The Catalyst of Change

Ne had created a miracle: allowing a person's posthumous consciousness to vividly coexist with the will of a Yanxiu, gaining continuation through parasitism. This was likely hard to replicate, as the conditions were extremely harsh and coincidental, but Nikola stubbornly believed it was possible. If such logic held true, a higher organism would be born upon the nutrients of Great Spikes and humans, with a chance to advance toward eternity. Thus, Nikola practically viewed itself as a new creator. As for this bizarre symbiotic state among the three of them that had persisted for eight years now, Ne was highly accepting of it, even though he knew he was destined to die in the end—for he was never an ordinary man to begin with. Nikola had no complaints either, as it seemed certain to win, and it was not human in the first place. Broadly speaking, both were entities that harbored no remaining interest in or pursuit of an ordinary human life; they found the current situation entirely to their liking and were keenly engaged. But Alice was different. From arriving here at age five, to suddenly plunging into this situation at nineteen, to twenty-seven today, she had never even experienced a normal, ordinary life—laughter and tears, gains and losses, family affection, friendship, and more. That was why she had said earlier that fun and cuteness were also very precious things to her. In her heart, Alice was truly unwilling to accept the current reality and the trajectory it was heading toward—the fate of inevitably being devoured. She wanted to struggle, to change things, but she was powerless on her own. Until that year, when Ye Jian brought Liu Shiheng to the Subglacial City. Over all these years, he was the only conversation partner accepted by all three sides. Among them, what interested Nikola and Ne were the people connected to Liu Shiheng: Han Qingyu and Shen Yixiu. Especially Shen Yixiu. Back then, Rusty Sister's surgery had been performed by a group of Snow Lotus scientists whom her grandfather, Shen Fengting, secretly released from the top-secret deep prison. Those people were all followers of Ne and the implementers of his Human Source Energy Evolution Experiments. Previously, they had conducted experiments using large numbers of dying Azure soldiers and some large cold-blooded animals. The ironclad source-nourished incorruptible corpses and the mutated giant python that Han Qingyu and the others had discovered beneath Research Institute 2 back then were both experimental subjects. Yet overall, those experiments had ended in failure. Those people had all died in the end, serving merely as nutrients. And while the giant python had mutated, it showed not the slightest chance of evolving into a source beast. Seen this way, it was rather Shen Yixiu who, through an unexpected twist of fate, ended up becoming the most successful subject of that experimental series. Not only was she alive and vibrant, but she had also been steadily growing and advancing. More than two years ago, she had reached the peak of the top tier, and she was currently one of the world's most formidable top combat powers; she might soon ascend to super combat power. This was a success story that hadn't been watched or tracked initially, only to be discovered suddenly later on. No one—including Rusty Sister herself—yet knew that in Snow Lotus's top-secret internal files, she bore another title: Sole Asterisk Experimental Subject. Aside from Rusty Sister, the related experiments actually had a few other "successful" cases. For example, one person who was likewise in Han Qingyu's camp today: Corpse Man Weize. That was an experiment along a different path, settling for second best in its final outcome, far behind Rusty Sister. Taking Weize as an example, his physical state was essentially that of a living corpse. He was not truly vital and lacked growth potential; his ultimate limit was merely the peak of the top tier, with zero chance of breaking through to super combat power, because his life source energy would never grow. Therefore, to both Ne and Nikola, Shen Yixiu was the one they valued most and looked forward to the most. As for Alice, she didn't care about any of this. She only wanted to try to survive, yet she had no concrete plan for survival. Her overly simple upbringing left Alice unskilled at scheming. The only thing she felt certain she could and should do was plant the catalyst of change, work hard to nurture it, and then await what came of it. "In a dead end, any change that emerges can at least hardly make things worse." That was logic Alice had learned from books. And in her eyes, Liu Shiheng was definitely an agent with the potential to bring about massive change. His own distinctiveness might not have seemed obvious at first, but consider the figures he maneuvered among, and the people tied to him—Ye Jian, Han Qingyu, Shen Yixiu, Wu Xu... Over the years, the things they had changed in this world were already too numerous to count. That was why, during the conversations in the chapel, although Ne took the lead most of the time, the one who truly prompted him to share those secrets with Liu Shiheng had always been Alice. About Nikola, about the Yanxiu, about the remains... Alice needed Liu Shiheng to know these things, hoping he would spread them. And preferably, he would try to do something together with those people. Such as searching for remains, catalyzing the emergence of a batch of mature Yanxiu, and offering her friendship... In the beginning, all of this had been driven by purely utilitarian calculations. Later, when Alice needed to protect Liu Shiheng, she acted from the perspective of a girl, using interest and fondness as her pretext, and pushed herself to make those feelings genuine. Put differently, in order to make the emotion authentic, Alice had initially worked hard to genuinely like Young Master Shiheng. In time, as they interacted more and more, even she had grown a little confused. The Subglacial City had an artificially regulated night that conformed to natural rhythms. Lying in bed, Alice fought to rein in the emotional disturbance caused by the restless void. What Liu Shiheng had said during the day kept echoing in her mind. "I'll definitely come to take you away," he had said. He rarely spoke so earnestly, so this was probably not just another trick to coax a girl into bed. *Take me away, Young Master, if such a day ever comes. Perhaps you'll be willing to become the only person in this world I can lean on and trust.* Thinking this, Alice felt a sudden flutter in her heart. Such unusual fluctuations in emotion and state of being would automatically be sensed by Nikola and Ne. If Ne wanted, he could even easily intrude to capture Alice's exact thoughts. Yet Alice was fearless. *Give me liberty, or give me death.* The void began to stir restlessly again. As a Great Spike—or rather, a Yanxiu—Nikola experienced no psychological emotions akin to a flutter of the heart, nor could it truly comprehend it. But the ripple of this uniquely human emotion made it instinctively displeased and angry, driving it to intimidate and suppress her. A massive sense of fear and oppression bore down upon her. *Pull back your claws, idiot,* cursed Alice resolutely in her mind—Alice, who once had wept helplessly beneath this terror and oppression. Then she got up, her slender legs touching the floor. Barefoot, without shoes, Alice walked calmly to the cavernous library that belonged to her alone. With her golden hair hanging loose, the unclothed girl strolled slowly between the rows of bookshelves. Alice had long since finished reading every book on the shelves here, yet there was still so much she did not understand.