Shackles of Humanity

Time ticked by. Luo Kai couldn’t help but start circulating his qi and blood, and the air on the training grounds suddenly grew heavy and oppressive. Everyone felt it. The five nearby Body Masters grimly drew their Energy Divine Weapons, their eyes scanning every single student.

By noon, it was almost Luo Kai’s turn. He took a deep breath, forcing his heart rate back down. ’I’d be confident I could escape from one or two Body Masters, but here at Shangjing University, which is teeming with them, fighting back is practically suicide.’ He could only pray they wouldn’t detect the abnormality in his blood.

The person drawing blood was a woman in a white lab coat and a surgical mask. She let out a small sound of surprise when she saw him. ”You’re a student at Shangjing University, too?” she asked.

Her voice was gentle and serene, and her presence felt very familiar. It was Yun Ye.

Luo Kai was also a bit surprised. He nodded and said, ”Aunt... Aunt Yun, why are you here?”

Yun Ye’s eyes crinkled with a smile. ”I’m a teacher at Shangjing University’s Genetic Research Institute,” she said.

This wasn’t the time to chat. Yun Ye took out a thick syringe. ”Have you had blood drawn before?” she asked.

Luo Kai nodded. ’More than just drawn,’ he thought. ’I’m pretty sure my entire blood supply has been swapped out.’

Yun Ye could see he was a bit nervous and added, ”Don’t worry. A hundred milliliters is nothing. A Martial Artist can recover that in half a day.”

The instant the needle touched him, Yun Ye gasped in surprise. The tip had snapped the moment it made contact with his skin. The bodies of modern Martial Artists could stop bullets, but a sharp object like a needle should still have been able to pierce the skin.

Luo Kai glanced at the spot on his arm and instantly understood. He had never practiced Skin Refining, the most foundational of the Body Techniques. However, the chaotic mix of Energy in his body had been silently reforging him from the inside out. His cells, down to the deepest level, were growing denser and tougher. Though he appeared somewhat lean, he weighed nearly two hundred kilograms. While his physical strength couldn’t yet compare to a Body Master who had undergone Energy Body Forging, it far surpassed that of an ordinary Martial Artist.

Yun Ye grabbed a new syringe. ”Relax your muscles.”

Luo Kai tried to relax, and this time it went smoothly. With a slight twist of her wrist, Yun Ye slid the needle into his skin and drew a full vial. His blood was unlike anyone else’s—incredibly viscous, with a faint fluorescent glow. It looked less like blood and more like dark-red mercury.

Yun Ye froze for a second, but she said nothing. She hid the vial in her sleeve and called out, ”Next.”

Luo Kai walked away, his heart pounding. ’They don’t even need to test my blood. Anyone can see something’s wrong with it just by looking. Yun Ye just covered for me.’

After Luo Kai left, the middle-aged Body Master walked over. ”Teacher Yun,” he asked, ”was there a problem with that student?”

Yun Ye shook her head. ”No problem.”

The Body Master looked puzzled. ”That can’t be right. His presence felt very strange.”

”No Heresy can escape my eyes,” Yun Ye stated flatly. ”He just cultivates a different kind of Body Technique.”

「Three days later.」 Another couple was killed on campus. Their Essence Blood had been completely drained, leaving their bodies desiccated. A patrolling Body Master was even injured in a confrontation with the creature. In response, the entire university was placed on lockdown. The Body Technique Association’s Judgement Department sent a team to station themselves on campus: three lamas in tattered robes, wearing Buddha Beads. The Judgement Department hunts Heresy year-round and has many ways of tracking them down.

Luo Kai’s peaceful life was shattered. All students were forbidden from living off-campus and were required to move into the dormitories. No matter how aloof and detached from the Mortal World he was, he still had to interact with people in human society.

He was assigned to Room 303 of a three-story dormitory in the campus’s southwest corner. The living conditions weren’t bad; they were similar to a standard hotel room, with a private bathroom. The dorm’s basement even had a dedicated training room.

The upper bunks were already taken. The only available lower bunk was piled high with junk—tattered clothes, pots, pans, and bowls. Although the university was on break, three people were still in the room. Two were fast asleep, their snores shaking the room. The third, a young man with glasses, was engrossed in a thick book. He glanced up as Luo Kai entered, then immediately went back to his reading, pointedly ignoring him.

Luo Kai sighed to himself and started cleaning. ’In the past, I wouldn’t have cared about a little mess,’ he thought. But now, it was as if he’d developed a cleaning obsession. A space had to be either completely empty or perfectly tidy.

Cleaning inevitably makes noise. A man on the top bunk shot up from his slumber. He was tall and powerfully built, his muscles knotted. Vicious scars covered his bare chest. His triangular eyes glinted with a cold light as he radiated a fierce, malevolent aura. He looked less like a student and more like a battle-hardened veteran. He snarled, ”Kid, can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?!”

Luo Kai’s expression turned icy. He shot the man a sidelong glance. Immediately, the man’s eyes bulged like a dead fish’s. Foam frothed at his lips, and he began to convulse violently, as if in the throes of an epileptic seizure.

The other sleeping student was startled awake. He asked in confusion, ”Da Chang, what’s wrong with you?”

The student with the glasses stared for a second, then realization dawned on him. Shangjing University was a gathering place for humanity’s elite; there were hidden masters everywhere, and some students possessed unimaginable Abilities. He hurriedly turned to Luo Kai. ”Hey, uh, Da Chang has severe insomnia. He has a really short fuse when he wakes up. Please, just try to bear with him.”

Luo Kai withdrew his gaze and suppressed the roiling Evil Qi in his chest. He went back to cleaning the room. ’It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten angry,’ he thought. ’I don’t know what’s wrong with me these past few days. My emotions have been in turmoil, and I can’t seem to control them.’

The man on the top bunk stopped convulsing. He looked at Luo Kai, his eyes now filled with terror. A moment ago, he had felt as if he’d been thrown onto a brutal battlefield, about to be crushed by a countless tide of enemies.

The first meeting with his roommates had been unpleasant, to say the least. All three were second-year students from Class Three. The man with the triangular eyes was named Ba Heng. He had been sold to the army by slavers at the age of twelve or thirteen, and after nearly a decade of service, he suffered from severe PTSD. He was often unable to sleep at night, which made his temper during the day incredibly volatile.

The student with glasses was Fan Tong, and the last one was Jin Shu. It was no small feat for the three of them to be admitted to Shangjing University; despite their youth, all three were already Mid-level Martial Artists.

With the campus on lockdown and no classes, students either slept in their rooms or went to the basement training hall to practice their Body Techniques.

That evening, three lamas approached the dormitory. The one in the middle was a haggard old man holding a glittering golden Zen Staff.

The three lamas sat cross-legged below the dormitory and began to drone a chant. The sound was bizarre. At first, it was chaotic and discordant, making listeners feel uncontrollably agitated. But then the sound smoothed out, becoming long and peaceful, and it began to draw out memories hidden deep within people’s hearts.

Luo Kai’s Spiritual Will was so powerful he was completely unaffected. He saw his three roommates, all fast asleep with faint smiles on their faces. Curious, he walked to the window to take a look. ’This Sound Wave Technique is very sophisticated,’ he mused. ’It must be some kind of spiritual Dharma Gate, even more powerful than the one Liu Hou used.’

The central lama stopped chanting. His sharp eyes shot up, looking directly at him.