New Ability

At nine in the morning, the morning mist in the forests of Missouri had yet to disperse. Lin Hai stood in an open clearing, eyes closed in concentration. The evolved emerald Life Force flowed through his body, resonating subtly with the surrounding plants.

Fifty meters—this was now the limit of his perception.

Without deliberately releasing energy, he could clearly "see" the condition of every plant within a fifty-meter radius as long as he calmed his mind. Oak roots wound through the soil, dew clung to the blades of wild grass, and even dormant seeds buried deep underground were clearly visible to his senses.

Thirty meters—this was the range he could fully control.

Lin Hai slowly raised his hand, palm facing upward. Thirty meters away, a dandelion suddenly shook violently. Then, its umbrella-like seeds rose into the air as though carried by the wind, tracing a graceful arc before gently landing in his palm.

"The precision has improved quite a bit," Lin Hai murmured.

In the past, achieving this level of control required his full concentration, but now it felt almost as natural as breathing.

To test his combat capabilities, Lin Hai chose a patch of soft earth. Harry stood at a safe distance, holding a clipboard, his expression both nervous and expectant.

"Ready?" Lin Hai asked.

Harry nodded. "We can start anytime."

Lin Hai took a deep breath, and emerald energy flowed through his feet into the ground. Within his perception, the roots of every plant in a thirty-meter radius became his "tentacles." He selected the roots of a birch tree, and with a thought—

Crack!

The ground suddenly split open, and a sharp wooden spike, like a spear, violently thrust upward. Lin Hai could not help letting out a breath of relief. His idea had worked.

That was—sharpening and thickening the tips of plant roots before directly stimulating their growth, allowing them to burst through the ground in an instant while also piercing an enemy's body.

Lin Hai then stimulated two more spikes beside the one that had already emerged. Each of the three spikes was as thick as a wrist, with incomparably sharp tips that seemed to gleam like metal under the sunlight.

They grew at an astonishing rate, reaching a height of more than a meter in the blink of an eye before stopping steadily, like three sharp iron spears.

"Hardness test?" Lin Hai looked at Harry.

Harry stepped forward and viciously slashed at the middle of one spike with the tactical knife he carried.

Clang!

A dull metallic collision rang out. The knife bounced away, while the wooden spike bore only a somewhat deep slash mark.

"About as hard as ordinary steel," Harry said in amazement as he examined the knife's edge. "And its toughness is exceptional. There are no signs of fracturing."

Lin Hai nodded in satisfaction and released his control. The spikes rapidly withered and soon dissolved into the soil.

Next came an experiment using seeds. Compared to root control, stimulating seeds required more precise manipulation. Lin Hai took out a seed he carried in his pocket and placed it in his palm.

"Watch closely." Emerald energy wrapped around the seed, and the oak seed began to transform at a visible speed.

Its shell cracked open and a tender shoot emerged, but instead of growing upward, it extended horizontally, gradually forming a sharp wooden spike about forty centimeters long. Throughout the process, Lin Hai continuously adjusted the energy input to ensure the wood reached optimal density.

Ten seconds later, a dark green wooden spike with a cold gleam at its tip appeared in his hand.

"Throwing test?" Harry suggested.

Lin Hai nodded, aimed at a dead tree twenty meters away, and hurled it with all his strength.

Whoosh—thud!

The wooden spike flew like an arrow and buried itself deep in the trunk, penetrating nearly ten centimeters.

"Enough penetrating power," Harry said as he examined its trajectory. "But its flight stability needs improvement."

"The shape of this wooden spike itself limits its aerodynamic performance." Lin Hai walked over and pulled it out of the tree. "But that's fine. It's already more powerful than a small firearm."

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly had a new idea. Throwing wooden spikes reminded him of ninja tool throwing in Naruto. Following that train of thought, he thought of Senbon.

He urged his energy again. This time, instead of forming a single wooden spike, he made the seed split and grow until five thin needles, each over ten centimeters long, formed in his palm.

"Area-attack version."

With a flick of his wrist, the five wooden needles shot out in a fan-shaped spread, all striking the tree trunk within an area the size of a palm.

Harry whistled. "Now it'll be hard to dodge them."

Next came the most dangerous test—the healing ability test.

Lin Hai raised the wooden spike he had just grown and, as Harry's expression abruptly changed, stabbed it straight through his own left palm without hesitation.

"Are you insane?!" Harry rushed forward.

"This is the only way to test my healing ability. I don't want to wait until someone shoots me before finding out how much my healing has evolved," Lin Hai said through gritted teeth. He endured the intense pain, but his voice remained steady.

Surprisingly, although the wound looked gruesome, it bled far less than normal. The blood did not gush out, but slowly seeped out, as though the blood vessels were actively constricting to stop the bleeding.

"Cell-level clotting response," Harry said as he recorded the data rapidly. "Platelet activity is more than five times that of an ordinary person."

Lin Hai began directing Emerald Energy to cover the wound, and a shimmering green glow radiated from it.

The healing process was visible to the naked eye. First, muscle fibers connected themselves like wriggling earthworms. Then the skin tissue closed up like a zipper. Five minutes later, only a patch of pink, newly formed tissue remained in his palm.

Harry gently pressed it with tweezers. "Pain?"

"A slight dull ache. It doesn't affect function." Lin Hai flexed his fingers. "In theory, even if I'm hit by a bullet now, as long as it isn't immediately fatal, I can recover."

After the test, Lin Hai sat cross-legged beside the flower bud as usual. His hands hovered over its translucent surface, and emerald Life Force flowed like a gentle stream, forming a subtle energy cycle between him and the flower bud.

He practiced like this every day. His evolved body was like a thirsty sponge, greedily absorbing the vast energy within the flower bud. Yet compared to the immense power contained inside it, what he drew out was still negligible—like scooping a ladle of water from the ocean, incapable of drawing the ocean's notice.

"Still not enough?" Harry's voice came from behind him.

Lin Hai slowly withdrew his hands. Emerald energy flowed around his fingertips for a moment before retreating into his body. He shook his head, a trace of helplessness in his tone. "Right now, I'm like an ant trying to drink an entire river dry."

Harry approached with the latest data analysis report in hand. "Dr. Connors's calculations show that at your current absorption rate, exhausting the energy in this flower bud would take at least..." He paused. "Three thousand years."

Lin Hai chuckled and rose to his feet, brushing dirt from his clothes. It seems Ego won't notice this "little thief" anytime soon.

At the center of the camp, the Osborn Group research team was gathered around a precision instrument, arguing heatedly.

Dr. Connors, the man who would one day become the Lizard Man, held doctorates in biology and biochemistry. He had lost his right arm while serving as an army medic, then came to the Osborn Group and became its chief scientist.

At that moment, he excitedly pointed at the charts on the holographic display, his voice trembling slightly with excitement. "It's like a perpetual-motion machine, releasing energy endlessly without showing any sign of depletion!"

When Lin Hai and Harry approached, the argument came to an abrupt halt. More than a dozen pairs of eyes turned toward them in unison, their gazes filled with both longing and unwillingness.

"Mr. Lin, we have to take a sample. Even a small piece of tissue could change the course of human civilization!" Connors said bluntly.

Lin Hai did not answer immediately. He looked around and saw the same fervent expression on every researcher's face—the unique obsession scientists displayed when confronting the unknown.

"If you can manage it, I have no objection," he finally said calmly.

What followed was both absurd and astonishing.

The Osborn Group's most advanced laser cutter was aimed at the flower bud's surface. The instant the high-energy beam touched it, it was refracted away, burning a blackened hole into a nearby rock.

"An energy reflectance of 100%? That's impossible!" the operator cried.

When hydraulic clamps attempted to grip it, the metal teeth were stopped by an invisible force field one centimeter from the flower bud's surface. No matter how much pressure they applied, they could not move even a fraction closer.

The most outrageous moment came when a researcher tried to hammer off a small sample. The instant the hammerhead struck the flower bud, it flew out of his hand, while the flower bud was left without even a scratch.

"It's like it's mocking us," Harry said quietly as the seventh piece of equipment was declared unusable.

Lin Hai stood to the side, the farce reflected in his emerald eyes. He knew better than anyone that this was no ordinary matter. This flower bud had been created by Ego, the living planet that called itself one of the Celestials, and it contained cosmic-level laws. Humanity's current technology was like a primitive man's stone axe facing titanium-alloy armor.

Night fell, and an air of defeat filled the camp. Dr. Connors still refused to give up, feverishly calculating new extraction plans in his notebook, while the other researchers had already begun packing up their equipment in groups of two and three.

"We're withdrawing tomorrow," Harry announced. His voice carried official calmness, but Lin Hai could hear the unwillingness beneath it.

Connors suddenly looked up. "Give us another week! If we just adjust the quantum tunneling instrument's parameters—"

"Doctor!" Lin Hai interrupted him, his voice gentle yet firm. "You know it won't work."

Silence fell.

In the end, Connors removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily. "You're right. We're like a group of ants studying a smartphone. We can't even understand its most basic operating principles."

Lin Hai agreed deeply, but he still said, "Sometimes, acknowledging one's own smallness is also a kind of wisdom."

After the sun rose the next day, helicopters bearing the Osborn Group logo circled into the sky, and the dense forest gradually shrank beneath them.

As the helicopters passed over the Missouri River, sunlight scattered golden fragments across the water. Deep within that forest, the flower bud trembled slightly, then returned to silence.