Gu Qingcheng’s face was breathtakingly pretty. Even those who were close with her, like Han Sen, would find themselves staring at her ethereal beauty now and again. The Very High man had only looked at her for a moment or two before turning away. He had an impressive amount of self-control.
Exquisite looked at her as well. But her vision paused on Han Sen for longer. After all, he was seated in a place of honor. That meeting had no deifieds. All the attendees were young elites, but if someone was sitting in the first seat, it had to mean that they were someone of prestige and importance to the Sky Palace.
But at that moment, Han Sen wasn’t looking good. He looked dry and thin, like a refugee that had spent too long without food. He was only skin and bones.
“How might I refer to you?” Exquisite asked, looking at Han Sen. She had seen Han Sen’s videos, but that was before he incurred his most recent injuries. He looked completely different right now, so she didn’t recognize him.
“I am Han Sen,” Han Sen answered truthfully.
Upon hearing Han Sen’s name, that Very High man couldn’t help but turn to look at him. He clearly knew about Han Sen and what he had accomplished.
“You are the one who owns the Charming God’s Jian and the Shield of the Medusa’s Gaze? It is no wonder you look so special,” Exquisite said emotionlessly.
By “special,” she was referring to his physical appearance. She wasn’t really complimenting him.
From what she could see, Han Sen had simply lucked out by collecting two true god treasures. He was lucky and nothing more; that was her general conclusion. She believed the true merit of his power was nothing substantial.
Han Sen’s face looked sour. He didn’t respond. He knew that Exquisite wasn’t actually complimenting him. “If no one has any questions, I will start first. Let’s talk about Phenomenon,” the man said calmly.
After the man said this, the expressions on the faces of the students of the Sky Palace looked somewhat strained. Phenomenon was a secret Sky Palace geno art, although it wasn’t as special as the Textless Book.
When the man said he wanted to talk about Phenomenon, it was his way of saying, “The way you practice geno arts is bad. Allow me to show you how it is done.”
The way the man spoke made many of the Sky Palace students upset. But they were seated before one of the Very High, and so, no one did anything.
The Sky Palace students stared at the man, waiting to hear what he was going to tell them.
Han Sen could tell the man had selected this geno art on purpose. He wanted to use this opportunity to build up his image before the young people of the Sky Palace. That was why he spoke in such a condescending way.
Han Sen wanted to listen to him, too. That Very High man was called Bixi, and Han Sen was keen to hear what input he could provide on Phenomenon.
“Phenomenon refers to the universe’s phenomena. Phenomenon is the reason for life existing. But people are stupid, and they cannot see through things without phenomena. People require clear signs to clarify the unknowable.”
The Sky students who heard this weren’t impressed. It was an ordinary speech that didn’t mean much to them. If they were required to speak, they would have said the same thing
It seemed as if the man knew what everyone was thinking, and so he coldly went on to say, “I am one of those people, too. I cannot get rid of this foolishness. I cannot see through things without phenomena. So, there is a saying, and it goes like this— ‘only if you go into phenomena and feel the phenomena, and experience what is inside, do you have the chance to understand. That is the so-called Taoism.”
“When I practiced Phenomenon, the teacher talked about this the first day. Mr. Bixi doesn’t need to explain this, so just get to the point,” a Sky Palace student said hurriedly. Bixi didn’t speak, and his face was unreadable.
Since he first met her, Han Sen thought Exquisite merely pretended to be detached. But now, seeing Bixi, he noticed this emotionless expression was the only one they were capable of. This wasn’t a pretense.
“Everyone knows Taoism, but in regards to how they know it, everyone has a different saying. There is no correct answer,” Bixi said.
“Taoism is natural. Everyone has their own way of learning it. An answer isn’t required,” a student of Sky Palace said.
“I just said that a moment ago,” Bixi replied. “Phenomenon refers to the phenomena of the universe. If there are phenomena, there are rules. If there are no rules, there would be no reasons. Then, you would not need to learn it.”
The Sky Palace student fell quiet. He continued listening in silence.
Bixi set something down on a table in front of him. Everyone looked at it. It was a square and transparent box that looked to have been made of crystal. It was a dozen centimeters wide.
Within the box, they could see a crystalline ladybug. It sort of looked like a beetle. It was fairly cute.
Bixi opened the crystal box, and the ladybug climbed out of it slowly. Then he said, “Every living creature has a path to follow, but understanding the reason for each path isn’t easy. This is a beetle xenogeneic called God Spirit Touch. It is a very rare xenogeneic. Through this, we can understand some of the rules and reasons here.”
After that, Bixi reached out his finger. He sliced his finger and pushed out a drop of his own blood onto the ladybug.
The ladybug opened its mouth and drank that droplet of blood. And then, it stopped and remained still. It no longer moved.Everyone was shocked. They didn’t know what Bixi was doing.
As they watched in confused silence, the ladybug that had sucked up Bixi’s blood began to show some weird changes.
The ladybug was changing its skin. As it did so, its face contorted. It pulled its new body forward, leaving a perfect shell behind.
And the process wasn’t over, either. After changing a layer of its shell, the ladybug started twisting its body again. It quickly left a second, smaller shell behind.
The fist-sized ladybug kept changing its skin. Every time it shed a skin, its body became smaller, and the shells it left behind were like perfect crystal beetle art. Each discarded shell was smaller than the last.
As everyone watched, that beetle swapped its skin nine times. Its body was eventually reduced to the size of a small coin. After that, it stopped moving. It just laid down where it was, looking very tired.
Everyone looked at Bixi, waiting for his explanation. They had seen bugs change their skin before, but they didn’t know what it had to do with what Bixi had been telling them.
“The God Spirit Touch is born very sensitive to blood, and it can tell you the quality of your birth genes. The stronger the gene blood, the more effect it will have on the beetle. Ordinarily, the genes of low-tier creatures can enable a beetle to swap its skin once or twice. If someone has high-class genes, the beetle can swap its skin eight to ten times. With my Very High experience, I can tell you that if someone can make the God Spirit Touch shed its shell ten times, that means the person conducting the test has genes that are strong enough to see them one day become a true god,” Bixi said factually.
