Super Gene Ⅱ: Evolution

The Celestial Race's current Heavenly Emperor, "Sky Art," ascended to the throne over a thousand years ago, but in all those years, the time that the Heavenly Emperor actually spent at the Celestial Court didn't even amount to the surplus of those thousand years.

Before Emperor Sky Art, the Celestial Court functioned as the venue for discussions among the many ministers and the Heavenly Emperor of the Celestial Race, without the presence of a so-called Dean.

However, because Emperor Sky Art has been hands-off since his ascension, delegating his power to the most powerful Celestial at the time, An1, who is now the Dean of the Celestial Court.

The position of Dean of the Celestial Court was also created by Emperor Sky Art for An1.

One might say that within the Celestial Race today, it is An1 who truly acts as the administrator.

The An, Tian, and Chi Families, with the An Family being the most powerful due to Emperor Sky Art's origins from the Tian Family, hold a respectable position within the Celestial Race.

The Chi Family, on the other hand, has been the most tragic; generations of the Chi Family have birthed geniuses and great warriors, many of whom are powerful leaders in their own rights, but it's the Chi Family who has suffered the most losses, with their members forming the bulk of the casualties in every war against Other Races.

Not only does Emperor Sky Art neglect the affairs of the Celestial Race, but he's also extremely capricious, which can even be described as endlessly inventive.

For Emperor Sky Art, indulgence in food and pleasure could only be considered child's play, not worthy of attention.

Choosing consorts from among millions of races, whimsically constructing palaces on planets for use as a traveling residence, and wiping out people or tribes in a fit of anger—these were all basic operations for Emperor Sky Art, hardly worth mentioning.

The absurd actions undertaken by Emperor Sky Art are beyond what most people could even imagine.

In private, Tian Xun told Lin Shen and the others about an incident: in the 438th year of the Sky Art Era, Emperor Tianshu, who hadn't visited the Celestial Court in many years, suddenly appeared there. And with great fury, he launched a war against the Di Man Tribe.

The actual reason for initiating the war had become irrelevant; that conflict resulted in the deaths of over a thousand Nirvana Beings, with countless Ascenders and Base Variant Creatures perishing as well.

Several planets were destroyed in that war, including one that nurtured life.

The war ended as mysteriously as it began. Just when victory seemed within reach after incurring such a tremendous cost, Emperor Sky Art abruptly recalled the supreme commander of the Celestial Race's military forces, bringing an end to the conflict.

It was later understood that the reason Emperor Sky Art had launched the war was merely because he felt annoyed upon noticing that while observing the star charts, the stars in one area, when connected, resembled a pig. However, there were a few stars that seemed superfluous, which triggered his obsessive compulsion to destroy those irritating planets.

Such a capricious ruler is indeed a rarity in the history of the Celestial Race.

Tian Xun shared these stories with Lin Shen and the others to advise them to be extremely cautious and measured in their words and actions when meeting the Heavenly Emperor, to never contradict his will, or upset him.

That lord wouldn't care whether you were a meritorious servant; if he disliked you, he might have you executed on the spot, without even a second's hesitation.

"If the Heavenly Emperor has long abstained from dealing with affairs, why has he summoned us?" Lin Shen asked with furrowed brows.

Meeting such a brutal and unpredictable emperor was definitely not a good sign.

"I don't know," Tian Xun looked at Tian Xin and said, "Be careful, go home and find out exactly why the Heavenly Emperor has summoned them, and whether someone has spoken to him about them."

"You two really know how to cause trouble, and in the end, it's me who has to clean up after you," Tian Xin said in a smug tone as he left the hotel where they were staying, heading home to gather information.

Although Tian Xun was technically a family member of the same household, the fact that he hadn't stayed with his family after arriving at Sky Pinnacle Star showed that his relationship with them could probably no longer be described as merely poor.

```

"You guys rest up for now, and later I'll have someone take you to the busiest area on Sky Pinnacle Star for a stroll," Tian Xun obviously wasn't in the mood to chat with Lin Shen and the others. She needed to figure out exactly what was going on at Sky Pinnacle Star.

Without even eating, Tian Xun left the hotel and disappeared to who knows where.

Since it was a rare opportunity to visit Sky Pinnacle Star, Lin Shen and Wei decided to go out for a walk.

Sky Pinnacle Star was nothing like what Lin Shen had imagined. There were modern amenities, but not like Meidu Star, which was filled with skyscrapers everywhere.

On the contrary, there were hardly any particularly tall buildings on Sky Pinnacle Star. Instead, there were lots of small two- or three-story buildings, along with various courtyards and gardens. Some people even had vegetable gardens in their yards.

There were very few flying vehicles in the sky, almost too difficult to spot.

On the streets, there wasn't any modern transportation like automated tracks, but quite a few Celestials could be seen riding their pets.

Walking through the city on Sky Pinnacle Star felt almost like a return to simplicity.

Perhaps because there were fewer residents in the city, there weren't many shops. Instead, there were some streets with lots of people setting up street stalls, which looked rather interesting.

Lin Shen and Wei Wufu walked through the streets, looking at the diverse alien stall owners and all sorts of things they had never seen or heard of before.

"Tenth Turn Spirit Base... Nirvana Egg..." Lin Shen and Wei Wufu hadn't browsed for long before their expressions grew more and more complicated.

These unremarkable stalls had many high-value items, casually thrown on the ground as if they were worthless junk, which made them doubt whether these things were real or fake.

"Huh, they even have stalls for playing this?" Lin Shen stopped in front of a small stall, looking surprised at the items on it.

The stall was just a chessboard, set up with an endgame position.

Lin Shen recognized the situation instantly because when he was a child playing in the market, he often got swindled out of his money by a blind man who set up endgames.

Back then, he just found it novel and didn't know how to play. After learning the rules, he lost regardless of how he played.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Lin Shen was young at the time and wouldn't accept defeat easily. He went home and studied Chinese chess for a long time, coming back full of confidence to solve the blind man's endgames.

As you can imagine, the blind man made enough money during that time to live comfortably for several years.

Because of this, Lin Shen even went to learn chess from his Third Brother, but after a while, he realized that it wasn't his calling.

He was only interested in endgames; when it came to playing an actual game, he lost interest.

In any case, his skills were a mess and smelled to high heaven, so he quickly lost interest.

Later, he managed to befriend the blind man on the street and got the chess manuals for setting up endgames, after which he put in some hard work.

Lin Shen, who normally couldn't be bothered to remember names, had those endgame manuals committed to memory.

Unfortunately, that was all he could play. If he were to actually play a game of chess, any old man who knew how to play could beat him senseless. He was truly a peculiar flower in the world of chess.

```