Sitting cross-legged, Xu Tui let his nose draw in air and his mouth breathe it out. Within seconds, the long, steady breaths emptied his mind and body, bringing him into a meditative state.
In the state of Illusory Internal Vision, Xu Tui felt a sudden surge of joy.
Fifteen.
At that moment, there were fifteen bright white points on his head.
The reckless thing Xu Tui had done last night had directly lit up that one gray point.
Based on Xu Tui's earlier deductions, this meant he had now activated fifteen Gene Points.
But that wasn't important to Xu Tui right now.
There wasn't much difference between activating Fourteen Gene Points and fifteen Gene Points.
Only one thing mattered most—Xu Tui could use his consciousness to influence the direction of the energy flow and activate Gene Points.
He hadn't realized this at all during the day.
It wasn't until he left the Special Intelligence Agency and spent the whole way thinking that he finally understood.
As far as Xu Tui currently knew, after normal people were injected with the Gene Liberation Potion, they activated a certain number of Gene Points on the first day. The three months after the injection were also a period when Gene Points activated at a high frequency.
Once those three months had passed, activating more Gene Points required either grueling, persistent training or an injection of a special potion.
Under normal circumstances, potions capable of activating Gene Points were extremely expensive.
They were also strictly controlled.
But Xu Tui could activate Gene Points in the state of Illusory Internal Vision by using his consciousness to guide the flow of energy.
This ability was incredibly powerful!
Xu Tui didn't know whether any predecessors had possessed a similar ability.
But neither the Introduction to Genetics he'd studied in his senior year of high school, the materials he'd received after the Gene Aptitude Test, nor anything online mentioned the ability to activate Gene Points at will.
Xu Tui's first thought was, If this gets exposed, will the Gene Research Institute dissect me for research?
"I absolutely can't let them treat me as an experimental subject or an observation subject. I can't let anyone else know about this ability. At least until I've figured out what's going on, I absolutely mustn't let it come to light."
In high school, he'd taken plenty of biology and genetics lab classes. Not one of the little white mice, fruit flies, mosquitoes, or apple rabbits used as experimental or observation subjects had met a good end.
"I absolutely can't tell anyone."
After the incident at the milk tea shop, where he'd helped capture a traitor, Xu Tui himself hadn't noticed how much he'd suddenly grown.
Or perhaps he'd simply become a little more mature.
Now, Xu Tui needed to confirm something else.
Was his ability to activate Gene Points at will limited to his head?
Or could it work throughout his whole body?
Or only in certain areas?
But before trying, Xu Tui went to the kitchen and prepared ten boiled eggs.
Only after returning to his room did Xu Tui realize that he'd lost five pounds overnight.
He had a habit of weighing himself every night before bed.
Before going to sleep last night, he'd stepped on the scale without thinking. He remembered it reading 149 pounds, not much different from usual.
But when he weighed himself just now, Xu Tui was stunned to see it read only 144 pounds.
A pound or two of daily weight fluctuation was normal and depended on things like food and water intake.
But losing five pounds overnight had to have a special cause.
Xu Tui figured it was almost certainly related to what he'd recklessly done the night before.
So today, he'd prepared ten boiled eggs as a source of energy.
Of course, Xu Tui had better options.
The market offered energy supplement pills in various F-grade brands. Only the size of a fingernail, they claimed to provide an adult with enough energy for twelve hours of activity, including strenuous exercise, though they couldn't replace food.
They were favorites among hikers and extreme sports enthusiasts.
One hundred yuan apiece.
The ads claimed that one F-grade Energy Supplement Pill provided as much energy as twelve to fifteen eggs.
Yeah, they were a little pricey.
Of course, Xu Tui's family was only of modest means, but he could still afford them.
The main reason was that they tasted bad.
And they had no chew to them!
If there were F-grade Energy Supplement Pills, then naturally there were E-grade Energy Supplement Potions, too.
E-grade Energy Supplement Potions were already controlled substances.
Supposedly, they were available on the black market in Jincheng Prefecture.
But Xu Tui was a senior in high school who didn't even know where the black market was.
Before trying anything, Xu Tui ate five boiled eggs.
They didn't taste good if he just stuffed them into his mouth, and they made him feel sick.
A little light soy sauce and a bit more vinegar.
Cut the boiled eggs into big chunks.
Dip them.
Delicious!
A few breaths later, Xu Tui entered the state of Illusory Internal Vision again through meditation.
All he had to do was relax and clear his mind to enter a meditative state quickly. Then, by concentrating his attention, he could enter the state of Illusory Internal Vision.
Xu Tui felt that if he practiced enough, he might eventually be able to enter the state of Illusory Internal Vision anytime and anywhere, no matter the conditions.
In the state of Illusory Internal Vision, the phantom was filled inside and out with flowing light and densely packed gray points. Some were extremely small and still blurry, while others were crystal clear.
At that moment, Xu Tui longed more than ever to go to school.
He wanted to study at Huaxia Gene University and use what he learned to answer the questions that puzzled him.
After observing the phantom, so full of gray points, for a while, Xu Tui finally prepared to begin his experiment.
But before he tried, he first took last night's lesson to heart.
He'd been reckless with that gray point last night. He'd acted too hastily.
The most immediate consequence was that blood had sprayed from his seven orifices before he passed out on the spot.
Thinking back now, he felt a little afraid.
If he'd pushed it any further, could his genome have collapsed on the spot?
Then he'd have gotten First Blood and been OVER!
He hadn't thought things through enough at the time.
Xu Tui felt that he should learn from last night's mistake.
If he tried again tonight, he should take things as slowly as possible.
Luck wouldn't always favor someone reckless!
In the state of Illusory Internal Vision, the gray points on the phantom were concentrated mainly in the head, limbs, and vital organs.
There were some gray points in the crotch area, too.
Xu Tui had some understanding of the abilities associated with Gene Points in those areas.
For instance, points in the head were related to many Mysterious System abilities, including sound-based, smell-based, and vision-based abilities.
Gene Points in the limbs were definitely related to speed and strength, though not exclusively.
As for the other areas, with Xu Tui's current understanding, he couldn't even classify them in broad terms.
The human genome was far too complex.
A hundred years ago, most scientists believed the human body had twenty to thirty thousand genes.
But now, scientists believed humans might have more than two hundred thousand genes, or even more.
That only referred to how many genes humans possessed. It didn't mean that all of those two hundred thousand or more genes were useful.
Over the course of humanity's long evolution, many genes had naturally fallen silent.
Genes themselves were also complex.
A single gene might determine whether a certain human ability could be activated, but activating that ability might also require the combined influence of several or even dozens of genes.
That was what made genetic enhancement and evolution so complex and difficult.
Tonight, Xu Tui's goal was to find out whether his ability to activate Gene Points at will could activate points outside his head.
First, he had to choose an area beyond his head.
The incident at the milk tea shop that day, when he'd helped capture a traitor, had taught Xu Tui that personal strength mattered.
Of all things, safety mattered most.
Greater personal strength could improve his safety to some extent.
If his legs had been faster and stronger that day, that kick to the crotch might have taken out the traitor codenamed Long Underwear.
It might have left him completely unable to fight.
Even setting that aside, activating Gene Points in his legs—whether for strength or speed—could help Xu Tui run faster when he was in danger.
He could fight or flee.
Xu Tui chose his left lower leg as the area to test.
As for which specific Gene Point to try activating, Xu Tui was at a loss.
There were hundreds of gray points visible around his left lower leg.
Which were useful and which weren't? Which were related to speed, which to strength, and which might improve several things at once? Xu Tui had no idea.
He had only one option—guess!
He'd pick one at random, but he couldn't be reckless tonight. He had to go slowly.
Fortunately, his ability to activate Gene Points at will was mainly influenced by his own consciousness. Otherwise, Xu Tui wouldn't even have known how to do it.
Basically, it was like Xu Tui's own consciousness telling him something.
It was similar to telling himself he was handsome, then actually feeling handsome because he believed it.
Xu Tui really was handsome!
"Let a little more energy flow toward this spot. Just a little more."
After holding on to that thought for a few seconds, Xu Tui saw two or three strands of Energy White Light flowing out from his stomach and into the Gene Point his consciousness was guiding.
The Gene Point only trembled once. He felt nothing else.
"A little more. Just a little more than before."
Xu Tui was very careful, trying to make the activation as gentle as possible.
But this state lasted only a little over forty minutes before Xu Tui got hungry.
Very hungry.
He wolfed down the five boiled eggs he had left and was still hungry.
He cleaned out everything in the refrigerator that he could eat right away.
Xu Tui could somewhat understand how Cheng Mo felt.
Being that hungry was truly awful.
He even wanted to eat paper.
Only after his stomach had swollen with food did Xu Tui return to his room to practice.
That's right, Xu Tui called it practice.
About an hour later, the gray point in his left lower leg that Xu Tui had been working on lit up with white light, as if someone had switched on the power.
It had lit up.
At that very moment, Xu Tui's right hand suddenly began to ache with a spasm-like pain.
Before he could examine it further,
a wave of extreme exhaustion washed over him.
It felt as though he hadn't slept for days.
He was utterly exhausted.
His stomach began to cramp from hunger, too.
But even the hunger that made his stomach cramp couldn't suppress his drowsiness.
The moment Xu Tui's mind relaxed slightly, he sank into a deep sleep.
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