After staring at the Chaotic Oil Painting for a minute, psychedelic colors began to appear before Zhou Chen's eyes.
The painting before him stretched and warped, dissolving in his daze into a slowly turning vortex of color. Dazzling, vibrant blocks of light flashed rapidly like the overwhelming RGB lights of a nightclub, emitting a powerful gravitational pull that threatened to suck his very Soul inside.
Gradually, the kaleidoscope of colors morphed into a deep black that billowed from the canvas.
Fear!
In an instant, as if a barrel of dynamite had been lit, every single thing, big or small, that had ever frightened Zhou Chen detonated in his mind. Magnified several times over by the Chaotic Oil Painting's Ability, they converged into an overwhelming black tide that swept over him.
Snakes, spiders, cockroaches, the space under the bed, darkness, getting shots, exams, falling from great heights, horror stories, imaginary ghosts and monsters... and the greatest Fear of all, embedded deep within human genetics—death!
Innumerable fears hammered against Zhou Chen's willpower like battering rams. His face turned as pale as a sheet, cold sweat beaded on his skin, and his heart pounded uncontrollably as adrenaline flooded his system.
Outside the isolation room, the emotional fluctuation values on the monitoring equipment were skyrocketing, about to reach the critical point for awakening.
Meanwhile, Zhou Chen's heart rate and blood pressure were redlining like a supercar with its pedal to the floor, teetering on the very brink of cardiac arrest.
All the researchers held their breath. Zhou Chen was in a truly dangerous zone now, and no one knew what would happen next.
Would he suffer psychological trauma, causing the experiment to fail? Or would he be overwhelmed by the extreme emotions and spiral into corrupted madness?
Or would the magnified Fear simply scare him to death?
Or... would he successfully awaken?
Amidst the crashing waves of Fear, Zhou Chen gritted his teeth and endured the pain, maintaining absolute clarity and reason.
After he made the wish for a safe awakening, the experiment's outcome was already a foregone conclusion!
When the emotion of Fear reached an indescribable, ineffable peak, his consciousness seemed to shatter some kind of shackles amidst the intense emotional turbulence, and he plunged into a profound void.
In the deathly still, ice-cold Darkness, he opened his eyes—
And saw light.
Endless light expanded violently in the silence, like the Big Bang at the birth of the Cosmos. The desolate World was filled with brilliant daylight.
One by one, stars born from the impact of the explosion formed a massive meteor shower, streaking brilliantly across his Spiritual World. They were like handfuls of silver fragments scattered across a deep black curtain, adorning it with a sky full of twinkling Stars.
The magnificent Stars flowed and converged into a breathtakingly beautiful, vast river of stars, a sight so dazzling it shook the Soul.
His once-empty Spiritual World now blazed with countless Stars.
'So this is why the first stage for an Ascender is named after the Stars...'
Awestruck and exhilarated, Zhou Chen gazed up at the Stars, unable to tear his eyes away for a long time.
Soon, he noticed something strange. Over half of his Spiritual World was still an ice-cold, deathly still, dark void. According to the books, the entire Spiritual World should have been enveloped by Stars after awakening.
Zhou Chen wasn't particularly surprised by this. Each of those Stars represented the spiritual essence of an Ascender, equivalent to a projection of their Soul.
Since he was missing half of his Soul, it was only natural that his Spiritual World would be affected.
He observed them carefully for a while and noticed that some of the Stars were slowly dimming. If he wasn't mistaken, this must be the phenomenon of soul decay.
'Maybe I can make a wish to stabilize my Soul...' Zhou Chen's consciousness "looked" toward the Wish Bottle.
Before, he could only sense the Wish Bottle's presence in his mind. But now that he was an Ascender and could perceive his Soul directly, he discovered its true nature: the Wish Bottle had transformed into Essence and fused with his Soul. Simply put, it was Soul-bound.
Getting a Forbidden Object for free seemed great, but the Wish Bottle's origins were a mystery. It was natural to be wary and guarded against something so unknown.
But now, his very survival depended on the Wish Bottle. His strong desire to live had long since washed away any reservations he might have had.
He couldn't afford to worry about such things when his life was on the line.
Suppressing the mix of nervousness, anticipation, and unease in his heart, Zhou Chen looked at the thirteen motes of Star Dust remaining in the Wish Bottle and solemnly made a wish—
"I wish for my Soul to stop decaying."
The thought flashed through his mind, and ten motes of Star Dust in the Wish Bottle suddenly lit up. They flew slowly out of the bottle and merged into his Spiritual World.
In an instant, Zhou Chen clearly felt the feedback from his Soul.
—The decay had stopped.
He subconsciously looked at his Spiritual World and saw that the Stars within it were no longer dimming. This meant the fatal soul decay had indeed been halted.
Zhou Chen was stunned for a moment, then overcome with ecstasy.
Although his Soul was still incomplete and the side effects weren't cured, at least he no longer had to live in constant fear, counting down the days he had left to live.
That helpless feeling of just waiting for death was unbearable.
Only someone who has experienced the despair of being on the verge of death can truly understand how wonderful it is to be alive.
Zhou Chen breathed a sigh of relief as if he'd been granted a pardon, feeling incredibly fortunate. After calming himself, he composed his thoughts and turned his attention to his Extraordinary Abilities.
This was the other piece of good news. He had successfully awakened and now possessed an otherworldly and incredibly cool Extraordinary Ability. From this day forward, he was an Ascender—something countless people dreamed of becoming.
The moment he awakened, the Extraordinary Ability became an instinct rooted in his Soul, and he naturally understood how to control and use it.
And so, at his will—
Flames ignited from the depths of his Soul.
...
Outside the isolation room, it was dead silent. Everyone was staring intently at Zhou Chen, watching as his expression of extreme Fear gradually calmed, seemingly free from the Chaotic Oil Painting's influence.
"There's a change in the Essence Fluctuation!"
A researcher cried out in alarm. At the sound, everyone looked at the monitoring equipment and saw that the Essence Fluctuation value was rising rapidly.
"Mental state normal, emotional state normal, all vitals normal. Heart rate and blood pressure are still a bit high, they haven't come down yet..."
"He succeeded!"
"Quick, quick, get the testing equipment ready! You, what's-your-name, hurry and record the data! Old Sun, cover up the painting!"
The outside instantly erupted into a flurry of activity. With a BEEP, someone pressed a button, and the alloy door to the isolation room slid open.
Inside the isolation room.
Zhou Chen raised his palm, and a pale flame burst forth, burning brightly.
He gazed at his palm, the flickering pale fire reflected in his pupils, an irrepressible grin spreading across his face.
This was his Extraordinary Ability.
It was simply...
'Off-the-charts cool!'
At the same time, six new motes of Star Dust suddenly appeared in the Wish Bottle, which had only three left. Moreover, these new ones were slightly larger than the Star Dust he had obtained before.
Zhou Chen was stunned for a second, then it hit him. He turned his head. 'Did this Star Dust come from that group of researchers?'
'Was their wish for me to awaken successfully?'
'But why is this Star Dust a little bigger than the ones I got before?'
'Is it because I've become an Ascender, or... was the wish in the hearts of those researchers that much stronger?'
After thinking it over, Zhou Chen felt the latter was more likely:
The stronger the desire for a wish to be fulfilled, the more "wish value" he received.