Battle Emperor, Divine Grade Genes
After a full day's rest, Lu Yuan slept soundly and woke refreshed.
Early the next morning, rather than heading to the Gravity Room, he stayed in his room and began his breakthrough.
He had prepared the Origin Stones well in advance — one hundred and ninety-nine in total. He absorbed them one by one. With each stone consumed, dense Spirit Power surged through him and shattered a single link of his Gene Chain. When all one hundred and ninety-nine were done, every Gene Lock chain had been broken. His attributes rose sharply across the board; his life essence was sublimated, and his presence deepened considerably.
At the same time, the white mist that had capped the top of his Gene Chain dispersed, and a new section of chain emerged beyond it.
Lu Yuan had broken through to Battle Emperor.
The moment he reached Battle Emperor, he didn't stop — he moved straight into evolving his Transcendent Genes.
All of his Transcendent Genes were currently at Saint Grade. One more evolution would bring each of them to Divine Grade. The Spirit Power required for that step, however, was enormous.
Fortunately, he had spent the past stretch steadily auctioning off treasures generated through his evolutions, and the Spirit Crystals had accumulated well. The Evolution Cube alone had absorbed close to a hundred million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals.
For a Battle Saint, that sum would be an astronomical fortune.
He felt a flicker of quiet gratitude. It was a good thing his Evolution Cube could evolve external items — that let him produce high-grade treasures to sell at auction and convert into enormous wealth. Without that ability, he had no idea how long it would have taken to amass this much.
The Evolution Cube pulsed with deep blue light, projecting it into the first segment of his Gene Chain. Spirit Power drained rapidly from within, and the Gene Chain began to shift — its sequencing growing more intricate, more complex.
As the chain transformed, his flesh and bone transformed with it. Searing pain tore through him; cracks split open across his skin and blood poured freely.
After so many evolutions, this was deeply familiar territory.
It hurt — but it was manageable. With practiced ease, he layered Life's Gift over himself. The wounds knit back together almost as fast as they opened, and he settled into quiet patience, waiting for the process to run its course.
Before long, the Evolution Cube had consumed approximately six million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals, and the Stellar Body was elevated to Divine Grade.
**Divine Grade Transcendent Gene: Cosmic Body.**
The moment it completed, power flooded through every corner of his being. The jump from Saint Grade to Divine Grade was not a quantitative difference — it was categorical. There was simply no comparison.
And it had only just evolved, completely untempered. Even so, the raw amplification from the untreated Cosmic Body alone nearly matched the combined output of all his other Saint Grade Transcendent Genes at peak proficiency.
The gap was staggering.
In terms of Combat Technique, the Cosmic Body functioned similarly to the Stellar Body — both were enhancement-type techniques. If the Stellar Body was like harnessing the amplification of the stars, then the Cosmic Body was like carrying an entire universe within himself. The enhancement was incomparably greater.
Beyond the raw power boost, the legacy knowledge inherited through the Cosmic Body granted him access to stellar laws. He hadn't tested it yet, but the bone-deep instinct the gene provided was unmistakable: he could now influence the movement of entire star systems. Extinguish a sun. Shift the orbits of stars. Compress a planet and alter its size, its gravity, its fundamental nature. A whole repertoire of operations — all within his reach.
These were no longer the acts of ordinary living beings. Only a god should wield such power.
Even as he absorbed the relevant knowledge, a quiet shock settled over him.
*No wonder it's called a Divine Grade gene. This is on an entirely different plane from Saint Grade. They don't even belong to the same dimension.*
He exhaled slowly, cleansed the blood from his body, and rested briefly to recover from the mental strain before starting again.
The second Transcendent Gene: Life's Gift.
The Evolution Cube began consuming Spirit Power, working through the transformation.
The familiar pain returned. By now, Lu Yuan was unmoved — he simply waited.
After consuming over six million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals, the evolution was complete.
**Divine Grade Transcendent Gene: Life Spirit.**
Like Life's Gift, Life Spirit carried formidable healing capability — and surpassed its predecessor by a considerable margin. But it offered something far beyond healing.
Through Life Spirit, Lu Yuan could condense a person's very life and store it as a spiritual construct. Even if that person's soul was utterly annihilated, Life Spirit could bring them back.
And it worked on others, not just himself.
He stared at that for a moment, mildly struck.
*A resurrection technique. You basically never have to fear death again.*
For himself personally, he didn't even need resurrection — his healing was already sufficient to recover from virtually any wound, so long as he wasn't reduced to ash. Life Spirit simply added another layer of certainty on top of that.
Beyond healing, Life Spirit elevated his Mental Power to extraordinary heights — his soul approached something that could only be called permanence. He could also sow seeds of life on barren planets, nurturing them through natural forces until worlds bloomed with growth. In a sense, that was the creation of life itself.
Different in nature from the Cosmic Body — but no less powerful. Life Spirit was every bit as formidable a Divine Grade Transcendent Gene.
Of course, these were only the Combat Technique effects. The raw attribute boosts that came with any Divine Grade Transcendent Gene were equally overwhelming.
After absorbing the full power legacy, Lu Yuan extended his right hand and let Spirit Power flow freely. Moments later, a green luminescence swirled in his palm, condensing into a soft jade-colored orb of light.
That was the Life Spirit he had condensed from himself.
He closed his fist. The orb vanished. If he were to die, it would allow him to reconstitute within this very room.
Because the gene had only just evolved and remained untempered, he could currently condense only a single Life Spirit for himself. As his tempering proficiency grew, he would be able to create more.
He had already decided: once his proficiency was high enough, he would create Life Spirits for Si Tingxue and the others. Even if something catastrophic happened, they would be able to come back.
There was a limit to how many Life Spirits he could condense for any single person, but no limit on how many different individuals he could make them for.
The only real constraint was cost — condensing one Life Spirit consumed roughly four-fifths of his current Spirit Power reserves. Enormous, by any standard. But he could replenish through Spirit Crystal absorption, which made it manageable in practice.
He rested briefly, then resumed.
The third Transcendent Gene: Mechanical Emperor.
The Evolution Cube began consuming Spirit Crystals. The Gene Chain stirred.
This time, the pain of evolution was noticeably lighter than before. Two Divine Grade genes had already transformed his body substantially; their cumulative boost to his physical resilience was no small thing.
After a long interval and nearly nine million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals consumed, the evolution reached completion.
**Divine Grade Gene: Mechanical God.**
The name suited it perfectly. This was a Transcendent Gene that could lay claim to the mantle of a deity among the Mechanical Race.
Even Saint Grade mechanical creatures fell fully under his control. He could also "deify" mechanical-type Gene Armaments and all manner of machines, dramatically amplifying their output. Beyond that, he could fabricate Saint Grade mechanical Gene Armaments with ease, alongside superweapons capable of destroying planets or entire star systems — and command terrifying mechanical armies of his own construction.
His current set of Floating Cannon Gene Armaments was due for replacement. Under Mechanical God, a single shot could erase a planet.
Under full deification, wiping out a star system in one discharge seemed entirely plausible. The destructive potential outstripped even the Cosmic Body and Life Spirit.
*I'm genuinely curious,* he thought. *If I ran into a War God-level powerhouse from the Mechanical Race, what would they make of me?*
A kindred spirit? Or an enemy?
*Doesn't really matter,* he decided. *At my current level, I have nothing to fear from a War God regardless.*
With Mechanical God absorbed, he continued.
The fourth Transcendent Gene: Spatial Walker.
His most powerful Spatial Type Transcendent Gene.
This one consumed just over ten million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals before the evolution was complete.
**Divine Grade Gene: Spatial Rift.**
The attribute boosts were in line with his other new Divine Grade genes. For raw spatial mobility, Spatial Rift held an edge over Spatial Walker — though Spatial Walker had already reached its own ceiling. Moving through subspace as freely as open air was about as mobile as spatial travel could get; Spatial Rift simply achieved it with slightly lower Spirit Power costs.
Where Spatial Rift truly distinguished itself was something far more imposing: by reshaping spatial lines, it could weave an endless labyrinth of rifts. Any being trapped within those fissures — even a War God-level powerhouse, provided they lacked a Spatial Type Transcendent Gene — would find escape nearly impossible.
In effect, it was eternal exile. Unless Lu Yuan chose to collapse the rifts himself, the prisoner would remain — forever.
Ice shot down his spine at the thought. *We're talking about War Gods here.*
No need to elaborate on what a War God's power meant. Every individual capable of inscribing Divine Grade Transcendent Genes was a prodigious talent — a being of extraordinary combat power, a monster among monsters. And even those extraordinary beings could be sealed away indefinitely by this technique.
Spatial Rift was something else entirely.
In addition to imprisonment, the deeper legacy of this Divine Grade spatial gene had sharpened his grasp of spatial forces dramatically. His capacity to reshape spatial lines had expanded by a wide margin — he could now construct an entire Small World on his own. Combined with the Cosmic Body, he could simulate a cosmological explosion inside an isolated Small World and birth a miniature universe. Its scale might fall short of the current universe, but the laws governing celestial motion within it would be fully operational.
The destructive applications of spatial force had also intensified sharply. Spatial Blades, Spatial Vortexes, and similar techniques — all grew more devastating as the degree of spatial collapse increased. He was fairly certain even a Battle Saint would struggle to withstand a direct hit.
After absorbing all the technique knowledge and legacy from Spatial Rift, Lu Yuan didn't pause. The previous evolutions had long since stopped feeling like much of a burden; he felt no particular fatigue.
He pressed straight on.
The fifth Transcendent Gene: Wings of Light.
Spirit Power flowed out, and the evolution began.
Around eight million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals later, it was done.
Wings of Light had ascended to a Divine Grade Transcendent Gene — **Heart of Light.**
Like Wings of Light, Heart of Light was a sustained enhancement Combat Technique. The amplification, however, was several times more potent, and its resistance to negative effects had increased enormously. Even Divine Grade curse effects could be rapidly cleansed and suppressed, provided he had sufficient Spirit Power.
Activating Heart of Light also projected a subtle influence over nearby enemies — a quiet, permeating pressure from the light-force that made it harder for them to fight at full capacity, and in extreme cases could compel them toward outright submission. For those without hostility toward Lu Yuan, however, that same light-force could instead elevate their power, granting a significant boost to their combat potential.
It functioned like an aura — weakening enemies, strengthening allies. Comprehensive, and then some.
For a Divine Grade Combat Technique, it was excellent.
*Solid all around,* he thought with quiet satisfaction.
The sixth Transcendent Gene: Shadow Sacred Domain.
Over eight million Eighth-tier Spirit Crystals later, the evolution was complete.
**Divine Grade Transcendent Gene: Shadow Divine Kingdom.**
Shadow Divine Kingdom operated along the same lines as the Shadow Sacred Domain, but across a broader range. Within the Kingdom, Lu Yuan's own power received a tangible boost while enemies suffered a corresponding reduction. Allies without hostility toward him also benefited — those with Shadow-type Transcendent Genes received enormous amplification, while those with other gene types still gained a modest boost.
The sole exception was Light Type. Any ally carrying a Light Type Transcendent Gene would be suppressed within the Shadow Divine Kingdom — regardless of which side they were on.
He thought it over. Among his companions, Wang Lingling was the one with a Light Type Transcendent Gene.
He was genuinely curious what expression she would make if she ever ended up standing inside his Shadow Divine Kingdom.
He coughed quietly to himself.
Shaking his head, Lu Yuan pushed that particular line of thought aside and returned to absorbing the technique's knowledge.
As an additional change, his Shadow Clones had evolved into Shadow Divine Messengers — each wielding roughly eighty percent of his own combat power, closely approaching his true level.
That was genuinely alarming. Given enough Shadow Divine Messengers, he wouldn't even need to act himself — they could eliminate any opponent on their own.
Summoning them required substantial Spirit Power, and maintaining control demanded considerable Mental Power — but neither was a real concern. After the Life Spirit and Mechanical God evolutions, his Mental Power had grown into something that could only be described as boundless. He had nothing to worry about.
By conservative estimate, he could summon around a hundred Shadow Divine Messengers without much strain.
A hundred figures, each wielding eighty percent of his own combat power. The thought gave him a quiet, pleasant satisfaction. Even he himself, facing that many simultaneously, would be in very serious trouble.
*This technique might be unsolvable,* he reflected — but then reconsidered. Against a War God, there were probably counters.
He mentally ran through a few. The Cosmic Body — open a miniature universe inside the Shadow Divine Kingdom and swallow all the Messengers whole. Spatial Rift — exile them into the fissures. Mechanical God — deploy an overwhelming mechanical army and meet them head-on. Heart of Light — radiate enough luminance to scatter the surrounding Shadow Divine Kingdom and render the Messengers harmless.
And if Life Spirit was the last resort... *Can't beat them? Die and come back. That has to work, right?*
Thinking it through, Shadow Divine Kingdom was formidable — but not invincible. Its full potential only emerged in concert with his other Divine Grade techniques.
Of course, his Divine Grade techniques had all evolved from extraordinarily rare and precious Transcendent Genes. Other War God-level experts might not possess Divine Grade Combat Techniques of the same caliber.
Lu Yuan shook his head and stopped dwelling on it. There was still another evolution ahead.