The Conflict Draws Near, The Kill List

Not long after the Harvest Day banquet ended, it was time to return to school.

Back at the academy, Lu Yuan had barely stepped into the dormitory when he found Si Tingfeng and the others already there.

Si Tingfeng was watching him with an odd expression.

Lu Yuan noticed and asked, puzzled, "What's the matter, Senior Si Tingfeng?"

"After the Harvest Day banquet," Si Tingfeng said, his expression strangely colored, "my imperial father kept asking me about you. The way he talked, it sounded like it's possible that... ahem..."

"Possible what?" Lu Yuan asked.

"I think my imperial father may be considering making you his imperial son-in-law. He seems to believe there's something going on between you and my ninth imperial sister."

Lu Yuan: ???

He stared blankly. *What on earth is this?*

Seeing his dumbfounded face, Si Tingfeng cleared his throat. "Of course, it's just my imperial father's idea. He hasn't said a word to my ninth imperial sister — he only brought it up with me."

Lu Yuan nodded. "I see."

Si Tingfeng clapped him on the shoulder with a broad grin. "Yuan, keep at it — I'm rooting for you!"

Lu Yuan smiled. "Thank you, Senior. If you're curious how she feels about the idea, why not go ask Tingxue yourself?"

Si Tingfeng cleared his throat at once. "I'll pass."

By now, he was likely no longer a match for Si Tingxue. If he went and prodded her into a fury, Si Tingfeng was fairly sure he'd be done for.

After that, the group chatted for a while — catching up on how they'd each spent the rest of the holiday — then everyone returned to their own rooms.

Beji kept the room tidy, so Lu Yuan didn't need to worry about unpacking.

Back in his room, he went straight into the Land of Origin.

He hadn't entered once during the entire holiday.

Stepping back into the Gravity Room of the Training Hall, Lu Yuan felt oddly like he was coming home.

He began cultivating in earnest.

Forty-four days later, Lu Yuan emerged from the Land of Origin.

Si Tingyu sent him a message — she was heading into the Land of Origin herself that week, so he wouldn't need to come to her for Steel Body training.

Lu Yuan had no choice but to train on his own.

Four days later, he entered the Land of Origin again.

After forty days inside, he finally tempered the Mechanical Dominance gene to perfection.

Roughly as he had estimated — close to 1.5 million Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals consumed.

He had now tempered two King Grade genes to perfection: Life Light, and Mechanical Dominance. Only Space Teleportation remained.

Once that one reached perfection as well, he would be ready to break through.

He took a single day off, went to an amusement park with Amy, and then got back to training.

With Mechanical Dominance reaching perfection, his maximum stay in the Land of Origin extended to forty-eight days.

After another week of training, Lu Yuan finally emerged again.

This time, Si Tingyu had returned. Lu Yuan went to her to resume Steel Body training.

By now, Steel Body's defensive amplification had risen to nearly double its base value.

At this stage, pushing it any further had become considerably more difficult.

He wasn't in a rush, though. Every fraction of improvement mattered.

That evening, Si Tingxue came over to mooch dinner as usual.

At the table, she glanced over at him and said quietly, "There's something I want to tell you."

"What is it?" Lu Yuan asked.

"It's about a new mission the school just posted — a mission to hunt Gnoll geniuses."

Lu Yuan blinked. "Hunt Gnoll geniuses? When did that go up? I had no idea."

Si Tingxue frowned slightly and stared at him. "Do you ever check the mission board on the school's website?"

Lu Yuan's mouth twitched. "Not really. Missions are for earning Credits, aren't they? I have other ways to earn Credits, so I spend that time training instead."

Si Tingxue said nothing.

Even Si Tingyu couldn't help but smile.

"This mission may involve the two of you," Si Tingyu said.

"Involve us?"

Lu Yuan was surprised.

"Do you remember what I told you before about Ice Vein Star?"

Si Tingyu's expression turned serious.

A light shifted in Lu Yuan's eyes. He nodded. "The standoff with the Gnolls over Ice Vein Star."

He had worried at first that they'd be thrown into battle against Gnoll geniuses almost immediately — but more than a month had passed without a word. If Si Tingyu hadn't brought it up now, he might have let it slip from memory entirely.

He looked at her with a slight frown. "Is it starting? A battle between our Red Maple Empire's geniuses and the Gnolls'?"

Si Tingyu's expression was grave. "Soon. Looking at how the negotiations are trending, it won't be long now. In the end, it will most likely come down to our geniuses fighting theirs to determine sovereignty."

Hearing this, Lu Yuan's expression sobered as well. He nodded.

"The school's mission to hunt Gnoll geniuses is connected to exactly this," Si Tingxue said.

Understanding dawned across Lu Yuan's face. "You mean — if we kill the Gnoll geniuses and drive them out of the Land of Origin, they won't be able to cultivate there for a stretch of time. That's a significant advantage for our side?"

After all, at Third-rank, a single stay in the Land of Origin could now last forty-eight days — far longer than anything achievable in the real world. For a Third-rank Gene Warrior who was killed and expelled, the recovery period alone could lock them out for months — perhaps a full year.

The impact would be enormous.

He frowned slightly. "But in that case, why not send stronger warriors to do the hunting?"

Si Tingyu shook her head. "There's an unwritten rule in the Land of Origin — under no circumstances may the powerful strike at the young. If the strong from every faction started freely targeting the younger generation, there would be no point in developing talent at all. The entire order of the Land of Origin would collapse."

Lu Yuan nodded. It made sense.

When he thought about it — if a Battle Emperor decided to act, even the most talented Third-rank Battle General would have no hope of escape. And in the Land of Origin, death simply sent you back to the real world weakened for a while. It wasn't some clean, silent removal. Every faction had its own powerhouses. If one side's elites started playing dirty against the younger generation, the others would respond in kind. At that point, everyone loses — because the whole purpose of entering the Land of Origin was to grow stronger. If it collapsed into an all-out war between veteran powerhouses, what was the point of any of it?

"If only the younger generation makes the moves, then even if we hunt down their Gnoll geniuses and disrupt their cultivation, the Gnolls can't lodge a single complaint," Si Tingxue said coolly.

Si Tingyu nodded. "Exactly. The Ice Vein Star sovereignty battle is coming. If the Gnolls can't enter the Land of Origin, they might have only a few days to train before the confrontation begins. If they can, they might have months. That's why the school posted this mission — to cripple the Gnoll geniuses before the clash. And I suspect the Gnolls are making similar moves on their end."

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly. "I see."

Si Tingxue looked at him. "So I want to team up with you. We hunt the Gnoll geniuses together."

Lu Yuan thought it over, then nodded with a smile. "Works for me."

Cultivating alone would certainly yield significant gains. But this touched on national resources — he couldn't afford to think only of himself. If they swept through the entire Gnoll genius list, the benefit to the Red Maple Empire would be enormous.

Given his current strength, hunting Gnoll geniuses posed no real danger. Unless a Battle Emperor personally took the field — which wouldn't happen, since this was a contest of the young — even a Battle King was nothing to worry about. And no Battle King would personally step in against teenagers. The unwritten rules held firm.

Then a thought struck him, and his expression turned a little awkward. "I don't even know who I'm supposed to be targeting. I know nothing about any Gnolls."

His last encounter with Gnolls had been back in Sandy Rock City — he vaguely remembered them constantly trying to rob him before he turned the tables.

Si Tingyu smiled slightly. "I have a list of Gnoll geniuses here. It covers those who have inscribed Lord Grade genes or King Grade genes and above — all under twenty years old, all Third-rank or higher."

Lu Yuan brightened. "That's exactly what we need."

"When can you next enter the Land of Origin?" Si Tingxue asked.

Lu Yuan checked his schedule. "Three days from now."

Si Tingxue nodded. "We'll go in together then. Rebecca will be joining us too."

"No problem."

After dinner, Lu Yuan returned to the dormitory and looked up the mission Si Tingxue had mentioned.

It had only been posted two days ago, and it was classified as a special mission — open to every student in the Talent Camp.

Any kill on the list earned Credits. The rewards were substantial.

The minimum payout: 100,000 Credits for a Third-rank low-level Lord Grade Gnoll. The maximum: a full 1,000,000 Credits for a Fourth-rank high-level Gnoll with King Grade genes.

The Talent Camp had pulled out all the stops.

Clearly, the administration could see where things were heading. A confrontation between human and Gnoll geniuses was all but inevitable, and knocking the enemy's top cultivators out of the Land of Origin early was too valuable an opportunity to waste. Strike first and seize the advantage.

Lu Yuan suspected they were being targeted on the Gnoll side as well. He wasn't concerned. Unless a Battle Emperor personally took the field, even a Battle King posed no real threat. And Battle Kings wouldn't come after teenagers — not with those unwritten rules in place.

He fixed his gaze on one entry in particular: the Gnoll who had inscribed King Grade genes — a Fourth-rank high-level combatant listed as Bloodrage Fang. His eyes narrowed.

*Didn't expect the Gnolls to have someone like this.* Under twenty, Fourth-rank high-level, King Grade genes. That was genuinely impressive.

As someone who had gone through King Grade gene tempering himself, Lu Yuan knew firsthand how much time and resources it devoured. Even with his absurdly efficient Spirit Power absorption, tempering just Mechanical Dominance had eaten three real-world months.

Reaching Fourth-rank high-level before twenty — that was exceptional talent by any measure.

*Probably an Innate Inheritor.*

Among the Red Maple Empire's under-twenty roster, no one came close to matching that.

Su Xu, the Talent Camp's top student, was already in his sixth year — even if he had Awakened at sixteen, he'd be twenty-two by now.

Below twenty, the most talented was almost certainly Si Tingxue — an Innate Lord Grade at just seventeen years old. Given another two or three years, she might well surpass even this Fourth-rank King Grade Gnoll.

His gaze lingered on the name Bloodrage Fang as he turned the problem over in his mind.

*Wonder if I can actually take him out.*

Of course, even if he killed this one in the Land of Origin, he'd run into the same Gnoll again when the Ice Vein Star dispute came to a head.

He felt a mild headache coming on. *Best to test the waters first — see what he's actually made of.*

He logged the Gnoll kill list and closed his Light-Brain.

Lying back on his bed, he turned his thoughts to strategy.

Raising his cultivation level significantly in a short span was no easy task. Beyond raw cultivation, the next biggest lever for combat power was Gene Armaments.

His gaze drifted to the Evolution Cube.

The Evolution Cube could now evolve Gene Armaments.

*Time to give it a try.*

Lu Yuan searched through his Battle-mark Space.

As his cultivation had grown, the Thunder Fury Gene Armaments were no longer adequate — he could sustain far more powerful equipment now. Thanks to everything he had gained in the core of the Aier Mechanical Ruins, his stock of Third-rank King Grade Gene Armaments was considerable.

After going through them all, he finally found a combination that suited him.

The armor was a full suit of heavy plate, jet black from head to toe, named the Dark Harvester Armor.

Beyond its formidable defensive capability, equipping it primarily enhanced Strength and Physique, with secondary gains to Agility and a minor increase to Mental Power.

On top of that, the Dark Harvester Armor carried a unique Combat Technique: Dark Harvest.

Each time the wearer killed a creature, the armor would absorb and store the target's soul force. When that stored force was later released, it stacked on top of the armor's base enhancement — delivering an additional fifty percent amplification boost across the board.

A remarkably powerful ability.

The Dark Harvester Armor was a Third-rank Gene Armament at 100% tempering.

With two perfected King Grade genes — and a body hardened by months of relentless Steel Body training — Lu Yuan could equip it with complete ease. He had headroom to spare.

For a weapon, he chose a blood-red heavy sword named the Crimson Storm Heavy Sword.

Its primary enhancements were Strength and Agility, with secondary boosts to Physique and Mental Power.

Like the armor, it was a Third-rank Gene Armament at 100% tempering.

When Spirit Power was channeled in, it could trigger its Combat Technique: Crimson Storm — summoning four spectral sword shadows around Lu Yuan that transformed every swing into a howling tempest of steel.

This was precisely what he needed to compensate for his limited attack range. An excellent weapon by any measure.

After equipping both pieces, Lu Yuan realized he still had capacity remaining — enough to layer on additional Gene Armaments.

He considered his weaknesses. Burst capability felt like a gap.

In the end, he settled on a King Grade emblem: the Battle Disciple Emblem.