Refining the Mountains and Rivers - Chapter 689A – Zhou Li, Do You Acknowledge Your Guilt?

The year was 2026, and the world wasn't what it used to be. Ever since the Abyss Gates cracked open three years ago, spilling monsters and dungeons across the planet, life had turned into a chaotic mess. Cities were half-ruined, half-rebuilt, and people clung to whatever normalcy they could find. Hunters—those brave or crazy enough to fight the monsters—became the new heroes. Everyone else? Well, they just tried to survive.Fin wasn't a Hunter. He wasn't a hero either.He was just… Fin. A lanky 19-year-old with messy brown hair, a chipped front tooth from a dumb skateboard accident, and a power that everyone called useless. Absorption. Sounds cool, right? Like he could suck up energy or steal someone's strength. Nope. All it did was let him “feel” things he touched a little more than normal. He could tell you the exact texture of a brick wall or how warm a coffee mug was—big whoop. No fireballs, no super strength, no flashy moves. Just a glorified touchy-feely trick.“Fin, you gonna eat that sandwich or just stare at it like it's gonna confess its life story?” Meg's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.He blinked and looked across the rickety table at his best friend. Meg was short, loud, and had a wild mop of dyed purple hair that she swore made her look “intimidating.” It didn't.

The day of marriage. Lifting the sedan chair to the door, he lightly lifted the sedan curtain, but he saw no newcomer, only a piece of paper pressed under a stone.

Looking at her flamboyant font, his thousand-year-old pupils faintly spurted out a few flames. good very good. On his perfect and impeccable face, there was a faint smile, not angry but smiling.

However, no one saw the hidden chill in that smile. That woman dared to run away from marriage, he would let her know the consequences of doing so.

- Description from novelbuddy

HE WAS SUPPOSED TO AWAKEN A POWER. INSTEAD, HE AWAKENED NOTHING.Louis Lee is the son of two legendary Earth Defenders, but when the superpower evaluation test reveals that he's powerless, his world crumbles. Mocked, abandoned, and broken, Louis becomes a target in a world where strength is everything.But fate has other plans.When a devastating alien invasion shatters the city, Louis is abducted by the same monsters that once killed his parents.Subjected to a brutal experiment, Louis is implanted with a living alien core, a weapon to annihilate humanity at once but instead the core grants him incredible powers making him, half human and half monster.But now, Louis is Earth's only hope of defeating the invaders, but the more he uses the core, the more it mutates him, transforming him into something far more scary.