Sudden Malice

That night.

The hotpot incident had settled smoothly. Chen Feng declined Teacher Li's offer to drive him home.

After all, the neighborhood he lived in was quite far, while the other lived nearby with housing allocated by the research institute.

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

Tap tap!

Footsteps echoed. Under the night sky, cars came and went on the asphalt road, lights constantly flashing past his eyes.

On the small path behind the stop, pedestrians strolled and chatted, their voices rising and falling. Faintly, the sound of square dancing music could be heard in the distance.

"Did you hear Old Zhou's daughter got into the Inspection Bureau?"

"No kidding. Ancestors must be smoking green smoke—Old Zhou's family is finally holding their heads high."

"Eh, people really can't compare. My useless kid—I don't know what to do with him."

"Heh, I'll give you a tip."

"What?"

"Have your boy chase Old Zhou's daughter. Problem solved, right?"

The gossip and chatter of passersby reached his ears. Chen Feng had heard similar topics many times, and he merely crossed the street with a calm expression.

Tap tap!

His steps were steady as he was about to step onto the bus stop platform.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, his steps halted.

Chen Feng detected a trace of anomaly in his Perception.

Or more precisely, a faint malice coming from not far behind him.

Cold, disdainful.

Negative emotions gathered quietly. He crouched down, pretending to tie his shoelaces while glancing sideways.

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

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

One in the driver's seat, one in the passenger seat—both men.

"Who is it?"

Squinting slightly, Chen Feng sensed something was wrong.

Then, perhaps noticing his unusual behavior, the black sedan suddenly turned on its lights.

Not too glaring. He could see the car slowly moving forward, passing by him.

Half a meter away, the hood and body slid past one after another.

The tightly shut windows were pitch black, but Chen Feng could clearly feel that faint, cold malice.

Until finally, the car accelerated slightly and drove away.

Chen Feng pretended to look away casually, but silently memorized the license plate number in his mind.

"Who exactly is it?"

Wariness flashed in his eyes as he slowly stepped onto the bus stop platform.

The malice had come too suddenly. He couldn't help but wonder if he had offended someone in the past.

The fallout from Zhao Jin and those three thugs?

Retaliation for making a move at the hotpot place today?

The dim yellow streetlight still shone. Passersby on the platform were looking down at their phones.

A series of guesses flashed through Chen Feng's mind, but he quickly dismissed them one by one.

Zhao Jin and those three thugs were too low-level, and based on the original body's memories, they didn't seem to have any accomplices.

As for the hotpot place?

Those troublemakers—he had heard about them after the Security Bureau arrived—didn't seem like people with any significant background.

They should still be detained at the Security Bureau by now.

"Could it be that Xu Dongtai wants to pull something shady?"

His eyes filled with doubt, Chen Feng felt this possibility was also unlikely.

With the assessment approaching, if something happened to him, anyone could guess the inside story.

Unless the other party no longer wanted to enter the core of the Martial Arts Hall, it would be hard to justify such an act.

Thus, after much thought.

Chen Feng felt a trace of irritation.

Turning his head to look at the roadside, the black car had completely vanished, and the malice had not reappeared.

Instead, the Route 17 Bus finally showed up, slowly pulling into his stop.

The stop was brief, and in the end, Chen Feng could only withdraw his gaze and board the bus in silence.

"I'll ask Lin Hao about it tomorrow."

"See if this guy can find out who owns that license plate."

Pushing the thought down, Chen Feng sat by the window, slowly gripping his fist tight to suppress that trace of irritation.

He really hated this feeling of unknown malice.

So.

He had to get to the bottom of it.

Clack!

That night, close to ten o'clock, Chen Feng returned home.

The lights came on, revealing gray floor tiles.

The pitch-black LCD TV screen had a bit of dust on it; it seemed he hadn't cleaned the place in a while.

Then, with light footsteps, he opened each room and took a look, casually checking the indoor items and the slightly dusty windows.

"No one should have broken in."

Making a rough judgment, Chen Feng hoped he was just overthinking things.

After a quick wash and tidy-up, he locked the windows and the front door, then returned to the bedroom to try to sleep.

"My mental state is perfectly normal right now, not the slightest bit weak."

Whispering a few words in his heart, Chen Feng adjusted his sleeping position.

But he found that deliberately trying to sleep only kept him awake.

Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to calm his emotions.

In the end, after some restless tossing and turning, he inexplicably picked up his phone from under the pillow.

Clack!

The screen unlocked, the light a bit harsh.

Adjusting the brightness, Chen Feng quickly opened the search page and typed in a keyword.

[Central City]

He thought of what Teacher Li had said.

Soon, the search results appeared.

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

[Entry and exit procedures for Central City are extremely complex. For residents not born in Central City, entry conditions are very strict and must meet the following requirements.]

One search entry after another appeared, but there were no photos or descriptions of Central City's current state.

Chen Feng read through part of it, only able to roughly sense that Central City was hard to enter and very mysterious.

"Deliberately sealed off. Or rather, is access to related information being cut off?"

Not getting much useful information, Chen Feng shook his head inwardly.

This was still far off for him, so he didn't dwell on it too much.

Instead, drowsiness finally crept up on him, and he put down his phone, closing his eyes.

Before long, his consciousness sank.

His feet suddenly stepped into empty air, and he jolted awake, opening 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 gripped the Knuckle Duster tightly, rooted to the spot.

Mist shrouded everything, the night as dark as ink.

The dim yellow streetlights dotted the surroundings, and the single-story villa and apartment he had explored before stood behind him like a safe haven.

Letting out a breath, Chen Feng quickly snapped back to attention, warily eyeing the open gym doors.

The Masked Man's figure did not appear, nor did he detect any malice.

"It seems that as long as I don't go in, it won't come out to attack me."

Chen Feng mused thoughtfully, then noticed another difference.

His right arm no longer hurt!

Looking down, his arm was perfectly fine. He casually swung it a few times, and it moved normally.

Clearly, this body of his in the dream had already fully recovered from its injuries.

"So, the reason I couldn't enter the dream yesterday was most likely due to mental exhaustion."

"Now that my mind is back to full strength, I entered smoothly, and my injuries healed along with it... Could it be that this body of mine is actually made of mental energy?"

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

But then he recalled that the attribute increases he gained in the Dream World were also reflected in reality.

This stirred up doubt once more.

If this body truly was composed of mental energy, then how could his physical attributes improve along with it?

His gaze flickered for a few seconds, but Chen Feng couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought.

"Forget it."

"As long as I've found the pattern, I can search for the answer slowly later."

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

Then, he turned to look at the two other areas beside the Martial Arts Hall.

The mist there had dissipated, revealing two Low Buildings.

His Perception Talent sent another signal, and Chen Feng knew that Limit Breaking Light Orbs were present there.

Taking a step forward, he soon began walking ahead.