Arbitrary Transformation

More than a dozen springs of evolutionary power flowed into Mu Xiao's body like pure vital essence. It was as though every blood vessel in his body had been activated; his cellular genes became extraordinarily active, and he could clearly feel his genetic bloodline being optimized, constantly resonating with his body. After several seconds, the wonderful sensation gradually calmed, but he knew that his bloodline genes had improved—at least eight genetic resonances.

If it were someone else, they would have reached at least ten resonances. It seems my genetic bloodline is unusual; my evolution can't be judged by ordinary standards...

Besides the springs of evolutionary power, Mu Xiao had obtained a small amount of refined primal essence, all of which he used on his physique. At once, an intangible sliver of power seeped into his muscles. However, it was still not enough to break through the threshold required for an SSS-class physique. He was only a little short of surpassing the old humans' strongest physique and reaching the "peak" physique of a new human.

Because his SSS-class physique was at its breakthrough point, and because his body was stronger than an ordinary person's, he required a comparatively larger amount of refined essence. But once he crossed that threshold, his physical qualities would take a major step forward and undergo new changes. His antibodies would also improve significantly, and at the very least, he would no longer be infected by the viruses of low-level zombies.

"Eh!"

Mu Xiao had been about to collect the blood bead from the zombie's heart when he noticed a mass of flesh-and-blood aura floating over the corpse of the level-ten muscle zombie, slowly writhing as though alive.

"This ten-resonance big brute of a zombie actually dropped the ability spring, Muscle Enhancement." Mu Xiao's face brightened slightly. As his palm touched the mass that looked like flesh but was actually condensed flesh essence, it slowly drilled into his hand. A surge of blood energy traveled from his arm through his entire body, bringing a warm sensation.

But the feeling had barely appeared before the blood energy vanished without a trace, as if something had intercepted it. Mu Xiao froze in surprise, then realized that the entire spring had been absorbed into his sea of consciousness. It was as though, with a single thought, he could turn this ability into primal essence to strengthen either his body or soul.

"This..."

If he could convert any ability spring into whatever he needed, he could accelerate his advancement. And after strengthening himself, the benefits would surely be immense. He could also transform other ability springs into primal essence to raise his physique—another opportunity for rapid growth!

After all, not everyone could absorb multiple types of ability springs. If ability springs conflicted with each other, they could very likely cause genetic collapse and lead one astray from the proper path of evolution.

Mu Xiao was basically certain that his sea of consciousness was a "refining furnace" capable of converting certain abilities back into their primal state. He had never heard of anyone being able to transform abilities into primal essence. It was very likely a change that had appeared after his rebirth, becoming an ability exclusive to him.

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

He did not convert Muscle Enhancement into primal essence. Instead, he directly used it to optimize his muscles. The benefit of primal essence lay in its all-around nature: a small stream would be dispersed among the bones, skin, tendons, blood, and so on, with only a tiny portion going to the muscles. It would not provide any obvious enhancement to his muscles.

Muscle Enhancement, meanwhile, was targeted strengthening. Naturally, it produced the greatest effect on the muscles, making it far better for increasing strength than splitting part of it off into other areas.

Sure enough, after absorbing this strengthening, his physique drew closer and closer to a breakthrough. Yet the amount of essence required for advancement increased by quite a bit. That was because his genetic bloodline was not that of an ordinary new human, but one reconstructed by the Miracle Formula. Naturally, its demand for essence was much greater.

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

Mu Xiao also understood that the higher-level the zombie, the less easily he would be able to handle it. He might have to fight miserably just to kill one.

If the ten-resonance zombie from earlier had been a ten-resonance mutant instead, Mu Xiao would have found it even harder to kill.

After all, mutants and zombies were not on the same level. Just as Mu Xiao, with only one or two genetic resonances at the time, had been able to kill that ten-resonance muscle zombie, different evolutionary paths represented different levels of strength. The same was true for mutants. They were an evolutionary breed superior to zombies and followed an extreme evolutionary path, so they were naturally stronger than ordinary new humans. However, their evolution lacked the balance and potential of new humans.

In truth, mutant monsters at different levels possessed 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 and sat on a bloodless stair, waiting for the next wave of zombies.

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

Mu Xiao had long grown accustomed to that piercing stench of blood. The dozen or so corpses before him, resembling the aftermath of a car crash, did not disgust him in the slightest. In that future era, everyone had become accustomed to such nauseating smells, and those bloody sights had become mere scenery. Naturally, they could not affect Mu Xiao's emotions.

Another wave of zombies flooded into the stairwell. This time, there were no particularly high-level zombies; they were all around level five or six. But there were a great many of them, at least twenty or thirty. Furthermore, unlike the black armored defensive uniforms worn by the security guards, this group wore white lab coats, like doctors or researchers.

Mu Xiao swung his blade as though harvesting wheat, severing zombie heads and smashing their hearts apart with heavy punches.

Black blood splattered. Heads flew apart. Zombies fell one after another.

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

His fists blurred into overlapping afterimages. Every zombie heart he struck caved in beneath the force, its heart inside reduced to a mass of pulp. Mu Xiao slaughtered them expressionlessly, foul blood splashing over his entire body and blotching his face with black stains. Yet his movements did not slow; instead, they grew faster and faster. Like a tireless machine, he delivered simple, swift, fatal strikes!

The fifth... the eighth... Zombie corpses piled on top of one another, and the entire stairwell reeked of pungent rot and blood. Blackened blood flowed like a small river.

The increasingly bloody scent stimulated the zombies' hunger, making their attacks frenzied. Several tears appeared in the black armored defensive suit Mu Xiao wore. Some zombies' long, sharp claws even ripped through the soft steel embedded within the suit and scratched his skin. However, the injuries were minor and did not affect the battle.

With his SSS-class physique, as long as the battle stopped, he could circulate his blood energy a little and heal such simple injuries.

But it seemed that the more he fought, the more zombies appeared. There had originally been twenty or thirty zombies. Mu Xiao had killed more than ten, but suddenly another twenty-odd joined in. Clearly, the stench in the stairwell had grown stronger and spread through the entire law office building, drawing in every zombie's appetite.

Yet the more Mu Xiao killed, the faster his genetic evolution resonance progressed. He had already reached ten evolution levels, but the zombies that followed were too low-level. Their springs of evolutionary power had completely lost their effect. It was like a high-level character farming low-level monsters and receiving no experience.

Meanwhile, the refined primal essence absorbed by his sea of consciousness also slowed. Clearly, with too many resonances, the refined vital essence was no longer enough to supply his body and soul, producing only a negligible effect—unless he faced stronger mutant monsters.

Mu Xiao guided all the refined essence into his physique, increasing his strength by a small amount. More importantly, it eased the strain from his muscles' intense bursts of force, allowing him to maintain consistent one-hit kills. If he did not keep up an efficient killing pace, the zombies below could easily press their way up.

"There are at least over sixty zombies now, and their numbers are still increasing. This isn't 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 enhancement abilities they possessed. If those special zombies charged at him together, the battle would not be easy, and he would be unable to kill them in a single strike.

Mu Xiao exploded into action, launching a storm of fierce attacks and smashing apart the heads or hearts of the three zombies before him. Before the zombies behind them could pounce, he moved with lightning speed, 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 floor.

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

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

BOOM!

A thunderous blast rang through the law office building, causing the entire structure to 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 lunged at him. A wave of scorched, rotten meat assaulted his face. The nauseating stench grew even stronger, while the black smoke filling the stairwell also carried viruses.

Mu Xiao endured the awful smell and cleared out the attacking zombies. He saw raging flames burning amid the zombie horde. A large number of zombies had been blown to pieces; even among the five or six level-ten zombies, three had been killed and two severely injured.

The main reason was that the huge group of zombies had been tightly packed into the stairwell, allowing the high-explosive grenade's destructive force to be maximized. Moreover, a single high-explosive grenade would not be enough to blow apart the floor, because the mass of zombies had absorbed much of the blast, reducing the structural damage to a minimum. That was why Mu Xiao had used it without hesitation to deliver such a ruthless blow.

Of the more than sixty zombies, roughly half had been killed by the blast. Some had also caught fire, and flames soon rose from the bodies of more zombies. As Mu Xiao absorbed the springs of evolutionary power and extra mental power from the dead zombies, he continued clearing the stairwell.

When monsters were killed using external objects, the springs of evolutionary power determined who had killed them through their aura, then automatically fused into that person's body.

If someone wanted to steal a kill, the more damage they dealt, the greater the share of the monster's evolutionary power they would receive.

Simply put, every person's attacks carried a unique soul aura. The springs of evolutionary power distributed 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 slaughter of the zombies. Before long, he cleaned up the remnants. The remaining flames on the floor were extinguished as well, and for the moment, no more zombies came into the stairwell.