The Palace Dungeon Ruins

The small market outside the Sandy Rock Palace, Land of Origin.

Lu Yuan stepped out from the dungeon entrance. The moment he appeared, Gene Warriors across the market were already calling out to him with grins and waves.

Word had gotten around among the regulars: there was a young human Gene Warrior who came every day, hunted creatures in extraordinary numbers, and walked out each time with a mountain of materials. They had witnessed his formidable strength firsthand, and whenever warriors gathered to swap stories, the name spread of its own accord. Humans, elves, cat-kin, gnolls — all sorts passed through this market. Every one of them knew who he was.

Because Lu Yuan activated Black Iron Body during combat — his skin turning the color of forged iron — and because he was a Guardian type on top of that, someone had pinned a nickname on him: the Black Knight. It had stuck.

Only Gene Warriors with genuine strength earned recognition and a title in this tight-knit circle. That was what power looked like.

Being recognized — especially by people who had real strength themselves — was a good feeling. No one was immune to that.

Lu Yuan smiled and nodded at the greetings, then made his way to Li Luo's stall.

Li Luo's eyes lit up the moment he spotted him. "Brother Lu, what have you got this time?"

Lu Yuan reached into his battle-mark space and poured the materials out onto the counter. They formed a sizeable pile. Li Luo stared, then couldn't help himself.

"Black Line Snake skin and venom sacs — Mr. Lu, you're actually hunting Black Line Snakes?! Those things live near the inner circle, don't they?"

"Got lucky," Lu Yuan said. "Ran into a few that had wandered off on their own."

Li Luo smiled. "Killing Black Line Snakes isn't just luck. That takes real strength."

He was right. Black Line Snakes were pack creatures by nature; even a lone specimen carried strength equivalent to fifty to eighty percent ordinary tempering — a serious threat. Lu Yuan had only managed to pick them off because he caught isolated individuals. If a full swarm had surrounded him, the situation would have been no safer than falling into an ant nest. That was precisely why so few Gene Warriors could hunt them at all. Lu Yuan himself had only managed it by stumbling onto stragglers.

"Give me a price."

"No need — we've worked together enough times. I trust you." Li Luo counted out the crystals and set them down. "Three thousand and twenty-one Spirit Crystals, all here. Count them if you like, Mr. Lu."

Li Luo handed over the Spirit Crystals, and Lu Yuan stored them in his battle-mark space. They added each other as contacts, and Lu Yuan said his goodbyes.

As usual, he stopped to restock before heading home. This time, with real money in his pocket, he could finally browse the full range of potions without wincing at the prices.

His standard healing potions had been used up during combat, so he picked up another. A superior-grade speed potion — one bottle. Two superior-grade defense potions. Two superior-grade strength amplification potions. Defense and strength potions were priced identically: 70,000 yuan per pair.

Healing: 30,000. Speed: 50,000. Two defense potions: 70,000. Two strength potions: 70,000. A total of 220,000 yuan.

On top of that, he bought a handful of other superior-grade items and some crafting materials that could be used inside the Land of Origin. Worth keeping on hand — you never knew when they'd come in useful.

Another 150,000 gone.

All told, he had spent 370,000 yuan. His funds had shrunk again; only about 70,000 remained.

He thought back to just a few days ago — a couple hundred yuan a month for living expenses, bumming meal money off Qinghe sis just to get by. It was hard to believe he was now casually spending hundreds of thousands without batting an eye.

He headed home.

He had barely walked through the door when he found Ma Lingling and Li Qinghe in the middle of packing. Ma Lingling's room door hung open, and from inside came the sounds of things being shifted and knocked about.

Li Qinghe glanced at him. "Little Yuan's back? Sister Ma is planning to leave."

Lu Yuan stopped. "What happened?"

He looked toward Ma Lingling.

Her eyes were red and swollen. She managed a smile, but the bitterness beneath it was impossible to hide. "Ah Wei's gone. There's no point staying here by myself anymore. I'm going to head to Ah Wei's hometown first — see how things are."

"Let me help," Lu Yuan said, stepping forward.

Ma Lingling's belongings were sparse. They had everything packed into several boxes in no time. Before she closed the last suitcase, she carefully lifted the group photo from her desk and laid it in the corner, then tucked in the faded plastic rose beside it — handling both as though they were fragile.

They carried the boxes downstairs. The three of them made their way to the front entrance of the complex.

Ma Lingling flagged down a hover car. She turned to look at Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe, and smiled.

"I'm off. I hope things get better for you both — and that you find your way out of this hellhole soon."

Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe nodded.

"Safe travels," Lu Yuan said simply.

The hover car pulled away. Li Qinghe watched it until it disappeared, breathing out a slow sigh, cigarette between her fingers.

"Phew... I've always known lives in the slums are cheap. But actually watching someone you know die..."

Lu Yuan said, "Qinghe sis, I made over 400,000 this time. That's enough to move."

Li Qinghe turned and looked him over. Something unreadable moved across her face — not quite a smile.

*Over 400,000. How much material would that take? Hasn't Little Yuan only been Awakened for a short while? He can already bring out that much? He's gotten this strong already? Looks like I've been underestimating him.*

"I don't know much about how Gene Warriors work," she said at last, warmth softening her voice, "but you've really made something of yourself, Little Yuan. Earning that kind of money — no wonder you had the nerve to say you'd cover my meals."

Lu Yuan nodded, then smiled. "That's beside the point. We should both leave the slums."

Li Qinghe was quiet for a moment. Then she sighed. "Little Yuan, I still have a few things I need to take care of. Why don't you go ahead first?"

"You know what it is. It's not something you can help with."

Lu Yuan frowned. "How could I just leave? Tell me what it is — I might actually be useful. And there's still that shadow lurking around. The slums aren't safe, and I won't feel right leaving you here alone."

Li Qinghe exhaled a thin smoke ring. "Do you really mean it? You'd actually drag your big sister out of here?"

"Of course." His voice was steady. "You're the only person who's actually looked out for me. If it hadn't been for you, I'm not sure I'd have survived the slums at all. I'm not walking away and leaving you behind."

Li Qinghe looked at him for a moment. The tension around her eyes slowly eased.

"Alright. I'll wrap things up as fast as I can." She waved him off. "Now go get some sleep — you haven't slept since you got back, have you? You must be running on fumes."

"In that case," he said, "I'll wait until you're done."

Back in his room, Lu Yuan opened the Battle Net.

Over the past several days, his Spirit Crystal earnings had topped 30,000, but most had gone straight into the Evolution Cube. He kept roughly 2,000 in reserve for cultivation and absorbing spirit power.

Even after pouring in tens of thousands of Spirit Crystals, the Evolution Cube still refused to evolve his elite gene to boss-tier. It was starting to give him a real headache. He had no idea how many more would finally be enough.

His gene tempering, on the other hand, had reached 39%.

That already put him ahead of both Zhuo Ming and Wenni. And he hadn't even been Awakened for a full month yet. The pace was almost hard to comprehend.

Still, Lu Yuan was satisfied.

In the days that followed, he returned to the Land of Origin several more times. With his strength growing steadily and a fresh stock of superior-grade potions, he pushed deeper into the dungeon with every run. Each day he ventured further, hunted stronger creatures, racked up a higher kill count.

Once a day, he would emerge and make his way to Li Luo's stall to sell his haul. With his near-unbreakable defense, he moved through the dungeon like he owned it, walking out each time with a solid load of Spirit Crystals and materials.

He also crossed paths with other Gene Warriors inside the dungeon from time to time. The more often he came, the more familiar faces there were.

"Mr. Lu, you're back again?"

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow, mildly curious, as he walked up to Li Luo's stall.

"Brother Lu, what's the haul today?"

"Not bad. Ran into a few stragglers again."

The transaction proceeded as usual. When Li Luo finished counting, Lu Yuan took the Spirit Crystals and stored them without checking the count.

"Oh, by the way!" Li Luo's eyes brightened. "Mr. Lu, there's something you might want to hear about."

"Oh? What is it?"

In the Land of Origin, the most treasure-rich locations were not the chests that appeared at random.

They were ruins — and no one knew where they would emerge.

Unlike chests, ruins seemed to be remnants of civilizations long lost to this place — relics of whoever had come before. Inside them lurked all manner of dangers, but alongside those dangers were the knowledge and treasures those ancient civilizations had left behind.

How ruins came to appear in the Land of Origin, no one could say. But the discovery of one was enough to send every Gene Warrior in range into a frenzy. Each find drew them like moths to flame.

"A ruin has been found in the northern inner circle of this dungeon area," Li Luo said. "Quite a few people are already talking about heading there to investigate."

Lu Yuan's pupils contracted.

*A ruin — in the Sandy Rock Palace, of all places?*

His pulse quickened.

He was going to check it out.