Gene Evolution Fluid, Mechanical Disruption

The atmosphere between Lu Yuan and Amy had become decidedly awkward.

Amy stood just behind him, clutching her Staff, her purple eyes swimming with something held barely in check. Lu Yuan scanned their surroundings, confirmed no immediate threats, and led her through the door.

The room was five or six hundred square meters, bare but for a single glowing orb at the center.

Then Amy burst into tears.

It came without warning — a full, unrestrained wail that rang off the walls.

"I'm going to have a baby!! I'm going to become a grown-up!!"

Lu Yuan turned to look at her. His mind went completely blank.

"…What?"

"I looked it up online!" Amy sobbed, tears streaming freely down her face. "Holding hands leads to babies!"

*???? ???? ????*

He stood in silence for three full seconds.

*…What website was she on?*

"That's — that's not how it works," he managed, scratching the back of his head. "Holding hands doesn't make babies, Amy."

"You liar!! Big liar!! Waaah!!"

"I'm not lying! I swear! You're so smart — could I ever deceive *you*? Holding hands has nothing to do with babies. Look it up again when we get back out — on a different website."

Amy's crying slowed. "...Really? It really won't happen?"

"Really, truly, absolutely. I swear on heaven and earth — if a baby somehow resulted from holding hands, may lightning strike me dead right now."

A flicker of hesitation crossed her face. Then her expression crumpled. "I don't want you to take responsibility!! I don't want to grow up!!"

Lu Yuan's cheek twitched.

He thought about it. Nothing in his experience had adequately prepared him for this.

A memory surfaced from his past life: his dog. Whenever the puppy was sad, a gentle pat on the head always settled him down.

*Worth a try.*

He reached out and carefully stroked Amy's purple hair — slow and steady, the way you'd soothe a distressed animal.

Amy went still.

"Don't worry," he said quietly. "There won't be any baby."

A long pause. Amy sniffled, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and gave a small nod.

Lu Yuan let out a quiet breath. *Finally.*

Though he made a mental note: *Wang Lingling would be far better at handling this. She'd know exactly how to guide Amy through this kind of explanation — ahem, how to educate her properly.* The thought of giving Amy a biology lesson himself was more than he could handle. Showing her some reading material later, though — that should be fine.

"...I'll believe you this one time." Amy's mood swung back as quickly as it had broken, bright and mercurial. She leveled a look at him. "But if a baby *does* appear — you're finished."

"If that happens," Lu Yuan said solemnly, "Lady Amy needn't lift a finger. I'll take care of myself."

Amy's Staff came down on his outstretched hand. **Smack.**

She glared at him with those purple eyes, but her shoulders had settled.

"Hmph. Then let's keep moving."

They climbed to the next floor.

Inside: another room of the same dimensions, the orb at the center shimmering with light — and within it, strange flowing lines traced patterns unlike anything from the rooms below.

*A Transcendent Gene.*

Lu Yuan picked it up. Information poured into his mind.

**Combat Technique: Mechanical Disruption**

*Can partially disrupt the thought patterns of mechanical beings, thereby influencing their behavior. Effective only against mechanical beings of roughly equivalent mental strength to the user.*

He went still for a moment.

*On the surface, the concept is extraordinary. Directly interfering with another being's mind? That's genuinely terrifying.* He turned it over in his thoughts. *But the restriction — only against machines, and only those near my own mental level.*

"What gene is it?" Amy asked.

He read the details aloud. Her brow furrowed faintly. "The limitations are severe. Against anything except a mechanical being, it's completely useless." A pause. "But given that we're inside the Aier Mechanical Ruins, where everything we face is mechanical — it would be devastating."

"Right," Lu Yuan agreed. "The base effect isn't weak. And if it could be evolved—" He let the thought go unfinished. *The ceiling is impossible to predict.*

"My path centers entirely on Tianrao Purple Vine," Amy said. "This gene doesn't fit my build at all. Keep it, Lei Feng — and if you decide against engraving it, it'll fetch a very high price at auction. A Chief Grade Transcendent Gene is extremely valuable, even with its limitations."

For an ordinary Gene Warrior, engraving Mechanical Disruption might only ever produce the base effect. But for him — the possibilities were another matter entirely.

*I'll hold onto it. If nothing better turns up in the Floating City, I'll engrave this one.*

He pocketed the gene card. "Fair enough. I'll take it."

"Then let's keep going. Finish the building, then head for the Floating City."

The next two rooms yielded nothing at all.

The first was completely stripped — floor, walls, every surface swept bare, the telltale sign of a trap room. The second was the same: debris scattered across the floor, nothing left behind but dust and disappointment.

"Tch." Lu Yuan clicked his tongue. "Unlucky. Two empty rooms in a row."

Amy wrinkled her nose, sharing his dissatisfaction. They exchanged a glance.

"One more left."

The final room stopped them both cold.

Four orbs floated at the center of the space, each pulsing with a deep, dark blue glow.

Both of them felt the shift at exactly the same moment.

"Chief Grade items?! Four of them?!"

They crossed the room in quick strides and gathered up the orbs. Each one opened to reveal a small glass vial of luminescent liquid. Lu Yuan turned his over and read.

**Gene Evolution Fluid (First-rank):** *Drinking this solution severs ten First-rank Gene Lock chains.*

His eyes went wide.

*Breaking the Gene Lock.*

He'd known other methods existed beyond Origin Stones — rare natural resources, advanced technology, certain compounds. He'd known it intellectually. But staring at it in his hands, spelled out precisely—

*Ten Gene Lock chains per vial.*

The math assembled itself without effort. One vial was equivalent to ten First-rank Origin Stones. At the going rate — *6.8 million First-rank Spirit Crystals. Per bottle.*

He thought about the months spent hunting Origin Stones through the Land of Origin. Battle after battle, zone after zone — and he'd walked away with three.

*Three Origin Stones. That was everything.*

And here were four vials, each one outpacing that entire haul.

*This is exactly what I need right now.*

His Gene Chain was fully tempered. He had the Origin Stones. But the breakthrough to Second-rank had remained stubbornly out of reach, and time kept passing. One bottle of this would push him over the threshold immediately.

And once he broke through to Second-rank, his genes could evolve to Lord Grade.

*Lord Grade combat power.*

Even against those who'd inherited Lord Grade genes from powerful lineages, nurtured from childhood — he might not have to run.

The thought made something tighten in his chest. *Come what may.*

"Amy," he said after a moment, "you don't look particularly excited. Isn't Gene Evolution Fluid useful to you?"

Amy tilted her head, her expression faintly reluctant. "It's definitely valuable — but I already have a Goldlight Stone that can break Gene Locks. This is less urgent for me."

Lu Yuan nodded slowly.

*Another day of envying rich-girl Amy.* He gave her a bright thumbs-up.

"Then we split them evenly. Two each."

Amy agreed. They divided the vials between them.

After pocketing her share, something struck Lu Yuan. He turned sharply toward Amy.

"Amy — what actually happens if someone breaks through to Second-rank inside the Aier Mechanical Ruins?"

Amy's smile turned knowing. "Heh. I know exactly what you're thinking." She leaned on her Staff with entirely too much satisfaction. "If you attempt a normal breakthrough here, the ruins will reject you. Your body ruptures from the inside — and every item you've gathered goes with it."

A heavy pause settled over the room.

"Is there a way around it?"

"That's what the Aier Core Fragment is for." Her smile brightened. "In the Floating City's core zone, if you're lucky, you can find an Aier Core Fragment. It can't be taken out of the Aier Mechanical Ruins the way ordinary loot can — but if you hold one, the ruins come to recognize you as a native. With an Aier Core Fragment, you can break through to Second-rank without any rejection. You'd be able to fight at full Second-rank power while still inside."

Something sharpened in Lu Yuan's eyes.

"Amy. We are going to find those Core Fragments."

"Of course!" Her laugh was quick and bright. "Going to the central Floating City without one would be suicidal. There will be no shortage of people up there making their Second-rank breakthroughs."

He nodded once, firmly. *Understood. New priority.*

They climbed the final staircase and reached the rooftop.

At the center of the platform stood a black box — thirty meters wide, thirty meters long, ten meters tall. Beside it lay a black metal rod, faintly pulsing with white light.

The sky elevator. And its controller.

Lu Yuan walked over and picked up the rod.

"Good. Controller secured. We head back down."

Amy swept her Staff through the air in a wide arc. The Tianrao Purple Vine barrier that had sealed the building's entrance dissolved in a shimmer of violet and vanished.

Lin Xixi's group was still at the door where they'd been standing guard. The moment Lu Yuan and Amy descended into view, the tension drained from every face.

Xu Qi and Beiman's groups were nearby as well — they'd spotted the duo coming down and the relief showed plainly.

"Welcome back, miss. Mr. Lei."

Xu Qi stepped forward first. "We also owe you our thanks, Mr. Lei — without you, none of us would have had any chance of setting foot in the Floating City."

The others nodded vigorously.

"You paid the entry fee," Lu Yuan said, shaking his head. "I'm taking you up to the Floating City. It's a fair trade. No thanks needed." He gestured toward the lobby. "Let's move. Everyone inside."

Xu Qi smiled — that particular mix of gratitude and relief — and was the first to comply.

One by one, team leaders filed forward.

"Nine members on our team. Nine thousand Spirit Power Gene Fluids."

"Four members. Four thousand."

"Our group has six people—"

Lu Yuan held up three fingers.

The transactions continued in turn. When the last team had settled, he tallied the count: sixty-eight Gene Warriors in total.

Sixty-eight thousand vials of Spirit Power Gene Fluid.

*6.8 million First-rank Spirit Crystals.*

He and Amy had spent weeks systematically picking apart the hundred-meter buildings in this zone — twelve towers between them — and the combined haul from all of it barely matched what a single afternoon's worth of entry fees had just delivered. Quite a few of the assembled warriors were stealing glances at the metallic Staff now resting in Amy's hands. It hadn't been there before they entered the building — an obvious gain from this run. The envy on their faces needed no translation. For most of them, the Mechanical Guardians outside had been an insurmountable obstacle. They'd been entirely dependent on someone else just to get through the door.

*Rough day.* Lu Yuan extended no sympathy.

He stored the Spirit Power Gene Fluids and took stock.

*Combined with all of this, I can evolve every gene I have. One complete overhaul. Massive improvement across the board.*

The Gene Evolution Fluid in his storage would let him break straight through to Second-rank whenever he was ready. And then—

*Lord Grade combat power. Even against geniuses with inherited Lord Grade genes — it doesn't have to be a loss.*

The pressure of facing those opponents had never fully left him. But it felt lighter now, and shrinking.

"Controller in hand. Entry fees settled." He scanned the assembled crowd. "Follow us. We're going up."

Just under a hundred people boarded the sky elevator — Gene Warriors from more than a dozen factions, packed together inside the black box. It was spacious enough to hold them without difficulty.

Lu Yuan slotted the metal rod into the mechanism. Something deep within the structure resonated — a low hum that rose up through the soles of his feet.

The elevator rose.

Through the broad observation windows, the sky outside expanded into something breathtaking. Countless aircraft filled the air in every direction — hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, weaving and circling around the ascending elevator like vast, glittering schools of fish. The closer they drew to the Floating City, the denser the formations became. The sheer scale of it was difficult to process.

More than a few Gene Warriors had gone pale.

Lu Yuan's heartbeat quickened despite himself. *Good thing we have this elevator.* Approaching by air, surrounded by all of that — there'd be no coming back from it.

He fixed his gaze forward.

The elevator climbed steadily. Then the Floating City's pull caught them, drawing the car smoothly forward and down.

With a low, solid impact, they touched down on a broad plaza at the city's outer edge.

They had arrived at the Floating City.