Chapter 653 - 368: Origin Gene

The perfect fusion of "Self-Healing Ability" and "Knowledge is Power" greatly boosted Su Ze’s confidence.

However, when he tried to replicate the process and fuse "Thunder God Body" into "Knowledge is Power," he felt an insurmountable resistance.

’Are these two skills completely incompatible?’

Su Ze pondered for a moment before splitting "Thunder God Body" into two components: "Body’s Electrical Storage" and "Thunder Immunity."

He tentatively tried to fuse "Thunder Immunity" into "Knowledge is Power."

This time, the resistance was back to normal.

’It seems the "Body’s Electrical Storage" component is what’s incompatible with "Knowledge is Power."’

It took another two weeks, but Su Ze successfully fused "Thunder Immunity" into "Knowledge is Power."

This fusion directly upgraded "Knowledge is Power" to a seventh-tier divine skill.

After the fusion, each enhancement from the "Knowledge is Power" skill also included an improvement to his "Elemental Resistance."

Su Ze had thought it would only enhance his Thunder Resistance; he never expected it to directly boost his resistance to all forms of Elemental Energy.

Even though it was called Thunder Immunity, there was no such thing as absolute immunity. Even an insulator could be pierced if the voltage was high enough.

With his Thunder Immunity, a Moon God-level lightning attack could still break through his defenses, but it wouldn’t cause him significant damage.

’But what about a Sun God-level or even an Ancestral God-level lightning attack?’

Thunder Immunity made him immune to lightning damage from beings at or below his tier, and it greatly weakened lightning damage from higher-tier lifeforms.

What Su Ze hadn’t expected was that fusing this one effect into "Knowledge is Power" would evolve it to provide an all-attribute resistance enhancement.

Su Ze’s body once again received a compensatory enhancement from "Knowledge is Power," strengthening his resistance across all attributes.

For now, though, his Thunder Resistance remained the highest. If his Thunder Resistance was a 100, his resistance to other attributes was only around 20.

’Still, this was already ridiculously powerful. You couldn’t expect him to become immune to all attributes.’

What disappointed Su Ze, however, was that after "Knowledge is Power" ascended to a divine skill, its "Cell Enhancement" effect didn’t upgrade into "Genetic Enhancement."

Liou Wenxin had predicted that the skill would undergo a qualitative change upon becoming a divine skill, unlocking a "Genetic Enhancement" effect. Apparently, her prediction was wrong.

Still, Su Ze was already very satisfied with the current result. He felt he could now treat "Knowledge is Power" as a primary skill to focus on upgrading.

The headache now, though, was what to do with the remaining part of the "Thunder God Body" skill, now that its "Thunder Immunity" effect had been stripped away.

After losing "Thunder Immunity," the "Thunder God Body" skill had dropped from sixth-tier to fifth-tier. That wasn’t the issue. The real problem was that Su Ze had no idea what to do with the skill.

’Which skill should I fuse it into?’

’Fuse it into "Self-Control" or "Sponge Body"?’

’Neither of those feels quite right.’

After mulling it over, Su Ze considered just tossing it into "Gravity Domain" like a leftover scrap. But he couldn’t bring himself to commit. He ultimately decided to shelve the skill for now and make a decision after seeing how his other abilities developed.

This brought the current round of skill fusion and upgrades to a temporary halt. As for his remaining skills, there were either no good fusion candidates, they needed to develop more before being fused, or he currently lacked the power to control such a fusion.

After a short rest, Su Ze began the second major task of his seclusion: absorbing the Origin Genes of other races.

With a single thought, a light flashed from Su Ze’s Dantian, and the Flower Amber Space of the Inheritance Crystal materialized.

He used his Spiritual Power to guide his consciousness into the Inheritance Crystal. Instantly, it was as if he had plunged into a rainstorm. Thousands of raindrops hovered around him, each one symbolizing the Origin Gene of a single race.

Of course, none of these thousands of Origin Genes were complete.

Perfecting one’s own race’s Origin Gene was already next to impossible, so plundering a complete Origin Gene from another race was naturally just as difficult.

’There are only a few hundred Intelligent Races left in the universe, yet there are over two thousand Origin Genes here, each from a different, unique race...’

Su Ze understood. Either these Origin Genes were ancient heirlooms, passed down from a time before many of these races went extinct, or the Origin Genes of those extinct races had somehow been preserved and passed down in another form.

He was inclined to believe the latter.

As soon as his consciousness made contact with a raindrop, he could discern the basic information of the Origin Gene within.

’Horn Race Origin Gene, 3%... Absorbable.’

’Crystal Race Origin Gene, 12%... Absorbable.’

’Yang Race Origin Gene, 24%... Cannot absorb.’

’Nian Race Origin Gene, 35%... Cannot absorb.’

’Witch Race Origin Gene, 58%... Cannot absorb.’

’Spirit Race Origin Gene, 79%... Cannot absorb.’

’Pan Race...’

There were over two thousand Origin Genes. After inspecting a random sample, Su Ze quickly discovered a pattern.

He could only absorb Origin Genes with a completion rate below 20%; anything over that was impossible for him to absorb.

’20% and 50% must be the two thresholds, corresponding to the Moon God and Sun God levels. I’m only a Star God right now, so I can only absorb Origin Genes with less than 20% completion,’ Su Ze realized.

He also discovered that the Origin Genes from the Dominator Races and Strong Races all had very high completion rates. It seemed the geniuses of the Human Race had their fair share of clashes with the experts of these powerful races over the generations.

Su Ze suspected that the ones with 70 to 80 percent completion were most likely plundered from that race’s Ancestral God.

This was only natural. He didn’t have to look far for an example. Just take Mr. Ao—as a top-tier Ancestral God, he had likely killed a great number of other Ancestral God experts himself.