Fire

Fire

Hong Mo watched Zhu Yao gradually walk toward the main door, slowly gathering electric current as well. There were five of them, and Hong Mo held no advantage in numbers unless the gap in strength was too great. But Hong Mo would never place his fate on such an unreliable hope.

The instant Zhu Yao stepped into the passageway, Hong Mo drove off with both legs and charged down. Electric current surged and vibrated from the edge of his right palm to his elbow, forming an irregular crescent-shaped hand blade.

Oscillating Electromagnetic Blade, one strike, one kill! That was Hong Mo's plan. There were too many enemies; he could not afford to drag this out.

However, since Zhu Yao dared to take the lead, he naturally had absolute confidence. The moment Hong Mo rushed down, Zhu Yao detected the aura he gave off. Without looking up, he swept his right hand upward, unleashing a violent surge of blue flames. The pose looked remarkably like one of Yagami's moves, "Hundred Style: Demon Burner." It had to be said, anime characters had an enormous influence.

Blazing heat rushed toward him. Even from far away, an astonishing heat wave spread from those blue flames.

The correct choice would have been to retreat at once and evade the flames. Yet Hong Mo made the exact opposite choice. Instant Activation! The electric current within his body flowed at high speed, rapidly stretching out from his shoulder blades to form a pair of wings.

Calling them wings was not quite accurate—they were simply violent currents endlessly surging. And unlike before, the current was not limited to his back, but spread across his entire body.

A streak of silvery-white light flashed past.

After sweeping out the flames, Zhu Yao relaxed for a moment. It was a habit formed through long years of combat. His flames were incredibly hot and possessed a unique trait: they kept burning. Once they touched something, unless he actively extinguished them, the blue flames would continue burning until their power was completely depleted.

Zhu Yao had never encountered an opponent who did not evade his flames at all.

Unfortunately, Hong Mo had only just awakened in the laboratory and merely regarded him as an ordinary fire-type superpowered individual. It could be said that both sides had misjudged the situation, but Zhu Yao's outcome was far more tragic.

A misjudgment cost one's life.

The violent power of the Oscillating Electromagnetic Blade instantly tore Zhu Yao's body apart, slicing him in half down the middle. A bolt of electricity burst through blood tainted with pale blue flames and shot without pause toward a woman dressed in white.

The moment Hong Mo charged down, everyone noticed him. Several of the quicker-reacting people had already prepared to support Zhu Yao, but no one expected the battle to end so quickly. No one expected Hong Mo to ignore the flames and cut Zhu Yao in half directly.

Facing the splattering blood, the two people in front abruptly stopped, twisting their bodies to avoid it carefully. This was not because they were squeamish, but because pale blue flames were burning on that blood.

As members of the same group, aside from certain hidden secret techniques, they had some understanding of each other's powers. Naturally, they knew about Zhu Yao's flames—the trait that, once they latched on, clung as stubbornly as marrow to bone.

The remaining four people were dodging not only Zhu Yao's blood, but also Hong Mo, who was charging at high speed.

Anyone could see that flames were still burning on Hong Mo's body.

"Fall back. Wait until the flames on him go out." As Han Nian gave the order, he took a single stride and flashed far away. Though Zhu Yao had died so easily, his death had not been entirely useless. At the very least, he had set Hong Mo ablaze. If things went smoothly, perhaps they would not need to fight at all. They only had to evade him and wait for the flames to burn Hong Mo into a heavily injured state.

As for burning him to death outright, that was probably impossible. After all, Hong Mo was a "First Generation," and Zhu Yao was already dead, so the flames' power would surely weaken considerably.

The remaining four quickly retreated. Hong Mo found this strange, but could not figure out why in such a short time. Still, that did not hinder his pursuit.

After Instant Activation, Hong Mo's speed had reached an extremely high level. Not to mention ordinary people—even superpowered individuals would find it very difficult to catch sight of Hong Mo with the naked eye.

A white afterimage streaked past, trailing a string of blue sparks as Hong Mo rushed toward his second target—a beautiful woman dressed in white.

Yes, beautiful. A very beautiful woman. But Hong Mo was in no mood to show tenderness toward a woman. He brought the fingers of his right hand together and viciously thrust them toward her heart.

"Weiwei, watch out!" The others who saw this cried out in alarm.

With a harsh, indescribably grating sound, Hong Mo's charging body came to a halt. A two-meter-tall, burly man stood in front of the beauty named Weiwei. Hong Mo's right hand had plunged deeply into the man's clasped arms.

"Fuck, Manzi's a physical-type superpowered individual. His muscles are practically like stone, yet he was injured just like that?" The remaining young man shouted out everyone's thoughts in panic.

"Ha!" After both his arms were pierced through, Hu Manzi let out a roar. The muscles all over his body bulged, his arms swelling by an entire size as he launched a savage elbow strike at Hong Mo.

Hong Mo looked calmly at the burly man who had sacrificed himself to protect his companion. Even facing that fierce elbow strike, his expression did not change in the slightest. Intense electric light spread from Hong Mo's hand, and the savage elbow strike abruptly stopped right in front of him.

"Didn't you know that electric current has a paralyzing effect?" Hong Mo said blandly, as though he had done something utterly insignificant. He slowly withdrew his right hand, while throughout the entire process, the man called Hu Manzi could do nothing despite his trembling body.

"Hmph!" Though unable to move, Hu Manzi could still snort coldly.

Hong Mo had no interest in discussing the matter with him. His withdrawn right hand thrust forward again, brutally piercing Hu Manzi's heart. Fresh blood slowly dripped down Hong Mo's arm, making soft dripping sounds in the silent laboratory.

His heart had been pierced, yet Hu Manzi showed no concern whatsoever. Before Hong Mo could think about what was happening, his body instinctively sensed danger, and he slid back a great distance.

Only then did a crisp gunshot reach his ears. A piece of equipment in the distance, whose experimental purpose was unknown, exploded with a boom into a shower of sparks.

A sneak shot!

Hong Mo looked toward the distance, at the young man holding a pistol. Though the shot had caused Hong Mo no harm, it had thoroughly enraged him. It reminded him of an unpleasant memory. Although it had been a long time ago, in Hong Mo's memories, it felt as if it had happened only recently. Could this guy also have Kinetic Empowerment?

After Hong Mo retreated, Manzi, the muscular man, also stepped back twice and stopped beside the girl in white. A faint circle of white light spread from the girl's hands, and Manzi's wounds began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even the gaping hole through his heart gradually vanished.

Tch!

Was she some kind of priest? No wonder they were so fearless.

Hong Mo thought silently, but the stinging pain from his body jolted him awake. Of course, it was not an attack from the others. Hong Mo believed no one could attack him without him noticing at all.

It was the flames. Hong Mo finally noticed the pale blue flames still faintly burning across his body. They looked tiny, yet burned with incomparable persistence.

Generally speaking, unless something was highly flammable, fire needed a certain amount of time to ignite an object. As long as one moved fast enough, even an ordinary person could pass through a raging blaze without being harmed. That was why Hong Mo had chosen to kill Zhu Yao by force. He had been reasonably confident that the protection of the current over his body, combined with sufficient speed, would keep the blue flames from hurting him.

But now, it seemed things were different.

More than a dozen patches of flame burned quietly on Hong Mo's body, the largest no bigger than a palm. At first, protected by the electric current, Hong Mo had not noticed anything unusual. But now, he could clearly feel the power of these flames.

The current originally flowing across his body's surface was being devoured and assimilated by the flames bit by bit. Those seemingly tiny flames were actually showing signs of growing larger.

Hong Mo frowned and covered a thumb-sized flame on his shoulder with his right hand. The blood on his hand came into contact with the flames, producing a sizzling sound.

It should go out now, right? Hong Mo thought, moving his hand away.

To Hong Mo's surprise, the flame did not go out. Instead, his right palm had caught fire as well.

These flames!

Hong Mo could feel the searing, stabbing pain radiating from the flames across his body. He had been careless. He had not expected these flames to be so troublesome. Looking at the four people, who remained cautiously on guard but showed no desire to attack, Hong Mo finally understood why.

Since they were not attacking, Hong Mo had no intention of provoking them first.

He pressed two fingers of his right hand together, and lightning condensed into a sharp little blade. With a faint ripping sound, Hong Mo sliced off a chunk of flesh from his shoulder that was stained with blue flames. The flesh fell to the ground with the blue flames still attached. Having lost the protection of Hong Mo's power, it was burned into a clump of black ash within moments. Yet the blue flames remained unextinguished, slowly burning across the metal floor, though they had weakened considerably.

"Attack. Stop him from extinguishing the flames." Han Nian had not expected this "First Generation" to be so decisive, using self-mutilation to isolate the flames.

This method of extinguishing the flames was effective, but unfortunately, Hong Mo had to pay a price for it. Moreover, his enemies had no intention of letting him achieve his goal so easily.

At the command of their leader, Han Nian, Hu Manzi let out a furious roar, and the muscles all over his body swelled dramatically. Meanwhile, the man holding the pistol aimed its muzzle at Hong Mo.