I planted a sacred tree in Tokyo.

Chapter 378 Breaking Free from the Cage
"This is impossible?!"

In the laboratory, the two PhD students suddenly stood up.

On the other side of the planet, many 'big shots' in mansions suddenly stood up, and the sound of chairs falling over echoed everywhere.

In the large test field made of alloy, the girl Xiaocang stared in astonishment at the spiky-haired boy whose appearance had drastically changed: bolts of lightning as thick as fingers danced on his body, and the superhuman soldiers who were close by had their skin 'sizzling' in the meandering currents, as if they would crack and shatter at any moment and turn into ashes.

This doesn't seem like the kind of power a wolf-level transcendent should possess!
"Kill them—"

Before Ogura could react first and give the order, Ie, with her short hair flying in the wind, had already swung her arm across the room.

"Ouch! Ouch!!!!"

“Uh uh uh!!”

"what--"

The enchanting lightning in the boy's hand transformed into a whip several meters long, sweeping out and instantly connecting and covering the extraordinary soldiers present.

Amid screams, leaping lightning coiled around them, sparks crackling and flashing. Incandescent light emanated from the soldiers' bodies, making their muscles appear transparent in an instant, revealing their stark white bones.

? ? ? ?
"D+ level?"

"No, it's Grade C!"

"But this isn't extraordinary."

In the control center, two doctors in white coats stood up and leaned forward, staring incredulously at the images on the screen.

Those were dozens of fully armed, E-level superhuman soldiers; and ten E+ level superhuman officers equipped with power armor!
This unit, in the past, could have wiped out an entire regiment! If the enemy didn't have heavy weapons, they could have easily destroyed a division. Yet, this extraordinary unit was annihilated in an instant.
Only a C-level extraordinary being could possess such power.

But Black Flame, the 'mother', is only a C-rank. How could this experimental subject suddenly unleash such power?!
This completely violates the rules of the extraordinary world!

"Never mind that, get the other departments to start evacuating immediately."

The doctor, wearing black-rimmed glasses, looked up at the screen and froze.

Because on the screen, the experimental subject 'Ie', covered in lightning, was already standing in front of their informant 'Ogura'.

"Go away!"

"Don't come any closer!"

Faced with Ie, who was enveloped in lightning, how could the girl with twin braids, who could only use lightning to affect electronic devices, possibly be a match for her? Terrified, she fell to the ground with a thud, kicking her legs wildly as she retreated in terror.

"what!!"

The drastically changed 'Ijiang' stepped forward.
The leaping lightning struck the ground, instantly electrocuting the girl in front of it, causing her body to convulse.

"why?"

"No, don't kill me!"

The girl, convulsing from the electric shock, cried and begged for mercy while shaking her head.

"I was wrong, I was wrong, Yijiang!"

"Spare me, I'll do anything you want—"

Is this really someone I used to like?

In an instant, the wise, calm, and kind image that Yi Jiang had in his mind completely collapsed!

The spiky-haired boy, still in a daze, subconsciously withdrew his lightning.

"why?"

Hearing Yijiang ask again, the trembling girl finally raised her head.

"I just want to live."

With teary eyes and a pitiful look on her face, Ogura quickly explained:

"If I don't listen to the doctor and the others, I'll be killed. I can't even beat a superhuman soldier."

However, she lied. After awakening her abilities, the girl couldn't wait and privately demonstrated her abilities and 'value' to the two doctors. She even offered to find out her companions who had already awakened their abilities, all for her own freedom.

Everything was under her control, except for the guy in front of her whose strength had increased strangely.

"Yijiang, please forgive me?"

"I just want to survive, what's wrong with that?"

Faced with the pleading girl who crawled over on her hands and feet and grabbed her trouser leg, the spiky-haired boy seemed unable to bear looking at her and looked up at the ceiling.

The goddess in my heart has been completely shattered.

opportunity!

The girl named Ogura had been waiting for this moment.
brush,

He reached into his pocket and suddenly grabbed a remote control.

"die!!"

Thump, thump, thump,

Three muffled explosions rang out, one from the chubby boy lying on the ground, the other from the blood-stained, tousled-haired boy, and the other from Ie's chest.

?

As blood trickled from the corner of Ijiang's mouth...
A girl with twin braids who had rolled away nimbly stood up.

"Hahahaha~~"

He took his hand out of his pocket, and between his fingers was a small remote control.

"You didn't expect that, did you? The bomb in your hearts is remotely controlled by infrared!"

The girl looked delighted.
His distorted features were full of grotesque expressions.

"If it's an electrical remote control, it's easily susceptible to interference and failure from lightning strikes."

This arrangement was made by the laboratory to prevent Kogura from betraying them, and also to prevent someone from awakening the same ability.

Now, it's being used by a girl named Ogura to turn the tide!

"How does it feel to be heartbroken?"

Looking up at the ferocious-looking girl in front of him, the boy named Ie sighed.

In an instant, I felt as if I had aged ten years.

"pain,"

Unparalleled pain!

It wasn't just the heart damage, but also the resolute rejection from someone I once loved.

But none of this was enough to kill him; instead, it allowed him to fully master his newly acquired power.

Within his eye sockets, the jet-black pupils suddenly contracted, turning blood red! And the contracted blackness transformed into three jet-black tomoe.

"Farewell, Ogura."

? ?
"No, no, no! I was just joking—"

The girl, shocked to realize that the other party was not dead, immediately tried to deny it; but when she met the boy's eerie eyes, she was immediately controlled by them.

With just a glance, everything she knew was revealed to the spiky-haired boy.

"Ijiang, you piece of trash, you actually have such power?"

Why didn't you take it out sooner?!
Having just escaped the illusion, the utterly desperate girl used her last strength to curse.

Next second,
A bolt of lightning pierced her forehead.

The light in the girl's eyes dimmed, and she fell backward.

Lowering his finger that had unleashed lightning, the young Yijiang turned his head and looked in a certain direction from the testing ground.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Central Control Room,
"Damn it, why did this test subject suddenly gain such powerful strength?"

"Where exactly did things go wrong? Or is it a problem with the mother's body?"

The talkative man in the white coat kept muttering to himself as he frantically operated the controls on the platform; suddenly noticing there was no movement beside him, he turned around in confusion.

"Hey, what are you still spacing out for?"

"Shut up, you idiot."

The man in the white coat, wearing black-rimmed glasses, sighed.

"We're going to die."

? !
Rumble————

A violent tremor spread, and the whole world shook;
Before the first person in the white coat could react, the control panel in front of them instantly exploded!

The wires snapped, sparks flying, swirling wildly in the air like Medusa's serpentine hair; machinery shattered, each flying fragment like a bullet, spinning and whistling through the air; shards of glass refracted dazzling light, reflecting a pair of horrified eyes. *Splat! Splat!*
Hit by countless high-speed fragments coming from the opposite direction, the two doctors in white coats were torn into flying pieces of flesh and blood without even uttering a sound!
crackling and popping

A beam of lightning pierced through a series of buildings.

A boy with blood-red, three-tomoe-like eyes darting around in his sockets stepped into the control room.

The boy's gaze swept over the two mangled corpses, but he didn't linger. Instead, he walked towards the door.

He quickly returned: the researchers in this area had all been killed by him! For a Tiger-level superhuman accelerated by lightning, killing ordinary people was no more difficult than stepping on ants, even though Yi Jiang didn't know any of his 'techniques'.

crackling

A flash of lightning,
The spiky-haired boy returned to the experimental site filled with corpses, following the empty 'road' carved out by violence.

Kogura
He glanced at the corpse of the girl with the twin braids, his gaze passing over the corpses of his other companions, including the girl who scattered flowers; even if he were stronger now, he couldn't turn the tide.
"Cough cough,"

? !
Xia Yin, you're not dead?

He suppressed the lightning on his body and suddenly flashed to the side of the boy with tousled hair and dark circles under his eyes;
Yijiang, with her spiky hair, squatted down and helped the boy on the ground to his feet.

Do you want me to die?

Xia Yin spoke listlessly and irritably.
"I created a 'miniature clone' inside my body and had it encapsulate the bomb."

With the clone acting as a buffer, the power of a few grams of explosion was no longer so fatal to a superhuman physique.

"Never mind me, go and cut off the power to this base first!"

"Quick, don't give those adults time to react!"

?

"Leave it to me,"

Having suddenly gained immense power and having personally killed the person he loved, the spiky-haired boy, Yi Jiang, was momentarily stunned by this situation.

Since it's a secret laboratory, it must have all sorts of self-destruct devices: explosions, viruses, poison gas, and so on.
That's how it's portrayed in TV shows, movies, and anime; it's probably the same in reality.

But cutting off the base's power would prevent these things from happening.

But achieving this might be difficult for other extraordinary individuals.

But for Ie, whose power comes from 'black flames':

crackling and popping

Tear open a section of the wall at random and grab the cable that's pulled out.

He channeled his own lightning into it, and it raced out along the entire underground laboratory's power network, instantly burning all the technological instruments to scrap metal.

In a flash,

The testing ground was also plunged into darkness.

But this did not stump Yijiang: as fist-sized ball lightning floated out, it immediately coated the area with a layer of cold, hard light.

"Hey, did you just acquire this power?"

After being helped up by Yijiang, Xia Yin asked curiously.

"I can't explain it either."

"But it was indeed just acquired. Next—"

"Go to the living area."

The seriously injured Xia Yin explained:
"Now that you possess such power, why not take the others with you as well?"

Originally, they only planned to have a few people escape, but now that Yijiang has shown such great power and is practically invincible, of course they will release the other 'colleagues' as well.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A few minutes later,

"Brother Yijiang, you said it."

"It must be true, why would your brother lie to you?"

"I've been annoyed with those two PhDs and those researchers for a long time!"

A group of teenagers walked down a long metal corridor, the rest of the place pitch black except for a few ball lightning bolts floating overhead that provided illumination.

This place is more than 200 meters underground. After the power system was burned through by Yijiang, it instantly reverted to the scene of an 'underground cave' from hundreds of years ago. The teenagers who were awakened from the living area cursed loudly after hearing Xia Yin's explanation, especially after he dug the bomb out of his chest with his 'miniature clone'.

Being used as a guinea pig is one thing, but surely being accepted for wanting to gain extraordinary power is another, right?
Unexpectedly, those guys never intended to let them live!

"Once we get out, we'll teach those adults a lesson."

"Since they want to kill us—"

"Then kill them!"

"kill!"

"Okay, count me in!"

A group of teenagers walked and shouted. Anyone whose life was in danger would not be able to remain calm, let alone those who possessed extraordinary power.

"The elevator shaft is just ahead; we'll climb up from there."

"OK,"

"No problem, Brother Yijiang!"

With a loud bang, the heavy elevator shaft was kicked through.

With one hand supporting Xia Yin, Yi Jiang lightly leaped and grabbed the steel cable of the elevator shaft with one hand.

"Follow."

With their extraordinary abilities, climbing straight up and down is no problem for them at all.

And so, a group of teenagers, holding onto the steel cables, easily made their way from underground to the entrance near the surface.

"Please wait here for a moment,"

After setting Xia Yin down, Yi Jiang, whose body was crackling with lightning, shot out.

He returned in less than half a minute and waved to everyone:

"Let's go, we're safe now."

?

This is too fast.
A group of teenagers looked at each other, but in the end decided to follow in the footsteps of this 'big brother'.

After all, the underground laboratory seems to have been paralyzed.

After passing through one melted and pierced metal door and wall after another, everyone's eyes were soon drawn to something bright.

"sun!"

"Haha, we're out?"

"Great! Great! We're free!"

Standing in front of a factory, the teenagers cheered.

Most of them were a little confused, but the familiar sun in the sky and the long-lost breeze indicated that they had left that cold laboratory.

"I never want to go back to the lab again!"

"Only a fool would go."

"Hey, what are you planning to do next?"

"Listen to Brother Yijiang—"

After a brief, noisy discussion, everyone's attention turned to Yijiang.

"Say something, great hero."

With dried bloodstains on her face, messy hair, and dark circles under her eyes, Xia Yin smiled and raised her chin at Yi Jiang.

"I"

In fact, Ieyasu also had a lot of doubts.
Meeting the gazes of these people his own age, he realized that these people were not very familiar to him.

But at this moment, they all cast expectant glances at him, which warmed the heart of the spiky-haired boy.

This world is not just about betrayal.

"We are free!"

"Oh oh oh~~"

Everyone cheered.
Although they don't know what the future holds, at least for this moment, they are happy.

(End of this chapter)