In the heart of the Pacific Ocean.
At the bottom of a trench ten thousand meters deep.
A Giant King Squid more than ten meters long lay motionless in the darkness.
Suddenly,
the water around it seemed to boil, surging into its enormous body.
"ROAR!"
It flung open its cavernous maw and unleashed a roar no sea creature should have made.
Dark red light flashed wildly inside its body.
In just a few seconds,
it swelled like a balloon.
Twenty meters.
Thirty meters.
Fifty meters!
Hard, ink-black scales sprouted across its once-soft tentacles.
Every scale had an edge that gleamed coldly like metal.
Hunger.
A hunger that seemed capable of devouring the entire world seized its primitive mind.
It needed to feed!
It needed more energy!
The deep-sea behemoth, newly ascended into the ranks of First-Tier Ferocious Beasts, whipped its massive tentacles.
The force sent a violent current churning across the seabed.
Like an enormous black torpedo, it shot straight toward the surface.
At the same time.
White Eagle Country.
Deep inside Yellowstone National Park.
An adult grizzly bear in hibernation snapped its eyes open.
Its pupils had turned a bloodthirsty scarlet.
Its brown fur stood on end, each hair as stiff as a steel needle.
And its body had grown to a staggering five meters tall.
Boom!
It smashed straight through the hard walls of its cave.
Rocks flew through the air.
The mutated grizzly threw back its head and roared, shaking thick snow from the treetops.
Its nose twitched. It had caught the scent of humans dozens of kilometers away.
There lay the nourishment it needed to evolve.
And it was not just the deep sea and the forests.
Disaster erupted in the very heart of civilization, in a way no one on Earth had foreseen.
Gaul Country.
The City of Romance.
The Champs-Élysées.
A blonde woman in an expensive fur coat was walking her purebred French bulldog.
The bulldog had been ambling along on its short legs.
Suddenly.
It froze, its whole body convulsing violently.
"Oh."
"My poor little darling, what's wrong?"
The woman crouched to stroke her beloved dog.
The next second.
The bulldog's jaws split open to its ears.
Within a few breaths, it swelled to the size of a calf.
Two jagged rows of teeth glinted coldly.
Crunch!
Before the woman could even scream, half her body was crushed in a single bite.
"A monster!"
"Oh God, help!"
At the sight,
the crowd scattered in blind panic.
Two patrolling officers drew their sidearms and fired wildly at the mutated bulldog.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
But the creature was too fast.
Its huge body became a dark blur as it lunged straight at them.
The gunfire stopped abruptly.
Scenes like this were playing out across every country and every city on Earth.
On a ranch in Kangaroo Country, docile sheep grew fangs and tore a sheepdog to pieces.
On the streets of Sakura Country, stray cats swelled in size and cut through crowds like leopards.
Foreign leaders were dragged out of bed.
"Mr. President, monsters are appearing all over the streets of New York!"
"The police can't stop them!"
"What about the army? Mobilize the army, now!"
"Sir, the army's dogs have mutated too. There's a massacre underway inside the barracks!"
The world beyond Dragon Country had become an unprepared hellscape.
No one understood what was happening.
They knew only one thing: the end of the world had truly arrived.
But on this blue planet, one land presented a completely different sight.
Dragon Country.
Chunxi Road, Shu Capital.
Though it was still early morning,
quite a few cleaners and breakfast vendors were already out.
Beside a trash can on the corner,
a filthy stray dog was rummaging for food.
Suddenly.
The dog stiffened, a pained whine rising from its throat.
Bulges rose along its bony spine, as though something were about to burst out.
An elderly street sweeper nearby stared in shock.
The broom slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
Just as the dog was about to finish transforming and leap at him,
Bang!
A muffled gunshot shattered the morning quiet.
On the roof of a high-rise,
a fully equipped sniper held his rifle steady.
Through the scope,
the stray dog, newly mutated and not yet able to attack, had its head blown apart like a watermelon.
Its body twitched twice, then went still.
"Position Three. Target eliminated."
The sniper pressed his earpiece, his voice ice-cold.
The next second,
four armed soldiers rushed out of the alleys on either side of the street.
With practiced movements, they set up a cordon and covered the mutated dog's body with a waterproof tarp.
The entire operation took less than thirty seconds.
Before the elderly sweeper could even process what had happened, it was over.
"Sir."
"It's all right now."
"This is a counterterrorism drill."
A squad leader stepped forward, blocking the old man's view.
The old man swallowed and stared at the glaring pool of blood, his thoughts in disarray.
But he asked nothing. He only nodded shakily.
"All... all right."
"Thanks for the effort."
That was the overwhelming advantage of knowing what others did not.
Ordinary people had no idea why the dog had grown larger.
All they saw was soldiers opening fire and the danger ending.
The soldiers carrying out the mission had received one absolute order.
Any animal that grew abnormally large and showed signs of aggression was to be killed on sight. No hesitation!
If an animal remained docile after mutating, they were to tranquilize it immediately and take it into custody.
In an upscale residential complex in Shu Capital.
A young woman hid behind her sofa, clamping a hand over her mouth.
Tears streamed down her face.
In the middle of the living room,
the Maine Coon cat she had raised for three years was now as big as a tiger.
Its sharp claws gouged deep furrows into the expensive floor.
Just then.
The front door was kicked open with a crash.
Five soldiers charged into the living room with riot shields and rifles.
"MROWR!"
The mutated Maine Coon roared fiercely and pounced on the lead soldier's shield.
Bang!
The impact drove the soldier holding it back three steps.
The soldier's name was Wang Qiang.
He had thought the blow would send him flying.
But at the instant of impact,
Wang Qiang felt a fierce heat surge through his body.
It raced through his limbs and poured into his arms.
"Get off me!"
Wang Qiang roared.
The muscles in his arms bulged, and he held firm against the mutated cat's attack.
More than that,
he shoved forward.
The mutated cat, weighing more than a hundred kilograms, went flying under a blow from his shield.
"Open fire!"
The squad leader gave the order without hesitation.
A hail of bullets riddled the mutated cat.
The danger was over.
The young woman slumped to the floor, gulping air.
But Wang Qiang stared blankly at his hands.
He could still feel that heat coursing through him.
Something in the air seemed almost delicious, seeping in through his pores.
"Squad leader..."
"I feel like... I could punch a bull to death right now."
Wang Qiang swallowed, his voice unsteady.
"Cut the chatter."
"Get the bodies dealt with. We're moving to the next position."
The squad leader patted Wang Qiang on the shoulder, his eyes just as full of shock.
And it wasn't just Wang Qiang.
Across Dragon Country, every soldier carrying out a mission was undergoing an unprecedented transformation.
Over the past few months,
the Basic Breathing Technique had become mandatory daily practice throughout the military.
Most of them had never sensed the so-called aura at all.
But day after day of practice had ingrained the technique in their muscles.
Now, the Spiritual Energy Tide had arrived.
In just a few minutes, the concentration of aura on Blue Star had surged tens of thousands of times over.
Meridians that had once been dry were instantly flooded with dense aura.
Countless soldiers who had been hovering on the brink broke through on the spot.
Those with a little more talent even condensed a Qi Vortex and became true First-Tier Early-Stage Martial Artists!
They had no idea what was happening.
But one thing was clear: their bodies were growing stronger at a terrifying pace.
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