A man made of rocks spawned out of the ground. He was the special geno core of the fourth sanctuary who would conduct the tests on geno cores.
"Hello, I am Rockman. You are currently ranked below one hundred million, would you like to conduct the test?"
"Yes!"
Bian answered without hesitation.
A third eye opened up and shot a beam of light into the Solum Mirror.
Then a large string of numbers appeared in the eye and rapidly began decreasing.
When the number went from the hundreds of million to tens of million, it meant Bian's geno core would be reinforced once.
As it decreased from millions to hundreds of thousands then tens of thousands and so on, he counted the number of times the geno core would get strengthened.
'It's just like I thought. The black crystal boosts any geno core created with its essence, and that geno core will become first when ranked.'
Soon the number reached the hundreds, then ten, nine, eight... three, two and finally one.
A light flashed over the geno core multiple times, making Bian feel slightly stronger after each flash.
The Solum Mirror was reinforced nine times. This meant Bian would definitely be stronger against those who didn't reinforce their geno cores.
The way to move up the leaderboards was either through the testing or through combat. Luckily for Bian, he didn't have to spend years if not decades fighting against millions of opponents.
He was directly pushed to number one.
"Would you like to display the name of the shelter?"
"No!"
Bian refused adamantly without hesitation. He wasn't like Han Sen who could live carefree, he had an actual target on his back and exposing himself would only lead to extra trouble.
His jumping the rankings must have caused quite a stir but Bian didn't care.
Just as he was about to exit, he received an invitation to battle from a fellow called Black Mountain God with the suffix "sacred", added to his name.
A moment later and he was flooded with several other invites to do battle. If he lost, his reinforcements would remain but he would lose the number one spot.
Meanwhile, if he declined, the reinforcements would be stripped from the Solum Mirror.
"Some people are just so eager for death!"
Bian said while shaking his head. He ran the dongxuan sutra and used its power to mask his appearance.
Because of the disparity between his fitness and the dongxuan sutra, any strong person could see through his disguise, but that wasn't an issue since these challenges were only for those with bronze geno cores.
"I accept the challenge," Bian said reluctantly to Rockman. Then a swirling portal leading to the arena opened up before him.
Once Bian stepped through the portal, he saw a desolate city around him and another creature stepping through on the other side.
The giant beast with wings spoke out as it saw him.
"I am Black Mountain God from Sacred Shelter! Who—" Black Mountain God could not decipher if Bian was a spirit or a creature because he shrouded himself using the Dongxuan Sutra.
Bian on the other hand didn't have time to waste here as Bao'er was waiting for him on the outside.
He sent the Solum Mirror to attack Black Mountain God, while he planned to finish the creature off himself.
Black Mountain God was a super creature, not a spirit. He could lose his life if he was not careful, so he sent his geno core, the Heart Wheel, to confront Bian's Solum Mirror.
The Heart Wheel released a light that froze and melted everything around it. The Solum Mirror also paused in its tracks when it entered the light.
It didn't freeze because of the light though. It was due to Bian stopping its movement.
Bronze Solum Mirror
[Retaliation: 4/100]
[Soul Capacity: 100/100]
A new counter called Retaliation opened up besides the Soul Capacity counter. The number was steadily rising as the Solum Mirror remained in the destroying light of the Heart Wheel.
Thinking of his past experiences with the Solum Mirror, Bian recalled how it had been damaged several times by physical attacks.
Then he realised he never tried to use it against an elemental attack when he was fighting Earl Starshine.
He was quite delighted to have figured out another use for the Solum Mirror.
[Retaliation: 29/100]
Black Mountain God could feel something was wrong. Although the Solum Mirror had frozen in the light of his Heart Wheel as it should, it was not getting any damage.
"Is it because the Mirror is a counter to light? Could my geno core be particularly helpless against it?"
He suddenly had thoughts of retreating. After all, he didn't want to lose his life or his geno core, and he seemed to be doing no damage to his opponent.
[Retaliation: 51/100]
Bian felt the subtle shift of the Heart Wheel. Black Mountain God was planning on running away, but could he let him?
"Let's see how strong this Retaliation is!"
With a simple thought from Bian, the Solum Mirror's reflective surface turned bright like the midday sun.
Then a rectangular-shaped beam, the size of the mirror and as bright as pure sunlight, shot out from the Solum Mirror.
The sound was akin to a laser from a destroyer ship and the speed was the same as light, giving Black Mountain God no time to evade the attack.
The beam pulverized the Heart Wheel and went on to destroy its master in a fraction of a second.
"Arghhh!"
A heart-wrenching scream rang out and the ordeal was over in a moment. The attack that took some minutes to charge up was all released in a single second.
Lying in a pool of boiling larva, Black Mountain God had barely survived the beam, but with his geno core destroyed and severe burns around his body, he wouldn't be recovering any time soon without treatment.
Before he could even think of retreating, Bian's Scornful Bane was already before him.
"Do you know who is backing me up?! Sacred Shelter will no—"
His last outrage was cut off along with his head.
[Super Creature Baby Black Mountain God killed. The Beast soul has not been acquired. Geno Core Heart Wheel destroyed. The Flesh is inedible but you may consume its life essence to gain 0 to 8 super geno points randomly.]
Bian's eyes opened wide as he stared at the Solum Mirror in disbelief, feeling betrayed.
[Maximum Soul Capacity Achieved. Advance the Solum Mirror?]
"Damn it! I forgot the Mirror absorbs souls regardless of whether I want it to or not!"
Bian felt very aggrieved. The mirror eradicated the geno core and took the beast soul, it was basically a kill steal from his own geno core.
The worst part? The Soul Counter was already full, so it took the soul for no reason.
He let out a tired sigh and began carving through the burnt creature to find its life essence.
Thankfully, the Black Mountain God was just a baby with a bronze geno core so he could kill it. Although baby super creatures are stronger than their parents, they also start off with a bronze geno core.
The geno core was directly tied to their strength and physique as well.
It's just that their bronze geno core may be compared to others' Gold and Gemstone geno cores.
"Maybe I should visit the Geno Core Storage more often. Could be an easy way to max out my super geno points as long as I don't meet a spirit."
Bian mused while thinking of how pissed the mother of Black Mountain God would be. Thankfully, no one knew the owner of the Solum Mirror.
After much difficulty cutting through the steel-like flesh, Bian dug out a black life essence that was in the outline of the baby Black Mountain God.
With the life essence in hand, he left the geno core storage.
Heart Wheel dissapered from the rankings, sending a message that the new person at number one was a heartless and cruel being.
Outside, everything was still okay. The Duke had yet to return to the castle.
Bian picked Bao'er up and reasoned how he could go about absorbing the life essence.
From what he remembered, Han Sen had used his Real Blood geno core to be able to absorb the life essence of super creatures.
How was Bian supposed to go about absorbing it?
"Han Sen had Real Blood, but I have the cauldron."
Bian summoned the bronze cauldron and dropped the life essence inside.
The cauldron released its translucent powers, circling around the life essence to turn it into a pill.
"Thankfully it works, but why is it so slow? I need to level up the bronze cauldron as soon as possible."
Bian could clearly see that the life essence remained in the same shape. He threw the matter to the back of his mind and unsummoned the bronze cauldron.
Then he summoned the reinforced Solum Mirror.
Bronze Solum Mirror
[Retaliation: 0/100]
[Soul Capacity: 100/100]
[Maximum Soul Capacity Achieved. Advance the Solum Mirror?]
"Advance!"
Bian confirmed and the mirror began vibrating.
Bian felt his body resonating with the mirror and his physique rapidly rising. The Solum Mirror was his super body's geno core after all, so his physique was closely related to it.
From the center of the mirror, a band of silver light emerged and circled around it. Then the band split into two with one moving up and one moving down.
Wherever the band passed changed from bronze to silver. It looked like a laser removing dirt from the surface of the mirror to reveal its true colour.
Finally, the bands reached the top and bottom of the Solum Mirror then closed in on themselves.
Bian felt great, his physique had taken a major boost and he had to restrain himself to avoid roaring to the skies.
He brought up the information of the Solum Mirror.
Silver Solum Mirror
[Retaliation: 0/300]
[Soul Capacity: 0/300]
[Advance / Transfer]
Both counters for Retaliation and Soul Capacity had increased from a hundred to three hundred.
A new function appeared under the Soul Capacity. It looked like the mirror could transfer the souls it had gathered instead of using them to advance itself.
The function was still grayed out, probably because the Solum Mirror had no souls in it at the moment.