"President!"
"President!"
Several researchers heard movement behind them; turning, they saw Jiang Yan and greeted him respectfully.
Dong Guangjie, who had been reviewing the report, looked up at the sound and quickly strode over. "President!"
Jiang Yan swept his gaze across the Laboratory—no sign of the dissection subject. He turned to Dong Guangjie. "Any findings?"
Dong Guangjie glanced at a researcher not far to his left. "Bring it out."
Then he looked back at Jiang Yan. "This careful autopsy did reveal differences. Outwardly they resemble us, but bone counts and organ genes don't quite match. Most crucially—"
He glanced left again; Jiang Yan followed his gaze, curious. "An important discovery?"
The researcher pulled a 100 ml transparent, heat-proof vial from a high-temperature incubator.
Jiang Yan's eyes locked onto a thin layer of silvery liquid inside; faint energy pulsed from it.
"What is this?" He narrowed his eyes—Nelly and the others had never shown such a reaction. A by-product of the origin stone?
Dong Guangjie took the vial and said gravely, "You might think it's from the origin stone, since that's our only known energy source. But this fluid was extracted from those people."
He continued, "An average person yields almost none of it. I used my ability to proliferate their flesh to the equivalent of ten thousand people, and only then extracted these seven or eight milligrams."
"Could this be the key to their awakening?" Jiang Yan stared at the faintly glowing liquid, eyes flickering.
Dong Guangjie produced the origin stone and channelled energy into it.
Instantly the silver fluid rippled and quivered.
Jiang Yan watched, amazed that a corner of this world's supernatural power had been unveiled so quickly.
Dong Guangjie explained, "Further interrogation confirms every human here carries this substance. Raise body temperature to 300 °C and it awakens, reacting with the origin stone. With enough stones, every one of them could wield power."
Far easier to study than our world's Awakened Ones. The Monster Association found their abilities stem from the soul, aided by rare genes—without them, awakening odds are virtually zero.
"With enough origin stones, this whole world could go supernatural," Jiang Yan mused, surprised that every native carried the seed of power.
"Send Harold back; I need real supers to study," Jiang Yan ordered.
He was certain Harold would report to the Eternal Church, and fresh specimens would arrive.
'Pity we can't cross over at will—next captive might let us plant a Monster.' His eyes glinted.
He coveted the energy-rich origin stone—nothing like it existed on Blue Star.
"I'll arrange it. One captive, Nelly, is still alive—continue experiments or keep him?" Dong Guangjie asked; with his power, a few samples scaled to thousands.
He could even sprout extra eyes and arms for more intensive work.
"Keep him. If Harold fails to bait others, we'll remodel Nelly." As Jiang Yan finished, white mist enveloped him; the fog vanished, and he exited the City of Mist.
The Lord of the Mist controlled entry and exit; other staff could appear directly inside Little Moon without city transfer.
Jiang Yan emerged to find Gus the eyeball already back.
"Master, ninety-nine seeds of nightmare are deployed," Gus's voice echoed in his mind.
Jiang Yan nodded toward the sofa where Black Gold, Blood Master, and Ba Yao played landlord.
"One of you—fetch Gus a soul crystal!" he called.
Black Gold split a clone and dashed for the cache… The Monster Association's spread continued in the Tizi Nation capital.
A third of the city lay cloaked in grey mist, teeming with ghost slaves.
Ghost Bride stood quietly among them; several dozen special, expressionless figures—converted Awakened Ones—surrounded her, energy rippling.
Grey Mental Power surged from Ghost Bride, warping nearby space.
With buffet-style feeding it had reached Level Five in short order and gained a new ability.
Ghost Painting: a picture between real and illusory. Anyone who sees it will find copies appearing around them after a day; Ghost Bride can track them through these paintings. (Max 100 paintings, generated by her Mental Power.)
The prompt revealed the new power and multiplied her Mental Power several-fold; the capital was now hollowed out.
Five days later.
In the cavern, Jiang Yan stood before the filled pearl of the abyss.
pearl of the abyss: 990.72 million / 990.72 million
"Negative emotions full. Summon?"
'Summon!'
With a thought, vast purple-black mist erupted, expanding at terrifying speed.
Jiang Yan's calm expression shifted as the mist ballooned.
It swelled to thousands of meters, filling the 300-meter cavern and pushing the white mist back.
"Grab the soul crystals and evacuate!" he shouted to the Monsters.
Wings sprouted; he smashed through the cavern roof and soared out.
He knew the mist harbored random spatial rifts—losing the remaining crystals would be a disaster.
At his order, Blood Master flashed to the safe, seized the chest of soul crystals, and shot out.
"Bocchi, go!" Black Gold leapt onto Bocchi's back and they raced clear.
Within seconds every Monster had fled.
Purple-black mist filled the empty cavern.