Evolve, Lin Hai!

In a deep forest in Missouri, faint blue fluorescence illuminated Lin Hai's solemn face. The enormous flower bud stood quietly in a small clearing before him, ancient and vast energy flowing within it.

"Are you really going to do this?" Harry stood to one side, an unusual tension in his voice. The surrounding Osborn research team had already set up all the monitoring equipment, and more than a dozen pairs of eyes were fixed on Lin Hai's every move.

Lin Hai took a deep breath and sat cross-legged before the flower bud. His fingertips glowed faintly green as the Life Energy within him, like a trickling stream, cautiously reached toward the bud's surface.

"Let's start with the most minimal contact," he said quietly, as if reminding himself.

At the same time, he thought, The Ancient One may protect Earth, but who knows which dimension she's traveling through right now? If something goes wrong... Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Nothing can go wrong!

Lin Hai's reaching hand paused slightly before stretching toward the flower bud with even greater resolve.

The instant the first wisp of energy made contact, Lin Hai's entire body trembled.

The energy within the flower bud was as vast as a starsea, ancient as though it had existed since the dawn of the universe. His consciousness was drawn into a brief illusion. Within it lay endless galaxies, glittering nebulae, and a humanoid outline formed of pure light energy.

Without question, it was Ego. The illusion quickly faded, and the flower bud remained quiet, showing no abnormal reaction.

"The energy readings are stable," a researcher reported. "Vital signs are normal."

Lin Hai slowly exhaled and began increasing the energy exchange. This time, he was like a cautious thief drawing water, scooping a ladleful from an ocean. The Life Energy inside the flower bud flowed into his body under his guidance, ancient and weighty like melted stars.

Over the next seven days, Lin Hai's schedule became remarkably regular.

Every morning, he practiced Tai Chi in the nearby clearing, guiding the newly acquired energy through his body with every movement. The Life Energy from the flower bud was far purer than that provided by Earth's plants. With every breath, he could feel his cells cheering with joy.

"Your movements have slowed down," Harry observed from a rock nearby. "But every posture looks like a drawn bow ready to fire."

Lin Hai did not answer immediately. Only after completing the final closing movement did he explain, "It's not that I've slowed down. The energy density has increased, so it takes more 'effort' to mobilize it."

In the afternoons, he returned to the flower bud for energy exchanges. As the number of sessions increased, the amount he could absorb each time steadily rose as well. By the fifth day, threads of blue starlight had begun to mingle with the pale green Divine Energy in his dantian.

At night, Lin Hai sat on a meditation mat in the temporary camp, digesting the foreign energy as cautiously as possible. Twice, overly aggressive attempts had nearly sent the energy into a rampage, and he had only escaped by cutting off his connection to the flower bud in time.

"Are you sure you want to continue?" On the evening of the seventh day, Harry stopped Lin Hai as he prepared to contact the flower bud again.

"The data shows that your cellular activity has already increased by two hundred percent. If this continues, something could go wrong," Harry said with a worried expression.

"I know the risks." Lin Hai's gaze was resolute. "But this is an opportunity that comes once in a thousand years. There may not be another one anywhere on Earth. Besides, I can feel a major breakthrough right in front of me, so I have to seize this chance."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I can promise you that!" Hearing Lin Hai's assurance, Harry relaxed somewhat. Lin Hai had always been reliable. Since he said so, there probably wouldn't be a problem... right?

When the seventh energy exchange began, everything was normal. As usual, Lin Hai guided the flower bud's energy through his meridians. But just as the energy was about to fill his dantian—

Boom!

A deafening blast that only Lin Hai could hear exploded within him. His dantian shook violently, as if some invisible barrier had shattered. The once-docile energy suddenly became berserk, and the Life Energy from the flower bud poured wildly into his body like floodwaters after a dam burst.

"Argh—!"

Lin Hai groaned, the veins in his arms bulging one by one as web-like blue patterns of light emerged beneath his skin. The monitoring instruments immediately began blaring shrill alarms.

"Vital signs abnormal!"

"Energy readings off the charts!"

Harry rushed toward Lin Hai the instant the alarms sounded, only to be thrown back by an invisible force and slammed into a large tree behind him. Fortunately, he was not seriously hurt.

"Damn it!" Harry coughed as he climbed to his feet and shouted at the research team, "Cut off all energy supply! Prepare sedatives!"

Lin Hai could no longer hear the outside world. Every shred of his consciousness was focused on battling the rampaging energy in his body. His meridians felt as though they were being pierced by thousands of red-hot steel needles, and every cell screamed in agony.

Wave after wave of excruciating pain battered Lin Hai's nerves. His vision began to blur, and the only sound left in his ears was the thunderous roar of blood rushing through his veins. Every inch of his meridians was being torn apart by violent energy, as if countless tiny blades were moving through his blood vessels.

Lin Hai clenched his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums. Beneath his skin, blue energy patterns wriggled like living creatures, swelling and contracting in turns. The data on the monitors jumped wildly while the piercing alarms echoed through the forest.

Just as he teetered on the brink of losing consciousness, the long-dormant Seven-Colored Essence deep within his mind finally stirred.

It drifted lazily out from the depths of his consciousness, like a cat awakened by noise. It slowly circled through Lin Hai's mind, apparently very dissatisfied with the crisis before it.

But it quickly noticed that its host was on the verge of collapse. It suddenly accelerated, transforming into countless fine threads that streamed throughout his body. Everywhere they passed, the violent energy immediately became docile.

Below his left collarbone, a blue beam of energy on the verge of bursting was gently wrapped in seven-colored threads. The multicolored light was like the work of the finest weaver, reweaving the rampaging energy into orderly patterns.

In another involuntary inward examination, Lin Hai saw it as a galactic reconstruction in a microscopic world. Stars on the brink of supernova explosions were soothed by invisible hands and returned to their proper orbits.

As the Seven-Colored Essence advanced, more dangers were resolved:

In the liver region, tangled energy channels knotted beyond repair were gently untied; cracks that had appeared in several major meridians near the heart were filled and repaired; blue energy currents running wild through his spine were guided onto the correct paths.

The entire process was both a precise surgical operation and a cosmic dance of stars. Immersed in this wondrous perspective, Lin Hai even temporarily forgot the pain.

When the Seven-Colored Essence reached his dantian, the most astonishing change occurred.

This had originally been the "headquarters" of the energy within Lin Hai's body. It held the initial white, attribute-less energy produced by the combined effects of the Seven-Colored Essence and Tai Chi cultivation, as well as the green Life Energy fed back to him by various plants.

Now, however, it had been more than half occupied by the foreign blue energy. The three energies were like savage beasts wrestling for dominance, stirring the dantian into utter Chaos.

The Seven-Colored Essence paused for a moment at the edge of the dantian, then suddenly changed tactics. It no longer simply guided the energies, but actively began integrating the three entirely different types.

Hum!

Lin Hai's entire body shook. In his inner vision, his dantian had become a miniature universe:

The white Tai Chi energy became the central star; the green Life Energy transformed into nebulae surrounding it; the blue extraterrestrial energy condensed into a dazzling galaxy at the outermost edge; and the Seven-Colored Essence became a rainbow bridge connecting all three.

The three energies began circulating according to some profound law, growing faster and faster until they finally formed an emerald energy vortex. When the rotation reached a certain critical point, a blinding light erupted.

All the energy fused perfectly, becoming an entirely new liquid energy of emerald green. It was heavier than Life Energy and more nimble than extraterrestrial energy, every drop containing astonishing vitality. Lin Hai instinctively circulated this newborn energy and found that it obeyed his will as naturally as an arm obeyed a hand, as though it had always belonged to him.

Even more wondrously, this energy became even more responsive to his will. When Lin Hai wanted to heal a small wound on his hand, Emerald Energy automatically flowed to the injury, working more than three times as efficiently as before. When he tried to connect with the plants outside the cave, the feedback was so rich it made him dizzy. He could not only sense the plants' condition, but even "hear" their primitive "emotions."

When the last trace of energy completed its transformation, the Seven-Colored Essence remained exactly as it had been. It slowly returned to the depths of Lin Hai's mind, like a peerless wandering hero who killed amid the dust of the world, escaped from flashing blades, then brushed off his sleeves and left, hiding his achievements and fame.

Lin Hai suddenly opened his eyes. Harry and the surrounding Osborn Group personnel watched him with bated breath.

The first thing Lin Hai noticed was the change in his vision. The entire world had become clearer and more vivid, as though the image quality had been upgraded from standard definition to high definition.

He could see dust motes floating in the air, distinguish the faintest cracks in a rock wall ten meters away, and even detect the pulse of the capillaries in Harry's face.

"Your eyes... are glowing." Harry's voice trembled slightly, because his friend seemed to be heading down an inhuman path with no turning back.

Lin Hai touched the corner of his eye. Having not looked in a mirror, he did not know what had happened. His irises were now an unusual emerald color, with a faint blue glow around the edges of his pupils.

Lin Hai lowered his gaze to his outstretched palm. A faint emerald glow flowed beneath his skin. When he deliberately circulated his energy, his entire hand emitted a soft emerald radiance. Even more astonishingly, with a light wave of his hand, a fern five meters away immediately began growing wildly, covering half the rock wall in the blink of an eye.

After returning to the temporary laboratory, they conducted another, more detailed examination. The results shocked everyone:

Cell activity: wound-healing speed reached twelve times that of an ordinary person.

Muscle strength: a punch registered higher than a professional boxer's on the testing machine.

Neural response: capable of tracking twenty-seven moving targets at once, compared with nine before.

Energy reserves: more than twenty times greater than before.

But the most astonishing discovery came from the energy analyzer. Dr. Connors, the chief scientist sent by Norman, stared at the screen with his eyes wide behind his glasses. "That's impossible! This energy spectrum possesses both plant characteristics and traits of some kind of cosmic radiation." He swallowed.

Lin Hai walked to the edge of the woods outside the camp and gently placed his palm against an oak tree. He did not need to deliberately release energy. With only a thought, Emerald Energy automatically established a connection.

In an instant, an enormous amount of information flooded into his consciousness. Every seasonal change in the tree's memories; the course of a water vein thirty meters underground; even the "whispers" of another forest three kilometers away.

Even more incredibly, when he tried to "ask" rather than "command," the trees actively cooperated. An old pine tree even voluntarily snapped off a branch and offered it to him. This was something that had never happened before.

The subsequent test results left Osborn's scientists dumbfounded.

"Cell regeneration speed increased by five hundred percent..."

"Muscle density has reached three times that of an ordinary person..."

"Most unbelievably," the chief researcher said, pointing at the energy chart on the screen, "his current Life Energy reading has already surpassed the level of ordinary humans."

Lin Hai did not join the discussion. He stood in the clearing where he had trained recently, feeling the new energy flowing through his body.

This emerald Life Force was completely different from before. If his former Life Energy had been a mountain stream, this was now a broad canal.

Even more wondrously, he discovered that his connection with plants had become closer. Without needing to deliberately release energy, the surrounding grass and trees would actively "greet" him.

"It seems you got what you wanted." Harry walked over to his side, his tone complicated.

Lin Hai nodded, but his gaze deepened. "But this is only the beginning. What that flower bud represents is far more complicated than any of you imagine."