Sudden Malice

That night.

The incident at the Hotpot Restaurant came to a peaceful end, and Chen Feng declined Teacher Li's offer to drive him home.

After all, his neighborhood was quite far away, while Teacher Li lived nearby in housing assigned by the research institute.

Then, after waving goodbye to Chen Yun, he headed once again toward the bus stop.

Tap, tap!

His footsteps echoed as cars came and went along the asphalt road beneath the night sky, lights constantly flashing past his eyes.

Pedestrians strolled along the path behind the stop, their chatting voices rising and falling. Faintly, he could even hear music from distant square dancing.

"I heard the daughter of Old Zhou got into the Inspection Bureau?"

"Isn't that right? Their ancestors must be smoking with pride. The Old Zhou family can finally hold their heads high."

"Man, people really can't be compared. I have no idea what my useless kid is going to do in the future."

"Heh, I've got an idea for you."

"What?"

"Have your son go after the daughter of Old Zhou. Wouldn't that solve everything?"

The pedestrians' gossip and chatter sounded beside his ear. Chen Feng had heard plenty of similar conversations before, and he merely crossed the street with a calm expression.

Tap, tap!

His footsteps remained steady as he was about to step onto the bus stop platform.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, his steps halted.

Chen Feng noticed A Trace of abnormality within his Perception.

Or, more accurately, faint malice coming from somewhere not far behind him.

Cold and disdainful.

Negative emotions quietly gathered. He crouched down, pretending to tie his shoelaces as he glanced over.

A black sedan was parked at the edge of the small street behind the bus stop.

Through the windshield, he could vaguely make out two people sitting inside.

One sat on each side, in the driver's and passenger's seats. Both were men.

"Who are they?"

Chen Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, sensing that something was wrong.

Then, perhaps having noticed his reaction, the Black Car suddenly turned on its lights.

They were not overly glaring. He watched as it slowly drove forward and passed by him.

Half a meter away, the front and body of the car passed in succession.

The tightly shut windows were pitch-black, yet Chen Feng could clearly sense that cold malice.

Buzz!

Until finally, the vehicle accelerated slightly and slowly drove away.

Chen Feng casually withdrew his gaze, but he silently memorized the license plate number.

"Who exactly was it?"

A flicker of vigilance appeared in his eyes as he slowly stepped onto the bus stop platform.

The malice had come too suddenly, and he could not help wondering whether he had offended someone before.

Could it be fallout from those three thugs led by Zhao Jin?

Retaliation for what happened at the Hotpot Restaurant today?

The dim yellow streetlights continued to shine as the people at the stop lowered their heads to play on their phones.

One speculation after another flashed through Chen Feng's mind, but he soon rejected them all.

Those three thugs led by Zhao Jin were too insignificant, and according to the original owner's memories, they did not seem to have any accomplices.

As for the Hotpot Restaurant?

After the Security Bureau arrived, he had heard that those troublemakers did not seem to have any powerful backing.

They should all still be detained at the Security Bureau right now.

"Could Xu Dongtai be planning to strike from the shadows?"

His gaze was doubtful. Chen Feng felt that possibility was unlikely as well.

The assessment was drawing near. If something happened to him, anyone could guess the truth.

Unless Xu Dongtai no longer wanted to enter the core ranks of the Martial Arts Hall, it would be difficult for him to do something like this.

For a moment, after thinking it over and over.

Chen Feng felt A Trace of irritation.

Turning to look toward the roadside, the Black Car had completely vanished, and the malice had not appeared again.

Instead, the Route 17 Bus had finally appeared, slowly approaching the stop where he stood.

It stopped only briefly. Chen Feng could only withdraw his gaze and silently board the bus.

"I'll ask Lin Hao tomorrow."

"I'll see whether this guy can find out who owns that license plate."

Suppressing the thought, Chen Feng sat by the window and slowly Gripped Tightly his fist, restraining that A Trace of irritation.

He hated the feeling of unknown malice lurking somewhere.

So.

He had to get to the bottom of it.

Click!

Near ten that night, Chen Feng returned home.

When he turned on the lights, gray floor tiles came into view.

The black-screened LCD television had gathered some dust. It seemed he had not cleaned the house in quite some time.

Then, moving lightly, he opened the rooms one by one and took a look around, checking the indoor items and the somewhat dusty windows along the way.

"No one should have broken in."

Having roughly reached that conclusion, Chen Feng hoped he was simply overthinking things.

After washing up and tidying himself for a while, he locked the windows and front door from the inside before returning to the bedroom and trying to sleep.

"My mental state is perfectly normal. There isn't the slightest bit of weakness."

Murmuring a few words inwardly, Chen Feng adjusted his sleeping position.

Yet he discovered that the more deliberately he tried to fall asleep, the less he Could Not sleep.

After taking several deep breaths, he tried to calm his emotions.

In the end, after tossing and turning for a while, he inexplicably reached beneath his pillow and took out his phone.

Click!

The screen unlocked, and its light was somewhat glaring.

After adjusting the brightness, Chen Feng quickly entered the phone's search page and typed in a keyword.

Central City

He remembered what Teacher Li had said.

Soon, the search results appeared.

Central City, the central main city of the Chi Kingdom, was also known as the Self-Circulating City.

Entry and exit procedures for Central City were extremely complicated. Residents not born in Central City faced exceptionally strict requirements for entry and had to meet the following conditions

Search results appeared one after another, but there were no photographs of Central City or descriptions of its current state.

After reading part of them, Chen Feng could only get a rough sense that Central City was difficult to enter and extremely mysterious.

"Is the information being deliberately blocked? Or rather, are they isolating access to related information?"

Having obtained little useful information, Chen Feng shook his head inwardly.

It was still far too distant from him, so he did not investigate further.

Instead, drowsiness finally began to rise. He put down his phone, closed his eyes, and let it take hold.

Before long, his consciousness sank.

Suddenly, the ground vanished beneath his feet. He jolted awake and opened his eyes.

The long-awaited Dream World had finally appeared again.

"As expected, I got in smoothly."

Standing on the street outside the Extreme Martial Arts Gym, Chen Feng held a Knuckle Duster and remained where he was.

Mist enveloped the area, while the night was dark as ink.

Dim streetlights dotted the surroundings. The Single-Story Villa and apartment he had explored before stood behind him like shelters from the storm.

Letting out a breath, Chen Feng quickly regained his focus and warily looked toward the open doors of the Martial Arts Hall.

The Masked Man did not appear, nor did he sense any malice.

"Looks like as long as I don't go inside, it won't come out and attack me."

Chen Feng pondered for a moment, then noticed something else was different.

His right arm no longer hurt!

Looking down, he saw that his arm was completely intact. He casually swung it a few times, and it felt perfectly normal.

Clearly, the injuries on this body of his in the dream had fully healed.

"So, the reason I Could Not enter the dream yesterday was most likely due to mental exhaustion."

"Now that my mind has recovered completely, I entered smoothly, and my injuries recovered as well. Could it be that this body of mine is made from mental energy?"

A guess suddenly surfaced, and Chen Feng felt it was highly likely.

However, when he thought of how his attribute increases in the Dream World were also brought back to reality.

He could not help growing doubtful again.

If this body was truly composed of mental energy, why would his physical fitness improve as well?

His eyes flickered for several seconds, but Chen Feng Could Not make sense of it no matter how hard he thought.

"Forget it."

"It's enough that I've discovered the pattern. I'll slowly look for the answers later."

Letting out a breath, Chen Feng forcibly suppressed all his excess speculation.

Then, he turned toward the other two areas beside the Martial Arts Hall.

The mist there had dispersed, revealing two Low Buildings.

His Perception Talent sent him a signal once more. Chen Feng knew that Limit Breaking Light Orbs existed there.

He stepped forward and quickly walked toward them.