"Blessing of Fire!"
It was the name of the geno core ranked in second place. That meant it was number one until Bian knocked it down a peg.
"The danger this geno core gives off, it's even more than the Geo Core."
All pride that came with Bian's increase in strength vanished entirely. His instincts were warning him, if he fought the owner of the blessing he would die.
No other geno core gave him such pressure with the sole exception of the Geo Core, but even it could not compare to the Blessing of Fire.
"This must belong to the last Executioner. Just what did Han Jinghzi prepare to kill me?"
And thus, a bucket of cold water was poured over his shoulder, sobering him up. Bian searched the list for a while, and just when he was about to pick any random person to fight, he saw the geno core of the White Mouse.
Immediately selecting it, Bian walked into the portal leading to a forest with trees that scraped against the sky.
The trees were at least a kilometer high and the forest was filled to the brim with these kinds of trees.
As Bian admired the gargantuan flora, a white blur flashed from behind and lunged towards him.
A blade cut through the air swiftly and silently, heading straight for Bian's neck.
"That's some stealth you've got."
At some point, Bian had craned his neck to look at the approaching shadow.
A chill went up the creature's spine as it twisted mid-air and jumped from tree to tree.
The figure turned to a white blur, ricocheting off the gargantuan trees in a bid to misdirect Bian.
"So you are like the White Mouse I know, but a little better."
"A little!"
A gruff voice echoed and the white blur attacked him from the side.
In a manner that seemed slow, Bian brought up his hand and wrote the word 'solid' mid-air.
When the attack struck against where he had written, a squarical reflection appeared for a brief moment as the blade bounced back.
The white blur became visible for the first time. It was a white mouse who had a scar over one eye and had a chunk missing from one of its ears.
The blade turned out to be a giant pair of scissors that shimmered like diamonds.
"You blocked that?"
White Mouse King was astonished. His Diamond Scissors was rumored to be one of the sharpest geno cores, capable of slicing through any armor or shield.
"Yeah, you're not too bad yourself."
Bian wasn't degrading the White Mouse King, as he was genuinely surprised with the consumption of the Altering Brush over a single attack.
"Tch!"
White Mouse King was incensed and tried retreating, but Bian brought up his brush and wrote the word 'dome'.
Bang!
The White Mouse King crashed into nothing, reflecting a giant dome covering both him and Bian. The reflection flashed for less than a second before it disappeared.
"If it's a death match you want, then a death match you shall get."
White Mouse King ran towards Bian in a blur, sundering the air and the ground as he went.
Instead of retreating, Bian also advanced. To the utter shock and peril of White Mouse King, Bian was absolutely faster than it.
"Still."
Bian dashed by White Mouse King, bringing his right arm up lazily, with which he did a single stroke.
Yet that stroke was not as simple as it seemed, that one fluid movement somehow wrote the word 'still' on the back of the White Mouse King.
"I ca..n.t mo..ve!"
Once he was altered with 'still', White Mouse King remained frozen in the air with the Diamond Scissors in hand.
Walking up to the frozen Mouse, Bian studied him for a moment before turning around to leave.
"Consider this a favour for White Mouse."
The 'dome' structure faded away as Bian walked towards his portal.
"Yo..u kn..ow my s...on?"
White Mouse King barely managed to squeeze out a question, but Bian had already left the battle arena.
Then he surreptitiously left the geno hall storage.
"What are these monsters." Nuigu spat through bloodied teeth.
Just as he was about to call the holy beast, both scorpions suddenly retreated and scrambled to the exit of the area.
"They're leaving?"
The defenders were confused. Why would the creatures leave when they were clearly winning.
"Perhaps... perhaps they sensed the aura of the holy beast."
Although the injured fighters were reluctant to believe this, they were more than happy to be rid of those abominable nine-tailed monsters.
Meanwhile, the two standing guards awoke from their slumber. Confused about how they could both sleep off.
---
Bian took a detour back to the alliance to check up on Han Yan and refill the Gold Solum Mirror.
[Gold Solum Mirror]
[Retaliation: 700/700]
[Soul Capacity: 0/700]
Earlier, when he had written a word on White Mouse King with a single stroke, Bian had pulled off a gamble. If the word he used had just one more stroke, he wouldn't have been able to write it.
Thus, Bian searched the Saints Hall catalogues for any geno art which could help with the art of writing within a single stroke.
After intensive searching, Bian narrowed his options down to two geno arts. With his clearance level in the Saints Hall, he was granted two universal S-class licenses every month and had stockpiled quite a bit of them over the years.
The first S-class geno art was called Panorama. Panorama was a collection of all sorts of fundamental martial arts, which was why it was almost impossible to find someone to practice it.
Since he was to purchase the Hyper geno art, Bian didn't go for anything less than the best version of it. The techniques were too much, even for him, but he could always nitpick the ones useful to him and use it as a frame to store or modify new techniques.
The second S-class Hyper geno art was called Laceration. It was a one-handed sword art where he would bypass his enemy with a single slash, but that slash would actually contain hundreds, if not thousands of slashes.
Needless to say, it was the closest geno art to his move with the Altering Brush which Bian decided to call Sweeping Stroke.
After he purchased both geno arts, Bian spent some days to gain entry-level proficiency with both while also committing them to memory.
Unfortunately, he couldn't practice as much as he would have loved to in the alliance. He was a demigod now, meaning if he exerted a bit too much strength, he could possibly wreck the continent.
Han Yan's stomach was getting bigger by the day, but it was still too early for Bian to feel any movements in her belly.
He spent most of his time with his wife and the rest of it was used up in his head, thinking of the myriad ways he could apply the diverse arts in Panorama.
Eventually, Bian decided the best way to use Panorama wasn't to separate it into different geno arts, but to use it as one geno art.
With Mental Point Targeting, every single martial move was just a thought away. Bian spent up to a week before he could form a solid framework which he called Panorama Battle Art.
One day Bian left the house with three expensive training bots that were just shipped in the day before.
He brought out the Edge of Ruin and dashed past the first model, faster than it could react.
"Laceration!"
When Bian stopped, his right arm was outstretched while the bot was unharmed. A gentle breeze blew by and a grid revealed itself across the bot's body.
Pieces of metal and oil fell apart and scattered across the ground.
"These bots are too weak, only good for Evolvers."
Laceration was a good art, but as its name implied, it sacrificed power for speed. The most it would do to someone on his level was inflict a thousand cuts, not cut them into a thousand pieces.
"I heard most people can barely pull off ten cuts in the early stages of Laceration. Having used it for the first time, you delivered more than a thousand."
Han Yan appeared at some point and commented. Bian just shrugged his shoulders.
He had better memory and body control than all of his peers. It would be abnormal if he was normal when practicing any move.
Just from this strike alone, he roughly estimated how many words he could write using Sweeping Stroke.
The last move he wanted to check out was Panorama Battle Art, but Bian was concerned the bot wouldn't last against a single blow.
"The bots won't be good enough, why not find an opponent in the geno core storage?" As if reading his mind, Han Yan said what he was thinking of.
"Yeah, I'll do just that but after I'm done with the Golem Valley. I might be gone for a while, just thought to give you a heads up."
"Take your time."
When Bian returned, he assembled all the Number Series from number one to number sixteen.
"I have built you up for one reason and one reason alone. Lend me your strength to defeat my foes!"
The Scorpion Golems couldn't care less about Bian's speech, but Bian cherished the opportunity to practice building morale among his men. After all, he wouldn't always be fighting solo.
With a mighty leap, Bian jumped on top of number one as it led the Numbered Series into the territory of the Stone Knights.