Extraordinary Power

"What should supernatural power be like?"

Lu Zhiyu had been thinking about this question. In his vision, such a life-form shouldn't merely be able to control its own body; it should also be able to use its mental power to interfere with the rules of the outside world. That was how a supernatural being ought to be—and the true way to use mental power!

It took an incredibly powerful knowledge base to manipulate the rules of the world. The only thing Lu Zhiyu could think of for now was temperature. What was temperature? In common terms, it was a physical quantity that indicated how hot or cold an object was. On the microscopic level, however, it was the intensity of the thermal motion of the object's molecules.

From the perspective of molecular kinetic theory, temperature was a measure of the average kinetic energy of an object's molecules. It was the collective expression of the thermal motion of a large number of molecules. The mental control of a deified creature could reach the molecular level—but it could only observe, not control.

"I can observe the molecular level, but completely controlling molecules and suppressing their instinct to move is still impossible!" Lu Zhiyu shook his head. Directly controlling molecules was still unrealistic for deified creatures of their level. Besides, on a microscopic scale, you couldn't even express the number of molecules in a cubic meter with digits. How powerful would your mental strength have to be, and how finely tuned, to control that many molecules at once?

Lu Zhiyu immediately changed tack. Actually, there's no need to control the molecules. You only need to use your mental power to push their momentum, accelerating some of them into more intense motion. That will create a chain reaction and affect a wide area, raising the temperature without limit. The stronger your mental power, the wider the area in which you can control the temperature. And the more precise your control, the higher you can raise it.

Conversely, the slower you can make the molecules move, the lower the temperature. If your mental power is strong enough to suppress their instinctive motion, you can reach absolute zero.

The more Lu Zhiyu thought about it, the more excited he became. He felt that his first superpower and Mythical Creature Template were about to take shape. He looked at Sakun in the biological chamber. It was still ramming into the walls and crying out, its thoughts spilling out as a jumble of chaotic consciousness. Of course it didn't know how to control temperature—but Lu Zhiyu did.

All he had to do was develop a life template for controlling temperature and adjust Sakun's genes, transforming him into a mythical creature capable of controlling temperature. Then temperature control would become instinctive for him, without his needing to know the principles of temperature or how it was produced.

"It seems I'm the only one who can modify genes. Otherwise, even if you could control things on the atomic level with your mental power, you still wouldn't be able to make targeted changes to genes or freely design a life template!"

"The mental power of other mythical creatures is just an extension of themselves, like a tentacle. They can't modify their own life templates. If they want to evolve into mythical creatures, they have only one path: find the genes of another mythical creature and fuse them with their own, or use some of those genes to modify their own!"

Only now did Lu Zhiyu truly appreciate how powerful his mental talent, Information Transmission, was. To most people, it might seem rather weak, since all it could do was transmit and modify information, with no direct power of its own. But to Lu Zhiyu, it was practically a divine artifact!

Over the next few months, Lu Zhiyu brought Sakun to the Space Castle and began designing a Mythical Creature Template for him. Sakun's original form was a squid, and his ability was temperature control. As for the name of this creature template, Lu Zhiyu decided to call it the Zero-Degree Sea Monster!

Once he had the idea, Lu Zhiyu immediately extracted Sakun's Deified Cells and began adjusting them. But when he sent his mental power inside, he discovered that the cells were resisting its intrusion and alteration.

The moment he made contact, Lu Zhiyu could feel a chaotic will interfering with him. He didn't dare touch these Deified Cells lightly. After all, only his brain had been deified; the rest of him was still in the ordinary state of a living creature.

If Sakun's Deified Cells came into contact with him, they might invade his genes. To ordinary life-forms, this kind of creature was extremely dangerous!

Lu Zhiyu immediately thought of some of Sakun's cells that he had kept from before Sakun became a mythical creature. But he quickly shook his head. "No. Ordinary cells like those can't withstand the life template of a mythical creature. They'd collapse in an instant!"

With no other choice, Lu Zhiyu sent Sakun thoughts of goodwill through his mental power, trying to get him to lower his mental defenses. He tried many times. He even helped Sakun build a huge pool, dozens of meters long and wide, in the Botanical Garden on the top floor, where he could play. He fed him every day, too.

Whether Lu Zhiyu's actions had truly made Sakun feel his goodwill, or Sakun's chaotic will had simply driven him into a frenzy, the cells' resistance to mental power eventually disappeared.

Lu Zhiyu immediately entered Sakun's genes and saw the genetic information inside his cells. Just like Lu Zhiyu's own, after becoming a mythical creature, the genes had discarded most useless genes and the life templates of his ancestors, leaving behind only one template: Sakun's current life template.

Taking advantage of the moment, Lu Zhiyu imprinted the Zero-Degree Sea Monster Mythical Creature Template into it, then immediately pulled out. He could see the drop of blood he had extracted beginning to undergo a violent transformation.

Lu Zhiyu immediately injected it into Sakun's body. He watched Sakun's form change dramatically. His head became more streamlined, and his tentacles grew longer. His body and organs shifted according to the life template's design, as different cells assembled into different organs.

Gradually, his unique internal organs and hard shell took shape. Lu Zhiyu watched his features twist and shift until he finally became the Zero-Degree Sea Monster Lu Zhiyu had envisioned.

"It worked!"

Lu Zhiyu saw his Zero-Degree Sea Monster take shape, exactly as he had designed it. Its body was black and streamlined, beautiful to behold, and far tougher than before.

He thrashed around in the pool, his body shooting forward like a bullet and slamming into the wall. He left a huge dent in the stone, yet his body sustained almost no damage.

"Sure enough, the layer of armor covering his body is practically as hard as an alloy!"

Lu Zhiyu observed Sakun's movements, satisfied with the Zero-Degree Sea Monster template. But its most important feature hadn't appeared yet. Just then, Sakun leaped up and roared furiously at Lu Zhiyu.

"Sakun!"

Lu Zhiyu felt a powerful mental wave surge out. He realized Sakun had activated his ability and immediately covered the area around himself with his own mental power, keeping Sakun's ability from reaching him.

As Sakun unleashed his mental power, the molecules within several dozen meters began to move violently. Lu Zhiyu watched the water in the pool evaporate in an instant, triggering a violent explosion. The steam burst through the entire Botanical Garden with a thunderous roar.

The heat was so intense that even the stones turned red. The temperature throughout the entire floor shot up to several hundred degrees in an instant—no human could have survived inside.

But once the smoke cleared, Lu Zhiyu walked out unharmed. Using the ability he had given Sakun wasn't difficult for him. It simply hadn't been imprinted into his Deified Cells, so activating it was complicated and troublesome. But lowering the temperature around himself was no problem at all. Sakun could never hurt Lu Zhiyu.

Sakun lashed out with a tentacle again, and the temperature dropped instantly. Frost formed across the floor and walls, turning the whole space into a frozen wasteland.

Looking at the scene Sakun had created, Lu Zhiyu was very satisfied. "Excellent, excellent. Now this is a true mythical creature!"

Sakun was still only in his juvenile stage. As his mental power grew stronger, his body grew larger, and his Deified Cells multiplied, his abilities would surely grow more powerful—until he could burn mountains, boil seas, and freeze the earth. But reaching that point would take more than a few decades, or even a few centuries!

The new week has begun. This lazy author is rolling around and begging for votes!

Quite a few readers have complained about the author's "dirty" writing. I went back and read it all again, and found it so mild that I didn't even describe a kiss. How was that dirty? You're imagining things! Don't blame a pure-hearted author for your wicked thoughts. I refuse to take the fall!

Science fiction really is different from urban fiction. If this were back in the day, I'd have made you understand that I never write dirty scenes—I only drive fast! But the characters have already been established, and their romance has run its course. You can only learn to let go after experiencing love and wealth. I won't spend much more time describing that from here on, and the story's realistic elements will focus on other things, too.