Super Gene

Everyone was scared, on the precipice of tumbling into full-on panic. They all exhausted as much of their powers as they could trying to free themselves from the coffin, but nothing worked. They were well and truly stuck.

It was like the coffin wasn’t just pulling their bodies, but it was siphoning their strength and power as well. Whenever they released some power as they tried to escape, it was as if they were feeding the coffin.

Wang Zhao watched his power bleed away, and he was unable to stop it.

Zhong Sanxiao summoned a sword geno core to batter the coffin into freeing him. But when his blade touched down on the spooky sarcophagus, the power and life of his weapon began to drain.

This occurred to the geno cores summoned by the others, as well. And when their powers were drained, the cores were pulled out of their hands and stuck to the top of the coffin. It was as if the cores had been dragged away by a magnet.

Everyone was shocked, unable to understand what was going on. And amidst this confusion, the symbols and scrawlings that adorned the coffin began to light up with a sinister neon hue.

“Why hasn’t your power been absorbed?” Xu Yanmeng asked. His suspicions regarding Han Sen hadn’t diminished, and now, they only heightened. To Xu Yanmeng, the fact that Han Sen was unaffected was proof enough that he was some sort of traitor.

Hearing this, they all turned to look at Han Sen, who was seemingly unaffected.

“F*ck! I knew something was up with him.” Zhong Sanxiao was furious, thinking Han Sen had willingly betrayed them, and so he summoned a geno core and tried to attack him.

Han Sen let go of his grip on the coffin lid and dropped the pretense. He swiftly moved to evade the attack and pleaded, “Fine; I’m not trapped! But it’s not like I tried to get any of you hurt. This is as unexpected for me as it is for you. I don’t know what is happening.”

Han Sen hurriedly took a few steps back. His former compatriots all had gemstone geno cores, and if the rest sought to attack him, Han Sen did not fancy getting surrounded.

“I knew we should have killed him when we had the chance,” Xu Yanmeng proclaimed.

“Your body!” Old Qiu suddenly exclaimed.

Then, all the members of the party began looking at each other in fear. They were all aging at an extremely rapid pace.

Xu Yanmeng’s hair turned white, and his skin began to gather wrinkles like weathered, coarse leather. He was like an old man.

Wang Zhao then shouted, “Mister Li, why are you not affected by this?”

Wang Zhao wasn’t the only one to notice this, and when the group’s enfeebled eyes looked over, they too saw him unaffected.

Mister Li smiled and took a step back, letting his fingers leave the cusp of the coffin’s lid. “I wasn’t trapped, either. And I won’t be getting any older.”

“Do you know why this is happening? Surely, there must be something you can do for us!” Everyone’s face was turning grim, thinking they were on the verge of death.

“This is a coffin belonging to Blood Legion. The Nine-Life Cat was suppressing the power within; now that we’ve opened it, it is absorbing all nearby lifeforces to wake up what slumbers inside,” explained Mister Li, with disturbing calm and resoluteness.

“What? How do you know all this? Is there a way you might save us?” Old Qiu pleaded.

Old Qiu was already an old man, hence the title. He had withered faster than the rest, and his skin was now not far off the stressed guttering of tree bark.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Mister Li. They knew his speech had taken on a different tone, and they had the suspicion that some veil had been removed. But still, they clung to their past vision of the man they had accompanied on their way inside. They desperately hoped he would know how to save them and act upon the ability to do so.

“I can save you, yes. But that would nullify my reason for coming here,” Mister Li said.

“You… planned for this to happen?! You wanted to kill us?” The fear that had taken root inside Wang Zhao turned to wrath and rage. He was seething as he spoke, having suffered this betrayal.

“I am taking back what is owed. I already saved you all once, or have you forgotten? You said you were willing to lay down your lives in return, and now the time to do that has come. There shouldn’t be a problem, should there?” Mister Li’s tone had become cold and callous.

Wang Zhao found the situation incredibly disturbing, and as much as he wished to lash out and spite the man who had done this to them, he found himself unable to. The withering and brittleness of intense old age had settled in his bones, and merely remaining upright was becoming a trying task.

Han Sen, although he hadn’t been backstabbed himself, was shocked by what was happening. He had never expected Mister Li to do something such as this. Everyone had placed their faith in Mister Li, and they left no room for doubt. Their blind, unwavering trust had led them to the situation they were in, and they cursed themselves for it.

Mister Li then turned to Han Sen and said, “Little Han, which part of Blood Legion do you belong to?”

Han Sen was taken off-guard by the question, and he wasn’t sure how he might answer this. Han Sen knew there were two factions within Blood Legion. One consisted of the loyal, like Nan Litian; the others were considered traitors, like God’s Retribution and Han Jinzhi.

He didn’t formally belong to Blood Legion, so he wasn’t sure if he could give an answer.

With no answer forthcoming, Mister Li didn’t seem to dwell on his silence much. He moved on to say, “I need sacred-blood to wake up the coffin; you can help a bit.”

Mister Li cut his own hand open with his nails, and blue blood dripped from the palm of his hand onto the coffin lid. The blue blood was almost as bright as that of God’s Retribution.

“What is your title within Blood Legion?” Han Sen asked.

Mister Li answered, “Again, which side do you belong to? Did they not teach you about the leader?”

“You… are the leader?” Han Sen asked, with a quivering voice.

Han Sen had always wanted to know who the leader of Blood Legion was, but in his short time in this shelter, two possible candidates had made themselves known to him.

There was the shadow that seemed to imply himself to be the leader, but Mister Li was now insinuating that he himself was the leader.

“Why is there more than one leader now?” Han Sen wondered.