The grenade that the clown had just thrown out of the car exploded with a bang.
Steel bearings splattered everywhere, leaving the vehicle's exterior armor riddled with countless pockmarks.
Since it had been lobbed from above, aside from a few bearings that hit the bulletproof glass, the clown and Huang Ming inside the car were unharmed.
Illuminated by the flames rising behind them on the highway, the two continued driving ahead.
In the vehicle in front of them were Wu Xiong and his companions.
Seeing the booming commotion behind them, Wei tremulously adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses. Sun Ying was silent, while Wu Xiong heaved a sigh of relief and patted his own chest, "Small stuff, this is all small stuff..."
"Your grandpa's seen surrounded by three thousand undead iron cavalrymen, so what's this crap?!"
Up front in the driver's seat, Long rolled down the window partway to light himself a cigarette.
Singlehandedly gripping the steering wheel, he swore up a storm, "Damn it all, I'm gonna get a good look on this drive at which eyeball dares cast a wandering peeper!"
Wu Xiong and the other two: "..."
Wei: "Bro Long, isn't that just false bravado..."
Long haughtily proclaimed, "Borrowed bravado, isn't that still bravado?"
Wei was rendered speechless.
Sun Ying: "Long, you..."
"Hm?"
"You're becoming more and more like that person from the clinic."
Exhaling a wisp of smoke out the window, Long's face took on a hint of nostalgia. "Perhaps this is Dr. Lu's charisma.
"He may not accompany me for long, but he has nevertheless influenced my entire life in subtle ways."
"Dr. Lu is a very refined gentleman, you know..."
Long silently exhaled another ring of smoke, saying nothing more.
...
On the eastern outskirts of Yuncheng, Lu Yuan Clinic.
Having performed two surgeries on Huang Ming, Lu Yuan finally determined which gene controlled the ability to manipulate time.
Holding a syringe filled with light yellow cellular extract, he slowly aligned it with his arm vein...
After injecting the contents, Lu Yuan felt a bit dizzy.
Ever since dissecting Li Lin last time, he'd felt sporadic mental lapses. With this injection on top, his whole body felt even more muddled.
In a daze, Lu Yuan slumped back and fell asleep in the chair behind him.
When he awoke, he found himself lying in bed in his bedroom. Outside it was still dark and raining.
Beside him, Liu Yuan was yawning as she played on her phone.
"Oh? Boss, you're up?"
Lu Yuan shook his head and asked, "How long was I out?"
"Twenty-four hours."
"So a whole day has passed?"
"Yup, once it hits midnight in a bit, it'll be the first."
"You're confused, it's the thirty-first this month."
"Oh, right... I'm a little muddled from wanting to go on rounds with you. My bad."
Lu Yuan massaged his temples. "I feel like something in my brain is about to pop out..."
Liu Yuan: "Want me to prep OR 6 for you to open up your skull and take a look?"
"Alright, let's take a look to be sure."
Liu Yuan went to prepare the operating room while Lu Yuan picked up a cup of water by the bedside and casually splashed it onto the floor.
In the next moment, with a slight movement of his fingers, that splashed water suddenly froze in midair!
Lu Yuan examined his surroundings closely.
The swaying tree branches outside the window halted in the night breeze;
The pattering sound of rain disappeared;
The clock hands on the wall clock stopped moving;
Even Liu Yuan, who had just stepped out of the room, froze in place!
Lu Yuan looked into the distance as far as he could see, and everything within his sight froze in stasis!
It was as if time throughout the entire world had congealed in this instant!
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Fifteen seconds—abruptly, Lu Yuan felt a sharp, needle-like pain stab through his temples!
Splash!
Next, the cup of water he'd flung out resumed falling and landed on the ground.
The night wind howled outside the window, the branches swayed, the sound of rain continued, and the clock hands moved once more.
Massaging his temples with one hand, Lu Yuan contemplated.
Fifteen seconds—that was currently the limit he could freeze time.
If accelerating or slowing time, this number could probably be pushed higher.
At this thought, Lu Yuan went upstairs to Li Lin's room for a look.
The light inside was still on, so he knocked on the door.
It opened.
Seeing Lu Yuan's somewhat tired complexion, Li Lin, now in female form, asked with concern, "Dr. Lu, what's the matter?"
"It's nothing, I was just curious about your time manipulation ability, so I came to ask about it."
A hint of smugness showed on Li Lin's face. She ran back to grab a cup of water from her room and poured out a small amount in front of Lu Yuan.
That trickle of water clearly lagged for about four or five seconds before finally falling to the ground.
Li Lin proudly said, "What do you think, Dr. Lu? Impressive, no?"
Lu Yuan nodded. "Yes, very impressive. But it seems your time manipulation has a limited area of effect?"
Li Lin: "Of course. Everyone's range differs depending on the strength of their ability. Of my clan I've seen, our esteemed Elder has the greatest range."
"He can influence the flow of time within a space of several hundred square meters on this floor!"
"All I can do is slow time. The Elder can completely freeze it for several seconds—amazing, right?!"
As she spoke, Li Lin suddenly noticed the world had gone silent.
The sound of pouring rain that was just clattering down a second ago vanished in the next second!
She turned to look, and everything outside in the rainy night was frozen in stasis!
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Eight seconds, nine seconds, ten seconds!
Splash!
After ten seconds, the sound of rain resumed.
Ten seconds wasn't Lu Yuan's limit. His was fifteen seconds.
But even so, Li Lin still shuddered violently in that moment, as if struck by lightning!
She looked at Lu Yuan with utter disbelief!
"Dr. Lu?!"
Lu Yuan rubbed the slightly sore sides of his forehead with concern. "I can actually control the flow of time wherever I look...
"What's more, I can decide which areas to accelerate, which to slow, and which to maintain their original speed...
"I even have a sense I can reverse time by two or three seconds...
"My god, am I a monster?! How frightening!"
Li Lin: "..."
...
Half an hour later, OR 6, lights on.
After an hour, lights off.
Liu Yuan used dissolvable sutures to close Lu Yuan's incision.
"Everything's normal. Just paranoid thoughts, right? Or have you been overthinking things lately?"
With eyes shut, Lu Yuan pondered carefully. He felt like he was forgetting something.
The only unique thing in his brain was that whenever he dissected a new body part, some odd tidbits of knowledge would pop up.
He didn't seem to have acquired any new knowledge recently.
No, that wasn't right!
A few days ago he had clearly dissected an incredibly rare new lifeform—Li Lin, that spirit-like creature belonging to a super intelligent species!
Yet he had obtained no new knowledge!
At this thought, Lu Yuan distinctly felt his temples start to fuzz over again!
That was it!
At the time, he had been preoccupied with researching why he couldn't replicate Li Lin's abilities, and had forgotten about this!
Looks like he'd have to think of a way...