Chapter 1484: 50%
An important manifestation of evolution is the degree of control over the body. The better the control over the body, the greater the potential the body can unleash.
For example, ordinary people can achieve significant improvements in strength and speed through long-term, targeted training. The more proficient the training of the body, the better the coordination of its various parts, and the trainer themselves can feel this coordination.
Evolvers must go a step further on this basis, beginning to develop a sense of internal observation, allowing them to precisely control every muscle in the body. Moreover, this is built on the explosive growth of physical strength. The feeling that every part of the body comes alive and seems to cooperate autonomously gives a person a lightness from the inside out, and this lightness is one of the intuitive manifestations of physical enhancement.
Next comes the enhancement of the five senses, bringing the individual closer to the surrounding environment. Closing one's eyes and relying solely on perception allows for a deeper grasp of changes in the surrounding airflow, while also making it easier to conceal oneself.
After recovering his spiritual power, Xu Huo attempted to test the environment using only his current level of evolution.
The effect was better than he had imagined.
In addition to the structure of the surrounding buildings, he also gained a three-dimensional understanding of the objects and people within them, no longer relying solely on breathing and sound to judge whether something was a person or an object, alive or dead. There was a faint, borderline sensation of penetrating through obstacles.
This was an effect that ordinary evolution agents could never achieve.
Xu Huo opened his personal panel, and the evolution rate on it had indeed jumped to 50%.
The feeling of this evolution was too good. He stood up and moved his hands and feet, then leaped outside the building. Upon landing, he accelerated, and like a bolt of lightning, he crossed the street, arriving at a corner a hundred meters away. He threw a punch at the person lurking in the darkness.
It was a gaunt middle-aged man. His reaction was fairly quick; he used an item to block the attack in time, but the force of the punch sent him flying several meters back, crashing straight into a stone wall.
The man's companion, who was nearby, launched a sneak attack from behind, using two large-scale lethal weapons that covered a ten-meter radius around Xu Huo's position, while simultaneously deploying an item that affected vision.
Closing his eyes had no effect on Xu Huo. In an instant, he moved out of the attack range, leaping to a higher vantage point. He kicked down another person who emerged from a diagonal angle below, and finally stood atop a broken wall.
The three players he had already engaged were below, with two more standing directly opposite at a slightly higher position. Additionally, there was another person lurking above him, waiting for an opportunity.
"Brothers, this one's tough, be careful!" said the man Xu Huo had punched open, brushing the dirt off his clothes. "First, take out his eyes, then we'll have our fun!"
His words were confident, and the group had clearly coordinated like this before. They used several items in succession to obstruct his vision. At first, Xu Huo thought they simply believed they had an advantage in the dark, but after fighting for a while, he realized that one of them was using a particularly tricky item, striking from blind spots every time.
Speeding up, he kicked away the two engaged in close combat, then leaped to a height of ten meters, coming face to face with the person who had been ambushing him from the shadows.
Seeing Xu Huo suddenly appear before him, the man panicked and spat out a stream of black gas, hoping to force him back. But a hand shot straight through the black gas and clamped onto his throat.
"Crack." The man's corpse fell out.
Then Xu Huo turned to face another person who had taken the opportunity to creep up behind him. Although this opponent was slower, he had activated a defensive barrier in advance.
But Xu Huo didn't mind. He delivered three consecutive blows to the defense barrier, kicking the man straight through two floors!
These were not particularly strong players. After warming up enough, Xu Huo accelerated again and quickly dealt with the two who had charged at him.
In the blink of an eye, half of the companions were dead. The remaining ones, seeing the situation was unfavorable, tried to flee.
But since they had come, how could Xu Huo let them leave so easily? He took a horizontal step to cut off one of them, but the man suddenly halted and used an item to pull a nearby companion over as a substitute!
The sound of bones cracking was piercing in the darkness. The player in front had his head hanging crookedly off his shoulder.
With the companion gone, the player hiding behind was now staring directly into Xu Huo's eyes. Before he could react, a hand gripped his throat, and the thumb pressed firmly into the flesh right over his windpipe!
The two corpses fell together. Through the dark alley and the shattered buildings, Xu Huo's gaze caught the player who had been slow to come and help.
Only a few dozen meters away, the other man also saw him.
Their eyes met for less than a tenth of a second before that player turned and ran without looking back.
Xu Huo didn't give chase. He straightened his clothes and calmly returned to the small inn.
He entered through the front door and went up to the second floor, where he saw the naked youth huddled in a corner, shivering violently. His body was covered in bruises, and the cold had turned his skin a grayish hue, making him look extremely fragile.
Hearing footsteps, the youth scooted aside, not daring to look up, afraid of blocking the way.
"Go to the room across the hall," Xu Huo said as he opened his door.
The youth quickly glanced at him but didn't respond. Instead, after the door closed, he secretly slipped the hundred white notes he had picked up under the crack of the door, then went to the opposite room. After some effort, he managed to pick the lock and entered.
Although there were no clothes in the room, the thin bedsheet could still provide some warmth.
Xu Huo had now basically understood the state of his body at a 50% evolution rate. What pleased him even more was the absence of the discomfort he had felt after taking the previous potion, which would save him a lot of time.
Physical evolution could also bring about mental enhancement, so next came the training of spiritual power.
Lying down on the wooden floor, he began to release his spiritual power, slowly spreading it out from the room.
The hungry youth next door, wrapped in a bedsheet and curled up in a corner; the innkeeper not far away, peering out to observe the situation; ordinary people spying on the corpses in the street; several players quietly retreating...
Further away, silent conflicts erupted in the darkness; murders driven by chance and necessity; and the injured player who had come and gone, returning with twelve people.
It was clear that there were quite a few players in this area.
Those people only dispersed and approached quietly, with no intention of making a move. Xu Huo ignored them and continued to push his own boundaries.
Previously, he had been able to expand the range of his spiritual power coverage through a network-like form. Now, he only needed to fill in the blank parts of that network.
This was not an easy task. Even with reduced control intensity, it required stronger spiritual power to succeed, which would place a considerable mental burden on him. He hoped that the activation and increased evolution rate could alleviate this burden.
(Chapter End)