Lucian casually dispersed the golden sparks swirling around his fingertips, ending his borrowing-based cultivation for the day.
Borrowing power from those demon gods across the dimensions felt like swiping an unlimited black card he would never have to pay off himself.
Lucian exhaled and took his phone from inside his coat.
Although Kamar-Taj was a secluded place of cultivation, it had long since connected to modern civilization. Lucian deftly found the wireless network called "Shamballa," connected to the Wi-Fi, and prepared to check what was happening in Manhattan.
The moment his phone went online, over a hundred unread notifications popped up at the top of the screen.
The buzz around Compound V and the documentary "Awakening" was even more outrageous than he had expected. The front pages and headlines of major social media platforms worldwide were almost entirely dominated by the long lines outside Vought Tower and posts from people seeking to buy it. On the black market, people were even offering the astronomical price of ten million dollars for a single priority number at Vought's medical examination center.
These people's hunger for superhuman power really was terrifying. Apparently, they still hadn't seen enough heroes. Most heroes either acted as vigilantes or kept a low profile, unlike in The Boys Universe, where the sight of them practically made people sick.
But amid the frenzied buying spree, a breaking trending story marked with a blood-red exclamation point had fought its way through countless posts.
Lucian tapped it.
A clip from a live broadcast in Los Angeles immediately appeared on the screen.
The weather in the footage looked poor. A crowd of reporters carrying cameras of every size blocked the entrance to the inpatient wing of a luxurious private hospital like sharks that had scented blood. Camera flashes lit the entire street