316. Chapter 315: A Bigger Surprise Awaits You
"There's an even bigger surprise waiting for you in a week. We'll meet at this location then, remember to be early."
"Just say what you need to say in one go, you... you motherfucker!" Soldier Boy was only halfway through his sentence when Xia Shang vanished right in front of him, completely disappearing from his field of vision.
...
Back at the Villa, Xia Shang poured himself a glass of milk, turned on the television, and began studying his gains from the Tokyo Ghoul World.
[Talent Skill: RC cells]
[Talent Skill: Koukaku]
[Talent Skill: Rinkaku]
[Talent Skill: Ukaku]
[Talent Skill: Bikaku]
And the [Talent Skill: Dragon Core] acquired from Rize Kamishiro.
Among these, the 'Dragon Core' provided the biggest boost to his strength. As for Talent Skills like Koukaku, Rinkaku, etc., they didn't significantly increase his strength, especially after he recovered his superpower. However, having them was better than not, and they might prove useful at times.
Moreover, these Talent Skills had a high compatibility with his 'Transformation' and could be enhanced as his physical strength increased. After all, the cells in his whole body weren't just simple RC cells, but fused mutated cells. Therefore, their potential was almost tied to his physical strength.
Speaking of which, what Xia Shang valued most was the 'Dragon Core'. Its characteristics of infinite devour and infinite expansion were enough to demonstrate the power of this Talent Skill.
While calling it infinite devour and infinite expansion might be a slight exaggeration, theoretically, he could achieve infinite devour and infinite expansion as long as he enhanced it enough times and continuously raised the cells' endurance limit.
Furthermore, each Dragon Transformation brought a huge enhancement to his main body. Just looking at this time, merely devouring one Tokyo raised his physical strength to Queen Maeve's level. One could imagine how much he would grow if he devoured all the humans on an entire planet; he could probably easily crush Homelander.
Unfortunately, the drawback was the inability to retain his full consciousness.
Thinking back to himself punching a nuclear bomb at the time, Xia Shang felt somewhat speechless. Using this ability was like applying a debuff that lowered his intelligence, turning him into a complete idiot.
It would be fine in lower-star worlds where no one could pose a threat to him...
But you never know, if a world couldn't handle it, it might drop a meteor on his head. After all, even a slightly larger meteor has far more power than a nuclear bomb, and not just by a little. A meteor with a diameter of over a thousand meters, for instance, generates energy equivalent to seven million Hiroshima nuclear bombs exploding simultaneously upon impact.
Even if he hid his clones deep Underground, he might not be able to save them.
So, until he solved the problem of not being able to retain his full consciousness, Xia Shang's attitude towards the 'Dragon Core' Talent Skill was: don't use it easily unless absolutely necessary or if he had absolute certainty of success.
"It seems I need to pay extra attention to innate abilities related to the brain or psychic power in the future. Perhaps I can compensate for this flaw through other abilities."
Xia Shang planned to make the 'Dragon Core' Talent Skill the base for his future development direction, adding compatible abilities on top of it later. After all, to achieve his envisioned undying and immortal, infinite growth, only the 'Dragon Core' best fit the criteria.
...
The next morning, Xia Shang, as usual, turned on the television and surrounded himself with various books, watching and reading simultaneously, using five senses at once.
At this moment, a pair of arms grew from his back, and two extra eyes appeared on either side of his neck.
"We interrupt this program for breaking news. An explosion rocked Central City in Manhattan yesterday. Early reports indicated 19 fatalities, but it is now confirmed that the death toll from the Manhattan explosion is at least 13.
The New York Police and the Department of Supe Affairs stated that this was the work of an unknown Supe.
As of now, we are still awaiting further information from the authorities... Regarding this extremely heinous incident, we will, at the request of the vast majority of citizens, conduct an exclusive interview with Homelander to ask for his views on this matter..."
On the TV screen, footage of Soldier Boy blowing up Central City played repeatedly. Xia Shang was nowhere to be seen in it; clearly, the cameras couldn't capture Xia Shang in his invisible state.
Meanwhile, Xia Shang wasn't the only one watching this news. Mother's Milk from The Boys, and Homelander in the Supe Conference Room, were also watching.
"Still not working." Xia Shang was currently trying to modify and improve his cells, but found he couldn't do it at all. Even with a large amount of theoretical knowledge and experimental data, he still couldn't change the state of a single cell. This wasn't just because the structure of the cells and the arrangement of genes were extremely stable, at least in his view.
The fundamental reason was his insufficient degree of control over himself.
He couldn't extract or add a single brick or tile from cells that were like buildings. In other words, he didn't possess the ability to modify cells. Previously, the reason he could spread the cells of Blazing Wings throughout his whole body was essentially just copy and paste, splitting and differentiating from one cell into multiple similar cells.
Simply put, going from one to a hundred was easy, but going from nothing to something was thousands of times more difficult. At least, Xia Shang couldn't do it currently.
The main reason he could control himself was basically reliant on the 'Extreme Control' talent skill. It was precisely because of this innate ability that his control over himself could reach the cellular level.
But trying to reach deep inside the cells was impossible.
"I can't even change the structure of cells. It seems I'm still far from the title of Ultimate Lifeform." Xia Shang crushed the twisted flesh sphere in his palm, the result of his failed experiment, then got up and walked out of the Villa.
"I wonder what Homelander's expression is like right now?"
Xia Shang looked at the Lawn beneath his feet, the corner of his mouth slightly lifted. He was certain that Homelander had recognized Soldier Boy in the video. As for whether he knew that was his Father...
Most likely, he didn't know. Stan Edgar and Madelyn Stillwell wouldn't tell him such things.
Xia Shang was very much looking forward to the scene when the two father and son recognized each other. It would surely be very exciting.
...
"Look at the news quickly." Mother's Milk, who had just seen the explosion video on television, rushed out of his house. While opening his car door, he called Billy.
"Soldier Boy appeared in Central City in Manhattan. Yeah, I'll be right there."
Mother's Milk stuffed his mobile phone into his pocket and drove towards Central City in Manhattan.
"He actually came to the United States. It seems Billy's guess was right."
(end of chapter )