The Fate-Type Transcendent Gene

The only Saint Grade gene still awaiting evolution was the last one — Hand of Death.

The Evolution Cube pulsed with deep blue light and began the process.

Moments later, the evolution was complete.

*Saint Grade Gene: Scythe of Death.*

Like its predecessor, Scythe of Death was a curse-type Combat Technique.

Compared to Hand of Death, however, the instant-kill effect was far more potent — and the array of debuffs it inflicted was considerably stronger as well.

This technique enacted *conceptual* death. Not merely the end of life, but the death of the inanimate, too. Even objects without life could "die."

Scythe of Death worked by harvesting the very concept of death. A machine would simply lose power. A Gene Armament would be destroyed at its root, its spiritual essence extinguished.

The greater the power gap between Lu Yuan and his target, the more devastating the effect. If the gap was small — or if the opponent was actually stronger — death became harder to achieve, but the technique would still leave its mark.

He couldn't help but marvel once more: Divine Grade genes were in a class of their own. They could enact death at the *conceptual* level.

At his current strength, Scythe of Death unleashed in full could turn an entire star system into a wasteland. Stars would lose their "life" and go dark; life-bearing planets would lose their "life" and wither into barren husks — leaving behind nothing but death itself.

Scythe of Death was as formidable as any of his other Divine Grade genes, living up to the name in every sense.

The death force carried in its gene legacy had also ascended to the level of laws. Lu Yuan could now wield the Law of Death — wilting life, withering all things, drawing everything toward its end.

After absorbing all of the legacy knowledge, he exhaled a slow, measured breath.

At long last, he had evolved every one of his Transcendent Genes to Divine Grade.

He now held seven Divine Grade genes in total.

Even among War God-level powerhouses, there was probably no one who possessed as many Divine Grade genes as he did. Even War Gods tended to carry at least a few weaker ones — King Grade, Sovereign Grade.

If he tempered all his Transcendent Genes to peak proficiency, he figured he'd rank among the most powerful even within the War God tier.

And right now, he was merely at the Battle Emperor level.

Of course, evolving existing genes wasn't the whole picture. Now that the process was complete, he had room to inscribe a new one.

The gene he most wanted was the one he had spotted in the Merit Hall earlier — *Time Stasis*. Unfortunately, that Transcendent Gene required a full twenty million Merits, and he hadn't been hunting Aberrant Feral Beasts or suppressing Aberration Sources in the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin during this period. His Merit count fell far short.

For now, something else would have to do.

Over this stretch of time, Lu Yuan hadn't only browsed the Merit Hall for suitable Transcendent Genes. He'd also made occasional visits to the shops in Talent Camp and the Auction Houses in Sky-Mending City and White Cloud City. He trained twelve hours a day, after all — that still left plenty of time for other things.

In the end, he had settled on a rather interesting Transcendent Gene.

Its grade was laughably low — Elite Grade — and it was called *Lucky Start*.

Its function: after activating the technique, the user's luck improved slightly, and the first Feral Beast killed would yield better loot.

He had spotted it at the White Cloud City Auction House. As an Elite Grade technique that offered no combat boost whatsoever, providing only a modest luck enhancement at a fairly significant Spirit Power cost, the gene had attracted virtually no interest from anyone.

But it had thoroughly intrigued him.

A luck-enhancing Transcendent Gene — the first he had ever come across. Others might exist in the hands of people he'd never met, but none had crossed his path before.

What captured his curiosity was a single question: what would a luck-type Transcendent Gene look like at Divine Grade?

Divine-level fortune? Treasure raining from the sky?

He'd barely hesitated before buying it on the spot. It had cost only a few tens of thousands in Second-rank Spirit Crystals — barely worth mentioning.

Lu Yuan took out the Transcendent Gene, glowing with a soft green light, and began the inscription.

At his current strength, inscribing an Elite Grade Transcendent Gene was practically effortless. It was over in moments — his Gene Chain shifted, and the inscription was complete.

Afterward, his consciousness entered the space beside his Gene Chain. White mist churned before him, coalescing into a small humanoid shape.

It was a pudgy little creature with enormous eyes and a long spear clutched in its hands — a strange humanoid Feral Beast.

Those oversized eyes blazed with savage crimson light as the creature let out a piercing shriek.

Its aura registered at Battle Emperor level — which was, on its face, somewhat absurd. A Gene Warrior who had only inscribed an Elite Grade gene had no business reaching Battle Emperor. Even Battle King would be unrealistic under normal circumstances.

But this was merely the lingering will of the Transcendent Gene, calibrated to match Lu Yuan's actual strength. The absurdity was simply a byproduct of a Battle Emperor inscribing a gene meant for beginners.

He watched the tiny humanoid Feral Beast hurling itself around with savage fury, and his expression went strange. *This has to be the weakest Battle Emperor remnant spirit in all of history.*

The little creature charged at him on its stubby legs.

Then a grey-white scythe manifested, sweeping across the creature's neck. The next instant, it froze in place — then dissolved into white mist and scattered.

With any other technique, he would have needed to strike the remnant spirit repeatedly, grinding down its will until it was fully exhausted. But Scythe of Death had erased the lingering will at the conceptual level, leaving it no chance to regenerate.

He had to admit: Scythe of Death was remarkably convenient.

A pleasant warmth settled in his chest. His consciousness returned to his body, completing the inscription. He sensed the changes in himself — and the corner of his mouth twitched.

The boost from Lucky Start was so negligible it was almost insulting. If not for the passive enhancement that came standard with every Transcendent Gene, he might not have even detected the microscopic improvement.

He had to admit: at his current level of strength, inscribing an Elite Grade gene was very nearly a waste of a Gene Chain slot.

Of course, that was before evolution entered the picture.

A flicker of anticipation lit up his eyes. He began.

The deep blue light in the Evolution Cube pulsed. His Gene Chain began to shift.

*Boss Grade Transcendent Gene: Grand Lucky Start.*

Lu Yuan: *...?*

What kind of name was that?

He decided the race this gene had come from had genuinely questionable taste.

He continued.

*Chief Grade Transcendent Gene: Good Fortune Arrives.*

*Lord Grade Transcendent Gene: Good Fortune, Come Quick.*

*King Grade Transcendent Gene: Little Lucky Star.*

*Sovereign Grade Transcendent Gene: Big Lucky Star.*

*Sovereign Grade Transcendent Gene: Fortune's Favor.*

*Saint Grade Transcendent Gene: Child of Fate.*

*Divine Grade Transcendent Gene: Wheel of Fate.*

The naming throughout the evolution chain had struck him as distinctly peculiar. But by the time it reached Divine Grade, he had to admit he was genuinely shocked.

Previously, the evolution that had cost him the most Spirit Power was Spatial Rift, at roughly ten million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals for the Saint-to-Divine step.

That record had just been shattered.

Evolving Child of Fate into Wheel of Fate had consumed approximately twenty-three million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals. The number was staggering.

If he hadn't stockpiled enough Spirit Power beforehand, he might not have been able to complete the evolution at all.

But afterward, Lu Yuan felt it had been absolutely worth it.

Setting aside everything else, the raw attribute boost from this single Divine Grade gene was extraordinary — nearly double what Spatial Rift had provided, and considerably more than any of his other Divine Grade genes.

And then there were the actual effects.

First: Wheel of Fate passively improved his luck at all times. Finding loose change on the street, getting better drops from Feral Beasts, stumbling across spirit fruits on a casual walk — all of it became more likely.

Beyond that passive effect, the Wheel of Fate technique could actively alter destiny.

Turned forward, it brought good fortune to a target. Reversed, it brought calamity.

Under good fortune, everything a person attempted could succeed exactly as intended — scratch a lottery ticket and win the grand prize; slay a Feral Beast and always drop a Transcendent Gene and Gene Armament; in battle, the environment perpetually favored you; and so on.

Under calamity, a target's bad luck ran endless — step outside and get hit by a vehicle; try to take a drink and choke on it; in combat, disaster followed disaster.

The technique was immensely powerful, but the Spirit Power cost was equally immense — scaling directly with the intensity of the fortune or misfortune applied. The more extreme, the more it consumed.

And there was a hard limit. Push it too far, and the Wheel of Fate would backlash against its user, plunging their own fate into chaos — good and ill inverting and tangling together.

Absorbing the legacy knowledge, a quiet understanding settled in his mind.

The Wheel of Fate let him toy with destiny — but if he wasn't careful, destiny might just toy back.

Still, he figured it wasn't too dire a concern. If the backlash actually killed him, he'd simply revive.

Beyond altering destiny, Wheel of Fate also carried a precognitive effect. The first mode required him to actively sustain the technique while channeling Spirit Power, granting foresight of upcoming battles and more. The second was passive: random, unsolicited glimpses of future events — with no control over what or when.

There was also a body of legacy knowledge covering fate-related applications — reading a target's fortune, for instance. The readings weren't precise, but they could gauge whether a target's luck was running good or bad in the near future. He privately thought that even if he ever found himself with nothing better to do, he could probably make a living as a fortune teller.

All of it — the foresight, the destiny manipulation — was undeniably potent. Reading an opponent's moves in advance gave him full command over any engagement.

And pairing good fortune for himself with calamity for his enemies... the first thing that came to mind was whether engineering a destiny shift before unleashing Scythe of Death would dramatically raise the odds of a conceptual kill.

*Wheel of Fate and Scythe of Death are a match made in heaven.*

His fingers were already itching to find a War God to test it on.

A moment later, he caught himself. *A Battle Emperor who wants to spar with a War God? That's a bit overconfident.*

*Better keep a level head.*

All told, his breakthrough was now truly complete. He possessed a full eight Divine Grade Transcendent Genes — each one formidably powerful.

This called for a celebration.

He rose, stretched, washed up, and walked out of his room.

He made his way to the Gravity Room where Si Tingxue and Rebecca were training, and knocked.

The door opened quickly. Rebecca poked her head out — she'd clearly been working hard, her pretty face shining with sweat.

When she saw him, a puzzled look crossed her face. "Ayuan, what brings you here?"

He cleared his throat. "Well... I came to spar with you two."

Rebecca's eyes lit up. "Sure! Xiaoxue and I haven't sparred with you in ages."

She let him in and closed the door behind them.

Si Tingxue had naturally heard the knock. She looked toward Lu Yuan, a faintly combative gleam rising in her ice-blue eyes.

For all her cool composure, Si Tingxue had a stubbornly competitive streak. She knew perfectly well she was no match for him — but that never stopped her from wanting to fight.

She stood up. "What made you suddenly want to spar?"

He said, with a perfectly straight face, "I think you two may have misunderstood what I meant by 'spar.'"

Si Tingxue and Rebecca blinked, momentarily thrown.

A beat later, Rebecca was the first to catch on. Her face went scarlet. She shot to her feet and bolted for the door, calling out as she went:

"I just remembered I have something to—"

She hadn't even reached the door before Lu Yuan materialized in front of it, smiling pleasantly.

Si Tingxue was still working it out, a step behind.

The realization came soon enough. She resisted with everything she had — but faced with the gap in their strength, resistance proved futile. She had no choice but to yield.

*…[Several tens of thousands of words omitted.]*

Two days later, in the room.

Both Rebecca and Si Tingxue still showed faint traces of exhaustion — but at this moment, both were staring at Lu Yuan with wide eyes, expressions of utter disbelief written plain across their faces.

"You actually broke through to Battle Emperor?!" Si Tingxue's voice carried the weight of shock.

Rebecca's eyes were shining with pure admiration. "Ayuan, you're incredible! You haven't even graduated yet and you're already Battle Emperor — that's the same cultivation level as my grandfather!"

She happily wrapped her arms around his.

Lu Yuan smiled at their stunned reactions. "That's right, so I wanted to celebrate a little."

Si Tingxue's face flushed red. She lunged forward and bit down hard on his shoulder.

Given Lu Yuan's physical constitution, he felt absolutely nothing — but he threw on an exaggerated expression of agony all the same, wailing: "Ahh — I'm dying, I'm dying! That hurts so much!"

Si Tingxue gave up and released him, rolling her eyes, her expression a picture of helpless exasperation: "Have you no shame?"

Lu Yuan drew himself up with unshakeable dignity: "Who says I don't? Am I not handsome?"

He turned to Rebecca. "Rebecca, am I handsome?"

Rebecca's face scrunched with conflict. Part of her wanted to say something contrary, but when she actually looked at his face, the denial caught in her throat. She found herself thoroughly stuck.

She puffed out her cheeks, voice carrying a note of indignation: "Ayuan is terrible. Xiaoxue has every right to be upset."

Lu Yuan gave a convincingly contrite cough. "Next time I'll definitely ask your permission first."

"*Next time?!*"

Si Tingxue's eyes went wide. She couldn't believe the audacity.

*Does his skin get thicker with every breakthrough?*