The Final Divine Grade Gene Perfected

"All of you! This is the Li family's estate! Obviously *I* should be the one staying next to Yuan."

Li Qinghe spoke with a frown.

Beside her, Si Tingyu glanced over and said in a languid tone:

"My family also has an estate nearby. We could just as easily stay at mine."

Li Qinghe's breath caught. She shot Si Tingyu a glare and hurriedly sent a mental transmission:

*You menace! Is this really the time for infighting? How about we each take one side — you and me together?*

Si Tingyu blinked, then glanced at Li Qinghe. A moment later, she spoke again with feigned nonchalance:

"Well... since we're all staying here anyway, I suppose I won't leave. I'll take the other side."

"..."

Everyone stared at Si Tingyu, speechless. That was the fastest about-face any of them had ever witnessed.

Shuangyue eyed Li Qinghe and Si Tingyu, letting out a silent scoff.

*The three of us are supposed to be close sisters, and you two just cut me out? Fine. If you won't play fair, don't blame me for fighting dirty.*

She crossed her arms. "That won't do. I think rooms should be assigned based on strength."

Here in the Upper Layer, Shuangyue's cultivation had already reached Battle Emperor, and she'd received a Saint Grade gene inscription — making her the strongest among them by a clear margin. Under this arrangement, she could claim the best position.

By comparison, Si Tingyu and Li Qinghe hadn't broken through yet, nor had Lu Yuan inscribed Saint Grade genes for them. They were actually weaker than Anastasia and the others, who had both broken through to Battle Sovereign and received their Saint Grade inscriptions.

Li Qinghe's and Si Tingyu's expressions shifted at her words.

Anastasia's eyes gleamed. "I support Shuangyue."

She was confident in her own strength. Yeye's expressionless eyes flickered with a glint of light as she gave a small nod.

Si Tingxue and Rebecca, however, both frowned.

The two of them were only at Battle King Rank and hadn't broken through yet. The highest-grade gene they'd inscribed was Sovereign Grade at best — making them, frankly, the weakest of the group.

If it came down to a contest, they'd end up dead last.

Si Tingxue spoke coldly. "Absolutely not. This is the Red Maple Empire — *our* territory. We should have priority."

Rebecca stood beside Si Tingxue, bobbing her head in rapid agreement:

"Yeah, yeah!"

Off to the side, Small White watched the bickering group, then quietly moved to stand beside Yeye without a word.

Amy, meanwhile, seemed to finally understand why she'd felt those icy stares earlier. Realization dawned in her eyes, and she opened her mouth to speak — then closed it again, trembling slightly.

Wang Lingling glanced at Amy with a gentle smile but said nothing.

She was different from the rest. As far as she was concerned, where she slept didn't matter — she could always slip over to Lu Yuan's room at night.

The argument raged on with no resolution in sight. Finally, all eyes turned to Lu Yuan. Li Qinghe fixed him with a half-amused, half-dangerous smile:

"Yuan, how do *you* think we should arrange the rooms?"

Lu Yuan stiffened. He'd been shrinking into a corner this entire time precisely to avoid being dragged in, but fate had found him anyway.

*This question...*

Even if they forced him to choose, he couldn't possibly pick.

Under the weight of every gaze in the room, Lu Yuan tugged at the corner of his mouth, gave an awkward cough, and said:

"How about... you draw lots?"

The women rolled their eyes at his answer, though none of them were particularly surprised.

In the end, unable to reach any consensus, they reluctantly agreed to draw lots.

The results: Small White and Shuangyue won the rooms on either side of Lu Yuan. Li Qinghe ended up directly across from him, with Si Tingxue and Yeye flanking her.

The rest were assigned to rooms farther away.

Reactions were mixed. Small White hadn't expected to land the spot next to Lu Yuan at all, and a delighted smile spread across her face.

Si Tingyu, on the other hand, frowned with visible displeasure.

Anastasia and Amy took it even harder, both retreating into gloomy silence.

They'd drawn the farthest rooms. Wang Lingling had ended up equally far away, but she couldn't have cared less — she still had her invisibility ability, after all. Sneaking over to Lu Yuan would be effortless.

After the drawn-out squabble, rooms were finally settled, and everyone retired to their own quarters.

Lu Yuan sat cross-legged on the immaculate bed — cleaned to perfection by the estate's service robots — and turned his thoughts to more serious matters.

He'd promised Jinka and Bingling he would deal with the Aberration organizations in the Elf Race and Beast Race territories.

But he'd told them he intended to wait.

After all, the King of Flesh had been only partially incubated, yet its strength had already rivaled his own.

If the Aberrant Spirit Legion and the Aberrant Beast Nest also harbored Descended Avatars similar to the King of Flesh, it would depend on how far along they were. If less developed, that was manageable. But if they were further along, he might not be able to handle them at his current level.

Still, he held one enormous advantage over any Descended Avatar.

His rate of growth.

In barely more than five years, Lu Yuan had risen from a fresh Awakening to surpassing ordinary War Gods. Given just a little more time, he could finish tempering his final gene — Fantasy Manifestation — to perfection.

That alone would push his strength up another level.

Beyond that, he still had three Hearts of Laws. One had come from the Mirage Dragon, and the other two from the Mechanical Race.

Lu Yuan planned to try using one first, to gauge its effects.

If the Aberrant Spirit Legion and the Aberrant Beast Nest truly did harbor Descended Avatars — and if those Avatars were nearly mature — there might genuinely be a chance of reaching Laws Rank.

Only by elevating himself to that level would he feel truly secure.

Besides, the King of Flesh had spent hundreds of millions of years incubating and still hadn't fully matured. Even if the other two Aberration organizations had Descended Avatars of their own, surely they wouldn't complete incubation in such a short window?

With that thought, Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes, then headed to the estate's built-in Gravity Room to begin training.

In the chaos beyond the Cosmic Boundary, a murky yellow haze pervaded everything. Terrifying fluctuations of power surged in every direction.

Space here was immovably solid — impossible to tear. Even wielding spatial Laws, long-range spatial jumps were all but futile.

Within one region of this primordial chaos, an impossibly vast nest of coagulated flesh drifted in silence, churning currents of chaos swirling around it.

The nest was beyond enormous. Placed within a universe, it would rival an entire galaxy in scale.

Green slime oozed across its surface. Countless Aberrant Beasts streamed in and out through its many openings, scattering in every direction.

They swarmed like locusts, scouring the chaos for universe bubbles — to corrupt them. To devour them.

At the heart of this flesh nest, a skinless humanoid monstrosity snapped its eyes open. Those eyes — entirely green — seemed to hold the light of an abyss.

It let out a low grunt. Flesh rippled across its body, and slick tentacles erupted from its surface. A moment later, it frowned.

"The Descended Avatar was destroyed? By my reckoning, it shouldn't have fully matured yet — but it was close to Laws Rank. How could that universe possibly have a being strong enough to destroy it? Strange..."

It pondered briefly, then shook its head.

"Contact the others. We can't afford surprises. Beseech the Master to grant the Aberrant followers in that universe bubble a little more of its blessing. And... accelerate our approach."

No great worry stirred within its mind. After all, it had annihilated more than a few universes and encountered its share of powerful beings.

Back in the real world, Lu Yuan's life settled into a quiet rhythm.

He trained twelve hours a day, tempering his final Transcendent Gene. Afterward, he would attempt to perceive the Laws contained within his already-perfected genes.

He hadn't yet used a Heart of Laws, but figured he should at least try on his own first.

The results, of course, were fruitless.

Other War Gods had spent hundreds of millions — even billions — of years failing to perceive the Laws. If Lu Yuan had managed it in a mere few hours, the Origin Will wouldn't have been forced to make the decision it did.

Beyond training, Lu Yuan would go out with Li Qinghe and the others — exploring, sparring, practicing together.

Well... sparring in every sense of the word.

Whether it was Shuangyue's excellent... leadership setting the tone, Lu Yuan couldn't say, but the women seemed to grow more creative by the day.

Not that he was complaining.

Time passed quickly.

When Lu Yuan next entered the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin, roughly two months later, he finally tempered Fantasy Manifestation to perfection.

At last, every single one of Lu Yuan's Transcendent Genes had evolved to Divine Grade.

And every single one had been tempered to completion.

Across the entire universe, short of using a Heart of Laws to comprehend the Laws or spending eons doing so gradually, Lu Yuan's power had reached the absolute ceiling this universe allowed.

Even War Gods who had existed for hundreds of millions or billions of years could not match his current strength.

It was no exaggeration to say that, barring the emergence of a Laws Rank being, Lu Yuan was the strongest entity alive.

If not for the Aberrant Beasts, he wouldn't need to train at all — he could simply coast through life without a care.

Unfortunately, his current strength was still woefully insufficient against the Aberrant Beast Mother Nest.

Lu Yuan drew a deep breath and quickly pulled himself free from the elation of perfecting Fantasy Manifestation.

Sitting cross-legged in the Gravity Room, he produced the crystalline Heart of Laws once more.

He watched it hover above his palm, gaze flickering as he sank into contemplation.

Each Heart of Laws could only be used to perceive a single Law.

But Lu Yuan had far too many Laws to choose from.

Stellar. Life. Mechanical. Space. Light. Darkness. Death. Fate. Time. Fantasy.

Every one of them was an extraordinarily powerful Law. He didn't have a single basic Law among them.

Choosing would be no simple matter.

And from what he'd heard, the rarer and more precious a Law, the harder it was to comprehend.

Lu Yuan's mouth twitched, and a helpless look crossed his face.

*Back when I chose these Transcendent Genes, it was all about maximizing my combat power. Who knew that at this stage, that very choice would become an obstacle?*

Of course, if he truly managed to comprehend all of these rare Laws, his strength would far exceed what comprehending ordinary Laws would grant.

Every gain came with a cost.

Lu Yuan shook his head. The question now was: which Law to start with?