Transcendence

This fucking works too!? Xiao He thought helplessly. His ability could actually affect a typhoon...

"How is it?" Cui Man's voice came through the headset. Xiao He rolled his eyes. "The ability has activated, sure, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

"Think about it properly. For example, fly into the air and fly in the opposite direction to weaken the typhoon's winds," Cui Man said unhappily.

"Fine. First," Xiao He replied, "the energy of a typhoon is practically equivalent to several thousand nuclear bombs. Trying to weaken its winds that way is pure fantasy. Given my mass, I'd probably have to fly at nearly the speed of light to counteract its energy and reduce its power, and that's impossible!"

"And second?" Cui Man pressed.

"I can't fly!" Xiao He snapped. "That's the most important part!"

"So useless..." Cui Man muttered quietly.

"You people..." Xiao He gritted his teeth. "Stop calling me useless every other word. If you're so capable, then you do it!"

"How about lifting an island and swimming across the ocean against the typhoon's vortex?" Ye Wanqing suggested.

"Are you people actually taking this seriously?" Xiao He was on the verge of exploding. "Isn't there some kind of think tank?!"

"Because research into 'stopping a typhoon with one person's power' can't get funding," Cui Man said in a flippant tone, sounding as though she did not care about the mission at all. "If it really doesn't work, forget it. Come back. There'll be another chance for you to make an appearance."

Although Cui Man said that, for some reason, Xiao He had an indescribable intuition.

He felt as though he could do it.

"I'll give it a try first..." Xiao He muttered with a shrug. His ability was active now, so there was nothing to fear.

As long as his ability was active, he was impervious to blades and bullets. His bench press strength could reach four or five tons. Neither waves nor gales could hurt him. There was no harm in trying. Even if he failed, swimming back to shore with his strength would not be a problem.

With that thought, he shouted to the pilot in front of him, "Hey, man, eject me... Ah—!"

Before he could finish, the windshield above his head suddenly opened. The next moment, he and his seat were hurled out together, leaving behind only a long, drawn-out scream.

"You asshole, you haven't even told me how to open the parachute yet!?" Xiao He raged as he swayed in the wind high in the air.

Then the parachute automatically deployed from the seat, but it was useless. The airflow outside was far too powerful. The moment the parachute opened, he was blown wildly around in midair, while raindrops struck him like stray bullets.

The fighter jet had already turned and flown back toward the coast. Any farther ahead, the typhoon would grow even stronger, and even a fighter jet could not remain stable in such violent air currents.

Xiao He fumbled around and tore off the safety belt around his waist. The seat beneath him instantly vanished into the fierce wind, while he stopped in midair. There was nothing beneath his feet, and he could not feel himself standing on anything, yet he felt a peculiar force holding his body aloft. He could actually fly!?

"I couldn't fly last time..." Xiao He muttered in astonishment. He had not possessed this ability before.

But that made things easier. As long as he could fly, there were many things he could do. A typhoon followed the law of conservation of energy too. It was just moving air. As long as its energy was expended, it would naturally weaken.

Yet a typhoon's energy was unimaginably vast, equivalent to the energy released by thousands of atomic bomb explosions. Human strength simply could not eliminate it. But for some reason, Xiao He felt that he could do it.

Although his mass was small, as long as he flew fast enough and long enough, he could generate enormous kinetic energy. If that energy was great enough, it could weaken the typhoon. It was just that...

Even without calculating it, he knew that even if he flew fast enough, it would take a long time to weaken the typhoon. He did not know where his confidence came from. He simply felt that he could do it.

Maybe that was his ability—the ability to defeat something called "Lin Tiannan"... whatever the hell that was.

"Let's do this!" Xiao He encouraged himself, then flew toward the center of the typhoon.

The closer he got to the center, the stronger the wind became, and the rain battered him furiously. But Xiao He barely felt it, since he was now impervious to blades and bullets. The raging waves below could not reach his current altitude either. As he approached the eye of the storm, the sky gradually brightened... until a broken tree trunk swept up by the hurricane came hurtling straight at him.

Xiao He's mind buzzed as though it had exploded. He lost his balance, and the scenery before him spun rapidly, but he quickly steadied himself in the air.

Flying felt strange and wonderful. It came to him naturally, as though he had flown like this in his dreams before. He rubbed his forehead. Even though the log had hit him head-on, it barely hurt.

He looked up at the swirling currents overhead, confirmed the direction, and began flying through the air at high speed.

With the thought of giving it a try, he flew in the opposite direction of the vortex at his fastest speed. He did not know how fast he was going, but the scenery around him spun rapidly past...

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away on shore, Cui Man, Ye Wanqing, and the other technicians were observing everything through drones.

"Oh my god... Did you see that?" Cui Man murmured in disbelief, then turned to the technicians beside her. "Can you get the drones closer? The image is still too blurry."

"Sorry, Officer Cui, this is already the limit. The wind is too strong. If we get any closer, the drones won't be able to maintain stability," the technicians replied.

"Then wait a little longer. Maybe the wind will weaken after a while," Cui Man instructed.

At that moment, Ye Wanqing narrowed her eyes and frowned. "What is that?"

Cui Man immediately turned toward the screen. Wherever Xiao He had flown over, the seawater formed a vortex and gradually rose, slowly connecting with the sky. A small Tornado had actually formed within the typhoon!

"Is something like this even possible?" Ye Wanqing muttered in astonishment.

"Scientifically? Who knows? There have never been Mutants in history," Cui Man said with a smile, looking excited. "But we know that a typhoon is a single vortex, while a Tornado consists of multiple vortices with an outer layer of rising airflow, which is why it connects the heavens and earth. So theoretically, as long as the conditions are met, a Tornado can form using a typhoon."

"I speculate," one of the technicians beside them said cautiously, "that Xiao He's flight altitude was unconsciously rising as he flew, creating an updraft. Combined with his movement against the typhoon's vortex, that formed a second vortex. Together with the typhoon's original vortex, it met the conditions needed to form a Tornado. There was once a similar phenomenon in M Country, where a small Tornado appeared inside the center of a typhoon."

"Wouldn't that make things even worse?" Ye Wanqing asked with a frown.

"More accurately, the problem has already been solved," the technician said excitedly. "Tornadoes may be powerful, but they usually last only a short time—half an hour, at most an hour or two—before naturally disappearing. The typhoon's energy will naturally be weakened as well."

"So he's already completed the mission?" Cui Man asked in surprise. Then she could not help sighing. "It seems I underestimated his power... What an incredibly powerful Superpower, to actually rise above a 'natural disaster.' Although the activation conditions are rather harsh, resulting in a very low lower limit, this ability's upper limit is also extremely high. In other words, no matter how strong 'Lin Tiannan' is, Xiao He can become stronger."

"Tsunamis, Earthquakes, meteorites..." The technicians discussed excitedly. "If we named the end of the world 'Lin Tiannan,' could he even defeat the end of the world? Who would have thought this trash Superpower was so powerful?"

"Ahem." Ye Wanqing cleared her throat beside them.

"Of course, it's only this powerful when combined with Miss Ye's Superpower," everyone quickly added, remembering something. Only then did Ye Wanqing smile in satisfaction.

"His upper limit still needs to be verified, but I don't believe it can be limitless," Cui Man interrupted their discussion. She pressed her earpiece and said, "Xiao He, the mission is complete! Retreat now! I repeat, the mission is complete! Retreat!"

Xiao He himself was currently standing in the middle of the Tornado, staring in disbelief at the gradually forming funnel as seawater continuously lashed against him. He anxiously bit his finger. Did I screw up? I didn't get rid of the typhoon—I even made a Tornado!

But Cui Man's voice came through his headset. "The mission is complete! Retreat!"

"It's complete already?" Xiao He asked in surprise. "But I..." After thinking about it, he shrugged. What did it have to do with him? If they said it was done, it was done. He could take the money and leave. Wasn't getting paid to lie around his goal?

With that thought, Xiao He ignored the Tornado he had created and turned to leave.

However, after he had flown for over ten minutes, the Tornado gradually disappeared. As it vanished, the typhoon's power noticeably weakened as well. By then, he could no longer see the vortex formed by the typhoon in the sky. While flying steadily through the air, he suddenly lost his support and fell toward the black seawater below.

With a splash, Xiao He was swallowed by the seawater. He quickly adjusted himself and floated back to the surface.

"This ability is way too literal. The moment I can't see the 'enemy,' it's gone," Xiao He said irritably, wiping the water from his face. The fishy, salty smell of seawater rushed into his nose, making him uncomfortable. He was still roughly several hundred kilometers from shore. The good news was that even without his ability operating, swimming back to shore with his physical abilities would not be difficult.

After swimming for a short while, a helicopter approached from the distance and hovered above him.