After settling in a now-empty house in the desolate mining village, Bian summoned the only two geno cores he got from the village.
Most of the ordinary creatures didn't even get a chance to summon their geno cores before they were killed, and thus, said geno cores were destroyed with their deaths.
Bian was originally worried that Bao'er would be upset with his behaviour, with the baseless slaughter, but she seemed utterly unperturbed by it, if not slightly pleased.
'Bao'er needs to spend time with other kids before she picks up bad habits from me.'
Bian said in his heart, then turned his gaze to the geno cores. One was a blue slime which could heal injuries, while the other was a torch that could ignite itself.
The torch was okay, but the slime was indispensable. Bian contemplated fusing it for a long time before he finally decided to go ahead.
It was a bronze geno core, after all. It might take several weeks or even months to heal his injuries.
An indigo light covered the two geno cores, and they turned to light themselves before melting into each other.
The light reshaped into a torch shape and materialised as a red metallic torch.
[Regen Torch: Fire Element Silver Geno Core]
"A healing torch?"
Once Bian held the red metallic torch, a pale blue flame lit up on it. The fire was the same colour as the healing slime.
Bian put his hands in it and dragged it out even faster while flicking his fingers to relieve the pain.
"Haha, daddy, you're silly." Bao'er laughed at him.
"I wasn't expecting it to be hot... which sounds dumb since it's fire."
Bian sighed and looked at his fingers.
They weren't harmed in the slightest bit by the flames, but it still hurt like normal fire would.
What sort of vile healing contraption was this?
He put away the regen torch and planned his next move very carefully.
This kingdom was a sacred shelter like the undead shelter, but it wasn't a large walled city.
Instead, there was the main kingdom and several smaller shelters and settlements scattered about.
There was a mine near this particular settlement, and different parts of the kingdom had their different functions.
From what he heard, the largest settlement contained both farming beasts and spirits who tended to a very large farmland.
Then several companies formed a thorough network of transportation for goods and services across the lands.
He didn't know what the kingdom was like since no one talked about it, but it didn't matter yet.
The security there was on another level, and the grounds were paved, meaning he would have to physically break through it to use Terraslip, thus defeating the whole point.
He also wanted to avoid meeting spirits, at least not yet.
Bian wasn't ready to let his opponents know he could permanently kill spirits, lest they turn tail and flee away.
He was originally planning on attacking the settlement ahead, but that plan wouldn't work again.
Two Sentries were stationed there, ready to challenge and slay him. Both were top-class fighters with experience and high fitness.
With his completed and nigh-completed ordinary and primitive geno points, Bian felt he could triumph over them with the Body Pillar, but that would be reliance on his trump card.
It would be better if he could face them normally and only use his trump card when in danger, rather than depending on it from the start.
With this determination in mind, he activated Terraslip and continued navigating the lands for another weakly protected village.
As for his newly acquired geno core, the experiment would have to wait. He couldn't expect a bronze geno core to have a massive impact in a fight between mutant class.
Once Bian maxed out his Primitive Geno Points, the current dongxuan sutra would not be strong enough to conceal his life force any longer.
That meant he had to go big with his next target, preferably another loosely guarded settlement like the mining village he just left.
The land was spacious, but the inhabitants were few to none. It seemed the flora was the greatest beneficiary here, as several hundred acres of land were covered in vibrant green grass with a kaleidoscope of colourful flowers sprawled about here and there.
Bian never ventured above ground for too long, avoiding the numerous birds of the sky which acted as familiars for the kingdom.
He would occasionally find a secluded spot, like beneath a tree, or between some ruins, to resurface and observe the scenery.
Most times, though, he saw the land above with the aid of the Dongxuan Aura. His only grievance against the aura was its limited range, which was tied to the level of the geno core.
After two and a half days of travel, Bian reached another portion of the kingdom, a shore situated near a vast boundless expanse of water.
Unlike regular shores, though, this coast wasn't filled with sand, but rather different shades of palm-sized blue stones.
Under the moonless night sky, these blue stones gave off a weak glow, illuminating the ground and a good portion of the water as far as the eye can see.
"Wow!" Bao'er exclaimed.
Even Bian had to pause his murderous plans for a moment to appreciate the scenery.
It's in times like this that he remembered why he loved this world so much. Other than the thrill from superhuman strength, the beauty of the land was just so captivating.
He sat down for a moment and placed Bao'er by his side, the both of them getting wet from the pull and push of the tides.
It was quite a surreal moment to behold, and neither of them wanted to miss a moment of it.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
Footsteps sloshed the water up and down as a figure approached them. The figure was about to speak when Bian raised a hand indicating for them to be quiet.
The figure was speechless.
Instead of bursting into an uncontrollable state of anger, they sat down on the stony floor a good distance away from the duo.
"It's quite the sight, isn't it?"
A calm and steady male voice resounded amidst the crashing sounds of the waves.
The voice wasn't yelled, but it was still heard clearly by those nearby.
"Bluestone Coast has been the ancestral land of my family since time immemorial. It wasn't until recent years that it became a workstation for the duke," the spirit spoke with some mirth, clearly displeased with the way his 'ancestral land' had been treated.
Bian raised a brow slightly before he spoke.
"A duke? You're an aristocrat spirit yourself, are you not? I bet you're even one of the Four Sentries. I doubt another aristocrat spirit could hold you down so much."
Bian had to respond to the spirit. When he spoke of the duke, it was like he wasn't talking about a person but a force of nature.
"You don't understand the duke's strength, nobody does. There was a single Prince ruling this land before the duke showed up and challenged him."
The spirit paused for a moment, then he let out a heavy sigh and said.
"All we saw that day was a bright red flash and suddenly the prince had been beheaded in a single strike by the duke."
Bian sucked in a cold breath!
An aristocrat spirit killing a royal one. The mere thought seemed blasphemous.
The gap between ranks jumped exponentially at the higher stages. There was simply no way to imagine a mutant creature killing a sacred-blood one and doing it in one strike, no less.
"What kind of geno core was he using?"
Bian had to ask, maybe he had lucked out and grabbed a sacred geno core somewhere.
The spirit understood what Bian was thinking about. He merely shook his head and looked up birefly, recalling the details before he responded.
"He was using his self-geno core. A perfectly aligned white sword with a red circular gem embedded in the hilt, in between the handle and the blade.
He also had another geno core, a five-leaf clover, but that did nothing in the battle."
The night slowly transitioned to dawn, the luminescence of the blue stones was slowly overshadowed by the incandescent rays from the sun.
Knowing the time for chat was coming to an end, Bian asked, "What happened to the prince after that?"
Spirits were different from humans. If they had inserted their spirit stone in a shelter statue, then they wouldn't truly die when killed.
Bian needed to know if he was going to face a power-jumping duke or a power-jumping duke and an enslaved prince.
"The prince killed himself rather than submitting, then the duke took over. The three strongest spirits were forced to become his Sentries, and a fourth outsider came and joined our ranks."
The spirit groaned as he stood up, water dripping down his wet clothes.
"What is your name, young man?" The spirit inquired.
Considering that he had been living for hundrerds if not thousands of years, Bian, who was just twenty-four, must have been a very young man in his eyes.
"My name is Bian, Bian Manwei."
Bian also stood up and carried Bao'er on his shoulders.
"Bian; a good name. I am called Marquis Nero."
And with an exchange of names, their friendly conversation was over.