The father of Ben Carter was one of the lucky survivors from the extermination of the Soul Devourers in the Warcraft Forest twenty-two years ago. After the energy explosion inside the Soul Devourer, the most important part of its brain—the section containing the mutated energy—fell right in front of him. Although it was damaged in the blast, most of it remained intact. He recognized it, secretly hid it away, and then immediately tried every possible way to extract the intelligence element from it, but he never found a suitable test subject.

While Ben Carter's father was researching the intelligence element from that magical beast, his mother discovered him. She learned the secret but didn’t reveal it; she simply forbade him from continuing his research on that thing. Unexpectedly, they decided to use it on their own child, and they actually did. Afterward, they conducted frenzied tests, but still found nothing, and finally had to give up in frustration.

Since it was basically certain that he wasn’t an esper, perhaps due to the experiment, Ben Carter was always a bit dull as a child and suffered much discrimination while growing up. This only worsened after his younger siblings were born, because their genetic tests at birth revealed the presence of mutated genes, and they all displayed esper abilities early on—abilities inherited from their parents’ advanced genes. As a result, his siblings always looked down on their older brother, and the relationships between the brothers and sisters were never good.

It wasn’t until Ben Carter was thirteen that he accidentally discovered the whole story in one of his father’s secret experiment journals. There was nothing he could do—this was a scientist’s habit; record-keeping is an indispensable part of their lives. So, at fourteen, he left home to make his own way in the world.

But unexpectedly, when he was sixteen, his abilities somehow awakened, and he underwent his first advancement. Unlike his parents and siblings, whose powers were singular, his manifested as a complex composite ability. Living in such an environment, even if he’d never eaten pork, he’d at least seen pigs walk, right? So for his first evolution crisis, Ben Carter quietly found a secluded place to get through it on his own.

The second advancement came at nineteen, after helping Black Eagle and the others defeat the invaders and absorbing the energy from the brains of several espers, which triggered his second advancement. That advancement was truly unforgettable for him.

Over the past two years, he reflected on his advancements: the first was triggered by extreme mental stress, the second by absorbing external energy. He also realized that the energy within him was actually quite unstable, unlike the usual advancement of espers—probably related to that thing from the Soul Devourer.

In fact, his guess was pretty close: the energy burst from the Soul Devourer’s death and the incomplete extraction of the intelligence element from its brain resulted in the massive energy being unstable. When he was modified, he was still very young and his physical energy was too fragile, so the energy lay dormant within him, even faintly suppressing the development of his own mutated energy. Once subjected to intense external stimulation, it would erupt violently, and these two eruptions caused his two advancements.

However, because his own energy was insufficient and the residual energy from the Soul Devourer was immense and disproportionate, he couldn’t control his internal energy during advancement. Both times, it was like walking a tightrope, teetering on the edge of danger.

He hadn’t expected that after drinking too much today and being agitated by Emily Harris, the resulting mental instability would trigger an energy fluctuation. It looked like a third advancement was about to begin. Clearly, he needed to find a secluded place to get through this crisis. If he lost control here and his beastly nature erupted, someone would probably come to catch him soon (since the evolution process would display some special characteristics). Fortunately, he had already found a suitable place long ago.

Chapter Six: Evolution Crisis

Luckily, with the experience of his previous two evolutions, he knew he needed to find a secluded place to complete this one. When he first arrived at Xinghai, he had already prepared for this. After deciding to study here, he carefully explored the area and finally discovered a hidden cave on a cliff face on Guānxīng Mountain near Xinghai City.

He later checked it out several more times, always late at night when no one was around. Such a dangerous place was never visited by anyone. The cave wasn’t very deep, and after careful inspection, he found no traces of humans—just some bird droppings and such. He cleaned out the cave, and on his way out, he pulled some ancient vines from the side to hang over the entrance, hoping to make it even more concealed and to keep birds from entering. During evolution, even one extra bird nearby would make things unsafe.

Now the most important thing was to get there quickly without being noticed. That’s why he had left a note for Emily Harris. The duration of an evolution is unpredictable; he’d rather have Emily Harris think he was shy and avoiding her than have her think he’d gone missing. Ideally, Emily Harris could inform Logan Bennett that he was out on business, so even if he couldn’t be reached for a while, Logan Bennett would handle his affairs at school, avoiding a missing person incident and citywide panic. He had already thought this through thoroughly.