Chapter 496: What Is Beyond?

Beyond, a mystical power, a power that had not left much of a profound impression on Chen Feng all this while. After all, as far as he was concerned, this was a mysterious power belonging to those above A class.

Characteristic? Definition? Origin? Chen Feng had no idea about any of these. Only after extracting two different versions of such power from Qin Hai and Wang Yao did Chen Feng gain understanding on this so-called "beyond."

"So... this is what 'beyond' is."

Both Chen Feng's eyes shone. Beyond was equivalent to the transformation of power. For an A class, when the A-class power overflowed, when their body, the acting vessel, was no longer capable of storing any excess A-class power, by going beyond the class, they would undergo a qualitative change of sorts. That would enable this A-class vessel to store even greater amounts of power. That was precisely what beyond A class entailed. It was the process of transforming one's body for the second time in the same class.

"Compression?"

This was the first thought that surfaced in Chen Feng's mind. Under normal circumstances, compressed power would be even more powerful, and the storage capacity would increase as well. However, compressed power would normally be extremely unstable as well. Normally, one's power would only be compressed for a moment of eruption, for a burst of power. But now, for this concept called beyond, it was a concept that would alter the origin of the power itself.

Chen Feng's eyes shone brightly. "For this, the structural makeup of the power itself is changed as well. This is not compression; rather, this is an altering of the structural makeup."

The energy of a person was essentially similar in nature despite the person's advancement from F class to A class. As an example, if the limit of a human's body was a huge room, the F class of this room would be equivalent to a thin layer of gaseous substance that hovered on the floor of this room. Moreover, the amount of the gaseous substance would be rather low as well. As for E class, it would be equivalent to an increase in the stored gaseous substance.

Due to the increase in quantity, the assembled gaseous substance would have a higher concentration. As such, apart from quantity, the quality itself would be improved as well. As for the subsequent classes, the same concept applied. Slowly, the gaseous substance in the room would increase in quantity. The initial thin gaseous substance would become more and more concentrated as its quantity grew. This would continue until A class.

The highest capacity this room could contain was the maximum amount of A class. The quantity and concentration of the gaseous substance, which represented the energy of a genetic warrior, would also have reached its peak. At this point, this room would no longer be capable of storing anything more. This was the so-called peak A class. This was also the current peak of humanity.

Next, with numerous secret arts and unique abilities, the energy might undergo compression, modification, or release through some unique methods. If so, what about beyond A class, then? When a person entered a new realm, the realm beyond A class, the structural makeup of all the contained energy would be completely transformed. Sticking with the same example, the gaseous substance would now transform into liquid.

This was a brand new energy structural makeup. Instantly, the room filled with gaseous substance would be emptied. The only thing left would be the thin layer of liquid energy at the bottom of the room. Despite the thin layer and seemingly low amount, the liquid energy was in fact extremely powerful. Such a transformation in the structural makeup of the energy was not something those secret arts or unique methods of energy manipulation could compare with.

The same ability released through the new energy makeup would be much more powerful than its original form, so strong that one couldn't even begin to compare the two. Therefore, beyond A class was akin to someone of an entirely different realm. This was also the main subject of their "Beyond X" project, a project trying to figure out a method to allow even normal genetic warriors to understand the concept of beyond.

This seemed rather impossible for those in F class, though. According to the conversion rate of energy to the new structural makeup, the amount of energy an F class had could only be transformed into a single drop of the new energy. This amount was too little to be of much use.

But then, at the very least, there was the possibility that this was doable. One could imagine how powerful even the lowest of the secret arts would be if they were unleashed using this new energy. The power of beyond, for those beyond A class, beyond B class, or beyond C class, apart from the quantity of their energy, would there be a difference in the might of their new energy? If the answer was no, did that not signify that the moment one grasped the concept of beyond, one would directly become a superexpert? All of these required further research.

"Beyond..."

Chen Feng was overwhelmed by emotions. The appearance of a new energy makeup was indeed something sufficient to cause excitement. During this lowest moment of humanity, during the appearance of the powerful devil race and ancient race, during this moment where humanity was in a panic, research on this concept of beyond was indeed humanity's best hope.

Suddenly, Chen Feng said, "Spirit, analyze this for me."

"Luck value will be required," Spirit stated honestly.

Luck value...

Chen Feng checked his luck value.

During the Star City battle, all his luck value had been exhausted. Even now, only 30 points had recovered. With such an amount, it was as good as useless.

Chen Feng sighed. "Forget it. I will continue researching myself." After all, he couldn't rely on luck value all the time. The recovery speed was truly too slow, and each point was way too important. He should only use it during a moment of crisis, such as the Star City battle.

"Spirit, it will be sufficient to use the luck value only to control the direction of my research," Chen Feng stated.

Spirit nodded. "All right." This was the cheapest method of utilizing luck value at this time. This was also a method Chen Feng had devised in order to save luck value while at the same time ensuring that he didn't act incorrectly. In fact, the idea behind this was rather simple. What was the most feared thing during research? It was the research proceeding in a completely wrong direction.

For a lot of research, if the chosen direction was wrong from the start, even toward the end, the research would produce no results. All the resources spent would have been for naught. Chen Feng had seen way too many such situations in the news. Every single path chosen during a research, every line of thought pursued, every single possibility, all these would give birth to numerous paths for one to choose. Only by pursuing each path relentlessly and failing relentlessly, followed by relentless successes, could one reach the ultimate result of the research.

As for Chen Feng, from the start, he would only select the correct direction, the correct path. With Luck Aura pointing at the correct path, he only needed to concern himself with traveling down that path.

Hum—

The pointer of his Luck Aura leaped, pointing him in a certain direction.

"Direction ascertained. Time to start the research." Chen Feng was excited. Alas, the research hadn't gone as smoothly as he had expected. From the very start, he had already encountered a rather thorny problem. The essence of his gathered beyond energy was still the same as regular energy. The only change was the structural makeup of the energy particles. This feeling was akin to... the difference between carbon and diamond? As Chen Feng understood this, his expression darkened. In short, the difficulty level of this experiment was similar to the process of transforming carbon into diamond?

Although this research had long ago been completed thanks to the technology of the genetic era, if a similar transformation needed to be applied to energy, the difficulty would rise dramatically. After all, a bit of carelessness when handling energy could very well result in a catastrophic explosion.

Chen Feng inhaled deeply. "Come, then. Let me have a clear look at the actual structural makeup of this new energy."

Hum—

The energy observer device was activated. On the screen, the energy was greatly enlarged to the point the particles could be seen in detail. Alas, a single glance at the particles caused Chen Feng to be dumbstruck. This energy...