My Gene Evolves Infinitely - Chapter 23

TL: Fiend Star

Editor: Sakifcena

After Xiao Hu admitted defeat, the two stepped down from the ring. Lu Yuan was immediately surrounded by a crowd of people.

“Brother Yuan, you’re too strong!”

“Yeah, Brother Yuan! With your strength, probably only Brother Ming can definitely beat you here.”

“Ha ha, wait till Brother Ming comes back, he’ll be shocked to see how strong you’ve become!”

“Brother Yuan, when will you challenge Brother Ming?”

“Yeah, Brother Yuan, when are you going to challenge him?”

Lu Yuan smiled and responded, “I’m still far behind Brother Ming in terms of strength. I need to train more before that.”

In fact, Lu Yuan felt that it wouldn’t be long before he could surpass Fu Langming. After all, Fu Langming was just a Gene Warrior who had recently broken through to the Warrior Level.

Considering his talent, if he has only just broken through now, the genes recorded during his apprenticeship were probably of ordinary quality. Such strength wasn’t particularly remarkable.

With the elite gene that Lu Yuan had recorded, once he had sufficiently refined it, defeating Fu Langming shouldn’t be too hard. However, Lu Yuan didn’t want to appear too strong; being moderately strong was enough for now.

He had no backers in this dark place of the slum, and standing out too much might not be a good thing. It was best to proceed with a cautious approach to development.

After all, Lu Yuan prided himself on being a prudent and low-key man—bold as a tiger but careful to sniff the roses. Yep, that’s me!

After extricating himself from the crowd’s grip, Lu Yuan continued practising Military Boxing and the Military Killing Sword.

Time passed, and by evening, Fu Langming had still not returned. Lu Yuan left the Ming Dynasty Dojo.

The slums at night were more chaotic than during the day, with few people on the streets, most of whom were working night shifts. Walking down a street, Lu Yuan heard gunshots coming from a nearby alley. Passers-by hurriedly sped up, their heads down as they moved away.

Standing on the street corner, a heavily made-up young woman seemed accustomed to the noise; she muttered a curse about her bad luck and hurried off to find customers elsewhere.

Lu Yuan glanced in the direction of the alley but decided not to intervene. He quickened his pace along with the other pedestrians to leave the area of the shootout.

Returning discreetly to his neighbourhood, Lu Yuan spotted a familiar figure on the community path. He quickened his step.

“Sister Qinghe?” he called out.

The figure turned around—it was Li Qinghe, looking exhausted, cigarette in hand.

Seeing Lu Yuan, she exhaled smoke and managed a weary smile, “Yuan, what are you doing out so late?”

“Just got back from the Ming Dynasty Dojo,” Lu Yuan replied with a smile.

“Hee hee, always so diligent, aren’t you?”

“Of course. Only through hard work can one progress, earn money, and eventually leave this slum.”

“And how’s your training going? Didn’t you say you went into the Land of Origin?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes lit up, “I made significant progress. I entered the Land of Origin yesterday and earned over ten thousand dollars!”

“Really? That much?” Li Qinghe’s eyes widened, a look of astonishment crossing her face.

‘A low-level ominous beast’s material sells for about 100-200 each; over ten thousand… Did Younger Brother Yuan kill nearly a hundred beasts? I underestimated him.’

Li Qinghe was indeed startled. It wasn’t so much the harvest itself that shocked her—she had seen others make even more in their first forays into the Land of Origin. She herself had nearly wiped out an entire area’s elite beasts on her first trip.

But her background and talents set her apart; they couldn’t be used as a standard for comparison. Lu Yuan’s achievements, on the other hand, marked him as a formidable talent even beyond the slums.

But these people mostly have family support.

Li Qinghe knows Lu Yuan’s family situation all too well. Achieving this much has not been easy.

Lu Yuan treats Li Qinghe like a caring older sister. Seeing her surprised, he smiled, a hint of pride in his expression, “Unfortunately, this time the money must go towards some necessary gear for our adventure, leaving very little leftover. Next time I venture into the Land of Origin, I’m sure I’ll save enough to take you away with me.”

Li Qinghe, with a beaming smile, watched Lu Yuan, “Having such intentions makes me very happy, little brother. We’ll talk once you’ve saved up.”

“By the way, Sister Qinghe, you didn’t come home during the day? Just got back now?”

Lu Yuan observed the fatigue on Li Qinghe’s face and asked.

“Mm, just got back.”

Li Qinghe took a drag on her cigarette, stretched her lithe body, and chuckled.

“Why so late today?”

A curious smile played across Li Qinghe’s face as she eyed Lu Yuan, her tone teasing, “Some people just didn’t want to let me sleep.”

“Uh…”

Lu Yuan was momentarily lost for words.

He opened his mouth but couldn’t find anything to say, opting instead to change the subject, “Looks like you’re really tired, Sister Qinghe. Let’s head back so you can rest up.”

Li Qinghe glanced at Lu Yuan, a mischievous smile spreading across her face, “Hee hee, Yuan, aren’t you a grown-up now? Why so shy? Need some help from your big sister? Don’t worry, I won’t charge you.”

Lu Yuan stopped in his tracks, gazing earnestly at Li Qinghe, “Sister Qinghe, you’ve always been the one helping me. I wasn’t able to reciprocate before, but now I can. From now on, I won’t let you live this way. I want you to have a normal life—an ordinary girl’s life, with your own job, your own love, your own life.”

Li Qinghe was taken aback by Lu Yuan’s words. For a moment, she was stunned.

She looked at him intently, took another drag from her cigarette, and softly laughed, “Has my little brother grown so wise? I’m touched… But it’ll be a while. I need to say goodbye to my clients first; after all, they’ve looked after me for over a year. Without them, I wouldn’t be here now.”

She said, her eyes flashing a hint of coldness.

Lu Yuan thought, was she talking about people like Fu Langming?

Having gotten to know them, Lu Yuan found that Fu Langming was quite decent to his own.

Sister Qinghe must have truly benefited from their care. He didn’t dwell on it and simply nodded, “Alright then.”

“Let’s go! I’m a bit hungry, Yuan. Since you’ve made some money, shouldn’t you treat your sister to a nice meal?”

“Sure, Sister Qinghe, whatever you feel like eating, just say the word.”

“Hee hee, then I won’t hold back! By the way, are you sure you don’t want your big sister to help you step into adulthood?”

“…Sister Qinghe, please stop joking.”

“Hahaha!”

The two disappeared into the night, chatting and laughing.

They went for a late-night snack and then returned to their respective rooms.

Li Qinghe entered her room, lay on the bed staring at the pristine ceiling, and slightly narrowed her eyes.

Moments later, she curved her lips into a smile:

“…That rascal, if he ever saw my true face, I don’t believe he’d refuse, hmph!”

Then, her smile faded, “That thing has started again… but with me here, you can’t escape.”

…

Lu Yuan returned to his room, powered up the old computer, logged into BattleNet, and as usual, began browsing the forum.

This had become Lu Yuan’s routine over the past few days.

Posts on BattleNet were often very helpful to him.

Sadly, some required payment and others needed a higher BattleNet rank.

This robbed Lu Yuan of the joy of freebies.

However, the posts that required money or a higher rank were not currently necessary for him.

Not freeloading anymore? Well, when the time comes, I’ll have money too!

Lu Yuan scrolled through the forum and soon spotted a new post.

‘Human nature gone awry! Can you believe what some people do in the Ash Stone Forest?’

Ash Stone Forest?

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. Isn’t that where he is right now?

What happened?

Curious, Lu Yuan clicked on the post.

“Today, I need to vent about something infuriating!”

“Here’s what happened. My squad and I were hunting Ash Stone Beetles in the Ash Stone Forest when we noticed a bright flame in the distance. Thinking it could be treasure, we decided to check it out. To our horror, we encountered two frenzied Black Mark Ash Stone Beetles there! Those beetles, I don’t know what got into them, attacked us on sight. At that time, we were with an Elf and a Gnoll team. The three teams together barely managed to kill those two beetles, and I lost two comrades in the process!”

“But that’s not the worst part. We found that these Black Mark Ash Stone Beetles were actually guarding a wooden treasure chest. By the time we found it, the chest was already empty! Clearly, someone had taken the loot and left the beetles there to trap anyone who came after them!”

“I have to ask, do people who do this sort of thing have no conscience?! How malicious! It’s a complete distortion of human nature, a total moral decay! Fellow forum members, I need your thoughts!”

After reading the post, he looked a bit bemused.

Fire, two Black Mark Ash Stone Beetles, and an opened wooden treasure chest.

Why does this sound so familiar?

Could it be the chest he had opened earlier?

Suddenly, he felt not so great.

Was he being unfairly blamed? If he could have killed those two Black Mark Ash Stone Beetles, would he really have left them there to trap others?

He definitely would have hunted them down, perhaps even gaining a Battle Soul.

It’s obvious he couldn’t kill them; that’s why he left.

But to be accused of having twisted human nature, a lack of morals, heartless— Lu Yuan was immediately disheartened. Below the post, there were several hundred comments. Lu Yuan scrolled through them.

“Wow, that person really is heartless. Doesn’t sound like a good person.”

“Ha… The poster is so weak. Black Mark Ash Stone Beetles are nothing. Shouldn’t a combined attack from three teams on two beetles result in no deaths? That’s just hilarious.”

“You can’t say that. Who doesn’t start off weak and gradually get stronger? Black Mark Ash Stone Beetles are known newbie killers, after all.”

“But think about it, if someone managed to open that wooden chest and still leave those guarding beasts behind, mustn’t they be pretty powerful? How else could you open the chest while the beasts were still alive?”

“I also think it was some powerful player. Have the big shots of today developed such a cruel sense of humour, specifically targeting newbies?”

“…”

Reading the comments, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but laugh.

These people had some insight?

They even recognized that someone like him must be a powerhouse.

Lu Yuan’s mood lifted instantly.

He closed the thread and browsed a few more posts.

After a while, Lu Yuan logged off the site.

His thoughts merged with the gene battle pattern.

Instantly, amid his consciousness, a gateway of light appeared.

The gateway was dim, a result of the mental energy Lu Yuan had spent entering the Origin Land.

However, this dimness was quickly fading, and it wouldn’t be long before he could enter the Origin Land again.

Fortunately, he had come out alive. If he had died, his mental state would have suffered, making recovery harder, and re-entering the Origin Land would have taken much longer.

Lu Yuan waited a few minutes, and once the light gate was fully restored, he entered the Origin Land once more.