Super Gene Ⅱ: Evolution

"What if I did manage to master it?" Tian Xun was already somewhat angry.

Lin Shen's words were clearly disparaging her, a direct insult.

"If you manage it, I, Lin Shen, am willing to follow by your side, at your beck and call, without a word of complaint for the rest of my life. If you don't succeed, I'm not asking for anything else, just for a chance to pursue you," Lin Shen pronounced righteously.

Hearing Lin Shen's words, Tian Xun laughed in anger, "You're thinking too beautifully, aren't you? Whether I succeed or not, you get to live. This calculation of yours really makes the whole universe resonate."

"Is that not acceptable?" Lin Shen sighed.

"Of course not. If I manage it, I will chop off your head," Tian Xun snorted coldly.

"Can we not chop it off?" Lin Shen asked helplessly.

"That's also fine," Tian Xun unexpectedly replied.

"Then it's a deal," Lin Shen immediately said.

"It's a deal, if I manage it, I'll keep your head up there, and chop off the rest below," Tian Xun pretended to say casually.

"Then you might as well kill me; I haven't yet spread the branches of my family, which would be more painful than killing me," Lin Shen sighed.

"We agreed on a deal, so how could I possibly break my promise and grow fat on it? You'd better pray I don't succeed, otherwise..." Tian Xun didn't finish, but the meaning was clear.

Lin Shen didn't make a sound, unsure whether Tian Xun was really serious or just trying to scare him.

But even if she was serious, Lin Shen wasn't entirely without chances of winning. His claim that Tian Xun couldn't succeed wasn't just empty talk meant to scare.

He had practiced "Stepping on the Celestial Court" before and knew that this Evolution Skill was not something one could master just by getting the movements right.

The crux of the matter was understanding the essence of the technique; without grasping the momentum, perfect movements would still lead to failure.

"Stepping on the Celestial Court" also includes a few prefaces explaining its artistic conception, which are of great help for comprehending its momentum.

"Twenty-Eight Fists," however, only offers movements and no other hints whatsoever.

The key to mastering Twenty-Eight Fists lies in the momentum hidden within those patterns. Now that the original patterns have disappeared, only the ones Lin Shen drew remain.

Yet what he had drawn was too crude, markedly different from the original, and lacking the essence of momentum.

Just by looking at those patterns he drew, it would be very difficult to grasp the momentum of Twenty-Eight Fists.

He could teach Tian Xun all the standard movements, but without the underlying artistic conception, whether she could master it was genuinely uncertain.

Lin Shen was not hoping that Tian Xun would fail to master Twenty-Eight Fists, because he clearly understood that his survival did not depend on whether Tian Xun could master it, but on whether Tian Xun wanted to kill him or not.

Even if Lin Shen won the bet, if Tian Xun wanted him dead, she could find a myriad of reasons to carry it out.

So, during this time, what Lin Shen needed to do was not to win the bet but to make Tian Xun abandon the idea of killing him.

Paradise Island was no smaller than the ring-shaped islands they had visited before, and indeed, compared to the environments within the Giant Ring Star, it could truly be described as paradise.

Castles, gardens, statues—everywhere on the island was filled with buildings brimming with artistic flair, forming a stark contrast to the village Lin Shen had previously lived in.

Beautiful girls of the Celestial Race played the harp by the fountains while the Celestial warriors, adorned in splendid armor, patrolled the island in formation.

As the flying vehicle descended, the dome of a palace-like building within the castle automatically opened to allow the vehicle to land inside, then the dome closed again on its own.

Stepping out of the flying vehicle, Lin Shen scrutinized the various magnificent statues and murals inside the building; even the pillars were carved with reliefs that took one's breath away.

Such a magnificent structure, Lin Shen had only seen in video recordings, from before the Base Variant Creatures arrived, when humanity was at its peak, would such buildings have been possible.

Now, human architecture is all about practicality, solid metal fortresses completely unlike the buildings of the past.

Yet within this vast palatial building, there wasn't a single person.

"Your elder sister has already been taken to her guest room, and you can now talk to her." Tian Xun received a message, directly opened the communication mode, and handed the communicator to Lin Shen.

Lin Shen saw the projected image from the communicator, it was indeed his elder sister, Lin Miao.

The two talked briefly; saying too much wasn't appropriate. Lin Shen simply reassured his sister, asking her to settle down for now.

"Now let me see how difficult your pose is, and whether I can actually learn it or not." Tian Xun sat down on a chair in the hall, chin in hand, and watched Lin Shen speak.

Lin Shen nodded, initially wanting to demonstrate the whole set of movements, but he found that he couldn't remember them all without looking at the little booklet.

"Um, could you give me back my booklet? I need to take a look to jog my memory," Lin Shen said helplessly.

"You can't even remember the moves?" Tian Xun frowned slightly, thinking Lin Shen was fooling her.

A genius who could comprehend Twenty-Eight Fists, how could he possibly not remember the moves? Doesn't a genius need to have a photographic memory?

"I know this is hard to believe, but I can only ask you to trust me. My memory really is quite poor, I don't have the ability to remember everything I see. I was just imitating those patterns earlier, I really didn't remember them," Lin Shen explained with difficulty.

He too wished for an extraordinary memory, but unfortunately, he lacked that talent.

Tian Xun, seeing that Lin Shen did not seem to be lying, still found it hard to believe that a human with such poor memory could have such strong comprehension.

However, after a moment of thought, Tian Xun still returned the small booklet to Lin Shen.

Lin Shen took the booklet, flipped open to the patterns he had drawn, and imitated the movements depicted once again.

As he watched and mimicked, indeed, the Base Mutation strength within his body was stirred up, and with a final punch, another Spatial Fist Power was launched.

The Fist Power struck a metal column, leaving behind a punch imprint on it.

Seeing his clumsy movements, Tian Xun grew more puzzled, "Could the Twenty-Eight Fists really be that simple to learn that you could manage this?"

"The moves are just like this. Try them for yourself, I'll teach you one by one," Lin Shen said.

Tian Xun didn't pay him any heed and directly repeated Lin Shen's movements.

One has to say Tian Xun's memory was indeed too strong; she had watched from afar just once before, and now again, only twice in total, and she was able to perform each move without error.

Not only were the moves correct, they were even smoother and more graceful than Lin Shen's, as if she had practiced them countless times before.

However, until the very last punch, there was no Spatial Fist Power coming from her fist.

"Have you ever practiced Twenty-Eight Fists before?" Lin Shen asked Tian Xun, astonished.

"No."

"If you haven't practiced, how could you be so skilled?" Lin Shen asked again.

"Such matters, you, a mere mortal, cannot understand," Tian Xun said lightly, the corner of her mouth slightly upturned: "The moves are correct, now tell me the secret technique."

"Secret technique? What secret technique? It's only these patterned moves, there's no secret technique," Lin Shen shook his head.