56: Chapter 56 Thunder Dragon Illusion, Second Awakening

Lin Mo's pupils suddenly contracted.

That cold burning sensation felt like it had exploded from within his blood vessels, as if someone had poured a bucket of lava into his veins!

He gritted his teeth and collapsed onto the bed.

It hurt.

It hurt like hell.

That kind of pain wasn't from an external wound; it felt like someone was using countless red-hot steel needles to repeatedly pierce his bone marrow.

A layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Lin Mo's forehead, and he bit his lip until it bled.

But his consciousness was very clear.

He clearly felt every second of the torture.

[Ding~ Detected that the host is absorbing dragon blood type i strengthening fluid.]

[Current progress: 5%... 10%... 15%...]

The system's notification sound rang in his mind, but he could no longer afford to listen to it.

His body began to twitch, his muscles spasmed uncontrollably, and veins bulged under his skin like they were about to burst. The bed frame creaked under his grip, and wood splinters dug into his fingernails, but he couldn't feel it.

That bit of pain was nothing compared to the burning inside him; it didn't even count as an itch.

[20%... 25%... 30%...]

Lin Mo's vision began to blur.

He saw something squirming under the skin of his arms—muscle fibers tearing and reorganizing, and his bones were popping with a cracking sound, like someone was hitting them with a hammer.

He wanted to scream, but his throat felt blocked by something, and he could only let out low, muffled groans.

[35%... 40%... 45%...]

Pain.

It hurt even more.

Lin Mo's consciousness began to drift. He seemed to see a vast darkness, and within that darkness, golden specks of light floated like eyes staring at him.

Those specks of light drew closer and closer—

[50%! Strengthening progress is half complete!]

The system prompt pulled him back from the hallucination.

Lin Mo snapped his eyes open, gasping for air.

He was drenched in sweat from head to toe, looking as if he had just been fished out of water.

But he couldn't dwell on it.

Because even more pain was coming.

This time, it wasn't burning.

It was tearing.

It felt like someone was ripping his body apart from the middle, reassembling it, and then ripping it apart again.

Lin Mo gritted his teeth, stuffed his fist into his mouth, and endured it with sheer willpower.

[55%... 60%... 65%...]

Suddenly, footsteps were heard outside the door.

"Lin Mo? Are you in there?"

It was Yi Xiaoyu's voice.

Lin Mo wanted to answer, but with his fist in his mouth, he could only manage a low groan.

"Lin Mo?" Yi Xiaoyu's voice became tense. "What's wrong?"

She pushed the door.

The door wasn't locked.

Yi Xiaoyu rushed in and immediately saw Lin Mo on the bed, covered in sweat, veins bulging, and the bedsheets torn to shreds.

"Lin Mo!!"

She screamed and lunged over.

Lin Sisi and Ye Zhixia also rushed in, and seeing this scene, they were completely stunned.

"What happened?!" Lin Sisi's face turned pale. "Is he injured? Or poisoned?!"

Shen Yi burst into tears: "Lin Mo! Lin Mo, don't scare me..."

Ye Zhixia was the first to calm down. She rushed to Lin Mo's side, grabbed his wrist to check his pulse; it was racing so fast it felt like it would burst.

"It's not an injury," she said in a heavy voice. "It's... strengthening."

Yi Xiaoyu was stunned: "Strengthening?"

Ye Zhixia's gaze fell on the empty metal tube by the bed. A silver-white body with a red dragon pattern.

"dragon blood type i, he used that."

Yi Xiaoyu's face grew even paler.

"That... there are risks..."

"I know," Ye Zhixia said, looking at her. "But it's already been used. We can only wait."

She looked at Lin Mo with a complex expression.

"If he pulls through, he'll become stronger. If he doesn't..."

She didn't finish the sentence.

But everyone knew what she meant.

[70%... 75%... 80%...]

Lin Mo's consciousness had already blurred.

He couldn't hear the shouts of Yi Xiaoyu and the others, nor could he feel them holding his hands. He was entirely submerged in the pain of tearing and reassembling, like he was in a nightmare he could never wake up from.

In the darkness, those golden specks of light appeared again.

This time, they were no longer just watching; they began to converge.

They gathered into a blurry silhouette, resembling some kind of reptile, emitting a golden glow with a ferocious appearance.

[85%... 90%... 95%...]

Using the last of his consciousness, Lin Mo stared intently at that golden silhouette.

"Get lost."

Lin Mo's head felt like it was splitting apart, and he unconsciously roared a sentence.

However, in the next moment.

Just as the pain reached its peak, it suddenly vanished.

It wasn't that the pain was gone.

It was that Lin Mo's consciousness had been forcibly ripped from his body.

He felt himself falling.

Passing through endless darkness, through countless flickering specks of light, through the boundaries of time and space.

And then—

"BOOM—!"

A deafening thunderclap exploded.

Lin Mo snapped his eyes open.

He was standing on a wasteland.

The sky was gray, a blackness that seemed to have swallowed everything. Above him was the distance, but rolling dark clouds hung extremely low, devouring every bit of light.

Within the dark clouds, thunderbolts were surging.

Not just one or two.

But countless ones.

Those lightning bolts moved through the clouds like living creatures. Each flash illuminated terrifying scenes on the wasteland: shattered peaks, burning forests, and...

Corpses.

Countless corpses.

Fierce beasts, humans, and some creatures Lin Mo couldn't even name. They lay in layers across the wasteland, blood flowing like rivers into cracks, forming dark red ravines.

This was a battlefield.

A battlefield where the fighting had already ended.

A battlefield where an unknown number of people had died.

Lin Mo stood in the center of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, motionless.

He didn't know where this was, why he was here, or even if he was alive or dead.

Then he heard a low growl.

The sound came from very far away, yet it sounded as if it were right in his ear.

Deep.

Ancient.

Carrying endless exhaustion and sorrow.

Lin Mo looked up.

The cloud layer split open.

A golden light poured down from the rift, illuminating the entire wasteland.

In the light, a giant beast was falling.

It was a dragon.

A true dragon.

It was so massive that Lin Mo couldn't see its end at a single glance.

Its body was covered in bluish-gold scales, each one as large as a house, with lightning flowing over them.

The horns on its head branched like ancient trees, piercing the clouds. Its eyes were like two suns; even as it fell, they still burned with golden flames.

Thunder Dragon.

A Rank 9 creature.

The term flashed through Lin Mo's mind.

He saw that the Thunder Dragon's body was covered in wounds, some deep enough to see bone.

A black liquid gushed out from them, corroding its scales and flesh. That black liquid squirmed as if it were alive, trying to burrow into its body.

The Thunder Dragon was struggling.

Even as it fell, it was still fighting back.

It opened its massive maw, and a bolt of lightning surged from the depths of its throat, blasting toward a certain point in the sky.

Lin Mo followed the bolt of lightning with his eyes.

He saw—

Darkness.

A mass of darkness so thick it wouldn't dissipate hung above the sky. That darkness was like a living thing, constantly squirming and expanding, occasionally cracking open to reveal a glimpse of chaos.

What was inside?

Lin Mo couldn't see clearly.

But he felt it.

That feeling was exactly the same as when he faced that heart.

Fear.

Fear from the depths of his soul.

The lightning strike made the mass of darkness pause for a moment, but that was all.

The darkness split open a larger gap, and a hand condensed from pure darkness reached out, grasping for the Thunder Dragon.

The Thunder Dragon let out a long roar toward the sky.

The final light erupted from its body. All its scales lit up simultaneously, and all the lightning gathered at a single point, condensing in front of it into a phantom armor made of electricity.

That armor was too dazzling.

So dazzling that Lin Mo couldn't look at it directly.

It enveloped the Thunder Dragon's broken body, blocking the first grasp of that dark hand.

But it was only the first time.

The dark hand fell a second time, and the armor began to crack.

It fell a third time, and the armor completely shattered.

The Thunder Dragon's body was seized by the dark hand and slowly pulled toward the sky.

It didn't struggle.

Not because it didn't want to, but because it had no strength left.

But a second before being dragged into the darkness, it turned its head and looked toward the ground.

Looking toward where Lin Mo stood.

Those golden eyes, across an unknown distance, met Lin Mo's gaze for a fleeting moment.

In that one look, there were too many things.

Exhaustion. Sorrow. Unwillingness.

And a sliver of hope that was about to go out.

Then, the darkness swallowed it.

The lightning dissipated.

The dark clouds closed.

The wasteland fell into complete darkness.

Lin Mo stood in place, motionless.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

A second.

A year.

A century.

"Live on."

Until a voice sounded in his ear, very softly, very faintly.

...

Lin Mo suddenly snapped his eyes open.

What he saw was the ceiling of the dormitory.

Mottled paint, dim light, and three faces crying their hearts out.

"Lin Mo!" Yi Xiaoyu screamed, "He's awake! He's awake!!"

Lin Sisi lunged forward, hugging his neck, crying until she was out of breath.

Lin Mo lowered his head and looked at his hands.

He tried to clench his fists.

A sense of power he had never felt before came from his fingertips.

He hadn't just become a little stronger.

He had become much stronger.

[Ding!]

The system's notification sound rang out at the right time.

[Congratulations to the host for successfully absorbing the Dragon Blood Type I Gene Strengthening Agent!]

[Strengthening complete! Strength +10, Constitution +10, Agility +10!]

Lin Mo's eyes flickered slightly as he opened his attribute panel.

[Name: Lin Mo]

[Class: Awakener]

[trait: God Speed (Purple Peak), Thunder Armor (Blue Mid-grade)]

[cultivation: Rank 2, Level 6]

[Strength: 109 (+10)]

[Agility: 135 (+10)]

[Constitution: 104 (+10)]

[Spirit: 101]

[Techniques: Flowing Cloud Aurora Slash LV4 (92/100), Basic Saber Technique LV11 (12/100), Lingyan Steps LV3 (38/100)]

[slaughter value: 340]

[achievement points: 6]

Lin Mo scanned his attribute panel and was instantly stunned.

It wasn't because of the attribute increase.

It was because he discovered he had gained an extra trait!

"Thunder Armor! Is this a Second Awakening?"

"Could it be related to the illusion I saw earlier?"

Lin Mo's heart pounded.

[Ding! Detected that the host experienced a Second Awakening during the absorption process!]

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a second trait: Thunder Armor (Blue)!]

[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for completing the achievement—Second Awakening! achievement points +2]

Lin Mo was stunned for a moment.

Thunder Armor?

[trait Name: Thunder Armor (Can be advanced by consuming 1000 slaughter value)]

[Type: Energy Type]

[Grade: Blue]

[Core: Converts one's own energy into electricity, condensing it on the body surface into an armor composed of lightning.]

[Effect 1: Defense. Thunder Armor can absorb and weaken physical and energy attacks. Its strength is proportional to the host's Spirit attribute and energy output. In its current state, it can withstand a full-strength blow from an early Rank 3 fierce beast.]

[Effect 2: Damage Reflection. Enemies who attack the Thunder Armor at close range will suffer lightning backlash. The intensity of the backlash is proportional to the attacker's Spirit attribute; the stronger the Spirit attribute, the higher the damage.]

[Effect 3: Speed Boost. The lightning flowing on the surface of the Thunder Armor can stimulate muscle nerves, increasing movement speed and reaction speed. Current increase—+15%.]

[Consumption: Activating Thunder Armor will continuously consume Spirit power. In its current state, it can be kept active for about 30 minutes.]

[Limitation: After the Thunder Armor is shattered, it takes two hours to re-condense.]

Lin Mo stared at those lines for a long time.

A blue trait.

Defense + Damage Reflection + Speed Boost.

Three-in-one.

And it didn't conflict with his existing [God Speed] at all.

God Speed provided extreme speed and reaction, while Thunder Armor provided defense and damage reflection. One for offense, one for defense—perfectly complementary.

He slowly sat up, leaning against the headboard.

Yi Xiaoyu and the others were still surrounding him, faces full of worry.

"Are you okay? Should we call a doctor?"

Yi Xiaoyu asked cautiously.

Lin Mo shook his head, still a bit dazed.

No one in the entire Southeast Military Region had awakened a second trait by taking dragon blood i.

Was his luck really that good?

How much dog shit would he have to step in to get this lucky?

But soon, Lin Mo dismissed this speculation.

This had nothing to do with luck.

It must be related to those illusions he saw.

That voice seemed to have said a sentence to him—Live on?

So, that Rank 9 fierce beast, the Thunder Dragon, had mistaken him for a companion or a descendant?

Lin Mo's mind was filled with doubts.

That was a Rank 9 existence; it must have seen him.

That's why it told him to live on.

Such a terrifying existence wouldn't be so muddled that it couldn't distinguish between a human and a fierce beast...

"Lin Mo," Yi Xiaoyu suddenly spoke up.

"Are you hungry?"

Lin Mo looked at her.

Yi Xiaoyu smiled: "You've been lying here for several hours, you probably haven't eaten yet. I'll go get you some food."

Lin Mo thought for a moment and said:

"Braised pork."

Yi Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment, then she smiled even more happily.

"Okay, braised pork."

The three girls turned and ran out.

The dormitory became quiet.

Lin Mo leaned back against the headboard and closed his eyes.

In the palm of his hand, the warmth of lightning still lingered.

...

...