Super Gene Ⅱ: Evolution

Lin Shen hurried back to Sky Pinnacle Star through the night, wanting to meet with Emperor Tianshu and clarify the Celestial Court's decision to send him on a diplomatic mission to the Diman Tribe.

But he couldn't even enter the gates of the Imperial Palace; only Tian Congyun met with him, delivering a message.

"The Celestial Court is the highest functional department of the Celestial Race, and decisions passed by more than half of its seats must be executed; no one is exempt."

Lin Shen pondered without speaking. Emperor Tianshu having Tian Congyun bring him such a message made the intent very clear—Lin Shen had no choice but to go to the Diman Tribe.

"Chief of the Heavenly Institute, you must understand the Emperor's difficulty. After all, it was the Emperor's own decision to entrust all tribal matters to the Celestial Court, and his word is as good as gold, never to be broken," Tian Congyun consoled Lin Shen with a few words, though they held no real significance.

After bidding farewell to Tian Congyun, Lin Shen walked back, gloomy and disheartened.

This time the Celestial Race was embarking on a mission to the Diman Tribe to retrieve the sacred relic of the Celestial Race, the Divine Statue of Celestials.

Legend has it that the Divine Statue of Celestials was the manifestation of the Life Base of the first Immortal of the Celestial Race. Although the statue itself no longer possessed any power and at most could be used as a material, it held an extraordinary significance for the Celestial Race, and was considered the tribe's treasure of guardianship.

In the past, every Heavenly Emperor of the Celestial Race would worship the Divine Statue of Celestials upon ascending to the throne, as this was deemed proper protocol.

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However, during a civil strife within the Celestial Race hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Divine Statue of Celestials was lost amid the chaos of war.

Just a few years ago, the Diman Tribe claimed to have discovered the lost Divine Statue of Celestials. At that time, the Celestial Race themselves even believed that the Diman Tribe's Divine Statue was fake, so they didn't make much of it.

It was only recent that the Diman Tribe invited several great tribal authentication masters, including one from the Celestial Race, to jointly authenticate the statue. The final assessment suggested that the Divine Statue they had was very likely the one missing from the Celestial Race.

Suddenly, the Celestial Race could no longer sit idle; they began negotiations with the Diman Tribe, hoping they would return the Divine Statue.

Unfortunately, given the relationship between the Diman Tribe and the Celestial Race, how could the statue be returned to them so easily?

After more than half a year of negotiations, the two sides still hadn't reached an agreement.

The Diman Tribe didn't outright refuse to return it; it's just that the conditions they proposed were impossible for the Celestial Race to accept.

Lin Shen's main mission this time to the Diman Tribe was to re-authenticate the true identity of the Divine Statue and to renegotiate with the Diman Tribe, in hopes of getting them to compromise and agree on a price acceptable to both sides.

Of course, although Lin Shen was nominally the head of the delegation, in reality, the delegation had a professional authentication team and professional negotiation experts, none of which required Lin Shen's presence.

Lin Shen, the nominal leader of the group, was, in fact, not very useful.

The reason the Celestial Court sent Lin Shen to the Diman Tribe was likely because they knew of his feud with Catherine of the Diman Tribe, perhaps to have him suffer there. Moreover, if the negotiations fell through, him being the leader would inevitably bear the brunt of the blame. Should anyone in the delegation cause further trouble, Lin Shen would have an even more difficult time.

In any case, this trip to the Diman Tribe meant no good fortune for him and assuredly a share in carrying the blame. If Catherine plotted against him in secret, he might not even make it back alive.

Although the envoy team had Immortal guards, Lin Shen seriously doubted whether those guards would care about his safety.

You can't harbor thoughts of harming others but must always guard against others, Lin Shen even suspected those Immortal guards might have been sent by An Yi to target him.

Even if he managed to come back alive from the Diman Tribe, the guards might kill him on their way back and just blame it on the Diman Tribe.

But then again, An Yi probably wasn't that despicable, to really want him dead, there was no need for such trouble, he could simply bust through the doors of the Celestial Master Institute and capture and kill him.

That being said, he still had to be cautious. Fortunately, he had already achieved Nirvana, and when facing ordinary Immortals, he wasn't entirely without the power to fight back.

"I wonder what Fei Zai's (Fatty) strength is like now after Nirvana?" Lin Shen glanced at Fatty in his backpack, still sound asleep and snoring.

Ever since his Nirvana on Ultra-Burning Star, Fatty had returned to his old routine of eat-sleep-eat, and looked just like an overweight pigeon, no different from before. It was unclear how strong he really had become.

The new backpack was still Heaven Brand, but from the highest-end series of Heaven Brand. It was woven from Immortal materials, impervious to water and fire, resistant to knives and swords, and was highly breathable while still preventing liquids from penetrating. Wearing it could also fend off some damage.

A good product, and with a matching price tag. To buy this backpack, Lin Shen had sold off a bunch of Spirit Bases.

These Spirit Bases were all obtained from the Ultra-Burning Corps; Lin Shen felt no heartache using them.

While walking, he suddenly noticed a familiar figure at the base of the wall ahead—a Shaggy Old Celestial, huddled up against the wall, still wearing that tattered padded jacket, arms tucked inside the sleeves, sitting on a small stool, with a chessboard set in front of him.

"Little brother, long time no see, wanna play a game?" The Shaggy Old Celestial also spotted Lin Shen, greeting him with a beaming smile.

"Boss, why aren't you setting up your stall at the market and instead are here?" Lin Shen walked over to the Shaggy Old Celestial, looked down at the chessboard, and said, "I know a bit of Chinese chess, but Go, I really can't play at all."

"What I'm playing here isn't Go, it's Five-in-a-Row," the Shaggy Old Celestial said with a smile still on his face. "See those prizes over there? All good stuff. If you win a game, you can enter a drawing. You might win any one of those prizes, and if you can win ten times in a row, you don't even need to draw—you can pick anything you want from up there."

Lin Shen followed the Shaggy Old Celestial's pointed finger and saw a dilapidated wooden shelf against the wall next to him, holding several items, and at the bottom, there was a simple lottery box.

Lin Shen took a closer look and realized that under those prizes there were also names and brief descriptions of the items.

"Nirvana Level Pet Capsule... Celestial Five Declines Technique... A dagger once used by the Heavenly Emperor... Five Thunder Bombs Sky Fist Manual..." Lin Shen read through and almost laughed out loud.

The descriptions of those items were wildly exaggerated, including even a Battle Suit that the Heavenly Emperor wore in his youth.

"How much for a round?" Lin Shen didn't believe these items were genuine at all. If they were real, any one of them alone would be worth a fortune. Could the Shaggy Old Celestial really be using them just to set up a stall?

The Shaggy Old Celestial pointed to a sign next to him, which stated ten bucks a round, win and you get to draw a prize, lose and no refunds.

"Alright, I'll play a round then." Lin Shen had gotten a Mutated Jade Exquisite from the Shaggy Old Celestial and been given quite a bit of help. Spending a little money to make the Shaggy Old Celestial happy didn't bother him, and he had no illusion of actually winning anything from him.

Lin Shen would never believe he could win those treasures for just ten bucks.