The next day, the King of the Deep Sea and Blood Master returned. Jiang Yan told them to guard the cavern.
He took out a soul crystal and absorbed it directly.
Buzz! A surge of green energy burst from the skull and poured into Jiang Yan's facial features.
'So cold!' Jiang Yan felt a chill that seeped straight into his soul.
His soul seemed to be changing; the energy was so powerful that the excess even strengthened his body.
Crack! His bones ground together, muscles swelling and contracting.
Normally, the backlash would knock him out for three days while his soul digested the power, but Jiang Yan was completely immune thanks to his ability.
All he felt was that chill lingering in soul and body for a little over an hour, then it vanished.
'That's it?' Jiang Yan clenched his fist—his strength had roughly doubled.
His height rose from 185 cm to 187 cm. Besides the physical boost, a new ability appeared in his mind.
Jiang Yan
Time Flow: Burn stamina to accelerate personal time, adjustable speed! (The side-effect of lifespan drain at higher speeds has been removed.)
Son of the Sea: Moderate boost to physique; gain the ability to breathe underwater!
Rewind: Spend mental power to turn back time, up to ten seconds, with the Rewind anchor set at the moment this ability was gained! (Headache side-effect removed.)
'This ability!' Jiang Yan's eyes lit up—it rivaled Time Flow.
At a critical juncture it could produce miraculous results.
Bang!
With that thought, Jiang Yan pulled out his phone and crushed it.
Watching the shattered pieces, he focused and triggered Rewind.
Buzz! A ringing like tinnitus sounded; his vision was stripped away, dropping him into a dream-like third-person view.
He saw sparks of the phone's explosion shrink, fragments flying back together.
The phone became whole again and slipped back into his pocket.
Buzz! Another ring, and his sight returned to normal.
He flexed his hand, face full of wonder: 'This power is insane. The mental cost feels trivial—at my current level I could probably Rewind a hundred times without strain.'
Jiang Yan kept Rewinding on the spot; each ten-second jump immediately followed by another.
Only when he reached the instant he'd gained the ability did Rewind refuse to go further.
Finished testing, he looked at Blood Master and the King of the Deep Sea, pointed at a chest on the ground and said, 'Two more soul crystals here. One of you uses a crystal now; the other waits until they wake up. Leave someone on guard.'
'Yes!' The two monsters nodded. Jiang Yan took the yang-fallen evil seal and walked out of the cavern.
Though he'd only harvested thirty soul crystals from the skeleton tree this time, that was enough for key combatants and personnel for now.
'Judging from Tizi Country's leaked data, the people whose brains were sixty percent dead became these thirty crystals,' Jiang Yan mused, eyes flickering.
It meant that draining an entire city dry would yield at most fifty crystals.
To maximize output, they'd have to keep sending people in.
Lost in thought, he reached the cavern entrance.
It lay behind a small mountain; noon sun blazed directly overhead.
Jiang Yan placed the yang-fallen evil seal under the light and watched.
The heart-shaped relief in the center stirred, pulsing as though alive.
'Ten days—not too long, sufficient.' He sent a thought into it.
Soon the Blood Master who hadn't used a crystal stepped outside; Jiang Yan handed him the seal.
'This thing needs ten days of sunlight. During that time, take turns watching it with the King of the Deep Sea,' Jiang Yan instructed.
Blood Master accepted the yang-fallen evil seal and said respectfully, 'Understood, President.'
With orders given, Jiang Yan turned and left.
Over the past two days, news of the Awakened Ones had kept spreading online.
Even though the original mastermind's corpse had begun to stink, it didn't curb public discussion one bit.
Guides claiming to teach how to awaken abilities popped up everywhere.
'Extreme emotional or mental shock gives you a chance to awaken and rise above the masses.'
Countless ordinary people started imitating the stunt.
On the roof of a 500-meter tower, two Caucasian Youths stood at the edge.
Ten meters ahead lay another building; six meters below and to the side, an open window awaited, sponge mats visible inside.
Hicks aimed his phone at himself, voice excited: 'Livestream, folks! Send gifts! Today Hicks shows you how to awaken a super-power!'
He turned the camera to the distant window: 'See that? I'm jumping through it from here—500 meters up. Miss and I'm paste.'
Cumberland Knoll: 'Dang, Hicks, you serious? Jump already—if you awaken, we'll have way more fun!'
HappyEveryDay: 'Jump, streamer! I'll send a rocket!!!'
LordOfOneNation: 'Jump and I'll gift a million blue star coins.'
Viewer count rocketed past five hundred thousand.
Beaming, Hicks handed the phone to the young man beside him: 'Jackson, hold it tight. Time to witness me becoming an Awakened One!'
He backed up a dozen meters, then sprinted.
'Ahhh!' Under half-a-million eyes, Hicks leapt, arms flailing.
Soaring, he neared the window, a crazed grin on his face.
Then a gust of wind clipped him; his body tilted.
The grin vanished as Hicks plunged.
'Help meee!' A heart-rending scream—and the stream watched him splatter into mincemeat.
Not a single chunk bigger than a palm remained.
The chat froze; the next second the stream was banned for extreme violence.
Such incidents became routine after the Awakened were exposed.
Inside the royal palace of Liyang Country's capital.
King lounged in a red bathrobe, legs crossed, watching Hicks's broadcast on TV.
'What a pity—he didn't make it.' King lit a cigar and took a deep drag.
He scrolled through countless videos of wannabe Awakened.
A slight smile curved his lips: 'Delusional. Awakening depends on emotion—and luck.'
As the man in charge of revealing the Awakened, he loved watching the spectacle.
News about martial artists had also surfaced, but after people saw their inhuman training regimens,
ninety-nine percent backed off, deciding the Awakened path suited them better.