Chapter 27: The Gene Temple and the Origin of Taste

The dark matter vortex in the Gamma Ceti Nebula was like the throat of a giant beast, swallowing and spitting out Lin Feng's escape pod into a bronze-colored mist. Outside the porthole floated tens of thousands of mechanical whale carcasses. On their alloy bones grew taste bud-like crystals, and from their abdominal cavities came whale songs one after another—which were actually the chanting of recipes in 9,999 languages.

"Here lie the first-generation taste hunters." The orange cat's quantum tail swept across the console, activating the holographic star map. In the image, the Eye of the Abyss in ancient times was just a chaotic nebula, and a group of mechanical whales were transforming a certain farming civilization into a living seasoning jar. "The predecessor of the bullfinch was the breeder of these whale pods."

Suddenly, the escape pod seemed to hit a soft wall, making a dull crashing sound. With the impact, the surrounding mist scattered like a disturbed swarm of bees, revealing a breathtaking sight.

Lin Feng's eyes widened. The wonder in front of him almost took his breath away. At the core of the nebula, a huge bronze cauldron with a diameter of three thousand kilometers was floating quietly, like an isolated island in the universe. The surface of the cauldron had an ancient and mysterious patina, and it was entwined with chains made up of countless galaxies. These chains, like the veins of the universe, bound the cauldron tightly in the center of the nebula.

Even more astonishing was that twelve huge dark matter conduits extended from the two ears of the cauldron. These conduits were like black dragons, winding their way into the distance. At the ends of the conduits were connected stars that were convulsing violently. The corona of these stars was like a disturbed sea surface, constantly churning up violent energy waves, and in those waves, Lin Jianguo's distorted face loomed faintly.

"Father?" Lin Feng's voice sounded particularly feeble in the silent universe. The scar of his compound eye suddenly burned with pain, as if an invisible force was pulling his gaze. His eyes involuntarily penetrated the surface of the cauldron and saw the boiling Golden Sui Ling solution inside.

In that scalding solution, countless embryos were floating up and down like dumplings being boiled. The gene chains of each embryo flickered with the gray bullfinch code, as if the codes of the universe were flowing through these tiny lives. And in the very center, an embryo suddenly opened its eyes, and in its pupils was reflected the image of Lin Feng in his infancy—the moment when he was implanted with the Godslayer gene.

The orange cat bristled and leaped onto the console: "This isn't a cauldron. It's the Gene Temple! The origin of all Godslayers!"

In the gene library at the bottom of the temple, Lin Feng discovered the logs engraved on the event horizon of a black hole. The first-generation breeders recorded the bloody truth with gravitational wave inscriptions: They were originally culinary scientists of a certain high-dimensional civilization. In pursuit of the ultimate delicacy, they created the Eye of the Abyss. But when this entity began to turn against its creators, they transformed their own genes into Godslayers, which led to the recurrence of tragedies in countless universes through reincarnation.

"Look at this!" The orange cat used its tail to tap on a certain holographic image. In the image, Lin Jianguo in his youth was undergoing genetic modification in the temple. His spine was replaced with a miniature replica of a bronze cauldron. "Your father isn't an experimental subject but a descendant of the breeders!"

Suddenly, the library trembled violently. The gene books on the bookshelves turned into liquid memories and poured into Lin Feng's body. The vast amount of information allowed him to see the terrifying truth—the cloning experiments on Earth II, the trap of the Taste Ark, and even the resurrection of the Eye of the Abyss were all part of the "Deliciousness Cultivation Plan" planned by the breeders. Their consciousness had already been uploaded to the core of the temple, waiting to complete the ultimate dish with Lin Feng's despair.

"Welcome home, the final seasoning." The compound eyes on the dome of the temple opened, and Lin Jianguo's phantom rose from the Golden Sui Ling solution. His body was entwined with chain-like gene chains, and in his hand was a cooking knife condensed from the Godslayer's Tears. "Let's end this feast that has lasted for a million years."

The battle broke out on the gene spiral staircase. Lin Jianguo's cooking knife cut through time and space, and each strike made Lin Feng taste the flavor of death in different timelines: In one universe, he was transformed into living soy sauce, and in another dimension, he became the taste ganglion of the Eye of the Abyss. The orange cat's quantum body kept dissipating and recombining during the battle, losing part of its memory each time it was reborn.

"Your struggle itself is a seasoning process!" Lin Jianguo's chest split open, revealing a miniature black hole rotating inside. The swallowed clones emerged from the black hole, and their tears turned into a rain of Golden Sui Ling arrows.

Suddenly, Lin Feng grabbed the nearest clone and imprinted the recipe patterns on his palm onto her forehead. At the moment of genetic resonance, the memories of one hundred thousand clones awakened simultaneously. The bullfinch code in their pupils began to mutate, and they collectively chanted the Godslayer's battle song. The taste bud crystals on the walls of the temple burst one after another, and the wailing of the Eye of the Abyss shattered three galaxy chains.

"This is the despair you want!" Lin Feng tore off his mutated right arm. The severed limb turned into an entropy-reversing bomb in the void. When the emerald-green light of the explosion engulfed Lin Jianguo, his father's face suddenly regained a moment of clarity: "Xiao Feng... Destroy the gene... spiral..."

The gene spiral column at the core of the temple began to disintegrate, and countless embryos screamed and vaporized in the solution. Lin Feng hugged the last surviving clone and leaped into the escape pod. Behind him was the bronze cauldron that was collapsing into a black hole. The orange cat's quantum body had only half of its tail left, but it was still operating the navigation system: "Go to the Beta-92 star region! There is..."

Suddenly, the clone convulsed violently. The barcode on her forehead completely transformed into a bronze key. Her pupils projected a holographic star map, showing the coordinates of an unpolluted universe: "Brother... This is my birthplace..."

Three months later, Lin Feng built a simple laboratory on a barren planet. The clone's genes were undergoing wonderful mutations. The crops she planted had entropy-reversing properties, and even sand could be turned into pure water. The orange cat's new body was a calico stray cat, but its tail still retained a faint quantum fluorescence.

"This isn't the end." Lin Feng looked at the starry sky. The scar of his compound eye enabled him to see things invisible to ordinary people—the black hole in the Gamma Ceti Nebula was spitting out bronze fragments, and a baby with compound eyes was curled up in a dark matter cloud.

Suddenly, the alarm in the laboratory went off loudly. The new type of wheat cultivated by the clone began to mutate spontaneously, and miniature recipes appeared on the wheat ears. The orange cat jumped onto the laboratory bench, its pupils constricting into vertical lines: "They are... cooking themselves?"

The familiar whale song came from deep space. A fleet composed of the remains of twelve mechanical whales was approaching. On their alloy bones, the bullfinch logo was being covered by a brand-new totem—that was the Entropy-Reversing Eye drawn with the Godslayer's Tears.