And what had made him forget food and sleep was the anonymously uploaded Martial Canon.
"Director Qin."
Meng Mingyuan entered the room, and before he even sat down, his eyes fell on the Martial Canon page on Qin Wanghai's computer.
Qin Wanghai was indeed reading the Martial Canon at that moment.
After this earth-shaking cultivation technique was uploaded, every Evolver studied it to some extent within a short time.
The corner of Meng Mingyuan's mouth twitched involuntarily. It was excitement he couldn't suppress.
"You've read it too?"
Qin Wanghai nodded and gestured for him to sit, then pushed a printed internal report across the desk to him.
Then he said solemnly, "Headquarters has already verified it. The first two chapters of the Martial Canon can raise an ordinary person's chance of evolving from five in ten thousand to twenty-five in ten thousand!"
Meng Mingyuan jerked his head up, snatched up the report, and read it word by word.
The more he read, the faster he breathed.
At last, he pressed the report against the desk, his fingers trembling slightly. "Five times... five times! I knew there was something extraordinary about the Martial Canon.
"I'm practicing the first chapter right now. Its breathing and qi-guiding methods are beyond our bureau's internal training materials by who knows how much.
"No, they're more than just superior. They're on another level."
As he spoke, his voice rose involuntarily, like a boy seeing true martial arts for the first time.
Meng Mingyuan also said excitedly, "Director Qin, this is definitely the greatest discovery since the Spiritual Qi Revival! It's more than just a cultivation technique. It's practically opened another door for ordinary people!"
With a fivefold increase in the odds, how many more Evolvers would emerge among 1.4 billion people?
As long as there were more Evolvers, why worry that more top experts wouldn't appear?
Qin Wanghai watched him without interrupting.
Only after Meng Mingyuan had finished did Qin Wanghai speak slowly. "Mingyuan, I called you here today to make this clear. Even if we only consider the first two chapters, what's in the Martial Canon already surpasses every evolution method we currently have.
"Why would someone like that remain anonymous? Why wouldn't he show himself? Haven't you figured it out yet, about the person you recorded in the mountains before?"
Meng Mingyuan opened his mouth, looking as though a bolt of lightning had struck him on the spot.
Of course he had thought about it. He had thought about it while practicing the first chapter of the Martial Canon.
Some of its qi circulation routes and force-exertion techniques were exactly like those of the mysterious person he had seen in the mutated mountain forest.
In particular, the rhythm of killing an enemy in a single strike seemed to have sprung from the same person.
He had thought he was just imagining things, but now Qin Wanghai thought so too.
"Director Qin," Meng Mingyuan said, swallowing and lowering his voice, "you mean... the person who uploaded the Martial Canon and the one who killed the Black-Feathered Birds in the financial district that day are the same person?"
Qin Wanghai didn't answer directly. He only said, "What do you think?"
Meng Mingyuan fell silent for two seconds, then nodded firmly. "I think so. My records are very clear. He used similar movement techniques in the mountains, though he wasn't this strong back then.
"Fourth Tier Black-Feathered Birds—he killed them with one sword strike apiece. Strength like that, coupled with a cultivation technique on the level of the Martial Canon... there's a very good chance they're the same person."
Qin Wanghai took a locked notebook from a drawer and pushed it toward him. "Starting today, you have only one task: reorganize all your observations of this person and file everything away, no matter how trivial.
"But don't let it get out. No one but me can look at it.
"If this person really is the creator of the Martial Canon, he's too important to us. Important enough that we must first find out what he wants."
Meng Mingyuan took the notebook and nodded emphatically.
Outside the window, night had just fallen over Magic City.
In some corner of the city, another group of newly awakened Evolvers were practicing the Martial Canon's breathing method for the first time.
Under the Spiritual Qi Revival,
humanity was clumsy,
and even made plenty of mistakes,
but worked very hard!
The Martial Canon spread faster and more thoroughly than Chen Du had expected.
Evolvers across the country, from First Tier to Third Tier, had almost all found ways to obtain the first few chapters at the earliest opportunity and begun cultivating from the beginning.
At first, many Evolvers hadn't expected much.
They were already Evolvers. Their bodies had long since evolved at the fundamental genetic level thanks to Evolution Factors, making them different from ordinary people.
No matter how profound a Martial Dao cultivation technique was, it might not mesh with the evolutionary path already established in their bodies.
But when they truly settled down to practice the Third-rate to Xiantian Chapter and the Martial Arts Myth Chapter, they discovered just how wrong they had been.
The seemingly balanced and gentle breathing methods in the Martial Canon, and those meridian circulation routes that used intent to guide qi, proved highly compatible with the way Evolution Factors circulated.
Once they began practicing, the two blended like water and milk, with no sense of awkwardness or resistance at all!
Their Martial Dao cultivation and factor evolution advanced on parallel tracks, nourishing and strengthening each other, saving them a great deal of arduous effort without their even realizing it.
What was more, practicing the Martial Canon could also cultivate Spiritual Power and Martial Intent! These could even be combined with the physical body! It was utterly astonishing!
Of course, so far, no one had cultivated Transcendent Martial Intent.
A Second Tier Evolver based in River City publicly demonstrated the change in his strength before and after cultivating both paths at a martial arts school.
Although he was only practicing the first chapter of the Martial Canon, his cultivation speed had already more than doubled in a short time.
This was what it meant for the two to validate each other: both paths could advance by leaps and bounds.
Elsewhere, a Second Tier Peak Stage Evolver broke through that very night while practicing the Martial Canon, stepping across the threshold into Third Tier.
Overnight, who knew how many people had made breakthroughs.
Clearly, for Evolvers like them, who had deep reserves of good fortune, the Martial Canon was also a potent tonic!
And in the uppermost circles that ordinary people could never reach, several veteran experts who had entered Third Tier long ago and remained in seclusion behind the scenes also quietly opened the Martial Canon.
One read all night, closed the book at dawn, and let out a long sigh.
Another practiced for less than half a day before a crack appeared in his bottleneck.
They understood better than anyone what it meant to create a cultivation technique like this.
It wasn't something that could be built up through hard work, nor something that could be obtained through fortune.
It required one's understanding of the Martial Dao, the path of evolution, and the rules of heaven and earth all to reach an inconceivable height, and then the ability to take them apart and forge them anew.
To explain the most abstruse principles to the next person using the plainest methods.
Without genius, one couldn't even find the door to something like this.
"It's utterly astonishing."
An old man living in seclusion in the southwest turned to the last page of the Martial Canon during a video call with his disciple, his eyes alight and filled with awe. "This is truly marvelous.
"We have trained all our lives and merely walked a few steps farther along the paths of those who came before us, but the person who created this technique has built a bridge for everyone under heaven!
"The person who created a cultivation technique like this has truly earned boundless merit."