Promotion Imminent

When Shen Qionglin tasted the Blade Beast meat Wang Jixuan had grilled, her entire state changed.

She had been somewhat exhausted from conducting psionic energy research for days on end. Even as an awakened Psionicist, she still needed regular rest.

But after she took a bite of Blade Beast meat...

She felt psionic energy seep into her body, and more than half her strength immediately returned. Light burst from her eyes as she chewed twice, then carefully swallowed.

There was no poison?

And none of that explosive energy either?

The taste was somewhat worse than real beef or lamb, but far better than industrial meat.

Then several symbols lit up on Shen Qionglin's body by themselves.

The Blade Beast meat she had swallowed turned into a stream of pure spiritual energy in her stomach!

Though this spiritual energy could not increase the total amount of psionic energy in her body, it could rapidly replenish her psionic energy.

"Oh?"

Daoist Wang noticed the difference as well.

He carefully observed Shen Qionglin, then handed her the grilled meat skewer that should have gone to someone else.

Shen Qionglin understood. She swallowed it, chewed it to bits, and swallowed again. Symbols lit up across her body once more as the Blade Beast meat turned into pure spiritual energy in her stomach, leaving behind only a tiny amount of residue.

"It seems," Shen Qionglin said after some thought, "that these replicated symbols on my body can form a circuit capable of digesting Blade Beast meat."

The others nearby were all confused.

Uncle Tai, the great master of the Three Trades, directly asked, "What the heck is that?"

Shen Qionglin gave a simple explanation. "I've been researching the Spiritual Practitioner Civilization. Uncle Tai, you know that I completed two experiments myself. One was the Infusion Experiment, and the other was an imitation psionic awakening experiment. Whenever I activate my psionic energy, these symbols appear on my body."

Some Tadpole Script flickered across her body.

Shen Qionglin continued, "Actually, I still don't understand what many of these symbols mean. This is an entire replicated set, awakened using something similar to infusion technology. Different symbol combinations should form different Psionic Energy Circuits, but I haven't figured out how to use them yet."

Wang Jixuan sighed softly. "No wonder the Blade Beast Civilization rebelled. Even Blade Beast flesh was treated as food by Spiritual Practitioners."

"Not necessarily." Shen Qionglin curled her lips. "Blade Beast meat was more likely food prepared for spiritual slaves. How could noble Spiritual Practitioners possibly eat such coarse meat?"

Zheng Shiduo muttered from nearby, "This is bad. Peony's sharp tongue has become contagious."

Peony clicked her tongue. "Only what the public recognizes can be called normal."

Zheng Shiduo wanted to refute her, but when the words reached his lips, he had no idea how to do so.

What she said actually made quite a bit of sense.

Wang Jixuan continued handing out meat skewers. The people seated around the barbecue stall soon began enjoying the nourishment spiritual energy provided to their stomachs.

Unfortunately, none of their results were as remarkable as Shen Qionglin's.

Gao Huating was clearly somewhat frightened.

Yet in order to fit in, she maintained a smile throughout. When she ate the Blade Beast meat, it was tough enough to bite through that she looked like she was gritting her teeth.

Wang Jixuan and the others casually discussed the battle situation at the front.

"We won this time. Every war zone has sent congratulatory messages."

Zheng Shiduo chuckled.

"In a few days, we'll be going to the General Headquarters to receive commendations. But Ji Xiao and Ji Yale's names will be buried, since they have too much guilt on their hands. It wouldn't be suitable to publicly commend them... Brother Wang, what medal are they giving you?"

"Old Fu mentioned it, but I turned it down."

Wang Jixuan shook his head and continued focusing on turning the meat skewers, removing the Resentful Energy from them as he calmly said,

"These things don't matter. You can go receive the commendations.

"Besides, who knows how long these peaceful days will last? There will definitely be new trouble later."

Wu Man asked, "Didn't the Blade Beasts retreat for now?"

Peony briefly explained, "They retreated temporarily because the King-Class Blade Beasts originally gathered near D5 suffered devastating losses. We came up with a low-cost tactic for killing King-Class Blade Beasts... but the Blade Beast Swarm will certainly return, and they will definitely retaliate against us."

Shen Qionglin added, "These beasts are the kind to hold grudges over the slightest offense. They are utterly evil invaders."

"The Blade Beast problem is humanity's primary problem. That cannot be confused."

Wang Jixuan realized his tone had become too serious and switched to a lighter one.

"When fighting Blade Beasts, no amount of strength is enough.

"We were able to badly wound that Galinno this time thanks to the Beast Speaker. Otherwise, as long as it hid within the Main Force Blade Beast Swarm's territory, we wouldn't even have seen it.

"King-Class Blade Beasts vary in strength. The ones active around the edges of the various war zones now are relatively weak.

"Old Fu said the most important mission of these King-Class Blade Beasts is to command the Blade Beast Swarms, suppress the development of humanity's remnants, and keep the human population below the baseline of five hundred million. Over the past sixty or seventy years, whenever humanity's population reached six hundred million, the Blade Beasts launched a full-scale offensive.

"Before, no one understood why. Now, we know the reason."

Shen Qionglin immediately asked, "What is it?"

"Classified."

"Teacher Wang, you really know how to leave people hanging," Shen Qionglin complained unhappily.

Daoist Wang laughed smugly twice, then stopped teasing them. "It's fine to say it. It isn't anything major."

Everyone listened attentively.

Wang Jixuan placed the freshly grilled meat skewers onto an iron tray, his voice becoming distant as he slowly recounted,

"I had a brief exchange with that Galinno. It happened inside an illusion—what I thought was an illusion. Who would have expected it to turn into such a joke?

"At the time, it was difficult for either of us to deceive the other. There was a kind of soul-state resonance.

"To a certain degree, what it said was trustworthy.

"It mentioned that the core circuits of Spiritual Practitioners possessed a certain reincarnation property..."

He explained this intelligence to Shen Qionglin in detail.

Shen Qionglin treated it like a priceless treasure. She set down her meat skewer, pulled out the equipment she carried with her, and began recording while constantly thinking and asking questions.

No one else dared interrupt. They only listened from the side.

Very quickly, Shen Qionglin understood why Wang Jixuan had said all this.

She said excitedly, "The hidden information is that the Fourth Spiritual Practitioner can be killed, and there is a way to seize his power!"

"That's right." Wang Jixuan smiled. "The key lies in how to obtain a replica of the Fourth Spiritual Practitioner's Core Circuit. Once we get that circuit, we can borrow his power. After he is killed, the replica can become the genuine article."

Shen Qionglin lowered her head in thought.

She was somewhat tempted.

Not by that power, but by a simple desire... to dissect a Spiritual Practitioner and a Core Circuit.

"This classified information is excellent." Shen Qionglin hurriedly rose to her feet. "I'm going back to organize the information. There are materials whose hidden secrets I couldn't understand before, but I think I understand them now... Once I have results, I'll promptly report them to the organization."

Wang Jixuan hurriedly called out, "Finish eating before you leave."

"I'm full!"

Shen Qionglin waved, flipped out the window, and before everyone's eyes, two-colored symbols lit up across her body as she flew away through the air.

Gao Huating was dumbfounded.

Zheng Shiduo clicked his tongue. "She's a little obsessed."

"This is the charm of knowledge," Daoist Wang praised. "When we went to Iron Wall Fortress last time, I only intended to test your combat strength. I didn't expect Professor Shen to be such an unexpected gain. This Spiritual Practitioner Civilization may truly fall at her hands."

Zheng Shiduo chuckled. "See? I told you! I've always been a lucky general!"

Peony, who had brought everyone freshly squeezed juice, casually said, "Officer, Dragonfly Aunt has begun investigating Snow Mountain Base."

"Mm." Wang Jixuan said, "Tell her to pay attention to her safety. She should investigate as much as possible."

"Do we have to comply with all the prices she named?"

"Talisman Water is easy enough. But a stud..."

Wang Jixuan pondered for a long while, hesitated, and muttered,

"We can't go against a man's will. That would be immoral."

Zheng Shiduo asked, "What? What kind of stud do you need? Am I studly enough?"

Peony said with a giggle, "I think you are."

Daoist Wang unconsciously imagined Old Zheng alone in a room with Dragonfly Aunt, the atmosphere gradually turning suggestive.

This was bad. His Dao heart... was no longer pure.

Dragonfly Aunt was quite efficient.

In less than half a day, she had not only completed the investigation but also provided a properly formatted investigation report.

Daoist Wang could tell that this aunt might truly be yearning for a temporary romance.

He planned to ask Fu Jian to make a "stud mech." That way, he would not violate his principles while still paying Dragonfly Aunt her reward.

When Wang Jixuan received the investigation report from Dragonfly Aunt, he was "hatching stones" in the workshop.

So-called stone hatching involved using the power of formations and one's own magical power to nurture the recovered Treasure Ore. It was an essential step before refining artifacts.

Simply using formations to nurture them produced slightly inferior results. This was how Wang Jixuan had usually done it in his previous life.

But now...

If it could slightly improve the success rate of artifact refinement and marginally increase a magic tool's power, that was naturally excellent.

Wang Jixuan roughly glanced through the report.

The mood he had only recently regained—sunny and cheerful for several days—quickly sank.

The investigation report was highly detailed. After Peony extracted and summarized it, it could be briefly condensed into three points.

First, Xing Tian's SS-Class Promotion Ceremony was almost ready, but some kind of problem had arisen with the ceremony, and they were actively resolving it.

Second, the Six Elders had forgiven Xing Tian and reached some sort of deal with him. Xing Tian appeared to have given the Six Elders certain precious items.

Third, at least four Psionic Management Committee Judgment Group squads, roughly twenty people, were stationed inside Snow Mountain Base, and there might be even more High-Tier Psionicists.

The Beast Speaker's sudden move had delayed Wang Jixuan for several days and disrupted his plan of action.

Now, he suddenly realized that Xing Tian was already not far from SS-Class.

When the others in the workshop saw Wang Jixuan frowning, they stopped working and gathered around to look at the intelligence Peony had displayed.

Uncle Tai did not understand much about Psionicists, so after looking it over a few times, he went back to his own work.

Zheng Shiduo's expression was also somewhat grave. He said in a low voice, "This needs to be taken seriously. If necessary, we can directly drop a few high-yield nuclear bombs there and blast the hell out of them!"

"If it were that simple, we would have bombed them last time."

Wang Jixuan sighed.

"I can roughly understand it. Most of D2 Comprehensive War Zone's upper ranks have now sided with Psionic Capital.

"They have complete air-defense conditions there.

"We currently have two paths. The first is to ignore the political and military issues, send in a small elite force for a surprise attack, and rush down there with nuclear bombs.

"But according to the report, there is also a Small Fortress beneath Snow Mountain Base. There must be two or three hundred thousand people there, and a large number of innocent people would certainly die.

"The second path is to follow our Commander-in-Chief's line of thought and use overwhelming pressure to force D2 to abandon its protection of Snow Mountain Base before bombing it.

"Civilian casualties would still be extremely severe."

Gao Huating, who was trying to understand this information, wore a serious expression.

Wang Jixuan turned to look at her.

Gao Huating hurriedly raised the vacuum cleaner in her hand, indicating that she was merely a little cleaning girl.

Wang Jixuan: ...

"It's fine. You don't need to force yourself to make expressions. At this stage, you just need to watch and learn more."

Gao Huating hurriedly said, "Okay, Brother Wang."

Zheng Shiduo immediately revealed a meaningful smile.

Wu Man asked, "What obstacle could Xing Tian have encountered?"

"We need to ask Ji Xiao and Ji Yale about that." Wang Jixuan thought for a moment. "Invite Ji Xiao over. Let Ji Yale continue keeping his wife company. Isn't she still pregnant? This is a rare vacation."

Zheng Shiduo muttered, "The word 'invite' is a little too grand. They can't handle that."

Daoist Wang merely smiled without speaking.

He looked at the several-thousand-word intelligence report before him and sank into thought while sitting on the sofa.

Peony suddenly asked, "Should Dragonfly Aunt's information be passed to Shaman and Treant Beta?"

"Tell them," Wang Jixuan said. "Arrange for them to communicate directly with Dragonfly Aunt. But tell her in advance that I need Treant Beta on my side. Commander Fu Jian's need for Beta is even more urgent."

"Yes, Officer. Actually, we can exploit the information gap to deceive them to a certain extent."

"You can swindle and deceive enemies. There is no need to do that to friends."

Wang Jixuan raised his eyebrows and took the chance to lecture Little Peony, who had become a bit too unruly lately.

"If you want friendship to last, this is especially important.

"You have a spiritual body now too. Think more about such matters. Don't spend all your time figuring out how to make shocking remarks. Can that sharp tongue of yours make enemies break down?"

"Oh." Peony responded aggrievedly.

Gao Huating blinked beside them.

The big shot was so fierce today.

Wu Man asked, "Sir, how about the Buddha Hall Squad and Maid Group act together? We can go to Snow Mountain Base early and get rid of Xing Tian."

"Don't rush." Wang Jixuan looked at the pieces of Treasure Ore beside him, which were already emitting a soft glow. "Rushing is useless. We must make more preparations. That place has already become a dragon's den and tiger's lair. We need to prepare for a battle against a true SS-Class Spiritual Practitioner."

Zheng Shiduo asked, "Then don't we need to ask the Commander-in-Chief to act personally?"

"Not necessarily," Wang Jixuan said. "Once my injuries recover, my strength will improve. After that, I'll make a batch of new weapons using these things."

Storage Magic Tools loaded with nuclear bombs, new flying swords to settle the realm!

If that still was not enough, then he would make use of some resources from Dragonfly Aunt's side.

The Naturalist Faction also had SS-Class Psionicists.

"Don't overthink these matters yet. Rest properly." Wang Jixuan smiled, his eyes filled with confidence.

That confidence infected everyone else as well.

It was as though no difficulty could stop them, and no powerful enemy was invincible.

Wang Jixuan silently thought,

Over the next few days, no one could waste his time or stop him from cultivating. No one!

The next day.

"Officer, the Commander-in-Chief is here. He's on the first floor and says there is an important matter that requires you to go over. Officer Ling Tong is here too."