“It is a shame they aren’t exploring the big barren system. Otherwise, I would have gone with them for free,” Han Sen said to himself.
But not long after, he encountered someone he was familiar with once again. He saw Dragon One flying quickly toward him.
“Dollar!” Dragon One screamed in shock. Upon seeing Dollar, the man had recognized him immediately.
Han Sen had no choice but to talk to Dragon One. Dragon One was headed toward the xenogeneic space, but something must have happened to the Dragon race, because he was going alone.
“Brother Dollar, are you interested in exploring a xenogeneic space with me?” Dragon One thought the same thing as Barr. People like Han Sen were good to have as allies when you were going someplace dangerous.
“We can go together, but if we do, we must split the rewards 50/50,” Han Sen said immediately, not wanting to waste time beating around the bush.
Dragon One didn’t hesitate. He smiled. “Of course!”
Once Dragon One had agreed to Han Sen’s request, he explained the situation inside the xenogeneic space.
Because it was near the big barren system, and it was largely unexplored, not many of the high races went there. So, this place had been taken over by a lower race known as the Red Rats.
The Red Rats were a small race, and the strongest of them were only King class. They didn’t even have a half-deified in their midst.
There weren’t many xenogeneics in that system, so they had always been fine.
But in more recent times, a star had exploded in the system. The explosion had turned out to have important ramifications for the Red Rats. After the star exploded, the Red Rats discovered, to their shock, that the star had hidden the entrance to a xenogeneic space.
The Red Rats were happy about this, and so they sent people to explore the xenogeneic space. But then, something happened.
One hundred million Red Rats had gone to explore that xenogeneic space, but only one Red Rat made it back. The other Red Rats perished someplace inside.
According to the Red Rat that survived, the xenogeneic space was a very spooky place. It was like there were countless suns hanging in there. The xenogeneic space was very hot and scary. They tried to get close to one of the suns, but the sun suddenly exploded. Millions of the Red Rats were turned into dust. Only that one Red Rat made it back, but it didn’t even know why it had been spared. By all logic, it should have died in the explosion like the other Red Rats.
The survivor was only a small Viscount, too. It wasn’t any stronger than the 100,000,000 Red Rats that had died. Since no Marquises had survived, it was hard to imagine how he managed to make it out.
And then, a few days later, that lucky Red Rat evolved. It went from Viscount to Earl. And then it continued leveling up. This sudden evolution was shocking for everyone.
When Dragon One arrived, the creature had just become King class.
The situation was so weird, and the strange Red Rat had garnered the attention of every race. They wanted to figure out what spurred the creature’s swift evolution. They wondered what sort of benefit the Red Rat had managed to get his hands on inside the xenogeneic space. He had been evolving at an unbelievable rate.
Many races had sent their low-level people into the xenogeneic space, but none of those teams had been heard from again. So, all the races were now forced to send their deified elites to check the place out.
After hearing Dragon One explain all this, Han Sen’s curiosity was piqued. He also wanted to know why the Red Rat had evolved so quickly. Its evolution speed was something of a miracle in the geno universe.
Han Sen and Dragon One raced to the entrance of that xenogeneic space. On the way, Dragon One had been thinking quite a bit. He glanced at Han Sen, who seemed content to travel silently beside him. He couldn’t help but cough and say, “Brother Dollar, aren’t you interested in how I leveled up to deified so quickly?”
“Is becoming deified something special?” Han Sen looked at Dragon One with confusion.
Dragon One didn’t know what to say. The speed with which he had become deified made him one of the best of the Dragons. Han Sen had made it sound like something average and expected. That depressed him a little. He had intended to show off and maybe brag a little, but he couldn’t do that now.
After they reached their destination, Han Sen couldn’t keep the surprise off his face.
The entrance to the xenogeneic space was a black hole. It must have become a black hole after the sun exploded. Once the destructive power was expended, it had collapsed into the entrance to a xenogeneic space.
The two of them had gone there to explore, so they weren’t going to be put off or frightened by the intimidating sight. They both entered the black hole. As soon as they did, Han Sen felt as if he had been teleported through space.
What was inside the xenogeneic space caught Han Sen off guard. Dragon One had said that the place was filled with suns, so he had thought the xenogeneic space was in space.
After getting there, he realized it was a large landmass. The land stretched into the distance, seemingly without end. There were mountains, boulders, and trees everywhere that Han Sen looked.
But it was different from ordinary lands. The mountains, boulders, and woods all looked like charcoal. It was like this whole world had turned into ash.
Everything in sight was painted in shades of black and white. The scene wasn’t colorful like a normal landscape should have been. All of the surrounding land and mountains were a monochromatic pitch-black. Some of them even had burned, charcoal-like crystals.
The air was frighteningly hot. It felt like the whole place might catch fire any second. Han Sen raised his head to the sky, and there he saw what Dragon One had told him about. Several enormous suns hung in the sky. There had to be at least a dozen of them.
“What do these suns do? Are they planets? Or are they some sort of creature?” Han Sen wondered aloud. He stared at the suns in the sky as he spoke. He was so far away that he couldn’t feel the presence of the suns. He could only feel the scary heat that was coming from them.
“I don’t know. What I do know for sure, though, is that these suns must not have always been here,” Dragon One said.
“Why do you say that?” Han Sen looked at Dragon One with confusion.
Dragon One pointed at a nearby mountain that was black and crystalline. It was all burned, and he said, “Look over there. There is a building next to that mountain. That means there used to be life there.”
Han Sen looked to where Dragon One was pointing. He saw that, in the middle of the burned mountain, there was a tower. It seemed to have seven floors. But just like the mountains, boulders, and trees around it, the tower was as black as charcoal. It could have easily been mistaken for a lump of coal.
The two of them flew toward the tower, and when they reached it, they found many other charcoal buildings as well. They stumbled across an old, charcoal city. Although they saw no creatures, judging from the size of the city, there must have been at least 100,000 creatures living there at one point.
But for some reason, the old city was just like the landscape around it. It had become charcoal in the course of a single second. Everything stood perfectly still, retaining the shape it might have once had before it was blackened. Even the leaves still had their veins.
“This place, I think I have seen it someplace before… Wait, this place is like the place in the sanctuary where I found the little red bird. Is this the Phoenix Nirvana?” Han Sen was shocked as he came to this conclusion.
