New Abilities

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, producing a subtle resonance with the surrounding plants.

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

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

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

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

"Much better precision," Lin Hai murmured.

Previously, achieving this level of control required his full concentration. Now, it felt almost as natural as breathing.

To test his combat capabilities, Lin Hai chose an area of soft earth. Harry stood at a safe distance with a clipboard in hand, looking both nervous and expectant.

"Ready?" Lin Hai asked.

Harry nodded. "I 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 "feelers." He selected the root system of a birch tree, and with a thought—

Crack!

The ground suddenly split open, and a sharp wooden spike like a spear burst out. Lin Hai could not help but let out a breath of relief. His idea had worked.

That was—making the tips of plant roots sharper and thicker, then directly forcing them to grow, allowing them to pierce through the ground in an instant and impale an enemy's body.

Lin Hai then forced two more spikes to grow beside the first. 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 speed, reaching over a meter in height 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 savagely slashed 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.

"About as hard as ordinary steel," Harry said in amazement as he inspected the knife edge. "And it has excellent toughness. No signs of breaking."

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

Next came experiments using seeds. Compared to controlling roots, forcing seeds to grow required more precise manipulation. Lin Hai took out a seed he carried in his pocket and placed it in his palm.

"Watch carefully." Emerald energy enveloped the seed, and the oak seed began to change shape at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The shell split open and a shoot emerged, but instead of growing upward, it extended sideways, gradually forming a sharp wooden spike around 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—thunk!

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 the 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 from 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 the ninja tool throwing in Naruto, and following that train of thought, he thought of Senbon.

He activated his energy again. This time, instead of creating a single wooden spike, he made the seed split and grow until five thin needles more than 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 even dodging will be difficult."

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 suddenly changed, stabbed it 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 to find 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 was gruesome, it bled far less than normal. Blood did not gush out but slowly seeped through, as if the blood vessels themselves were actively constricting to stop the bleeding.

"Cell-level coagulation response," Harry rapidly recorded. "Platelet activity is more than five times that of an ordinary person."

Lin Hai began to draw emerald energy over the wound, and a faint green glow radiated from it.

The healing process was visible to the naked eye. First, muscle fibers joined themselves together like writhing earthworms, followed by skin tissue sealing shut like a zipper. Five minutes later, only an area of pink new tissue remained on his palm.

Harry gently pressed it with tweezers. "Pain?"

"A mild 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, both hands hovering over its translucent surface. Emerald Life Force flowed like a gentle stream, forming a subtle energy cycle between him and the bud.

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

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

Lin Hai slowly withdrew his hands. The emerald energy circulated around his fingertips for a moment before sinking back 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' 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, rose to his feet, and brushed the dirt from his clothes. Looks like Ego won't notice this 'thief' anytime soon.

At the center of the camp, the Osborn Group research team was engaged in a heated discussion around a sophisticated instrument.

Dr. Connors, the man who would one day become the Lizard, held doctorates in biology and biochemistry. After losing his right arm as an army medic, he had joined the Osborn Group and become its chief scientist.

At that moment, he excitedly pointed at the data charts in the holographic projection, his voice trembling slightly with excitement. "It's like a perpetual motion machine, constantly releasing energy without showing any signs of depletion!"

When Lin Hai and Harry approached, the argument abruptly stopped. More than a dozen pairs of eyes turned toward them in unison, filled with a mixture of desire and unwillingness.

"Mr. Lin, we have to take a sample. Even a tiny 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 fanaticism on every researcher's face—the persistence unique to scientists when facing the unknown.

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

What followed was both ridiculous and astonishing.

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

"An energy reflectivity of one hundred percent? That's impossible!" the operator cried.

When hydraulic pincers attempted to grip it, the metal teeth were stopped by an invisible force field just one centimeter from the bud's surface. No matter how much the pressure increased, they could not move any closer.

Most outrageous of all, when a researcher tried to hammer off a small sample, the hammerhead flew free the moment it struck the flower bud, while the bud did not even bear the slightest scratch.

"It's like it's mocking us," Harry said softly, watching the seventh piece of equipment be declared ruined.

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

As night fell, the camp was steeped in defeat. Dr. Connors still refused to give up, frantically calculating new extraction plans in his notebook, while the other researchers began packing up their equipment in small groups.

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

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

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

Silence followed.

In the end, Connors took off his glasses and tiredly rubbed his eyes. "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 deeply agreed, but he still said, "Sometimes, acknowledging one's own insignificance is also wisdom."

After the sun rose the next day, helicopters bearing the Osborn Group logo circled upward, 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 gently once before returning to silence.