Chapter 00020: Thank You
# Thank You
Chapter 20
Novel: After the Myth
Chapter 20: Thank You
After teaching Geng Qianxing and the other three the basic long fist technique, Ding Huan decided to leave Heluo City to search for the fire salamander.
The fire salamander is known as the strongest limb-regenerating creature on the surface of the earth.
However, Ding Huan knew that despite its terrifying regenerative abilities, the fire salamander had a fatal flaw.
Sometimes, the regenerated organs would differ from the original, meaning it couldn't perfectly replicate its original body form.
But this wasn't a problem for Ding Huan.
Not only could he perfectly find the heterologous genes he needed, but he could also improve the deficiencies in the abilities of those genes.
The fire salamander's regenerative ability was strong, but even if it had no flaws, Ding Huan wouldn't simply copy it.
Before refining this regenerative gene potion, Ding Huan also planned to find the regenerative genes of mutated cacti or mutated torch grass.
These two were considered nearly immortal.
By fusing their genes with the fire salamander's regenerative genes and adding some compatible gene fragments, Ding Huan believed he could create a perfect match for human genes.
The fire salamander, also known as the fire newt, was rumored to carry a trace of dragon blood, which is why some called it the fire dragon.
Whether it truly had dragon blood or not, Ding Huan didn't know, but it didn't affect his ability to extract the fire salamander's injury-regenerating genes.
Fire salamanders weren't rare, but their presence varied by location.
Most were found in Central or Southern Europe.
In Heluo City, it was impossible to find any traces of fire salamanders, but there were more in the southern regions.
This time, Ding Huan planned to head to Lujiang City in the south.
...
Ding Huan didn't have much money on him.
He had even borrowed a few thousand yuan from Geng Qianxing for this trip.
So, instead of taking a plane or a maglev train, he chose a regular fast train.
Even if he could afford a plane, Ding Huan wouldn't have taken one.
With the rampant spread of flying gene beasts, flying was actually the most dangerous option.
Not just planes, but even trains weren't completely safe anymore.
Most trains passing through uninhabited areas traveled during the day and stopped at night.
Fortunately, Ding Huan's train journey was uneventful, and he arrived safely at Anhe County.
To avoid delaying his cultivation, he decided to rest for a night upon reaching Anhe.
Anhe was a mountain city, with the entire county built on a mountain and surrounded by mountains on three sides.
The largest mountain near Anhe was Beilong Mountain.
Though it couldn't compare to China's top ten mountain ranges, it still spanned two to three hundred miles and was extremely rugged.
Before the Earth's environment mutated, Anhe was one of the poorest counties.
After the mutation, many of the remote mountain villages in Anhe were ravaged by gene beasts.
The surviving villagers had all gathered in Anhe County.
Despite being just a county, Anhe's defenses were on par with those of Heluo City due to the high number of gene beasts.
The area around Anhe was filled with rugged mountains, and after the environmental mutation, many rare medicinal herbs began to grow there.
In addition, the region was rich in various mutated medicinal plants.
These rare and mutated herbs attracted many martial artists and gene cultivators to the area.
The influx of people had made Anhe a bustling place.
When Ding Huan arrived in Anhe, he searched several hotels but found no available rooms.
Anhe County wasn't large, and with the recent surge in visitors due to the rare herbs, the few hotels in the area were always full.
Yilan Hotel was the eleventh hotel Ding Huan tried.
He thought that if this one was also full, he might have to spend the night on the streets.
"No rooms available," the girl at the front desk said with a smile before Ding Huan could even speak.
Clearly, she had encountered this situation many times before and had already guessed his purpose.
Ding Huan sighed and was about to leave when he heard a voice behind him.
"Xiao Fei, I plan to leave Anhe tomorrow and head to Puhai. No matter what, I have to give it a try. Do you want to come with me?"
Hearing this voice, Ding Huan froze as if struck by lightning.
This voice had echoed in his mind countless times.
Today, he finally heard it again.
"Why were you so cruel? Breaking his legs and gouging out his eyes... He was so young..."
"After I die, please donate my eyes to him. He's still so young. Let him see the beauty of the world with my eyes..."
She had only spoken two sentences to him—or perhaps not to him directly.
In Ding Huan, she had seen herself.
She had encountered someone with a similarly tragic fate and had spoken the deepest, most helpless thoughts in her heart.
She had entrusted Ding Huan with her deepest desire to live, hoping he could survive and see the world through her eyes.
These two sentences had echoed in Ding Huan's mind countless times, and he had imagined the girl's appearance just as many times.
He had never seen her, yet she had become the most important person in his life, the most familiar stranger.
Every time he thought of her painful struggle before death, her voice filled with despair, Ding Huan wished he could return to Earth and destroy the gene alliance's laboratory, even wipe out the entire gene alliance.
He wanted to destroy it not for himself—even without the gene alliance's experiments, he would have died anyway.
He wanted to do it for the girl who had given him her eyes.
She was innocent.
A laboratory that could use innocent lives for gene experiments deserved to be destroyed a thousand times over.
But even as a fourth-level gene cultivator, Ding Huan was still light-years away from returning to Earth.
Ding Huan didn't dare to turn around.
His eyes were slightly red.
Two hundred years had passed, yet her voice was still so clear.
Compared to his previous life, it was less hoarse and despairing, and instead carried a hint of hope for the future.
Ding Huan slowly turned around and saw two girls standing slightly to the side.
Sensing his gaze, the girl who had spoken turned to look at him.
Seeing Ding Huan staring at her in a daze, the girl's face flushed slightly.
She nodded at him and then averted her gaze.
It was her.
He hadn't misheard.
It was definitely her.
Her bright, clear eyes, untouched by any trace of dust, confirmed to Ding Huan that he wasn't mistaken.
Yes, she looked exactly as he had imagined countless times—like a clear stream, pure and transparent.
In terms of appearance, she might not compare to the stunning beauties he had seen before.
She wasn't a peerless beauty, but her clean, delicate face made Ding Huan feel as if the phrase "a lotus emerging from clear water, naturally beautiful without adornment" had been written just for her.
In Ding Huan's eyes, her pure, flawless eyes were the most beautiful.
She was like an angel, and no other girl could compare to her.
Such a girl, and yet the gene alliance had taken her for gene fusion experiments.
The long-buried anger in Ding Huan's heart was reignited.
Watching the girl's retreating figure, Ding Huan rubbed his slightly sore eyes and murmured, "Maybe we're the same kind of people."
Just like when she had seen him with his legs broken and eyes gouged out, her sorrowful tone had come from the depths of her heart.
But he didn't know her.
She was just too kind, so kind that even in her own suffering, she couldn't bear to see others suffer.
As Qu Yi reached the elevator, she couldn't help but glance back at Ding Huan, who was still standing there in a daze.
She found him a bit strange.
"What's wrong with him?" the girl beside Qu Yi asked, noticing Ding Huan's odd behavior.
Qu Yi shook her head.
She didn't know what was going on with him.
As she pressed the elevator button to go up, Ding Huan finally snapped out of his trance and quickly walked over to Qu Yi.
"Is there something you need?" Qu Yi asked.
She had been observing Ding Huan because from the moment he saw her, he hadn't taken his eyes off her.
His eyes seemed red, as if he was emotionally overwhelmed.
"Can I know your name?" Ding Huan's voice trembled slightly.
Qu Yi smiled.
"I'm Qu Yi."
The elevator doors opened, and Qu Yi stepped inside.
She didn't ask for Ding Huan's name.
In college, she had often encountered boys like him.
"Yi Yi, is he falling for you?" the girl beside Qu Yi teased as the elevator doors closed.
Qu Yi smiled but didn't respond.
She had never been in a relationship, but many people had pursued her.
To be honest, she hadn't seen the look of a suitor in Ding Huan's eyes.
Instead, it felt like he was seeing an old, familiar friend, someone he had known for a long time.
It was a strange feeling, making her wonder if she had misread him.
Just as the elevator doors closed, they opened again.
Qu Yi and her companion saw Ding Huan standing at the elevator entrance and moved aside to make room.
But instead of entering the elevator as they expected, Ding Huan bowed slightly to Qu Yi and said, "Qu Yi, thank you. My name is Ding Huan."
Thank her? Qu Yi was puzzled.
Why was he thanking her? She tried to recall if they had met before but was certain they hadn't.
"Can I have your contact information?" Ding Huan asked again.
Before Qu Yi could respond, the girl beside her said, "Sorry, we can't give out contact information..."
The elevator doors closed again, and Ding Huan didn't press the button to reopen them.
He took a deep breath.
No matter what, he had to find out where Qu Yi lived and how to contact her.
Since fate had given him a second chance, he would never let Qu Yi's life be destroyed by the gene alliance again.
With no room available at the hotel, Ding Huan walked over to a sofa in the corner of the lobby, set down his bag, and sat down.
Not having a place to stay didn't bother him much.
As long as the hotel lobby allowed him to stay, he could cultivate there for the night.
Ding Huan had planned to pay a small fee if the hotel staff tried to kick him out, but to his surprise, the front desk didn't seem to mind him resting in the corner of the lobby.
Perhaps this was a common occurrence.
(End of Chapter)