Life's Aria and the Mechanical Emperor

Recognizing that the crowd had spotted him, Lu Yuan immediately used Space Teleportation to slip away.

He reappeared in a narrow alley between two tall buildings.

Lu Yuan put on his battle armor and pulled on his helmet.

That way, most people wouldn't recognize him.

He had arranged to meet Amy and Wang Lingling in front of a well-known tavern in Tianrao City — a place called the Hundred-Temper Pavilion. Every dish on its menu was crafted from prized Feral Beast flesh and rare spirit fruits and ingredients, and the food was genuinely excellent.

The prices, naturally, were anything but ordinary. Most Gene Warriors couldn't bring themselves to spend that kind of money here.

Lu Yuan was standing not far from the entrance when he spotted Wang Lingling and Amy approaching — neither of them had anyone in tow.

Amy scanned the area. When her gaze landed on the armored figure, a flicker of suspicion crossed her face. Wang Lingling, on the other hand, simply smiled and said:

"A-Yuan, wearing full battle armor like this is rather conspicuous, you know."

After all, inside the city, nobody was fighting — people changed into casual clothes. Especially outside a tavern, a Gene Warrior standing there in full armor with a helmet was bound to turn heads.

Lu Yuan hadn't been at the entrance long before passing Gene Warriors were glancing his way every few moments.

Lu Yuan smiled wryly. "At least it's drawing fewer stares than if I were without the helmet."

Wang Lingling laughed. "Fair point."

Amy's eyes went wide as realization dawned. "You big liar — it's you!"

Lu Yuan grinned. "That's right, it's me. Amy's so sharp — figured it out that quickly."

Amy's eyes lit up and a proud smile spread across her face — then it froze. She glared at him, cheeks puffed:

"Hmph! You're tricking me again! Lingling figured it out way before I did!"

A flicker of surprise crossed Lu Yuan's eyes, followed by a quiet resignation.

*Amy isn't as easy to fool as she used to be.*

Wang Lingling laughed. "Let's go in. Get a private room — you can't exactly eat with that helmet on."

Lu Yuan smiled helplessly.

The three of them headed inside.

Tianrao Mansion.

Gwen made her way to a courtyard deep within the estate and knocked.

In moments, two Tianrao Purple Vines unfurled to open the gate, and the handsome Adams stepped out of the room and settled into a pavilion seat.

"What is it, Gwen?"

Gwen smiled. "Amy slipped out to play again."

"Hm? What about Lingling? Wasn't she keeping an eye on her?"

Gwen shook her head with a smile. "No — they went out together. From what I heard, A-Yuan showed up at the teleportation hall earlier."

"That boy's here? Good lad — it's been quite a few days since he last visited."

Adams's eyes lit up and he rose to his feet.

Gwen's expression grew quietly pained. "Grandfather, are you thinking of going to find A-Yuan again?"

"But of course! A-Yuan has extraordinary talent, a fine character, and he already has a rapport with our little Amy. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they got together? The problem is these young people are so needlessly restrained. Maybe I should lock them in a room together — bring a few things along to set the mood?"

Adams looked rather pleased with himself.

Gwen's expression darkened. She said, with strained patience:

"Grandfather, please stop meddling. They're getting along perfectly fine on their own. If you force yourself into it, you'll only end up doing more harm than good."

Adams blinked, puzzled. "Doing more harm than good? Me?"

He looked utterly incredulous.

Gwen sighed. "Grandfather, think about it — when A-Yuan used to come to Tianrao City to see Amy, didn't he come straight to Tianrao Mansion? Now he doesn't dare set foot here; they have to sneak around outside. Whose fault do you think that is?"

Adams's face filled with shock. "Don't tell me it's those old scoundrels pulling strings behind the scenes?! The nerve of them! Do they think they can walk over Adams?!"

Fury blazed across his face.

Gwen: "…"

Her mouth twitched. She stared at him in silence.

"Grandfather, don't you think you might be a little too… enthusiastic? You're scaring both A-Yuan and Amy."

Adams froze. "Am I really?"

Gwen cleared her throat.

"Grandfather, leave this one to me. I'll handle it."

Adams was quiet for a moment, conceding that Gwen was a woman and might genuinely understand these matters differently than he did. He nodded.

"Very well — I'll leave it in your hands."

"Mm."

By evening, the three of them had spent the whole day out together. They said their goodbyes, and Amy and Wang Lingling headed back to Tianrao Mansion.

At the entrance, Amy was humming a little tune, bouncing lightly as she stepped through the gate. Her face was radiant — it had been a long time since she'd had this much fun.

The moment she was inside, a maidservant stepped forward with a respectful bow:

"Young Mistress, Head Steward — Lady Gwen requests your presence."

The smile on Amy's face went rigid. She looked at Wang Lingling with alarm:

"Lingling! What do we do? Mom didn't find out we snuck out, did she?"

Wang Lingling's expression was perfectly composed. "Lady Gwen knew the moment we left."

"What?!"

Amy stared in disbelief, and then her expression crumpled into a rueful smile.

"I'm done for. She's going to scold me again."

Wang Lingling smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Young Mistress. Lady Gwen won't scold you. Let's go — we shouldn't keep her waiting."

Amy followed Wang Lingling into the study, her nerves fraying with every step.

Gwen was sitting at her desk working through documents. She looked up when she heard them enter.

Taking one look at Amy cowering behind Wang Lingling like a frightened quail, she couldn't quite suppress her amusement.

"Amy, what on earth are you doing?"

"Mom, we snuck out to play." Amy's voice was pained. "You're not going to make me go into closed-door cultivation for months again, are you?"

Gwen shook her head with a helpless laugh.

"I knew all along. You went out with A-Yuan, didn't you?"

Amy paused, then nodded. "Mm."

Then she glanced nervously around the room. "Mom — does Great-Grandfather know?!"

Gwen smiled. "I already had a word with him. Don't worry — he won't be interfering with you and A-Yuan anymore. Next time, you can invite A-Yuan to come to Tianrao Mansion."

Amy blinked, stunned. "Really?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"Yes! That's wonderful! Otherwise Great-Grandfather would just do something embarrassing again — mortifying for both me and that big liar."

In the courtyard out back, Adams — who had been eavesdropping with a full and formidable deployment of his power — wore an expression of total shock. A moment of self-doubt overtook him; he genuinely had no idea what he could possibly have done to embarrass his dear little Amy.

*Was little Amy starting to find him a nuisance? Her poor, lonely old great-grandfather?*

A wave of sadness washed over Adams.

Gwen shook her head, helpless smile still in place.

"All right, you can go. But… since you did sneak out, there has to be some punishment. Lingling, supervise the Young Mistress's cultivation — one month of closed-door training."

"What?!"

Amy wailed in protest, tears threatening to spill.

Wang Lingling's face broke into a mischievous grin.

"Understood, Lady Gwen. Come along, Young Mistress — back to the Gravity Room."

She reached out, grabbed the fleeing Amy by the scruff, and marched her off without a second glance at the wriggling girl.

After parting from the two of them, Lu Yuan found a room to stay in within Tianrao City.

He was no longer on the Prodigy Rankings, so he couldn't enjoy those privileges anymore. At his level now, it didn't really matter where he stayed.

He wondered whether, after evolving his remaining genes, he should make a run at the King Rankings.

He considered it, then shook his head.

*No need to rush.*

*Breaking into the King Rankings immediately after reaching Battle King Rank — that would be excessive.*

*Better to wait: temper the newly evolved Sovereign Grade genes to perfection first, then make his move.*

Lu Yuan entered his room and, with practiced ease, headed into the bathroom. He settled cross-legged in the bathtub and began evolving his second Emperor Grade gene.

Life Tide.

A deep blue radiance flickered. The Gene Chain shifted. The familiar, searing agony arrived — Lu Yuan's skin split into jagged cracks, blood welling and spraying outward.

This time, though, the cracks were slightly fewer than before, the blood loss somewhat less, and the pain just a fraction more bearable.

Time passed. When the pain finally faded and the blue glow dissolved, the Transcendent Gene had fully evolved, and an immense surge of power washed through him — greatest in Mental Power, followed by strength, speed, and constitution.

Evolving Life Tide had raised his Mental Power dramatically.

He tested it briefly, letting it spread outward — it reached dozens of kilometers in an instant and kept expanding.

It ultimately stretched until it had blanketed nearly all of Tianrao City before reaching its limit.

Hundreds of kilometers in every direction.

Lu Yuan was genuinely taken aback. *That's… rather substantial.*

He wasn't the only one affected. Throughout Tianrao City, powerful Battle Kings and Battle Sovereigns looked up, glancing around with uneasy expressions. They had all felt that vast sweep of Mental Power wash over them.

Even Adams, within Tianrao Mansion, looked up in mild surprise and muttered that some tactless Battle Sovereign was letting their Mental Power run loose inside city limits. Since it carried no probing intent, though, he didn't dwell on it.

In the bathroom, once Lu Yuan had absorbed the power surge from the Sovereign Grade gene, he turned his attention inward to read the gene's information.

*Sovereign Grade Gene: Life's Aria.*

A healing-class Transcendent Gene, similar in lineage to Life Tide — but Life's Aria's restorative capacity was far greater. As long as an injury wasn't instantly lethal, even regrowing severed limbs was effortless.

And it wasn't limited to physical trauma. Poisons and curses could be cleansed and reversed as well.

The area of a single heal scaled with the user's Mental Power and Spirit Power, making it a powerful Combat Technique capable of group-wide restoration.

Beyond active healing, Life's Aria granted potent passive regeneration — a constant ability that repaired any damage sustained at extraordinary speed.

*Interesting,* Lu Yuan thought, pleasantly surprised. *This passive regeneration, stacked on top of the Great Solar Spirit Body…*

He might not even need to actively use Life's Aria on himself. He practically felt unkillable already.

The defensive capacity of the Great Solar Spirit Body was already terrifying in its own right — it was, after all, the direct successor lineage of the Earth Spirit Body.

He thought for a moment, then drew his greatsword and dragged the blade across his palm.

Nothing. His physique was simply too powerful now — his natural defenses were formidable enough to resist his own weapon.

He pressed harder and harder until the greatsword finally carved a deep gash into his forearm, blood flowing freely.

The moment he pulled the blade away, the wound began closing at a startling pace.

In just a few breaths, it had completely sealed.

Lu Yuan wiped away the blood and stared at his unmarked arm. Quiet wonder moved across his face.

With defenses and regeneration like these, he could claim to be a Guardian Type warrior and no one would question it.

Of course, evolved to Sovereign Grade, Life's Aria went far deeper in its command of life and natural forces. Even a casual, offhand heal now carried the force of a Lord Grade Combat Technique.

And it wasn't only healing — he could harness natural forces to transform plants into combat-capable Treant guardians, accelerate vegetation to ensnare enemies, conjure Poison Mist, and more. Any force connected to life and nature was now within his grasp, and none of the results would be weak.

With the evolution complete, Lu Yuan retrieved from his Battle-mark Space the takeout he'd ordered earlier from the Hundred-Temper Pavilion and had a proper meal.

Then he slept, and when he woke, he began again.

His third Transcendent Gene: Mechanical King.

The familiar process unfolded.

When it was done, all of Lu Yuan's attributes — Mental Power, strength, speed, and constitution — had risen by equal measure. That was this gene's defining trait, much like a Spatial Type gene: a comprehensive, across-the-board enhancement. The boost wasn't as dramatic as a Spatial Type's, but for Lu Yuan it was still quite substantial.

He closed his eyes and reached into the new gene's constellation.

*Sovereign Grade Gene: Mechanical Emperor.*

The Sovereign Grade gene carried an even deeper inheritance of mechanical and technological knowledge. Lu Yuan could now draw on that inheritance to forge King Grade mechanical Gene Armaments.

And it wasn't limited to Gene Armaments. The genetic inheritance contained extensive technological knowledge related to mechanical device construction — warships, Spirit Cannons, and the like.

Beyond that…

He considered it a moment, then produced a metal greatsword from his Battle-mark Space.

A Third-rank, King Grade Gene Armament — the lowest-tier Gene Armament he currently owned. He felt a vague resignation about that.

A detached, almost mechanical stillness settled into Lu Yuan's eyes as he pressed a finger lightly against the greatsword.

The next instant, invisible waves pulsed outward. The metal greatsword seemed to awaken, breaking apart and reassembling piece by piece until it had fully transformed into a peculiar mechanical cannon.

*Mechanical Fabrication* — given the right materials, he could directly manufacture machinery suited to those materials. The one limitation, unfortunately, was that he still couldn't imbue his creations with a soul.

If he could, he'd be able to build formidable Mechanical Guardians — an actual mechanical army.

He pressed a finger to the cannon a second time. A thread of gray-iron light flashed across its surface, and the aura it radiated grew noticeably stronger.

*Mechanical Amplification* — Lu Yuan could enhance machines to boost their power. Not just inert machinery, either; Mechanical Guardians and other mechanical lifeforms could be enhanced as well. After amplification, every aspect of a mechanical lifeform's performance surged dramatically, like the enhancement of a powerful Auxiliary Type Combat Technique's buff.

The only drawback was that it worked exclusively on mechanical constructs.

He sighed a little at that.

Overall, though, he was quite satisfied.

He could craft some floating-cannon-type King Grade mechanical Gene Armaments, evolve them to Sovereign Grade with the Evolution Cube, then apply Mechanical Amplification on top.

*The firepower would be absurd.*

*Might actually be worth pursuing.*

And beyond combat applications — if he ever found himself short on Spirit Crystals, he could always manufacture King Grade Gene Armaments for sale. That alone would bring in a considerable sum.

Lu Yuan rested again, then turned to his next evolution.

His fourth gene — and his most precious: Space Gate.