American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Xiu En tapped lightly on the glass partition, stopping the man inside who was trying to drink his third cup of red paste.

"Yes, Mr. Wayne."

Xiu En maintained a perfectly polite sitting posture, but the golden light that peeked out from under the collar of his trench coat was something else entirely.

Clearly, seeing Bruce the vampire's current state, Shum had a new idea.

He could sense that this vampire Bruce was unwilling to accept his fate; he craved power.

Coincidentally, Shum possessed the power he craved, and he didn't mind helping Bruce.

"As a former food critic, I deeply regret your current lifestyle of only being able to drink leftovers."

He pointed to the cup of synthetic vitamins in Bruce the vampire's hand, which contained no soul other than maintaining vital signs.

"This is even worse than that strawberry juice. Don't you want to change your lifestyle?"

Shuen looked into the eyes of the vampire Bruce.

"Are you talking about liberation?"

Bruce the vampire put down his cup, his eyes, still bearing the faint red hue of blood, staring at Shuen.

"To become an ice sculpture or a pile of carbon dust like that clown? To be honest, if it could completely end this hunger, that would be an option."

"Tsk, how come you're even more pessimistic than my Bruce here? I don't want you to die right now."

Xiu En shook his head, and the sunflower obediently drooped its leaves over his shoulder in disappointment.

"I mean upgrade."

Xiu En snapped his fingers, and a small ball of pure golden flame, the size of a fingernail, danced at his fingertip.

"Right now, you are a tiger with its teeth pulled. But what if we turned you into a lion that could devour tigers? No longer hiding from the sunlight, no longer relying on blood, and even using your broken body as a vessel to contain this slightly hot power."

Do you know what you're saying?

Bruce from the main world immediately stood in front of the isolation pod door, his voice low.

"His genetic code is on the verge of collapse, and the antidote from the new research is barely maintaining the balance. If you force your energy into it, it's like throwing a match into a barrel full of gasoline—bang."

He made a very vivid and cruel gesture.

"Indeed, the success rate is only about 0.01%."

Ivy's voice came from the flowerpot.

"Plant cells are highly adaptable to extreme environments, but animals, especially a weakened animal that has been ravaged by a virus, have a 99.99% chance of being instantly carbonized by your energy."

Xiu En ignored these two rational voices and pretended not to hear them.

He stared directly at the shadow in the wheelchair.

"So I'm asking if you want to take a gamble?"

The vampire Batman inside the glass enclosure remained silent.

The only sound was the monotonous ticking of the life support equipment.

Bruce the vampire looked down at his pale, trembling hands, which were now so weak that he couldn't even hold a pen properly.

He glanced again at the other version of himself standing outside the isolation door, strong and imposing like a mountain.

The shame of being a burden tormented his soul more than the thirst of a vampire.

What if it fails?

he asks.

"Then let dust return to dust, and ashes to ashes, at least you'll be warm when you leave."

Xiu En shrugged, his tone relaxed.

What if it succeeds?

"I think that's the rebirth of the Daywalkers. No longer nocturnal creatures, but hunters standing in the sunlight."

Bruce the vampire pushed his wheelchair forward two steps, the most vigorous movement he had made since taking the new antidote.

"Open the door."

He spoke to Bruce outside, and although he was weak, his tone finally had a bit of Batman's flair.

"You will die."

Bruce from the world of Shuen had his hand on the door lock, but he didn't move.

"I'm no different from being dead now, Bruce."

The man inside gave a pale smile.

"We all know that sometimes living is more than just breathing. Let me try."

Bruce in the main world remained silent for three seconds.

That kind of eye contact is a tacit understanding that can only be comprehended between kindred spirits.

He didn't even need to think too much about the pros and cons, because he knew that if he were in that situation, he would make the same choice.

The metal door slid open slowly.

Xiu En stood up, tossed the ball of golden light in his hand into the air, and then slowly pressed it into the chest of the man in the wheelchair.

"Bruce, hold on, don't die too quickly, or you'll waste my light."

Shuen looked into Bruce's eyes and smiled.

"Low probability?"

"If it were an ordinary person lying in there, even a Superman, I wouldn't dare place this bet. But that's Bruce Wayne, that's Batman."

He increased his output; the golden energy at his fingertips was no longer a trickle, but a violent surge that ravaged the fragile body.

"For this man, as long as there is even the slightest reason to live, he will find a way to become one, even if the success rate is zero."

Ivy's flower disc trembled slightly, and upon sensing the host's unwavering will, it began to tighten, transferring more pure nutrients belonging to natural life through the contact point: "Do as you please, the perfect combination of madman and gambler."

Inside the isolation chamber.

It was like the final lament of a withered tree in a raging fire.

Bruce the vampire's originally pale skin had turned into a black charcoal under the high temperature.

Every strand of his hair and every fingernail turned to ashes in an instant.

This pain far exceeds the limits of what the human nervous system can endure. Logically, the brain should have activated its shock mechanism to protect itself long ago.

But he was still conscious.

Bruce from the world of Shuen watched helplessly as the charred man, already beyond recognition, still clung to the deformed armrest while sitting in his wheelchair.

The dark figure tilted its head back.

Batman doesn't scream, but you can hear extremely heavy breathing.

That was resistance.

With his remaining soul, he fought against the destructive instinct deep within his cells that yearned to give up.

The life monitor emitted a piercing long beep.

Heart rate drops to zero.

Brainwaves returned to zero.

In that instant, only the silence of falling ashes and the lingering heat remained in the isolation room.

"he……"

Bruce's pupils suddenly contracted, and the emergency injection he was holding in his palm was shattered by the immense force of his grip.

He instinctively wanted to rush up and smash the door.

"Don't move."

Shuen coldly rebuked the world's greatest detective.

He withdrew his hand, and the golden light that had been raging now hovered above the ashes.

"Bruce, listen."

It was a sound even more muffled than the clanging of metal.

A sound even more powerful than the beating of a drum.

thump.

Beneath the seemingly lifeless pile of charred remains, a crack suddenly appeared in the layer of filthy blood and grime that had been forcibly expelled due to the high temperature.

A beam of light!

A golden-red ray of light, more condensed and closer to the sun's true form than the divinity emanating from Xiu En, pierced through everything from that crevice.

The black shell peeled off layer by layer, like an ill-fitting suit of armor.

What was revealed was a bronze-colored skin that looked as if it had been forged in a furnace.

The air circulation system in the isolation chamber roared, rapidly sucking away the fine dust inside.

When vision cleared again, the wheelchair had turned into a pool of molten iron.

A figure slowly stood up from the pool of molten iron.

He was barefoot. His once dull, messy hair had now turned jet black and shiny, but what was most unsettling were his eyes.

That was no longer the red of monsters, nor the black of humans.

Those were vertical pupils, their outer edges tightly encircled by a ring of molten gold.

Like looking directly at the midday sun.

He stretched his neck, then raised his hand, looking at his palm covered with a network of blood vessels flowing with golden light with some confusion.

He made an attempt.

Bruce opened his mouth.

On either side of the previously smoothed gums, brand new fangs, as clear as crystal, are slowly emerging.

But he didn't feel that nauseating thirst that made him want to tear open the throats of everything alive in front of him and suck their blood.

At this moment, all he felt was... warmth.

"Don't stare blankly like a newborn baby. This doesn't seem like the Dark Knight who's about to tear the night apart."

Xiu En's languid, teasing tone instantly tightened in the next second.

He didn't give the newborn much time to adapt to this divine body.

Xiu En loosely clenched his right hand.

The steel material broke through the wall.

Under the domineering infusion of Shaohao's golden energy, the rough steel beam almost instantly solidified into an exaggerated giant blade that resembled a tombstone, rather than a sword.

"Come, let me see whether the cat we saved at such a great cost is a sick cat or a real dragon."

Xiu En held the greatsword in one hand and casually twirled it, creating a gust of wind that forced Ivy to close the petals of her sunflower.

Xiu En's figure left a golden afterimage, and the giant sword, carrying an aura powerful enough to split mountains, slashed down at the bronze-colored figure.

Bruce's fingers left afterimages as he typed on the virtual keyboard, but at that moment, he almost couldn't resist pressing the emergency stop button.

The power of that sword strike was so overwhelming that even he, watching from outside, felt suffocated.

But the newborn Batman in the center of the isolation pod did not retreat.

If it were the old him, he certainly wouldn't have been able to withstand this head-on. But now, in that instant when the sword was about to strike, Bruce the Daywalker's vertical pupils, like the sun's wheel, suddenly contracted.

There was no attempt to dodge.

His arms, covered in gold and red patterns, suddenly crossed upwards, as if he were holding up the sun.

"clang--!!!"

The massive shockwave instantly shattered all the unreinforced glassware.

Amidst the swirling dust, that not-so-tall figure stood firmly in place.

Between his arms and the giant sword, a force field constructed of light forcefully blocked Xiu En's casual strike.

"Drink!"

Bruce the Sunwalker let out a long howl, and with his will, the light energy that was originally used for defense condensed into two sunblades with serrations and barbs on the outside of his forearms.

It looks like a light-based arm armor!

It looks like a light-based arm armor!

He exerted force from his waist, a combination of his former status as a top-level martial arts master and extraordinary strength, forcefully pushing aside Xiu En's greatsword and crashing directly into Xiu En's center.

"Good! That's right!"

Xiu En laughed loudly.

He released the greatsword, and the deadly weapon was transformed back into countless fine metal needles hovering around him while still in mid-air.

He himself also chose the fist.

boom! boom! boom!

The laboratory seemed to have turned into a superhuman battlefield where hundreds of punches were being exchanged at a speed of one per second.

On one side is the Gengxin metal energy, representing killing and sharpness, each punch as deadly as a drill.

On the other side is the Bat Martial Arts, which embodies the hope of revenge and the fire of the new life cycle. Every strike seeks out the weaknesses in the joints and detonates light energy upon contact.

Daywalker moves with lightning speed. Because he no longer needs to worry about physical injury, his moves are more ruthless and decisive. Many suicidal moves that Batman could only use in simulations are now used at will.

Xiu En, on the other hand, is like an unshakeable mountain.

After all, Shum only wanted to see the power of the new Batman, so he wouldn't use fire or metal energy, but simply use physical strength to see his abilities.

No matter how fiercely the Daywalker attacked, how he used the light blades that were almost solid to cut sparks from his protective golden aura, he could always deflect the attacks with a casual movement that looked like he was yawning, and occasionally give the student a painful lesson that made him wince in pain.

"All values ​​are overflowing in every aspect."

Bruce stared at the long string of "ERROR" and "MAX" warnings that had long since turned red, his expression becoming complicated.

On the data screen in front of him, Bruce Daywalker's strength rating jumped directly to "A+", which is close to Wonder Woman's. His agility, due to his original vampire background and light-powered propulsion, has reached the level of a near-speedster.

But none of that matters.

Most importantly, he was fighting.

Even without the bat suit, the ruthlessness of someone who would bite off a piece of flesh from a god in an instant was still vividly displayed.

That is the soul of Batman.

A ray of light from the battle landed on the Sunwalker, and he absorbed it directly.

Bruce the Daywalker can absorb and store light! He is a knight of light born specifically to hunt creatures of darkness!

boom!

In their final collision, the two exchanged a punch and slid backward several meters.

Shuen casually patted the hem of his trench coat, while Bruce the Daywalker opposite him was panting heavily. The wound on his chest, which had been sunken, quickly swelled up and healed, and the golden-red light on his bare skin alternated between light and shadow like breathing.

With a soft sound, the giant sword that had been suspended in mid-air completely disintegrated, turning into countless points of light and disappearing.

"It was a great first battle for a newborn."

Xiu En nodded and pulled a compressed biscuit from somewhere in his pocket, tossing it over.

"You're still a bit rusty. You shouldn't waste solar energy like that. Ivy will teach you how to make it last longer in the future."

The Sunwalker caught the biscuit, feeling the warmth emanating from it. The golden light in his eyes slowly faded, returning to his darker, more profound pupils.

That deep-seated sense of closeness made him subconsciously lower his head towards Xiu En.

This is a warrior's tribute to the strongman who pulled him from the mire to the clouds.

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me too soon, this is practically a contract of servitude."

Xiu En smiled brightly.

"From now on, those skeletons and disgusting dark creatures will be your responsibility."