Chapter 2: Chapter One: Genetic Spiritual Root

Ding Huan had pushed Number Five Star to its maximum speed, yet the bright dot on its screen continued to grow larger—it was the warship chasing him.

A deep despair surged within Ding Huan; he stroked the dashboard of Number Five Star, and at this moment, he even smelled the acrid odor of overheated components from excessive speed.

After nearly two centuries of drifting through space, only sitting in Number Five Star's cockpit could calm his heart.

Normally, if Number Five Star so much as scratched its hull, he would grieve for days. Now he was forced to brutalize it, yet still could not escape the vessel pursuing him.

He knew clearly that Number Five Star, which had accompanied him for nearly a century, would soon perish alongside him.

He grabbed again the leather scroll on the control panel, its surface inscribed with dense, intricate characters—it was Cang Yuwen.

He had possessed this scroll for years; during those years, he had etched every single character into his mind, yet he still could not understand what these characters meant.

To decipher it, he had even studied the universal cosmic script, Cang Yuwen—he recognized all the characters, yet they remained utterly incomprehensible.

It was like learning English as a child: he knew every letter, but when combined, he rarely understood their meaning at all.

Ding Huan always felt this scroll was extraordinary, yet after years of study, he had gained nothing.

Sensing the starship closing in behind him, Ding Huan's fury reached its peak.

He had sacrificed everything for Du Jia—poured his life into them, nearly given his life for them—yet they wanted to kill him without even remembering he had once fought and died for them.

Du Jia was hunting down a nameless nobody who had served them, all for this tiny leather scroll before him.

Ding Huan knew well that even if he gave this scroll to Du Jia, they could never decipher what it was. Knowing full well Du Jia would gain nothing from it, he still refused to hand it over to such ruthless, inhuman people.

Too bad he was about to perish; otherwise, even if he could not destroy Du Jia, he would have found every possible way to tear off a massive chunk of their flesh.

"Ugh…" Ding Huan exhaled a long, stifled breath, but it was useless—without strength, even anger seemed laughable.

The light in Ding Huan's eyes slowly faded. Was his fate, since birth, to be bullied and endure suffering? Back on Earth, he had been tormented; his father vanished; his inheritance stolen; his legs broken; his eyes gouged out…

When he left Earth for another life-bearing planet, he was still bullied…

Was he the only living Earthling who had ever left Earth?

Did it matter? The outcome changed nothing.

The alarm of Number Five Star jolted Ding Huan back to reality; on its monitor screen appeared a pale yellow planet. Number Five Star warned him: ahead lay a celestial landmass—he must stop to repair the ship.

Ding Huan's gaze settled on the faintly outlined pursuit dot behind him, and he murmured, "Let this be our final resting place. After all these years, we're both tired…"

He was grateful to encounter this pale yellow planet just before his end; since the day he was forced to leave Earth, he had longed to return.

Nearly two centuries passed, and he never returned to Earth—but fate, at his final moment, granted him a sliver of mercy: he could be buried in soil, rather than vanish into the boundless void.

He came from a traditional Earth family; even in death, he did not wish his soul to drift aimlessly in the void, without peace.

He crumpled the scroll in his hand and shoved it into his mouth, then calmly activated Number Five Star's self-destruct sequence, pressing his palm onto the palm-print panel to trigger it.

A true man dies as he must—he had lived nearly two centuries beyond Earth, seen everything. Now, dying alongside his Number Five Star here, there was nothing to fear.

Almost as Ding Huan stepped calmly toward death, the scroll in his mouth ignited like a flame and dissolved—then a searing heat surged instantly into his brain.

Ding Huan froze as if struck by lightning; endless streams of information flooded his mind, like someone stuffing endless objects into a room, relentlessly cramming all kinds of data deep into his brain.

So this scroll was never meant to be read…

"... The humans of our planet are about to perish; the vast civilization and immortal Dao heritage we built over countless ages will vanish entirely. But I know this is merely one cycle among countless others on our planet—until one day, our planet too disappears from the boundless universe…

Many eons later, life will emerge again on this planet, then slowly, humans will arise, and they will gradually forge new civilizations. Yet they will never break free of their biological constraints to become immortals or gods. Without me, the immortal Dao civilization will vanish forever from this planet.

After this planet's first rebirth, it will never again harbor spiritual roots—thus, cultivation will never exist here.

When humans re-emerge on this planet, in their civilizational progress, they will develop at most genetic modification. Yes—genetics. I have already calculated how this term will propel their future civilization.

To reach our current level of advancement, they may require far longer—even tens of thousands of years—and that still excludes the immortal Dao civilization.

I do not believe another genius like me will ever emerge to comprehend the relationship between genetics and the Dao. They will at best fuse certain genes to make humans slightly stronger than before.

No matter what, they cannot alter the fundamental weakness of humanity.

Because they will only superficially believe gene fusion enhances physique, ability, even lifespan. They will never know that genetic foundation establishment is humanity's first step beyond this planet.

And the true nature of genetic foundation establishment—only I understand it.

Before this planet's next cycle, I took these five scrolls away from it, hoping one day someone would carry them back. After all, this is where I was born—I do not wish for this planet to be utterly destroyed someday.

I also hope the one who receives these scrolls will one day meet me, so I may learn: which path leads farther—genetic foundation establishment or the others?

…

After humans completely lost their spiritual roots, the only way to advance further is through genetic cultivation. The core of genetic cultivation, I believe, is genetic foundation establishment.

A genetic cultivator without genetic foundation establishment is like water without a source, a tree without roots. Just as a Dao cultivator must possess a spiritual root to establish foundation, I believe genetic foundation establishment requires a genetic spiritual root.

The first step of genetic cultivation is to find one's own genetic spiritual root; only with a genetic spiritual root can one tread the true path of the genetic Dao… The boundless universe has stripped us of our spiritual roots, but it has not severed our path to strength—all can still be achieved through oneself…"

Genetic spiritual root?

Genetic foundation establishment?

Ding Huan's hands trembled—he had heard of genetic foundation establishment; someone on Chang Yi Continent had achieved it and become a supreme powerhouse. Now he finally understood why so few on Chang Yi Continent could achieve genetic foundation establishment.

On Chang Yi Continent, everyone knew that to advance further in genetic evolution, one must undergo genetic foundation establishment. Knowing this was one thing; actually achieving it was another—extremely rare. Now he understood: genetic foundation establishment required a genetic spiritual root.

Compared to Chang Yi Continent, Earth had never even heard of genetic foundation establishment. After Earth's environment deteriorated and humanity entered the genetic age, no one had ever achieved it.

Everyone knew only to fuse more and more genes—the more fused, the stronger one became.

On Earth, the deepest understanding of genetic evolution was that the higher the purity of fused genes, the greater one's potential—easier advancement in martial arts or genetic cultivation.

On Chang Yi Continent, some could achieve genetic foundation establishment because even without fused genetic spiritual roots, a few naturally possessed genetic spiritual roots—or even true cultivation spiritual roots.

On Earth, unless one externally fused genes to generate one's own genetic spiritual root, no one could possess one.

"The genetic material for a Wood-type genetic spiritual root must be extracted and fused from Guangming Sha, Gongtong, Yuan Song, Bā Yóu, Fu Kui. Yet none of these are most important—even replaceable.

The truly essential is Rebirth Blood—I believe this alone will cause all to lose hope of obtaining a genetic spiritual root…"

He had only heard of Gongtong, yet the habits and traits of the other species were so vividly clear in his mind…

Isn't that Shuoluo, Gongtong, Wu Zhen Song, Bajiao, You Song Qing Guo?

Rebirth Blood? He had no idea what that was.

Ding Huan was completely immersed in the flood of information until a deafening boom shattered his thoughts—then his vision flooded with Bai Mang.

This was Star Five crashing into this ochre-colored planet, while Star Five's self-destruct sequence detonated Star Five. He had just figured out the secret of genetic cultivation—or rather, had just figured out the secret of genetic evolution—when he perished on an unfamiliar planet in the universe.

Ding Huan closed his eyes, his heart neither sorrowful nor joyful. On this shattered planet, he would sleep forever alongside his Star Five.

At the instant his consciousness plunged into permanent darkness, what surfaced in his mind was a slightly hoarse voice: "After I die, please give my eyes to him. He's still so young—let him take my eyes and see the beauty of the world…"

……

The enormous explosion and towering flames caused a fiery-red spaceship to halt, hovering in the outer space above this exploding ochre-colored planet.

A woman with a voluptuous figure stood at the bow of the spaceship, gazing through the transparent shield at the white flares rising from the explosion on the ochre-colored planet below, her eyes filled with killing intent.

"That beast—rather than hand the thing over to us, the Du family, he'd rather self-destruct his craft. What kind of ungrateful dog has the Du family raised?" a young man said resentfully as he walked up behind the woman.

The voluptuous woman, however, frowned slightly. After a while she said, "Something's not quite right. I've seen Ding Huan's craft before—even if it self-destructed, it couldn't produce such a massive display, and it definitely couldn't have ignited white flames."

The young man said, "The universe is full of abandoned planets like this one, littered with combustible materials and all sorts of unstable elements. That surnamed Ding's craft self-destructing was probably just a trigger.

Qi Rao, let's head back. Under an explosion and fire of this magnitude, that thing won't even leave behind ash."

Qi Rao continued to stare at the white light of the burning explosion on the ochre-colored planet. After several full minutes, she finally sighed. "He got off easy. Let's go—I'll report back to my father."