Vol 7: Chapter 2-3.

Zheng was still groaning in pain with his eyes closed. However, now that he was in the unlocked mode, he had control over his muscles, blood, nerves, and partial energy flow, an ability that came with the second stage. He paused the flow of blood energy completely.

Yet the energy was still boiling and resisting even under control since it was at much a higher quantity and quality. It wouldn’t leave the navel position that easily. Zheng had to force them back to his head bit by bit. Almost ten hours had passed before he moved them all back to his head, then even more time for him to confined the energy in place. When he finally woke up, the other people were having a barbecue by the side.

Lori was the first to notice Zheng waking up. She jumped in his arms with a cheer, despite staining Zheng’s shirt with the kebab she was holding. For a moment, Zheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The others also moved their gaze toward him. Zheng noticed Jie and Nana were also sitting by the fire. He was sipping a can of beer and raised the can when Zheng looked at him, carrying a sense of loneliness.

Honglu said. "How’s your condition? Any damage? Are your blood energy and Qi still there?"

Zheng carefully felt his body and said. "Both energies have calmed down. I enhanced them both simultaneously before. Didn’t expect such a disaster when enhancing just one. Eh? Wait, what is this?"

Zheng felt something strange about his Qi. It was tainted with some quality of the blood energy, and turned slightly red. Like an after effect of the fusion of the two energies.

Without any delay, he picked up an empty beer can from the floor and channeled the Qi to his hand. The can started to melt like it was under high temperature. But Zheng knew that this was similar to when he mixed blood energy with Qi and brought over the corrosive property.

Everyone saw the change on the can. Jie laughed. "You obtained a new power huh? Come to my basement and show us."

Zheng nodded without hesitation. In fact, if it wasn’t for Jie, he might have been dead by now, or most likely had to use a large amount of points to repair the damage, since he was still in God’s dimension. It was difficult to die here with enough points.

Zheng looked at the barbecue and felt hungry, not aware how long he had stayed in that condition. He grabbed over ten kebabs at once and quickly finished them. Then he ran back to his room for the toilet.

After he was done cleaning himself and grabbing some snacks, he hurried over to Jie’s room with Lori. Everyone was already waiting for him inside.

A granite tablet about twenty meters in thickness stood in front of him. Although not as tough as plate armor of the same thickness but it was only slightly worse in resilience. A normal person would not be able to destroy it without any weapons.

Zheng took a deep breath. He focused his Qi onto his fist. You could make out a faint reddish light covering his fist, but the light was barely visible to the human eyes. Zheng struck the tablet using this new fused energy and his hand penetrated the tablet. It didn’t destroy the tablet in pieces but actually went through, this was due to the corrosive property.

Zheng breathed out and said. "This is basically it. This attack used about a tenth of my Qi. Twenty-meter thickness is about my limit but my Qi is about ten times more powerful than before. This is too strong. I have confidence fighting anyone in close combat using this new Qi even without exchanging any kungfu."

Jie shook his head. "No, it’s still best to exchange some basic kungfu. Don’t you still have a rank C and D rewards? The rank C can be used to get the cheapest movement technique. Takes a rank C reward and 2000 points. It’s one of the entry level kungfu."

Zheng replied with a surprise. "There wouldn’t be entry level kungfu for the various disciplines like fist, and swords?"

Jie nodded with affirmation.

Zheng thought for a bit and said. "Let’s go upstairs for a drink. Jie, it should be time to tell us some things right?"

Jie nodded without replying, then shook his head. But he still led everyone upstairs. He had Nana brought them drinks, some of these liquor required points to get.

"What do you want to know? Some things I can tell you now but some must wait until the next movie. Don’t worry, I will tell you everything in the end." He binged a bottle of liquor and said.

Zheng thought for a moment then said. "Then first tell me about the genetic constraint. Xuan mentioned the concept but it was just touching the surface. Seems like there are some big secrets I don’t know about. This is what I need to know the most."

Jie nodded. "In a sense, unlocking the constraint is the key to utilizing enhancements. For a rank A enhancement, a normal person can only utilize ten percent of its power, that’s his limit. However, someone that reached stage one can utilize twenty to thirty percent of its power, and stage two from forty to fifty percent. There are five known stages. In fact, stage four can already utilize a hundred percent of the power. And stage five is when the organism evolves. Stage five is when you can begin to change and optimize the enhancement to adapt to this world. This is the ultimate goal of evolution."

Zheng nodded. "Then what about my Qi and blood energy? I don’t feel entering the unlocked mode helps much."

"It’s not what you think. The reason you were able to learn to use Qi so quickly was because you had already unlocked your constraint. When you obtain your first enhancement, your body will not adapt to the change in genetics or energy. Ask Heng, do you feel a drastic change after exchanging?"

Heng shook his head. "My body do feel faster, my eyesight and hearing also feel enhanced but they are not strong enough to be unstoppable. Isn’t this how it should be for only a rank C enhancement?"

Jie laughed. "It’s not as simple as you think. Once you unlocked your constraint, your fighting ability will change drastically due to the unleash of combat instincts. Zheng and Yinkong can feel this the most. Unlocking the constraint is a key. The higher ranked the enhancement is, the higher you need to be unlocked to utilize its full power."

Jie paused for a moment then continued. "As a matter of fact, these enhancements, abilities, and other things are all the creations left by people that had reached a higher unlocked level. They either controlled their genetics and evolved to a higher form of life, or they controlled their energy and created these abilities. Your Qi mixed with blood energy is similar to one of the rank A enhancements in properties, they are both highly corrosive. However, you formed it by fusing Qi and blood energy. This is also a form of creation. It consumes less energy to use than the rank A enhancement. So when you reached a higher level, is when you can create your own power."

Everyone listened quietly. After he was done, Zheng muttered. "The other question is, who are you?"