The Highest Bounty - Chapter 167

Chapter 167: Gu Ding’s Underrated Crew

During their stay on Tampa, Gu Ding and his crew enjoyed a few days of undisturbed peace. This kind of situation had been very rare since leaving Cerule.

However, in Caesar’s words, there were remnants of the deities’ will on this planet. It could suppress and weaken negative emotions such as anger and sadness so the average man would not feel the impulse to attack. For example, when Elsa challenged others earlier, she was just looking to have fun, they were not really fighting.

Lilliath had awakened, and Gu Ding had achieved his greatest goal in Tampa. There was also the unexpected addition of Elsa. Lilliath had evolved to Rank-6 Gene Body, and Gu Ding had also evolved to Rank-5 Gene Body.

The two promotions in Gu Ding’s gene-level had also allowed Neptune to once again increase his detection range, this time from a radius of one kilometer to a hundred kilometers. At the same time, a new ability–gene pool ability (rudimentary restrictions) had been unlocked.

This ability allowed Neptune to reconstruct the entire gene structure from the body fluids of an organism and, given enough material, replicate it. It could also copy the corresponding gene directly and insert some of the gene segments that carried specific abilities into other people’s bodies so that they could acquire the ability. At the moment, of course, it was restricted to a rudimentary level–he could only analyze and replicate organisms with double-spiral gene structures.

It was a very good start, so to speak, as they had just entered Border River.

Gu Ding and his crew did not leave immediately after Lilliath woke up. Caesar was a little reluctant to part with his granddaughter, and Lilliath had a lot to talk about with her grandfather.

Taking advantage of this free time, Gu Ding did not sit around–he took the initiative to approach Neptune. “Neptune, Can I cultivate my primary powers now? You said you’d teach me as soon as my Cell Index reaches one thousand points and now, I’m at three thousand points.”

“I’ve planned everything out for you.” Neptune was not anxious at all. “Based on your character and fighting style, I chose an ancient primary power cultivation skill for you called Sun Sutra. This skill absorbs the stars’ light energy and converts it into your own primary power. This skill is extremely domineering. I had prepared another set of skills for you. If you had not awakened the Advanced Iron Block ability, I would have never dared let you cultivate Sun Sutra.”

“Sounds great.” Gu Ding also knew that Neptune’s selection of skills would not be bad, as can be seen in Ultimate Arts.

“When you cultivate the Sun Sutra to its max potential, it will allow you to cast terrifying Natural Stream abilities such as Star Fire. Everyone knows that the flame-based abilities of Natural Stream are very destructive. And Star Fire ranks first in terms of the destructive power, and it’s also among the top three in terms of comprehensiveness.” Neptune’s explanation lit up Gu Ding’s eyes.

As soon as Neptune had the skill set imprinted in his mind, Gu Ding read it. After a brief review, he was surprised by the domineering power of the skill where it could utilize the energy from light energy to strengthen cells while also converting it into true primary power. This meant that it could make Gu Ding’s Ultimate Arts even more powerful. It was a perfect match for Gu Ding.

“Generally speaking, there are two major stages in cultivating primary power, they’re known as coagulation and solidification.”

“The first stage, coagulation, is the simplest, in which external energy is brought into the body and converted into primary power. It is then distributed to various parts of the body as needed to attack and defend. Some people with strong primary power even have the ability to spread it across their body and harness it for a long time, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“The second stage is called solidification. People who reach this stage can solidify the primary power and use it for combat. You’ve seen that when Sharp doesn’t have a saber in his hand, he’ll just solidify his primary power and fight.”

“Actually, there’s a third stage called change but let’s not talk about it now. It seems that no one in your era has cultivated primary power to that level.”

Neptune roughly explained the cultivation stages of primary power. Although there were only two stages in general, the two stages could also be broken down into some smaller stages by referring to the different levels of application of primary power. However, Neptune did not continue to subdivide it.

“The first stage of your cultivation is very simple, which is to absorb light energy into your body and convert it into primary power. Then, try to concentrate the primary power into your hands.”

Gu Ding immediately walked to a sunny spot outside the wooden hut and according to the instructions of the Sun Suntra, he slowly began to convert the light energy shining on him into his primary power.

A warm feeling soon spread across his body, as if every cell in his body was rapidly absorbing the light energy, and Gu Ding even vaguely felt as if his Cell Index had improved. His cell composite index was rising, but only a little–it rose by one point in a few minutes.

As the light energy entered his body, Gu Ding began to control the energy to circulate through his body, and the process went on so smoothly that the first cycle was completed in under twenty minutes. As Gu Ding pushed more energy into the cycle, one by one it began to move.

It took more than three hours to stabilize the first cycle in Gu Ding’s body and it occurred before dark.

This progress left Neptune a little speechless. Supposedly, everyone else would have to fail dozens or even hundreds of times to really constitute a cycle but Gu Ding finished it in one afternoon.

After forming the cycle, Gu Ding tried to control the energy in his hands. The first few attempts did not go well, and the energy dissipated quickly. However, soon he got the hang of moving the energy around his hands, and the primary power dissipated much more slowly.

They stayed at Tampa for another night because of Gu Ding and Lilliath. Gu Ding spent the night practicing to control primary power. Early the next morning, they returned to the port.

Back on the ship, the Golden Eagle quickly took off from the port and headed deeper into Border River.

Talking to the crew, Lilliath realized how much she had missed during her time in the coma and was shocked to see how much her bounty had risen.

Two million Universe Credits, which translates into two billion Dragon Soar Cosmic Nation’s Star Credits. It was nearly twenty times the amount of her previous bounty.

Lilliath’s jaw dropped when she saw Gu Ding and Biggie’s bounty. “That’s over one hundred million Universe Credits. I expect we’ll soon be noticed by some Rank-10 and Rank-11 Gene Body powerhouses. In the Border River, we are small fishes swimming from a tiny stream into a lake, and we are easy prey for the big fishes.”

“Lili’s right, the rules in Border River are pretty messed up, especially after that guy Kohld Blood caused trouble the other day. There are a lot of pirate crews following his lead. We not only find those with bounties challenging others with higher bounties, but there are powerful pirate crews that are copying Kohld Blood by poaching talents from other crew.” Neptune felt that things were not in their favor. “In Border River, the most important thing to be mindful of is not the Army’s pursuit, but the threat of other Interstellar Pirate crews.”

Gu Ding had heard Neptune mention that Kohld had done something in the Border River earlier, but he did not know exactly what it was. Now that Neptune mentioned it, he could not help but ask, “What did Kohld do?”

“He challenged thirteen pirate crews that were offered over a hundred million Universe Credits in bounties and destroyed eleven of them with a sweeping gesture. He even snatched two men with unique abilities from two other pirate crews. One of them is incredibly adept at computers while the other one is the best surgeon in Border River. Poaching members from other pirate crews has happened before, but this was the first time he has poached so openly. As a result of this, many of the best crews in Border River have this idea in their head. That’s why this is perhaps the most disorderly and dangerous time to be in Border River.”

“There are even some meddlesome guys who have done research on new crews and compiled a list of the top ten crews to attack. Our crew is in the top ten.” Neptune said and ejected a picture.

It listed the names of ten crews and specified the main reason for the attack.

Gu Ding looked from the top to the bottom. The crew at the top was not very strong–their combined bounty was only 1.1 million Universe Credits. Gu Ding looked curiously at the reason for the attack:

This is a very weak crew. The most powerful one in the crew being a Rank-8 Gene Body. There is a newcomer with Holy Light ability in the crew, which is bound to be the object of competition from various forces.

When Gu Ding saw the word “Holy Light”, he understood why this crew was ranked first. This was because Holy Light is an ability that removes most types of Curse Stream abilities–more than 90% of Curse Stream abilities could be negated by Holy Light ability. Understandably, many powerhouse crews would do their best to have this in their arsenal to eliminate any threat from strong Curse Stream opponents.

Gu Ding’s crew was ranked second in the list, the reason for the attack below read:

Newcomer crew from a 2-star Cosmic Nation, debuted less than half a year, their captain, Gu Ding has mediocre combat effectiveness. There is only one Rank-10 Gene Body swordsman in the crew–Biggie. The whole crew has a combined bounty of more than 130 million Universe Credits–it is unbelievably high and is bound to attract the attention of many. As for the member Biggie, he is the object of competition of great forces with a lack of strong melee powerhouses. The crew’s spaceship is a valuable Golden Eagle. This is also the reason some may choose to attack.

“Looks like we’re seen as a lousy crew…” Gu Ding was speechless.

“It’s normal, most of the materials on Great Divinity are locked away by the Federal Government. The others can only see your combat videos and the most interesting one is your fight with Senior. Senior is only a Rank-7 Gene Body. In Border River, a Rank-7 Gene Body is the least you can expect and there’s so many of them. It’s not surprising that they would say that about you.” Neptune knew exactly why these people would think of Gu Ding that way.

“If the black mech hadn’t been destroyed, I would be able to fight any Rank-10 Gene Bodies with a combat effectiveness of ten thousand points or lower.” Gu Ding said and looked at Robert. “Robert, help me build another one!”

“Based on the current situation, the basic combat effectiveness of the new mech will be the same as the last one. The increase in your combat effectiveness will be limited. To make a better mech, you have to find better materials. Since you’re going to look for materials anyway, you might as well look for materials to re-forge your Combat Armor, upgrading it to bronze-rank, which will prove more effective in improving your ability.”

“In three days, we’ll land on Kerma, another busy planet. You try looking around to see if you find enough materials.” Neptune chimed in.