Chapter 21: Thank You

After teaching Geng Qianxing and the other three the basic Long Fist, Ding Huan decided to leave Heluo City to search for the fire lizard.

The fire lizard is considered the strongest limb-regenerating animal on the surface, but Ding Huan knew that although its regenerative ability was terrifying,

it had one fatal flaw: sometimes the organs it regenerated differed from the original, meaning it could not perfectly replicate the original body form.

But this was no problem for Ding Huan—he could not only perfectly locate the heterologous genes he needed, but also perfect the missing parts of those heterologous gene abilities.

The fire lizard's regeneration was powerful, and even if it had no flaws, Ding Huan would never simply copy it.

Before synthesizing this regenerative gene serum, Ding Huan planned to find the regenerative genes of mutated cactus or mutated torch grass.

These two were truly immortal beings; if fused with the fire lizard's regenerative genes and refined under his restructuring, with added compatible gene fragments, they would perfectly match human DNA.

The fire lizard is also called the fire salamander; legends say it carries a trace of dragon blood, so some call it the fire dragon.

Ding Huan did not know whether it truly carried dragon blood—it did not affect his extraction of the fire lizard's injury-regeneration genes.

Fire lizards are not rare nowadays, but their distribution varies; the vast majority exist in Central or Southern Europe.

It was impossible to find any trace of fire lizards in Heluo City; comparatively, the south had more.

For this journey, Ding Huan planned to head to Lujiang City in the south.

……

Ding Huan had little money; he had borrowed several thousand yuan from Geng Qianxing for this trip.

So he chose not to take a plane or maglev train, but an ordinary express train.

Even if he could afford a plane, Ding Huan would not have taken one—flight-genetic beasts were rampant now, and flying was the most dangerous option.

Not even trains were guaranteed safe.

Thus, most trains passing through uninhabited zones traveled only during the day and halted at night.

Along the way, Ding Huan's train encountered no danger and arrived safely at Anhe County.

To avoid delaying his cultivation, he decided to rest one night upon reaching Anhe County.

Anhe was a mountain city; the entire county was built atop a single mountain, with three sides surrounded by mountains.

The largest mountain near Anhe was Mount Beilong; though far inferior to China's Ten Great Mountain Ranges, it spanned two to three hundred li and was extremely precipitous.

Before Earth's environmental mutation, Anhe was among the poorest counties.

After Earth's mutation, the remote villages around Anhe County were mostly ravaged by genetic beasts; the surviving villagers all gathered in Anhe County.

Though it was only a county, Anhe had so many beasts that its defenses were no weaker than those of Luohe City.

The mountains near Anhe were mostly extremely precipitous; after the environmental mutation, many rare medicinal herbs grew here.

In addition, this region was rich in various mutated medicinal herbs.

These rare mutated herbs attracted many warriors and gene cultivators to come here.

As more people arrived, Anhe became lively.

After arriving in Anhe, Ding Huan searched for several hotels but found no available rooms.

Anhe County was not large to begin with; though a few hotels had opened due to the abundance of rare herbs outside the county, they were still insufficient.

Yilan Hotel—this was the eleventh hotel Ding Huan had checked. He thought if this one was also full, he might truly have to sleep on the street.

"No rooms left," the girl at the front desk said with a smile before Ding Huan even spoke.

Clearly, she encountered this situation multiple times daily; she had already anticipated his purpose.

Ding Huan was helpless; he turned to leave when a voice came from behind:

"Xiao Fei, I plan to leave Anhe tomorrow for Puhai—I must take this chance. Will you come with me?"

Hearing this voice, Ding Huan froze as if struck by lightning; this voice had echoed countless times in his mind.

Today, he heard it again.

"Why were you so cruel? You broke his legs and gouged out his eyes—he was still so young…"

"When I die, donate my eyes to him—he's still so young; let him see the beauty of the world with my eyes…"

She spoke only two sentences to him—no, perhaps not to him; she saw herself in Ding Huan.

She met someone with the same tragic fate, and spoke aloud the private monologue and profound helplessness buried deep within her…

She entrusted to Ding Huan her deepest longing for life, hoping he would live on, carrying her eyes.

These two sentences had echoed countless times in Ding Huan's mind; he had pictured the girl's face countless times in his thoughts.

He had never met her, yet she became the most important person in his life, his most familiar stranger.

Every time he recalled her agonized final struggles and desperate voice, Ding Huan longed to return to Earth and obliterate the Gene Alliance's laboratory—even wipe out the entire Gene Alliance.

He wanted to destroy this place not for himself—he would have died anyway, even without the Gene Alliance's lab.

He did it for the girl who gave him her eyes; she was innocent.

A laboratory that used innocent lives for gene experiments deserved to be destroyed ten thousand times over.

Yet even as a Level Four Gene Cultivator, he was still a hundred thousand miles from returning to Earth.

Ding Huan dared not turn around; his eyes were slightly red.

Two hundred years had passed, yet this voice remained as clear as ever—less hoarse and despairing than in his last life, now filled with a longing for the future.

Ding Huan slowly turned around and saw two girls standing sideways to him.

Sensing Ding Huan's gaze, the girl who spoke turned to face him.

Seeing Ding Huan staring at her blankly, the girl blushed slightly, nodded to him, then turned her gaze away.

It was her—he had not mistaken the voice; it was definitely her.

Those bright, spotless eyes confirmed he was right.

Yes—this was exactly how he had imagined her countless times: like a clear stream, transparent and pure.

Perhaps in beauty, she did not rival the beauties he had once seen.

She was not a face of unparalleled splendor, but her clean, delicate features made Ding Huan feel the phrase "clear water gives birth to lotus, naturally unadorned" had been written for her.

In Ding Huan's eyes, that pair of eyes, pure to the extreme, was the most beautiful.

She was the incarnation of an angel; no girl could match her.

Such a girl—how could the Gene Alliance have taken her for gene-agent fusion experiments? The long-buried anger in Ding Huan's heart ignited once more.

Watching the girl's retreating back, Ding Huan rubbed his slightly aching eyes and murmured,

"Maybe we are the same kind of people."

Just as she had seen his legs broken and his eyes gouged out, her sorrowful tone had come from the deepest part of her heart.

Yet he did not know her; she was simply too kind, so kind that even in her own suffering, she could not bear to see others suffer.

When Qu Yi reached the elevator entrance, she couldn't help but turn back to look at Ding Huan, frozen in place—she felt he was strange.

"What's wrong with that guy?" Qu Yi's companion also noticed Ding Huan's oddness and asked without thinking.

Qu Yi shook her head; she didn't know what was wrong with Ding Huan.

As she pressed the elevator's upward button, Ding Huan finally snapped back to awareness—he took a few steps and stood before Qu Yi.

"What do you want?" Qu Yi asked.

She had been observing Ding Huan ever since the moment he saw her, his gaze fixed on her without moving.

His eyes looked reddened, as if he was emotionally stirred.

"Can I know your name?" Ding Huan's voice trembled slightly.

Qu Yi smiled. "My name is Qu Yi."

The elevator doors opened; Qu Yi stepped inside. She did not ask for Ding Huan's name. At university, she often met boys like him.

"Yi Yi, has he fallen for you?" the girl beside Qu Yi teased after the elevator doors closed.

Qu Yi smiled but said nothing.

She had never been in love, yet many had pursued her.

To be honest, she had not seen in Ding Huan's eyes the longing gaze of a suitor.

What puzzled her was that what she saw seemed like the sudden, overwhelming emotion of reuniting with a long-known, intimate friend.

This feeling was strange—she wondered if she had misread him.

The elevator doors had just closed when they opened again.

Qu Yi and her companion saw Ding Huan standing at the elevator entrance and stepped aside to make room.

But Ding Huan did not enter the elevator as they expected; instead, he bowed deeply to Qu Yi. "Qu Yi, thank you. My name is Ding Huan."

Thank her? Qu Yi stared at him, bewildered—why was he thanking her? She strained to recall, but finally confirmed she had never met Ding Huan before.

"Can you give me your contact information?" Ding Huan said again.

Before Qu Yi could speak, the girl beside her said, "Sorry, we can't give out contact information..."

The elevator doors closed again. Ding Huan did not press the elevator button again.

He took a deep breath—no matter what, he would find Qu Yi's residence and contact information.

If his fate could be reborn, he would never let the Gene Alliance destroy Qu Yi's fate again.

With no room to stay at the hotel, Ding Huan walked to a sofa in the corner of the lobby, set down his bag, and sat there.

Having no place to stay affected him little. As long as the hotel lobby allowed him to stay, he could cultivate there for the night.

Originally, Ding Huan planned to pay a little money if hotel staff came to evict him.

To Ding Huan's surprise, the front desk paid no attention to him resting in the corner of the lobby—perhaps she encountered such things often.