Golden Jiao.

Combat tier: Heavyweight. Projected Peak Breakthrough tier: Super-Heavyweight. Current evolutionary stage: Mature Stage (Lv0.691, Activity Value 1.987H) Individual Talent: Two-and-a-Half Star (2.874H) Description...

This was the Golden Jiao's entry in The Science of Activity Evolution: Evolved Beasts Volume. The original Classification Chart had been revised and expanded by the Research Institute and formally incorporated into the camp's educational curriculum under the title The Science of Activity Evolution — 《活性进化学》, or The Huoxue for short.

The Huoxue was organized into six chapters: Activity, Evolved Beasts, Evolved Plants, Evolved People, Bone-Gold, and Mysteries. The final chapter covered phenomena that remained unexplained — things the camp's researchers could document but not yet account for.

Whether The Huoxue was the first systematic treatment of Activity produced anywhere in China — or the world — since the catastrophe was impossible to know. But it was reasonable to say it would earn a place in history.

Before the first print run, Research Institute Director Zhang Kan came to find Shen Cong. He wanted a dedication.

Tedious thing to ask. Shen Cong agreed anyway.

So every copy of The Huoxue opened with a single line:

"The gates of the new world have already opened."

Signed: Edge of Evolution, Originator of Activity Nomenclature, Colonel Hu Ge of the Anhui Provincial Garrison.

When Zhang Kan handed Shen Cong his personal copy, he'd said, with feeling: "Activity has brought changes beyond anything we imagined. Civilization is showing us another path of evolution. I hope humanity can seize this opportunity — to rebuild our society and reclaim our freedom."

Perhaps that was right.

Humanity's circumstances were dire — existence itself was under threat. But cross this barrier, and a future worth having was still possible.

Shen Cong was in the process of crossing one such barrier himself: the Lv1 threshold.

Shortly after returning from the Golden Jiao hunt, the camp delivered what he'd asked for — the crane truck's primary metal, a three-meter by two-meter section of Golden Jiao hide in good condition, and a container of snake blood, still warm.

The Golden Jiao's hide was in a different…