Chapter 40: Uneasy Geng Qianxing

Pu Hai Martial Arts Square.

Today marks the start of the second-round assessment, and the number of candidates waiting in the designated area 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 allocated 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 area, where Geng Qianxing and his three students are located, has become the center of attention.

It is still Examination Zone No. 38, but this time it's vastly 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 remain the most prominent figures in the square.

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.

The second round has an elimination rate of thirty to one, meaning at most ten thousand candidates will advance to the third round.

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

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 a specific gene; how much you grow after fusion remains unknown.

Some individuals have Gene Fusion Compatibility close to S-rank, yet after fusing with the alien gene, they make no further progress.

That is, after fusing with the alien gene, they cannot continue to grow.

Such people remain stuck at the level of Gene Ability Users and cannot become Gene Cultivators.

The Blue Star's Top Ten Academies invest enormous resources to train their students; they naturally won't settle for merely producing Ability Users.

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

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 created 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 an alien gene.

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 gene 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 an alien gene, one can progress from First-Level to Second-Level, Third-Level Gene Cultivator, and so on.

This kind of growth is the bare minimum—if you can't even achieve this, why fuse an alien gene at all?

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

Attribute abilities refer to the process of transforming the alien gene's skills into one's own innate abilities after fusion.

The first-round assessment involved twenty candidates per group, each lasting only a few minutes.

The second-round assessment involves ten candidates per group, each lasting twenty minutes.

Because of their top rankings in the first round, Yujiang University was the first group called for the second round.

"Teacher Geng, we're going in."

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

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

Fang Chong internally grumbled: Teacher Geng's words are a bit painful. Can he 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, frankly, he only just learned them.

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

Ding Jie seized control of Bai Yu Group—most people are well aware of 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 gossip behind closed doors?

No wonder Ding Huan told him not to buy Selu Gene—so the Selu Gene really was problematic.

Geng Qianxing couldn't calm himself—he alternated between worrying about Ding Huan and worrying about himself.

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?

Even if he loses the Endurance Gene Elixir, the real concern is whether, as Ding Huan warned him, he'll be taken away too?

…

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 go straight to look for a gene laboratory; once in Pu Hai, renting a gene testing lab was incredibly easy.

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

He still had a few 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 herb 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 manner of mutated materials, whether from 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 herbs.

With the chaos upon them, most herb merchants arrived dressed this way.

"What herbs are you selling?" the shop assistant asked with a smile.

He understood that solitary herb merchants were never ordinary people.

Ding Huan thought of the few precious herbs in his bag, especially the still-unused portion of mutated grapefruit.

That single piece of grapefruit was worth a fortune.

Soon, Ding Huan realized this was not Changyi Continent—these people might not even recognize these herbs or know their value.

Thinking of this, Ding Huan said, "I have a very precious herb. Is the boss here?"

Hearing the assistant's call, a woman in her thirties 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 good things 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 no mind.

The female boss unfolded 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 herb 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 demanded an exorbitant price, she would 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 really just a demon nucleus, and calling it a "demon core" was an overstatement for that Level Three chimpanzee.

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

On Earth, records called it a demon core, so he treated it as such.

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 retrieve it?"

"No, it's just that I've been short on capital lately. I want to pawn this demon core and come back for it after some time—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 cumbersome. I have some things I can't reveal…"

Here, Ding Huan gritted his teeth, as if making a decision. "I lost a large sum in the herb 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 this time, countless people had gone bankrupt; those owing the bank and unable to pay were too numerous to count.

"How do you want to pawn it?" The woman, disappointed that Ding Huan wouldn't sell the demon core, asked.

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're willing to trust me, that's fine," the woman said without hesitation.

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

As for the demon core, even if it wasn't hers, as long as it was kept in her shop, her shop's status would immediately rise several levels.

(That's all for today's update, friends—good night!)

That's all for today's update, friends! Good night!