Chapter Ten: The Blood of Evolution

The gray hound had been given a name—Shadow. This was the name of the first beast of its kind in the history of the world. Yet Xi Gu felt no sense of “making history,” of “leaving a mark in the annals of human civilization,” or of “ushering in a new chapter for the world.” Nor did the gray hound feel that “Shadow” was insufficiently grand, mysterious, or befitting the honor of being “the first beast of its kind.” On the contrary, after receiving its name from its master, the gray hound proudly wagged its tail, circling excitedly at Xi Gu’s feet.

“Shadow… name… excited!”

“Alright, alright,” Xi Gu laughed, patting the dog’s head and waving his hand. “To celebrate the experiment’s success, you’re getting a feast today!”

He ordered some takeout, fresh ingredients delivered to his door, and cooked a hot pot at home. Xi Gu ate little, putting down his chopsticks early. It had been nearly ten years since he discovered he’d awakened superpowers, and in that time he had transformed from an ordinary fifteen-year-old boy into a twenty-five-year-old young man, a man full of secrets.

Ten years, growing stronger by one percent each day. Now, Xi Gu’s strength alone was more than thirty trillion times that of an ordinary human. The force of a single arm approached one hundred and eighty trillion tons, he could lift over three trillion tons, and his maximum punch speed was twenty thousand kilometers per second.

The instantaneous kinetic energy of one punch was about 3.6e+28 joules—two hundred million times the power of the Cold War’s entire global nuclear arsenal, ninety thousand times the energy of the Chicxulub asteroid that ended the Cretaceous period and destroyed the dinosaurs, and nearly one-thousandth of the energy emitted by the sun each day.

Yet, despite all this, he did not need to consume energy proportionate to his strength; he didn’t need to eat a trillion meals a day to keep his body healthy.

This was a power belonging to the realm of the mind, unconstrained by the laws of conservation of mass and energy. In fact, as his physical abilities grew stronger, by the time he was twenty, Xi Gu found he no longer needed to eat at all.

Perhaps the vast energy sustaining his body truly came from another dimension.

Now, the pleasure derived from food had become thin and insipid. What we call “deliciousness” is merely the brain’s response, developed in human evolution, to certain combinations of chemical elements. Whatever one chews, in the end, it can be broken down to molecules and atoms. If he wished, Xi Gu could at any moment adjust the receptors on his tongue, mouth, esophagus, and stomach to provide his brain with nerve feedback more exquisite than the finest aged beef.

Yet, through constant evolution, he had become desensitized even to this pure neural pleasure. Now, no matter what he ate, he remained unperturbed, unable to find enjoyment in taste. The only reason he still ate was to maintain some lingering human habits.

—That was all.

Xi Gu was thus, but Shadow behaved differently. In the house, faced with the ingredients Xi Gu had bought, the hound ate greedily, devouring bowl after bowl.

“Huff… huff…”

Shadow feasted ravenously; the dozens of pounds of beef he’d just bought disappeared into the creature’s belly. The meat Xi Gu quickly ordered thereafter was likewise swallowed in short order. Soon, the food consumed exceeded Shadow’s own body weight. Only after its belly was stuffed with over a hundred kilograms of food did it flop contentedly onto the floor, exposing its belly to Xi Gu in a display of satisfaction.

“…Oh?”

Surprise flickered in Xi Gu’s heart. In his perception, the food just swallowed by Shadow was being broken down into heat through the rapid contractions of its intestines and the intense activity of its cells. This heat, in turn, was driving the entire body to grow stronger at a remarkable pace.

Muscles tightened, blood coursed swiftly, the heart beat rapidly. Beneath Shadow’s lazy form, its body was unconsciously utilizing every bit of energy at high intensity, growing a more powerful neural network and musculoskeletal structure in a manner unlike any previous mammal.

And the source of this rapid evolution…

“…Is it my ‘Blood of Evolution’?”

Xi Gu pondered.

“It seems that after absorbing my ‘Blood of Evolution,’ a creature’s physical strength doesn’t remain at the level of initial absorption. As long as there’s a continued intake of food energy, with sufficient heat supplied, their bodies can become even stronger.

“…Even though my own physical abilities have grown to the point of shattering stars, I don’t require any external energy, but the weakened ‘Blood of Evolution’ separated from my own connection does get affected by outside factors—it needs material energy to drive the evolution in the creature…”

This feeling—this sense that only the blood separated from his body was subject to the world’s physical rules—was like…

Xi Gu shook his head.

Though it sounded somewhat arrogant, he couldn’t deny it… He felt that his “one percent daily growth” power, rooted in the mind, was like an emperor reigning above the rules of the material world, greater in authority than all the famous monarchs of history combined—Qin Shihuang, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great.

The rules of the real world were like officials at the emperor’s whim. Anything connected to his body, bound by his “one percent growth” ability, was like a palace completely shrouded by the emperor’s will, leaving no room for the laws of matter to intervene; the law of conservation of energy could only squat obediently on the sidelines.

But if he deliberately severed the “connection” and let the “Blood of Evolution” leave his body, then, far from the emperor, the rules of the material world gained room to maneuver, as if in a remote province where officials could enjoy scraps unseen by the monarch.

Thinking this way, what was cruel and cold for others, the harsh laws of physics, seemed almost pitiable before Xi Gu.

Considering this—

“So it’s a matter of priority?”

Xi Gu’s expression grew lively.

“My power’s essential priority is far above reality, so the rules of the physical world must follow its logic. But the Blood of Evolution derived from my power is equal to, or even slightly below, the rules of reality, so the physical world can add the rule that ‘energy is needed to promote enhancement’ when the Blood of Evolution merges with a creature.

“Based on current observations, that’s the conclusion I can draw. But… further research is needed.”

Xi Gu let out a soft breath, smiling.

“…Let’s continue.

“One step further, let me see what results the ‘Blood of Evolution’ brings when combined with other creatures!”