Chapter 56: Destiny, Section 3

“Pfft!”
A gush of blood sprayed violently from Black Hair’s mouth, instantly staining his entire face mask red. The foul smell pierced his nostrils, and he felt as though all strength had been drained from him in an instant. The intense pain was beyond even his extremely resilient nerves, nearly knocking him unconscious. His tightly clenched teeth were streaked with blood. Anyone who saw his expression at that moment would surely be shocked.
But this was only the beginning. The torment that followed was what caused Black Hair the greatest suffering.
God knew where that strange sound came from. But once it started, Black Hair’s body seemed no longer his own. Every bone, every muscle in his body seemed to be in revolt. Bones shifted position, muscles twisted like nooses. Even blood, the most vital substance in the human body, felt like magma to him. The intense burning sensation as it flowed through his body made him feel worse than dead. Every moment stretched like thousands of years.
To outsiders, Black Hair’s changes were even more extreme.
In the vast starry sky, a tiny human figure twisted violently, performing movements that were not human. The seemingly majestic armor emitted a dazzling white light, while streams of pitch-black threads flowed like waterfalls, like oceans, spreading in all directions. In just five minutes, they had spread over dozens of kilometers and were still expanding rapidly. Vast areas of the starry sky were swallowed by those black threads, blocking all light. Black Hair gradually disappeared into the thick waves of darkness.
Not far from Black Hair, Grizzly Bear refused to give up. Despite feeling uneasy after witnessing such astonishing changes, he still wanted to try. He opened his mouth wide and fired another antimatter shockwave.
Unfortunately, this time it was even weaker than before. The antimatter shockwave, capable of disrupting space, disappeared silently into the swirling sea of black threads, like a mud ox sinking into water, without even causing a ripple. The black threads continued to swirl and spread as if untouched.
Seeing this, Grizzly Bear felt a badpremonition. Realizing most of his enhancement time had passed, he finally decided to retreat. After glancing at Black Hair reluctantly, he turned to leave. Suddenly, a smooth, shiny black thread silently climbed up his ankle.
What!?

The Grizzly Bear’s expression changed drastically. He felt a severe pain in his ankle—as that thread of black silk had pierced through his armor-like skin in an instant and sunk deep into his flesh. Before he could react, an excruciating pain struck, and his left lower leg began to shrink at a visible speed!

“No!! This can’t be!!” The Grizzly Bear seemed to have witnessed the most terrifying thing possible and let out a fearful roar.

It wasn’t that he was overreacting—it was simply too horrifying. To see his own leg shrink so rapidly was beyond anyone’s acceptance. What made things even worse was that the shrinkage affected not just muscle tissue but also blood vessels, nerves, and even bones!

A pained groan escaped the Grizzly Bear’s mouth. In less than fifteen seconds, his left lower leg had completely shriveled. His once-smooth skin now resembled dried orange peel, cracking at the slightest touch. There was no trace of muscle inside—only darkness, something like rotten mud. Pushing aside this “mud,” the Grizzly Bear saw that the color of his bones had turned gray-black.

“No!!” With another cry of defiance, his left lower leg vanished abruptly. Where it had been, only a pile of ashes remained, disappearing into the vast universe. That smooth, shiny black thread curled contentedly like a snake that had drunk its fill of blood before retreating slowly. But soon, more black threads rushed forward. They writhed and swarmed in from all directions. Their dark, glossy appearance was nothing short of a nightmare to the Grizzly Bear!

“Damn you!!”

Spitting out a fierce curse, the Grizzly Bear didn’t dare stay another moment. The changes happening before his eyes were too devastating. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if those black threads wrapped around him. His once-proud enhanced genome was utterly fragile in the face of them. He wished he could fly away right away.

But it was only then that he realized it was too late. Unnoticed, the black threads had spread to terrifying levels. Everywhere he looked, there were oceans of surging black threads—so vast they seemed endless.

Fear instantly overwhelmed the Grizzly Bear, turning his face pale as steel.

It’s not that he’s not brave enough. As a warrior, Grizzly Bear isn’t afraid of any powerful enemy, but he can’t confront such bizarre supernatural phenomena. The shock from Black Silk was simply too intense. Grizzly Bear himself is the pinnacle of genetic modification, yet he has never seen such terrifying genes before.

What on earth is this!?

No one knows, not even Black Hair, the master of Black Silk, who is now in a deep coma. He has no idea what’s happening around him, let alone that during his unconsciousness, Grizzly Bear was pushed to such a extreme by the Black Silk he released.

However, in his mind, an aged voice keeps echoing.

“Genetic Proto-Modification in progress, 21.75%, progressing smoothly. Advanced factors being implanted. Failure—insufficient energy. Energy levels expected to be insufficient. Recalculating: 175.35% more energy required.”

“New energy received. Energy sufficient. Evolution continues. Advanced factors implanted. Success. Advanced factors fully developed. Coverage at 100%. Hidden genes can now be activated. Hidden genes activated—success. Gene trait: energy manipulation. Original mechanical control being replaced…”

“Anomaly detected. Evolution paused. Diagnosis… Mechanical control incomplete. Only the left arm was originally modified. Forced replacement will result in incomplete energy manipulation. Does not meet planned requirements. Evolving steps need adjustment to improve the basic genome.”

“Another anomaly. Unable to complete. Diagnosis… Lack of genetic material and physical material. Conditions for improvement not met. Evolution will soon be halted…”

“New genetic material and new physical material received. Evolution continues. Basic genome improved and completed. Entering the second phase: replacing energy manipulation traits. Replacement in progress… Replacement successful. Basic energy level: 30 units. Brain development at 53%, meeting planned requirements. Entering the final phase: mental domain enhancement.”

“Mental domain expansion begins… 15%, 20%, 35%… 100%. Expansion completed. Mental energy regeneration speed increased by 2721%. Sufficient for moderate-intensity combat. Genetic Proto-Alpha completed. Exiting evolution mode. Self-restraint system destroyed. Replaced with an immediate self-regulation system. Gene Proto-Alpha awakening in progress…”

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

Black Hair opened his eyes.

Pitch black… an absolute darkness where one couldn’t see their own hand in front of their face. Hekiba felt as if he had had a wonderful dream. Vital energy surged throughout his body. A refreshing sensation rose from deep within, making him groan involuntarily. After a long while, he suddenly remembered—he was still in battle! What had happened?

With that thought, memories flooded his mind like a tide. Hekiba realized he was still inside Yazi. Somehow, however, Yazi had entered a dormant mode, halting its operations in normal space. He was slightly shocked. An ominous premonition arose in him. Without bothering to check his own condition, he shouted urgently.

“Yazi!!”

“Boom!!”

It sounded like distant thunder, yet as if it happened right beside his ear. Suddenly, everything became bright before Hekiba’s eyes. The familiar starry sky reappeared in his vision. As a warrior, he almost immediately spotted Grizzly Bear’s figure.

But at this moment, Grizzly Bear was not what he had imagined.

Once a monstrous figure, it was now deeply collapsed. Its entire body had shrunk to an unrecognizable state. His first impression was that of a skeleton. Its once enormous wings had become as thin as matchsticks, hanging limply behind it, while its long black hair had turned pale. The fierce fighting stance he remembered from before was now nothing but a human-like appearance—no leopard head or wolf claws left. On its emaciated body, a few shiny black threads continued to wriggle, burrowing inward like blood-sucking leeches.

“What’s going on!?”

Hekiba was stunned. Having just woken up, he never imagined he would witness such a scene. Where was the Grizzly Bear that had once defeated him so thoroughly? Where was that terrifying, devil-like figure?

No one knew. In fact, even Grizzly Bear itself didn’t realize what foolish thing it had done.

Without his first antimatter shockwave, Hekiba wouldn’t have been able to activate the evolutionary program deep within his genes. And if Grizzly Bear hadn’t fired a second antimatter shockwave, Hekiba wouldn’t have gained enough evolutionary energy. Finally, being accidentally entangled by those black threads provided him with sufficient genetic and physical material.

It could be said that, though not by his own will, Grizzly Bear had essentially facilitated Hekiba’s evolution.

But as a price, the Grizzly Bear was nearly drained of its life force due to the Black Stockings’ relentless absorption. At this point, it couldn’t even sustain its basic life functions, let alone fight. If it weren’t for the Black Stockings maintaining its life signs while absorbing its genome, it would likely have already turned into a mummy.
Now, seeing the black-haired figure awake, the only thing the Grizzly Bear could do was stretch out one withered finger and point at a certain place in the universe. Then, under everyone’s gaze, it slowly turned to dust…