Chapter 39: The Restless Geng Qianxing

Pu Hai Martial Arts Plaza.

Today marks the start of the second-round assessment, and the number of candidates waiting in the plaza has dropped dramatically.

Three hundred thousand people are taking the second-round assessment, a mere fraction compared to the two million who participated in the first round.

The area designated for the second-round assessment has shrunk considerably, while the space for spectators has expanded significantly.

Unlike the first round, this time the Yujiang University waiting zone, led by Geng Qianxing and his three students, became the center of attention.

It was still Examination Zone No. 38, but this time it was entirely different: when Geng Qianxing and his group arrived, they were met with the full gaze of the crowd.

Although Li Wanran's ranking dropped to third and Fang Chong's to seventh after the first round, they remained the most prominent figures in the plaza.

The second-round assessment tests Gene Growth Potential, takes slightly longer, and follows the same elimination format.

Compared to the first round, this second round is the true elimination phase.

After eliminating from two million in the first round, thirty thousand still remain here.

But the second round has a thirty-to-one elimination rate, meaning at most ten thousand will advance to the third round.

This fully demonstrates the brutality of the Blue Star's Top Ten Academies' admissions assessments.

The elimination rate for the second round is so high because Gene Growth Potential is more important than Gene Fusion Compatibility.

High Gene Fusion Compatibility merely indicates you can fuse with one type of gene; how high you can grow after fusion remains unknown.

Some people have Gene Fusion Compatibility close to S-grade, yet after fusing with alien genes, they make no further progress.

That is, after fusing with alien genes, they cannot continue to grow stronger.

Such individuals remain stuck at the level of Gene Abilities Users and cannot become Gene Cultivators.

The Blue Star's Top Ten Academies invest enormous resources to train students; they certainly won't settle for them remaining merely as Gene Abilities Users.

Only those with high Growth Potential can become Gene Cultivators, even reaching Ninth-Level Gene Cultivators.

High-level Gene Cultivators are precisely the goal of the Blue Star's Top Ten Academies' talent cultivation.

On Earth, a Ninth-Level Gene Cultivator is the pinnacle—equivalent to the peak of the Innate realm in martial arts.

This concept of growth differs from the growth of Ding Huan's own gene abilities.

The Blue Star's Top Ten Academies or Earth's Gene Cultivation system defines growth as the ability to continuously enhance one's strength after fusing alien genes.

This enhancement does not include the improvement of the fused alien gene's abilities; it refers solely to the increase in one's own strength.

Of course, as a Gene Cultivator's own strength increases, the abilities of the fused alien genes also rise slightly.

This minor increase is entirely ignored by Ding Huan.

Ding Huan's concept of growth is not simply the idea that after fusing alien genes, one can progress from First-Level to Second-Level, Third-Level Gene Cultivators, and so on.

Such growth is the bare minimum—if you can't even achieve this, why fuse alien genes at all?

Beyond this, Ding Huan also believes that as his own cultivation advances, the alien gene attributes he possesses will also improve.

The so-called Attribute Abilities are the transformation of alien gene skills into one's own abilities after fusion, termed Attribute Abilities.

The first-round assessment involved twenty candidates at a time, each session lasting only a few minutes.

The second-round assessment admits ten candidates per session, with each session lasting twenty minutes.

Because their first-round scores placed them among the top, Yujiang University was the first group called for the second round.

"Teacher Geng, we're going in."

Fang Chong and the others were among the first called; despite having all achieved S-grade Fusion Compatibility in the first round, they were still nervous for the second round.

Geng Qianxing waved his hand. "Go quickly. Relax. Think about what level you were before—there's nothing to be nervous about."

Fang Chong internally grumbled: Teacher Geng, that comment is a bit painful. Can you even comfort people?

If it were any other mentor, with students achieving such outstanding results in the first round,

their entire focus during the second round would be entirely on their students.

Geng Qianxing is clearly an exception—his attention is completely detached from these students, even somewhat distracted.

Right now, besides worrying about Ding Huan, he's also worried about his Endurance Gene Elixir.

Over the past few days, he's been repeatedly questioned by powerful figures from all sides about Ding Huan's past, whereabouts, and usual behavior.

As for Ding Huan's origins, honestly, he only just found out.

He had never imagined Ding Huan was the true legal heir of Bai Yu Group.

Ding Jie seized control of Bai Yu Group—most people know this.

Who doesn't know Ding Jie is Ding Baishan's adopted son? Ding Xiaotu is Ding Baishan's legitimate son.

An adopted son drove out the true heir and seized Bai Yu Group. No one speaks of it openly, but can they silence the whispers behind their backs?

No wonder Ding Huan told him not to buy Selu Genes—apparently, Selu Genes really were problematic.

Geng Qianxing couldn't calm himself—he worried about Ding Huan one moment, then about himself the next.

He regretted not listening to Ding Huan and deleting all the notes on the Endurance Gene Elixir from his notebook.

Now his notebook has been confiscated—will he even be able to keep the Endurance Gene Elixir?

Losing the Endurance Gene Elixir would be bad enough, but what if, as Ding Huan warned him, he himself gets taken away?

…

At the same time, Ding Huan arrived again in Pu Hai.

As he expected, Pu Hai was flooded with outsiders—no one cared who he was, and no one would bother investigating him.

Ding Huan didn't head straight for a Gene Laboratory; once in Pu Hai, renting one was incredibly easy.

For Ding Huan, his top priority now was to get money.

He still had several million in his bank account, but he was certain that if he dared to use it, his location would be exposed to the Gene Alliance the next instant.

Ding Huan entered a Gene Herbal Store.

In this era of species gene mutations, countless gene-altered plants and animals have emerged, many of them rare grade.

Thus, gene medicine shops emerged, collecting all kinds of mutated materials—whether mutated gene beasts or mutated gene herbs.

After gathering these items, the shops would sell them to gene laboratories, gene experiment enthusiasts, or universities.

Ding Huan carried a large bag; as soon as he entered such a shop, they knew he was there to sell gene medicine.

With the chaos upon them, most medicine merchants entered dressed just like this.

"What medicine are you selling?" the shop boy asked with a smile.

He understood that lone-wolf medicine merchants were never ordinary people.

Ding Huan thought of the few precious herbs in his bag, especially the still-unfinished mutated bayou.

That single piece of bayou was worth a fortune.

Soon Ding Huan realized this was not Changyi Continent—here, if he pulled out these herbs, the shopkeepers might not even recognize them or know their value.

Thinking of this, Ding Huan said, "I have one extremely precious herb—is the boss here?"

Hearing the boy's call, a woman around thirty stepped out, smiling at Ding Huan, "Come inside and have tea."

Ding Huan carried his large bag into the backyard, where a man and a woman were already seated drinking tea.

The woman was warm, inviting Ding Huan to sit, then pouring him a cup of tea herself, smiling, "Brother, what fine goods do you have to sell?"

Ding Huan pulled out a bundle of cloth and placed it on the table. "Boss, take a look at this."

Seeing Ding Huan's casual manner, even the female boss and the others paid it no mind.

The female boss unwrapped the cloth—and when she saw what was inside, all three were stunned. After a long moment, the man exclaimed excitedly, "Is this a demon core?"

The other two women said nothing, their gazes fixed entirely on Ding Huan.

Especially the female boss—she had been in the medicine business for years and had never seen anyone bring in a demon core from a gene beast.

"Are you selling this demon core?" The female boss's voice trembled with excitement.

Even if Ding Huan asked for an exorbitant price, she would still acquire this demon core.

Ding Huan immediately realized he had underestimated the demon core's value.

It wasn't that he didn't know its worth—he knew "demon core" was merely Earth's term; it was properly an "demon nucleus," and calling it a "demon core" was already overpraising that Level Three black ape.

True demon cores did exist on Changyi Continent, but even he had only seen one once from afar at an auction, never even touched it.

On Earth, records called it a demon core, so he had accepted the term.

He had originally planned to sell this demon core—but now he changed his mind.

Not because the demon core was too precious, but because from these people's reactions, he realized its value was at least ten million.

He couldn't let them transfer money to his account—he could only take cash.

Ten million in cash? He doubted he could carry it away.

"No," Ding Huan said sincerely, "I'm short on capital right now. I want to pawn this demon core—can I come back later to redeem it?"

"No, it's just that I'm short on capital lately. I want to pawn this demon core and come back for it after a while—how about that?" Ding Huan said sincerely.

All of them were stunned by Ding Huan's words—if he wanted to pawn it, why not go to a pawnshop?

Ding Huan smiled awkwardly. "It's like this—the pawnshop procedures are too complicated. I have some things I can't reveal…."

Here, he gritted his teeth, as if making a decision. "I lost a huge sum in the medicine business and still owe the bank money—they're watching me.

If I pawn this today, the bank will seize it tomorrow."

Ah, now they understood Ding Huan's concern.

In these times, how many had gone bankrupt? How many owed the bank and couldn't pay?

"What kind of pawn do you want?" The woman sounded disappointed now that he wasn't selling the demon core.

Ding Huan said, "Write me a document proving this demon core is stored here, and give me fifty thousand in cash. As for fees, do as you see fit."

"If you trust me, there's no problem," the woman said without hesitation.

Ding Huan owed the bank money—he needed cash, that was normal.

As for this demon core, even if it wasn't hers, just having it in her shop would instantly elevate her shop's status several levels.

As for this demon core, even if it wasn't hers, the moment it was placed in her shop, her shop's value would immediately rise several notches.