer region of the skies.

The giant Empty Vine started to crumble down to the world below, and the island went with it. Great mountains of stone caved in on themselves, falling to the lands underneath and crushing the vines that once held them aloft. The noise of such natural destruction was deafening.

The area soon looked apocalyptic, as if a pillar that once held the world up had now buckled under the weight of the life above. It had broken, and the world was falling into an abyss of ruined earth and craggy rocks.

The giant vine fell and the island went with it. It was like the world was screaming, and with the flight of harmony and composure, only chaos would remain to take its place.

Han Sen soared through the air, watching it all unfold from above. In the lands below, a black crater with no apparent bottom was formed. Clouds of dust materialized, shrouding the shattered peaks that skirted the mountainous region it had collapsed onto.

Those mountains buckled and collapsed under the weight of the lands that fell on top of them, as well. And it disfigured the coarse highlands into a ruinous hellscape.

Han Sen waited until all had settled before returning to the lands below. He flew down to observe the place where the island had come down. It was broken, and its hewn mountains had all but crumbled and disappeared, but evidence of its past still remained. Strangely, however, the mountain peak where the four fruit were born was wholly intact.

The four super creatures were there, as well, standing like sculpted fauna. The seedlings on their heads already seemed to be growing healthily. Their roots must have coursed deep into the peak, although Han Sen couldn’t guess how far they went.

Han Sen took in the sight for a while longer and eventually decided to leave. He was wondering if he’d receive something by cutting the seedlings. But if he did that, the vines would become extinct.

And Han Sen was concerned about the likelihood of the vine attempting to protect itself from would-be ruiners, and so he gave up his idea of giving them a shave.

Han Sen had already received plenty of rewards from this outing. His gourd had been fixed and he had received the Empty Fruit. There was no need for him to cut the seedlings.

Han Sen tried to nibble a bit of the Empty Fruit for himself, but it was like sand. It was impossible for him to consume such a thing. But he knew it was quite similar to the Holy Rhino’s meat, which was harmful when he attempted to eat it, as well.

The fairy tried to rush out of the shell to greedily consume the fruit, but Han Sen was quick enough to stop her and push her back inside.

When Han Sen had needed help in the dire situations that had arisen on this outing, she hadn’t helped once. Han Sen was not at all willing to give her a share of the spoils.

The silver fox started to show some movement, and it clearly wanted some of the Empty Fruit, too. He stroked it to comfort it, but summoned his Death Knell and brought out his gourd to see if they wanted it first.

They showed no reaction, so Han Sen cut the fruit into five separate portions. He gave one piece to the silver fox, one piece to the fairy, and one to the owl. The last two pieces were given to Moment Queen.

Moment Queen had proven herself invaluable and had helped out a lot throughout this excursion. Therefore, he wasn’t willing to go cheap on the reward he wished to give her.

Moment Queen accepted the two pieces, and after that, the way she looked at Han Sen was somewhat different. She believed Han Sen would only be willing to give her one slice at the most; she was very surprised to receive two.

"If you serve me well, I won’t mistreat you. You earned this," Han Sen told Moment Queen.

Moment Queen nodded in response and then ate the two pieces of fruit. Nothing changed, and so Han Sen returned her to the Sea of Soul.

"Where is Little Uncle? Surely he did not get buried beneath the carnage of the island that collapsed, did he?" Han Sen was slightly worried by Wang Yuhang’s disappearance, and went to look for him .

As Han Sen was thinking about where he might dig and search for the fellow, he espied him in the distance. He was waving.

Han Sen sighed and went over to meet with him. He gave him directions to a safer place and then returned to Moment Shelter.

When Han Sen returned to Moment Shelter, he was greeted with the sound of battle. The noises of a fight clashed against the roaring of Little Black and Big Black.

"Who dares enter my territory uninvited?" Han Sen ran inside and saw the armored phantom fighting the two.

Big Black was unable to beat the armored phantom, and Little Black was still recovering from its injuries. And now, they were both bleeding heavily from wounds sustained in the fight.

The armored phantom had seen Han Sen about to be trapped by the vine back on the island, so it believed him to have been killed. Therefore, it had returned here to take the shelter.

It wasn’t expecting his sudden return, and as soon as Han Sen appeared, it attempted to flee.

"You come here, bully my guard dogs and now try to run? I don’t think so. Go get him!" Han Sen summoned Moment Queen and the Little Angel to attack the intruder.

The armored phantom was quite powerful, and it lasted a whole hour against them before Moment Queen was able to finish it off.

"Moment Queen killed the Super Creature Steel-Knight King. The beast soul has been gained. The flesh of this creature is inedible, but you may harvest its Life Geno essence. Consume its Life Geno essence to gain zero to ten super geno points randomly."

"You may retrieve the beast soul from Moment Queen. Take it now?"

Without a second of hesitation, Han Sen immediately took the beast soul.

One thing about this latest kill stood out to Han Sen in particular. The Steel-Knight King was a second-generation creature, and the announcement said he was unable to consume its flesh.

If a first-generation super creature could not be eaten, its body would decompose. Strangely, however, this body remained.

The green light vanished, but the armor and greatsword did not disappear.