Doomsday Cognition Guide

It was evening when he got home. He washed the blood off the gun barrel by the pool, then disassembled it into three pieces and put it back in the gun holster. A few more fallen leaves were on the pool, and the cave salamander sank to the bottom, occasionally surfacing for air, its scales gleaming dimly in the lamplight.

He walked to the sandbag, gently placed his right palm on its surface, and closed his eyes. A low-frequency vibration emanated from the soles of his feet, and his calves, thighs, hips, spine, and shoulder joints—each muscle—did not actively exert force, but simply pushed gently along the natural rebound direction of the fascia. The seven pushes were completed almost instantly, and the vibration reached its maximum frequency by the time it reached his palm.

This palm strike appeared to be executed without any force. The palm simply rested lightly on the surface of the sandbag; there was no gathering of power, no pulling back, and no obvious punching motion. The sandbag remained still. The suspension ropes hung limply, and the crossbeam made no sound.

He withdrew his hand. The front of the sandbag was intact, without even a dent in the canvas.

Go around to the back of the sandbag, where there was a three-inch-long slit—not cut from the outside, but burst open from the inside. Shreds of cloth and sand seeped out little by little from the slit, scattering across the platform. The edges of the slit were smooth, as if it had been cut from the inside by an extremely thin blade.

This is the complete hidden power. The body transforms from a stick into a whip—low-frequency vibrations emanate from the soles of the feet, each segment of fascia superimposed with a higher-frequency vibration upon rebound, accelerating step by step, reaching its peak frequency by the time it reaches the fist. The power hasn't increased, but the frequency has changed. The high-frequency vibration penetrates the surface, releasing directly inside the sandbag; the front remains intact, while the back explodes.

He looked down at his palm, then at the crack on the back of the sandbag. In his previous life in the army, his instructor had said that only by landing this punch could one truly step into the second tier. Whole-body power is rigid transmission, while hidden power is a flexible layering—a stick sends a person flying, a whip penetrates the surface and injures the inside. Now he had finally found that feeling, though not yet refined, but he had indeed crossed the threshold of the second tier. He withdrew his palm; sand was still leaking from the crack on the back of the sandbag, the soft scraping sound particularly clear on the platform at dusk.

Uncle Si walked over from the other side of the wall at some point, still holding a steel bar that he hadn't had time to put down. He glanced at the crack on the back of the sandbag, then looked at Li Xuan's palm—no scratches, no redness or swelling.

"This punch is different from the previous ones," Uncle Si said.

"This is hidden strength."

Uncle Si nodded and didn't ask any more questions. He switched the steel bar to his other hand, turned around, and left.

At dinner, the family sat around the wooden table in the cave. Mother made steamed eggs and stir-fried cured pork, and my cousin served rice to everyone. My fourth uncle picked up a piece of cured pork and said that he was starting to feel the stance, that his feet could feel the ground, and that the transmission chain of his internal energy was beginning to take shape. My father ate a few bites of rice, put down his chopsticks, and said that he had memorized the moves, but the transmission chain was still a little lacking; he should be able to complete it in another month or two of practice.

Li Xuan nodded. He knew his father meant it really would take one or two months—his father wasn't the type to overestimate his progress. On the path he was taking, superpowers were a shortcut, but no one could replace the accumulation of physical strength. But his father was patient; he had honed his skills little by little, starting from sensing electricity by pinching wires—a patience more reliable than any talent.

After the meal, Mother cleared the dishes. Her cousin returned from feeding the olm at the pond, placed the empty bowl in the enamel basin, and suddenly said, "Brother, the olm has grown even bigger since it woke up this time. The scales on its back are even shinier than before." Li Xuan nodded. The olm was growing, his inner strength had broken through the threshold of the second level, and his father's transmission chain was gradually opening up. Everyone was moving forward at their own pace.

A few days later, one afternoon, Deputy Secretary Zhang's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Comrade Li Xuan, there's a situation that requires your assistance. We just received a report from the settlement below that a mutated beast—a cow—has been discovered in the surrounding farmland. It's twice the size of a normal cow, and its horns have a metallic sheen. This is the first time we've officially confirmed the appearance of a mutated beast. The county has sent a search and rescue team to handle it, but they have no experience with mutated beasts. You should go there first to assist in the handling, and be careful."

Li Xuan found out the location, hung up the walkie-talkie, started his motorcycle, and rushed over.

He walked upstream along the dry riverbed and saw several armored vehicles of the search and rescue team parked by the roadside in the distance. Two of them were overturned next to a drainage ditch, with several huge dents in their bodies. The search and rescue team members were all hiding on the second floor of a residential building not far away. When they saw his motorcycle, someone stuck their head out and waved frantically.

"Instructor! This way—be careful, that mutated beast is right ahead!"

Li Xuan parked the car and looked in the direction they pointed. In a cornfield not far from the roadside, the cow was munching on unharvested corn stalks. It was indeed twice the size of an ordinary yellow cow, with high shoulder blades and an unnatural, dull gray sheen in the sunlight. Most striking were its horns—gleaming with a metallic luster, their tips as sharp as two newly honed daggers.

The person upstairs explained the situation briefly in a low voice: They were ordered to handle the situation, and as they approached, the cow suddenly charged down the hillside, overturning several vehicles. They fired, and although the bullets clearly pierced the cow's hide, the cow seemed unaffected and only became more agitated. The captain tried twice before ordering a ceasefire, and once the cow calmed down, everyone retreated upstairs, where they waited for the instructor to arrive.

Li Xuan breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. Fortunately, the mutated animal was a cow. No matter how bad-tempered a cow is, it is still a herbivore. It will only charge when provoked, and it won't chase people unless provoked. If it were a wild boar, wild dog, or lynx—a carnivore—those people upstairs wouldn't have been able to wait for him to arrive.

He carried his pistol and walked toward the cornfield.

The cow raised its head, still chewing on half a corn stalk. It saw Li Xuan, pawed the ground with its front hooves, and let out a low moo. Li Xuan continued walking forward, his steps slow but steady, the tip of his spear pointing diagonally at the ground.

The bull was enraged. It suddenly lowered its head, pushed off with its hind legs, and charged forward with a speed completely disproportionate to its size, its horns aimed straight for his chest. The ground trembled slightly, and corn stalks were knocked to the sides. Li Xuan lightly touched the ground with his toes, the elasticity of his fascia traveling from the soles of his feet to his hips, allowing him to slide half a step to the side. The bull's horns grazed past his clothes as it charged. Just as the bull passed him, he twisted his waist and drew his spear, the tip thrusting straight for the bull's side.

The spear tip struck. But the sensation was completely wrong—the moment the spear tip pierced the skin, the muscles beneath instinctively twitched, a wave-like movement sliding to the side along the direction of the spear tip's entry, completely dissipating the force of the thrust. The spear tip left a white mark on the cowhide, sliding from the side of the abdomen to the hind leg; the force missed, and the spear almost slipped from the hand.

It wasn't that he was bounced away, but that he was deflected. This force dissipation instantly reminded him of the concept of "Transformation of Internal Energy" (化劲). Not in form, but in spirit—the instant of contact involves neither resistance nor deflection, but a smooth slide along the direction of the force, causing him to stray off course. But he immediately realized this wasn't Transformation of Internal Energy. Transformation of Internal Energy is the precise vibration interference generated by a martial artist's conscious control of fascial elasticity, capable of both offense and defense, with endless variations; this bull's shaking was merely an evolved and amplified physiological instinct—the same principle as an ordinary bull shaking off a mosquito, except that the metal-ion-enhanced skin amplified the force and frequency of the shaking. It could dissipate force, but it couldn't retaliate. If it were a true Transformation of Internal Energy level mutant beast, it would simultaneously dissipate the force and then redirect the vibration back, which he probably couldn't withstand at his current level.

He couldn't confront them head-on. He immediately changed his strategy.

As the bull charged past and turned around, Li Xuan didn't wait for it to fully turn. He lunged forward, swinging his spear horizontally and striking the bull's hind leg. The hidden force traveled through the spear shaft, causing the bull to stumble forward, its hind hooves carving a deep furrow in the mud. Using the recoil from the blow, Li Xuan leaped backward, landing a few steps away and regaining the distance.

The cow, in pain, turned around, its right hind leg trembling slightly, two heavy breaths coming from its nostrils, its remaining eye fixed on him. It didn't charge immediately—the blow to its hind leg had made it cautious.

Li Xuan stared at the bull's reddened eye, already having a plan in mind. A direct thrust would be deflected, and although the leg trembled less than the torso, the feel of that last shot wasn't solid enough—the recoil when the gun barrel struck was dull, and some of the force was slid away by the skin, not fully penetrating. There was only one weakest point: the eye.

The bull charged again, head bowed. Li Xuan didn't dodge. Just as its horns were about to strike him, he braced his spear against the ground, leaping into the air and soaring over the bull's head. In that instant, he gripped the spear shaft, powered by his waist and hips, and thrust the spear tip downwards, aiming for one of the bull's eyes. The eye had no skin to protect it, and no muscles to twitch—the spear tip pierced the eye socket, the hidden force traveling directly into the skull. Using the momentum of the bull's charge, he twisted his wrist, flipping himself in the air before landing steadily on the ground behind the bull.

The cow let out a deafening bellow, one of its eyes becoming a bloody hole. The excruciating pain and blindness drove it into a complete frenzy, causing it to charge aimlessly. Corn stalks were knocked down in droves, and dirt and straw were kicked up in a flurry. Its muscles were still twitching instinctively, but it was pointless—it couldn't discern where its enemies were.

Li Xuan stood still, motionless. He had his eye on it—the bull was charging in the wrong direction. Just as it was about to crash into a large tree that would take one person to hug, he braced his rifle on the ground, using the momentum to shift his body two steps to the side, thus avoiding a collision.

With a deafening crash, the bull's horns slammed into the tree trunk, causing the entire tree to shake violently and leaves to flutter down. Two deep holes were pierced in the trunk by the horns, and sawdust fell from the cracks. The bull, reeling from the impact, was dizzy and its legs went weak; it stood rooted to the spot, shaking its head incessantly. The undulating throbbing on its skin finally ceased—the dizziness had disrupted its instincts.

Now. Li Xuan circled around to the side of the bull, thrusting the spear tip upwards from below its throat. This time, he didn't shake the spear to deflect it. The bull's hide was indeed incredibly tough; each layer required the elasticity of the fascia to penetrate. Using the bull's remaining strength from its struggle, he pushed the spear tip upwards along the direction of its movements, piercing deep into its throat. The bull's last muffled groan was blocked in its throat by the spear tip; its massive body swayed twice before crashing to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt.

The search and rescue team members cautiously peeked out from the building. Li Xuan pulled out the tip of his gun and wiped the blood off the cow. He crouched down and pried open the cow's skull, finding a crystal core at the back of its head—larger than the zombie's date-shaped crystal core, irregularly oval in shape, with a faint metallic sheen. Its quality was far superior to the previously incompletely awakened lightning-type crystal core. He put it in his pocket.

The search and rescue team members came down from the building one after another, surrounding the mutated bull lying on the ground. No one spoke for a long time. The captain walked over, looked at the bull's pierced eye socket, and then at the still-dripping pistol in Li Xuan's hand. "Instructor, we fired several shots just now, clearly hitting it, but it didn't react at all."

Li Xuan pointed to the cowhide that had been peeled off and rolled into a bundle. "It did penetrate, but how much force is left after the bullet goes through? During its evolution, this cow's skin absorbed some metallic ions, which are mixed into the fibers of its skin tissue, making it harder and tougher than ordinary animal hides. But the real problem isn't its hardness—it's its instinctive tremors. When the bullet hits the cowhide, the subcutaneous muscles automatically produce a wave-like pulsation. This tremor not only reduces the force but, more importantly, changes the angle at which the bullet enters. Originally, it was shot vertically, but because of the skin's slippage, the angle of incidence is deflected, and the bullet passes through the muscle at an angle, resulting in a longer path and greater kinetic energy loss. By the time the bullet actually enters the body, it has little power left, stuck in the muscle and unable to damage vital organs. It's not that the bullet isn't powerful enough; it's that the angle at which it enters is wrong, and most of the force is dissipated."

The captain was silent for a few seconds, then nodded vigorously. This was the first official encounter with a mutated beast. After returning, he would have to compile the battle into a report. In the future, when encountering mutated animals on patrol, he would first determine whether they were herbivores or carnivores—herbivores would only charge when provoked, while carnivores would actively chase people, and the response would be completely different.

Li Xuan had someone find a saw and first sawed off the pair of gleaming, metallic horns. The saw teeth slipped on the base of the horns, and it took a lot of effort to cut through them. The cut surface didn't resemble bone; it was more like some kind of metallic fiber, heavy and producing a crisp echo when tapped. The hide was also peeled off—the knife felt like cutting thin aluminum; he had to use subtle force to push the power through the blade to peel the hide completely along the fascia layer. The entire hide, rolled up, was heavier than a quilt. He tied it with rope and secured it to the back seat of the motorcycle along with the horns.

He patted the bundle of cowhide. His fourth uncle's metal-related abilities were about to fully awaken—once awakened, he could directly manipulate the shape and structure of metal. The cowhide's material, somewhere between bone and metal, was perfect for modification with his abilities; the cowhide itself contained metal ions, which his abilities could directly affect, pressing the leather into a denser composite layer. Thinning it wouldn't affect its strength; the resulting armor would be lighter than a bomb suit and harder than ordinary leather armor. His assimilation ability could achieve similar results, but each had their own expertise; his fourth uncle was better suited for this kind of delicate metal processing.

Some beef was also cut off, the best tenderloin and leg meat, which was wrapped in burlap and stuffed into the supply bag in the back seat. The rest of the beef and offal were distributed to the search and rescue team.

It was already evening when we returned to base. My cousin was feeding the cave salamanders by the pond when she saw the pair of gleaming cow horns on the back seat, then looked at the neatly folded cowhide, her eyes widening in surprise. "Brother, what's this?"

"Mutant cow. Leave the horns to Fourth Uncle, use the hide for protective gear, and we'll eat the beef tonight."

Uncle Si took the horn, weighed it in his hand, and flicked the tip with his finger. Hearing the clear echo, his brow furrowed slightly. "This stuff is harder than ordinary alloy." He then picked up the cowhide and tugged at it a few times. Li Xuan briefly explained the mutated bull's trembling instinct and his idea for modifying the material. After listening, Uncle Si placed the horn on the workbench and examined the cowhide. "Alright. Once my superpower is fully awakened, I can make you a set of lightweight armor from this."

That evening, Mother cut the fresh beef she had brought back into chunks and stewed it in a large pot with potatoes. The beef was much firmer than domestic beef, and it took a long time to become tender, but the rich, fresh aroma of the meat was something that marinated meat could never match. Father ate a bowl, put down his chopsticks, and said, "This beef tastes good, but it's a bit tough to chew," and then he had another bowl for himself.