196: Chapter 195 Ming Jin is about to be achieved

The Pacific short-beaked dolphin has a spindle-shaped body, a short and flat snout, a relatively small mouth, and small, nearly circular eyes; its back is black or blackish-gray, and its belly is white.

What Cao Xiao found was a pod of thirty-two short-beaked dolphins.

Dolphins are highly intelligent animals with well-developed brains full of convolutions; an adult dolphin's brain weighs an average of 1.6 kilograms, while the average human brain weighs about 1.5 kilograms, and a chimpanzee's brain weighs less than 0.3 kilograms.

For thousands of years, the heartwarming stories between dolphins and humans have been talked about with relish. Dolphins are natural lifeguards at sea; they have a peculiar habit of lifting companions, other creatures, or objects out of the water and pushing them to shore. They treat swimming humans like their own toys, and will even bravely fight against the ocean's overlord, the shark, for them—often swarming and winning. When humans fall into the water or encounter sharks, having a pod of dolphins nearby means they are saved.

Dolphins enjoy group activities, have lively personalities, and are skilled at aerial stunts. Their normal swimming speed is relatively slow, with a cruising speed of seven to eleven kilometers per hour, but when startled or fleeing, their speed increases significantly, with instantaneous speeds reaching up to fifty-five kilometers per hour.

Dolphins are naturally active, good at mimicking, and like to get close to humans; they often appear in front of ships, riding the waves alongside them, and chasing swimmers.

In the eyes of humans, dolphins are the cute, kind, enthusiastic, and wise spirits of the ocean.

But in one bizarre country, dolphins are common food on the dining table. Without commenting on anything else, the Dolphin Bay incident alone is unacceptable. When there is no lack of food or nutrition, they still go their own way, hunting dolphins on a large scale and brazenly just for the sake of gluttony... Ugh! Anyway, it's an incomprehensible nation; talking too much about it just makes one sad, and they would just treat you like a "saint" anyway. Cao Xiao didn't want to waste brain cells on pointlessly annotating it.

The target was selected, but when it came to actually doing it, Cao Xiao hesitated. He only knew that the magical energy called Yuan Energy had miraculous effects on repairing and strengthening biological bodies, but whether this effect was benign, or whether it would cause biological evolution or mutation, was not something he could predict.

If it caused the dolphins to mutate, for example, if their bodies became gigantic, growing to the size of whales, given their nature, the small-tonnage fishing boats in this sea area wouldn't be able to go out to sea. Their friendly behavior would be perceived as malicious, and for them, it could mean facing the danger of being hunted.

But now there was no other choice but the dolphins. He would first infuse them with Yuan Energy, then implant micro-positioning chips under their skin, and come back to find them after a while to see the situation.

That mass of consciousness was already beginning to dissipate; he couldn't delay any longer and immediately began the infusion.

Controlling the amount of transmission, he gradually increased it little by little, letting their bodies adapt slowly at first. As the Yuan Energy was injected, the dolphins became active, chasing and playing with each other. As they absorbed more and more Yuan Energy, the dolphins felt obvious changes in their bodies, as if they had endless strength. They became overly excited, competing to leap out of the sea to frolic, just like a school of fish bursting from a nest, churning the slightly rippled sea surface into splashing water.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this constant movement that the dolphins' efficiency in absorbing Yuan Energy was much higher than that of the human body. The amount an adult dolphin absorbed to reach saturation was actually five times that of a human, and in terms of volume ratio, it was more than twice that of a human, which gave Cao Xiao a new idea.

After reaching saturation from the infusion, the dolphins' body size did not change significantly, but their swimming speed increased by a large margin, reaching a maximum of eighty kilometers per hour, almost catching up to the swordfish, the fastest swimmer in the water. Moreover, their bodies were still filled with a large amount of Yuan Energy, which would continuously improve their physique; after fully digesting it, their swimming speed would be even faster, and based on speed alone, they could vie for the title of ocean overlord.

Watching them swim frantically out of detection range, Cao Xiao stopped paying attention, planning to find them again when he had time.

He was now worried about how to deal with the remaining large amount of Yuan Energy. He had only thought about using it up earlier and hadn't calculated that even three hundred dolphins wouldn't be able to consume it all.

Not daring to use it indiscriminately, he had no choice but to deal with that mass of consciousness in advance.

In two bedrooms of a luxury suite in a five-star hotel three hundred meters away from The Peninsula Hotel, a middle-aged man and a young man were sleeping soundly. Unbeknownst to them, a nightmare had quietly descended.

The eerie thing was that both of them were experiencing the same dream. In a cold and gloomy space, a monster covered in thick black hair, with three blood-red eyes and a wide-open mouth full of interlocking sharp teeth, was grabbing their necks with a pair of sharp claws and roaring hysterically at them. They couldn't breathe, and vaguely, they seemed to understand the simple meaning expressed in the monster's roar: "Die! Die! Die!"

Half an hour later, the middle-aged man was the first to wake up, drenched in cold sweat as if he had been soaked in water; his bedding was already soaked through. The dream was so real. He looked at his pale face in the mirror, his eye sockets slightly sunken, and with lingering fear, he turned on all the lights in the suite. Still feeling scared, he went to wake the young man, only to see the young man clutching his own throat, his face full of terror, struggling in pain. He was even more terrified. Upon learning that they had experienced the exact same dream, he left the hotel in a panic and rushed to the airport.

Seeing the dazed look on their faces as they left, Cao Xiao also felt a bit of lingering fear. He had split that mass of consciousness into two parts and injected them into the minds of the ninja and Horii. He didn't expect that as soon as it was injected, their brainwaves would begin to fluctuate violently. The two masses of consciousness were unknowingly devouring their mental energy and growing stronger. The two men were so busy being afraid that they didn't notice their states were very wrong, and their minds were beginning to become dazed. If not resolved in time, it wouldn't be long before they suffered brain death; even becoming a vegetative state would be a luxury.

But that zombie was not someone to be trifled with. Now that Cao Xiao had offloaded the life-and-death feud of ruining someone's path onto them, even if an expert stepped in to temporarily solve their mental problems, they wouldn't be able to escape the zombie's fixation. Cao Xiao was actually quite looking forward to that zombie appearing in Japan, wondering if he should take the risk to release it from underground...

The sky gradually brightened. Cao Xiao couldn't sleep, so he took out some cooked snake meat from his spatial storage for breakfast. After eating his fill, he began practicing martial arts in the living room.

Unlike his usual practice, today he was "cheating." While practicing, he was infusing his body with a moderate amount of Yuan Energy. With full concentration, he felt as if he had endless strength in his body. Footwork, stance training, big frame, small frame, the Six Great Openings, the Eight Vajra Styles, bracing punches, bracing palms, Dragon Subduing, Tiger Taming, Tiger Embracing Palm, Mountain Splitting Palm, Scouting Horse Palm, and Embracing Fist—the entire set of martial arts was not left out. His forms were correct and his moves were rounded, fierce and precise. The Yuan Energy continuously injected into his body allowed him to sweat profusely, time and time again. After practicing for several hours, his body didn't feel the slightest bit of fatigue, and he was still absorbing Yuan Energy.

Fully immersed, he had long forgotten the time and everything around him. Unknowingly, he released his restraint on his strength, not caring that he was in a hotel. He unleashed his full power with abandon, cracking the floor tiles, smashing the television, and knocking over the flower stand. The entire living room was a mess. With his movements, "Heng" and "Ha" sounds burst from his nose and mouth, and the window glass even vibrated. The knocking on the door and the ringing of the telephone had sounded several times, but he was completely unaware.

Near noon, it wasn't until a strong feeling of hunger came from his stomach that Cao Xiao exited his self-forgetful state. Seeing the scene in the room, he couldn't help but smile bitterly, thinking that hotel items were charged at more than twice the market price, and willful damage meant ten times the compensation—he was going to have to pay a large sum of money again.

Since it was already ruined, he might as well be more thorough and test today's results. He assumed a horse stance, held his breath, concentrated his strength, pulled one hand to his waist, and struck out with the other fist straight ahead. A nasal sound erupted, and after a deafening cracking sound, a large hole appeared in the solid wood door in front of him, yet Cao Xiao felt no great pain in his hand.

All the strength in his body combined into one point and exploded instantly, fierce and peerless—this was Obvious Power! After a month of diligent practice, with the help of Yuan Energy, Obvious Power was achieved in a single day!

This was something other martial artists wouldn't dare to imagine. Ordinary National Martial Arts beginners couldn't even touch the threshold of Obvious Power without years of grueling training and accumulation, and even a genius with the best physical fitness and comprehension talent shouldn't dream of it without half a year of hard work.

Cao Xiao's punch just now had at least a thousand catties of force. It contained not only the power of Obvious Power but mostly the instinctive explosive force of his body. This was also the point that satisfied him the most: a strong body was the foundation. His pure physical strength could already rival a beginner Mingjin Martial Artist, and with the two combined, even if he faced a martial artist who had mastered Obvious Power, Cao Xiao was confident he could defeat them. This was his natural advantage, the result of Yuan Energy strengthening his body.

As a martial artist, the Yuan Energy he absorbed was at least ten times the limit of an ordinary person, and he would continue to absorb it as he practiced. As long as he kept breaking through the shackles of his realm, one day, he would be able to crush practitioners of the same realm with physical strength alone. Because Yuan Energy strengthened the entire body, it didn't just increase strength; the body's resistance to impact, movement speed, and endurance were all being balanced and improved in an all-around way. He had seen a document in the Supervision Office's archives: some people with extraordinary physical talents would practice techniques that purely tempered the body. Their bodies would be incredibly strong, and if they practiced to a certain level, they could easily resist weapons with their physical bodies, be impervious to blades and swords, unafraid of water and fire, and might even develop physical supernatural powers, dominating the world, invulnerable to all methods—achieving sainthood through the body.

Such practitioners were separated from martial artists and called Body Cultivators.

Cao Xiao believed that even a Body Cultivator of the same realm would not have a body as strong as his. Moreover, this was only the beginning of Obvious Power; what would it be like when he mastered Obvious Power!

He couldn't wait to cast a Combat Power Detection Spell on himself, and when the data came out, even he couldn't believe it.

Personal Combat Power 59: Stamina 38, Strength 42, Agility 34, Combat Skills 21.

You have to know that when he first started practicing, his combat power was only 11 points. Now it had increased by a full 48 points, which was 25 points higher than Niu Zhen, the bodyguard with the highest combat power, and had reached one-fourth of Xiahou Anbang's. If he didn't count combat skills and only considered physical combat power, it could rival Xiahou Anbang's. The rapidly surging combat power made him feel a bit dazed.

Bang!

After a loud noise, the door collapsed, and someone broke in. Cao Xiao turned his head and saw Niu Zhen and the others holding guns, rushing into the room anxiously.

Several people nervously shielded Cao Xiao in the middle, while others rushed into other rooms to search for something.

After confirming there was no threat, Li Quanshuo asked worriedly: "Boss! What happened? Are you hurt?"

"Uh! It's nothing! I wasn't attacked; I was just lost in my martial arts practice and knocked over a lot of things. Brother Li, is the matter settled? When did you come back?" Cao Xiao said embarrassedly after his initial shock.

"We came back two hours ago, and the items have been personally handed over to Commissioner Zhang. It's good that you're okay. We heard movement in the room and were worried you were under attack; you didn't answer the phone, and no one responded to our knocking, so we had no choice but to do this. Boss, next time if you have any big movements, like practicing martial arts, please let us know first so we can be mentally prepared." Li Quanshuo, after hearing this, looked again at the mess in the room and the large hole in the broken door, thinking that practicing martial arts had caused such a big commotion, giving everyone a false alarm. The corners of his mouth twitched imperceptibly, and he sighed before speaking to Cao Xiao.

Listening to the undisguised resentment in Li Quanshuo's words and seeing the others looking at him with helpless eyes, Cao Xiao was extremely embarrassed. It was impossible to stay in this room in this state. Zhang Qiling had just returned after tossing and turning all night and was still resting, so they couldn't go to Myanmar for the time being, and there was nothing to do.

Coming to Hong Kong, this international shopping paradise, he had to enjoy the fun of shopping, and by the way, he could dissipate the bodyguards' resentment. So he said: "You guys go out and wait for me first. I'll take a shower, and after lunch, we'll go shopping together. Everyone, shop to your heart's content later; I'm paying. Take your luggage when you go out. After shopping, we'll fly directly to Yangon and have the hotel staff come over to deal with this."

It was this trick every time, and the bodyguards could only accept it with a wry smile. However, when they left, they left two people to stay in the living room and watch Cao Xiao. Cao Xiao couldn't say anything; his image as a "bad kid" was already set anyway.

After showering and coming out, he saw the hotel staff cleaning the room. When he saw the compensation bill of 380,000, Cao Xiao really wanted to slip away on the spot. It wasn't that he didn't want to pay, but he felt embarrassed that he had actually broken so many things. They only allowed him to pay the original price because the general manager had intervened; otherwise, if they really wanted to extort him, he would have had to grit his teeth and accept even if it were tens of millions.

They found a place outside for lunch; he really couldn't stand the hotel staff secretly pointing at him. Feeling depressed, he bought things to vent. No matter what the product was, as long as he thought it was novel, good-looking, or slightly useful, he bought it. He bought things wherever he went, never asking for the price.

Times Square, Windsor House, Paterson Street, Russell Street, Causeway Bay—he had almost finished touring them all. He was now so energetic that he had nowhere to vent it. The bodyguards were tired to the point of weak legs just from running around moving things for him. By five o'clock in the afternoon, he was still enjoying it, and if it weren't for the bodyguards, whose resentment levels were already full, stopping him with all their might, he might not have been able to leave today.