Chapter 42: Techniques and Gene Skills

With the experience of extracting genes from the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Ape, Ding Huan encountered no detours when synthesizing the regeneration genes for the Two-Horned Fire Lizard.

But this Two-Horned Fire Lizard might carry a trace of Divine Beast bloodline; fully converting that Divine Beast bloodline's gene skill into his own attribute genes was far more difficult than extracting the poison-resistance gene from the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Ape.

Just to locate the complete injury-recovery gene chain, Ding Huan spent three days.

He barely left the laboratory, fortunately, the lab's facilities were fully equipped.

To restore his energy, Ding Huan cultivated for another day.

The rest was simple; on the fifth day, Ding Huan synthesized the true injury-recovery gene.

To leave a dose for Seeing Qu Yi, he deliberately synthesized two batches of this gene serum.

He also had one dose of injury-recovery gene serum extracted from the Six-Horned Fire Lizard's genes in his bag.

But compared to these two true recovery gene serums, that one was worlds apart—completely different in level.

Indeed, effort yields reward; if he hadn't risked his life searching for that Fire Lizard with a trace of Divine Beast bloodline in Penglu Mountain, where would he have gotten such a treasure?

Quickly pack up and check out of the lab.

The lab manager wasn't surprised to see Ding Huan, filthy and disheveled, come to terminate his lease.

Too many gene researchers came to this lab and emerged in even worse condition than Ding Huan.

Lab rentals weren't cheap; if you rented it for a few days then went back to rest, it would be a waste.

After leaving the lab, Ding Huan immediately sought a hotel.

Puhai was truly vast; although people from all over the world had flooded into Puhai for the Blue Star's Top Ten Academies assessment, the vast majority clustered around Puhai Martial Arts Square.

Ding Huan's location was exactly east-west opposite Puhai Martial Arts Square, so he easily found accommodation.

After resting one night at the hotel, Ding Huan ingested the injury-recovery gene serum he had synthesized.

Though the gene serum was at room temperature, upon ingestion, it instantly transformed into a stream of icy, refreshing spring water that seeped into every part of his body.

Ding Huan activated the Luo Shi Jing to perform Zhou Tian cultivation; after just two Zhou Tian cycles, he entered a meditative state.

He awoke only because someone knocked on the door.

Ding Huan opened his eyes and felt an indescribable sense of ease and comfort throughout his entire body.

"Bang bang!" The door was knocked again.

Ding Huan sighed helplessly and opened the door.

A hotel attendant stood at the threshold; seeing Ding Huan open the door, he apologized, "Sorry to disturb you—we were worried because you hadn't opened your door in three days."

"Forget it. If I don't come out next time, don't knock on my door, understood? Don't worry about the room fee—I left a deposit of fifty thousand."

Ding Huan waved his hand and let it go.

"Understood. Should you need anything, please call us anytime," the attendant apologized again before withdrawing.

It seemed he really needed to find a quiet place to seclude himself; otherwise, being interrupted every few days of cultivation was no good.

Closing the door, Ding Huan looked at his arm.

Should he cut himself with a knife to test how well his injury recovery worked?

He was already a Level Two Gene Cultivator—why use a knife? Couldn't he just gather internal Qi to slice his arm open?

Ding Huan was pondering how to concentrate internal Qi into a blade-like force to cut his arm without severing it.

A sudden piece of information appeared in Ding Huan's mind: Wind Blade Technique…

Wind Blade Technique? Ding Huan suddenly stood up—why would his mind suddenly contain this information?

Yet the next moment, the cultivation method for Wind Blade Technique was as vividly etched into his memory as if carved there.

Amazing!

Ding Huan wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He wasn't impressed by the Wind Blade Technique itself—it truly was powerful; according to the memory, simply channeling internal Qi through the method would effortlessly produce a wind blade.

Ding Huan was awed by the hide scroll—no, by the person who created the hide scroll.

How much information was still hidden within that hide scroll, undiscovered by him?

"I believe that even if humanity advances into the Gene Era and acquires Gene Spiritual Roots, it will be extremely difficult to return to the pure Spiritual Root era of the Daoist cultivators.

The reason is that in the Daoist era, there were simply too many powerful individuals with Spiritual Roots.

After countless years of refinement and generations of repeated experimentation, they developed all sorts of simple or complex techniques…

I cannot pass down all those techniques, but simple Daoist techniques like Wind Blade, Wind Riding, Fireball, Dust-Removing, and Concealing Qi—I can still engrave them onto this hide scroll…"

The information appearing in his mind left Ding Huan stunned.

Wind Blade, Fireball, Wind Riding—these existed on Changyi Continent too, but they were achieved through gene serums.

For example, Wind Blade required fusing the genes of the Blade-Spitting Toad into a gene serum, then integrating that serum to gain the Wind Blade Technique.

As for Fireball Technique, it required extracting the fire-spewing gene from a Fire Kirin, synthesizing a gene serum, and fusing it into the human body.

Other mutated species were one thing, but the Fire Kirin wasn't a mutated species.

To obtain a Fire Kirin with fire-spewing genes, it must carry a trace of Divine Beast bloodline.

Thus, on Changyi Continent, a Fire Kirin with fire-spewing genes was priceless.

No—its very drop of blood was priceless.

Yet his mind held memories of achieving Wind Blade and Fireball through techniques…

Not through gene skill serums.

Ding Huan fell silent.

He had always assumed Gene Spiritual Root was identical to Spiritual Root—no difference.

The knowledge from the hide scroll also suggested so: the ancient immortals and gods vanished because Spiritual Roots disappeared.

Therefore, to cultivate, he had to fuse Gene Spiritual Root.

Now that he had fused Gene Spiritual Root, he had essentially gained the foundation to become an immortal or god, drawing closer to the ancient masters.

Is it really true?

Now here lies a divergence: after cultivating the spiritual root, one gains spells; after cultivating the gene spiritual root, one gains gene-skill fusions.

Thinking of this, Ding Huan immediately activated his internal Qi, swiftly forming hand seals, and a blade of wind erupted from his palms and shot out.

"Crack!" The bedside table several feet away was nearly split in half by this wind blade.

Seeing the deep groove carved into the bedside table, Ding Huan sucked in a sharp breath—what an incredibly powerful Wind Blade Spell. If this had struck a person, wouldn't it cleave them in two?

This was his first time casting the Wind Blade Spell—what would it be like if he mastered it?

This is far superior to fusing gene-skills!

In his past life on Changyi Continent, he had dreamed of obtaining a Blade-Spitting Toad to synthesize a Blade-Metal Gene Agent for fusion.

Unfortunately, even until his death, he never acquired one.

Now it comes so easily? And its effect is vastly stronger than the Blade-Spitting Skill derived from fusing Blade-Spitting Toad genes.

Ding Huan immediately went to the bathroom, forming hand seals with both hands; after half a minute, a faint wisp of smoke dissipated from his palm—no fireball appeared.

He did not try again. The reason he failed to produce a fireball was not due to flaws in the fireball hand seal, but because he was unpracticed.

He was nearly certain that, when paired with internal Qi, this hand seal could indeed produce a Fireball Spell if mastered.

Calm now, Ding Huan understood: the gene spiritual root was not inferior to the ancient innate spiritual root.

The entire path of gene spiritual root cultivation—developing all abilities through gene-skill fusion—was wrong.

Some abilities should follow the spell path; others should proceed through gene-skill fusion.

Changyi Continent never developed toward spells simply because there were too few powerful cultivators, and no one discovered the path to spell cultivation.

Now, having obtained the pre-existing Wind Blade construction method from the parchment, he could effortlessly cast the Wind Blade.

Currently, Ding Huan alone is cultivating via the gene spiritual root.

Had it not been for this parchment guiding him, he might eventually have developed Fireball and Wind Blade Spells himself—but that would still require years of accumulation.

Ding Huan vaguely understood: in gene cultivation, gene abilities and gene skills cannot be treated as one and the same.

Gene skills, such as Fireball Spell, Wind Blade Spell, and others, fall under this category.

These skills can be acquired through gene fusion.

That is, by extracting genes from animals or plants possessing these innate skills, then fusing those genes into oneself to gain the ability.

The drawback: once fused, such skills cannot advance.

For example, on Changyi Continent, the Wind Blade Skill fused from Blade-Spitting Toads, the Flame Skill fused from Fire Kirin.

He had long noticed this problem, so when refining the anti-toxin skill from the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Ape, he altered his gene fusion method.

He integrated it with his own genes, transforming the anti-toxin gene ability into an innate ability that grows with his cultivation level.

But other gene cultivators lacked this capability.

Now he knew spells could solve this problem.

Spell-based realization is far stronger than gene-skill fusion.

For the same ability—say, Wind Blade Spell—the spell version is not only stronger, but also advances with cultivation level.

This does not mean spells are universally superior to gene fusion.

For instance, his anti-toxin gene and injury-recovery gene—these likely cannot be achieved through spells at all.

Even if spells could replicate them, their effect could never match the strength of his innate attributes.

Ding Huan's path of gene cultivation grew ever clearer.

Gene spiritual root cultivators need not be weaker than those born with innate spiritual roots.

The key lies in how the cultivator utilizes them.

For abilities such as anti-toxin, injury recovery, and physical enhancement, one must use gene fusion to transform them into innate gene abilities—ordinary spells cannot achieve this.

For abilities like Fireball, Wind Blade, Wind Riding, etc., one should no longer seek out mutant beasts to extract their attack genes and fuse them.

Because these can be called spells, and can be achieved through other means—hand seals, Qi circulation methods.

The same logic applies if he later wishes to develop stronger offensive spells.

If one absolutely must fuse these skill genes into oneself,

then one must do as he did with the anti-toxin gene: ensure the fused skill grows stronger with cultivation level.

Never simply fuse them blindly—that will only restrict one's growth.

Once he understood this, Ding Huan felt immense satisfaction.

He had previously worried about hunting powerful mutant beasts with strong attack abilities, extracting their attack genes to turn them into his own offensive methods.

Now he no longer needs to—and will avoid such actions as much as possible in the future.

He now needed to find a place to repeatedly practice his Wind Blade Spell, Fireball Spell, and Wind Riding Spell.

Once these abilities were mastered, even if he encountered a Heaven-Class Martialist, he could at least defend himself, right?