Super Gene Ⅱ: Evolution

Ouyang Yudu picked up the silk handkerchief and shook it, and all the ash fell off, revealing the white, translucent silk handkerchief that looked like a square scarf.

There were lines of black string-like small characters embroidered on the white silk handkerchief, which couldn't be seen when mixed with the black ash before, but now were clear to see.

The characters were embroidered so tiny that if it weren't for Lin Shen and their fellow's keen eyesight, ordinary people would probably be unable to see them clearly without a magnifying glass and would mistake them for ordinary patterns.

Lin Shen leaned in to look but could not recognize what those characters meant, although they seemed to be from the same system as the characters on the Jade Token.

This made Lin Shen feel somewhat absurd; he could recognize alien characters but was unable to recognize the ancient script of humanity.

Ouyang Yudu looked at it for a while and said, "I only recognize some of the characters. From what I've seen, the text embroidered here appears to be a love letter."

"A love letter?" Lin Shen did not expect that to be the answer.

"Yes, a love letter, and this one is written to Jian Di," Ouyang Yudu added.

"Jian Di... Isn't she the female protagonist of Dark Bird's Life in Commerce? Could it be, as you guessed correctly, that Dark Bird's Life in Commerce actually has a hidden male protagonist!" Lin Shen, driven by curiosity, asked hurriedly, "Does it say who wrote the love letter to Jian Di?"

"No," Ouyang Yudu shook his head.

"What a pity." Lin Shen looked at the body that had been burned to ashes and frowned, "This person had a love letter written to Jian Di on him; could he be that male protagonist?"

No one naturally could answer his question, and Ouyang Yudu handed the Jade Token to Lin Shen, "I don't know the use of this Jade Token either, you keep it for now."

"By the way, what do these characters mean?" Lin Shen remembered that Ouyang Yudu hadn't explained the meaning of the characters on the Jade Token.

"I can't quite make them out, I only recognize the character 'command,'" Ouyang Yudu said.

Lin Shen had no choice but to keep the Jade Token and planned to find someone who understood these ancient texts later to figure out what the Jade Token really was.

The three of them looked around inside the Temple again but didn't find anything else. Just like the other Temples, most things in the main hall were destroyed, even the tablet representing Dark Bird was slashed into two halves.

Fei Zai had been unresponsive all along. As they were leaving, Lin Shen tried to put him back into the backpack, but Fei Zai dodged his palm and jumped onto Lin Shen's other shoulder.

Lin Shen was a bit surprised but did not force it back into the backpack.

After the three of them left the Dark Bird Temple, they immediately felt something was not quite right and couldn't help but turn their heads to look around.

They found nothing, but as they turned to leave, that uneasy feeling surfaced again, as if someone was watching them from behind.

However, after repeatedly looking back to confirm, they still saw nothing.

The three of them looked at each other, feeling that something was not quite right, and donned their Carapaces, ready for battle.

```

They couldn't just stay there indefinitely, so they had to keep moving forward in search of a possible teleporter.

The sensation of being watched persisted, yet they were unable to detect anything all this time.

It wasn't until they neared the ruins of another temple that the strange feeling suddenly vanished.

All three couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, "The entities in this place even have a sense of domain?"

Heading towards this other temple, they no longer felt the sense of being observed; perhaps those entities dared not enter the territory of other temples.

Lin Shen pondered and said, "We didn't have that feeling in the other temples, but after coming out of the Dark Bird Temple, we suddenly felt it. Could it be related to the body I took down?"

"Possible," Ouyang Yudu nodded, "This place is too peculiar, let's not touch anything inside the temples anymore."

Lin Shen acknowledged and as they got closer, noticed that this temple was in a much better state of preservation than the previous ones.

The temple's archway was intact, and its signboard was devoid of too much dust, clearly displaying the words "Golden Crow Temple".

"Golden Crow Temple... Could this be related to the Golden Crow from the mythological tale of Hou Yi shooting the suns?" Lin Shen couldn't help but wonder aloud.

The trio entered the temple to search, hoping to find a teleporter hidden inside. They didn't find the teleporter, but in the main hall, they did see another suspended statue.

This time it was indeed a statue and not a body. However, the statue obviously had a humanoid form rather than that of the Golden Crow.

"There's a bow hanging on the wall..." As Lin Shen scrutinized the temple, he noticed a bow hanging on the wall.

It appeared to be a very ancient bow, likely made from the horn of some creature, with a bowstring made of a material that resembled semi-transparent cow's tendon.

Overall, the bow looked very crude, as if it were a product of a primitive society with lesser crafting skills.

"This is the Golden Crow Temple, and there's a bow here. Do you think this bow might have something to do with Hou Yi from the tale of shooting the suns?" Lin Shen asked, staring at the bow on the wall.

"Ancient people believed the sun was a Golden Crow bird, and the legend says that long ago ten suns, which were ten Golden Crows, came out to play at once, scorching the earth and making it impossible for humans to survive. So they summoned a divine archer, Hou Yi, who shot down nine of the Golden Crows, leaving only one sun, which is the sun we see today," Ouyang Yudu explained with a smile. "The tale of Hou Yi shooting the suns is one of the most fantastic mythological stories, as it's hard to imagine what kind of life people led back then based on that tale alone. Also, among all the mythological stories, only the story of Hou Yi shooting the suns has a sequel, which is very peculiar. Normally, a mythological story should only have one protagonist, but the story of Hou Yi shooting the suns led to the tale of Chang'e flying to the moon. One story with two protagonists, that's quite special in itself."

Having learned their lesson, Lin Shen and his companions didn't dare to remove the bow from the wall. They didn't find anything useful and were about to leave when Fatty, who had been standing on Lin Shen's shoulder, suddenly became animated.

Flapping its short, stout wings, Fatty's plump body struggled towards the bow on the wall and then, using its beak to grasp the bowstring, it pulled the bow off the wall and flung it towards Lin Shen.

Lin Shen reached out and caught the bow. It felt cool to the touch, the black, horn-made bow was very comfortable to hold.

"Do you want me to take it with us?" Lin Shen caught Fatty as it flew back and looked at it with some confusion.

Fatty nodded, then hopped onto Lin Shen's shoulder and burrowed into the backpack. It drew the zipper closed with its beak and began to sleep again.

```