Chapter 68 - Human Race Evolution!
Hengsheng sat in the cave with his eyes closed, and Yunsu, who rested on his lap, appeared to be asleep. In truth, both of them were now within battle simulation training, pushing themselves as hard as they could since they knew that a big battle would soon unfold.
In the simulation, Hengsheng and Yunsu faced a group of black-masked cultivators, with an army of God Spawn behind them. Both sides froze, waiting for the battle to start.
Time counted down.
[1]…
[0]…
[Fight Begin!]
As the battle officially began, Hengsheng immediately released his Dao Heart aura. Not only did it envelop him, but Yunsu's body was also surrounded by his Dao aura.
It was impossible for most people to share their Dao Heart with others, but Hengsheng had spent more than 10,000 AP to modify his Soul Contract with Yunsu. The contract now allowed him to share his Dao Heart power with her, even though it cut his own power in half. But it was worth it, as it enabled Yunsu to deal damage to the God Spawn.
The ten God Spawns charged forward mindlessly with their massive, disgusting bodies. Hengsheng and Yunsu had fought these creatures in the simulation countless times; their muscles reacted automatically, as if remembering every move.
Hengsheng struck with Fist and Palm Qi from afar to intercept them, while Yunsu unleashed her "breast ball" of five elemental Qi from her small mouth to annihilate them all at once. The battle was easy and did not last long, as it had become routine for both of them. After the battle ended, they exited the simulation.
Hengsheng opened his eyes as he returned to the real world. On his lap, the cat was now yawning and stretching, so he quickly rubbed her back.
"Mew," the cat cries, and Hengsheng is satisfied by the pleasure of rubbing cat fur. Then he gave her the last pile of his remaining spirit stones for her to cultivate. The cat quickly carried the spirit stone to another corner of the cave and began her cultivation session.
Hengsheng watched her cultivate, remembering his promise to let her re-enter the System World if she continued to work diligently. It seemed to work better than expected—her diligence and discipline for cultivation were increased to another level, as if her newfound sense of power and sense of losing it had given her a wake-up call.
Shifting his focus to himself, Hengsheng observed his entire body with his Divine Sense. "It seems my body is now stable and ready for another upgrade," he thought.
Over the past week and a half, he had been training in the simulation in various scenarios, honing his fighting techniques, and even practicing to utilize the power of the Fire Law.
Even though his attainment of the power of the Fire Law did not bring a significant boost to his battle power—unlike when he awakened his Dao Heart—and his low cultivation realm imposed several limits on how he could utilize the power of the Law, the Fire Law still added variety to his battle style.
He could integrate the fire attribute into his Spiritual Qi to increase his Qi power, and another advantage was it granted him the ability to control fire Qi in his surroundings like high-level cultivators could do.
This allowed him to practice the Fire Attribute Heaven-grade Qi technique even before he entered the Nascent Soul Realm. He was pretty sure that if he possessed a Heaven-grade Qi technique in the Spiritual Foundation Realm, he could probably fight on par with true body cultivators—fighting across realms as he had always desired.
Hengsheng opened his status panel and used the upgrade function on the Race section, as he intended to upgrade his race on the first day in the cave.
Ding!
[Human Race Upgrade requires 10,000 SP]
[Human Race Upgrade Options]
[High-Human] – An advanced form of humanity with superior physical and mental traits.
[Metahuman] – A human who transcends biological limitations and unlocks a Genetic trait within their DNA.
[Homo Vampyrus] - A nocturnal humanoid predator that refines its life force through blood and Qi absorption.
[Homo Titanus] – A physically monstrous evolution of humanity, focused on raw physical power and durability.
...
...
...
...
Hengsheng observed the options there were more than 10 of them and felt amazed because all the choices clearly came from his own memory—the system had made his fictional memory possible.
Although the other options looked impressive and interested him, he had already decided to follow Samuel Barlow's path.
Ding!
[Metahuman Evolution Selected]
[10,000 SP deducted.]
[Human Race Evolution in progress…]
Warning: Evolution will induce biological restructuring. Prepare for temporary discomfort.
Hengsheng's eyes are wide as the warning appears, this feature will appear only when the change that he is going to undergo is beyond his current pain tolerance level. Before he could even prepare himself to face the pain.
An explosion of pain erupted from within his cells. His muscles vibrated, his bones creaked, and his veins burned as if molten sap had replaced his blood. Every fiber of his being screamed in rebellion, resisting the transformation as his body shed its old limits and embraced something entirely new.
Hengsheng collapsed to the cave floor, his fingers digging into the soil beneath him. A deep, earthy scent filled the air as wooden roots burst from the ground, wrapping around his arms as if nature itself was responding to his transformation.
CRACK!
His skin especially on both of his arms hardened for a moment, turning a deep, bark-like brown before softening again—stronger, more resilient. He gasped, feeling his muscles knit themselves back together, denser and more flexible than before. His vision flickered, and for an instant, he felt a new sense from both of his arms he sensed a pulse of something—pulsing with life.
[Timbergrasp Genetic Trait Awakened]
When a system notice appeared, Hengsheng had already reached his limit—his consciousness began to fade.
Ten hours later
Hengsheng slowly opened his eyes, finally waking from his unconscious state, but he did not get up from the floor because he still felt extremely exhausted from the progress of genetic evolution. He thinks back to what he just experienced the pain was on another level—worse than even the heavenly tribulation lightning could compare.
He slowly turned his head, still on the ground, toward Yunsu, who was behind him, licking his hair. He did not know why she did that.
"Meow?" she mewed, asking if he was finally awake.
"Sweety, please give me one spirit stone—I will return it a thousand times, okay?" Hengsheng said as he looked at the pile of spirit stones he had given her, not expecting to need them now.
"Meow!" She turned back to the pile of spirit stones and carried one spirit stone in her mouth before dropping it near his hand.
Hengsheng extended his currently weak Divine Sense to grasp the spirit stone, placing it in his hand before beginning to absorb its Spiritual Qi. Thanks to his system power, his absorption was astonishingly rapid—he depleted the stone's Spiritual Qi in just a minute.
Crake!
The spirit stone turned to dust, and Hengsheng regained some of his strength. "Woo, this time, the feeling of breaking down at the cellular level was truly terrible," he muttered. then he slowly got up from the cave floor.
He cursed the pain, yet he welcomed it, knowing that more pain meant more gain.
He then opened his status panel to check his progress. He noticed that his Race section had changed—it was no longer "Human" but "Metahuman." His overall battle power and physical strength had also upgraded to [Tier 3 - A] and [Tier 3 - C], respectively.
Before examining his new genetic trait, he observed that his old genetic trait, the Sun Gaze Genetic, had increased in power from [Tier 2 - C] to [Tier 2 - B]. He immediately understood why: his current cultivation on the [Race] now began to support the [Genetic Type Trait]. Both of his traits would grow stronger as he continued on this path.
Finally, the new genetic trait—the main reason he chose this evolution path—appeared: Timbergrasp [Tier 2 - B].
Based on his experience during evolution, he guessed that this new trait had something to do with wood. The name of the trait confirmed his suspicion. "Why did my genetic trait turn out to be a wood-type trait?" he thought.
Then he recalled that his Lan Clan's specialization in both cultivation and Qi technique was related to Wood Qi, which made sense; his newly awakened trait was also connected to the wood element. Without further guessing, he quickly inspected the new trait to learn about it.
[Timbergrasp] - Everything under the user's grasp can be turned into wood, and any wooden object within their grasp can be controlled and manipulated.
Hengsheng looked around, as if afraid someone might arrest him for copyright violation, but he guessed there were none. That guy could only turn trash into a tree, but he could turn everything into a tree.
"It should be fine, right?" he joked to himself as he tried to figure out how to utilize this new power.