Chapter 192 Talent Speculation
Su Han looked serious, "The same talent as Zhao Yaqian and Duan Jie?"
"Not exactly,"
Bai Qilan shook her head slightly, "In fact, according to both Professor Bai's and our point of view, their talents might just be a kind of pre-awakening state and not a complete talent."
She glanced at Su Han, her eyes smiling but not quite smiling, "Professor Bai and the others believe that you are the one who has completely awakened your talent, and it's very powerful."
Bai Qilan had the most interaction with Su Han, and although she had never experimented on him, she had already deduced from the actions of the Angel Envoy that Su Han's ability was definitely not a talent.
Because their conjecture about talent is based on the stimulation of the body by spiritual energy, which is to say that some humans are naturally more sensitive to spiritual perception and have higher activity, possessing unique spiritual factors, hence having a talent.
Talent is a more specific manifestation of the development and utilization of spiritual energy.
However, Su Han's "devour" ability did not exhibit any of these characteristics.
Su Han frowned slightly, shook his head, and said, "Tell me about the strengthening agent."
"The strengthening agent itself is meant to guide the resonance between the human body and spiritual energy, relying on spiritual energy for self-evolution. During this process, those with special spiritual factors may be activated by the strengthening agent, leading to the awakening of talent."
Bai Qilan explained the reason for activating the talent and then said to Su Han, "I'll take you to see something."
Curious, Su Han followed Bai Qilan to the very edge of a separated cage.
The cage was isolated, far from other cages, and also had screens blocking it from view.
Once the screen was removed, it revealed a dark-colored metal cage, five meters in length, width, and height. The solid iron bars constructing the cage were almost as thick as a wrist, incredibly sturdy.
At each of the four corners of the cage, three-finger-thick chains tethered it, and iron wedges half a meter long were hammered into the ground, tightly securing the cage, making it completely immobile.
Su Han recognized this cage; it was the same one he had used before to imprison a Second-grade Monster.
"Let me go, I've reached Second Order now, I can help you! I can be of assistance."
As soon as the screen was removed, a sharp and piercing voice came from inside, with a disheveled-haired woman reaching out to Su Han and Bai Qilan for help.
Her hair was messy, her eye sockets sunken, and dark circles under her eyes were hardly concealable. She wore a red bodysuit and jeans, and she looked to be in her thirties.
"Second Order?"
Su Han ignored the woman and turned to Bai Qilan instead, asking, "Did she receive an injection of the strengthening agent?"
"Yes," Bai Qilan nodded, glancing coldly at the woman in the cage, speaking calmly, "Mei Yi, female, 35 years old, a First-order Superior Peak Contractor, her contracted Angel Envoy is the Bloodthirsty Infant Monster. She led an attack on Old Zhu's exploration team, captured after causing severe injuries to one person, and it was discovered they...
led in cannibalism, and were human traffickers before."
Bai Qilan did not hide her disgust for Mei Yi. In the early days of the apocalypse, this group of human traffickers, when food was scarce, turned the children they abducted into food.
Twisted by their dark hearts, they even retained the habit of cannibalism after gaining some strength.
Su Han's eyes also grew cold: "Truly deserving of death."
"Two days ago, I injected her with a strengthening agent for the first time, initiating her first enhancement. Her physical condition improved significantly, but I also noticed something unusual."
Bai Qilan handed over a photo, and it was evident that Mei Yi's hands and eyes were emitting a faint purple glow.
"The light of spiritual energy manifestation. I don't think it's a mutation, it could be a talent. After comparing her genetic and spiritual factor data with that of Zhao Yaqian, I found similarities. So, I injected her with a second dose of the strengthening agent, and the spiritual light became even more pronounced."
"You want to continue?"
Su Han understood Bai Qilan's intentions, and she nodded, "I think she's about to awaken successfully."
"Then let's try,"
He quickly agreed with Bai Qilan's idea. To him, she was just trash, and even if she might possess a talent, what of it?
No sooner had he spoken, than the woman's eyes suddenly became vicious and full of venom, like a poisonous snake.
"Why won't you let me go!"
She banged against the cage violently, causing a loud clang, all her previous pitiable demeanor just a disguise.
Her attempt to escape from Su Han, the leader, had clearly failed.
The loud commotion awakened the monsters in the distant cages, and roars rose, accompanying Mei Yi's gaze, indescribably terrifying.
At that moment, Su Han also noticed the faint purple light on Mei Yi's hands, not just light but more like spiritual energy coalescing into some kind of tangible matter.
Spiritual energy resides within humans and monsters and is the source of all changes.
But directly using materialized spiritual energy, controlling it—that was an ability Su Han currently couldn't achieve.
He couldn't help but show a hint of curiosity. With a wave of his hand, Intermediate Metal Control was activated and the chains binding Mei Yi began to whip around swiftly.
Clatter
Mei Yi's complexion drastically changed. She immediately pulled hard on the chains, trying to break free, but Su Han didn't give her the chance to resist.
Under the pull of a formidable force, she was dragged to the edge of the iron bars. The chains merged with the bars, then formed iron hoops around her arms, torso, neck, and thighs, binding her tightly.
Even if Mei Yi only had the strength of a Second Order Lower Grade Contractor, let alone a Second Order Lower Grade Monster, there was no way she could break through such restraints.
"We can begin now, but be careful."
"Yeah, I'll pay attention."
Bai Qilan's eyes flickered slightly, and the corners of her mouth lifted in a hint of a smile, as if she wasn't worried about Mei Yi. However, to be on the safe side, she summoned the Demon Eye Spider Woman and the Alien Thorn Worm to her side as guards with a wave of her hand.
The forms of the two Apostles didn't change much, but their shells and keratinous spikes had become harder and more ferocious, clearly reaching the strength of Second-order Intermediate.
Although she was always in the laboratory, Bai Qilan had not neglected the training of her Apostles. Her talent was already slightly better than Zhu Xiong's, and with first access to some resources, her progress was not slow.
"Shall I do it?"
Bai Shan actually wanted to inject the enhancing drug into Mei Yi himself, but Bai Qilan said, "Dad, you use the video camera to observe the changes, I'll do the injection."
Thanks to the restoration of electric power, some scavenged video cameras, mobile phones, and computers could now be used, even though they could not connect to the internet.
Of course, more delicate equipment was more prone to damage. Those that could barely function in their hands had been selected many times before they were found.
"Then be careful."
Bai Shan seemed to be worried about his daughter as well, and summoned his own Apostle, quickly surrounding the entire cage.
Don't just look at the woman in front as a flesh-and-blood breakthrough to Second-order Contractor with still lacking strength; her Apostle, the Bloodthirsty Infant Monster, hadn't undergone the Divine Initiation Ritual and was still stuck at the peak of First Order Upper Grade.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
Even two full-strength Second-Rank Apostles couldn't breach the defenses set up by Su Han's side.
"You all deserve to die!"
Mei Yi ground her teeth, her eyes venomous enough to kill, but neither Bai Qilan nor Su Han cared about her ghostly appearance.
Bai Qilan injected the enhancing drug into Mei Yi's body, then poured all of the enhancing liquid into her.
"Ah!"
A heart-wrenching cry of pain erupted as soon after the injection, Mei Yi's veins bulged and her face turned red, her eyes nearly popping out because of the pain.
"Such a big side effect?"
Su Han was startled. If the side effects were all this severe, even if it was just non-damaging pain, not everyone might be able to bear it.
But just as he asked this question, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Bai Qilan's delicately smiling lips.
He realized, "Did you do this on purpose?"
Bai Qilan pursed her lips and replied, "It has nothing to do with me. Her absorption efficiency is just too poor. A short-term stacking of drugs will certainly cause severe pain during the enhancement process."
"...."
While the reason was valid, Su Han still felt that Bai Qilan had done this on purpose.
Yet, for someone like Mei Yi, her death would not be a loss, as long as it didn't affect the experiment.
With the injection of the enhancing drug, more of the drug stimulated the Spiritual Energy in Mei Yi's body. Her eyes indeed began to emit a purple glow, and both her palms were covered in purple Spiritual Energy.
Her body shook violently with immense strength, causing even the entire cage to clang loudly due to her movements.
"I will kill you!"
All of a sudden, Mei Yi's eyes snapped open, her resentful gaze almost spilling out as if to pierce through Su Han and Bai Qilan.
"Swoosh"
The Spiritual Energy light that was originally mist-like on her hands rapidly solidified, turning into two one-foot-long needles. The Spiritual Energy condensed, sharpened at both ends, and shot towards Su Han and Bai Qilan like darts.
The sudden emergency happened in the blink of an eye, and although the Apostles were right by their side, they were undoubtedly slower compared to the speed of the energy needles.
Mei Yi's face already bore a wild smile, ready for a kill-or-be-killed outcome since they dared to experiment on her.
However, her smile had not fully spread when it suddenly froze in place.
Clang!
On his right arm, Su Han's Black Armor covered him, as he firmly caught the energy needle. A violent explosion of impact rang out, and his arm shook slightly but was blocked by the Floating Pagoda Black Armor.
He was faster with his left arm, already positioned in front of Bai Qilan, ready to block the sneak attack for her.
Unexpectedly, just as the energy needle flew at lightning speed, it deviated in front of him, avoiding his left arm and Bai Qilan, flying 30 meters out and disappearing abruptly.
He looked surprised and turned to Bai Qilan, only to see her showing him a smile.
"You..."
"I forgot to tell you, I have likely Awakened my Talent too, although it is just a preliminary awakening, somewhat similar to Zhao Yaqian and the others," Bai Qilan said with a smile, her eyes twinkling with amusement, seemingly finding Su Han's surprised expression quite interesting.
"It's not strong, but I can deflect some attacks. How's that, not bad, right?"
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