Chapter 00024: All Paths Lead to One
# All Paths Lead to One
Chapter 24
Novel: After the Myth
Chapter 24: All Paths Lead to One
Who had poisoned him?
He had only returned to this world for a few dozen days, and during this time, he had been extremely cautious.
It was unlikely that someone could have poisoned him without him noticing.
The only possibility was that his family's nanny, Ji Chunfu, was behind it.
That woman, along with his daughter Fu Mei, were no good.
He still had a property deed in his possession.
The house was his, but after he left the Baiyu Group, the nanny Ji Chunfu had sold it.
Without Ding Jie's approval, how could Ji Chunfu have sold his house? It seemed this woman had been working for Ding Jie all along, keeping an eye on him.
In his previous life, he had been too naive.
No wonder, despite spending his entire life's energy and almost all his income on improving his cultivation, his progress had been stagnant.
After two hundred years, he was still only a fourth-level gene cultivator.
During that time, he had also used anti-toxin genes, but it seemed they hadn't detoxified him or even detected the poison.
The poison must have lingered in his body for too long, gradually becoming a part of him.
Back then, he had always attributed his lack of progress to his poor innate talent, thinking that no amount of resources could help him improve.
Later, when he could no longer afford gene potions, he had to study gene knowledge on his own and make his own gene potions.
If there had been any other way, who would have wanted to waste so much time in a lab?
Now he understood.
It wasn't his talent that was lacking—he had been poisoned with an unknown slow-acting toxin.
Ji Chunfu couldn't have obtained such a poison on her own; it must have been given to her by Ding Jie.
Recently, he had been focused on improving his strength and avoiding others' schemes, so he hadn't had time to think about this woman.
He hadn't expected her to be so deeply involved.
Once he had some free time, he would deal with these two women.
They had lived off him, taken his father's salary, and yet betrayed him from within.
After removing the poison from his body, Ding Huan cultivated all night.
By morning, he felt refreshed and full of energy.
Previously, when he practiced the Luo Shi Scripture, there had always been an indescribable feeling—like everything was going smoothly, but then suddenly hitting a snag.
Although entering a meditative state was easy, it felt as though he couldn't fully immerse himself in the cycle of cultivation.
But now, with the poison gone, he felt a noticeable difference.
It might have been an illusion, but last night's cultivation session felt more effective than an entire week of previous practice.
The path of gene cultivation seemed promising.
Ding Huan clenched his fist.
From now on, he would build up his abilities step by step.
When the time came to leave Earth again, he would be the one calling the shots.
Next, he planned to extract the injury-recovery gene from the six-horned fire lizard.
With his experience extracting genes from the golden-faced thick-tailed ape, Ding Huan felt more confident this time.
In just one day, he successfully extracted a recovery gene that could merge with his own body.
However, Ding Huan didn't plan to use this gene potion.
First, he had developed a method to create gene abilities tailored to his own body, using alien skill genes as a template.
This wasn't just about making gene potions and merging them into his gene chain.
Second, he still wanted to search for the two-horned fire lizard.
If he found it, he could use the same method he used to create the anti-toxin gene to turn the injury-recovery gene into one of his own abilities.
Ding Huan sighed.
If he were still in the Changyi Continent, he would have immediately merged with this gene.
In his previous life, he had been like a headless fly, frantically trying to improve his strength.
He would merge with any gene he encountered and practice any powerful martial arts technique he came across.
There was no plan, no mentor.
He never stopped moving, but in the end, not only did he fail to solve the poisoning issue, he didn't even know it existed.
His cultivation was a mess, and by the time he was over two hundred years old, he was still only a fourth-level gene cultivator with no room for further progress.
Now he understood.
Even if he merged with more alien genes, he would never break through to the fifth level.
He had spent his entire life desperately trying to improve, never having a single day of peace, and in the end, he was hunted down and killed.
Fate had given him a second chance, and this time, he had developed his own unique method of gene fusion, turning alien gene skills into his own abilities.
This was the right way to cultivate.
After merging the anti-toxin gene into his body, Ding Huan couldn't even feel that he had merged with a new gene.
This was no longer the anti-toxin gene extracted from the golden-faced thick-tailed ape—it had become his own innate anti-toxin ability.
As his cultivation improved through the Luo Shi Scripture, this anti-toxin ability would also grow stronger.
This was completely different from simply merging with alien genes.
Merging genes only gave you a similar gene skill, and the level of that skill would remain the same as when you first merged with it.
In other words, even if your strength grew immensely, the gene skill might still be stuck at the level it was when you first acquired it.
Imagine a gene foundation-level expert whose anti-toxin ability was still at the level of a first-level gene beast—that would definitely hold back their cultivation.
This innovation and progress filled Ding Huan with excitement and opened up new possibilities in his mind.
If he weren't a gene cultivator but had started as a spiritual root cultivator, could he now use this gene to open up new meridians? Or rather, spiritual channels.
According to the knowledge he had gained from the ancient scrolls, in the era of spiritual roots and spiritual energy, cultivators practiced by circulating their energy through spiritual channels.
Whether it was spiritual channels or meridians, if he could use the anti-toxin gene to open up a new one, wouldn't that give him an innate ability? If that were possible, it would mean that all paths ultimately led to the same destination.
He guessed this was correct.
Spiritual roots were also a type of gene, just achieved through different methods and processes.
As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome.
In the future, if he met a cultivator who practiced purely through spiritual roots, he could try to convince them to give this method a try.
...
When Ding Huan went to say goodbye to Geng Qianxing, Geng and three students were practicing basic long fist in the school's martial arts hall.
Hearing that Ding Huan was heading to Puhai first, Fang Chong and the others wanted to follow him.
However, Geng Qianxing quickly dismissed their idea.
Even if Ding Huan agreed, the students' parents wouldn't allow it.
The reason they were staying at Yujiang University for training was that Fang Chong, Li Wanran, and Lü Zi were already students there.
If they went elsewhere, they still wouldn't pass the exams.
There was no way their parents would let them go to Puhai for no reason.
Ding Huan and Geng Qianxing agreed to meet in Puhai in two months, and Ding Huan left Yujiang University ahead of schedule.
Perhaps knowing they couldn't touch Ding Huan before the Blue Star Ten Great Academies' assessment was over, the Xi Dao Society didn't bother him as he left the university in broad daylight.
In their eyes, Ding Huan only had two months left to act up.
After leaving Yujiang University, Ding Huan didn't immediately buy a ticket to Puhai.
Instead, he went to Youyuan Real Estate.
In his previous life, after his eyes had healed, the Gene Alliance had decided to send him on a spaceship to test new gene potions in space.
Since he was tolerant to almost all genes, he was considered the best candidate for gene experiments on Earth.
Because of this, Ding Huan had some freedom during his final days on Earth.
Although he was still under surveillance, at least he wasn't constantly being experimented on like when he had first been brought to the Gene Alliance.
It was during that time that Ding Huan learned his house had been sold by the nanny.
He also realized that the nanny his father had hired had long been bribed by Ding Jie and had been keeping an eye on him all along.
Now, he had to add another crime to her list—she had been poisoning him all this time.
The house had been his own purchase.
Not wanting to live by the seaside plains and wanting to be closer to Luohe Shangwu University, he had bought a house in Shanghe Huayuan.
Based on the timeline, the nanny must have sold his house around this time.
Ding Huan hoped it wasn't too late.
If the house had already been sold, he would have to bide his time for now.
"I want to sell my house," Ding Huan said as soon as he arrived at Youyuan Real Estate, handing over the property deed without any small talk.
"Which property?" the staff member asked as they took the deed.
Before Ding Huan could answer, they exclaimed, "Shanghe Huayuan?"
"Shanghe Huayuan?" A manager sitting in the back stood up and walked over.
Properties in Shanghe Huayuan were highly sought after.
The location was unbeatable, the greenery was top-notch, and the spacing between buildings was generous.
Plus, it was right next to Luohe Shangwu University, one of the top-ranked universities in the country, so prices had been steadily rising.
"Manager Xing, it's indeed a property in Shanghe Huayuan, Building Five," the staff member said, handing the deed to the manager.
Building Five was the crown jewel of Shanghe Huayuan, with windows overlooking the Shangfang River.
The manager glanced at the deed and then smiled warmly at Ding Huan.
"We can sell the property, but it will take three days. Here—"
Ding Huan cut him off.
"I need to sell it this afternoon and get the money. I'll take six million, but if it's not sold today, I'll go elsewhere."
Six million? The manager's smile faded as he scrutinized Ding Huan.
Even at a low price, Ding Huan's property wouldn't sell for less than 7.6 million.
A more reasonable price would be around 8 million.
Asking for only six million was suspicious.
But in the real estate business, they had seen all kinds of people.
After staring at Ding Huan for a while, the manager suddenly seemed to remember something and blurted out, "You're the young master of Baiyu Group, Ding Huan?"
Ding Huan replied indifferently, "Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is whether you can sell my house today."
The manager's face lit up with a bright smile as he extended his hand.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Xing Hai, the head of Youyuan Real Estate's Heluo branch. You've come to the right place. In all of Heluo, only Youyuan Real Estate can sell your house this afternoon and get you the money today."
Ding Huan knew Youyuan Real Estate had significant influence and could handle both legal and illegal matters.
That was precisely why he had come here.
"Young Master Ding, times have changed. While we can do it, getting the money today might be a bit difficult..."
Xing Hai said with a forced smile.
He knew Ding Huan was no longer the powerful figure he once was.
Calling him "Young Master Ding" was just a formality.
In reality, Xing Hai was certain that even if he took advantage of Ding Huan today, there was nothing Ding Huan could do about it.
Ding Huan's presence here meant Xing Hai was about to make a fortune.
(End of Chapter)