Absolute In/Existence

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***

Scratching his chin, Long Tian summoned his copper-toothed beast spear and continued training his spearmanship.

As he trained his spearmanship, he thought about Qin Xuan's offer. The offer of getting Hyper Geno Arts was really intriguing to him. It would allow him to research the techniques of this Gene reality and build up his own.

It would also serve as a good point to get closer to Qin Xuan.

Continuing to wave the spear around and piercing it forward, Long Tian let time pass.

By the time he was done training and his stomach was growling again, the sun within God's Sanctuary was rising already.

Stretching his body, Long Tian didn't get mentally tired. With his sleep meditation, he didn't need to ever worry about being sleepy or mentally fatigued.

"Time to go to the meet up place," he mumbled, storing away his spear.

He touched the hilt of the chipped alloy sword at his waist before making his way over. He avoided the creatures in his path and soon arrived at the stoney creek.

Long Tian looked around, only seeing a couple of large black beetles scurrying around on the ground, as well as some copper-toothed beasts in the distance. He took his seat on a rock near the stoney creek and waited for Han Sen.

The nearby vegetation looked edible, so Long Tian gathered a couple and placed them away in his bag. A little thing he has been doing for a couple of days now as he gathered herbs and plants of God's Sanctuary. Researching them, and using knowledge for the skynet forums, Long Tian separated the edible ones from the harmful and poisonous vegetation.

Seeing a black beetle scurry in front of him, Long Tian grabbed it and set up a little fire to the side.

"Ordinary black beetle killed. No beast soul gained. Eat the flesh of black beetle to gain 0 to 10 ordinary geno points randomly."

Killing the black beetle in one swift motion, Long Tian removed the shell from the jelly-like meat within. Grabbing a couple of herbs he had gathered, he smeared them on the black beetle meat and cooked it in the fire.

Holding it above the fire, Long Tian could smell the meat cooking up nicely. He felt his stomach rumbling and the food was soon done cooking.

"Great," he muttered before sinking his teeth into the cooked meat of the black beetle.

"Ordinary black beetle flesh eaten. One ordinary geno point gained."

"Ordinary black beetle flesh eaten. One ordinary geno point gained."

Eating the meat the size of two fists, Long Tian gained nine ordinary geno points, raising his total geno points to 60 ordinary geno points.

As he sat there, basking in the aftertaste of the black beetle flesh, he heard Han Sen approach. Turning his head, he found Han Sen in his black clothes like usual.

His dagger at his waist and a light smile on his face, his mood completely different to how he had met him a couple days back. The lonesome aura he once had was no longer there.

"Sen! You've finally decided to arrive," Long Tian chuckled as he got up from his makeshift chair of a rock.

Han Sen chuckled.

"Let's get to gathering more geno points."

Grabbing black beetles and killing them swiftly, Long Tian and Han Sen ate them as soon as the black beetles were killed. Eating there jelly-like meat in two bites before continuing to kill black beetles.

Hours passed and they had eaten over 20 each before finally stopping.

Aside from the first nine ordinary geno points he had attained before Han Sen arrived, Long Tian had managed to get another nine ordinary geno points. Now his ordinary geno points was at a nice 69.

Sitting down, Long Tian took a short rest. He grew tired of the raw taste of the black beetles. Now, all he could remember was the taste of the first black beetle he had prepared with herbs and cooked.

As he fell deep into thought, he felt light strike him on the face. Frowning, he turned his head and looked at the source, a small golden beetle.

His eyes lit up, feeling the peculiarity of the golden beetle amongst many ordinary black beetles.

"Sen…" he whispered, drawing Han Sen's attention.

As the person closest, Han Sen had a higher chance to kill it in once swift motion compared to him who was still standing a couple of feet away.

"Hm?"

Much like Long Tian, Han Sen also noticed the peculiarity of the golden beetle. Without missing a beat, he pressed down on the golden beetle and instantly stabbed at it, driving his blade between the beetle's shell openings.

Click!

Suddenly, Han Sen froze once the golden beetle stopped moving.

"Tian… it's… it's a sacred-blood beast! And I got its beast soul…"

After what seemed like hours, Han Sen finally exclaimed out in surprise. He pulled the golden shell free from the flesh and instantly split it in half.

"Quick!"

Tossing one half to Long Tian, Han Sen devoured his other half. Instantly, a look of happiness was on his face.

Even Long Tian was a little surprised and found this a little suspicious.

What kind of luck would he need for this to happen? It's a little too coincidental for him to casually believe that this was pure luck. Instead, it appeared more like it had been especially orchestrated or planned.

Throwing his half of sacred-blood meat into his mouth, he chewed slowly before frowning and spitting something out of his mouth.

"Flesh of black beetle eaten. One sacred geno point gained."

"Flesh of black beetle eaten. One sacred geno point gained."

"Flesh of black beetle eaten. One sacred geno point gained."

…

Three whole sacred-geno points were gained and Long Tian could feel the raise in his strength.

However he didn't focus too much on that. Instead, he turned his attention to the thing he had spat out of his mouth.

A small black crystal the size and shape of a pigeon egg.

His golden eyes swirled and he realized why such a peculiar beetle was here. It all had to do with this black crystal and it was Han Sen's fate to obtain this crystal.

Two swirling golden orbs pulled away from the black crystal and onto Han Sen who was already boiling the golden shell of the black beetle.

"Sen, take a look at this," he said as he tossed the black crystal to Han Sen.

Receiving the crystal, Han Sen looked at it curiously, sending Long Tian a questioning look on his face.

"It came from the golden beetle's flesh.."

Long Tian explained as he explained his own thoughts on the matter, keeping quiet about the deliberate scheme in this and the 'fate' he had in attaining this black crystal.

"This black crystal is definitely mysterious…"

Both Han Sen and Long Tian nodded, understanding what this implied.

"Take it!"

Han Sen tossed it back to Long Tian after a short moment of thought. It greatly intrigued him, the small black crystal, but he couldn't take it in good conscience.

Long Tian had given him the black crystal, showing the trust he had in him. As his friend, he couldn't betray that trust. He was also the one who had given out the black crystal along with the meat, making it no longer his.

Unexpectedly, Long Tian rejected.

He handed Han Sen the black crystal and smirked.

"Find out what's so special about this black crystal. If it's effects are as we both think, this will be beneficial," he explained. "However you need it more than I do. You have a family who needs your support and you're the one who has attained this black crystal."

In all honestly, Long Tian knew that the black crystal was peculiar. It came from an unknown source and the fact that it could strengthen a black beetle to the sacred-blood level proved that it's an item of extraordinary origins. To him, it was obvious that some higher power had left this for Han Sen.

If he intercepted now, he might be met with some 'misfortune'.

Additionally, Long Tian was also prideful and not afraid of a challenge. He wanted to know who could improve faster between him and Han Sen.

Long Tian smiled as Han Sen eventually accepted the black crystal whilst feeling a little guilty.

"I will repay this," Han Sen muttered with a sheepish smile.

Long Tian didn't say anything.

"I need to return home, I'll catch up with you later," Han Sen suddenly said after quietly counting the time that had passed.

Nodding his head, Long Tian watched as Han Sen left. As soon as he was far from view, he stood up and stretched his body before continuing to hunt.

Summoning the primitive beast soul spear, Long Tian decided to continue hunting ordinary creatures. He was already close to filling up on his ordinary geno points. Once that's complete, he can focus on primitive and maybe even go ahead with challenging mutant creatures.

Smiling, Long Tian got to hunting.

He checked the map he made and went onward to the areas with the most ordinary creatures.

Overnight, Heaven spent his time hunting and eating ordinary creatures. His training rest helped digest the food, and before long, he had filled up his ordinary geno points to 91.

Sad to say, he had not managed to obtain another beast soul despite the large number of creatures killed. Not to mention that he had hunt down all the small ordinary creatures in the vicinity already.

After hunting all night, Long Tian didn't have any mental fatigue due to his long years of meditation. But that didn't include his physical fatigue.

Now without his regeneration, he felt the familiar feeling of soreness and fatigue.

Ending the hunt in the morning, Long Tian returned to Steel Armor Shelter for rest and instantly noticed the different atmosphere. Most people were looking at him with suspicion and others with envy.

With his thumb, he rubbed the hilt of the sword on his waist, furrowing his eyebrows a little.

"Tian."

Suddenly, Long Tian heard someone calling out to him. An authoritarian voice, albeit a charming one, came from behind him.

Turning around, he found Qin Xuan walking over to him. She was wearing a sleek beast soul armor that accentuated her curves just right.

"Xuan, what brings you here?" Long Tian asked as he stopped in place and waited for Qin Xuan.

"You."

She simply said.

Everyone that heard her began to cause a commotion.

How could they not!

They heard the most beautiful and strongest woman of Steel Armor Shelter proclaim that she was looking for Long Tian. He must definitely be her lover, right?

"What for?"

He looked at Qin Xuan curiously.

There wasn't any reason for her to look for him, unless she sought to continue poaching him. Maybe she was going to be more headstrong about it.

"I will sponsor you." She said, looking at him with a smirk on her face. "If you don't want to work for me, you will be my personal soldier."

"Sponsor me?" Long Tian chuckled, raising an eyebrow at her words.

"Mm."

With a proud look on her face, Qin Xuan leaned forward, her eyes looking at his golden eyes.

"I will provide you with money, martial arts, and Saint Hall Licenses."

Saint Hall Licenses are 'tickets' that can be exchanged at Saint Hall for Hyper Geno Arts. Depending on the grade of the Hyper Geno Art, ranked from F to S, one needs the corresponding graded Saint Hall License.

Like God's Sanctuary, the Hyper Geno Arts are also in another category depending on the evolved level of the person. Unevolver, Evolver, Surpasser, Demigod…

And there's also the Universal graded Saint Hall License that can allow one to get any type of Hyper Geno Art from whichever grade.

"Why go so far?" Heaven asked, a little interested. "So much, just to be your personal soldier?"

Long Tian: Not evolved.

Status: None.

Life span: 200 years.

Required for evolution: 100 geno points.

Geno points gained: 91 ordinary, 17 primitive, 3 sacred-blood

Beast souls gained: Primitive copper-toothed beast(spear).