“Zheng, what comforts you the most in this realm?”
“Hmm, it should be a group of comrades I can trust.”
“Then, what’s your greatest regret or your worst mistake?”
“Hmm… It’s definitely trusting that fellow Xuan!”
For some reason, these words flashed through his mind as the electricity coursed through him. He immediately couldn’t resist screaming.
“Chu, Chu, Chu Xuan… I, I, I’ll kill…”
Zheng had been electrocuted so much that his entire body was spasming, and couldn’t complete his sentence. Everyone still heard it clearly. However, when they saw Xuan adjust his glasses and his expression change from that of fanaticism to hot-bloodedness, how would they dare stop Xuan, who had activated power of faith? They thus could only look on with sympathy at Zheng.
Zheng was suffering unspeakable pain in the electric current. This current was at least several tens of thousands volts of high voltage. His instincts continuously activated his genetic constraint, actually unlocking the initial fourth stage after a few seconds under this high voltage. If this continued, his body would likely automatically enter the Dragon Transformation state.
“Zheng, this is just the energy storing. Greater energy waves will be produced soon. So, enter Dragon Transformation now. I’ll protect your body with power of faith. Don’t worry, you probably won’t die…” Xuan said confidently. However, the content of his words didn’t seem to have an iota of confidence.
“Pro, pro, probably?!”
“Mhm. You’re dead if it fails.” Xuan nodded confidently.
“I, I. I, will kill…” Zheng was continuously screaming, but he still obediently entered the Dragon Transformation state. When the dragon wings on his back extended, the jade platform abruptly shone brightly. The electricity from before turned into flowing light of a purely liquid state, slowly flowing within the runes.
This scene looked beautiful. However, Zheng within knew of what he was going through. The previous pure electricity was painful, but at least the high voltage could be endured by his body and Qi without even entering the Dragon Transformation state. However, when this flowing liquid light appeared, his body felt like it was on the verge of being ripped apart. Enormous energy was injected into his body, which was actually a highly compressed energy near that of Refined Qi. In an instant, the thin blood vessels on the surface of his skin had already been torn open, making him look like a man made of blood.
In the Cultivation manuals Xuan translated, this step as actually very simple. As long as there was a Cultivator helping to Establish the Foundation, the helping Cultivator would infuse an energy in between Qi and Refined Qi. Although this energy was also highly compressed, it would be akin to warm water and wouldn’t damage the flesh. It would instead greatly improve the body of the person Establishing the Foundation. It was just that team China had no Cultivator, so the extremely simple process not only became complicated, but very dangerous. It could be said to be very crude.
Xuan had already activated power of faith at the moment. All that was seen him extending his hand in mid-air, pointing at Zheng. The magnificent colours that normally enclosed the Gauss bullets now completely enveloped Zheng. When the flowing, bright energy touched Zheng, colours more beautiful than a rainbow gushed forth. Zheng’s pained expression immediately softened in this colourful shroud. However, the tears on his skin continued to increase.
“Then, begin.” Xuan activated his power of faith, extending a hand to press the Magic Cannon.”
“Da, damn… Not, not started… yet…” Before Zheng’s trembling words could fall, the light of the jade platform brightened by a hundred fold. Everyone shut their eyes in pain. Even Xuan’s light dampening glasses became pitch-black shades. This fellow’s glasses were a true treasure, seemingly capable of anything and everything...
However, this light was only a momentary flash, disappearing after a moment. When everyone reopened their eyes, they discovered the jade platform had turned into powder. Zheng who was lying there was convulsing incessantly, his entire body covered in blood. He looked about to die.
Everyone ran over unhesitatingly. Zero and Wangia were even more direct, rushing into the jade crumbs to pick Zheng up. Zheng however, desperately called out. “Don’t pick me up! Xuan’s about to die! Bring him to God for repair!” Finished speaking, he fainted dead away.
Everyone subconsciously looked down. They saw Xuan standing there, his hair completely white. His face was covered with wrinkles, looking over a century old. Not only that, but his skin was withering at a visible speed. Slowly, he seemed about to soon become a skeleton.
Yingkong’s reaction was the quickest. She stepped down, charging to Xuan’s side. Then, she grabbed Xuan’s collar and rushed upstairs. Before she had taken a few steps, her eyes had become dull due to unlocking her genetic constraint. Her speed rapidly approached one that couldn’t be followed by the eye because of her Shining enhancement. However, unlike usual, where she couldn’t control her direction as the enhancement was too fast and regularly crashed into walls, everything in the surroundings were clearly distinct this time for some reason. She had already dragged Xuan over to God before even a second had passed.
“God, give him a full body repair!” Yingkong shouted. She only relaxed when a beam of light enveloped Xuan. Only now did she suddenly realized about her state before, where she could clearly sense the Shining’s speed, as if everything was in the palm of her hands.
(Were further genetic constraints unlocked? No, the second stage wasn't able to control the Shining when I tested it before. I haven’t grasped the third stage fully either. Can simulation allow adapting to the Shining’s speed? Could it be … could it be like that?)
Not long before, Yingkong had privately asked Xuan how she could exhibit the power of the personality in her subconscious. With that power, her strength would instantly rise ten folds, or even more. This power was what she needed the most now. However, she had only received a few sentences in response.
“Unlock a higher genetic constraint. The higher the genetic constraint, the more you and your main personality will merge, until you two become one. You might directly breakthrough to the mid-fourth stage then. If that’s so, could creating an opposite, second personality be a good way of overcoming the heart’s devil?”
That had been Xuan’s response then. He then started being engrossed in his own things and started researching something. The unresigned Yingkong could only leave the basement, still not knowing how to unleash all the power in her body, just like before.
The rest of the team rushed out from Xuan’s room just as Yingkong froze. Zheng then received a full body repair as well. Xuan and him were suspended in the air, Zheng only slowly descending after ten minutes. Xuan was healed for almost half an hour, a length of time hitherto unseen.
Although the two’s wounds were fully healed, they still remained unconscious. The energy waves released during the instant of Foundation Establishment were too powerful. It was the energy emitted by the Magic Cannon, and although it wasn’t in full, it wasn’t something two people could resist. Now, their mental energy was depleted too much, causing them to pass out even though their physical bodies were fully repaired.
Zheng only woke up on the afternoon of the third day. Even before his eyes opened, his body already told him the world was different.
It was an indescribable feeling. As if his eyes could inherently see it, his ears could inherently hear it and his tongue could inherently taste it, he could sense the boundless energy in the world. It was a truly mysterious and profound feeling. He wouldn’t have been able to describe how he could sense this energy, where it was, and in what way it existed. The feeling of the energy in the surroundings was akin to how colour couldn’t be described.
As Zheng gradually became clear-headed, this feeling that the surroundings were full of energy gradually dulled. It was as if the world had returned to normal when he opened his eyes. It was only that the Refined Qi and Magic were more distinct than ever before, as if they were a part of his body. The two energies moved in accordance to his will, no longer as jerky as before.
Zheng was delighted that he could freely control Refined Qi and Magic within his body. However, he only played around for a few seconds, before immediately remembering how that fellow Xuan had almost died during his Foundation Establishment! He immediately looked around at his surroundings.
This was the room Lori and him stayed in. He was the only one lying on the bed at this moment. Without thinking about it, Zheng dressed himself with the clothes on the bed and jumped off the bed. As he opened the door, the first thing he saw was a huge group of people eating hot pot in the living room outside the door, everyone eating until they were red in the face. When Zheng came out, everyone turned around and the area immediately went quiet, with only the sound of hot pot boiling.
“You’re awake?” Pleasantly surprised, Lori leapt into Zheng’s embrace.
Zheng hugged Lori. He comfortingly patted her head, before anxiously asking everyone, “Is that fellow Xuan fine?”
Everyone nodded, with Cheng Xiao immediately laughing, “Haha, relax. That fellow is Doraemon, he won’t die so easily. He’s probably having some wet dreams now, hahaha…”
(You’re talking about yourself, right?) This thought formed in the heads of many present, but the queries they had for Zheng now was slightly more.
Heng was the first to open his mouth to ask, “Zheng, was your Foundation Establishment successful? How about it? Can you control Refined Qi and Magic?”
Zheng sighed in relief when he heard Xuan was fine. He smiled at Heng. “I haven’t tested the effects yet, but so far, I seem to be able to control Refined Qi and Magic. Alright, we’ll test the power of Foundation Establishment in the basement after eating!”
Foundation Establishment was just the initial phase of Cultivation. It was like the training of Qi, when you could first sense Qi. It was insignificant, and only slightly better than an ordinary human. It was still effective for strengthening the body however. For facing against an enemy, unless you relied on your body to fight, there wasn’t really any Cultivation aspect to combat.
But Zheng’s circumstances were different. He didn’t rely on Cultivation techniques to battle. To him, Cultivation techniques were merely to familiarise his own personal moves and combat techniques. His true power still lay in Explosion, Destruction and Chaos, Genesis Splitter. Be it physical techniques or magic techniques, they could all be terrifying when pursued to the pinnacle.
When everyone had finished eating, Zheng went with everyone to the basement. There was a platform made of a metal alloy. This was where he usually practiced. Currently, he was standing alone on the platform, shutting his eyes tight to sense the Refined Qi and Magic within his body.
“Explosion and Destruction rely on Qi and Blood Energy. They don’t use Refined Qi and Blood Energy, so we’ll first test this move that is produced from Refined Qi and Magic!”
Zheng considered, then immediately separated a strand each of Refined Qi and Magic towards his two palms. He restricted the flow of these two energies, only having an iota of the two energies interact at the centre of his palms. In a moment, a small ball of light, the size of an apple, with intense brightness appeared in his palm. However, it didn’t explode like in Independence Day. This was because one, he could already control Refined Qi and Magic, and two, he could separate out only an iota of the energies while using infinitesimal control. When the two fused, this ball of light similar to the Magic Cannon’s energy actually peacefully existed.
Holding in his hand, Zheng slammed the light ball into the ground, With a loud bang, the light ball actually didn’t produce any explosion, only releasing a horrifying force when it came in contact with the ground. Fortunately, this force was under Zheng’s control of Refined Qi and Magic. When it smashed into the ground, a cloud of dust and metal rose from the ground. When the dust and metal settled, everyone far off saw that the metal ground had caved in, forming a giant hole over thirty metres in diameter. Zheng stood there unharmed, only blanking looking at his two hands.
“Good! If I can use this ability that is a lower tier of Chaos… My clone! I finally have the power to fight you!”