Chapter Sixty-Three: The Fly

When Lin Jicang awoke, he found himself standing at a bus stop, surrounded by dense fog so thick he could see nothing at all. It felt as though he were drifting within the mist.

Disoriented, Lin Jicang tried to find a signpost to determine his destination, but no matter how he searched, he couldn’t find one.

He noticed another person waiting nearby and asked, “Excuse me, where is this place?”

“We’re waiting for the bus, for a new journey,” the person replied, turning to reveal a pale face devoid of features, only several hollow depressions. “Only one person can embark on this journey. All others will fall along the way.”

Strangely, Lin Jicang felt no surprise; his own face was equally pale and featureless.

This gentle soul could only clutch his aching head and say, “Can’t we just squeeze in together?”

The faceless man chuckled, “How could we possibly fit? There are three hundred million of us here.”

“We? Three hundred million?”

Lin Jicang looked around and was horrified to see countless pale, faceless figures gathering silently, waiting.

When he turned back, the man said, “Remember, Lin Jicang, you are the victor who has defeated us all. For our sake, finish this journey.”

“But I…”

Lin Jicang jolted awake. The scenery around him flashed past like a high-speed train, then faded away, darkness enveloped him, and pinpricks of light began to spread.

Lin Jicang was awake.

Above him was a dazzling night sky filled with stars, beneath him the hard touch of concrete.

He pushed himself up and found himself amidst scorched ruins. Beyond the platform where he stood stretched the deep, silent space with a fierce, cold wind howling.

This was the rooftop of the municipal building where Lin Jicang had fought his last battle. The building had lost three floors to the devastation, and the entire structure had been charred black by Bi Fang’s flames.

Only a project as solid as the municipal building could have survived without collapsing.

“Lin Jicang, you’re very lucky.”

Lin Jicang jumped in fright, seeing a ghostly little boy at his side.

The boy frowned, “I chose the most harmless appearance on purpose. Please stay calm.”

Lin Jicang reflexively replied, “I—I’m sorry…”

But then, in an instant, the string of nightmares from the past few days surged through his mind: despair from terminal illness, his first contact with the inhuman, the desperate resolve when he bathed himself in boiling oil after losing control, and finally the madness after his mother’s death.

Violent emotions coursed through Lin Jicang. The boy, once innocent and harmless, collapsed to his knees and sobbed helplessly.

“Why did all this have to happen…”

Adonsa said, “It was simply an accident—a rather ingenious accident. You’re of great value to me, so I don’t want you to make any reckless choices. To observe you better, I hope you’ll maintain a moderate sense of tension and complete some tasks.”

Lin Jicang stared at Adonsa in confusion.

“To control variables, I’ve restored your body, removing those hasty enhancements.”

Lin Jicang advanced angrily, “It’s all because of you. Everything happened because of you!”

“I don’t deny your accusation, but I must say, it’s meaningless. My existence is a fact. My evolution is irreversible. This is both my way of being and my purpose. You have reason to blame me, and I can choose to ignore it. But to ease your mood a bit, I won’t resist your violence. You can… beat me up if it helps.”

Lin Jicang grabbed Adonsa by the collar, glaring furiously for a long moment, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to strike.

Beating a child—even knowing it was a monster—his human emotions would not allow it.

Frustrated, he flung Adonsa to the ground and ran downstairs without looking back.

Driven by instinct, the ancient gene pool’s enhancements slowly returned to his body, this time more gradual, gentle, and stable, allowing the split entity Adonsa had embedded within him to collect more detailed data.

Adonsa remarked, “Coward.”

At that moment, the shadows shifted, revealing two figures, one large and one small. Tindalos wandered obediently nearby.

After her reincarnation, Livida lovingly embraced Helena, as if holding a delicate porcelain doll, burying her face in Helena’s long curls—locks that seemed far too mature for her age.

Helena had aged another year in just a day; the growth of a demon’s child was utterly unlike that of mortals.

But faced with Livida’s doting affection, Helena wore an expression of utter misery, as though she simply couldn’t cope.

“Livida, let me go. I can walk!”

“My dear Helena, you’re so little. I’ll be a good mother—I’ll brush your hair, cook for you, bathe you, dress you, and… oh, you grew up so fast, you missed breastfeeding? What a pity.”

Helena struggled like a puppy, “Damn it, I’m not your doll! I take it all back, Adonsa, save me! I don’t want to play house with this lunatic!”

Adonsa replied, “Judging by your blood pressure, heart rate, and hormone levels, you actually enjoy these warm moments.”

Helena froze, unable to resist Livida’s affectionate nuzzling.

“I’ve observed another interesting phenomenon: tsundere.”

“Ugh!”

“So comfortable. You really are my Helena.” Livida nuzzled her blissfully, face radiant with happiness.

Adonsa asked, “Lin Jicang, what do you think?”

Helena, her little face scrunched up, said, “I’m just here to watch. You know better than me. He’s just a lucky one who happened to inherit the legacy of an ancient super-being.”

Adonsa replied, “Ancient super-being… Only by truly encountering it can one understand how powerful such a creature was. I can’t even imagine how it died.”

Adonsa raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. The rubble on the ground was sent tumbling by an invisible blast of air.

By analyzing the ancient gene pool, he found dozens of incomplete evolutionary blueprints: ultra-strength muscles, high-energy mitochondria, and more. Some were too broken to use; some might be repairable through Adonsa’s efforts.

Perhaps due to the limitations of its era, the ancient super-being’s enhancements were mostly foundational physical modifications, lacking the higher-level mathematical optimization and industrial technology. After all, such knowledge took generations of humanity—hundreds of thousands of brilliant minds—to build. One life alone was too limited.

Adonsa suddenly grew wary—was he trapped in a similar dead end? Even with enormous computational power, would a singular consciousness eventually grow rigid in its thinking?

But even so, Adonsa’s abilities had already taken another leap forward, sparing him countless effort, and he had begun to touch upon the existence of gene will.

If such a super-being ever appeared in this world, ruling it would be as easy as breathing.

Yet in reality, it left few traces, only some distant legends of giant beasts.

Who killed it?

Adonsa felt a tremendous sense of crisis.

Even such a super-being had vanished so completely—how much could Adonsa withstand?

The mood of despair vanished as quickly as it had come, and Adonsa pressed forward in his evolution.

Helena furrowed her brow, sensing the gravity of the situation. “My understanding of this world is limited to fragments gleaned during my travels through the void. It shouldn’t possess such abundant supernatural power. Where did things go wrong?”

Suddenly, Adonsa asked, “Livida, who is Frankenstein?”

Livida tilted her head, “Sister Fran is a good person. She told me stories and showed me scenery. She helped me escape so I could go to the Heavenly Capital and see the snowy mountains.”

“Snowy mountains? The Great Snowy Mountain Prison, Zhang Liaoyuan… Frankenstein intended to hand you over to Zhang Liaoyuan. Why? Why would she, the highest authority at the center of the biohazard crisis and the most enigmatic thirteenth member of the Council of Thirteen, do such a thing? What deal did she make with Zhang Liaoyuan? What exactly does Zhang Liaoyuan want?”

Countless pieces of intelligence intertwined in a tangled web, impossible for Adonsa to fully unravel, even with his computational power.

His evolution, though now surging ahead thanks to the ancient gene pool, offered no guarantee of victory against the unknown future.

Especially with the enigmatic mechanical being Bi Fang still lurking across the ocean, its true intentions and hidden cards unknown.

Suddenly, Adonsa received a message from the distant South Seas. A split entity that had journeyed across the ocean had discovered something extremely interesting.

Adonsa chanted, “By the banks of Witchwater, Black Death Emperor’s Tomb. The Army of Black Scales, among the living dead…”

Next stop: Black Death Emperor’s Tomb!