Awakening

Wei Yuan stood inside an underground passage that had clearly been blasted out in haste, watching two demolition experts haul explosives and set charges at the far end. This was the final obstacle blocking the way into the underground experiment area; once it was blown, they would be able to enter. The hand with which Wei Yuan gripped his pistol trembled slightly. It was a tremor born of his body, seemingly rooted in fear, yet his mind was entirely calm, as though the reaction were merely an instinctive camouflage. Taking advantage of the few moments remaining, Wei Yuan plucked up his courage and asked, "What's behind that passage?" Ji Liuli wiped down her large-caliber handgun as she answered, "Two kinds of danger. First is a completely new virus. As long as it accumulates in sufficient quantity, it can awaken an intelligence of its own. It's a magnificent discovery. Regrettably, no method has been found to control it yet—otherwise, it would have been the greatest discovery in the company's history. Right now, the alarms from the underground experiment area indicate that it has already leaked. "The second danger is in the lowest sector: the ability-users who were either never completed, or who ended up as failures." "Superpowered ability-users?" "Where did you think so many superpowered individuals came from? A great many were cultured by the company, then had their memories erased before being released into the world." "Why?" Wei Yuan could not understand. Why would the company secretly nurture ability-users on one hand while hunting and eliminating them on the other? "To observe how ability-users survive in ordinary society. As gene modification technology matures, there will only be more and more of them in the future. These individuals carry formidable powers that far exceed the limits of ordinary humans. How will they adapt to society? That's obviously a problem. But the far greater question is actually: why shouldn't society adapt to them?" Wei Yuan had never considered such a possibility. If a group of people were noticeably stronger than everyone else and existed in sufficient numbers, they would inevitably gain more power and even privileges, stratifying human society as a result. The greater the disparity in ability, the more privileges would arise, and the wider the divide between classes would become. Instinctively, Wei Yuan felt that this was precisely how things ought to unfold. He had no idea where this sense of natural certainty came from, but once the premise took root, the more he pondered it, the more he felt it was bound to be true. Ji Liuli glanced at Wei Yuan and asked, "Do you know why the company restricts ability-users and only seeks to push them to integrate into ordinary life, rather than the other way around?" "Why?" "Because the people sitting on the company's board of directors are a bunch of ordinary mortals—and old men, at that." What kind of reason was that? At that moment, the demolition experts led the group into a lateral corridor, shut the heavy blast door, and began their countdown. A deafening roar followed, shaking loose dirt and gravel that pattered down throughout the passage. A squad of special operations soldiers entered the breach without hesitation, transmitting an all-clear signal moments later. Two medics then hurried over and administered inhibitor injections to Ji Liuli and Wei Yuan. After waiting five minutes in silence, they signaled that the team was clear to advance. Wei Yuan followed Ji Liuli to the end of the passage, where a jagged opening had been blasted open. Several burly soldiers were using hydraulic rescue tools to widen and smooth the entrance so that light vehicles could follow behind. The breach opened into a general warehouse filled with everyday logistical supplies. "Everything here might already be infected. If any moving object tries to approach, shoot first," Ji Liuli warned. Wei Yuan nodded. He felt not the slightest tension; instead, his muscles relaxed, priming his reflexes to be sharper and faster. Off to the side, a small fireteam moved forward in search formation. Just as they reached a row of shelving, a dark shadow suddenly plummeted from the ceiling at an unbelievable speed! It dropped straight onto a soldier's helmet, instantly producing a dense flurry of metallic clinks as it attempted to pierce through the armor. Failing that, it immediately shifted tactics. Gathering its strength, it leaped upward with a violent wrench, tearing the soldier's head clean off with a long stretch of spine dangling beneath it! The other soldiers opened fire at once, but their reflexes were far too slow to keep up with the dark shape. Leaping through the storm of bullets in a few erratic bounds, it vanished behind the storage racks. The sudden casualty instantly froze the air. The languid look on Ji Liuli's face faded somewhat, replaced by a trace of puzzlement. Evidently deciding that a single head was not enough to satisfy its appetite, the shadow reappeared in the blink of an eye, pouncing toward another soldier! Yet halfway through its descent, an eerie green bullet streaked in from the flank, striking it dead in midair! The creature let out a shrill shriek as an emerald glow washed over its body, revealing its true form: a beast shaped like a weasel, though far larger. Ji Liuli fired several more rounds in rapid succession, blasting the monster to pieces and splattering nearly black blood in every direction. Wei Yuan also raised his weapon to aim, but found no opportunity to fire. Seeing the monster destroyed, Wei Yuan had just exhaled a breath of relief when he caught sight of Ji Liuli slowly turning her head. Her expression changed, and her lips moved as if she were shouting something at him. Yet her movements were agonizingly sluggish, like watching slow-motion footage, and the sound reaching Wei Yuan's ears became deep and warped, making it impossible to decipher what she was saying. She actually raised her gun and pointed it straight at Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan instinctively tried to dodge, but his body felt as though burdened by tens of thousands of tons. It refused to obey his commands; every fraction of movement required immense effort. At that exact instant, Wei Yuan felt something icy settle onto the back of his neck. Sharp claws pierced through his skin and drove hard into his skull, followed by a wrenching agony that pulled violently at his neck, preparing to rip his head from his shoulders! Wei Yuan's first instinct was to reach back and grab it, but the discipline forged by long training overrode the impulse. Instead, he swung his pistol to point at the side of his own neck, intending to blast through the flesh of his throat to blow the attacker off his back. Only this would be fast enough. Yet at this crucial juncture, his body revolted once more. His hand refused to rise! Wei Yuan was horrified. The agonizing pain in his neck reached an unbearable pitch; tissues began tearing away, and his neck bones—no stronger than those of an ordinary man—were pushed to the brink of snapping. His body was sabotaging him again! Wei Yuan's heart plummeted like a stone into an icy abyss. He had never imagined that the very first step of their exploration would plunge him into a fatal trap, nor that the body he believed he had regained control over had held a trick in reserve, springing it at this most lethal moment! Was he really going to die? The dread of death engulfed Wei Yuan once more. But then, an inexplicable, indescribable fury surged within him: How could he die here?! Even if he had to die, he would drag this entire world down into the grave with him, trapping every living soul here forever, never to achieve transcendence! The raging fury awakened a dormant spark deep within Wei Yuan's consciousness. An apocalyptic tempest seemed poised to erupt, ready to obliterate everything in existence, including Wei Yuan himself. Yet right at that moment, from the corner of his eye, Wei Yuan caught sight of an object sitting on one of the storage shelves: an ancient bronze lotus lamp, crowned with a tiny wisp of pale cyan flame. The instant he saw the lotus lamp, two overlapping worlds seemed to appear before his eyes. In the other realm, the lotus lamp bridged heaven and earth, towering tens of thousands of fathoms high, its lamplight illuminating a boundless, unfathomable expanse of darkness. The delicate patterns etched upon the lamp's body now transformed into the text of a scripture. Wei Yuan instinctively focused his gaze. Suddenly, glyph after glyph shone with the radiant, colored-glass luster of Buddhist light, flooding toward Wei Yuan until a new scripture inscribed itself into his consciousness: the Indestructible Dharma of Emptiness and Form. The scripture ignited instantly. A layer of brilliant gold plated Wei Yuan from head to toe, turning even his torn flesh into solid gold. The golden flesh knitted itself back together with unstoppable force, snapping the claws embedded in his body, grinding them to powder, and transmuting them until they were purified and absorbed as part of Wei Yuan's own flesh. In the span of a breath, Wei Yuan's entire body turned golden, while a point of five-colored glazed light flared between his brows. He brought his hands together in a prayer clasp and murmured, "So that's how it is." His voice resonated like a great bronze bell.