Chapter 2: Cell Dominion Talent

After sitting still for seven minutes, Ye Wuji slowly rose to his feet. Every muscle in his body felt as if they were being pricked by needles. 

Meiyin stood with him, worry on her face. Her hands clenched the hem of her dress.

"Brother, what now?" she asked softly. "Chen Yi was accepted by the village chief as a student. If we go back, he might beat you again."

Ye Wuji didn't answer at first. He stared at the grassy ground, his jaw clenched and his breathing heavy due to his lung injury.

Chen Yi.

This name alone made his fists tighten instinctively. He was the so-called best friend who had stolen the spirit stone. 

He was the same one who had murdered the original owner of this body and climbed over his corpse to reach the path of cultivation.

Now, he was being trained, by none other than the village chief himself.

"Don't worry. I have a plan," Ye Wuji told her, keeping his voice calm.

But, in fact, he didn't, "With the village chief backing Chen Yi, revenge is nearly impossible. Not that I care about avenging anyone," he thought. "But the anger and hatred left in this body are driving me insane. I can't ignore it, even if I want to."

He took a step forward, but just as he did, a glowing blue panel appeared in front of him.

Startled by this, he jumped back and felt a sharp pain shoot through his injured legs.

"Argh! Damn it!" he cursed as he stumbled back.

"Brother, Are your injuries getting worse?" Meiyin asked, rushing to his side and looking worried.

As soon as she neared the panel, it flickered and passed through her body like mist, phasing in and out. Then, it hovered directly in front of Ye Wuji again, even closer than before.

He narrowed his eyes. "Is it reacting to my thoughts?" he wondered.

To confirm his suspicion, he looked to his left shoulder and imagined the panel. Whoosh! It was floating near his left shoulder. He extended his hand, but it passed through the panel.

"What?! A panel! Is this a simulation panel? Or maybe it's a game panel? Am I in another world? Did those bastards put me in a simulation? But it feels so real. It can't be a simulation. The technology hasn't advanced that much in just one day," he mumbled to himself.

Meiyin watched him closely, becoming increasingly worried the longer she observed him. His face remained still for minutes at a time. 

Sometimes he mumbled to himself, sometimes his face became angry and sometimes confused. Now, he was waving his hand through the air as if chasing a ghost.

"Did Brother become insane after the beating?" she thought, her face showing her concern.

After a few minutes of thinking and waving his hand through the panel, he looked at Meiyin. "Yin Yin," he said softly, using the childhood nickname he had never known but somehow remembered.

"Look at this," he said, motioning to the empty space in front of his chest. "Can you see it?"

Meiyin blinked, leaned in, and squinted at the empty space.

"There's...nothing there," she said hesitantly. She continued, "Brother, don't worry. Meiyin will stay with you even if you go crazy," she said affectionately as she stood beside him. Her previous image of a snotty brat disappeared.

"What? Me crazy? Even in this other world, I'm called crazy by my own sister. Well, she's not technically my sister," he thought as he returned his gaze to the panel. 

If it were anyone else, he would have started fighting by now if they called him crazy. He hated that word. 

He hated how they whispered it behind his back. In his past life, he was dubbed a mad scientist. They also called him an unstable genius, a lunatic doctor.

"Let's see," he murmured, his eyes landing on the first words:

[Name: Ye Wuji

Innate Talent: Cell Dominion

Rank: Mortal-Class (Dormant)]

Trait: Cellular Regeneration (Low-Tier)

Cultivation: Mortal (Injured)

"Cell Dominion? What kind of talent is that?" As soon as he thought it, the panel changed.

[Cell Dominion is a cultivation talent that awakens the body's dormant evolutionary instincts, allowing for conscious control, adaptation, and mutation at the cellular level.]

"Does that mean I am a walking evolutionary engine?" he thought, looking at the trait, [Cellular Regeneration.]

As soon as he focused on this trait, a warm current surged through his body and his wounds began to heal. The scar on the left side of his face looked like something that had happened weeks ago.

His lung injuries improved as well, and he felt the stuffiness and muscle joint pain lessen significantly. After thirty seconds, the warm surge ended, and Ye Wuji fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Why am I feeling so tired all of a sudden? Shouldn't I be feeling energetic since my wounds have healed?" he thought to himself.

"Brilliant. A top-tier oncologist and I forgot that regeneration needs fuel. No wonder I collapsed, this damn body ran on fumes and rage."

"Brother! Put your hand on my shoulder. Let me help you walk," said Meiyin, grabbing his left hand and carefully helping him to his feet. 

The faded scar on his face didn't catch her attention; her worry left no room for anything else.

"I'm just a little tired," Ye Wuji muttered, his gaze turning back to the panel in front of him. As he focused, the trait's description expanded:

[Cellular Regeneration — Low-Tier]

Status: Active

Description: The body initiates accelerated healing in response to injury.

Note: Energy cost increases with severity.

Potential for mutation: Low (for now).]

His stomach growled loudly, and he then turned to Meiyin.

"Yinyin, is there any food at home?" he asked, embarrassed.

Meiyin lowered her head, her voice small. "No, Brother. Chen Yin and his friends took everything. They even took the dress you bought me with the money you earned in town."

Ye Wuji fell silent.

That dress had cost her three days of labor and half his pride, working in silence while being mocked, insulted, and overlooked. 

He bought it because she only had one dress and also because he'd seen her smile at it in the market.

"That damn Chen Yi!" Ye Wuji thought angrily. Who would've thought he'd be so cruel as to not even leave a scrap of bread?"

His stomach twisted again, but he forced himself to stand straighter.

"Let's go," he said, turning toward the village. "We'll report him to the village chief."

Meiyin hesitated. "But I don't think the chief will help us."

"No," Wuji replied calmly. "We're not going for revenge., we don't have the strength for that."

Meiyin blinked. "Then what are we going to do?"

Ye Wuji gave her a sideways glance, a faint smile on his lips.

"First, I need to confirm something," he said. "If the village chief doesn't compensate us, then he hasn't seen viciousness yet."