Chapter Fifty-Five: Epiphany Three Updates

Seeing the gray-black zombie beside him, now clad in the brown-red warrior leather armor set, and the taller poisonous rending fiend with its greenish skin and venomous glare standing off to the side, Liang Jing felt indescribably pleased. These were his enforcers, his loyal subordinates, and they were no worse than ordinary awakened individuals; in fact, they were even stronger. One possessed formidable defenses and savage strength, while the other was no less formidable in body and, thanks to its overwhelming poison, even more terrifying.

During this time, whenever Liang Jing came across the corpse of a mutated creature with any trace of toxin, he had the poisonous rending fiend absorb it. Mutated mosquitoes, flies, rats, and the like all carried various germs and poisons, and Liang Jing let none of them slip away. He kept feeding them to it, and now it was no longer like in the beginning, when it had mostly absorbed only the corrosive venom of mutated spiders and thus possessed only corrosive ability. Now it wielded multiple toxins. Even if an enemy could resist the corrosive venom, the other germs and poisons would still become a nightmare. Mutated creatures carried toxins and pathogens many times more vicious than before, and after being absorbed, purified, and fused by the poisonous rending fiend, they became even more violent and deadly. Even with the medical standards of the world before the mutations, there would be nothing they could do. Let alone now, when the world had been shattered into pieces and the medical system lacked any meaningful communication or cohesion. If one were scratched by the poisonous rending fiend, ordinary people need not be mentioned, and even awakened individuals would not possess any heaven-defying ability to escape. If infected by its toxins, the outcome would surely be miserable beyond measure.

Whoosh!

Liang Jing’s expression suddenly changed. He immediately sensed that something was wrong with his body. Earlier, because he had scanned his sea of consciousness, much of the energy within him had been consumed at once. After that, it had only gradually begun to recover, and then he had used the corpse-sealing art. Though he succeeded, the energy inside him had again been drained dry. Yet unexpectedly, it was now recovering rapidly, nearly by half. Before, even when he absorbed the life essence of monsters, recovery had been slow and steady. But now, in just a short while, it had recovered almost half. The life essence he had obtained from killing that man’s remnant soul earlier was simply far too effective. More than that, he could feel that the recovered energy inside him had become much purer; both in density and quality, it was far better than before.

Ever since awakening his innate abilities, Liang Jing had never stopped studying the energy within his body. Unfortunately, he was alone, had too many strange abilities stacked upon him, and although he was not stupid, he was not some prodigy of extraordinary intellect either. As a result, he had never achieved much, nor discovered many practical uses. He only knew that using certain abilities would automatically consume energy, while the familiar energy seemed to flow freely throughout his body, seemingly without pattern, yet under some unknown restriction it would keep circulating within a certain range—patternless, and yet repeating endlessly.

At this moment, Liang Jing felt that the life essence obtained from killing that man was extraordinarily vast and pure, nearly comparable to the life essence of the red-haired stinging fly boss. It kept strengthening and nourishing his body, and the body seemed to absorb it with remarkable ease, with an efficiency far beyond that of the life essence from mutated beasts. More importantly, the conversion rate of that life essence into the energy within Liang Jing’s body was also much higher, over three times that of the monster life essence he had absorbed before. As this power circulated within his body, moving without the slightest regularity, the life essence kept seeping into the channels through which his internal energy flowed, where it was absorbed and assimilated by the passing energy, causing the thin current within him to grow steadily stronger. Liang Jing also understood by now that this life essence was the purest source energy of that man. He too had been human, and also an awakened individual, so naturally it suited Liang Jing’s absorption perfectly.

Little by little, Liang Jing seemed to become entranced. His mind followed the energy as it flowed within his body, growing and strengthening. Unconsciously, he sat down cross-legged and no longer cared about anything else. Wearing the fierce ghost mask, Liang Jing’s powerful spiritual awareness tracked the movement of the energy in his body. His mind and body gradually relaxed, and his thoughts seemed to become blank. He hovered in a state between wakefulness and sleep, while his consciousness, by force of habit, still followed the energy’s slow circulation through his body. At the same time, the energy itself was rapidly replenishing and growing...

Suddenly, Liang Jing’s consciousness seemed to tremble. Whether it was a flash of sudden enlightenment or because his spiritual power, twenty times that of an ordinary person, was now at work, he unexpectedly developed a faint connection with the energy flowing within him. Liang Jing seemed to realize something and hastily suppressed the excitement in his heart. He constantly strengthened the contact between his consciousness and the energy, and little by little that connection became fully aligned. He seemed able to guide the direction of the energy’s flow, and even influence its speed to a certain extent. He tried to lead it and accelerate it, but he did not dare attempt any path the energy had ever used before. Instead, he only experimented within the channels he was already familiar with, repeatedly guiding and pushing it along those routes. Because the influence of his guiding force over the energy was neither strong nor familiar at first, he kept making mistakes. Just as he wanted to steer it toward a certain junction, the direction and distance would be off by too much, causing it to slam into the edge of the channel and nearly shatter it. In an instant, intense pain struck his body, and Liang Jing’s vision went black; he nearly passed out. Fortunately, the body still contained a large amount of pure life essence, and the damaged channel was quickly repaired and restored.

Gradually, Liang Jing continued to guide and control the flow of energy, becoming more and more practiced, more and more familiar, slowly mastering the sensation of it. He led the energy through the familiar channels within his body, and under his unconscious urging, its flow quickened again and again, eventually reaching nearly twice its previous speed.

As Liang Jing sat there alone, time passed little by little. The others ate their lunch and wanted to wake him, but Jia Yujin stopped them. He even told everyone to rest nearby and not disturb Liang Jing. He knew Liang Jing seemed to be in some special state, and that the best course was to watch and wait. As long as nothing seemed amiss, they should simply wait.

As time passed, Liang Jing guided the energy within his body as it rushed through familiar channels at increasing speed. Whenever traces of life essence seeped into the channels, they were immediately absorbed, transformed, and fused by the rapidly moving energy. Moreover, once the channels absorbed the life essence that had seeped in, they would in turn actively draw more life essence from other parts of the body into the channels, allowing the cycle to continue.

Thus, under Liang Jing’s guidance, the energy flowed through every part of him faster and faster, its absorption and strengthening accelerating more and more. Then the pathways would again actively draw life essence from elsewhere in the body into the channels, creating a healthy, sustainable cycle that continued on and on...

Little by little, Liang Jing sensed that as the energy within him grew stronger and purer, it had a nourishing and strengthening effect on his flesh and blood as it flowed. He could be sure that if this continued, his body would slowly become even more powerful. It was only now that he had realized this. However, the rate at which his flesh and blood grew stronger was not very fast, much slower than when the body directly absorbed life essence. Still, for others who lacked life essence altogether, so long as they kept working at it, their bodies would surely become stronger and more formidable. Even for Liang Jing, this was useful, because internal energy, unlike life essence, would not remain in the body for only a short time. After all, life essence was not always available, whereas this internal energy persisted within him, growing purer and stronger without cease, and its effects continued to increase. It was a sustainable and stable force, a kind of continuous plan for human advancement.

During this process, Liang Jing also felt that this energy had a certain restorative effect on his stamina, strength, and fatigue. With just that alone, awakened individuals were already much stronger than ordinary people. However, for Liang Jing, the speed was still too slow. Before, he had not even been able to feel it, after all he had been wildly wasteful in his use of life essence, that most pure source energy of life, which had tremendous effects on bodily recovery, healing, and strengthening. But even so, compared with others, it was still a great advantage, one ordinary people did not have.

Time continued to pass slowly. The sun climbed to the center of the sky, then moved toward the other side. Liang Jing was somewhat disappointed. He still had not found a way to use this energy directly in battle to strengthen his attacks, like the way inner power in martial arts novels amplifies martial techniques.

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