Ultragene Warlord

"Why, I simply defeated the superior kings of antiquity in combat," Zhang Lie told Hong Tianqi.

Hong Tianqi was so agitated he seemed ready to vomit blood. "Can't you be more specific?"

"They attacked me, so I got rid of them."

Hong Tianqi seemed to be at his wit's end. "How about the details of the fight?"

"I could tell you about it, but it'd be a long and meandering affair. Remember my fight against the death spirit king?"

"If I'm not mistaken, all the superior worlds banded together in an alliance, didn't they?"

"After that fight, a few superior worlds of antiquity banded together against the newly evolved superior worlds, and we retaliated. In the end, we defeated them all."

"Hold on, the superior worlds are segregated? And you formed a new faction?"

Hong Tianqi had a rough understanding of the power structure within the third realm, but he wasn't privy to the recent tumultuous changes that Zhang Lie had caused.

"Not in the past, but ever since the war against the death spirits."

"Did anything happen during that war?"

"Two large worlds evolved into superior worlds. You're aware of the draconian world—it evolved then. Do you understand now?"

"In other words, the humans were forced to participate in this conflict against the superior worlds of antiquity. How many newly evolved worlds are there?"

Zhang Lie clutched his head in annoyance. "How is it that you're unaware of this stuff as the highest authority of the united world federation?"

Hong Tianqi rolled his eyes. "I'd know if I could investigate it all—but you're the pioneer of the third realm at the moment! Far easier to just ask you."

Although the third realm had been open and accessible for decades, humanity had only ever played a minor role in its affairs. 

There had never been anyone who could go up against a superior king of antiquity, who had discovered disaster gene fragments, and who could kill kings of the realm of large worlds. As a result, humanity's understanding of the third realm stopped at the level of large worlds.

It was only after the appearance of disaster gene fragments that superior worlds had been unlocked to humanity, and no one had yet managed to ascend to the peak of the third realm as had Zhang Lie.

It wasn't an exaggeration to claim that Zhang Lie's rebirth had completely revolutionized humanity's standing in the third realm.

Zhang Lie sighed. "The superior worlds of antiquity were the xuluo world, the world of blazing sun, the white world, the world of black fog, the unclean world, the world of primordial chaos, and the rather unusual king of keys, who represents a world in his own right. The only one left is the world of primordial chaos."

Hong Tianqi asked, "Hold on, can I take a voice recording?"

"For what?"

"As source material, of course!" Hong Tianqi replied. "The Milky Way doesn't have any information recorded about these superior worlds.

All we knew about them was their names and that they were very strong, but we were never able to understand just how strong. Only when you ascended to the third realm did we begin to learn more."

"You must be exaggerating."

Hong Tianqi shook his head. "Not at all. Zhang Lie, you're a pioneer—and every word you say from now on will be valuable research material! It'll be information passed down to incoming third-realm hunters."

"It really isn't that important."

"No," Hong Tianqi disagreed. "It's far more important than you can imagine. This information could be life-saving, and your name will be preserved now and hereinafter."

Zhang Lie grinned. "You mean to say that incoming hunters will doodle over drawings of me, coloring my face in all shades of odd colors, giving me a mustache and wacky eyebrows, and so on?"

Hong Tianqi blinked. "Sorry, give me a moment. I suddenly thought of something important I had to do."

"As you will."

Zhang Lie and Hong Tianqi were close enough that Zhang Lie didn't much mind this interruption.

Hong Tianqi sent out another call. When it connected, he said, "You were planning to include my image in instructional material to be distributed throughout the Milky Way, weren't you?"

A voice came from the other end of the transceiver. "Yes, authority! Is anything the issue?"

A quick look at "pawread dot com" will leave you more fulfilled.

"Please exclude my image—just leave my name."

The voice was exceedingly respectful. "Authority, if you have any special requests, please let us know. We'll do our best to fulfill them."

Hong Tianqi demurred. "After careful consideration, I now believe that my contributions aren't significant enough to be deserving of an image. It would be too prideful of me."

"You're far too modest, authority! The fact that you're the newest head of the united world federation is more than enough to be in the textbooks."

Hong Tianqi shook his head. "Do as I say, please! I don't want any future generations of hunters to doodle on my image—no, no, I simply don't want any future generations of hunters to criticize my inaction beyond having taken the post of the highest authority of the united world federation. I hope the reason that future generations of hunters are aware of me is because of my future actions, not because my image is in their textbooks."

The other voice was awed by Hong Tianqi's humility. "Authority, you are truly an inspiration. I'll record your words for the future generation!"

Hong Tianqi ended the call, then turned back to Zhang Lie. "Where were we? Ah, yes, the textbooks."

"Actually, you shouldn't have minded."

Hong Tianqi was unimpressed. "Do I look as though I care about such trifling matters? So what if others doodle on my portrait? It's something that every student does. I simply feel that I don't deserve to have a portrait included—despite the fact that I'm the new head of the united world federation, I've done little to justify it, far less than you, at any rate."

"What I mean is, your portrait has long since been part of textbooks on Earth. I even drew a mustache on you, with a muscled man standing right by your side. If I may say so myself, you were rather dashing."

Zhang Lie had enjoyed his childhood while his parents were still alive.

Hong Tianqi: ...

Upon hearing Zhang Lie's words, Hong Tianqi suddenly very much wanted to recall all hunter-related instructional material on Earth.

However, that wasn't realistic. After all, the damage was already done. He didn't much mind his portrait being doodled on in the abstract, but for Zhang Lie himself to have done so...

Hong Tianqi didn't want to pay Zhang Lie a visit only to find that Zhang Lie's children's textbooks likewise had him with a mustache and standing alongside a group of muscled men.