Crack!
With the sound of something fundamental breaking within his body, Ethan was forcibly, brutally, pushed through the watershed. He had successfully broken through to Rank Two, Level One. But this was not over yet. His rank continued to skyrocket like a runaway rocket. Level Two, Level Three… Level Five… Level Eight… Level Nine! A massive payload of refined Aura Cores had directly and violently pushed Ethan's rank from Rank One, Level Nine all the way to Rank Two, Level Nine!
One should not think that this is a good thing. Such a forced and unnaturally rapid advancement of his rank would completely and utterly destroy his foundation. It was highly likely that after this single, traumatic advancement, he would never be able to raise his rank again in the future. It was even possible that Ethan's body itself could be destroyed, torn apart by this huge, untamed amount of psionic energy. But the Mad Doctor simply injected him with another full dose of the Beastification Potion.
With the injection of this new potion, Ethan's beastly transformation became even more severe. His entire body was now covered in coarse, brown fur. His arms and legs had completely transformed into the powerful, digitigrade limbs of a wolf. His back also began to hunch over, his human ears disappeared, and two pointed, wolf-like ears grew from the top of his head. The current Ethan was looking more and more like a true Direwolf. His body was being simultaneously destroyed and rebuilt by this chaotic influx of Aura, and what accompanied it was an extreme, mind-shattering pain.
At the same time, the Omnitrix deep within his body was operating frantically, a silent, desperate battle being waged at the genetic level.
[CRITICAL ALERT: Host foundation destabilizing. Repair module restored. Beginning to delete redundant foreign DNA...]
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL: Omnitrix native DNA has been detected as the primary emergency plan... Re-calibrating scheme... Accelerating absorption of disorderly *Aura*...]
[HOSTILE GENETIC AGENT DETECTED. Activating repair program. Host body integrity failing. Activating life support and protection program. Treating host... Large amount of energy is being output...]
As the watch's internal report ended, it suddenly began to frantically absorb the violent flood of psionic energy coursing through Ethan's body. It converted the raw psionic power into its own operational energy, continuously modifying the invasive Direwolf DNA that the Beastification Potion had introduced, while simultaneously repairing Ethan's own damaged, original human DNA. At the same time, Ethan's psionic foundation, which had been horrifically damaged by the massive infusion of Aura and the forced advancement of his rank, was also being slowly, painstakingly, repaired by the advanced alien device.
The people outside knew nothing of this; they were still infusing him with yet more psionic power.
The Tiger Deacon watched the fluctuating readings on the stasis pod, a hesitant look on his face. He couldn't help but ask, "Deacon, should we continue?"
The Doctor's expression was as cold as ice, completely indifferent to the agonizing transformation happening before him. He replied flatly, "Continue. Push him to Rank Three. If this experiment succeeds, his life can be saved. If it fails, then he's just dead." His tone was so calm it was chilling, as if the life before him was an insignificant, disposable existence, not even as valuable as a small bug.
The Tiger Deacon nodded slightly, then continued to infuse his own psionic energy into Ethan's body according to the Doctor's instructions. However, what was astonishing was that even though they were continuously infusing him with Aura, Ethan's cultivation showed no signs of improving further. What was even stranger was that his rank actually began to drop, plummeting from the peak of Level Nine all the way down to Level Eight.
The Tiger Deacon widened his eyes, his face full of surprise and doubt, muttering to himself, "What's going on? We're clearly infusing him with psionic energy, so why is his rank not increasing but decreasing?"
The Doctor frowned, his own mind also filled with incomprehension. He thought for a moment and then said, "This shouldn't be right. With his Earth-rank foundation, even if he is used as a test subject for a one-time brute-force enhancement, his foundation will definitely be damaged to a certain extent, but it shouldn't reach the point of complete collapse this quickly. You, try injecting a little more psionic energy and see what happens."
"Yes, sir."
The Tiger Deacon did as he was told, continuing to infuse psionic energy into Ethan's body. This time, there was finally some effect. Ethan's rank smoothly returned to Level Nine. But the good times didn't last long. Before long, his rank dropped back to Level Eight again. The Tiger Deacon was not discouraged and continued to increase the infusion of psionic energy, but Ethan's rank was still like riding a bizarre roller coaster, going up for a moment and then coming down again. Just like that, the two of them fell into a strange, frustrating cycle. The scene became very interesting. The Tiger Deacon continuously infused psionic energy into Ethan, while Ethan's rank would go up for a while, then down for a while, fluctuating constantly between Level Nine and Level Eight. At times, Ethan's rank would even suddenly drop all the way to Level Seven, as if intentionally showing off to someone.
Every time psionic energy was infused, Ethan's rank would rise, then quickly fall, repeating this process over and over. This bizarre situation continued for some time before the Tiger Deacon finally stopped his actions, panting slightly.
The Doctor saw this and anxiously asked, "Why did you stop?"
The Tiger Deacon looked embarrassed and said helplessly, "Um... Doctor, the liquid Aura in the jar… it's all used up."
The Doctor was speechless. "In all this time, you've only managed to accumulate this little amount of Aura Cores?" His tone was a little gentle, yet filled with a deep dissatisfaction.
The Tiger Deacon hurriedly explained, "Deacon, please calm down. We've gathered over a hundred Aura Cores during this period! We had to kill several entire monster packs to get these! We've only been stationed here for half a year. This is already our entire harvest from working day and night without rest."
The Doctor sighed. "Since it has come to this, there's no other way. Let's just observe for now."
The two of them stared intently at Ethan's state. His rank kept dropping, all the way down to Rank Two, Level Three, before it finally stopped, stabilizing at that level. The two of them let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
Doctor: "His rank didn't completely disappear. It seems his foundation hasn't completely collapsed, but it is severely, perhaps irreparably, damaged."
Tiger Deacon: "Then, Deacon, do we need to suspend the experiment for now?"
"No," the Doctor said, his eyes cold again. "Inject all the remaining Beastification Potion. His foundation is already severely damaged. We don't have any precious natural treasures here to help him recover. Since it has come to this, let's just go all in. Anyway, other branches also have such laboratories. There will always be successes among the failures. And this unique genetic sample cannot fall into the hands of the Global Concord. Injecting it all is the best way to destroy the evidence." At this point, the Doctor had already completely given up on Ethan as a successful experimental subject.
Hearing this, the Tiger Deacon felt a surge of unwillingness. Originally, if this experiment had succeeded, he would have received a great reward. At that time, not only would his own strength be raised by a level, but his position within the Cult would also definitely be promoted by another rank. But now, this beautiful dream was about to be shattered. Therefore, the Tiger Deacon looked at Ethan with some resentment. Why?! Why couldn't you just hold on for a little longer?! Even just for a little while!
He vengefully injected all the remaining Beastification Potion into Ethan's body, then undid the restraints on him.
"What are you doing?" the Doctor asked.
"Deacon, this guy can't hold on anyway," the Tiger Deacon replied. "The stasis pod is about to be unable to bear such a large, chaotic force. What if this guy suddenly has an Aura explosion or fully turns into a giant Direwolf and breaks this expensive machine? I think it's better to put him away early. As for this guy… just lock him up in a cage."
The Doctor nodded. "Then you go do it yourself. This organic body of mine is also about to be unable to hold on." With that, his blue, humanoid body suddenly dissolved, collapsing into a lifeless pool of stagnant water on the floor. This represented that the Doctor had disconnected his consciousness and left this place.