Inside the bathroom, Han Sen looked at himself in the mirror. He was topless, observing his back.
When Han Sen went to sleep the night before, Ji Yanran told him he had a mark on his back. When Han Sen checked it out, he noticed his entire back was tattooed red.
The tattoo on his back was like a cat, but not a cat. It was like a fox, but not a fox. It was red. It was the Nine-Life Cat.
"Why is there a tattoo? Is it because of the Nine-Life Cat pendant?" Han Sen examined the tattoo on his back closely.
But he did not notice anything special about it. It really did just look like a tattoo and nothing more.
Han Sen could not tell what it was, or whether or not it was harming his body. He ignored it, put his clothes back on, and exited the bathroom.
Stay Up Late was in the living room. Seeing Han Sen come out, he poured him some tea and looked him up and down. He was curious how Han Sen had been rebuilt, despite entering a God's Door summoned by someone else.
Han Sen sat down on the sofa. He wanted to ask Stay Up Late something, too. Han Sen accepted the tea and asked Stay Up Late, "I ascended successfully, but I was unable to generate a geno armor. There are no creatures here that I can use to gain genes, either. How am I supposed to generate the geno armor, exactly?"
Stay Up Late thought about this for a moment, and then said, "You cannot borrow power from the outside. You are on your own. After being cleansed and rebuilt, your body is like an unopened chest. You need to practice your genes to grow your body. Do that, and then you will be able to generate your geno armor. That will be your beginning."
"That is the beginning and also the end, right?" Han Sen looked at Stay Up Late.
Stay Up Late nodded and answered, "I suppose. Only geno armor has the power to exit the sanctuary. But outside the sanctuary is scary, and it is rather unknown. My people, the crystallizers, were almost entirely wiped out."
Seeing Stay Up Late open up and be so honest, Han Sen found himself quite surprised. He proceeded to ask, "What is out there?"
"I am just an ordinary soldier. I don't know much about the outside world. If you would like to know, go and see for yourself.
It is pointless asking me." Stay Up Late paused for a moment, and then went on to ask, "How did you level up via someone else's path? It should be impossible for someone else's rebuilding powers to match your body."
"When my body decomposed, it just happened. The rebuilding powers didn't rebuild my body, and actually harmed my geno cores and molecules. But then, something just seemed to change. I'm not entirely sure what happened." Han Sen was being half honest.
Stay Up Late frowned, and then said, "I have never heard of something like this before. Rebuilding your own body from someone else's rebuilding power will affect you. Whether it will be for the better or worse, I can't determine. If you do not mind, you should conduct a full body test so I can find out exactly what is happening."
"Sure." Han Sen agreed to this. He wanted to know what his body was doing, and he wanted to know if he was strong in a crystallizer's eye.
After conducting the tests, Han Sen's fitness was revealed to have been lowered. His strength and speed were only ten thousand now.
"Is this good for a crystallizer?" Han Sen asked, looking at Stay Up Late.
Stay Up Late looked back at Han Sen with a complicated expression and said, "For a juvenile, this is good."
Han Sen's heart sank. After all those years, Stay Up Late could only compare him to a juvenile. That was depressing.
Han Sen didn't know Stay Up Late was actually pleasantly surprised. The sanctuaries were something of an incubator for the crystallizers. Creatures that ascended to the Alliance were mere babies to the crystallizers. After they were rebuilt, they could grow from there.
Han Sen's fitness was far better than a baby crystallizer, but where he'd go from here was uncertain. If he grew up fast, and after he generated his geno armor, Han Sen would definitely be scarier than a crystallizer.
As he left the testing room, a gold lion dog came up to him. Its tail was wagging.
It was Golden Growler. Its body was small, not too different from an average dog. It really did look like one, and he was certain others might not be able to tell what it actually was.
Bao'er was riding upon Golden Growler's back. And then, she leaped onto Han Sen's chest.
Han Sen patted Bao'er on the head. Without Bao'er, he was not sure if he'd have been able to rebuild his body successfully. Now that Bao'er was in the Alliance with him, though, she could not return to the Fourth God's Sanctuary.
Han Sen did not know if the gourd on Dark Spirit's Holy Vine was something Bao'er could use. There was no way to find out now.
This was the biggest regret Han Sen had, regarding his time in the Fourth God's Sanctuary. Fortunately for him, however, he had friends there. He would eventually send someone to take a look once the gourd had matured.
It would be great to be able to bring it back. He just wasn't sure if he could.
When Han Sen returned home, Ji Yanran was waiting for him. There were many contracts awaiting Han Sen's signature. They had bought a large portion of land to prevent another incident in which innocent victims could be caught in the crossfire and harmed.
Ji Yanran bought out a few cities. If a fight like that happened again, at least others wouldn't be hurt.
Han Sen signed the agreements and went to practice his skills.
Jadeskin did not have a second part, so he had not practiced that.
Han Sen was trying to practice the Blood-Pulse Sutra, the Dongxuan Sutra, and The Story of Genes. The Story of Genes was making progress the fastest, and it seemed as if that was what it took to generate geno armor.
The Blood-Pulse Sutra and the Dongxuan Sutra were far slower, by comparison. They were much different from The Story of Genes, and they weren't used for generating geno armor.
Han Sen did not know which was better to focus on, so he just divided his time between them all. They did not clash with each other, so it was okay to practice them all at the same time.
His rebuilt body was different now. When he cast skills, his genes would change. That should have been impossible for a human.
Stay Up Late said that if they changed a lot, they would generate the geno armor.