Standing outside Great Vajra, using the solar panel surface as a mirror, Shen Cong studied his own reflection and decided he was reasonably satisfied with his Lv1 era self.

"One and a half Cong of strength." He flipped his visor up, bared his teeth at his reflection — neat rows of small, new metal teeth — and allowed himself a moment of entirely unironic satisfaction. "You know nothing of power."

Neither "Cong of strength" nor "bull of strength" was a unit that any precision instrument could measure. Both were purely internal assessments — his own sense of where his body stood, a psychological benchmark rather than an empirical one. The scale existed entirely inside his head, meaningful only to him.

He glanced at the risen sun, then went back inside.

First stop: the Treasure Bee experiment.

The bee fed banyan yogurt had grown visibly larger. Its Activity Value had climbed from 0.175H to 0.178H — past its previous ceiling.

The Activity Lock had broken.

Next: Blackhead, on the combined Activity Pearl and banyan yogurt regimen. Activity Value up again. Body size unchanged. But the emotional signal coming through the perceptual link was different from anything before.

Swelling.

Heat.

Want to crack the shell open.

Shen Cong read those feelings and understood immediately. Blackhead was preparing to molt — shedding its exoskeleton for a new, larger one.

Three experiments. Three data points. The conclusion was essentially settled: banyan yogurt stimulated skeletal development and could break Activity Locks in insects and similar jin beasts.

"Priceless. Absolutely priceless." His assessment of the yogurt ratcheted up another level.

A secondary conclusion: combining Activity Pearls with banyan yogurt produced a stronger combined effect than either alone.

Should I mix them and take both myself? Keep growing?

The thought arrived and immediately refused to leave.

Shen Cong had long since stopped caring what physical form the pursuit of strength produced. Giant, machine, something unrecognizable — as long as sensation remained, as long as the shape was still broadly human, what did the specifics matter? The world had already changed beyond recognition. Metal invasion, metallic transition, the…