Night.
The two moons that had appeared at the onset of the mutation were gone.
Now, the sky had returned to normal, leaving behind a solitary moon that cast a faint, silvery glow.
December brought a biting chill, and perhaps due to the global mutation, the temperature was exceptionally low.
When Lu Yuan stepped out of the villa, he found himself surrounded by continuous chains of mountains.
Weeds grew wild and giant trees loomed tall, resembling a completely untamed primeval wilderness with not a single trace of modernity left.
Where his villa stood had originally been flat ground, but it too had transformed into a mountain several hundred meters high.
Extending his senses, he felt a chaotic energy field, and in the distance, various wild beasts seemed to lurk.
This was normal.
With the great global transformation underway, everywhere was affected.
Familiar places had grown alien, bearing no resemblance to their past.
In the truest sense, the world had been turned upside down overnight, seas turning into mulberry fields.
For ordinary people, it might be hard to accept.
Yet Lu Yuan was completely different.
He had lived in the New Era for a full decade—that was a real, lived experience—so this situation had no impact on him whatsoever.
"They're almost here."
Walking several hundred meters out from the villa, Lu Yuan looked into the distance, a brilliant divine light gleaming in his eyes.
In his vision now, the dark night was barely distinguishable from day, not hindering his sight in the slightest.
Thus, he could clearly see ahead.
A team of people was slowly approaching, treading with great caution without making the slightest sound.
Judging by their aura, none were ordinary people; an unusual power surged within them—they were Awakened.
Though very weak.
Lu Yuan made no move to hide. He simply stood in place, waiting for the team to draw near.
As for hiding in the shadows to deliver a lethal blow at the critical moment?
Sorry, that wasn't on the table at all.
On the other side.
Longevity Genetics' Ninth Elite Squad was feeling its way forward under cover of night.
"Captain, it should be just ahead," a squad member whispered.
"Good. Follow my command when the time comes," Captain Wang nodded, instructing once more: "Remember, capture him alive if possible. If he resists, take back his corpse."
"Yes, sir!" the squad members answered.
They had spent a great deal of time on the road and had finally arrived.
Still, they remained cautious—not out of fear of being discovered, but because they didn't want to alert nearby mutated beasts.
Mountains that sprang up abruptly after the mutation were prime territory for mutated beasts.
Most of those creatures had embarked on the path of evolution and were extremely troublesome to deal with.
Thus, maximum caution was required.
Soon, however, Captain Wang Xing, walking at the very front, halted in his tracks. He stared ahead and froze.
The squad was puzzled. Just as they were about to ask, they followed his gaze, and expressions of astonishment instantly appeared on their faces.
Not far from the group, a figure stood.
Slender and tall, holding a bow in hand.
Yet there were no arrows.
The man stood bathed in the moonlight, a pair of bright eyes watching them with cold detachment.
"Gentlemen, have you come to my home on some business?"
Lu Yuan spoke, a hint of a smile in his eyes.
His voice wasn't loud, and he sounded exceedingly calm, exuding an effortless composure.
"Captain, that's the Lu guy—it's him," a team member spoke up, comparing a photograph to confirm his identity.
Snapping out of his brief daze, Captain Wang addressed him directly: "You're Lu Yuan? Did you visit that farm in the suburbs of Wuzhou before? Speak: what on earth happened on August twenty-first?"
His tone was sharp and interrogative.
Now that they had found the man, there was no need for idle chatter.
At the same time, Wang Xing made a subtle gesture with his right hand. The surrounding squad members understood immediately.
They fanned out, unholstering the pistols at their waists and aiming at Lu Yuan from various angles.
In their eyes, while he looked like an ordinary person, he was holding a bow and might possess some unexpected trick up his sleeve.
Though they had embarked on the path of evolution, they wouldn't get careless.
Such was the result of years of training.
"You're from Longevity Genetics, aren't you?"
Spotting the insignia on their arms, Lu Yuan frowned slightly. "Haunting me like ghosts, are we?"
He had predicted before that Longevity Genetics wouldn't let things rest, but he hadn't expected them to arrive so quickly.
As for their goal...
Wasn't it the meteorite containing the Daluo sword core?
"Hm? It seems you definitely know something."
Wang Xing instantly caught the implication in his words. Drawing his pistol, he continued, "Now, I'll give you two choices. One: don't resist and come with us obediently. Two: die!"
The moment his words fell, the surrounding squad members chambered rounds into their handguns.
These were firearms—firepower that even Awakened had to treat with caution.
"Ignorance truly breeds audacity," Lu Yuan said, shaking his head.
He hadn't even said much yet, but these men weren't interested in explanations—they just wanted to haul him away.
Flexing his fingers, he prepared to test the power of the Heaven-Shaking Bow.
Even if using it here was overkill...
"Cripple him."
Trained for years, this elite squad possessed keen vigilance.
Assuming Lu Yuan was definitely about to resist, Captain Wang Xing issued the order without the slightest hesitation.
Bang, bang, bang!
In the next instant, the squad members opened fire.
Dozens of bullets bypassed vital spots, streaking toward Lu Yuan's arms, shoulders, and legs.
Evidently, they intended to keep him alive to report back to the company.
Yet facing the incoming barrage of bullets, Lu Yuan didn't dodge or evade at all; he simply stood in place.
Did this guy freeze in terror?
The thought flickered through their minds, but shock swiftly replaced it.
The moment the bullets struck Lu Yuan's body, metallic clangs rang out as they ricocheted off, punching through several nearby trees instead.
Lu Yuan himself remained completely motionless.
How is this possible?
Those were bullets!
Stunned disbelief plastered across their faces, their eyes widened.
"Not good! This guy might be an Awakened too—no more holding back, kill him!"
Wang Xing reacted instantly, realizing their target was anything but ordinary.
Pulling a grenade from his waist, he pulled the pin and hurled it.
The destructive power of a grenade far outstripped bullets; even steel plating would be blown open.
He was confident that no ordinary Awakened could endure it—most would be blown to bits.
What happened next, however, once again defied their comprehension.
Lu Yuan reached out and caught the grenade cleanly in his hand. Expressionless, he squeezed hard.
Boom!
A massive roar and burst of flames erupted, shaking the ground.
Yet amidst the fire, Wang Xing and his men saw Lu Yuan standing peacefully, casually brushing his hands. Not even the hem of his clothes was damaged.
"Not bad."
Lu Yuan appraised the force. Let alone injuring him, the grenade hadn't posed even the slightest threat.
He hadn't attacked earlier precisely because he wanted to test the strength of his current physique.
Now it seemed he was completely impervious to conventional firearms and explosives.
The Shackle Realm.
It truly was even stronger than imagined.
"He... he's not human!" one team member stammered, entirely dazed.
They had thought this mission would be a walk in the park. Who could have guessed they would encounter such a monster? A grenade exploding in his palm hadn't fazed him in the slightest—could even the company's strongest Awakened manage that?
"Calm down! We're Awakened too!"
Wang Xing was the captain after all. With a loud shout, an emerald-green light flared in his eyes.
The muscles in his arms swelled violently, tearing through his combat fatigues. His entire frame expanded until he stood three meters tall, exuding a savage aura.
At the same time, the remaining six squad members snapped back to their senses and unleashed their Awakened abilities.
Their abilities were largely similar: their bodies expanded in size, and their strength increased dozens of times over.
Soon, seven three-meter-tall giants stood there, their faces contorted, their bodies covered in glowing green patterns, veins bulging on their foreheads in terrifying fashion.
Every one of them attacked, ripping up trees thick enough to require two people to encircle them by the roots and wielding the trunks as weapons.
Such immense destructive power was indeed beyond the reach of normal humans.
This was the power possessed by Awakened.
Physique, speed—all attributes multiplied dozens of times over, terrifyingly formidable. This was the foundation of their confidence.
"I won't waste any more time with you."
Lu Yuan shook his head and took a single step forward, looking as though he hadn't even begun to take them seriously.
Yet within his body, an immense power surged forth like an erupting volcano.
Rumble!
A mighty aura radiated from him, forming an outright tempest that caused the soil beneath his feet to cave in.
At the same time, behind him, an eleven-story blood-colored pagoda abruptly manifested.
Lu Yuan released the power within his body, no longer hiding or suppressing it.
He wanted to stretch his limbs a little.
Thump, thump, thump!
Thump, thump, thump!
Tremendous thudding resounded.
The instant he stepped out, the Blood-Qi Pagoda vibrated violently, radiating ripples of crimson light that rippled outwards like waves on water. Anything touched by those crimson ripples—weeds shattered, giant trees crumbled, turning directly to dust.
With Lu Yuan at the epicenter, the earth within a radius of dozens of meters collapsed, stripped bare of all vegetation.
It was as though a meteorite had struck, leaving behind staggering destruction.
Not good!
Across from him, the seven-man squad felt as though the person before them had suddenly turned into a primordial beast.
The aura he released made their bodies tremble and their very souls shiver; all they wanted was to flee.
Too late.
As the crimson light washed over them, the mighty bodies they took such pride in cracked in an instant. The sound of fracturing bones rang out as their skeletons were crushed.
Blood poured copiously from all over their bodies, soaking into the soil. Every face was warped in abject terror, as if they had seen an apparition from hell.
Wasn't this supposed to be an ordinary mission? How did we run into a monster like this?!
Such was the thought racing through the minds of Wang Xing and his men. Beyond shock, only boundless terror remained.
Why did we ever provoke this man?!
Now, let alone attacking, they hadn't even had the chance to draw near.
Just the sheer might radiating from Lu Yuan had grievously injured them, stripping away all combat ability and leaving them collapsed on the ground, clinging to their last breaths.
This was an overwhelming crush executed by a higher-order evolved lifeform against a lower lifeform.
They weren't even on the same dimensional plane.
Utter, overpowering dominance.
Because the disparity was simply too vast.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan slowly reined in his aura, and the Blood-Qi Pagoda vanished.
He stared blankly, then glanced around at the ruined swath of land and vegetation.
Is this my current strength?
But... I haven't even struck yet!
Lu Yuan fell silent.
How could these people... be even flimsier than paper mache?
Soon, however, he realized why.
He had now reached the third stage of evolution, the Shackle Realm, and having fused various divine items, his strength was beyond imagination.
Moreover, what had just occurred had been under deliberate restraint; otherwise, the destructive power would have been far more terrifying.
As for the seven people before him, although they were Awakened, Lu Yuan knew full well they were merely test subjects nurtured by Longevity Genetics who had taken special drugs to embark on the path of evolution.
Indeed, in his past life, he had heard that Longevity Genetics extracted mysterious substances from certain exotic fruits and rare herbs to artificially produce Awakened. Naturally, the quality was uneven, and failed experiments sometimes resulted in death.
These seven before him were at most in the first or second tier of the Initial Realm, and they would never reach the Awakening Realm in the future.
Because they had been forcefully created, their latent potential was exceedingly low.
Still, for ordinary people, even that was astounding enough, and many were willing to take the risk.
After all, the post-mutation world was cruel, and power was everything.
Now, Lu Yuan looked upon the grievously wounded seven with a calm expression, stepping forward to finish them off.
He knew doing this would bring repercussions, but he didn't care.
Thinking back to the beginning, an overlord-tier power like Longevity Genetics had been a colossal titan he couldn't afford to provoke.
Now, things were different.
If they continued to harass him, Lu Yuan wouldn't mind paying Longevity Genetics a visit in the future.
Having dealt with them, he sighed softly and gripped the Heaven-Shaking Bow in his hand.
He had thought he could test its power, but it seemed there would be no need for that in the near term. His own strength was already too immense; through physical might alone he could run rampant, to say nothing of the numerous trump cards he still held.
"Time to head back."
Lu Yuan shook his head and paid no more mind to the corpses.
Returning straight to the villa, he tidied up the courtyard a bit and opened his phone.
He had wanted to check on the situation in the outside world earlier, but had been interrupted; with the matter settled, he could do so at ease.
Soon, news reports rolled onto his screen.
Three months had passed, and the outside world had truly turned upside down.
Major events were unfolding everywhere. Expansions of territory and the swelling of mountains had already become commonplace.
What drew the most attention now were the Awakened; a group of people had seized the initiative, obtaining extraordinary powers and becoming the focus of the world.
According to statistics, at least hundreds of thousands had stepped onto the path of evolution during this period—an astonishing number that was still climbing.
The internet was in complete uproar, with everyone yearning for such an opportunity to become a darling of the New Era.
Yet along with the massive surge in the number of Awakened came severe incidents in many regions.
After gaining great power overnight, the darker sides of some people's personalities emerged. They smashed, looted, and burned, ignoring modern laws and regulations. Ordinary people had no way to stop them, causing the unrest to escalate into large-scale riots.
"With the arrival of the New Era, the weak fall prey to the strong, primal instincts return, and the law of the jungle manifests," Lu Yuan murmured, shaking his head at the news.
Having lived through it, he knew how brutal it was.
The opening of the evolutionary path for all living beings was an opportunity, yet it came accompanied by disaster and chaos.
Not only that, but mutated beasts had emerged deep in the mountains, wreaking havoc, devouring humans, and acting with savage brutality.
Along the coasts as well, thousand-meter-long octopuses, winged sea serpents, and other marine beasts churned the waters, sinking ferries, their combined power kicking up tsunamis that affected countless people.
Mutated beasts were the equivalent of human Awakened.
Once embarking on the evolutionary path, they became like the great demons of myths and legends.
Among their own kind, even cruel humans might show some restraint. But mutated beasts were a different species altogether. Coupled with humanity's long-standing destruction of nature and the wanton slaughter of animals for profit, the mutated beasts harbored a deep-seated hatred toward humans. If left unchecked, they would likely storm major cities to hunt, with catastrophic consequences.
"Judging by the timing, the authorities should be making a move soon," Lu Yuan thought, knowing this state of affairs couldn't go on forever.
Sure enough, he soon spotted relevant news...
Chapter 34