Chapter 2-2
Chapter 2-2: Companions(II)
“I’ve foooouuuunnnnndddd you!” Cheng Xiao roared as he banged continuously on Xuan's room door. His face was contorted with rage, looking positively murderous. His shirt had specks of blood on it, while his pants had two large gashes on it, the dried blood looking dark red and practically covering over half the pants.
“I’ve come for you! Xuan, open up! I want to kill you!” Cheng Xiao’s face was full of anger, looking incredibly ferocious.
“The gauntlets you gave me! You said it would be usable once rank B wind energy stones were mounted! Damn, it was indeed strong when I mounted in two wind energy stones… But, why was it so uncontrollable?! It drew the wind TOWARDS me and nearly castrated me there and then! Open the door for me, idiot!”
Cheng Xiao pounded on the door again at this point. However, he hadn’t expected the door to actually open with a bang. Unprepared, Cheng Xiao stumbled in, falling towards the ground.
Fortunately, Cheng Xiao’s agility was good and a hand pressed down, his entire body flipping over and standing up again.
“Come down. I’m in the basement.” Xuan’s voice drifted over from the basement. Accompanying were several small booms of explosions. God knows what he was doing. If he was experimenting… these booms should be considered normal?
Cheng Xiao’s entire body gave a start. He only recovered from shock then. This was obviously Xuan's room, or to be accurate the level above his experiments room. This understanding was too horrifying. It had long since been an unspoken rule of their team that if you were feeling suicidal, go to Xuan’s experiments room. He had actually courageously made his way over…
Was this him being gutsy or just being plain insane?
Just as Cheng Xiao was about to retreat, he accidentally saw the bloodstains on his leg. Driven by his anger, he advanced forth again.
Before, he had happily accepted a pair of Wind God’s Gauntlets, a pair of gauntlets capable of rousing the winds for sudden attacks, that Xuan had retrofitted for him. It could double his strength when used in conjunction with his Nanto Suicho Ken to fight his enemies. The stamina usage of Nanto Suicho Ken was reduced greatly as well. Unfortunately, the gauntlets were a low grade Martial Cultivation treasure. Using the gauntlets needed Cultivator’s martial arts that used Refined Qi, which was a power he didn’t have.
However, after obtaining Cultivation manuals and the One Ring’s energy conversion ability, Xuan had indeed created a low yield energy converter instrument. It could use various energy stones to convert energy. For this low level Cultivation treasure, ordinary stones were enough. Thus, Xuan had promised Cheng Xiao to retrofit a pair of gauntlets.
Not discussing the modification process for now but Cheng Xiao after receiving the completed gauntlets, he had immediately put them on and made his way to his basement. He had wanted to test out the power of these gauntlets. The results had been satisfactory, or rather, too satisfactory. Although Nanto Suicho Ken’s power had increased by not just fivefold, there was a regrettable imperfection.
Nanto Suicho Ken, a technique for windflow manipulation, hadn't been able to control the hurricanes generated by the gloves. The wind had been too strong, so the fist attacks had gone in all directions. Two haf happened to streak past his thigh. If it had been off a centimetre or two, he would have become a temporary eunuch.
“Damn! I’ll risk it all! It’s nothing but a trip to the basement! I heard Honglu came here before. Didn't he end up leaving hale and hearty? My luck can’t be that bad. Go! The feud of ending one’s line can’t be forgiven!” Cheng Xiao cursed a few times, rousing his courage, before proceeding down to the basement.
Among everyone, Xuan’s room had been the one enlarged the most. There were various experimental instruments Cheng Xiao couldn’t name all over the place. Much scrap metal was accumulated not far off. These things were arranged so all the way until far off. There were also some strangely shaped experimental instruments as well. This place could be said to have all been done by this man on his lonesome.
“Mhm, you’re here?” Xuan was focusing all his attention as he lowered his head and looked through a microscope. There was a tiny lump of meat squirming slightly under that microscope. It was sealed behind a glass window. As Xuan looked at the chunk of meat, he continuously manipulated the laser inside to bombard the meat for several minutes. He only finally lifted his head to look at Cheng Xiao when the lump of meat was charred into charcoal.
“Is anything the matter?” Xuan pushed up his spectacles.
Cheng Xiao had originally come here in a very overbearing manner. However, when Xuan received him in such a civil manner, his momentum was drained some. Still, he shouted loudly, “What the heck were those gauntlets you made for me? That wind simply wasn’t controlled by me. The power is a little strong, but I don’t want there to be nothing left but two piles of meat chunks of my enemy and I after I use this gauntlet. Damn, isn't the same logic as for a suicide bomber?!”
“Mhm. What power is it that you want?” Xuan was silent for a moment before asking.
Cheng Xiao paused, scratching his head. “Er. It’s best to have a badass and suave power. Like, the kind where you wave your hand and a million meteors will descend and crush my enemies to death. Then, a pile of beauties will squeal at me… Is there some problem?”
Xuan ignored Cheng Xiao’s foolish actions. He turned around and pressed something on the control panel.
“Regretfully, no such power exists in this world. To be accurate, power is just a relative term of address. Another term is… sacrifice. You need to gain something to lose something. When you gain power you need to lose what you used to grasp this power, such as its manipulation or control, or something slowly lost before, like time, life. The thing you’re talking about isn't power, but a fantasy.” Xuan replied without his head even raising.
Cheng Xiao looked as if he knew his words were too much of a joke, so he continued to scratch his head. “Fine. I admit my words before were a joke. Then, help me alter these gloves. They well, just need to not hurt me.”
“Did you not comprehend my words?” Xuan gave a cold sidelong glance to Cheng Xiao. “You need to lose something to gain something. For you, who is far from reaching the level of Martial Cultivation, you need to lose safety in order to use these gloves. You need to injure yourself at the same time as when you harm others. Just look at Zheng. All of his power was gained so. He had to lose a lot to gain a lot. If you’re not willing to lose what is needed to manipulate these gloves, you don’t deserve such great power. These gloves don’t suit you. Toss them.”
Cheng Xiao froze for a while, before giving a bitter laugh. “Although I know you’re right, there wasn’t a need to be so blunt about it, right? I know, grasping this power requires me to go and wholeheartedly train. I shouldn’t be thinking of using it perfectly as soon as I get them, because that’s the domain of power fantasies and not reality, right? Although that’s correct, it makes people want to beat you up when it comes from your mouth. I finally understand why Zheng always thinks of beating you up. Frankly, so do I right now…”
As he spoke, he saw Xuan manipulate the green platform to inject something into that lump of meat. That lump of meat seemed to become a living thing. It broke apart, and completely filled the glass. Not only that, but the lump of meat sprouted multiple tentacles and eyes. In its centre, it even grew a hideous looking mouth with countless teeth. He didn’t know what this monstrosity was, which was terrifying to such an extent.
“This is a variant mixture using the T-virus as the base with Zheng’s genes. It’s a mutated product that can allow any cell to produce extensive mutations within a short time. The end result will be a terrifying organism of the initial fourth stage. Computer. Insert energy from the antiparticle annihilation. Keep only 10% of the mutated organism within the glass.”
Xuan explained for a few sentences to Cheng Xiao, before giving instructions to the computer. A second or two later, there was a flash in the glass window. It was as if there was a miniature sun inside the glass window. Although it was only for a short time, Cheng Xiao still shut his eyes in pain. When he opened his eyes, the organism inside hadn’t seemed to decrease, but instead increased. It was practically about to squeeze and break out of the glass.
“It seems the energy from antiparticle annihilation wasn’t enough. Fine. Computer. Begin the dual particle annihilation reaction. Insert enough energy after ten seconds. Leave 5% of the organism.”
Xuan turn over to Cheng Xiao. He said indifferently. “Don't panic. There's only a possibility of explosions.”
“Xuan! SCREW YOU… AAAAAHHHHH!”