Volume One: All Things Awaken, and Every Season is Spring Chapter Six: Rupture and the Black Sphere

Mo Wen’s inner energy seemed to suppress the mist, and this gave him an idea.

“I’ll use my full strength to blast open the thinnest part of the fog at the bridgehead, and I can keep it clear for about ten seconds. Chief, you and Sister Lin take turns carrying people through. Ten seconds at top speed should be enough to get across!”

Su Qiang and Lin Xi exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement.

“I’ll handle the men, you handle the women. We’ll just carry them across, one by one. Who wants to go first?”

Su Qiang looked around at the sixteen people; there were exactly eight men and eight women. That meant he and Lin Xi would each have to go in and out eight times.

A young man, his expression calm, raised his hand and said, “I’ll go first. If it doesn’t work, at least we’ll know early and can try something else.”

Su Qiang grabbed the man’s arm and, with a bit of effort, hefted him onto his shoulder. Nearing the mist, he took a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Let’s do this. Success or failure, it’s all or nothing!”

Mo Wen channeled his scripture, energy surging throughout his body and gathering in his right palm. He struck out several times in succession, punching a massive hole through the mist.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The explosive sounds thundered in their ears. Mo Wen shouted, “Go!”

Without hesitation, Su Qiang leaped through the opening, and in a matter of seconds, both men had reached the other side of the mist, safe and sound!

They’d done it!

Those who’d been trapped all night cheered in joy. Mo Wen, invigorated, didn’t pause to rest but immediately repeated the process.

In this manner, after several rounds, all sixteen people were rescued.

But Su Qiang and Lin Xi had entered the mist again, and Mo Wen had exhausted his inner energy. He sat cross-legged on the ground, focused on his scripture, and his energy quickly began to recover.

“How will you get out?” Lin Xi, now relaxed after their success, wiped the sweat from Mo Wen’s brow.

“I’ll recover a bit—I can leave at any time. I want to take this chance to study the mist, to see what it really is!”

Mo Wen exhaled a heavy breath. The task was done, but if he couldn’t break this confining rule, the Huangpu Bridge and the river would forever remain forbidden ground.

He sensed, faintly, that something deep within the mist at the center of the bridge was calling to him.

Su Qiang nodded. He knew nothing about the mist himself, and he too hoped they could unravel its mystery.

Having sent Su Qiang and Lin Xi out of the mist, Mo Wen slowly made his way toward the center of the bridge.

When he’d blasted the mist earlier, he had vaguely felt something in the middle of the bridge resonate in response.

The mist grew ever denser. Mo Wen walked carefully, as if through the dead of night, until he simply closed his eyes, circulating his scripture and spreading his energy throughout his body, prepared for anything.

A faint buzzing reached his ears, unnaturally clear in the utter silence of the mist. Following the sound, Mo Wen pressed onward; the buzzing grew closer, until it was right before him.

He reached out and felt something cold and metallic. Startled, he drew back his hand, but after a moment, he reached out again.

After some groping, he found a small black sphere, about the size of a ping pong ball, light and jet-black, its material unidentifiable. The coldness of it unsettled him, so he channeled his energy into his palm, the warmth making him feel more at ease.

Suddenly, the sphere underwent a strange change: heated by Mo Wen’s energy, it instantly melted, and the black liquid seeped unexpectedly into his palm and vanished!

Mo Wen was alarmed. He had no idea what this sphere was, and now it had entered his body—was this a blessing or a curse? Focusing his senses, he found that the black liquid had followed his bloodstream to his heart, where it reformed into a sphere. Throughout the process, he felt no discomfort.

The sphere began to emit a black glow, and the mist around Mo Wen gathered, seeping into his skin and being drawn into the black sphere. The sudden change gave Mo Wen a fright, but there was nothing he could do.

The mist flooded into him faster and faster, forming a vortex beside him that funneled it madly into the black sphere. The mist over the bridge thinned, but more swirled in from the river.

Throughout, Mo Wen did nothing but sit cross-legged, silently reciting the scripture to shield himself with his energy.

After an hour, all the mist over the Huangpu River had been absorbed by the black sphere. The winter sun once again shone on the water, the breeze glimmering over the gentle waves.

Seeing the mist clear, Su Qiang and Lin Xi rushed to the center of the bridge, shouting anxiously for Mo Wen.

“Mo! Are you all right?”

Mo Wen stopped channeling his energy, stood up, checked himself over, and breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m fine. The mist is finally gone. Come on, let’s go back. Chief, dinner’s on you tonight, right?”

Su Qiang looked at Mo Wen with lingering doubt. Seeing Mo Wen joking as usual, he finally relaxed. “All right. This is the best outcome I’ve had since taking on this job!”

But at the end of his words, Su Qiang’s tone grew desolate. He was right—previous mysterious incidents either ended with everyone dead or things spiraling out of control. This time, thanks to Mo Wen, things had finally been resolved more or less perfectly.

For once, the usually stingy Su Qiang gathered the officers for a meal. He didn’t mention a word about the Huangpu Bridge incident but repeatedly praised Mo Wen, holding him up as an example and urging the officers to train diligently.

Back in his dorm, Mo Wen felt weary. He’d meant to get a good rest, but then Zhou Sheng, his roommate he hadn’t seen in days, called unexpectedly.

“Mo, I’m in a bit of trouble. It’s hard to explain over the phone—can you come back for a bit?”

Zhou Sheng sounded low and uneasy. He knew Mo Wen now worked with the police, so this call for help wasn’t made lightly.

Mo Wen didn’t hesitate. Four years as roommates had built a deep bond. Zhou Sheng, like Mo Wen himself, was quite independent and rarely asked for help.

He took the key from Houzi, got in the police car, and headed back to the familiar campus.

In the dorm, Zhou Sheng lay under thick blankets, but when he saw Mo Wen, he struggled to sit up.

“What’s wrong, Boss Zhou? Sick, or did you break up?” Mo Wen teased. He knew Zhou Sheng had a girlfriend in a lower year, and their relationship had always been enviably good.

Zhou Sheng hesitated, stammering. “Mo, this doesn’t count as calling the police, does it?”

Mo Wen had to laugh and felt Zhou Sheng’s forehead—no fever. He pulled a chair up to the bedside.

Zhou Sheng threw back the covers and removed his pajama top. Mo Wen looked and saw several hard scales, like fish scales, growing on Zhou Sheng’s chest, each about the size of a palm and rooted deep in the skin.

Mo Wen’s joking manner vanished. Evolution and mutation were two sides of the same coin. He asked calmly, “Did you practice the inner energy method the authorities published?”

Zhou Sheng nodded and continued, “The day before yesterday, I was bringing fruit to my girlfriend, and at the school gate I saw an old woman selling some kind of unknown red fruit. I tried it, and it was fragrant and sweet, so I bought some. My girlfriend didn’t want any, so I ate them all myself. Afterwards, I felt itchy all over. I thought it was poisoning or an allergy, so I took some medicine, but it didn’t help. This morning, I found these damned things growing!”