"Crazy, right?" Jiang Po chuckled, enjoying the look of shock on Di Tian's face. "Huang Shang only found out about his ability to switch to an incorporeal form ten minutes ago. And that's not the end of it, there's more."
"Wait," Di Tian waved his hands, as if to stop him from speaking further. "How?"
Di Tian actually wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the cultivators that did this. But as far as he knew, Huang Shang was a mortal.
"I was just getting to that," Jiang Po grinned. "The others and I have been discussing and we've come to the same conclusion, seeing that we're also manifesting special abilities too."
"All of you?" Di Tian's gaze swept across the nine others behind Jiang Po and Huang Shang.
"Wait, that man said something about you flying earlier," Di Tian suddenly remembered. "You can fly?"
"Hey, how did you know? Also, what man?" Jiang Po was befuddled for a moment. "Are you talking about that hippie guy that knocked me out?"
"Yes, you were unconscious when he said so," Di Tian nodded, then asked seriously, "Are you saying that everyone in this cabin has a special ability?"
"Yes, I think," Jiang Po rubbed his hands together. He usually did that when he was excited. "And as I was saying earlier, we have an hypothesis, although it's a bit wild."
"Go on, I'm all ears."
"Well, you know about the global flash bomb from earlier this night," Jiang Po paused. "Or should I say yesterday's night, since it should be way past midnight by now."
Di Tian nodded.
"Well," Jiang Po continued. "We think it was caused by something like a particle accelerator from that DC series, the Flas–"
"You do know that the series is just fiction, right?" Di Tian cut him off, not wanting to hear more.
He already had his guesses. These special abilities were indeed most likely mutations caused by the energy wave that swept across the planet earlier. But Di Tian knew that this was residual energy from the explosion of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Seed.
In truth, Di Tian felt a bit conflicted. So there were others that gained special abilities from the incident too?
"Fiction could be real, you know," Jiang Po was still speaking. "Anyways, that's the only plausible explanation we have for now."
"What about you?" Huang San suddenly spoke, looking at Di Tian. "What's your special ability?"
"That's right, what's yours?" Jiang Po asked curiously. "You were brought in with us, so you must have one too, right?"
"Errrr," Di Tian blinked. Between his radar sense, consciousness splitting and insane recovering ability, he wasn't sure which to mention.
Of course, he wasn't planning to mention anything about the Grand Primordial Helix. That would remain his little secret.
"I can rapidly heal from serious physical damage under special conditions," he finally said.
"Excellent," Jiang Po rubbed his hands together again. "That makes you perfectly suited to be a human shield."
Di Tian froze.
"Imagine this...we team up to defend against an attacker," Jiang Po appeared very invested as he narrated a made-up scenerio. "You use your body to shield me from getting attacked while I fly to a suitable height. Then, with a sniper gun in hand, I can–"
"Alright alright," Di Tian stopped him right there. "What are the special abilities of the others here?"
"Oh," Jiang Po pointed at two identical girls to the far left. "Those twin sisters have abilities similar to Huang Shang; they can change their physical bodies to special glowing forms. But they don't know the intrinsic property of this state yet."
Di Tian glanced at the both of them and nodded.
"He has telekinesis," Jiang Po pointed at another person. "Then, there's this guy who claims he was discharging electricity out of his a** at will just before he got caught in the second explosion." He was talking about Patriarch Auna's field attack.
"Out of his what?" Di Tian was completely bamboozled, involuntarily turning to glance at the said guy.
The guy smiled sheepishly.
******
Unknown to them, Shen Li was monitoring their conversation with the aid of some surveillance bots. At this moment, she withdrew her attention from a mini screen in her hand which was displaying the broadcast.
"Just as I suspected," she sighed, glancing at Chen Qingke. "Did you know about this?"
"I assumed it was only Di Tian–the mortal that was here a moment ago," Chen Qingke furrowed his brows as he replied. "He was the only one that was conscious when I pulled him out of the wreckage. I later discovered that he has some life-type body constitution."
"You didn't ask him about the origin?" Shen Li asked, frowning.
"Such constitutions are usually innate," Chen Qingke responded. "I assumed it was the same for him."
"I see," Shen Li's frown deepened. From all indications, Chen Qingke had wasted the past hour chatting with the said Di Tian. "I take it you haven't interrogated all the mortals out there too, right?"
Chen Qingke opened his mouth to reply then shut it, careful not to provoke her wrath.
Shen Li took a deep breath, "I'll be sure to include your tardiness when I submit the official report of this mission to the superiors. By the way, where's Fang Ao?"
"He disappeared shortly after helping me extract the mortals," Chen Qingke smiled wryly, feeling a bit stifled at the thought of the contribution points that would be surely deducted from his reward due to his litte slip-up. "What's going on?"
"This planet recently got exposed to a strange energy," Shen Li said. "I suspect it's the cause of the special abilities newly manifesting in the inhabitants."
"Special abilities? As in innate gifts?" Chen Qingke's attention was piqued.
Typically, innate gifts were unique to Mythics. Very few humans, barely one in a hundred billion, were lucky enough to be born with special abilities.
"It only counts as innate if they were born with it," Shen Li corrected. "Special abilities should be the right term. Anyways, this phenomenon is happening all over the planet."
"All the mortals on the planet?" Chen Qingke found it incredulous. A mortal civilization, all possessing special abilities?
"Yes," Shen Li nodded. "I did a brief check. There's no restriction whatsoever; everyone on the planet is displaying one special ability or the other. And it's recent."
"How powerful are the mortals with these abilities?" Chen Qingke asked.
"They can rival first-stage cultivators, but I don't know if there's room for further growth," Shen Li thought for a while and replied.
The restriction outside Chen Qingke's cabin was activated at this moment. Chen Qingke discovered it was Fang Ao and let him in.
"Team Leader," Fang Ao saluted upon seeing Shen Li was present. "I have a report to make."
"Is it about the special mortals on the planet?" Shen Li said impassively. "I already know."
Fang Ao's expression faltered. Chen Qingke chuckled secretly as he thought to himself, "So he already knew about the anomaly and sneaked away to investigate, tsk tsk."
Shen Li continued speaking, "According to the Universal Code, special mutations like this should be reported immediately. I'll send an emergency report to the Council right now about this, they'll know what to do."
"About that," Chen Qingke scratched his head. "Can you not include the matter about me...."
Shen Li threw him a cold glance, then vanished before he could finish his words, .
"What matter are you talking about?" Fang Ao asked curiously.
"It's none of your business, you may leave now," Chen Qingke pursed his lips.
Fang Ao's eyes darkened, and he abruptly left the room.
Chen Qingke did not care. All alone now, he stood up and made to leave the room himself.
****
Fang Ao entered the main cabin where the mortals were. They fell silent the moment they saw him.
"You," Fang Ao suddenly pointed at Di Tian. "Come with me."