I Spread my Genes to Level Up in the Apocalypse

Ray gradually drifted into a dazed state, his eyes wide as he stared at the gre that veloped him tirely.

His focus settled on the gre blob as it popped, revealing the real world to him once again.

"What was that?" Ray's breathing was ragged, his chest rising and falling in a strange rhythm.

He knew something was definitely there, something he couldn't perceive with any of his sses, not ev his Celestial ones.

Yet, Ray felt as though he could see it—an unknown substance seemed to sur him.

It felt somewhat fluid, but not exactly, and it was everywhere, spreading rapidly toward his body.

He was utterly helpless against it. It was unavoidable, and Ray couldn't summon any defce to counter it.

Ray's brows gradually furrowed into a deep scowl.

"I can't keep this up," he muttered, feeling the damage within him grow steadily, each fiber of his being quaking as it was gradually torn apart.

"Think. The principle of the sword is its sharpness, and the core principle of Lord of the Sky is control... so the core principle of Poison must be…"

He paused, his mind working like a supercomputer, analysing every detail a him.

His eyes flickered rapidly, a constant dance of focus as they moved in tandem with his thoughts.

At the same time, his mutation ergy began to undergo a radical transformation, taking on a strange new attribute. The ergy within him grew dser by the minute, its intsity swelling with every passing momt.

This continued for what seemed like an eternity, until Ray appeared froz in place.

His tire body stiffed, a creeping gre layer spreading across his skin, his eyes, and everything else—completely gulfing him.

Gradually, a thick stch of death began to seep from Ray's gre statue-like form. Blood trickled from his eyes, staining his withering skin, which had tak on a sickly gre hue. His body seemed to shrivel, resembling a brittle, gnarled branch from an ancit, dying tree.

The bleeding from his eyes persisted, stretching out what felt like an eternity.

Meanwhile, a small squirrel vtured into the gre domain. Its chubby body wobbled forward.

As soon as it crossed the threshold, the squirrel let out a piercing screech, its panic palpable as its eyes darted in every direction. It clawed desperately at its swoll belly, the pain driving it into a frzy.

In its desperation, the squirrel bolted straight ahead, its frantic cries growing louder and more shrill.

Thud!

Suddly, the squirrel collided with something, sding it tumbling backward. Its eyes spun in dizzy circles, bewildered by what had just happed.

With a wobble, it got back on its feet, its belly bouncing slightly as it stood. It patted its stomach with furious little paws, glaring indignantly after standing up.

The squirrel froze the momt it looked ahead, its eyes widing in terror before snapping shut, its tiny face paling in fear.

In front of it stood a gre statue—a grotesque sight with two eerie eyes that continuously bled, staining the air with the sct of decay.

The figure, despite its grotesque state, bore the shape of a strikingly handsome man with short black hair and a powerful, muscular body—built for battle.

Without a second thought, the squirrel spun a, its stubby legs moving as fast as they could. It wanted to escape this dreadful place, its wobbling belly bouncing with each frantic step.

But th, a strange gre glow emanated from the statue, expanding outward to cover the tire area.

The squirrel froze in shock, its pale face growing ev paler as it trembled in sheer panic. With desperation, it bolted at full speed, its belly and chubby legs shaking violtly as it tried to flee.

As the gre light gradually faded, it revealed the gre statue that has stood up in place.

"Finally." Ray stretched his body, a satisfied smile crossing his face. "The core principle of poison is to "spread"—it can use any medium or no medium at all, attacking siltly, whether you're blocked or simply breathing in the air."

He paused, the smile fading into a more contemplative look. "But the law of Poison... it's far more complex. I've only managed to grasp half of it."

Ray shook his head, a bitter smile tugging at his lips. Comprehding the law wasn't as simple as he'd hoped.

He had be walking blindly through the process, relying on sheer instinct and gut feeling to advance. His understanding of the law was still incomplete, and deep down, he wished he could stay longer to explore it further.

But...

"My body can't take it anymore," he muttered, glancing down at himself. His body, though healed from the poison's initial onslaught, was on the verge of collapse.

He looked at his body, which had turned into a gre statue, so transluct that one could almost see inside him as if he were under an X-ray machine.

His body was on the verge of breaking and falling apart.

A Celestial being possesses a terrifying amount of vitality and resilice, unless they are completely separated from their body and unable to regerate ev the slightest bit.

This was the case for the Undead Immortal Snake. Ev after being split apart, it would have had a chance to survive, but that saber st a strange force through it, which persisted until it fully perished.

Ray stretched out his hand until his muscles reached their limit, extding his five fingers before retracting them into a fist.

Boom!

The air trembled as Ray slowly closed his eyes. The ergy within him grew more vibrant, and ev his mutation ergy began to work in tandem, pumping almost continuously through his body.

Gradually, the gre hue suring him started to fade, vanishing from head to toe.

In just a minute, Ray returned to his original form, his muscular build and human physique restored. However, a distinct gre flame-like mark appeared on his forehead.

"Not bad," Ray muttered to himself, satisfied. What he had done was successfully capture all the poison within his body and conctrate it into his forehead, capsulating everything within it.

It seemed simple, but without his deep understanding of poison, this feat would have be impossible to achieve.

Th Ray casually spoke: "Status."

A red panel flickered in front of him in his vision.

"So the things I comprehded cannot be registered in this system?"

Ray thought in his heart with a frown that if he was able to accomplish such a thing, th he would have be able to directly upgrade the skill, and maybe he could get the comprehsion of the full laws of poison, but it seems like it would not work like that.

"Forget it; I have already contained this poison; I cannot completely remove this poison. Maybe I could use this poison as my trump card." He thought with a contemplative expression.

His eyes darted a the place and immediately squinted wh he saw a faint shadow, an afterimage.

"What's that?"

Ray moved in a blink of an eye, like teleportation appeared in front of this little mouse thingy.

"Ouch."

The squirrel wobbled as it fell down in the g, frantically patting its belly with its furious eyes, staring at Ray while raising its chubby hands.

"Did this squirrel just speak?"

Ray's eyes immediately flashed with amusemt, and the squirrel shut up almost simultaneously.

"So you can ev understand me, you squirrel?"

He casually caught the squirrel's big tail and hung it in the air.

"Kya, pervert…" The squirrel hurriedly shut its mouth again with its chubby short arms.

"How interesting." Ray's lips curled as he looked at this squirrel deeply, his two eyes red and gold flashing for a long time.

As he was looking at the squirrel, the gre domain slowly disappeared in the backg as Ray's eyes were focused on the squirrel. He already knew that this Domain was slowly withering away!

There was a certain time limit till this poison law domain could be maintained, and with Ray constantly ssing and using up the elemts of this domain, it was constantly draining away as well.

If not for this, it could be maintained for a long time.

The squirrel seemed to gulp, as it avoided eye contact with Ray while mumbling to herself.

"Does this bastard know my true idtity?" Her heart was beating; she actually wanted to look at the condition of Ray after he killed that half-celestial being.

It would have be better for her if Ray also died, th she could finally restart it all over again.

But seeing the completely fine Ray with an ev more powerful presce, she couldn't help but curse for a long time, especially seeing the big face of Ray right in front of her eyes.

"He is ugly, Pitui!"

Ray stood staring at the squirrel for a long time before a smile graced his lips: "Want to become my pet?"

The squirrel vehemtly shook her head as if on instinct.

"What?" Ray pulled his ears as, "The internet doesn't seem to be working... Oh, so you want to be my pet, the dearest pet, huh?"

He pulled the little squirrel tail and smiled sillily.

"Come, I will make you the best squirrel there is."

Ray's face was full of smiles, as if he were a little toddler getting his pet for the first time, but for this chubby turtle, his smile felt like a devil's smile, which made it feel like a shiver down his spine.

Just like that, the human smiled while the squirrel trembled and Ray gained another pet.

He casually tugged the squirrel into his pocket and flew in the sky.