Chapter 4: The Great Mutation
Tian slept quietly at the bottom of the great lake. He rested for several hours. When he finally woke up, he felt incredibly strong. The terrible, aching pain in his giant dragon bones was completely gone.
He slowly opened his huge, glowing eyes. The dark water around him was completely peaceful. He took a deep, happy breath of the cold water.
He immediately looked deep inside his own chest. He checked his ancient soul. The four colored balls of pure magic were perfectly safe. They floated quietly in the dark space of his mind. The red Fire, the blue Water, the green Earth, and the clear Air were perfectly separated. They absolutely did not fight each other anymore.
"System," Tian thought quietly.
Ping.
The bright blue box instantly appeared in front of his large nose. The neat white letters glowed in the dark water.
[System Status: Optimal.]
[Global Environment Shift: 100% Complete.]
[The ambient chi of Ta Lo has been completely replaced by the Four Elemental Frequencies.]
Tian smiled. The great work was truly finished. The invisible magic of the entire world was now perfectly ordered.
But then, the blue screen suddenly flashed with a bright, angry red color. A loud warning alarm rang sharply inside his head.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Uncontrolled Magic Detected.]
[Target Location: The Bamboo Village.]
[Alert: Mortal subjects are interacting with raw elemental frequencies without System Templates. Extreme danger of physical harm.]
Tian felt a sudden drop in his giant chest. He stopped smiling. He quickly realized he had made a very foolish mistake.
He had successfully changed the magic of the entire world. But he completely forgot to warn the normal humans living inside it. He completely forgot to give them the safe System instructions. They did not know the old, gentle magic was gone.
"Show me the village right now," Tian commanded the System. "Open a viewing screen."
The small blue box quickly grew much larger. It expanded until it completely covered his entire vision. The screen showed a perfect, clear picture of the tiny human village high above him. It was like watching a very clear television show. He could hear the sounds and see the bright colors perfectly.
On the screen, the bright yellow morning sun was just starting to rise over the giant grey mountains. The warm light hit the green bamboo forest.
Tian watched the village carefully. He zoomed the picture in closer. He focused the screen on a specific small, wooden house.
A strong, tall man walked out of the house. The System quickly scanned the man. A small blue box floated over the man's head.
[Target Identified: Jian.]
[Level: 12.]
[Physical Status: Healthy. Very confused.]
Tian watched Jian closely. Jian was a seasoned, brave warrior. He had strong arms and thick black hair. He wore simple, grey training clothes. Jian carried a long, wooden practice sword in his right hand.
On the screen, Jian stopped walking. He looked up at the blue sky. He frowned deeply. He looked very confused. He dropped his wooden sword into the brown dirt. He rubbed his normal human eyes.
Tian knew exactly why Jian was confused. The air in the village was completely different today.
Before today, the air in Ta Lo always felt exactly the same. It always felt perfectly warm, gentle, and soft. The old silver chi made the world feel like a quiet, comfortable dream.
But today, the air was heavily divided. Tian watched as patches of extreme heat floated through the village square. Patches of freezing cold wind blew violently past the wooden houses. The brown dirt on the ground looked incredibly heavy and dark.
The world did not feel soft anymore. It felt sharp. It felt extremely alive. It felt dangerous.
More villagers slowly walked out of their small houses. They all looked just as confused as Jian. They rubbed their cold arms. They wiped sweat from their hot foreheads. They whispered quietly to each other.
An old man walked into the center of the dirt square. He had a long, white beard. He carried a heavy bronze bell. The System identified him.
[Target Identified: Elder Bao.]
[Level: 15.]
[Role: Village Leader / Chief Instructor.]
Elder Bao loudly rang the heavy bronze bell. The deep ringing sound echoed across the entire village.
"Gather together, everyone!" Elder Bao shouted. His voice was old but very strong. "The morning air feels very strange today. The forest smells completely different. But we must not stop our daily routines. A strong body keeps a strong mind. We will begin our morning training now. Line up!"
Tian watched nervously from the bottom of the lake. He wanted to scream at them to stop. He wanted to tell them it was too dangerous. But he was trapped at the bottom of the deep water. He could only watch the blue screen.
About fifty villagers quickly lined up in the large dirt square. Jian stood perfectly straight in the very front row. A young boy named Shen stood near the back. A woman named Lin stood near the old wooden water well.
They all stood perfectly still. They closed their eyes. They took a very deep, slow breath of air.
This was the very first step of their old martial arts routine. They always breathed in the invisible magic of the world. They used the old silver chi to make their human muscles slightly stronger and a little bit faster.
But the soft silver chi was totally gone.
When the fifty villagers breathed in, they accidentally pulled the pure, sharp elemental frequencies directly into their unprotected human lungs.
Tian watched in absolute horror. The System screen flashed with dozens of bright red warnings.
[Warning: Foreign energy entering mortal bodies.]
[Warning: Mortal vessels lack required Class Filters.]
[Energy overload in 3... 2... 1...]
Elder Bao raised his old hands. "Begin the first form. Step forward and push!"
All fifty villagers stepped forward at the exact same time. They pushed their right hands hard into the empty air. They expected a tiny, invisible push of soft air to hit the trees.
Instead, absolute chaos exploded in the quiet village.
Jian pushed his right hand forward. He had accidentally breathed in the pure red Fire frequency.
When he punched the empty air, a massive, bright orange fireball instantly shot directly out of his bare fist. The fire roared loudly like an angry tiger. The giant fireball flew perfectly straight across the dirt square. It smashed violently into a thick wooden training dummy.
The wooden dummy instantly exploded into black ash. The terrible heat burned the green grass on the ground.
Jian screamed in pure terror. He fell backward into the dirt. He grabbed his right hand. His hand was not burned, but it was smoking slightly. His eyes were wide with total shock. He had absolutely no idea how he just created real fire.
Near the back of the group, the young boy named Shen also pushed his hand forward. He had accidentally breathed in the heavy green Earth frequency.
Shen pushed his tiny foot hard into the brown dirt to keep his balance. He pushed completely downward.
The heavy ground instantly reacted to the wild magic in his body. A giant, sharp pillar of solid brown rock violently exploded straight up out of the dirt right between his feet. The huge rock pillar was as tall as a house. It shot up incredibly fast.
The rising rock hit Shen. It threw the screaming young boy high up into the empty air. He landed heavily on a soft pile of green hay nearby. He was totally unhurt, but he was completely terrified. He started to cry loudly. The giant rock pillar remained stuck in the middle of the training square.
By the old wooden well, the woman named Lin pushed both of her hands forward. She had accidentally breathed in the smooth blue Water frequency.
She did not shoot fire. She did not break the dirt. Instead, all of the heavy, wet water inside the deep wooden well suddenly rushed completely upward.
A massive, thick snake made of pure water flew completely out of the dark well. It floated beautifully in the empty air right above Lin's head. The water swirled quickly in a perfect circle. It did not spill a single drop on the dry dirt.
Lin gasped loudly. She stepped backward in extreme fear. She raised her hands to protect her face. When she moved her hands up, the floating water snake immediately crashed heavily down onto the ground. It created a huge, messy mud puddle. She slipped and fell hard into the dirty mud.
Tian watched the blue screen in total panic. Every single villager was creating a terrible magical disaster.
An older man accidentally created a giant blade of sharp wind. The invisible wind blade cut cleanly through the thick wooden roof of a nearby house. The heavy roof loudly slid completely off the house and crashed violently into the dirt.
A young girl accidentally sneezed. A small burst of hot fire shot out of her tiny nose and quickly burned the dry leaves off a nearby bush. The bush instantly caught on fire.
"Stop!" Elder Bao screamed loudly. He dropped his bronze bell. He looked around the ruined square in absolute horror. "Stop moving! Everyone stop moving right now!"
But the completely terrified villagers could not stop. They were incredibly scared. When human beings are totally terrified, they naturally move their bodies wildly. They wave their arms. They run away.
Every single time they moved an arm or a leg, more wild magic violently exploded out of them.
Jian tried to run toward the crying boy, Shen. But Jian was still full of the angry Fire frequency. Every time his boots hit the dirt, small explosions of red fire popped loudly under his feet. He left a long trail of burning footprints in the grass.
"Demons!" a woman screamed loudly. She hid behind the giant rock pillar Shen had accidentally created. "We are cursed! The old gods are angry at us!"
"Get water!" another man yelled. He pointed at the burning bush. But when he pointed his finger, a fast blast of clear air shot out and completely blew the burning bush directly into the side of a wooden house. The house quickly caught on fire. Thick black smoke started to rise high into the blue sky.
The entire village was completely out of control. It looked exactly like a terrible war zone.
People were crying loudly. Fires were burning brightly. The wind was howling crazily. Giant rocks were blocking the small dirt roads.
Tian watched the terrible disaster on his giant blue screen. He felt a deep, heavy sadness in his giant dragon heart. He felt incredibly guilty.
He was the Great Protector. He was supposed to save these innocent people from the giant dark monster. Instead, he had almost completely destroyed their quiet homes in a single morning.
The System screen flashed with dozens of critical red errors. The loud alarm bell rang constantly in his mind.
[Critical Alert: Uncontrolled Fire detected in Sector 4.]
[Critical Alert: Structural Damage detected in Sector 2.]
[Warning: Panic levels at 98%. Risk of mortal heart failure is incredibly high.]
[Suggestion: Immediate Guardian intervention is highly required to prevent total self-destruction.]
"I know!" Tian yelled angrily at the glowing blue screen. "I know I have to fix this. Shut the alarms off!"
The loud ringing noise finally stopped, but the red warning letters stayed on the screen.
Tian knew exactly what the problem was. The magic was perfectly safe now. The four elements were perfectly structured. But the fragile human bodies were completely like broken pipes. The magic was flowing directly into them, but they had absolutely no simple valves to control the heavy pressure.
They did not know how to stop the fire. They did not know how to hold the water. They were totally trapped in a completely new world without any instructions.
Tian needed to give them the strict rules. He needed to officially install the perfect System directly into their minds. He needed to give them the magic Class Templates.
But he could not just hand the System out to everyone all at once. The human mind was very weak. If he forced a massive, glowing blue digital screen into fifty terrified minds at the exact same time, their fragile brains might completely break from the extreme shock.
He desperately needed a proxy. He needed a champion. He needed one strong person to safely hold the System first. That one strong person could easily show the others how to use the pure magic safely.
Tian looked closely at the moving blue screen. He watched the absolute chaos in the burning dirt square. He looked for the strongest person.
He watched Jian.
Jian was totally covered in dirty black ash. His simple grey clothes were slightly burned. He was completely terrified of the fire popping under his heavy boots.
But Jian was not running away and hiding like the others. Jian was bravely running directly toward the burning wooden house. He grabbed a heavy bucket of dirty mud. He ignored the small magical explosions completely. He was desperately trying to throw the wet mud onto the bright orange fire to save his neighbor's home.
Jian was strong. Jian was incredibly brave. Jian cared about protecting the others more than he cared about his own deep fear.
Tian made his final decision.
"System," Tian commanded quietly in the dark water. His voice was completely serious. "Target the strong mortal named Jian. Prepare to officially download the absolute core fragment of the Dragon Avatar System directly into his human soul."
The blue box wiped away the red warnings. A new, bright golden loading bar appeared on the screen.
[Target Locked: Jian.]
[Level: 12.]
[Preparing System Integration Package...]
[Warning: Integration will require direct telepathic contact. Proceed?]
"Yes," Tian thought firmly.
Before he could give Jian the amazing magic System, he had to stop the terrible panic in the village. He had to put out the bright fires. He had to calm their racing human hearts.
He had to speak directly to them.
Tian closed his glowing eyes. He pushed his massive, ancient spirit completely up out of the deep, cold lake. He pushed his invisible mind straight up into the clear blue sky above the burning village.
He gathered all of his massive cosmic power. He prepared to use the absolute loudest, most powerful telepathic voice he could possibly make. He needed every single person to instantly stop moving.
The time for quiet watching was completely over. The Guardian Dragon was finally ready to speak to his fragile people.