Chapter 752: LV61! The Seventh Stage of the Gene Sequence!

Chapter 752: LV61! The Seventh Stage of the Gene Sequence!

“……”

At the southernmost tip of Ten-Peak Mountain, atop Lai Mountain.

The “Human Emperor” stood expressionless, gazing northward through the night, until the dawn’s glow slowly rose from the horizon, and only then did the faintest trace of a cold smile twitch at the corner of his mouth.

At that very moment, a figure materialized beside him.

The middle-aged man draped in a white robe was none other than the “Beast King,” who had only recently pledged to him that he would hold Ten-Peak Mountain for at least half a year.

“An accident occurred…”

As he spoke these words, the Beast King’s face bore a hint of dishevelment, and his facial muscles twitched from time to time.

Especially where he had taken those two punches earlier.

Even though he had already abandoned that battered and broken body, he still hadn’t fully emerged from the lingering, phantom pain.

The Human Emperor watched him without expression, his deep pupils like black holes that devoured everything, forcing the Beast King to unconsciously avert his gaze downward by an inch.

There was no help for it.

At this moment, he was weaker than ever before, and though a thousand reluctances churned in his heart, he could only reluctantly bow his head.

Since the Holy Domain relied on physical bodies in the mortal world as vessels to store consciousness, the power of the Forerunners was directly proportional to the power of their followers—the stronger the followers, the greater the influence the Holy Domain could exert on the mortal realm.

For instance, if the followers implanted with chips were mere serfs, then not only would they have no impact on the mortal world, they might not even be able to leave the slave owner’s farm.

But if the follower implanted with the chip was the slave owner himself, then by wielding the slave owner’s own authority, he could dominate an entire farm’s survivors.

And now, his situation was akin to the former.

Until yesterday, he had been the uncrowned king of Ten-Peak Mountain, but now he had lost every chip he held.

Not only that.

He had even lost the Heaven of the Guard Wastelands.

This was undoubtedly a grievous defeat, especially now, when the Hive Nest on Blood Mountain had transformed from their ally into a massive threat to the Heaven of Haiya Province…

The Human Emperor said nothing, merely watching him in silence until the latter began to feel a creeping unease deep within. Only then did the former speak slowly.

“Where is Kubo?”

The Beast King’s expression stiffened, and after a long pause, he lowered his head and said.

“I’m sorry.”

“Just sorry?”

The Human Emperor stared into his eyes, lifting his chin slightly.

“That was my apostle. He should have demanded that you immediately remove your filthy hands and crawl out of his armor, but you completely ignored his plea—even his begging—and stubbornly persisted in your folly to the end.”

“It was for the sake of our plan—” Seeing the tone grow heavier, the Beast King couldn’t help but defend himself, but he was cut off before he could finish.

“The plan,” the Human Emperor repeated the word, fixing his gaze on him. “And is this current situation also part of what you call the plan?”

The Beast King fell silent.

Watching this speechless creature, a flicker of disappointment crossed the Human Emperor’s face. He sighed softly and turned his gaze back to the north.

“Planting a backdoor in the armor—that was something I never expected. And not just me; even the ‘Holy Son’ was furious when he learned of it. You committed an unforgivable mistake, and everyone must pay for your stupidity. I hope you understand that the reason you’ve ended up like this today is not merely because of your failure… and don’t blame me.”

Hearing this, the Beast King froze, then abruptly looked up at him.

Those eyes were cold, as if devoid of warmth, like the snow covering the mountain peak.

An involuntary dread rose in his heart. He stared blankly at his former comrade and unconsciously took a step back.

“You… what are you going to do?!”

“This is the unanimous resolution of the Holy Synod—”

Watching the Beast King, whose face had finally turned utterly pale, the Human Emperor spoke calmly, then continued to pronounce his fate.

“You are expelled.”

“Wait—”

Before his voice could fade, the illusory figure vanished like a slide show cut short, disappearing into the howling wind.

It seemed the “operation” was already complete.

Pity he couldn’t hear that fellow’s last words.

Silently mourning for one second for that old friend who would never see the new world, the Human Emperor turned his head slightly and glanced behind him.

A few men in exoskeletons stood not far behind him, as if they had been there for a long time.

They were the executioners of the Tribunal, primarily tasked with executing stubborn and troublesome heretics, as well as dealing with problematic Forerunners.

Although Forerunners lacked physical bodies to walk the mortal world, they could be eliminated by resetting the chips in their followers’ brains.

This backdoor was held by the Tribunal, existing as a means to check the Forerunners since the birth of the “Holy Domain.”

It was clear these fellows had only just arrived, and the Tribunal had dispatched more than just one squad.

In the brief time they had chatted, they had already completed the operation.

“…We reset the chip belonging to the Beast King and completely erased his consciousness. By the decree of the Holy Son, they now belong to you.” The executioner at the head of the squad looked at him and succinctly explained the situation.

The Human Emperor slowly nodded to indicate understanding.

“I see.”

The executioner said nothing more about what had just happened, merely glancing at the distant Blood Mountain before turning back to him.

“What do you intend to do?”

Without concealment, the Human Emperor replied succinctly.

“This place can no longer be held. I plan to abandon Ten-Peak Mountain, withdraw the mutant tribes from this area to Haiya Province, and reorganize the defenses on my own turf to withstand the coalition’s offensive.”

The executioner nodded.

“A wise decision. We leave this to you.”

“Mm.”

The Human Emperor replied absently, not particularly eager to converse further with these men.

The executioners did not linger, turning and vanishing from his sight.

This was not the activation of optical camouflage, but a direct severance of the link to his sea of consciousness.

This was one of the executioners’ “privileges.”

While operating within the diocese, they could evade the Forerunners’ gaze, walk where the latter could not see, and decide for themselves whether to establish a connection with the Forerunners.

And this was precisely why the Beast King had never noticed their intervention.

Paying no heed to those elusive figures, the Human Emperor fixed his gaze on the towering peaks north of Lai Mountain.

Not far away on the front lines, dense crowds of mutants and goblins were withdrawing from the mountaintops along winding mountain paths.

They were a noisy lot, carrying large bundles and small parcels, along with tools for eating and fighting, as well as penned livestock and hoarded grain.

Although leaving them on Ten Peaks Mountain as cannon fodder was not a bad idea, their utter lack of organization would hardly hold out long against the Coalition’s well-trained soldiers.

They were now his pawns.

Before sending them to the front lines to be consumed as cannon fodder, he needed to give these creatures a “quick and efficient” overhaul.

“Chu Guang, is it...”

The Human Emperor narrowed his eyes slightly, his index finger lightly brushing his cheek. On that face, as calm as an ancient well, a faint, unusual smile twisted.

That punch really hurt.

It had been a long time since he’d encountered someone who excited him so much...

...

A day had passed since the decisive battle on the Weifu Wasteland came to an end.

After handling everything, Chu Guang returned to the Steel Heart and slept for a full ten hours, finally easing the accumulated fatigue.

Not long after he woke up, he received a physical examination report delivered by Haya.

To his surprise, in just that short time last night, he had leveled up again, with his gene sequence development progress jumping from 60% to 61%.

[

ID: Chu Guang

Gene Sequence: Administrator (Phase 7)

Level: LV.60 → LV61

— Basic Attributes —

Strength: 79 → 80 (+1)

Agility: 60 → 63 (+3)

Constitution: 64 → 65 (+1)

Perception: 62 → 65 (+3)

Intelligence: 66 → 68 (+2)

]

“The data is for reference only. To be honest, I think the old attribute conversion formula is outdated for you. A mere 80 points of strength simply couldn’t produce a punch of that power.”

Still calculating what 80 points of strength meant, Chu Guang put down the report and cast a curious glance at her.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because it’s an empirical formula set for normal humans. Your body, in both muscle structure and movement patterns, is far beyond the standard of ordinary humans. Without exaggeration, your existence alone could provide a wealth of research samples for the Gestalt Lifeform project. I’m not sure if this is the future direction of human evolution, but... it’s at least a possibility.” Haya stared at him with gleaming eyes.

Chu Guang believed her, for this woman always wore that strange expression when encountering precious research material.

Just like Yin Fang when he saw an unusual coffee machine.

“Gestalt Lifeform... huh.” Chu Guang looked at his right hand, clenched his fist, and felt the surging power within.

It was said to be the holy grail of biological and gene-editing technology in the Age of Prosperity, the lifelong pursuit of countless scholars and engineers, with millions of research projects tied to it.

Yet, until that great era drew to a close, this singularity isolated beyond the horizon remained nothing more than a proposition existing in imagination.

Perhaps the first Administrator of Vault 404 was also an expert in this field.

After all, the number of biologists in Clearspring City was unusually high; one more wouldn’t be unreasonable.

“Do you feel like you’re drifting further from being human?” Watching Chu Guang lost in thought, Haya teased. “I don’t think you need to worry. From what I’ve observed, people still like you quite a bit.”

Chu Guang shook his head.

“I haven’t thought about that. I was just wondering... what will happen when the development progress reaches 100%.”

“That, I’m afraid, we’ll only know when it happens. The Vault’s database has no relevant data to reference, and even the previously reliable empirical formulas are starting to fail.”

Pausing, Haya shrugged lightly, her tone soothing.

“But don’t worry. No matter what happens to you then, no matter what you become—even if you grow two heads and six arms—you will always be you, and always be my... I mean, the you in our hearts.”

She wasn’t good at comforting others, nor at reading emotions, since most of her time was immersed in research. So she stopped mid-sentence.

Chu Guang was momentarily stunned, then realized after two seconds that she was actually trying to console him. He smiled.

“What are you talking about? Why would I worry about something like that? Though I was thinking... it’d be nice to grow a pair of wings.”

But that was too fantastical.

With a complete change in bone structure and nerve distribution, it was probably impossible without installing prosthetics.

“Looks like I was being presumptuous...” Rarely blushing, Haya coughed hard to hide her embarrassment.

“Not at all,” Chu Guang interrupted, his face bright with a cheerful smile, speaking sincerely. “Thank you. It feels nice to be cared for.”

“You... when you don’t talk, you’re actually... quite normal.”

Watching Haya turn away, stammering, with a faint blush visible through her silver hair, Chu Guang’s face showed a hint of surprise.

Strange.

Wasn’t that line supposed to be mine?

...

[Yesterday, the Cohesion Commonwealth Coalition achieved a critical victory in their offensive around Ten Peaks Mountain.

The Hive deep within Blood Mountain fell under the joint assault of the Alpha Task Force Mobile Unit and the Death Corps, and the tumor poison buried beneath the Weifu Wasteland was completely excised.

Thus, all lands in Jinchuan Province eroded by the cult have been liberated!

Though the soil corroded by Nago mycelium is still being purified, it is only a matter of time before the remnants of the Torch Church are fully eradicated...

To prevent the seeds of chaos from sprouting again, the Administrator announced the establishment of the Alliance’s seventh survivor settlement, “Weifu City,” on the Weifu Wasteland, with a new “Weifu City Station” added to the Alliance’s railway line.

Currently, the settlement’s construction is under the charge of the Alliance’s Southern Construction Corps. Stay tuned for further reports.

On another front, at the initiative of Alliance Administrator Chu Guang, the Cohesion Commonwealth proposed Resolution No. 6, where participating parties will discuss compensation for soldiers killed in the war against the Torch Church and their families.

The list of fallen soldiers is being compiled, but due to objective factors such as uneven communication technology among survivor factions and limited household registration management, this work may take considerable time to complete.

Additionally, following the defeat of the “Beast King,” the mutant tribes stationed on Ten Peaks Mountain have begun migrating south.

For the first time in over a century since the first mutant tribe wandered into the area and settled, Ten Peaks Mountain is completely free of the mutant threat.

Currently, the 1st Regiment of the Corporation’s 100th Mountain Division has been deployed to Lai Mountain.

Given the complexity of the situation in Haiya Province, the Legion, the Corporation, and the Academy have all indicated they will send more reinforcements to the front.

However, constrained by front width, logistical capacity, and various objective factors, the maximum troop strength the northern front can sustain is unlikely to exceed 20 divisions.

Military analysts believe the northern front has successfully broken through, and the next turning point of the entire war may emerge on the southern front.

Reported by Sami, President, Reporter, and Editor of the Survivor Daily’s Shutiao Port branch.]

At the southern shore of the Baiyue Strait, in the barracks of Youtiao Port, inside a small standalone wooden house, Isael, the Chiliarch of the 3rd Ten-Thousand-Man Corps of the Expeditionary Force, was reading the newspaper.

Though the weather was over 30 degrees Celsius, his hands and feet felt icy cold.

What made him hold his breath was not the victory report on the front page, but the casualty figures for the various units of the Allied Forces listed on page two.

Excluding the clone troopers used to pad the Legion's numbers, the Empire firmly held second place, with 14,700 killed in action alone!

Nearly three-quarters of them were dead...

He could hardly bear to imagine that if he hadn't boarded the wrong ship back then, he might not have survived to this day.

Just then, hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

Stepping across the threshold and entering was his adjutant, a man named Jind.

In his hand, he carried a newspaper, and from its fresh-off-the-press look, it was clearly the same edition as his own.

As Iser expected, Jind came straight to the point the moment he entered.

"Sir, General Babita's forces have suffered heavy losses—this is not good news for us... Ah, it seems you already know."

Mid-sentence, his gaze fell on the newspaper in Iser's hand, and he tactfully stopped speaking.

But Iser had caught the first half of his words and couldn't help frowning slightly.

"What does that have to do with us? We're in charge of the southern front."

"Strictly speaking, that's true, but General Babita is still our direct superior. Do you think someone with his personality would honestly admit his own mistakes?"

"Is there even anything to argue about?" Iser let out a scornful laugh. "That guy, who even covets the meal card money of his subordinates—even if he doesn't admit it, what can he do? Can he argue those ten thousand-plus dead back to life?"

Because the Friesport branch of the *Survivor Daily* was run by the Lunarites, and those Lunarite girls always liked to sneak their own biases into the paper—ignoring the Legion's clones, focusing only on the Empire's expeditionary forces, and reporting only the bad news, never the good.

At first, he had despised those Lunarites, but after working alongside the Alliance's residents for a while, he had gradually come to think that General Babita was a brain-dead fool, and the man who appointed him commander of the expeditionary forces was just as brain-dead.

But even though Iser held the man in contempt, Jind still spoke cautiously.

"...It's not surprising that you think that way. In fact, not just you—I also look down on that useless fool. But I have to say, that kind of person still has a knack for political maneuvering. For instance, he could blame this failure entirely on you for not arriving at the front as originally planned, while claiming that his last-minute intervention saved two out of ten thousand men who would have otherwise been completely wiped out—"

"Ridiculous!" Iser slammed his fist on the table. "No matter what he says, His Majesty would never believe such nonsense!"

Jind shook his head and said in a low voice.

"Turning black into white is a basic skill in politics. In the court, a thick skin is more important than ability. Since he's your superior and closer to His Majesty, he's definitely more skilled at this than you..."

Seeing the uneasy expression on General Iser's face, he paused and continued.

"Of course, even if the situation is quite unfavorable for us, we're not without a chance..."

Over the past month, they had built Twistport into something respectable, and the Alliance had paid them a portion of their wages as promised.

And it wasn't just wages.

The Baiyue Strait was now bustling like never before. Though Twistport's development couldn't match Friesport's, it still benefited from the spillover. Merchants from Silvermoon Bay, traders from the South Islands Alliance, and even big shots from Dawn City had all set up businesses here.

From managing plantations, working on construction sites or docks, to warehouse management and import-export operations—the Third Expeditionary Force had a hand in all of it.

Though they were still nominally an expeditionary force, they had essentially transformed from a military organization into a large labor agency.

After all, those ruthless bastards in the Jungle Legion were too good at fighting; there was no need for them to step in.

In this one month, they had accumulated at least five to six hundred thousand silver coins.

For those poor wretches in Bharat Province, that sum alone was a massive bargaining chip.

Seeing the serious expression on General Iser's face, Jind continued.

"His Majesty's opinion on this matter is crucial. So if we can send the battle report to the Celestial Capital first, and then convince His Majesty that General Babita's incompetence has made the Empire look foolish before the Legion, and then propose splitting the expeditionary forces into northern and southern fronts... I think His Majesty will consider your suggestion."

After hearing his adjutant's words, Iser felt a flicker of temptation, but hesitation still lingered on his face.

"But... reporting over one's superior's head is a major taboo."

Jind spoke patiently.

"That's easy to handle. Do you remember Governor Nihack?"

Iser nodded.

"Of course I do. He's His Majesty's trusted man. You mean to use his connections? But isn't he in prison in Golden Gallon Port?"

Because Duke Garava refused to sign, the Alliance and the Empire had been in a ceasefire negotiation phase without a concrete truce agreement.

As a result, both the Gray Wolf Army prisoners and Governor Nihack were still held in the prisoner-of-war camps or prisons of Golden Gallon Port.

He really couldn't see how leveraging the connections of a prisoner would help.

Seeing Iser's confused expression, Jind patiently continued.

"...Things are different now. The Empire has suffered heavy losses in the war against the Torch Church, and the Alliance has adjusted its diplomatic strategy toward the Empire. Even out of pity for the weak, they won't make unreasonable demands anymore."

"Besides, things aren't peaceful on the Empire's side either. The Black Panther Army and the Tiger Army, with their growing power, are becoming troublesome thorns that are hard to remove. His Majesty also wants to ease relations with the Alliance so he can free up his hands to deal with internal chaos. I expect he'll make some appropriate concessions... That ceasefire agreement that hasn't been signed for a month—I reckon it'll be signed soon."

Iser's expression shifted.

"You mean Governor Nihack is about to be released?!"

Jind nodded seriously.

"That's certain. Including Prince Dilip, who's locked up in the same prison with him. I expect they'll be boarding a ship home before long."

His eyes flickered slightly as he laid out his entire plan.

"...Reporting over one's superior's head is certainly not feasible. But if Governor Nihack or Prince Dilip delivers the letter, then that problem naturally ceases to exist."