Chapter 016: Accelerated Evolution

Bai Yuxi discovered that the duck boat had almost drifted to the center of the lake; had he known it would go this far, he might as well have swum straight over. The guy on the boat, whether exhausted from pedaling or for some other reason, was panting heavily. “Heh heh heh~ Little darling! There’s nobody here now, right?” The girl, for her part, whether she was willing or just pretending to be, spoke in a sugary voice so coy that Bai Yuxi nearly sank beneath the water. “Mm~ no, I’m so scared!” “Don’t be scared!” The boy chuckled lewdly. “Come, let your big brother hug you... heh heh heh~”

Bai Yuxi was dumbfounded; city folk really knew how to have fun! He’d heard of cars shaking, but this was the first time he’d ever heard of a boat doing the same. Did they not worry about capsizing the duck boat? Already frustrated from drifting off course and wondering how he’d get back, Bai Yuxi grew even more annoyed as the two on the boat shamelessly began their noisy antics. He thought, These two are really inconsiderate, singing “Nunchaku” in the middle of the night!

Moreover, they’d stopped pedaling and were just floating in the middle of the lake, far from shore. How was he supposed to swim back? Bai Yuxi figured he couldn’t just stay soaking in the water, waiting for them to finish, so he knocked impatiently on the side of the boat, pinching his nose and affecting a strange voice. “Hey, hey! Mind your manners! It's the middle of the night—do you want people to get any sleep?”

Suddenly, the duck boat fell silent. Not only did the moaning stop, even their breathing seemed to vanish. “Hey! I’m talking to you two! Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me!” Bai Yuxi gave the boat a hard shove. “You’re rocking the water so much, you’re causing waves underneath! Keep it up and I’ll report you for disturbing the peace!”

“Ghost!” “There’s a water ghost!” Two blood-curdling screams tore across the lake. Then came a frantic clamor from the boat, and a loud clang from the propeller at the stern, sending waves several feet high as the boat, as if fitted with a motor, shot toward the shore at breakneck speed.

Caught off guard, Bai Yuxi hadn’t managed to grab the boat, and could only stare as it sped away, leaving him behind. In his panic, he shouted, “Hey! At least take me with you!” But his cry only made the boat pedal harder, nearly lifting the prow clear off the water as it accelerated.

Left all alone in the middle of the lake, Bai Yuxi sulked for a while before resigning himself and swimming toward the shore under his own power. Fortunately, after slaying Axe Man, he’d absorbed all his surplus vitality. Bai Yuxi’s already considerable energy reserves grew even larger.

Now, his body felt as though a small furnace burned within, his limbs and bones nourished by a constant stream of scorching heat. Even after prolonged immersion in the cooling night waters of the lake, he felt no chill. More wondrous still, the warmth flowing through him brought a ceaseless vitality, so even using the most exhausting dog-paddle technique to cross the lake at night, he felt no fatigue.

During Axe Man’s brutal beating, he’d delivered a lecture of sorts, forcing Bai Yuxi to gather some fragmented understanding of the “extraordinary world.” For example, Bai Yuxi learned that the cluster of shattered-glass-like light he’d encountered in the alley near his dorm was a “spatial anomaly,” similar to a wormhole. The humanoid monster had emerged from this anomaly—a so-called “dimensional creature.” The sudden surge of searing heat in his body was the result of absorbing the “multidimensional, ultra-high activity bio-energy” released upon the creature’s death. The miraculous changes in his body likely stemmed from absorbing this so-called “super vitality.”

Although he still didn’t fully comprehend the nature of the mysterious events he’d experienced, Bai Yuxi at least knew now that this “super vitality” could improve his frail constitution, make him stronger, and protect him from harm. The transformation his body underwent in such a short time was thanks in part to the psychological pressure brought on by Axe Man’s deadly assault. Bai Yuxi had been dragged by the humanoid creature into the shattered-glass-like anomaly and, inexplicably, acquired a vast amount of super vitality.

However, as a newly “awakened” individual, he hadn’t yet learned how to harness this mysterious energy. He simply benefited from the passive nourishment of super vitality, which greatly improved his previously weak, sub-healthy state caused by chronic sleepiness from oxygen deprivation to the brain. This explained how he, once a sickly shut-in, could sprint from his residential complex all the way to Mount Jialuo, nearly ten kilometers away.

But the enhancement process was slow and continuous. With his original frail constitution, it would take a long time to fully “digest” that massive influx of vitality. Unfortunately, at this critical moment, Bai Yuxi, who didn’t know how to conceal his energy field or mask his presence, was detected by Axe Man, who tracked and chased him to the secluded part of Mount Jialuo, giving him a crash course in the extraordinary world.

Luckily, Axe Man, eager for a complete extraction of Bai Yuxi’s immense super vitality, opted for a savage beating rather than using weapons. This approach aimed, firstly, to break down Bai Yuxi’s “super vitality shield,” and secondly, to provoke extreme emotional turmoil, forcing him to release his energy completely upon death.

This left Bai Yuxi with a sliver of hope, since the “super vitality shield,” while protective, wasn’t immune to all harm. Had Axe Man used his strange old axe, and the blows exceeded the shield’s limits, Bai Yuxi would have suffered fatal injury. Axe Man’s greed was his undoing; coveting the massive, easily obtainable vitality in this newly awakened novice, he sought maximum benefit by tormenting him bare-handed. This inadvertently triggered Bai Yuxi’s survival instincts, causing him to unleash his super vitality, accelerate healing of his injuries, and speed up the fusion of energy with his cells.

Unexpectedly, Bai Yuxi entered a state of “accelerated evolution,” rapidly elevating his abilities to a staggering level and, in a last gasp, counterattacked to slay the greedy Axe Man, successfully turning the tables!