On a patch of sea in the southeast, the moon, like a silver plate, hung in the night sky where dark clouds drifted, casting fragmented patches of light that obscured the brilliance of the stars.
A solitary floating island emerged abruptly from the sea. In its sunken center, the gloomy architecture lay like a ferocious beast lurking in the cold night, poised to strike.
The tide ceaselessly battered the reefs surrounding the island, its spray surging. Some dead fish were washed ashore.
Something seemed to be parasitic on their bodies. From a distance, they resembled black splotches, but up close, these black splotches looked like flowing droplets, slowly seeping into the fish through their slightly parted gills.
At that moment, these already dead fish suddenly arched upwards from their midsections! As their bodies curved, their bones emitted a chilling 'crackling' sound, as if they were about to snap!
This terrifying spectacle gradually unfolded on the dead fish. Under the eerie moonlight and sparse shadows, the scene was ominous and bizarre.
If one looked closely enough, two dark figures could be faintly discerned standing on two large dark reefs near the shore.
"This is the 'Soul Revival' cell you've been researching for so long?"
The speaker toyed with his right hand. Under the dim moonlight, his right arm glowed with a cold mechanical sheen. As he flexed his fingers, the sound of mechanical tendons, simulated by machinery, could be heard as they stretched and contracted.
This man was Zhang Liang, who had undergone mechanical right arm augmentation a little over a month ago.
"No, no, no, don't confuse the concepts. Soul Revival cells are merely data extracted from the memory banks of ordinary people and then implanted into clones, allowing them to mimic the lifestyles of normal individuals and blend into crowds. This, however, is clearly not that."
Guan Xishun smiled with a hint of pride, tossing the severed limbs of the failed experiment into the vast blue ocean. The blood mixed with the water, diffusing upwards. In moments, a massive dorsal fin emerged from the sea. As its gaping maw opened, it resembled an aperture that had just been unsealed. Its sword-like teeth sliced through the sea surface, engulfing the limbs and seawater in one gulp.
The tide surged with the whale's eruption and receded as it departed, the opposing forces of the two currents creating towering waves, as if a bomb had been dropped.
"Don't you find constant individual research to be too slow?"
Zhang Liang retracted his right arm and stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the horizon. Beneath a dim light screen, sea fog began to rise.
"Haste makes waste. Although our progress is slow, we are striving for stability," Guan Xishun explained.
"If anything, you still don't trust those people."
"Those who are not of our kind will surely have different intentions. I fear that if the cooperation fails, our research findings will be stolen by them."
Zhang Liang was referring to the group of madmen led by Dr. William who were researching the Mandala gene. He wasn't a researcher who understood data or technology; he was merely a vengeful ghost, and ghosts didn't worry about consequences.
"Ren Yuanhao completely turned your base upside down. Aren't you going to retaliate?" Zhang Liang was a master of provocation. Now, although his strength had improved considerably, he knew that he was not yet capable of defeating Ren Yuanhao alone.
"Base? Don't be absurd. That was merely a front we set up, a flag we hoisted."
"Don't you care about the lost superhumans?"
"Their abilities have already been mostly stripped away, and the data has been extracted. Now, all we need is a breakthrough, and those abilities can be reborn in the clones. While it's a pity, now is not the time to deal with these insignificant matters."
Guan Xishun patted Zhang Liang on the shoulder and looked at him with an extremely calm gaze. "I know you are eager for revenge, but you have to believe us. Look, what do you think is on the other side of the sea?"
"It's darkness."
"No, it's a densely populated city. Eventually, it will become a slaughterhouse~"
...
As the eastern sky of Yun Jin City began to show the first light of dawn, the area below the residential complex started to become noisy. Ren Yuanhao pulled the window shut, his gaze fixed on the copied nameless cultivation technique.
"This is all metaphysics! 'Mustard seeds and Sumeru, the universe within a speck,' 'One flower, one leaf, one Bodhi.' What is all this? I don't even know what the main points are. However, this acupuncture chart for guiding Qi is somewhat useful."
Following the Qi-guiding method on the chart, Ren Yuanhao completely emptied his dantian, which felt as vast as a deep valley. He then saw the acupuncture chart stating: 'Qi enters the body from the Taichong acupoint on the foot and the Hegu acupoint on the palm, then converges at Huagai, Zigong, Yutang, and Chongrenzong.' His heart gave a jolt.
"Isn't the Tanzhong acupoint a major death point? Gathering Qi here, isn't that a grave mistake?"
However, this thought did not last long. Ren Yuanhao understood. After all, techniques like the 'Star Absorbing Grand Art' were considered preposterous and impractical by orthodox practitioners. Under normal circumstances, who would willingly dissipate the 'Qi' they had gathered with such effort? How many people would dare to circulate Qi in reverse? To go against the natural order? To place themselves in a state of eternal damnation?
Most of the cultivation techniques Ren Yuanhao encountered were of this peculiar, counter-intuitive nature. Therefore, it actually made his thinking more flexible, less bound by convention, and incredibly bold. Coupled with his various Qi-guiding techniques, he was daring and skilled. If others had obtained this cultivation technique, they would have dismissed it as a dark art and discarded it like refuse.
Ren Yuanhao began to cultivate according to the Qi-guiding chart. Initially, he felt only extreme chest tightness and numbness in his limbs. After repeating the process three or four times, this feeling gradually dissipated, and the wild, raging internal energy became much more orderly. Overjoyed, his late-night cultivation journey officially commenced.
After an unknown amount of time, Ren Yuanhao felt a coolness spread through his chest and abdomen; the heat had been relieved by more than half. When he opened his eyes, he felt that his senses were sharp and his mind clear, and his breathing was smooth. However, due to the effects of the Star Absorbing Grand Art, he still dared not exert his Qi too forcefully.
"Beep beep, congratulations to the host for recovering attributes to eighty percent, the Azure Sea Tide诀 has advanced to intermediate level, and the stability of the Star Absorbing Grand Art has been further strengthened."
"Tsk tsk, this increase in intelligence is indeed very useful. It's just that it can't be discounted. One million per pill, more expensive than immortal elixirs, right?"
"Discount? Not a chance. This item is priceless and scarce, with the inventory being less than five units."
"Then I must earn money desperately. Come on! Orders!"
"Orders aren't something you can just get whenever you want."
Ren Yuanhao thought, 'Don't mess with me. I was ready to make a fortune, and you're treating me like this, it's enough to dampen my enthusiasm!'