"No, wait a moment, just for a moment..."

Huai Shi subconsciously reached out, trying to grasp something, but was then cruelly yanked away as if by invisible ropes. In an instant, he whisked past bustling streets and surging crowds, returning from amidst countless steel forests.

CRACK!

A crisp sound echoed.

In the cellar, the wooden husk suddenly cracked, a fissure appearing. A frustrated shout could be faintly heard from within.

Feeling heavy constraints, Huai Shi unconsciously struggled.

In that moment, he finally felt himself.

At the same time, the vast network of roots spread beneath the nine lands suddenly tremored, drawing an insignificant portion from the Sea of Life, a convergence of countless plants.

Thus, Huai Shi returned from the void.

The wooden shell broke apart, revealing his pale face. Huai Shi subconsciously raised his hand and felt an almost endless vitality being transmitted from the roots, forging a new arm out of the void. His fingers spread, and his nails slowly grew forth.

He subconsciously breathed. In an instant, the network of roots buried deep in the earth abruptly contracted and withered. Brilliant vitality flowed from it, creating anew his lungs and physical form.

Huai Shi took a step forward, hearing the sounds of countless roots rotting and retracting.

Amidst the continuous sounds of breaking, the naked youth had stepped out from the withered tree. Behind him, the giant root system that once covered the entire city quietly lost its color, cracked, crumbled into rotten wood, and finally collapsed into dust.

Huai Shi stood astonished in the darkness.

Pale green tree sap slowly dripped from his black hair, which reached his waist.

He lowered his head, looking at his hands and naked body, only to find that his pale skin, colorless after he became a Yin Soul, had now regained a faint blush. Beneath the skin, within the throbbing veins, pulsed a rich shade of dark green.

It was as if he had regained life, returning once again from the Underworld.

The Raven stood on a rack before him, eyeing the astonished youth and smiling. "How do you feel?"

Huai Shi slowly lifted his head. Two streams of clear tears unknowingly traced paths down his face.

Then, he reached out, grasped the Raven's neck, and shook it angrily.

"So close!"

Huai Shi yelled in agony. "I was so damn close to seeing it! Why couldn't you wait a little longer?"

"Life is hard for everyone. Please don't record content in the Book of Fate that could lead to a 404 error, okay?"

The Raven looked at him with a mix of frustration and disappointment. "Moreover, regaining your self-awareness by peeking at a female classmate changing – lad, you've really outdone yourself! It's a loss to all humanity that Director Fu didn't obliterate you!"

"..."

Huai Shi was speechless, but for some reason, whenever the Raven mentioned Director Fu, he couldn't help but want to give the middle-aged man a thumbs-up. Your daughter has an amazing figure!

But that would definitely get him killed, wouldn't it?

Yeah, being crushed into human slop by the Special Affairs Department's burly men—a tide of steel with their long spears, short cannons, tanks, and missiles...

He shook his head with a shudder, daring not to continue the thought, then turned to examine his current body.

Is this the Second Stage?

He felt the surging vitality within his physical form and tried to move his body. The former limits of his Yin Soul had vanished without a trace; he could now easily reach speeds he had never achieved before.

His strength had also increased, though likely not as significantly as his speed.

What surprised him even more was the qualitative improvement in his limb coordination. Huai Shi tried to toss eight or nine beakers into the air consecutively. When he extended his index finger, the beakers falling from the sky dangerously piled up into a precarious stack on his fingertip.

The intricacies of physics held them together, building a tower on this seemingly fragile foundation.

As Huai Shi slightly wiggled his fingertip, he saw the tower's midsection begin to bend, slowly rotating with the subtle tilt of his finger.

In the end, as Huai Shi released his hold, they fell to the ground, forming the shape of a pyramid.

Huai Shi had not yet recovered from his shock.

In that brief instant, he had almost felt his limbs extending into the beakers, sensitively perceiving every pivot point and center of gravity, effortlessly mastering the complex interplay of forces in his hand.

What was even more concerning...

"Hey, catch."

The Raven's voice interrupted Huai Shi's thoughts. A piece of iron was thrown towards Huai Shi's hand. He subconsciously reached out, but as his fingertips were about to touch the iron, he saw fierce lightning explode from the metal.

It shot from a hairsbreadth away toward Huai Shi's fingertips.

In an instant, Huai Shi withdrew his hand, yet his fingertips still felt a prickly pain, akin to needle stings.

But to his astonishment, in that very brief moment, he could almost see the lightning on the iron grow inch by inch, moving slowly through the air before finally coiling around his fingertips.

It wasn't just that. His reaction time… Previously, he likely wouldn't have had time to react at all, perhaps not even realizing he'd been hit until it was too late.

But now, he actually managed to respond in time.

Although his speed was still negligible compared to lightning.

But the transition from nothing to something was still a significant breakthrough.

"Starting from the Second Stage, Sublimators' souls begin to activate. Once the innate physical limits are ignored, their reflex speed greatly increases. Sublimators like you, who have enhanced neural reflexes, may even directly advance to the level of Soul Reflex. Feels great, doesn't it?"

Huai Shi pursed his lips and shook his head. "What's the point if you can react but still can't dodge?"

"Are you stupid? You can't dodge a bullet, but can't you dodge the motion of someone pulling the trigger?"

The Raven looked at him as if he were an idiot. "In a duel, being faster by a fraction of a second is being infinitely faster. You've just ascended to the Second Stage, not the Fifth Stage. Did you expect to become the Flash or something?"

"Isn't it good to want to make more progress?"

Huai Shi slowly flexed his body. He had been afraid that a surge in his abilities would make him unable to adapt, but he didn't expect that his body showed no signs of losing control at all.

Soon, as he waved his hand, seeds sprouted rapidly from the mud churned up by the shattered tree trunks at his feet, instantly growing into a knee-high green carpet.

Huai Shi felt this was far from his limit. If he exerted all his power, he could make the grass of an entire soccer field grow half as tall as a person.

Doing so, however, would leave him weakened, as if from severe blood loss.

At his will, the thick grass became razor-sharp, looking from afar like clusters of small blades.

The specific lethality needed further development, but the Mountain Ghost's talent was unexpectedly cool.

Being strong is a matter of patches; being cool is a lifetime affair.

Aside from the pervasive greenness, which took some getting used to, he was quite satisfied with everything.

Soon, he noticed his long hair that reached his waist, sticky with viscous tree sap and uncomfortably damp.

He casually pulled out the Sacrificial Knife, grabbed a handful of hair, and attempted to cut it off, only to find it was surprisingly resilient. Even with the sharpness of the Blade of the Source, Huai Shi had to saw vigorously to cut through.

The fallen strands of hair quickly took root in the soil, expanding into a lush thicket of thorns.

That works too?

Huai Shi paused. Just as he was marveling at this, he was stunned to discover that his severed hair had grown back!

It returned to its original waist-length, not a bit more, not a bit less.

As if fixed, it stubbornly maintained this length, refusing to yield no matter how Huai Shi tried to cut or trim it. Only when he began to feel dizzy from an insufficient blood supply to his brain did he grudgingly put down the knife.

Fine, if it's this long, it's this long…

On the bright side, at least he wouldn't need to go to a barbershop anymore.

"Want to see what you look like now?"

With a smile that made Huai Shi uneasy, the Raven waved its wings, and a Water Mirror materialized out of thin air. The light source above, which had been extinguished, lit up again, illuminating Huai Shi's face.

Huai Shi stood there, stunned.

As if struck by lightning.

Thanks to the ample supply and boost of vitality, Huai Shi's previously malnourished, pale face had gained some color. It was no longer morbid, effectively bidding farewell to the cold and handsome Gothic Cowherd style.

Although his essence was still primarily negative energy, at least he wasn't as fatally vulnerable to the Stigma of light-based powers as he had been in his Yin Soul phase.

And now, in the mirror, amidst the black hair cascading down, Huai Shi saw a nightmarish reflection.

"This, this, this…" he stammered, pointing at the face in the mirror that looked familiar yet somehow different, almost screaming, "Who the heck is this sissy!?"

"…"

The Raven looked at him with pity.

"…"

Huai Shi stared blankly at the radiant eyes, the androgynous, melon-seed-shaped face, and the soft features in the mirror. He subconsciously reached for his groin.

Then he breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, the goods are still there… Once he processed this, he couldn't help but glare at the Raven, pulling out his knife and axe, wondering how to stew this woman into a black chicken soup.

"Hey, slow down…"

The Raven dodged backward. "Look, I told you most Mountain Ghosts are female. I warned you! And you don't look sissy now, just a tiny bit more androgynous… Think of it as adding a skin-smoothing filter! Besides, don't you think you're more attractive to girls like this? Seriously, changing from Gothic to J-style isn't bad at all!"

"Then why are you dodging?" Huai Shi asked darkly. "Come here, I won't do anything to you…"

"It's not that I'm afraid you'll do something to me; after all, I'm just a blob of ink and I'm not afraid of being chopped," the Raven said, shrinking back a little more, its expression cautious. "But you're toxic now, like a humanoid, self-propelled source of infection. I definitely need to keep my distance."

"What the hell?"

Huai Shi looked down in astonishment, at his feet.

In the grassy patch he had brought to life, an array of colorful mushrooms had sprouted at some point. They looked delightfully plump, promising a delicious taste that whetted the appetite.

Damn it. The Plague Halo... it seems I can't turn it off.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.