Xu Tui got out of bed, used a chair as an obstacle, and went to the bathroom. First, he ruled out the possibility that he was hallucinating.
Then Xu Tui found a piece of paper and wrote down his name.
He wrote down the names of several classmates he'd secretly liked in middle school.
They were all girls.
No boys.
He looked them over.
They were all correct.
Xu Tui ruled out the possibility that he was suffering a mental breakdown.
"Basically, I can be sure that the shadow I see with my eyes closed while meditating is me."
He had two reasons for reaching this conclusion.
First, the fourteen faint points of light concentrated in the head overlapped almost perfectly with the fourteen Mysterious System Gene Points he'd activated that afternoon.
Second, while meditating, Xu Tui had tried moving.
For example, when he changed from sitting cross-legged to lying down, or stretched his arms and shook his head, the shadow changed in the same way as long as his movements were large enough.
"Could this be a Mysterious System ability I gained after activating fourteen Gene Points today?"
Xu Tui got out of bed again, opened his Personal Communication Device, and searched online. His fingers flew across the screen.
There was a flood of information online about Mysterious System abilities.
But very little of it was useful.
And there was even less about the strange shadow Xu Tui saw while meditating.
Since ancient times, comments had produced heroes.
Xu Tui couldn't find any information he could directly use as a reference, but he did find a few useful clues in the comments on online novels and movies.
Based on the current levels of human genetic enhancement and evolution, only a tiny number of Gene Evolvers among Gene Liberators, Gene Mutants, Gene Evolvers, and Gene Transmuters developed the ability to look inside their own bodies.
A small number of Gene Transmuters could also gain this ability through genetic fusion and adjustment.
The main purpose of this ability was to let its owner understand changes in their physical condition as fully as possible, without relying on any technological instruments.
In many cases, it was even more accurate than technological instruments.
It was a genetic ability that ranked relatively low in terms of practical support.
Yet it was a favorite among the hard-core types who experimented directly on their own bodies.
By contrast, Gene Warriors of the Limitless System and Transcendents of the Mysterious System on the extraterrestrial battlefield wouldn't choose this evolutionary path.
Every choice of an enhancement and evolution path was precious and had to be made with great care.
This low-level auxiliary ability was quite similar to the shadow Xu Tui currently saw.
Although it was only a low-level auxiliary ability, Xu Tui was satisfied.
At least I have a Mysterious System ability now, right?
Otherwise, if someone asked him, all he could do was stare blankly.
Besides, only high-level Gene Evolvers or Gene Transmuters could develop this low-level auxiliary ability.
As for Xu Tui right now?
Neither Gene Mutant nor Gene Evolver had anything to do with him.
He wasn't even the lowest-level Gene Liberator.
Satisfied!
More than satisfied!
It was good to understand his own body, right?
Afterward, Xu Tui meditated again and entered this state of looking inside his body, beginning to learn about his physical structure.
Hmm, let's try a different position.
This time, he lay down to meditate.
An hour later, Xu Tui realized that he'd learned more about human anatomy than he had in all six years of middle and high school combined.
Nerves, muscles, bones, joints, blood vessels, and so on.
Looking at a thousand models couldn't compare to looking inside himself once.
Before long, Xu Tui made another discovery.
His ability to look inside himself had two different modes. He called one True Internal Vision.
In this mode, he could see everything inside his body clearly. Muscles, joints, even his inguinal lymph nodes were child's play—
including blood flowing through his capillaries, and even the nerve impulses and reflexes in the most precious part of a young man's body.
He called the other mode Illusory Internal Vision.
In this meditative state, Xu Tui could see a humanoid shadow with countless hazy lights flowing through it.
The fourteen very dim points of light in its head were the distinguishing feature.
Xu Tui also found that the more he concentrated while using Illusory Internal Vision, the clearer the humanoid shadow became.
Apart from the fourteen very dim points of light concentrated in the head, Xu Tui could also see countless gray spots scattered throughout the shadow.
The more important a body part's function was, the more gray spots it had.
This gave Xu Tui an idea.
Soon, he made another discovery while using Illusory Internal Vision.
When he concentrated intensely in this state, the countless hazy lights that made up the humanoid shadow gradually became distinct.
Most of them were ordinary gray lights. Only two areas had lights of a different color.
The first was the fourteen points in the head representing activated Gene Points, which were a faint white.
The other was the middle of the humanoid shadow, where faint white light shimmered in a somewhat irregular rhythm.
The white light flowed in no fixed direction, but more than a third of it flowed toward the head. The rest split into more than a dozen streams and flowed toward the chest and abdomen, then the limbs.
But very little flowed toward the limbs!
Xu Tui was puzzled.
What exactly was he seeing?
His Internal Vision didn't seem quite the same as the kind described online by Gene Evolvers and Gene Transmuters.
After observing for a full quarter of an hour, Xu Tui suddenly realized something.
Under Illusory Internal Vision, the humanoid shadow was almost exactly the same size as Xu Tui himself.
A quick comparison of the positions made it clear.
Wasn't the place where the white light flowed out his stomach?
Apart from the head, weren't the areas receiving more of the white light in the chest and abdomen precisely where the heart and liver were?
"Does the stomach digest food to produce energy, which is then used by all parts of the body?"
Xu Tui made a bold guess.
Some of the white light flowing out of his stomach went all the way up to the head, then split into three streams.
The largest stream entered the head and dispersed throughout it.
A smaller stream flowed into the fourteen activated Gene Points. The white light radiating from them seemed to have increased just a tiny bit.
The smallest stream flowed into a few gray spots near the activated Gene Points, then disappeared.
Those gray spots trembled slightly, then fell still.
This wasn't an illusion.
Observing with the naked eye might have led to an illusion.
But in the state of Internal Vision, every change was crystal clear.
There was no such thing as an illusion.
Xu Tui felt that he might have discovered something significant.
To be cautious, he observed closely for a full fifteen minutes and confirmed his discovery.
During this observation, Xu Tui made another discovery.
His consciousness—or rather, his own attention—could influence the direction in which the energy-supplying white light flowed out of his stomach to a certain extent.
"If that's the case..."
Xu Tui's heart stirred. A very bold idea suddenly came to him.
Young men were supposed to guard against lust and recklessness!
But if they could guard against it, they wouldn't be young men.
On impulse, Xu Tui went for it, using his consciousness to guide the flow.
With Xu Tui's primary consciousness directing it, the energy-supplying white light flowing out of his stomach surged toward his head as much as possible.
It surged toward a gray spot beside one of the Gene Points shining with white light.
Under Xu Tui's Illusory Internal Vision, that gray spot lit up suddenly, like a lightbulb switched on.
At the same time, an indescribable pain hit him.
Xu Tui felt as if Class Mom had cracked him over the head with her leather whip. His tightly shut eyes flew open.
The instant blood seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, everything went black, and Xu Tui lost consciousness.
Xu Tui had bled for the second time today!
Xu Tui woke to his mother Zhang Xiuli's terrified scream.
After managing to open his eyes, Xu Tui saw his parents standing by his bed.
His mother, Zhang Xiuli, was pale with fright, tears streaming down her face as she stood there helplessly.
His father, Xu Jianguo, looked anxious, but he was much calmer.
"Are you feeling better?"
"Can you move your hands?"
"Can you speak?"
"If you can, tell me how you feel."
The scene before him left Xu Tui confused.
His head was foggy and heavy. He felt as if he hadn't slept enough.
This was the first time in years that Xu Tui had woken up feeling so exhausted.
His limbs ached a little and felt sluggish. He really didn't want to move; he just wanted to lie there.
But his parents' voices gradually brought Xu Tui back to his senses.
He also remembered what had happened the night before.
Had that gray spot lit up in the end or not?
Why had he passed out?
And why were his parents so scared?
"Dad, what... what happened to me?" Xu Tui asked slowly.
When Xu Tui spoke, his father, Xu Jianguo, relaxed a little.
"You didn't get up this morning. Your mom came to wake you and found your face covered in dried blood."
"My face was covered in blood?"
Xu Tui raised an aching arm and touched his face, scraping off some dried blood.
"Damn, this is my second bloodbath."
Xu Tui could speak, was conscious, and could move his arms and legs. That meant it probably wasn't serious.
According to his father, Xu Jianguo, it might have been a delayed side effect from Xu Tui activating Gene Points the day before.
His mother, Zhang Xiuli, still insisted that Xu Tui go to the hospital for a checkup.
Knowing the accident had probably happened because he'd recklessly tried to activate that gray spot, Xu Tui was extremely reluctant to go to the hospital.
In the end, with his father, Xu Jianguo, backing him up, the two-to-one vote temporarily overruled the family's ultimate care boss—Mom!
He got up and washed.
Xu Tui suddenly realized he was starving.
He was hungry enough to eat a whole cow.
After polishing off two and a half portions of the three-person breakfast, Xu Tui leaned back with a full belly and a satisfied look. He felt much more energetic.
And then, just as he was feeling more alert, Xu Tui suddenly sensed something different.
A response to a question: Brothers and sisters asked why Zhu San had a daughter but didn't show her off. Wasn't that sexist?
Of course not!
Zhu San was mainly afraid that if he showed off his daughter, ten thousand sons-in-law would come asking for her hand.
After all, Zhu San's genes were so handsome they were off the charts!
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