The Difference Between Early and Late Stages

"What was that?" Mu Xiao did not react at first. He only vaguely sensed something in his Consciousness Sea, carrying a strangely familiar feeling.

After calming down, Mu Xiao wondered whether it had something to do with his rebirth. He thought to himself, Could it be that the souls of my future self and past self fused across two different timelines after my rebirth, affecting the Consciousness Sea in my brain and causing this strange illusion when I absorbed the source?

He clearly knew that three streams of invisible vital essence had entered his body just now. His cells had briefly stirred with joy before the sensation vanished without a trace. That was the optimization of his bloodline genes, but it had nothing to do with the Consciousness Sea. Even the first Gene Resonance would only be a resonance between the soul and bloodline. The Consciousness Sea basically remained unmoving; only those in the Evolution Realm would understand its existence.

If Mu Xiao had not once possessed such a profound cultivation realm, he would never have been able to clearly sense the fluctuations of the Consciousness Sea.

However, absorbing invisible vital essence was known as the "Evolutionary Power Source," or what could be called "experience points." But it was not Mu Xiao's exclusive ability. As long as New Humans killed Zombies, Mutant Monsters, or even fellow New Humans from their own side, they would automatically absorb the energy essence known as the "Evolutionary Power Source."

As for what had vaguely appeared in his Consciousness Sea, Mu Xiao could only treat it as an illusion.

In truth, every gene had its merits, and every living creature needed to consume energy. Therefore, the "Evolutionary Power Source" was pure energy that improved one's genes and optimized one's bloodline.

As long as enough was absorbed, one's bloodline genes would evolve. That was the so-called—Gene Resonance.

Mu Xiao had once surpassed the initial stage of Gene Resonance long ago and cultivated an Evolution Realm. But now, standing at the beginning of an era, he had to fight his way to enough Gene Resonances before he could steadily enter the cultivation stage. Evolution could not rely solely on external power. External means were used to build a firm foundation; only power cultivated by oneself was the root of evolution.

Evolution Resonance, however, was a passive improvement. Cultivation allowed one to actively absorb energy molecules from the air, directly refine them into the energy one needed, and raise one's realm.

Those three Zombies just now could at most provide three bloodline gene resonances. They could also be called level-three minor monsters.

Mu Xiao had just become a New Human. Although he had yet to gain any Evolution Resonance, his strength was already greater than that of many New Humans.

Yet after killing three Zombies and obtaining three streams of vital essence, he found them almost useless. He felt that rapidly increasing his resonance count would not be easy. Perhaps because he had consumed the Miracle Serum, resonance in his bloodline and agility was more difficult to achieve than for ordinary people. He needed even more "Evolutionary Power Source" to trigger resonance.

The more powerful a creature was, the more perfect and powerful its bloodline genes would be, and the richer the "Evolutionary Power Source" contained in its body.

Besides the Evolutionary Power Source, there was another, much rarer source called—the Ability Source.

The "Ability Source" depended on the cultivation direction of "Source Force Martial Arts" and "Soul Secret Arts."

An "Ability Source" could emerge from the original host's body, but the chance was rather low. Only when the original ability user possessed an especially formidable ability would an "Ability Source" form.

An Ability Source had to be absorbed actively. If absorbed successfully, there was a chance of becoming compatible with the other party's ability. If left unabsorbed, it would dissipate in about half an hour. Spatial devices could preserve Ability Sources, but such devices were extremely rare on Earth.

If one absorbed Ability Sources of the same attribute multiple times, one could rapidly improve that ability. The amount of improvement depended on the strength of the ability the original user possessed in life. But absorbing recklessly could lead to death, and every time one absorbed a source of the same rank, the improvement would gradually diminish. To improve quickly, one had to kill creatures stronger than oneself across ranks.

However, Ability Sources came in different forms. If one did not understand their forms, one could not tell what kind of ability they contained. Absorbing a useless ability was one thing, but absorbing an ability that conflicted with one's own could bring unpredictable danger.

Earthlings' bloodlines possessed compatibility traits. Once the bloodline condensed into energy and cultivation reached great success,

all abilities would become fixed. Developing new abilities would require paying a greater price, and the more abilities contained within one's bloodline, the slower one's improvement would become. It might even become impossible to break through one's limits. But if every ability was well integrated, they could compensate for one another's flaws, turn disadvantages into advantages, and accelerate cultivation. If the Evolutionary Power Source was experience that anyone could refine, then the Ability Source was a wonderful thing that increased skills and proficiency.

Therefore, New Humans not only faced enemies among biochemical monsters, but also danger from other New Humans. Because some New Humans possessed abilities identical to or beneficial for one's own cultivation, many people would kill to strengthen themselves. As a result, many New Humans in the later stages would no longer trust their own kind.

Mu Xiao had always been a cold person. He had once been accustomed to traveling alone, because he had seen too much of New Humans slaughtering one another. He had also killed some ill-intentioned companions and absorbed their "Evolutionary Power Sources" and "Ability Sources." The open and secret struggles among various factions had been even more countless.

However, acquiring and absorbing any ability required certain physical and bloodline conditions. Mu Xiao's SSS-Class Physique looked powerful, but it had only been powerful within the former Federation system. After evolving into a New Human, things would be different. For example, why did he struggle whenever he activated Mind Force? It was because his physique was not strong enough, his bloodline optimization was insufficient—in other words, his Gene Resonance count was too low, and his realm was inadequate.

Although absorbing Ability Sources could speed up improvement, if one's bloodline and body had not reached the required level, they could not withstand a powerful Ability Source. Like a container, the body had to be strengthened through training, as well as by consuming energy-rich meat, nutrient solution, Life Gene Elixir, and so on. Only by doing everything possible to improve the strength of one's bloodline and body could one advance further.

Among them, there were certain condensed substances found in Zombies and Mutant Monsters that were highly useful to New Humans for strengthening the body and increasing the power of abilities. Even Old Humans could use them to evolve into New Humans.

This was also the object of hope that Old Humans in the later era would desperately fight to obtain in order to evolve into New Humans.

Mu Xiao did not dwell on the strange substance that had appeared in his Consciousness Sea. Mistaking it for an illusion, he continued with his business.

"Those three Zombies only had Evolutionary Power Sources. No Ability Sources dropped. That makes sense. It's only the first stage right now, so Ability Sources are still pretty rare." Mu Xiao was used to thinking according to the ways of the future era. Unconsciously, he searched within himself for that familiar feeling, allowing himself to grow accustomed to the blood-soaked chaos after his rebirth.

In the early stage, Zombies could only be considered low-level Mutant Monsters. Having experienced slaughter before, Mu Xiao felt no discomfort after killing them. Instead, he found a sharp military knife whose energy function could not be activated and skillfully searched the three Zombie corpses as though looking for something.

Soon, Mu Xiao found brown condensed objects the size of soybeans in the heart regions of the three Zombies. These were highly useful to New Humans and were also what Old Humans sought in hopes of evolving.

However, these brown condensed objects were merely the lowest-grade materials. They could slightly strengthen the body and had healing effects, but only on the physical body. They had no effect on mental exhaustion or mental injuries.

"As expected, it's hard to obtain things in the early-stage setting. Even common items like Blood Beads differ by more than one grade in both drop quantity and quality compared with the later Age of Evolution." Mu Xiao murmured as he put away six Blood Beads of the poorest quality.

Blood Beads would become the universal currency in the future. The hearts of most Zombies, Mutant Humans, Mutant Beasts, and other monsters contained varying numbers of soybean-sized Blood Bead condensations. Their quality was divided into: inferior quality (brownish red), ordinary quality (vermilion), superior quality (dark red), and treasures (purplish red).

The Blood Beads Mu Xiao had just obtained were the lowest-grade inferior quality.

Besides Blood Beads, there were also Blood Crystals and Crystal Cores.

Apart from Zombies, the hearts of other powerful Mutant Monsters could condense Blood Crystals. They could strengthen the body, but they formed extremely rarely and were more valuable than Blood Beads. They were produced from the rich vital blood of Mutant Monsters, condensed inside the heart into pure blood without any viruses.

However, if too many were consumed at once without immediately refining them into the body, adverse reactions could still occur. There was a high chance that the violent consciousness within the Blood Crystals would affect one's mind and temperament, causing evolution to go wrong—that was, suffering cultivation deviation and becoming a Mutant Human.

Blood Crystals and Blood Beads shared the same quality classifications.

As for Crystal Cores, they were the most valuable materials and could only be acquired from high-level Mutant Monsters.

They were pure energy condensed from Mental Power, wrapped in a bone membrane and formed within the brain. Their effects included increasing the power of abilities, improving Mental Power, repairing hidden mental injuries, stimulating unknown potential hidden in the brain, and many other benefits. Their qualities were divided into: silver (mercury-like liquid), pure white (gelatinous, with light flowing within), and transparent crystal (solid crystal).

However, Mu Xiao estimated that there were basically not many Mutant Humans capable of condensing high-density substances at present.

Since there were no longer any biochemical monsters in the secret room that could threaten Mu Xiao, he directly dragged the three corpses outside. The stench released by dead Zombies would grow increasingly stronger, quickly attracting other Zombies to devour the corpses of their own kind and evolve themselves.

With the eyesores gone from the secret room, Mu Xiao shut its main door. But because the electronic lock was broken, he could only use the security lock and manually lock the door.

Many machines had malfunctioned, so Mu Xiao directly found quite a few weapons below B-Class in the safes, including A-Class Thunderbolt Cannons. Together with the one already on his back, he now had three cannons. However, he could not use too many weapons for the time being. He took two B-Class Laser Pistols and changed into a set of "Black Armor" protective clothing.

These were the guards' uniforms, embedded with three layers of soft steel and offering a certain level of defense. They were E-Class defensive equipment, or what could be called basic gear.

But Black Armor had some defensive power and was far stronger than ordinary clothing no matter what. So Mu Xiao changed into the protective suit without hesitation.

Next, he gradually found a small number of weapons in other metal cabinets, along with some Federation credits. But credits and credit points were completely useless now. Even a fruit knife was more valuable than a pile of meaningless numbers.

Mu Xiao found large amounts of jerky, high-fat butter, bread, and other food in some guards' personal drawers. He also found five nutrient solutions—three ordinary-grade and two intermediate-grade—which was already a decent haul, especially since Mu Xiao happened to be hungry.

"The guards had pretty good benefits. They actually had nutrient solutions supplied." Mu Xiao's mouth was stuffed with greasy food as he ignored the bloodstains on the ground and around him, casually continuing to search the secret room.

In the end, he actually found twenty or thirty C-Class High-Explosive Grenades in a small metal cabinet.

One had to know that no weapons could be used for the time being, but grenades were different. There was basically no issue with them.

They were the best high-damage weapons currently available.

Mu Xiao was in high spirits. He found a large backpack and packed all the grenades and food, a sharp military knife, and the two Laser Pistols inside. Then he slung it over his back along with the Thunderbolt Cannon. He did not plan to touch the other weapons, nor could he carry them all. He could only leave them here for now and move his own base here as soon as he returned.

After drinking all the nutrient solutions and eating more than half the food, replenishing himself to about half full, he prepared to search for another secret room on a different floor.

Just as he reached the doorway, he heard rustling sounds outside. He extended his Mental Power three meters to investigate and discovered three or four Zombies crouching down and devouring the corpses of the two Zombies from earlier.

Mu Xiao picked up the electric baton, which could fully serve as an iron rod, and swiftly opened the door. Moving with lightning speed, he swung a wind-splitting blow and directly smashed the heads of two Zombies. The remaining two stood in Mu Xiao's attack blind spot, and his electric baton could not reach them in a continuous strike, giving them time to react.

The two foul-mouthed Zombies lunged at him with claws bared. An ordinary person would surely have screamed in terror. But Mu Xiao reacted incredibly quickly, leaping up and delivering a kick. His leg was like steel as he struck one Zombie in the face, instantly kicking it into a mangled ruin. Its entire face caved in, and the back of its head exploded. Mu Xiao also punched the other Zombie directly in the heart, the impact shredding its heart apart.

With their fatal points struck, the two Zombies quickly died.

Four more streams of invisible vital essence entered Mu Xiao's body, but something appeared in his Consciousness Sea again that made it impossible for him to remain calm. This time, it was even clearer. That mass seemed to have grown significantly larger and more distinct.