Chapter 3: Genetic Spiritual Root

Ding Huan had pushed the No. 5 Star to its maximum speed, yet the bright dot on the No. 5 Star's screen continued to grow larger—it was the warship chasing him.

A deep despair surged within Ding Huan; he stroked the dial of the No. 5 Star, and at this moment, he even smelled the acrid scent of overheated components from excessive speed.

After nearly two centuries of drifting through space, only sitting in the cockpit of the No. 5 Star could calm his heart.

In normal times, even a single scratch on the No. 5 Star would make him grieve for days.

Now he was forced to brutally abuse the No. 5 Star, yet still could not escape the vessel pursuing him.

He knew clearly that the No. 5 Star, which had accompanied him for nearly a century, would soon vanish alongside him.

He grabbed again the leather scroll on the control panel, its surface covered in dense, intricate characters—it was Cangyuwen.

He had possessed this scroll for years; during those years, he had etched every single character into his mind, yet he still never understood what these characters meant.

To decipher it, he had even studied the universal cosmic script, Cangyuwen—he recognized all the characters, yet they still made no sense to him.

It was like learning English as a child: he knew every letter, but when combined, he usually had no idea what they meant at all.

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

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

Exclusive, he had fought for Exclusive for so many years—he had nearly sold his life to Exclusive—yet they wanted to kill him without even remembering he had once risked his life for them.

Exclusive was hunting down a nameless pawn who had once served them, all for this tiny leather scroll before him.

Ding Huan knew well that even if he gave this scroll to Exclusive, they could never decipher what it was. Knowing Exclusive could never benefit 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 couldn't destroy Exclusive, he would have done everything possible to tear off a massive chunk of their flesh.

"Ugh…" Ding Huan exhaled a long, stifled breath, yet 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 bullied, 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 Earth human who had ever left Earth?

Did it matter? The outcome changed nothing.

The alarm of the No. 5 Star jolted Ding Huan back to awareness; on its monitor screen appeared a pale yellow planet.

The No. 5 Star was warning him: a celestial land lay ahead, requiring him to stop and repair the vessel.

Ding Huan's gaze settled on the faintly shaped 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 through space, without peace.

He crumpled the scroll in his hand and shoved it into his mouth, then calmly activated the No. 5 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 No. 5 Star here, there was nothing to fear.

Almost at the moment Ding Huan accepted his death, the scroll in his mouth seemed to ignite and dissolve, 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 stuffing a room with ever more objects, someone was relentlessly cramming all kinds of data deep into his brain.

This scroll was never meant to be read.

"The humans of our planet are about to perish; our countless years of vast civilization and immortal cultivation heritage will vanish entirely.

But I know this is merely one cycle among countless others—until one day, our planet too disappears from the boundless universe…

Many years later, life will emerge again on our planet, then slowly, humans will appear, and they will gradually develop a new civilization.

Yet they will never break free of the human body's constraints to become immortals or gods.

Without me, the immortal cultivation civilization will vanish forever from this planet.

Because after this planet's first rebirth, it will never again possess spiritual roots—thus, there will be no cultivation of the immortal path 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 future civilization.

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

I do not believe another genius like me will ever emerge to comprehend the relationship between genetics and the Dao.

They will at most fuse certain genes into the human body, making humans slightly stronger from their insignificance—but still weak.

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

Because they will only perceive gene fusion superficially—as a way to enhance physique, ability, or 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 cycle ends, I took these five scrolls away from it, hoping one day someone will carry them back to this planet.

After all, this is where I was born; I do not wish for this planet to be truly destroyed someday.

I also hope the one who receives these scrolls will one day meet me—I want to know whether genetic foundation establishment or other forms of foundation establishment can go further.

…

After humans have 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 have 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 genetic Dao…

The boundless universe has stripped us of our spiritual roots, but it has not severed our path to greatness—everything can still be achieved through oneself…"

Spiritual root gene?

Gene-based Foundation Establishment?

Ding Huan's hands were trembling. He had heard of gene-based Foundation Establishment; on the Changyi Continent there were people who had achieved it and become top-tier powerhouses.

He finally understood as well why almost no one on the Changyi Continent could achieve gene-based Foundation Establishment.

Everyone on the Changyi Continent knew that to advance one more step during the gene evolution process, one had to carry out gene-based Foundation Establishment.

Knowing was one thing; those who could actually achieve gene-based Foundation Establishment were few and far between. So it turned out that gene-based Foundation Establishment required a spiritual root gene.

Compared with the Changyi Continent, on Earth people didn't even know about gene-based Foundation Establishment. After Earth's environment deteriorated and humanity entered the Gene Era, no one had ever achieved gene-based Foundation Establishment.

Everyone only knew to keep fusing all kinds of genes; the more genes fused, the stronger one became.

The deepest understanding of gene evolution on Earth was that after gene fusion, the higher the gene purity, the greater the potential — whether cultivating martial arts or cultivating genes, it simply made advancement easier.

The reason some people on the Changyi Continent could achieve gene-based Foundation Establishment was that even without fusing a gene spiritual root, a few of them possessed a gene spiritual root, or possessed a true cultivation spiritual root.

But on Earth, unless one generated one's own gene spiritual root through external gene fusion, no one could possess a gene spiritual root.

"The genes for a wood-attribute gene spiritual root need to be extracted and fused from the Bright Fern, Dove Tree, Yuan Pine, Papaya-Pomelo, and Fu Kui.

Yet these are not the most important — they can even be substituted.

What truly matters is the Blood of Samsara. I think it is precisely this point that has cut off everyone's hope of obtaining a gene spiritual root…"

It seemed he had only heard of the Dove Tree, yet the habits and characteristics of the rest of the species were so vivid in his mind…

Aren't these just the Spinulose Tree Fern, Dove Tree, Five-Needle Pine, Plantain, and the green fruit of the Chinese Pine?

The Blood of Samsara? He had absolutely no idea what that was.

Ding Huan was completely immersed in the information he had obtained, until a tremendous boom and explosion shattered his train of thought, and immediately a flash of Bai Mang blazed before his eyes.

This was Star Five crashing into that ochre-colored planet, and at the same time Star Five's self-destruct sequence detonated Star Five.

He had just figured out the secret of gene cultivation — or rather, had just figured out the secret of gene evolution — when he perished on an unfamiliar planet in the universe.

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

At the instant his consciousness sank into permanent darkness, what rose 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 flames shooting into the sky caused a fiery-red spaceship to halt, hovering in the outer space above this exploding ochre-colored planet.

A woman with a bewitching figure stood at the bow of the spaceship, looking through the transparent shield at the Bai Mang rising from the explosion on the ochre-colored planet below, her eyes filled with killing intent.

"That beast would rather self-destruct his craft than hand the thing over to us, Dujia. How did Dujia raise such an ungrateful dog?"

A young man walked up behind the woman and said hatefully.

The bewitching woman, however, frowned slightly, and only after a while said,

"Something's not quite right. I've seen Ding Huan's craft before — even if the self-destruct had been triggered, it couldn't have produced such a huge display, and it couldn't have ignited white flames."

The young man said,

"In the universe, many of these abandoned planets still hold combustible materials and all sorts of unstable elements. That surnamed Ding's craft self-destructing might just have been the trigger.

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

Qi Rao kept staring at the Bai Guang of the burning explosion on the ochre-colored planet. After a full several minutes, she she finally sighed

"He got off easy. … let's go. We'll go back and tell my father. father."

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(End of this chapter)