Arbitrary Conversion

More than a dozen Evolutionary Power Sources merged into Mu Xiao's body like pure vital essence. It was as though every bloodline in his body had been activated; his cellular genes became exceptionally active, and he could clearly sense his genetic bloodline being optimized, continuously resonating with himself. After several seconds, however, the wonderful sensation in his body gradually calmed down. Still, he knew that his bloodline genes had improved by at least eight Gene Resonances.

If it were someone else, they would have risen to more than ten times. It seems my genetic bloodline is unusual; my evolution cannot be judged by ordinary standards...

Besides the Evolutionary Power Sources, Mu Xiao had also obtained a small amount of Pure Primordial Source, which he used entirely on his physique. At once, an imperceptible force seeped into his muscles, but it was still not enough to break through the threshold required for an SSS-Class Physique. He was only a little short of crossing that boundary and breaking through the strongest physique of the Old Humans to reach the New Humans' "Apex Physique."

His SSS-Class Physique was at a breakthrough point, and his physical strength differed from that of ordinary people, so he required comparatively more Pure Primordial Source. But once he crossed that threshold, his physical qualities would take a major leap forward, undergoing new changes. His antibodies would also improve greatly, and at the very least, he would no longer be infected by the viruses of low-level zombies.

"Eh!"

Mu Xiao was about to collect the Blood Bead from a zombie's heart when he discovered that the dead Level Ten muscle zombie had a slowly writhing mass of flesh-and-blood energy floating above it, as though it were alive.

"This ten-Gene-Resonance brute zombie actually dropped an Ability Source for 'Muscle Enhancement.'" A trace of delight appeared on Mu Xiao's face. His palm touched the substance that looked like flesh but was actually a mass of flesh-and-blood essence. It slowly entered his palm, and a force of blood energy traveled from his arm throughout his body, bringing a warm sensation.

But not long after that feeling arose, the blood energy vanished without a trace, as if some force had intercepted it. Mu Xiao was stunned for a moment before realizing that the entire source had been absorbed into his Consciousness Sea. It seemed that with a single thought, he could turn this ability into Primordial Source to strengthen either his body or soul.

"This..." Mu Xiao's face was full of astonishment.

If he could convert any Ability Source into whatever he needed, he could accelerate his advancement in realm. The benefits after strengthening himself would certainly be immense. Furthermore, he could convert other Ability Sources into Primordial Source energy to improve his physique. That was another opportunity for rapid growth!

One had to know that not everyone could absorb multiple Ability Sources. If Ability Sources conflicted, they could very likely cause genetic collapse and make one lose the proper path of evolutionary cultivation.

Mu Xiao was basically certain that his Consciousness Sea was a "refining furnace" capable of converting certain abilities back into their primordial state. He had never heard of anyone being able to turn abilities into Primordial Source before. It was highly likely that this was a change that had appeared after his rebirth, becoming his exclusive ability.

"A legendary cheat?" Mu Xiao joked to himself. He did not deny that he was in an excellent mood, and he sent out the thought to continue strengthening his physique.

He did not convert "Muscle Enhancement" into Primordial Source. Instead, he directly used Muscle Enhancement to optimize his muscles, because the strengthening effect of Primordial Source was comprehensive. A small stream of it would disperse into his bones, skin, tendons, blood, and so on, with only a tiny portion going to his muscles. It would not provide any particularly obvious enhancement to them.

"Muscle Enhancement," however, was targeted strengthening. Naturally, it had the greatest effect on muscles, making it undoubtedly better for increasing strength rather than dispersing part of it elsewhere.

Sure enough, after absorbing this enhancement, his physique came closer and closer to breaking through. Yet the amount of source required for advancement had increased significantly, because his genetic bloodline was not that of an ordinary New Human. It was a genetic bloodline reconstructed by the Miracle Formula, so naturally it required a greater quantity of source.

"What a pity it's only ten-Gene-Resonance Muscle Enhancement. If it were Muscle Enhancement from twenty or thirty resonances, it might have improved me even more." Mu Xiao felt that blood energy surge through his body again, quickly circulating everywhere. His muscles improved to a certain degree, and the slight muscle fatigue from the previous battle was eased. His blood energy soon returned to its peak state.

Mu Xiao also knew that the higher the level of the zombies, the less easily he could deal with them.

He might even have to fight miserably to kill one. If the ten-Gene-Resonance zombie from earlier had instead been a ten-Gene-Resonance Mutant Human, Mu Xiao would have found it even harder to kill.

After all, Mutant Humans and zombies were not on the same level. Just as Mu Xiao and the zombie he had killed earlier—at the time, he himself had only one or two Gene Resonances, yet he had been able to kill a ten-Gene-Resonance muscle zombie. Different evolutionary paths represented different levels of strength. The same was true of Mutant Humans, because they were an evolutionary species more advanced than zombies and followed an extreme evolutionary path. Their strength naturally exceeded that of ordinary New Humans, though their evolution lacked the balance and potential of New Humans.

In truth, Mutant Monsters of different levels had differing genetic strengths.

Working swiftly, Mu Xiao used his knife to dig more than thirty Blood Beads from over a dozen corpses. Most were Inferior Brown Blood Beads, but there were ten ordinary vermilion Blood Beads and three high-quality dark-red Blood Beads.

"Not bad." Mu Xiao put away the Blood Beads, sat on a bloodless stair, and waited for the next batch of zombies to arrive.

In the dark stairwell, more than a dozen zombies lay amid a floorful of foul, pungent black blood. Mu Xiao sat there like a demon in a slaughterhouse. If anyone saw this scene now, they would be frightened out of their wits.

Mu Xiao was very accustomed to this pungent, bloody stench. The dozen or so corpses before him resembled the scene of a car accident, yet he felt no disgust. In that future era, everyone had long since become accustomed to nauseating smells, and bloody scenes had become nothing more than scenery. Naturally, they could not affect Mu Xiao's mood.

Another wave of zombies surged into the stairwell. This time, there were no particularly high-level zombies; they were all around Level Five or Six. However, there were an enormous number of them, at least twenty or thirty. Moreover, they were not wearing the Black Armor defensive uniforms of security guards, but white lab coats, like doctors or researchers.

Mu Xiao swung his blade like a scythe harvesting wheat, severing zombie heads. His heavy punches smashed into their hearts, directly bursting them apart.

Black blood splattered, heads were severed, and zombies fell one after another.

A cold flash of blade light swept across a zombie's neck, sending its head tumbling away.

His fists left overlapping afterimages. Every zombie heart he struck was crushed inward by the shape of his fist, their hearts inside reduced to mangled flesh. Mu Xiao slaughtered them expressionlessly. Foul blood splashed all over him, leaving blotches of black across his face, yet his movements did not slow. Instead, they grew faster and faster, like a tireless machine, each strike simple, swift, and lethal!

The fifth... the eighth... Corpses piled atop corpses, and the entire stairwell was filled with a pungent, foul stench as blackened blood flowed like a small river.

The bloody smell increasingly stimulated the zombies' appetites, making their attacks frenzied. Several tears appeared in the Black Armor defensive suit Mu Xiao wore. Some zombies' long, sharp claws tore through the soft steel embedded in the suit and cut the skin beneath, but the injuries were minor and did not affect the battle.

With his SSS-Class Physique, as long as the battle stopped, he only needed to circulate his blood energy to deal with such minor wounds.

However, the zombies seemed to be multiplying with every fight. There had originally been twenty or thirty zombies, and Mu Xiao had killed more than ten of them, but suddenly another twenty or so joined in. Clearly, the increasingly foul stench in the stairwell had spread through the entire Lawyer Building, drawing out every zombie's hunger.

But the more Mu Xiao killed, the faster his genetic evolution resonance count increased. He had now reached ten evolution levels, but the zombies that followed were too low-level, and their Evolutionary Power Sources had completely lost their effect. It was like a high-level character killing low-level monsters and receiving no experience.

Meanwhile, the Primordial Source absorbed and purified by his Consciousness Sea had also slowed. Clearly, with too many resonances, the refined vital essence was insufficient to supply both his body and soul, producing only a negligible effect—unless he encountered stronger Mutant Monsters.

Mu Xiao directed all the Pure Primordial Source into his physique. His strength rose by a tiny amount, but the most important thing was that it eased the intense bursts from his muscles, allowing him to maintain consistent one-hit kills. If he could not keep up an efficient killing speed, the zombies below would easily force their way up.

"There are at least more than sixty zombies now, and the number is still increasing. This is not looking good..." Mu Xiao swept out with his Mental Power and detected the number of zombies. Among them were five or six zombies at ten evolution levels, and he had no idea what enhanced abilities they possessed. If those special zombies charged him together, the battle would not be easy, and he would be unable to kill them in a single strike.

Mu Xiao suddenly erupted, launching a furious barrage that burst the heads or hearts of three zombies before him. Before the zombies behind them could pounce, his body moved swiftly, retreating into the stairwell by the hidden door on the fourth floor. He quickly pulled a C-Class High-Explosive Grenade from the backpack on the ground.

He flipped open the protective cover, pulled the safety pin, and tossed it upward. It drew a graceful arc through the air and landed precisely in the center of the zombie horde.

Without looking back or picking anything up, Mu Xiao quickly opened the hidden door and entered an ordinary room on the fourth floor.

Boom!

A thunderous blast rang through the Lawyer Building, making the entire structure tremble slightly.

Only after sensing the danger with his Mental Power did Mu Xiao open the door and return to the stairwell. As expected, he drove his blade through the head of a pouncing zombie and kicked over another that rushed him. The smell of burned rotten flesh hit him in the face, even more nauseating than before. The black smoke filling the stairwell also contained viruses.

Mu Xiao endured the awful smell and cleared away several attacking zombies. He saw raging flames burning within the zombie horde, where a large number of zombies had been blasted apart. Even among the five or six Level Ten zombies, three had been killed and two severely wounded.

The main reason was that the large group of zombies had been packed tightly into the stairwell, allowing the High-Explosive Grenade's destructive power to be unleashed to the fullest. Moreover, one High-Explosive Grenade would not be enough to destroy the floor, because most of the zombies had absorbed the blast's force, reducing the damage to the building to a minimum. That was why Mu Xiao had used the High-Explosive Grenade without hesitation, delivering a ruthless blow.

Of the more than sixty zombies, roughly half had been blown to death. Some had caught fire, and flames soon rose from the bodies of more zombies. As Mu Xiao absorbed the Evolutionary Power Sources and additional Mental Power from the dead zombies, he continued clearing the zombies from the stairwell.

Normally, when an external object was used to kill monsters, the Evolutionary Power Sources determined who had killed them through aura, then automatically merged into that person's body.

If someone wanted to steal a monster kill, they only needed to deal more damage. The greater the damage they left behind, the more of the monster's Evolutionary Power Source they would receive.

Simply put, every person's attacks carried a unique soul aura, and the Evolutionary Power Sources would distribute themselves according to the strength of those auras.

However, no one here was competing with Mu Xiao for kills. One High-Explosive Grenade had greatly accelerated his zombie slaughter. Shortly afterward, he quickly cleaned up the aftermath. The remaining flames on the ground were extinguished, and for the moment, no more zombies came into the stairwell.