The Strongest Talent Tree

Mei Meimei chuckled cheerfully. She waved her hand, storing the various firearms back into her Spatial Ring. "Let’s spread our Divine Sense and search."

"Right." Feng Hao nodded grimly and turned to circle around the mangled, bloody pile of corpses. With his Divine Sense amplified by the Crystal Eye, he began searching every corner of the Earth Palace.

’You have to hand it to them, the people of the True God Sect are pretty rich,’ he thought. ’Just this Earth Palace alone must have cost a fortune to build.’

The passages of the Earth Palace were a complex maze, crisscrossing up and down. Without the aid of Divine Sense, one could easily get lost.

He had only been searching for a few minutes when he heard Mei Meimei exclaim, "Xiaowu, Xiaowu, I found something! Over here!"

"Really?" Startled, Feng Hao instinctively rushed over.

After passing through several dim underground passages, a row of prison-like stone cells appeared before him. A strange, foul stench filled the air.

Mei Meimei was standing in front of the iron door of one of the stone cells. Inside, a pale young man with a dazed expression sat slumped in a corner. He was covered in filth and looked as if he was on his last breath.

"Hey, kid! Are you from around here?" Mei Meimei shouted through the iron bars of the door.

The pale youth seemed to hear her. His eyes fluttered open weakly. "You... Who are you?"

"Don’t be afraid, man. We’ve already taken care of those cultists. We’re here to rescue you." Feng Hao stepped forward to reassure him. After studying the lock for a moment, he easily opened the iron door.

As an Alchemist, Feng Hao knew exactly what condition the pale youth was in. If he wasn’t treated immediately, he would most likely die.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Feng Hao rushed to the young man’s side and fed him a few Blood Recovery Pills and other healing elixirs.

As the elixirs took effect, the color visibly returned to the young man’s face.

"Thank you both for saving me." The young man struggled to his feet and bowed to them in gratitude.

"It was nothing, really. No trouble at all," Feng Hao said with a faint smile.

Mei Meimei, however, suddenly frowned. With a strange look in her eyes, she said, "Huh? This kid is actually a Fifth-rank Mage. I thought the cultists only captured ordinary people."

"A Fifth-rank Mage?" Feng Hao exclaimed, looking at the pale young man in astonishment.

The young man gave a grim, bitter smile, his eyes filled with endless sorrow. He spoke with difficulty, "You’re right. I was originally just an ordinary person. I only became a Mage because I survived their experiment."

"Experiment? What kind of experiment?" Feng Hao and Mei Meimei were utterly astonished.

"I only know what I overheard them discussing," the young man said with a sorrowful sigh. "The goal of these cultists is to use severed Genetic Roots to forge a new Genetic Tree. And we, ordinary people, were their test subjects."

"There were originally over a thousand people in this row of dungeon cells. In the end, I was the only one who survived."

Feng Hao and Mei Meimei exchanged a look, their faces paling in horror.

"You’re saying they’re using severed roots to cast a Genetic Tree inside the bodies of ordinary people?" Mei Meimei asked, aghast.

"That’s right." The pale youth nodded with a bitter smile.

Feng Hao recovered from his shock and marveled aloud, "I never thought root-severing had this kind of side benefit. If you could make use of the severed roots, you could create quite a few Mages."

"It’s not that easy." The young man shook his head. "Someone else’s genetics are still their own. Forcibly grafting them into an ordinary person’s body will only cause intense rejection—let alone ten different root systems. That’s how my friends died."

"That’s true," Feng Hao nodded in surprise, then asked curiously, "Then how did you succeed?"

"From what I gathered, it seems I’m the only successful test subject," the young man said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Mei Meimei stepped forward and asked, "So your Genetic Tree was spliced together from severed roots?"

"Yes." The pale youth nodded with a bitter smile. "If I truly had the strength of a Fifth-rank Mage, I wouldn’t have ended up in this predicament."

"Interesting. Let me see your Genetic Sea of Consciousness." Mei Meimei pressed her finger between the young man’s eyebrows, closed her eyes, and began to probe with her Divine Sense.

The young man didn’t resist, opening his Sea of Consciousness to her probe.

A few minutes later, Mei Meimei’s eyes snapped open in astonishment. "It’s really different from our Genetic Trees," she said, her voice filled with disbelief. "And each Genetic Root carries the aura of a different person. This is incredible."

"Do you feel anything strange yourself?" Feng Hao asked.

"I don’t think so," the young man said uncertainly. "I’ve never been a Mage before, so I don’t know what a normal Mage is supposed to feel like. At least, I don’t feel anything unusual right now."

"So, that means you’re a Fifth-rank Mage now?"

Mei Meimei knit her brows and shook her head. "No, no, no. He currently only has the raw power of a Fifth-rank Mage and nothing else. If I’m not mistaken, his Genetic Roots must have come from Mages of different ranks, so there will be discrepancies in his Gene Essence."

"She’s right," the pale youth nodded. "The rank of the spliced Genetic Tree is just an average of its parts. Because of that, some of my roots overdevelop. According to those people, my strength will be higher than that of an ordinary Fifth-rank Mage."

"Holy crap, that’s amazing!" Feng Hao exclaimed, smacking his lips. "But wait, what about your branch-talents then?"

"It should be the same as a normal Mage, except I grew five branch-talents all at once," the young man surmised.

After some more questioning, the more Feng Hao heard, the more incredible he found it all. He couldn’t help but start circling the young man, looking him up and down.

The intense scrutiny clearly made the young man uncomfortable. "Um... I still don’t know how to address my two saviors."

"Er, you can call this big sister Mei Meimei, and this is my Xiaowu, Feng Hao," Mei Meimei introduced herself in her usual carefree manner.

"My name is Lu Wen Jie." The young man bowed deeply. "I, Wen Jie, will never forget the names of my two saviors. If I have the chance in the future, I will surely repay this debt."

"It was truly no trouble at all. There’s no need for this," Feng Hao said, stepping forward to help him up.

"Brother Feng, please don’t refuse," Lu Wen Jie said, his eyes filled with sincerity. "This may have been a small thing for you, but for me, Wen Jie, it was the gift of life."

Feng Hao and Mei Meimei exchanged a helpless glance and had no choice but to nod.

"This place stinks. Let’s get out of here first," Mei Meimei said, wrinkling her nose.

And so, the three of them made their way through the corpse-strewn Earth Palace and reemerged onto the picturesque Qi Lang Slope.

"By the way, kid, where’s your home? We can take you back," Mei Meimei said in a gentle tone, perhaps seeing a kindred spirit in Lu Wen Jie.

"I appreciate the kind offer from my two saviors." Lu Wen Jie looked up at the sky. "But from the moment I was captured, I no longer have a home or family."

Mei Meimei’s eyes reddened with sympathy. "Why don’t you come with us to the Thief God Hall?"

"I can’t." Lu Wen Jie shook his head bitterly, a deep hatred and resolve flaring in his eyes. "If all goes to plan, I’m going to find the headquarters of the True God Sect. If I can one day overthrow this sect with my own hands, I will be sure to visit you both at the Thief God Hall."

"That’s too dangerous. You should come with us to the Thief God Hall," Feng Hao said with a frown.

"I, Wen Jie, have made up my mind. Please, my saviors, do not try to stop me." Lu Wen Jie bowed to them once more, then resolutely turned and disappeared from their sight, his steps unsteady.