The Metamorphosis

Since the elevator reached the third floor, Huang Xiu had felt a persistent chill, a cold wind that rustled against his body.

As the dangerous tremor drew closer, the cold wind grew stronger.

He shivered uncontrollably, clutching his suit jacket while trembling.

When the head emerged from the blood cocoon and let out a roar, the bone-piercing cold reached its peak!

His hands and feet turned ice-cold, his limbs shook, and even his mind seemed frozen, ceasing to function.

His eyelids froze mid-blink, his eyes stiff and unmoving, and the suit jacket slipped from his hands to the floor.

He watched helplessly as the middle-aged man raised his hand to dismantle the giant of flesh and blood, then turned back into the elevator.

Suddenly, amidst the extreme cold, a violent, oppressive emotion was born.

So hot—he wanted to burn everything to ashes!

Blood vessels spread like spiderwebs across the whites of his eyes. Huang Xiu regained control of his body.

He tilted his head, sizing up the two people before him, releasing undisguised malice from his eyes.

Was this old man and young boy trying to stop him from continuing his peaceful life?

If so, then kill them all!

As long as he killed these two, he could go back to living peacefully like before.

Slowly, he raised his right hand and extended it forward. His round, pink nails began to grow, becoming long and sharp.

Slap!

His left hand suddenly grabbed his right wrist.

A flash of clarity passed through his bloodshot eyes. Huang Xiu looked up, stunned.

What… what was happening to him?

Why did he have such evil thoughts?

At that moment, Yun Ning noticed the commotion behind him.

He quickly turned around and met Huang Xiu’s bloodshot eyes. “Huang, what’s wrong?”

What’s wrong? What’s wrong with me? How should I know? Huang Xiu roared inwardly at the young man.

He shoved Yun Ning aside as Yun Ning approached in panic.

Stumbling backward, he pressed himself against the smooth wall at the back of the elevator.

He slid down slowly, as if boneless.

“Don’t come near me!” Huang Xiu yelled, unable to suppress the destructive urge surging within him.

An intense itch spread across the top of his head. The young man in the school uniform scratched frantically at his scalp, but it was useless.

His chest grew painful and swollen, his limbs weak and limp.

Strange cracking sounds came from his spine, as if it were breaking.

He clutched his head with both fists, biting down so hard that pained whimpers like those of a small animal squeezed through his clenched teeth.

Seeing Huang Xiu in such agony, Yun Ning wanted to help but didn’t know where to start.

Finally, he turned to Professor Yuan for help.

“Professor, what should we do?”

“Don’t worry. He’s experiencing a massive influx of void energy, triggering his second awakening.”

Professor Yuan tried to reassure Yun Ning, but a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

Huang Xiu’s awakening was happening much faster than he had expected. Something was definitely off.

But he couldn’t pinpoint the cause.

Was it because Huang Xiu was particularly suited for the Myriad Realms Transit Hub? Or was it due to the influence of that bloody void realm?

And… this was the first time he had seen someone undergo such drastic changes and commotion during an awakening.

“Don’t go near him now. No one can help during an awakening. He has to get through it on his own.”

Professor Yuan looked at Huang Xiu writhing on the floor, a trace of reluctance in his eyes.

But this was something all adepts had to endure.

“So itchy… so painful!”

Huang Xiu curled up on the floor, twisting in pain. The destructive desire inside him surged with the agony.

Everything before his eyes warped and twisted; every sound seemed distant. Professor Yuan’s voice buzzed in his ears like the drone of a mosquito.

Yet, amidst the pain, he suddenly remembered that night when the pig-headed man had pierced through his waist.

Back then, under extreme emotions, his body had changed.

But before the change was complete, the pig-headed man had ripped off his head, forcefully ending it.

So… was this his second awakening now?

“Ah!” Hair kept growing, long and sleek, spilling through his fingers and spreading across the floor.

He was in so much pain he couldn’t even scream anymore!

*Ding—Fifth floor!*

With the chime, the elevator doors slowly opened.

Professor Yuan kept an eye on the activity outside the elevator while observing the changes in Huang Xiu.

He hadn’t expected Huang Xiu to awaken at such a time, but since it was happening, he had to let it play out.

The young man’s transformation continued.

His chest puffed up as if inflated.

The top of his fitted blue-and-white short-sleeve school uniform bulged, forming a slight curve.

The clearly defined muscles on his forearms were covered by a layer of fat, becoming less prominent.

His legs, clad in black casual pants, were growing longer.

And his originally fair, handsome face softened, gradually becoming… as beautiful as a girl’s?

Surrounded by a sea of black hair, Huang Xiu lay in the elevator like a sleeping beauty—she had lost consciousness from the excruciating pain.

Yun Ning and Professor Yuan stared in shock at the whole transformation.

They watched as Huang Xiu went from a sunny, handsome young man to a beautiful long-haired girl.

“Th-this!” Yun Ning’s gaze swept over Huang Xiu, then darted away as if shocked.

He never imagined that as Huang Xiu awakened, he would turn into a girl.

And such a pretty one at that!

An awkward blush crept onto his face.

What was this? Did awakening come with a s*x change? Or was Huang’s superpower transformation?

Professor Yuan watched the changes with keen interest, nodding thoughtfully, a look of understanding in his eyes.

“This is a completion of physical specialization,” Professor Yuan said, offering his speculation. “He’s in his second awakening, so under the intense stimulation of void energy, he skipped the larval and pupal stages and went straight to the adult stage.”

The awakening stages are divided into larval, pupal, and adult stages.

In the larval stage, the mind specializes and awakens an ability.

In the pupal stage, the body begins to specialize, fixing genetic defects and optimizing itself to better adapt to the ability, manifesting as taller, stronger, and more handsome.

Yun Ning bent down, picked up the suit jacket that had fallen to the floor, and draped it over Huang Xiu. “Would a mere pupal-stage body optimization cause such a huge change?”

“It made Huang…” He stood up, paused, then continued, “change gender.”

He was a quicksilver-level adept after the adult stage and had gone through the body optimization himself.

But compared to what Huang Xiu was experiencing, both his own optimization and that of his classmates were nothing.

“You’re overreacting!” Professor Yuan chided. “Though rare, this has happened before.”

“Generally speaking, there are two reasons for this situation.”