The Strongest Gene

In the Desolate Rocky Grounds, sandstorms still pervaded the area.

Chen Feng swung his somewhat sour right hand and discarded the ruined illusionary snake’s scale in his hands. This was his 160th failure.

Mhm…

Zero successes.

Although his spiritual energy met the requirements, his junior production level was still just 10-star. It was far from meeting the standard required to produce E-class formulas. Hence, it was very difficult for him to produce an illusionary snake’s scale. Without the assistance of his luck values, his success rate was extremely low.

However, he did not feel pressured.

His current goal was the illusionary snake leader. Before meeting the leader, all illusionary snakes met were merely practice materials for him. As such, this wasn’t quite a waste of their time.

Wang Chun did not find this surprising as well.

Many producers would fuse with formidable genetic abilities that would greatly increase their production capabilities at a crucial point. The practice Chen Feng went through now were all in order to produce it better when they met an illusionary snake leader.

Naturally, this was also due to Chen Feng’s status being different nowadays. If a normal junior producer dared to play it this way, he would have gotten himself thrown out to feed some illusionary snake long ago.

"Chirp!"

A huge bird flew over in the sky.

"Bang!"

A bundle crashed downward.

Chen Feng opened it in a well-practiced way. Within was a new set of production materials—this was the express airdrop service. In accordance to the environment, different mutated beasts will be sent to deliver packages. Professional, fast, and secure.

Wang Chun looked at the time. Half a day had passed. "No illusionary snake leader found yet?"

Qin Jie shook his head. "Nope."

After they got a concrete data on illusionary snake from analyzing it, their illusionary snakes killing speed increased greatly. Now, it was already possible for Qin Jie to accurately grasp the appearances of illusionary snakes, not leaving any opportunity for the snakes to make a move.

However, they had yet to see any illusionary snake leaders.

"Continue."

Wang Chun looked toward the sandstorm.

Since no illusionary snake leaders were found on the outer region of the Desolate Rocky Grounds, they could only enter deeper into the area.

An Te nodded slightly. "Understood."

The area was still engulfed in a sandstorm.

A faint power swirled around, blocking off the sandstorm around them. They started heading toward the inner region of the area. However, they had only walked a few steps before that little girl called Shen Yi stopped abruptly.

"What’s the matter?" Wang Chun asked in concern.

"…" Shen Yi blinked her large eyes and said doubtfully, "Is one of us missing?"

"How is that possible?" Wang Chun laughed involuntarily. "There’s a total of eight of us—"

Whoosh!

Wang Chun’s words paused.

Everyone looked around before they were abruptly alarmed from the shock of realizing that there were only seven of them left!

Originally, they were comprised of Chen Feng, Wang Chun, Shen Yi, and the five from the An Te squad. Now, however, one person was missing from the An Te squad!

"????"

The expression of An Te and his group changed greatly as well.

"Where’s Zhang Lei?"

An Te was ashen-faced.

"He was guarding the rear, providing cover for us. However, unexpectedly…"

One of the squad members was deathly pale as he said this.

Something happened!

It was normal to be met with danger during explorations!

They had all prepared for the prospect of death. However, a strange disappearance like this caused everyone to feel an indescribable chill and incomparably horrified.

"Qin Jie…" An Te said.

"I did not feel anything."

Qin Jie’s expression was unsightly.

This was the scary part of it.

A squad member had disappeared just like that while he, as the member with the strongest detection ability, had failed to detect anything? What exactly was their enemy this time?!

"Could it be simply him failing to catch up with us?" Chen Feng guessed. "For example, he couldn’t hold his pee in and went to take a leak, or something like that?"

"…"

Everyone looked at Chen Feng weirdly.

"A qualified squad member would definitely report that kind of thing." An Te inhaled deeply. "However, there is such a possibility after all. Qin Jie, contact King Yan[1] and check Zhang Lei’s life or death status."

"Alright."

Qin Jie turned his communication device on.

King Yan?

Chen Feng felt somewhat doubtful.

"A genetic warrior with the ability to determine one’s life or death status," Wang Chun explained softly. "This ability isn’t particularly useful. However, this fellow proclaimed himself as King Yan and opened a virtual shop called ‘Life and Death Book.’ Unexpectedly, his business is actually quite good. The previously accumulated missing person cases have been solved with his help. He is quite a famous person."

So this is the case…

Chen Feng felt enlightened.

This world was indeed incomparably intriguing. Apart from chasing after top-notch combat power, every single person possessing peculiar abilities would be able to find their own purpose of existence.

"Di di—"

"Signal lost!"

Qin Jie’s wristband buzzed violently.

The expression of others changed greatly as they checked their wristband and found that all of them had lost their signal!

Chen Feng glanced at his wristband as well.

No signal!

"We have been blocked."

Qin Jie was ashen faced.

Although the Desolate Rocky Grounds was filled with sandstorms that would affect their signals to a certain extent, a situation like losing contact would definitely not appear. Their current circumstances were definitely the product of someone else’s disturbance!

Someone had acted against them!

In this Desolate Rocky Grounds!

"This is looking somewhat bad."

Wang Chun felt his head aching. He couldn’t understand. Who would actually make a move on them at this place?

"Let me try." An Te turned his screen on with a solemn expression. "Although the signal getting blocked is somewhat difficult to deal with, there is still a way to solve it. Before coming, I prepared a breakout chip. However, I’m not sure how effective it is. If the level of our opponent’s block is too high, my breakout chip wouldn’t work."

"Ka!"

The chip activated.

"Hum—"

On his screen, a blue-colored light disk was spinning.

Whoosh!

The light disk was operating frantically.

All sorts of never-before-seen symbols started flickering, accompanied by garbled text.

After a long time, when the light disk finally stopped, only three terms were left. Among them, the words "Wang Yue" were written.

"Seems like it’s not enough."

An Te felt greatly disappointed.

"I don’t need anything more."

A cold glint flickered in Wang Chun’s eyes. When he saw the name Wang Yue, he clearly knew that this good cousin of his had finally made a move on him!

Wang Chun sneered. Just this much has happened and you can’t resist making a move anymore?

Very good!

"Let’s return," Wang Chun said calmly. "Since something like this has happened, there’s no longer any need to continue hunting for an illusionary snake leader. I will give you all the reward in advance. Consider it as the death pension for the brother from earlier."

"Thanks."

Qin Jie and the rest of the squad members expressed their gratitude.

When something like this happened during an exploration, even if it was something that happened due to the employer, it was something that would be considered as the hired squad’s own problem. People would rarely compensate them for this.

An Te smiled bitterly. "I’m afraid we can’t even return."

"?"

Everyone looked at him doubtfully.

"If it’s really as you said, then do you think that the genetic squad sent by that Wang Yue fellow to kill us would not be completely prepared? They should know the strength of all of us and have sent out a professional assassination squad to deal with us despite not knowing exactly what abilities we have!"

An Te pointed at the remaining terms deciphered by his chip.

Ambush killing, escape route.

"Our opponent’s goal is to kill you all in an ambush. If I guessed correctly, I believe all our escape routes should have been blocked by now. If we were to return, all that would await us is death."

His expression was extremely unsightly.

He was the captain of a genetic squad. As such, he had a deeper understandings of such things compared to Wang Chun.

"What should we do, then?"

Wang Chun felt his head aching.

"Penetrate deeply!"

An Te had no hesitation. "These sandstorms will not inconvenience only us. Those people won’t feel too good either. The deeper we go, the worse the sandstorms will be, the stronger a shelter they will be for us as well!"

"All right."

Everyone looked at each other.

At this moment, only by following the most experienced person, An Te, could they avoid this disaster.

"Chen Feng, I’m sorry."

Wang Chun was feeling sorry.

He did not expect that this one illusionary snake trip would bring such trouble to Chen Feng!

"No worries."

Chen Feng smiled.

Wang Yue?

Was he truly making his move for Wang Chun? Or was it for himself?

Or was it…

For both of them?

Chen Feng looked at the 500 points of luck value he had and sneered. Since he dared to come for this exploration trip, he had definitely made complete preparations!

Wang Yue?

Hehe.

It was about time for certain things to be truly settled.

Footnotes:

1. King Yan = Basically Chinese Death God. The Life and Death Book is a book listing every soul and the allotted death date for every life. For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama_(East_Asia)