Novels online

Chapter 136: Contestants

"From manipulating electricity to heating—is this the awakening of an induction cooktop's ability?"

During the week-long break, Bai Mo returned to the proving ground to continue his experiments.

While conducting further tests on the Xuanji Fruit, he suddenly discovered a peculiar anomaly: a test subject who had consumed a Xuanji Fruit infused with a Spirit Hub that manipulated electricity unexpectedly developed a new ability—heating—which was completely unrelated to electric currents!

Upon discovering this anomaly, he initiated a larger-scale test. After setting aside five hundred Xuanji Fruits to be mailed out and having his assistants distribute them in parcels, he allocated the remaining one hundred-plus fruits to all the prisoners in the proving ground. He found that roughly twenty to thirty percent of them exhibited similar phenomena.

"Unfortunately, the experimental samples are still too few. Only death row inmates and individuals requiring secret disposal can be brought in conscious. Those with fixed-term sentences can only be brought in under anesthesia for other experiments that can be conducted while they are unconscious."

"What exactly caused this mutation?" Since each test subject could only consume one Xuanji Fruit, he couldn't conduct repetitive experiments for the time being. He could only begin to broaden his horizons and let his imagination run wild.

"The fundamental reason for the emergence of Spirit Energy organs is Spirit Qi, the true essence of Spirit Qi is Spiritons, and Spiritons, in the end, are collections of vast amounts of information..." Bai Mo recalled the information he had obtained in that single second half a year ago, when he had risked his life to charge into the first Spirit Tide.

"Collections of vast amounts of information... how similar that is to genes. Genes, in essence, are also vast amounts of information stored in a quaternary format."

"Thinking about it this way, many things suddenly make sense. The same Spirit Qi inducing different changes can be analogized to the selective expression of genes. Whether it's my energy-absorbing skin or Hua Taishan's hardened skin, they are simply different forms of Spiriton expression, just like white skin and yellow skin."

Bai Mo realized his "brain-hole" had opened a bit too wide. Although he had conjured a heap of seemingly plausible conjectures, there was absolutely no experimental basis for them. In layman's terms, he was "digging pits without filling them."

"I'm still a long way from being a medical scientist. Right now, I'm just like a skilled surgeon, with ample clinical and anatomical experience but a significant lack of theoretical knowledge. This 'pit' can only be left for now, to be filled later when I possess the theoretical understanding to design experiments for verification."

Realizing the narrowness of his knowledge, he put away the experimental apparatus before him, picked up a thought crystal, and began to read the knowledge and insights from leading experts in various fields stored within it.

After showering them with vast amounts of Contribution Points and money, any expert who wasn't averse to these two things enthusiastically left their insights within the thought crystals. After all, in their cutting-edge fields, their work was undoubtedly "too profound for common understanding." Even if they wished to share their views on their respective domains with the public, very few would truly comprehend them—it would be akin to "playing a lute to a cow." It was rare for someone to be willing to spend a fortune to seek their guidance.

While Bai Mo was engrossed in his studies, news of the martial arts tournament outside was growing increasingly fervent. Under the management of professional marketing teams, both domestic and international audiences closely followed the movements of the top twenty contestants, transforming the tournament into an event with the atmosphere of a reality show.

"Number One, Black Crow! A physical combatant, a miniature giant standing a full 2.33 meters tall, with explosive muscles, immense strength, and incredible speed. In several battles, he ended the fight with a single punch! Furthermore, according to unconfirmed reports, he once practiced punching in the arena one night, actually pounding dozens of centimeters deep craters into the ground! In his most recent match, he also used the ability to fire a laser from his mouth to defeat his opponent in one hit. Powerful at long range, even stronger up close, he is definitely a very formidable opponent!"

"Number Two, Mario! He is a wolf from the desert, possessing terrifying speed and reflexes, able to pinch a bullet mid-flight with his fingers and make it change course. He is proficient in various combat techniques and possesses the ferocity of a wolf; almost all his opponents are severely wounded after fighting him."

"Number Three, Jian Ke! Another contestant with terrifying speed. His sword-wielding speed can even form a web of sword qi around his body, capable of severing any enemy who approaches him! It is rumored he has yet to reveal a second ability, which is likely an even more potent trump card than his sword qi net."

"Number Four, Shi Hua Chong! He possesses hearing so powerful that he can discern the sound of everyone's blood flowing around him. Combined with the rumored 'Mind's Eye' that can predict opponents' movements, and powerful physical techniques akin to the Shaolin Seventy-Two Arts, he is absolutely the nightmare of all close-combat ability users."

"Number Five, Ying! A contestant who is always invisible during combat and typically cloaked in a hooded robe. He relies on powerful sword control to fight alongside himself. Those who have battled him reveal that this fellow possesses astonishing, ghost-like speed; even if his sword were visible, it's believed he could still instantly kill the vast majority of contestants. Furthermore, according to unconfirmed reports, Ying has a rather peculiar personality; he never speaks. He appears to have telepathic abilities, capable of directly transmitting information into others' minds. And as for the Xuanji Fruit he won as a prize, he casually gifted it to the first reporter who attempted to interview him, simply because he felt that reporter ran the fastest."

...

"Number Twenty, Zhang Xu! Another master swordsman. If the previous sword-wielding contestants were categorized as speed-types, then he should be classified as a power-type. Every swing of his sword contains terrifying energy, and the unknown destructive power overflowing from his blade can even sweep over ten meters away. This is a dreadful sword technique that could only be created in our era of ability users!"

"The above is relatively detailed information on the twenty contestants to date. Who among these twenty will ultimately win the championship and claim the prize of up to two hundred thousand Contribution Points? We await with bated breath!"

With such a detailed intelligence summary post, supporters of various factions online grew even more vociferous. Originally, with scarce information, there weren't many posts fantasizing about battles between contestants; at most, people would discuss whether Ying fought naked, given that his ability couldn't make external objects invisible.

But now that the comprehensive intelligence list had been released, fans began to analyze each opponent for their favorite contestants, simulating battles in their minds.

People are always biased, and the results deduced by different individuals naturally wouldn't be the same. Thus, another perpetually contentious question arose online....