The Bottleneck of Life Genes

Luo Feng sat on the throne, looking down at the thousands of special lifeforms kneeling below. The excitement and worship in their eyes made Luo Feng instantly realize the tragedy of these seemingly rare and powerful special lifeforms: they were simply too weak.

Because of their extremely high life levels and innate secret techniques, countless races across the cosmos were tempted to act, either enslaving them or taking them over through possession!

If a group of special lifeforms lacked a powerful protector, they would quickly be torn apart and devoured by the greedy myriad races of the cosmos!

Back when the Blood Cloud Palace Master roamed the cosmos, special lifeforms were still relatively numerous. He witnessed some being hunted and, out of compassion, rescued group after group, eventually gathering these thousands of special lifeforms! After countless ages of growth...

With Zuoshan Ke's guidance, top Cosmic Overlords like Black Sky Lord, Silver Dragon Venerable, and Thorn Crow Demon Master were born.

In those earlier days, they would likely have met the fate of being hunted.

Of course, after such a long time, any special lifeform groups without protectors would have long vanished in the river of cosmic history. Thus, some ancient existences, like Chaos City Lord, possess special lifeform clones. But the further along in time, the harder it became to find special lifeforms for possession in Luo Feng's era.

“Zuoshan Ke protected them, guarded them, and guided them. It was as if he were their father…” Luo Feng mused silently. “No wonder they all call me Master, yet their reverence comes from the bottom of their hearts.”

“From today onwards!”

“I am the Blood Cloud Palace Master. Although I’ve gained such a powerful force, I’ve also taken on an additional responsibility beyond the Earth lineage.”

Luo Feng thought to himself.

...

This was indeed a force that cosmic powers would covet: three top Cosmic Overlords! Especially Black Sky Lord, whose divine power purity was nearly a hundred times stronger than Tianyang Venerable. Both possessed high-tier supreme treasure armor, but Luo Feng would need attacks two levels higher to achieve the same result as killing Tianyang Venerable… Furthermore, Black Sky Lord’s divine body was a colossal million kilometers tall! His divine body volume was billions of times that of Tianyang Venerable’s less than ten-meter-tall divine body…

“Silver Dragon Venerable and Thorn Crow Demon Master, while not as exaggerated in divine body size, are still considerably large.”

“With these three.”

“This special lifeform force can withstand anything unless they encounter a Universe Master.” Luo Feng nodded inwardly. Protecting such a force wasn't as difficult as protecting the Earth lineage, as this special lifeform lineage had, after all, grown for countless ages and developed self-preservation capabilities.

Luo Feng also suddenly understood.

Why the treasure vault contained so many precious materials, precious treasures, and ordinary supreme treasures. After all, Luo Feng’s future opponents would be Universe Masters, and ordinary supreme treasures could even be directly shattered in battles at the Universe Master level! Clearly, Zuoshan Ke hadn't left these ordinary supreme treasures for Luo Feng, but for this group of special lifeforms.

“Black Sky,” Luo Feng spoke.

“Master,” Black Sky Lord replied with a simple, honest tone.

“You 18, tell me about the supreme treasures you possess.” Luo Feng looked down.

“Yes, I have high-tier supreme treasure armor and six high-tier supreme treasure divine hammers!” Black Sky Lord said with an honest smile. “Master, are you going to bestow a top-tier supreme treasure armor upon me? You said last time… that you’d find a way to get me a top-tier supreme treasure armor, and that with it, even a Universe Master would find it hard to kill me.”

Luo Feng was taken aback.

Top-tier supreme treasure armor? Zuoshan Ke, his teacher, had only left him about a hundred ordinary supreme treasures in the vault.

“Teacher Zuoshan Ke is too cunning. Now that I’ve inherited the Blood Cloud Palace Master’s position, the responsibility of equipping my subordinates with treasures falls on my shoulders?” Luo Feng cursed inwardly, but there was nothing he could do.

“I’m working on it. Top-tier supreme treasure armors are not easy to obtain,” Luo Feng said.

“Yes, but Master will surely be able to do it,” Black Sky Lord replied.

“Next,” Luo Feng instructed immediately.

...

Silver Dragon Venerable, Thorn Crow Demon Master, and the others reported their supreme treasure situations one by one. Luo Feng discovered that all 18 Universe Venerables possessed supreme treasures, and they were clearly suited to their strength. For instance, the three top Cosmic Overlords each had multiple high-tier supreme treasures! This made Luo Feng abandon his original plan to bestow supreme treasures, and in the end, he only granted some precious treasures to the immortal special lifeforms. This meeting then concluded.

“This is a force.”

“Although I bear the responsibility of leading and protecting them, they can also help me with many things,” Luo Feng thought. “In the future, my Earth lineage will naturally be protected by me. Black Sky Lord and his group of special lifeforms, along with the Earth lineage, should be able to complement each other.”

That day, Luo Feng ordered these special lifeforms to withdraw.

He then sent a private message to Black Sky Lord, Silver Dragon Venerable, and Thorn Crow Demon Master: “Black Sky, Silver Dragon, Thorn Crow, I need to go out for a while. All matters concerning the children in the Ancient Gorge Secret Realm are entrusted to you. If you encounter anything you cannot resolve, then notify me.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, Master.” The three replied through their tokens.

...

That same day, the Golden Horn Behemoth clone quietly returned to human territory, back to its God Kingdom.

...

From then on, Luo Feng’s life was divided into two parts: the Golden Horn Behemoth studying the ‘Star Tower’ secret patterns through the Secret Pattern Flow, and the Earthling Original Body cultivating on Purple Thorn Island!

The Earthling Original Body first began cultivating the eighth stage of the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual!

The advantage of a small divine body was extremely fast cultivation.

In just over a year, Luo Feng completed the eighth stage, his life gene level growing from approximately 9800 times to about 10050 times—a purely rough estimation by Luo Feng. He then continued to cultivate the ninth stage of the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual… During this cultivation, the growth rate of his life gene level became extremely slow, especially when halfway through the ninth stage—his life gene level suddenly got stuck! It stagnated, stopping just a hair’s breadth away from ‘perfect genes.’ No matter how he continued to cultivate the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual, his life gene level simply wouldn’t increase by even a jot.

“Just a tiny bit more.”

“My Abyssal Sea Clone and Golden Horn Behemoth Clone both directly reached the perfect gene level, but my Earthling Original Body is just a hair’s breadth away from perfect genes. Why did cultivating the ninth stage of the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual become completely useless halfway through?” Luo Feng felt anxious.

It was useless.

No matter how he continued to cultivate, his life gene level remained stagnant.

“Just a tiny bit more, what am I supposed to do?”

...

In his third year on Purple Thorn Island.

Luo Feng sat cross-legged on a stone bridge by a pond in his manor. At this very moment, the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual finally reached its final step! Neither the Golden Horn Behemoth clone nor the Abyssal Sea clone had cultivated to the very end before reaching perfect genes; the Earthling Original Body was the first to complete the entire Nine Tribulations Secret Manual.

“Whoosh, whoosh~~”

Luo Feng sat there, but his entire body emitted the surging sound of a vast ocean. At the same time, golden threads began to appear on his skin, forming a massive, incredibly complex secret pattern across his entire body! If Luo Feng’s entire skin were peeled off and laid flat, the resulting secret pattern… though different from the text-based secret patterns of the Nine Tribulations Secret Manual, shared the same profound artistic conception.

“Bang!”

Luo Feng felt a fundamental breakthrough in his life origin, as if a bottleneck had been shattered. His life gene level finally took that small step forward again! This single small step… represented a fundamental breakthrough and leap.

“I’ve broken through.”

“I’ve broken through.” Luo Feng’s eyes were filled with joy.

“I need to return to my God Kingdom.” Luo Feng clearly felt his divine body attempting to absorb energy and grow continuously, but there wasn’t enough energy to absorb on Purple Thorn Island. He immediately used God Kingdom teleportation and quickly left Purple Thorn Island.

...

In the God Kingdom.

The boundless Abyssal Sea churned with waves hundreds of kilometers high, and above the waves, a black-haired youth stood naked in mid-air. Countless streams of seawater surged up from below, wrapping around the black-haired youth like ribbons, continuously being absorbed by him. The black-haired youth began to grow steadily.

From less than two meters tall, he rapidly grew taller and larger.

10 meters, 100 meters, 1000 meters…

The divine power within his divine body also continuously increased, by billions of times and more! It reached an incredibly turbulent and terrifying level.

When he transformed into a majestic figure over 90,000 kilometers tall, he finally stopped.

“From today onwards!”

“My Earthling Original Body and Golden Horn Behemoth clone will be my two main combat forces!” Luo Feng smiled. Previously, although the Earthling Original Body had high divine power purity, its small size prevented it from using ‘I Am the Universe.’ Now, in terms of divine body size… the Earthling Original Body was the same as the Golden Horn Behemoth, naturally allowing it to unleash greater power. Moreover, using ultimate Universe Master secret techniques like ‘Golden Light’ would no longer cause excessive divine body consumption.

“It’s also time to visit Chaos City.”

“That Moon-Slaying Blade is too fragile for me.”

...

Luo Feng first went to Initial Universe Chaos City, trading his ‘Moon-Slaying Blade’ and the large number of ordinary supreme treasures he had hunted on Original Star! Along with over 20 supreme treasures from the Blood Cloud Palace vault, and his remaining supreme treasure points, he exchanged them all for a top-tier supreme treasure battle blade—Bei Jiuxue!

The battle blade’s original name was ‘Bei Jiuxue,’ but Luo Feng renamed it the Blood Shadow Blade.

“Black Sky, Silver Dragon, Thorn Crow… the hundreds of supreme treasures in the vault were left by Teacher for you special lifeforms, but those little ones still need an extremely long time to grow. I’ll temporarily take some, and I will definitely get them back in the future.” Luo Feng also felt the pressure; the Insectoid Race, Machine Race, and Monster Race were stirring.

The stronger he was, the better.

With the peak supreme treasure ‘Tribulation Armor’ (which could be activated to its third layer, weakening enemy attacks to one hundred-thousandth) and a divine body over 90,000 kilometers tall… his survival capability naturally reached an extremely terrifying level. However, when fighting a Universe Master, a high-tier supreme treasure battle blade was clearly too weak.

...

Leaving the God Kingdom, he returned to Purple Thorn Island.

The Golden Horn Behemoth clone, following the Secret Pattern Flow, continued to research the ‘Star Tower’ secret patterns in the God Kingdom.

Luo Feng’s original body, meanwhile, cultivated in seclusion on Purple Thorn Island, continuously deepening his comprehension of the Beast God Path. After all, the more he understood the Beast God Path… the more it would aid his mastery of the Secret Pattern Flow. Sixty-one years passed peacefully in this manner.