Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8-Chapter 135 - 110: Just What Kind of Monster Are You?
Li Chang’an didn’t pause his advance for a second.
The moment any attack came within half a meter of him, it was instantly incinerated by a formless, intangible, dark-red flame. Many of the people nearby didn’t even have time to gasp in disbelief before they were reduced to piles of ash.
Just like that, the small group swaggered into the company building as if they owned the place, completely ignoring the Advanced Technology Group’s entire security department’s attempts to surround and stop them.
They made it look as effortless as a stroll by the river after dinner.
Behind them, nearly every reporter wore an expression of utter shock, as if they’d seen a ghost. Since many outlets were live-streaming, the footage had already been broadcast across the globe.
Viewership and popularity ratings skyrocketed in an instant.
With the story’s influence rapidly expanding, it wasn’t long before someone watching the live broadcast identified Li Chang’an.
When the world learned that it was Little Charles, the Emperor of Night City, who had sent his people to storm the headquarters of the Advanced Technology Group Corporation, almost everyone refused to believe their eyes.
This wasn’t just some big news story.
From the looks of it, all Hell was about to break loose!
The reporters were ordered to leave.
But even from hundreds, or even a thousand, meters away, they could still clearly sense the violent turmoil within the Advanced Technology Group building.
The first floor, the second, the third...
As the group ascended, the sounds of explosions and gunfire from within the Advanced Technology Group headquarters grew more and more intense.
With Anna protecting him, Li Chang’an advanced as if taking a leisurely stroll.
Li Chang’an had already employed various tactics to lure the snakes out of their hole, so the Advanced Technology Group’s headquarters was now surprisingly empty of its strongest assets.
The conventional firepower inside the office building stood no chance of breaching Anna’s Flame Protection Net.
If the Advanced Technology Group wanted to deal with him, they would have to dispatch their own Transcendents.
The question was, did the Advanced Technology Group have any Tier Seven Peak Transcendents like Anna left on site?
The answer was yes.
And more than just one.
As the primary producer of the Extraordinary Potion, the richest and most mysterious corporation in the world, Advanced Technology’s true power far exceeded the public’s imagination.
Or rather, what the outside world was allowed to see...
...was merely the tip of the iceberg.
When Li Chang’an’s group reached the fifth floor, the nearly ceaseless gunfire and web of armaments fell abruptly silent. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
Two figures appeared in their path. They were men in their thirties, with muscles so swollen that from a distance they looked like a pair of walls.
Both men radiated the aura of a Tier Seven Transcendent.
The two middle-aged men, who looked to be in their thirties, fixed their gaze on Li Chang’an. When they spoke, however, their voices were those of men in their seventies or eighties.
They spoke in unison, their voices raspy. "You could have lived, but you chose to barge into Hell... Heretic of Night City, you have some nerve!"
Anna instinctively took a step forward to engage them.
But before she could take another step, Li Chang’an held out a hand to stop her. "Let me," he said calmly. "These two aren’t truly independent life forms. They look more like deformed monsters that have split off from something larger."
After so many years of research, Li Chang’an had mostly figured out the basic synthesis process for the Genetic Potion.
The only thing he still couldn’t comprehend was the active cell within the Extraordinary Potion that prompted genes to undergo an evolvable mutation.
That peculiar active cell was the fundamental component that allowed the Extraordinary Potion to awaken a person’s Extraordinary Power.
Thus, even though Li Chang’an had figured out the entire synthesis process, he still couldn’t replicate the potion. Not until he understood where that active cell came from.
But now, after seeing these two deformed, Transcendent monsters in the Advanced Technology Company Building with his own eyes, Li Chang’an felt he might have found a lead.
Of the two Transcendent monsters, one could control metal, and the other could manipulate earth and soil. The one on the left, the earth-controller, softened the concrete of the fifth floor, attempting to restrict Li Chang’an’s movements.
The other monster manipulated thousands of sharp steel needles, launching them at Li Chang’an from all directions. The needles were so fine and subtle that they were barely visible, manifesting only as faint, cold glints in the air.
Their tips, however, were coated in a cocktail of agents designed to cause genetic mutation and decay.
A single hit, even on a Transcendent, could trigger genetic instability, risking a gruesome death as their body decayed and ruptured from within.
Yet in the face of this seemingly inescapable assault, Li Chang’an simply took a casual step forward.
BOOM!
A violent explosion erupted as an invisible, intangible ripple spread out from under Li Chang’an’s foot.
Anything the ripple touched was instantly pulverized, as if struck by some terrifying force.
His single step blew a huge crater into the reinforced floor of the Advanced Group’s building.
As for the two deformed monsters who had been trying to get close to Li Chang’an, they were like ants struck by divine lightning. Their muscles and bodies disintegrated inch by inch, leaving behind only a strange black blood that trickled down like crude oil.
Having dispatched the two with ease, Li Chang’an turned to Melissa, who was standing behind Anna. "Go collect a blood sample. We’ll take it to the lab later."
After giving the order, Li Chang’an continued on his way.
The fifth floor... the tenth... the twentieth...
Every few floors, more deformed monsters would appear, trying to block Li Chang’an’s path.
Most of these deformed monsters wielded Extraordinary Power around Tier Seven.
Only a rare few had reached the Tier Seven Peak.
These beings, each powerful enough to conquer cities or destroy entire corporations, were as fragile as clay dolls before Li Chang’an. They couldn’t slow his advance in the slightest.
By this point, Li Chang’an was the only one in the group whose expression remained unchanged.
The faces of the others, including Anna, had grown deathly pale.
In the world today, even Tier Six Transcendents were a rare sight.
Transcendents who reached Tier Six were virtually immune to conventional firearms.
They were part of a select few among the Transcendent population who could act as they pleased, even negotiating as equals with the heads of major conglomerates.
A Tier Seven Peak Transcendent like Anna was considered to be at the very apex of the Transcendent hierarchy.
On the public list of the world’s most powerful Transcendents, the number one spot was held by Black Shadow from the Advanced Technology Company, who was "only" at the Tier Eight Peak.
Yet none of them had ever imagined that the Advanced Technology Group’s company building would be home to so many Transcendents at Anna’s level.
They killed one wave, and another would appear!
What else was the Advanced Technology Group hiding?
Where did all these deformed monsters come from?
If the Advanced Technology Group possessed this much terrifying power, why did they tolerate the growth and development of other corporations?
With every floor they cleared, the group’s shock and astonishment deepened.
The floors above the thirtieth were restricted areas, absolutely off-limits to ordinary Advanced Technology Company employees without express permission.
These floors were wide open spaces, littered with messy experimental data.
Much of it was damaged, but some of the materials hadn’t been completely destroyed in time.
Li Chang’an paused, instructing Melissa and Anna to collect some of the undamaged data before continuing upward.
When Li Chang’an reached the fiftieth floor, a masked figure in a black robe appeared at the end of the corridor.
The masked figure’s eyes glowed crimson, fixed intently on Li Chang’an.
As Li Chang’an approached, the figure’s signature raspy voice took on a grave tone. "You were clearly injected with the cells of ’God,’ so why are you not influenced by ’God’?"
"What... what kind of monster are you?"
...
