Priceless

"So you're going back to your little sweetheart?"

Li Qinghe pursed her lips and shot a glance at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan gave a dry cough and looked away.

*Honestly, I really am kind of a scoundrel.* This world didn't run on the same monogamous principles as his previous life — but dividing his heart into pieces and giving each girl her own corner of it was, by any measure, textbook playboy behavior.

Lu Yuan scratched the back of his head. *Well, scoundrel it is.*

There was no way he could give any of them up. He'd never once claimed to be an upstanding man.

Si Tingyu seemed to think of something and spoke up. "Oh, right — Tingxue broke through to Battle King Rank. She can enter the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin now. Why not let her train with us?"

Li Qinghe considered this for a moment, then nodded. "That works. If they want to come up, you can bring them, little Yuan."

After all, Lu Yuan's strength far outpaced theirs. Continuing to train alongside him wouldn't make much sense going forward — but guiding Si Tingxue and the others would be no trouble at all.

Lu Yuan thought it over. "Will Shuangyue be okay with that?"

Shuangyue was their teammate. Bringing Si Tingxue along would inevitably affect her, and it only felt right to get her consent first.

Li Qinghe smiled. "Relax. Shuangyue knows Tingxue and the others. And besides — they're *your people*. How could she possibly say no?"

She put a particular weight on the words *your people*.

Lu Yuan maintained a perfectly innocent expression, as though he hadn't caught the implication at all. He gave a nod. "I see. Then it's settled."

"Off you go."

Si Tingyu said.

Something came to mind, and Lu Yuan smiled. "When I get back this time, I'll bring you both something. You might even want to think about going for the Rankings."

"Us?"

Li Qinghe blinked, a flicker of surprise crossing her face. "What are you going to bring us, little Yuan? Something that could actually put us on the Rankings?"

Si Tingyu was equally curious.

"Consider it a surprise for now — look forward to it. I'm heading out."

Seeing their curious expressions, Lu Yuan just smiled and said nothing. Then he vanished on the spot.

Li Qinghe and Si Tingyu both startled at his abrupt disappearance, then turned to look at each other.

Li Qinghe puffed out her cheeks.

"He dangles something in front of us and then won't say a word — little Yuan is getting worse by the day."

Si Tingyu smiled. "He said we'd know when the time comes. Let's just focus on training."

"Aren't you even curious, Fierce Rain?"

Li Qinghe stared at her, exasperated that Si Tingyu seemed completely unbothered.

Si Tingyu shook her head. "I am. But if he's not telling, I'll just wait. Come on."

She took Li Qinghe's hand, and the two of them disappeared from the spot, flying toward the Training Hall.

White Cloud City. The transfer hall of the Upper Layer, Land of Origin.

Lu Yuan stepped out of his room to find several other Gene Warriors already gathered in the hall — all Battle Sovereign or Battle Emperor powerhouses. When they noticed him, they paused briefly, then offered a small nod in greeting.

Lu Yuan nodded back with a smile.

Once outside the hall, he took out his Communication Crystal and called Si Tingxue.

White light pulsed. A moment later, the connection opened, and Si Tingxue's cool, striking face appeared within the crystal.

"Ah Yuan? You came down to the Lower Layer?"

Her ice-blue eyes shimmered faintly as she looked at him.

Then Rebecca shouldered her way into frame, face alight with a brilliant grin.

"Ah Yuan, Ah Yuan! I'm Battle King too now!"

Lu Yuan chuckled. "Not bad. Big improvement."

He had prepared quite a few things for the two of them during this period — spirit liquids suited for cultivation, Gene Armaments — all arranged in advance. Without that support, reaching Battle King Rank at this point would have been a stretch for either of them, talent notwithstanding.

"Since you've both broken through, I'll come to you."

Si Tingxue nodded. "Mn. We're at Red Maple Manor."

"Got it."

The words had barely left his mouth before he vanished.

An instant later, Lu Yuan materialized inside Si Tingxue's small courtyard at Red Maple Manor.

The two of them were already in the yard.

Since they hadn't yet inscribed new Transcendent Genes after their breakthroughs, their cultivation efficiency was low and they couldn't temper any new genes either — so they'd set training aside for the time being.

When Lu Yuan suddenly appeared before them, both women were caught off guard.

Rebecca nearly jumped out of her skin. She stared at him wide-eyed. "Ah — Ah Yuan?!"

Lu Yuan smiled and reached over to give her cheek a playful squeeze. "What's the matter? A few days apart and you don't recognize me anymore?"

Beside her, Si Tingxue recovered, her ice-blue eyes wide with astonishment as she looked at him.

"...You used a spatial movement ability? How can it be this powerful? The distance from White Cloud City to Red Maple City is enormous — over a light-year."

Lu Yuan smiled. "My spatial movement is pretty strong at this point."

"..."

*Pretty strong* and he can cross a light-year in an instant?!

Si Tingxue looked at him, then slowly rolled her eyes.

Rebecca, for her part, didn't dwell on it. She just gazed at him with wide, gleeful eyes.

"That's Ah Yuan for you! Amazing! Now we can save on travel costs whenever we go to White Cloud City!"

Lu Yuan gave Rebecca a thumbs-up. "Now that's what I call thrifty. A good woman."

Rebecca puffed up with pride. "Hmph. Naturally."

Si Tingxue glanced at Rebecca with quiet resignation. Was this really about saving a handful of Spirit Crystals?

She genuinely couldn't follow Rebecca's thought process.

She let out a soft sigh and changed the subject. "So — why did you tell us to wait before inscribing our new Transcendent Genes?"

Lu Yuan smiled and produced a cluster of orbs — some pulsing with red light, others glowing orange.

The moment they appeared, Si Tingxue and Rebecca went rigid, their eyes going wide.

"Emperor Grade and Sovereign Grade items?!"

With their level of cultivation, they knew exactly what those auras meant. These were extraordinary, extraordinarily rare treasures.

Lu Yuan nodded. "There are some Gene Armaments here, along with some spirit fruits and spirit liquids I prepared for you. Take a look."

Si Tingxue and Rebecca exchanged a glance, then each reached out and opened one of the red orbs.

Their breath caught simultaneously.

"This... this is a Fifth-rank Emperor Grade Gene Armament? Does something like this actually exist?"

A Fifth-rank Emperor Grade Gene Armament could only drop from King Grade Feral Beasts carrying Emperor-grade bloodlines. Those kinds of beasts were already vanishingly scarce to begin with, and even when killed, a drop was never guaranteed.

The rarity of what sat before them was almost impossible to overstate.

And yet Lu Yuan had simply produced one — as casually as if he were handing over pocket change. Their minds ground to a halt.

Lu Yuan saw their stunned expressions and dismissed it with an easy smile.

"There's more than one. Check the others."

For him, evolving a Fifth-rank Gene Armament was trivial.

If he truly wanted to, he could push them all the way to Saint Grade quality. But at Saint Grade, neither woman could bear the backlash — the energy would overwhelm them rather than help. Emperor Grade was the right ceiling for now.

"...There's... more than one?"

The corner of Rebecca's mouth twitched. She shot Si Tingxue a strange look, then turned back to the remaining orbs.

Si Tingxue was equally stunned, lips parted slightly, her cool face awash with disbelief.

Urged on by Lu Yuan, both women extended their hands toward the other red orbs.

Weapons. Armor. A necklace. A ring.

Everything Lu Yuan had prepared was Fifth-rank Emperor Grade.

Four Gene Armaments in total. By his estimate, they might not be able to equip all of them right away — but what couldn't be bonded today could be grown into tomorrow. Better to have them prepared.

Si Tingxue and Rebecca opened piece after piece until the shock gave way to a numb kind of disbelief.

Then Rebecca went still.

She was holding an orange orb, staring at what lay inside — a deep crimson spirit fruit.

"This is... a Blood Jade Fruit? For enhancing physical strength? Equivalent to an entire Sovereign Grade gene's worth of physical enhancement... this..."

She opened her mouth. No words came.

This thing was probably worth even more than the Fifth-rank Emperor Grade Gene Armaments.

Spirit fruits that enhanced physical strength were rare to begin with, and they grew rarer with every tier. At Sovereign Grade, they were extraordinarily scarce. Using one was functionally like gaining the physical strength of an additional inscribed Sovereign Grade Transcendent Gene for free — no Combat Technique attached, no power inheritance — and that alone made it nearly invaluable.

It effectively surpassed the limits of the Gene Chain itself, allowing a Gene Warrior to inscribe more powerful Transcendent Genes and equip stronger Gene Armaments.

Something like this would have Battle Saints scrambling if it appeared on the open market. And here were two of them.

Lu Yuan smiled. "Those are for boosting your physical strength. There's also Jade Condensate Liquid for Mental Power enhancement — Sovereign Grade as well. Beyond those, I've got King Grade and Lord Grade of both — you can work through all of them."

He could have evolved Sovereign Grade or even Saint Grade versions of these attribute-enhancing fruits for himself — and he had, which was part of why his current strength sat where it did. But at Si Tingxue and Rebecca's level, Sovereign Grade was already the absolute ceiling. The energy inside these fruits was immense, and anything higher would be more than their bodies could absorb. There was no rush.

Lu Yuan continued. "Once you've used all of these, your physical strength and Mental Power should be sufficient to equip two or three Fifth-rank Emperor Grade Gene Armaments. That means the Transcendent Genes you inscribe going forward can be far more powerful. This all comes down to long-term potential, so better to get ahead of it now—"

He didn't get to finish.

Rebecca launched herself at him mid-sentence, peppering him with kisses.

Lu Yuan's eyes went wide. Then he closed them and let himself enjoy it.

*Mm. Not bad at all.*

Beside them, Si Tingxue stared, her ice-blue eyes utterly blank — that particular mixture of stupefaction, astonishment, and complete disbelief that only comes from witnessing something you are entirely unprepared for. It was as though a door had been thrown open onto a world she hadn't known existed.

She opened her mouth. Then closed it.

Then something soured in her chest. A sudden, irrational urge to pull Rebecca away.

Or maybe just to hit someone.

Si Tingxue drew a slow breath and moved.

She crossed the distance, grabbed Rebecca firmly by the back of her collar, and hauled.

Her voice came out cold and sharp. "Get off him. In broad daylight — have you no shame?!"

"Mmmngh~~~"

Rebecca squirmed in protest, but her cultivation ranked below Si Tingxue's and her physical strength wasn't sufficient to resist. She was lifted clean off and deposited several steps away.

Lu Yuan was still savoring the moment, thoroughly pleased with himself, when a glacial stare locked onto him.

He turned. Si Tingxue was looking directly at him — expression flat, displeasure written plainly across her face.

Lu Yuan studied her for a moment. Then, carefully, he ventured:

"...Want to do the same?"

Si Tingxue's face spasmed. She turned her head away, voice tight. "Saying something like that in front of Rebecca — shameless."

Lu Yuan: "..."

He caught the flush spreading across her cheeks and felt the corner of his mouth lift.

*So she really is that shy.* The way she'd phrased it — *in front of Rebecca* — was fairly telling.

He almost pressed further, but the cold radiating off her entire frame brought him to a stop.

Rebecca, for her part, was still pouting at Si Tingxue, arms crossed.

"Xiaoxue, what was that for?!"

Si Tingxue glared back. "You — I was right there!"

Rebecca blinked. She thought about it for a moment. Then her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands.

"Oh! Then how about we take turns — five minutes each? It's your turn next."

Si Tingxue: "???"

A jolt went through Lu Yuan. *There's such an arrangement available?*

Si Tingxue breathed in. Slowly. Very slowly. She forced herself back to calm.

Then she looked at Lu Yuan, her ice-blue eyes filled with something complicated, and let out a quiet sigh.

"...Even as a betrothal gift, this is far too much. Even if you sold us both, you couldn't fetch this price."

As a Battle Emperor's descendant, Si Tingxue had a clear sense of what Lu Yuan had produced. Nearly all of it was priceless — the kind of treasure that would have Battle Saints fighting over it the moment it surfaced.

Fifth-rank Gene Armaments might not have direct utility for a Battle Saint, but they still had their own heirs and descendants to consider. And those Sovereign Grade spirit fruits and liquids? Even Battle Saints would benefit from those directly.

Lu Yuan grinned and pointed at her with a thumbs-up. "You're priceless to me. These were always meant for you. Once you've used them, you'll be stronger — and with the Aberration Events getting worse, nobody knows what the future holds. Every improvement now is worth making."

He meant it. Looking at the current trajectory of things, Aberration Events would only keep escalating. There was no shortage of War Gods across the universe, and even they hadn't managed to stem the tide. He couldn't count on reaching Battle Emperor to fix everything on his own.

If Si Tingxue and the others grew stronger, he could breathe a little easier. There was a real possibility they'd be able to help him someday.

Hearing this, Si Tingxue went quiet. The flush that had been fading returned, deeper than before. She looked away and murmured softly, almost to herself:

"And we..."

"Ahem—"

Lu Yuan's composure crumbled entirely.

Rebecca, bright and cheerful as ever, clasped her hands together. "Anyway, since Ah Yuan gave these to me, I'm not going to stand on ceremony. What's mine is Ah Yuan's — and what's Ah Yuan's is mine."