Arc 15Soul and Serum

Dilos destroyed Hulk’s independent consciousness, then developed a soul and learned to return it safely to his body with the Ancient One’s help. After treating her dark-energy corruption, he began a dangerous genetic enhancement that ended with him confronting a newly born parasitic consciousness.

  • Dilos defeated Hulk by cutting apart Hulk’s consciousness, whose fragments Bruce Banner absorbed as Hulk died and Banner was reborn.
  • Dilos offered Bruce Banner and Betty Ross research positions and a way to keep Banner’s mutated genes dormant, then set them up in a laboratory.
  • Dilos and Dr. Connors developed a new enhancement serum, while Piotr’s progress and the creation of the Department of Mutant Affairs advanced Dilos’s wider plans.
  • Dilos strengthened his consciousness until it became a powerful golden soul, then met the Ancient One after his soul emerged from his body.
  • Dilos followed the Ancient One’s guidance to compress his soul and reunite it with his body, then visited Kamar-Taj and helped her eradicate the dark energy corroding her.
  • Dilos and Dr. Connors prepared and administered the new serum, sealing Dilos inside a black cocoon as foreign genes began altering him.
  • As Dilos endured days of bodily reconstruction, he gained new control over radiation and energy, entered a strange inner world, and faced an identical newly born parasitic consciousness.
Chapters 357–381 Vol. 4 Read

Ch. 357352. I Only Need One Finger to Kill You

Dilos followed Hulk after the military battle and studied the divided consciousness within him, then attacked him in a cave to test his strength. Hulk healed and grew stronger with his rage, while Dilos claimed that one finger would be enough to kill him.

  • Dilos arrived too late to witness the end of Hulk's fight with the military and memorized General Thunderbolt Ross's psychic fluctuations before following Hulk and Betty Ross.
  • Dilos observed that Hulk's mind held separate Bruce Banner and Hulk consciousnesses linked by psychic bands.
  • Hulk took the unconscious Betty to a cave, where Dilos suddenly hurled him into the mud.
  • Hulk attacked Dilos with a powerful punch, but Dilos broke his hand and remained unharmed.
  • Hulk's rage healed his arm and increased his strength, and Dilos challenged him by saying he only needed one finger to kill him.

Ch. 358358. Chapter 353: Flicking Hulk into Submission

Dilos tested Hulk’s limits and repeatedly defeated him while Hulk’s strength rose with his rage. As Hulk neared his physical limit, Dilos noticed Hulk’s consciousness was beginning to consume Bruce Banner’s and considered destroying it with biofield-condensed mental power.

  • Hulk flew into a rage and unleashed a storm of punches, but Dilos shattered the resulting air columns with one finger.
  • Dante reported that Hulk’s punches approached twenty thousand tons, and Dilos taunted him into attacking again.
  • Dilos blocked Hulk’s punches and kicks with one finger, then repeatedly used Taiji techniques to redirect Hulk and throw him to the ground.
  • Hulk kept getting up and attacking, growing stronger until he reached nearly one hundred and ninety thousand tons of punching force and began flying at nearly twelve times the speed of sound.
  • Dilos noticed that Bruce Banner’s spiritual light mass was being enveloped by Hulk’s, and he considered using mental power through his biofield to destroy Hulk’s consciousness.

Ch. 359Hulk's Death! (Second Update)

Dilos connected his mental power to the biological field and regained precise control over his abilities. Hulk lost his rage and collapsed, and Dilos destroyed Hulk’s independent consciousness, leaving Bruce Banner’s mind to absorb the released psychic energy.

  • Dilos used his mental power to connect his consciousness to the biological field and regain control over its energy and feedback.
  • Hulk lost sight of Dilos, dispelled his rage, and rapidly lost strength before falling into a mountain valley unconscious.
  • Hulk’s body shrank back into Bruce Banner, and Dilos found that Banner’s core memories and personality remained intact despite severe mental damage.
  • Dilos pierced Hulk’s independent consciousness with psychic blades and cut it into fragments.
  • Bruce Banner’s psychic light sphere absorbed the fragments’ energy and grew dozens of times larger, while Hulk died and Banner was reborn.

Ch. 360Confused Bruce Banner

Bruce Banner reunited with Betty after Dilos Sullivan rescued them and subdued Hulk. Dilos revealed that Hulk was no longer inside Bruce, and Bruce discovered he could control his transformation before Dilos offered them wine to celebrate.

  • Bruce woke in an unfamiliar room, found Betty outside speaking with a blond man, and rushed to her side.
  • Betty explained that Dilos Sullivan had subdued Hulk, provided them with a hiding place, and invited them to work as researchers for his company.
  • Bruce recognized Dilos from a newspaper and asked why he wanted to hire them, warning that he could lose control at any moment.
  • Dilos questioned whether Hulk was still inside Bruce, and Bruce's heart raced as his eyes turned green without triggering a transformation.
  • Betty urged Bruce to calm down, and Bruce slowed his heartbeat and returned to normal.
  • Dilos told Bruce that Hulk was gone and offered him and Betty wine to celebrate.

Ch. 361The Science Duo Joins (Second Update)

Dilos offered Bruce Banner and Betty Ross generous research positions, and Bruce agreed after Dilos promised to suppress his transformations. The three entered a spatial passage to Sullivan Company to continue discussing the arrangement.

  • Bruce Banner confirmed that Hulk’s consciousness had vanished and thanked Dilos for resolving the problem.
  • Dilos offered Bruce Banner and Betty Ross research freedom, equipment, legal protection, and a share of profits.
  • Bruce Banner hesitated because he could still transform in his sleep and accidentally hurt people.
  • Dilos said he could put Bruce Banner’s mutated genes into dormancy to prevent transformations, though he could not remove them.
  • Bruce Banner agreed to join, and Dilos opened a spatial passage to Sullivan Company and invited him and Betty through.

Ch. 362Success of the New Serum?

Bruce and Betty began work at Dilos's new laboratory, researching ways to improve the body's healing and adaptability based on Bruce's transformations. Back at Isla Sorna, Dilos learned that Dr. Connors had successfully developed a new serum and hurried to inspect the results.

  • Dilos showed Bruce and Betty the fully equipped laboratory he had prepared outside Brooklyn.
  • Bruce and Betty began researching drugs to enhance the body's self-healing and adaptability rather than seeking a cure for Bruce's transformations.
  • Dilos returned to the Isla Sorna underground base and found Dr. Connors exhausted but excited.
  • Dr. Connors told Dilos he had successfully spliced triple-helix DNA using Dilos's preliminary data and ideas.
  • Dr. Connors reported that all test subjects had succeeded with stable results and high genetic compatibility, then led Dilos to his personal laboratory.

Ch. 363The Manufacturing Method of the New Serum (Part 2)

Dilos visited Dr. Connors's laboratory and learned how he had developed a new serum based on the Super Soldier Serum, using genetically modified gorillas as test subjects. Dr. Connors warned that administering it required immense energy, but Dilos said he could provide all the energy needed.

  • Dilos saw that Dr. Connors's silverback gorillas had human-like intelligence, speech, and immense strength, and warned that they could become dangerous.
  • Dr. Connors described the soundproof cages, quantum shields, and Pym Particle emitters protecting the gorillas, including those able to mimic other materials.
  • Dr. Connors explained that he had used Captain America's DNA, mutated spiders, enhanced suits, and a plant-based component of the Super Soldier Serum to develop the new serum.
  • Dilos asked about side effects, and Dr. Connors said the serum had no known flaws but required an enormous amount of energy to cause its mutations.
  • Dilos told Dr. Connors not to worry about the energy requirement because he had plenty to spare.

Ch. 364Simulation and Surprise

Dilos and Dr. Connors combined two enhancement methods into a plan for Dilos’s final transformation, which they prepared to begin after Dante completed the equipment. Dilos left to upgrade Piotr, while Qin Jiayin secretly cultivated with dangerous starlight crystals and planned a surprise for him.

  • Dilos and Dr. Connors discovered that the new serum’s powerful benefits came with severe side effects, then found that combining it with indirect mutation-triggered enhancement could reduce those flaws and increase its potential.
  • Dilos convinced Dr. Connors that his True Essence could power the transformation, though they also prepared backup energy cores and completed the experiment’s preparations.
  • Dilos learned that Dante needed a little over a month to manufacture and test the equipment, then decided Dr. Connors would need enhancement after Dilos’s own transformation.
  • Dilos visited Qin Jiayin, who said she was tired and asked him to talk with her the next day, so he left to find Piotr and give him an upgrade.
  • Qin Jiayin continued meditating in the gravity room beside several enormous starlight crystals, whose power caused her psychic shielding device to signal Extreme Danger, and anticipated Dilos’s reaction to her surprise.

Ch. 365The Terrifying Steel Body (Second Update)

Dilos oversaw Piotr’s foundation establishment and tested the enormous improvements to his strength, speed, and metal form. After Dilos urged him to trust his own abilities and take responsibility, Piotr gained confidence, and they prepared to motivate the rest of the team to train.

  • Piotr absorbed a pool of life potion and completed foundation establishment, advancing his Guoshu cultivation and improving his appearance.
  • Dilos tested Piotr’s abilities and found that his metal transformation multiplied his strength to roughly sixty thousand tons per arm while greatly increasing his speed and resilience.
  • Dilos told Piotr that his achievements came from his own hard work and that he was ready to protect himself and shoulder greater responsibilities.
  • Piotr thanked Dilos, resolved to face the road ahead with confidence, and agreed to leave with him to encourage the others to train.

Ch. 366Scarlet Witch's Inciting Incident... (Third Watch)

Dilos established the United States Department of Mutant Affairs and recruited Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. After seeing Wanda’s revealing outfit attract unwanted attention, he decided to require the department’s employees to wear formal clothing.

  • Dilos became director of the Department of Mutant Affairs, with Hank as deputy director and Charles serving in a limited role while he managed his school.
  • Hank transferred trusted City Hall staff to the new department, while mutant friends of Charles and Hank joined its ranks.
  • Quicksilver and Wanda arrived to fill out employment forms, and Wanda’s outfit drew lecherous thoughts from men nearby.
  • Dilos asked Hank whether Wanda usually dressed that way and learned Magneto had taught her to, while Charles could not control her.
  • Dilos confirmed that he could require employees, including the twins, to wear formal clothing at work and on missions.

Ch. 367367. Thoughts and Charles

Piotr’s rapid progress inspired the Superpowered Guard Team to train harder, while Qin Jiayin’s growing strength and secretive behavior left Dilos uncertain about their relationship. As Dilos considered what to do next, Charles contacted him to discuss something.

  • Piotr’s transformation spurred the Superpowered Guard Team, along with Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow, to take an interest in Guoshu training.
  • Qin Jiayin’s physical abilities rapidly improved through true essence and Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound training, though she had not reached minute perception.
  • Dilos restricted Qin Jiayin’s training and life potions to reduce the risk of a parasitic consciousness.
  • Qin Jiayin continued avoiding time alone with Dilos and kept the reason secret, leading him to decide to give her space.
  • Charles cautiously reached out to Dilos, who connected with him and heard that Charles wanted to discuss something.

Ch. 368368. Soul and Master (Second Update)

Charles explained to Dilos how consciousness could develop into a soul and taught him about astral projection, revealing the benefits and dangers of a fully formed soul. He left Dilos with the knowledge that the soul was essential to becoming a god.

  • Dilos teleported to Charles, who offered to teach him astral projection and asked about the relationship between consciousness and the soul.
  • Charles explained that consciousness began as an aspect of the soul, then could develop into a complete soul that resisted changes in the body.
  • Charles revealed that his disability had left his soul incomplete, though its development had improved his psychic control and observation.
  • Charles told Dilos that a fully formed soul could leave its body for a long time and possess another person, but that possession caused the soul and body to erode each other.
  • Charles warned that a soul could possess only a body of the same species with great difficulty and said that developing consciousness into a soul was essential to becoming a god.

Ch. 369Soul Formation, Crushing All Sides

Dilos strengthened his consciousness with true essence and began forging it into a soul, unleashing a wave of power that affected creatures across thousands of kilometers. He floated out of his body as a bald woman in Kamar-Taj sensed the disturbance and reacted with shock.

  • Dilos returned to his private room on Isla Sorna and spent seven days strengthening his consciousness with true essence until it reached its limit.
  • Dilos connected his mental power to his body and energy reserves, consuming diverse biological energies to forge a golden sphere around his consciousness core.
  • Dilos's golden sphere released a wave that reached thousands of kilometers, causing people, dinosaurs, and Cybertronians, including Qin Jiayin, Dr. Connors, and Thundercracker, to collapse in pain.
  • Dilos withdrew the wave and then began floating out of his body, seeing his own body lying motionless below him.
  • A bald woman in Kamar-Taj sensed the disturbance, shattered her teacup, and exclaimed in shock.

Ch. 370First Meeting with the Ancient One

Dilos formed a soul but found that it took the shape of a huge golden orb, was difficult to control, and could not reenter his body. After an unknown intruder blocked his soul power, Ancient One appeared and introduced herself.

  • Dilos summoned and examined his soul power, recognizing that it seemed to be the soul power Charles had described.
  • Dilos discovered that his soul looked like a huge golden orb rather than his body and could remain outside his body without weakening.
  • Dilos tried repeatedly to return to his body, but his soul bounced off it and knocked the body across the chamber.
  • Dilos heard someone laugh and attacked the intruder with soul power, but a transparent wall blocked the attack.
  • Ancient One tore open the space before Dilos, appeared in the chamber, and introduced herself as the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj.

Ch. 371The Ancient One's Words, Reciprocity

Dilos met the Ancient One after his soul-forming caused a disturbance across Earth, and cautiously questioned her intentions. She offered to help him control his soul power and return to his body, but Dilos asked what he could do in return.

  • The Ancient One explained that she had sensed the great commotion when Dilos achieved a soul and marveled at his unusual golden soul form.
  • Dilos remained wary as the Ancient One studied him and mentioned that his form resembled the Venerable One of K'un-Lun.
  • The Ancient One apologized for entering Dilos's private space and offered guidance on controlling his soul power and returning to his body.
  • Dilos lowered his guard, introduced himself as Dilos Sullivan, and apologized for his suspicion.
  • Dilos invoked the Chinese saying about courtesy and reciprocity, then asked the Ancient One how he could repay her help.

Ch. 372372. Ancient One's Deal, Mage's Insight (Second Update)

Ancient One examined Dilos and explained that his immense soul power made it difficult to control and caused his body to reject him. She discovered that the golden vortex in his abdomen might restrain his soul, and they prepared to try using it to help him return to his body.

  • Ancient One told Dilos that he needed to gradually master his excessive soul power and that forcing his soul back into his body could destroy it.
  • Ancient One examined the golden vortex in Dilos's abdomen and found its stable form unusual.
  • Dilos suspected Ancient One wanted to master true essence and wondered whether dark energy from the Dark Dimension affected her.
  • Ancient One explained that the golden vortex could compress and suppress Dilos's soul, and suggested they begin with it.
  • Dilos agreed to try Ancient One's method and asked her to explain what he should do.

Ch. 373The Ancient One's Method, The Path of Soul Locking (Part 3)

Dilso followed Ancient One’s instructions to take control of his body’s physical-level consciousnesses and began shrinking his soul with the help of True Essence. His soul continued to contract as his mind grew clearer, while he waited to complete the process before merging with his body.

  • Ancient One explained that soul power could connect a soul to bodily tissues and energies, and that Dilso had to overcome the body’s physical-level control system to enter it.
  • Dilso wrapped his body in soul-power threads, scanned it, and found the chaotic consciousnesses that had been preventing his soul from entering.
  • Dilso eroded and assimilated those consciousnesses, altering their commands until they became his own bodily control system.
  • Dilso refrained from entering his body because his soul was still too powerful for it, and Ancient One explained how a soul could use its connection to the body and its energies to shrink.
  • Dilso drew True Essence from his body and used it to compress his soul, which gradually shrank as his mind became clearer.

Ch. 374369. Soul Control Core, Ancient One's Shock (Fourth Update)

Dilos formed a golden shell around his soul from soul power and bodily energies, allowing his soul to fuse safely with his body. After discovering his biofield had become stronger and more versatile, he saw Ancient One staring at him in shock and referring to the K'un-Lun Venerable.

  • Dilos found that his soul could not shrink past thirty centimeters until he combined true essence with the power of qi and blood, shrinking it to three centimeters.
  • Dilos entered the golden vortex in his abdomen but discovered that withdrawing the surrounding energies made his soul expand dangerously.
  • Dilos wrapped his soul, the golden vortex, and bodily energies in soul power, forming a golden shell that kept his soul contained even when the energies were withdrawn.
  • Dilos sent his soul and shell through his body and fused them with his physical form, then confirmed that his vital signs were normal.
  • Dilos tested his biofield and found it formed faster, had greater defensive power, and could be shaped freely, though nearly all his true essence had been consumed.
  • Dilos turned to thank Ancient One and found her stunned as she compared what she had seen to the K'un-Lun Venerable.

Ch. 375375. Dilos's 'Little' Trouble

After resolving the problem with his soul, Dilos spent two weeks handling the fallout from his uncontrolled soul power and decided to take over International Genetic Technologies openly. He visited Ancient One at Kamar-Taj to fulfill his promise and ask about her reaction to his soul, leaving their conversation just beginning.

  • Dilos dealt with the damage and public fallout from his soul power pressing down on living things around Jurassic Park, while disguised as Adam Jones.
  • Dilos decided to wait until International Genetic Technologies was near collapse before taking control under his own identity, and then went to find Ancient One.
  • Dilos located Kamar-Taj by spreading his controlled soul power across the region, and Ancient One opened a golden spatial passage to bring him inside.
  • Ancient One welcomed Dilos into Kamar-Taj, where he said he had come to fulfill his promise and ask questions about her reaction to his soul.
  • Ancient One agreed to begin their conversation.

Ch. 376Ancient One's Physical Hidden Dangers and Secrets (Second Update)

Dilos learned that Ancient One’s body was slowly being destroyed by dark energy she had absorbed centuries earlier, and that she hoped his true essence energy could suppress it. After explaining his unusual, accidentally developed golden core, Dilos agreed to try treating her.

  • Dilos and Ancient One discussed Kamar-Taj, the Immortals, and K'un-Lun, including their energies and histories.
  • Ancient One explained that dark energy was corroding her body and would destroy it within ten years, despite her powerful soul resisting its effects.
  • Ancient One said the Immortals and K'un-Lun had refused to teach her true essence energy because she was an outsider, and she had hoped Dilos's abilities could help her.
  • Dilos told Ancient One that his master had taught him only to refine vital energy and that he had developed his true essence energy and false core by accident.
  • Ancient One judged that Dilos's true essence energy should be enough to remove the dark energy, and Dilos offered to treat her immediately.

Ch. 377Ancient One's Affliction, Cured by Medicine

Dilos helped Ancient One remove the dark energy that had been eroding her for centuries, using his true essence while she activated protective magical runes. Ancient One recovered enough to thank him and accepted him as a friend, while Dilos continued to consider how he might gain the power to change the world.

  • Ancient One completed the magical runes in her chamber, then rested while Dilos waited and reflected on humanity and his plans for the world.
  • Dilos and Ancient One began using the runes to draw the dark energy in her body toward her back, where Dilos's true essence could counter it.
  • Ancient One endured five hours of pain as she drove the dark energy toward Dilos's true essence, and together they eradicated it completely.
  • Dilos gave Ancient One more true essence to help her recover, and she thanked him for his help.
  • Dilos called Ancient One a friend, and she agreed that they were friends.

Ch. 378378. Chapter 373 The Horrors of Gods and Demons

After restoring his depleted true essence, Dilos and Dr. Connors finished preparing a new serum designed to take his power further. Learning from Ancient One's notebook how vastly gods and demons outmatched him, Dilos began the enhancement knowing how far he still had to go.

  • Dilos left Kamar-Taj after Ancient One gave him a notebook, then returned to Isla Sorna and replenished the true essence he had spent helping her.
  • Dilos discovered that restoring crystallized true essence consumed enormous quantities of Pym Particles, and he used more than a barrel's worth to recover what he had lost.
  • Two days later, Dilos and Dr. Connors began manufacturing the new serum and calibrating its data with the completed equipment.
  • After seven days of preparation, Dilos lay inside the life cultivation device as Dr. Connors finalized the setup for the enhancement.
  • Dilos and Dr. Connors discussed how the new serum's superpower genes could make it flawless divine power.
  • Dilos recalled Ancient One's notebook, which revealed that true gods and demons could destroy planets and that god-kings such as Odin could destroy the solar system, leaving him aware of the immense gap between his strength and theirs.

Ch. 379379. Divine Blood Reinforcement, God or Demon? (Second Update)

Dilos underwent a complex enhancement procedure that fused thirteen foreign genes into his triple-helix DNA, then was sealed inside a black cocoon to incubate. Dr. Connors wondered whether Dilos would emerge as a god or a demon, while a brief flare of dangerous golden-red energy appeared in a woman’s eyes at the X-Mansion.

  • Dilos allowed Dr. Connors to restrain him and weaken his cells so medical nanomachines could modify his DNA.
  • The nanomachines fused the new serum into Dilos’s triple-helix DNA, and Dr. Connors activated the foreign genes with blue gas.
  • Dr. Connors poured a pitch-black solution over Dilos, which hardened into a giant black egg that he sealed inside an expanded container.
  • Dr. Connors considered how the thirteen foreign genes might give Dilos nine powerful superpowers and wondered whether he had created a god or a demon.
  • At the X-Mansion, a dangerous golden-red energy briefly flared in a red-haired woman’s eyes before vanishing.

Ch. 380The Newborn Kara and Clark

At Kent Farm, Kara and Qin Jiayin discussed Dilos’s absence and Kara’s past before Clark overheard Kara’s complaints about him. The chapter ended with Qin Jiayin leaving the cousins to face their awkward family dispute, while she reflected that Clark might eventually surpass Kara in strength.

  • Qin Jiayin reassured Kara that Dilos was away handling a matter, while Kara tried to suppress her fondness for him.
  • Kara recalled how Dilos had removed the artificial consciousness Zor-El implanted in her and how she had since come to live with Clark and his adoptive parents.
  • Kara asked Qin Jiayin to train with her, explaining that Clark was weaker and treated her like a child.
  • Clark arrived behind Kara and heard her say she looked down on him, prompting Qin Jiayin to leave them alone.
  • Qin Jiayin reflected that Kara currently outmatched Clark because of her greater physical strength and experience, though Clark could surpass her after further training.

Ch. 381Black Dilos Reappears (Part 2)

Dilos endured a major serum transformation that strengthened his body and soul and gave him new abilities, then entered the dangerous black cavern in his soul after its threat diminished. Inside, he confronted a being who looked like him and called it his newly born parasitic consciousness.

  • Dilos endured several days of bodily breakdown and reconstruction inside the black cocoon as his soul adapted to the serum's genes and his crystallized true essence dwindled.
  • Dilos discovered new control over radiation and internal energy, but avoided entering the black cavern after sensing danger within it.
  • On the sixth day, Dilos used telekinesis to operate the energy solution and absorbed its converted light and electrical energy to strengthen his body.
  • The black cavern suddenly pulled at Dilos's soul and false core, and he entered it after sensing that its danger had lessened.
  • Dilos found himself in a world of clashing landscapes and faced an identical man, whom he recognized as a newly born parasitic consciousness.
Arc 15 of 18