Snowy Night: Star Net

Shanghai Suburbs, 22:15, September 18, 2013.

Shanghai at night was still so captivating, like a beauty veiled in mist, making you want to draw close and lift her mysterious veil! But this was the suburbs, far quieter than the city center.

A figure in white drifted along the sidewalk. He was a young man of around twenty, fairly handsome, though his long hair, casually spilling over his shoulders, made him seem somewhat unconventional and a little languid. Yet it held an inexplicable allure for girls. Most captivating of all, however, were his eyes—bright eyes, eyes brilliant as stars.

A pretty girl in a small red vest stared blankly at the young man passing beside her, unable to help being drawn in by his temperament.

The young man glanced at the girl, and a helpless bitter smile escaped his lips. "It seems entering the first level of the 'Joyful Spirit Realm' isn't entirely a good thing! But..." A smile suddenly appeared on his face. He drew his right hand from his pocket. It was an eye-catching hand; in the darkness, it unconsciously flowed with a faint, strange radiance. A streak of icy blade light flashed between his fingers...

The "Star Realm Three Stages" was an ancient secret manual left behind by the young man's father, whom he had never met. It contained no secrets for cultivating internal energy, only miraculous flying dagger techniques. The flying dagger techniques were merely the foundation; what truly mattered in the "Star Realm Three Stages" was cultivation of one's state of mind. Once the flying dagger techniques had been wholly mastered, once they had been thoroughly comprehended, when one's state of mind reached the mark, one would naturally attain one of its realms.

The first realm of the "Star Realm Three Stages" was precisely the "Joyful Spirit Realm," and the young man had now reached that realm! At the end of the manual was the writer's name—Li Xunhuan.

The young man only knew that in ancient times, there had been a martial arts master named Li Xunhuan. He did not know that Li Xunhuan possessed heaven-defying talent and, in an unprecedented feat, had used little more than a hundred years to enter the Dao through flying daggers, shatter the void, and ascend in broad daylight! The "Star Realm Three Stages" was merely Li Xunhuan's most basic cultivation manual from those days.

As he walked, the young man arrived outside a villa.

It was an exceedingly ordinary villa. In this tranquil suburb, if there were not a thousand villas like it, there were at least eight hundred. The young man casually took out a ring of keys, unlocked the door, and walked straight inside.

Several girls passing by the villa saw the handsome young man. One girl dressed in pink immediately brightened and said, "Ah, he's so handsome! This villa seems like it must be worth nearly ten million! I've decided—I have to find a boy like him in the future!"

A girl in purple beside her laughed. "Stop dreaming. You should work hard instead. There are plenty of handsome, wealthy boys in Shanghai, but if you go looking for one, you'll have a hard time finding him. But if you don't look, maybe someday you'll run into your Prince Charming!"

Still, they knew such things were merely fantasies. Yet countless girls continued to dress themselves to the nines in hopes of landing a rich husband, wishing that one day they might become the 'Cinderella' of a fairy tale!

In a place like Shanghai, plenty of people owned villas. But a luxurious villa like this cost at least several million, perhaps close to ten million. To own such a villa, one had to be either rich or noble. From one angle, this villa represented the young man's identity and status.

Once inside, the villa was no different from an ordinary one. It looked exactly like the home of an average wealthy family. Yet the moment the young man entered, he headed straight for the bathroom.

Entering the bathroom, the young man casually took out a card and inserted it into a hidden slot behind the mirror. The slot suddenly lit up, shooting out a red beam. The young man stepped forward and let the red light shine into his eyes.

"Iris and identity confirmed! Welcome, Lieutenant Li Yang!" an electronic voice sounded. The bathtub immediately rose nearly two meters, revealing a passage beneath it.

This young man was Li Yang.

Li Yang, male, twenty-four years old. Two years ago, he had been specially recruited from Dragon Fang, the ace unit of the special forces, into the nation's Security Bureau Group 9! He was also the first member in the history of Security Bureau Group 9 to be recruited from the military. The main reason was Li Yang's Never Miss flying dagger mastery!

Li Yang looked at the passage before him and smiled helplessly. "Couldn't they have chosen a better location? They had to put it in the bathroom. I wonder which 'genius' made that decision." With a flicker of his body, he floated up like a goose feather and landed in the passage beneath the bathtub...

It was an elevator. As Li Yang dropped into it, it sped downward. For an ordinary person, under such rapid descent, even if their mind could endure it, their body could not.

But Li Yang's expression did not change. He remained as calm as ever, with a faint smile still hanging at the corners of his lips.

"Ding!" At the crisp sound, the elevator doors opened, and Li Yang stepped out.

This was a secret base around fifty meters underground. The villa was the residence assigned to Li Yang, and it was also one of the passages leading to the base. Among the nearly thousand villas in this suburb, ten belonged to Security Bureau Group 9 personnel stationed in Shanghai.

The moment ordinary people entered this underground base, they would be drawn to the decorations on the ceiling above. Above the base's training room was what seemed to be an entire starry sky, a virtual reality created entirely through advanced technology. It gave people the marvelous sensation of being in outer space.

Glittering stars hung throughout the virtual "starry sky" overhead, making it feel even more real.

This base was Security Bureau Group 9's Shanghai base—Star Net.

"Li Yang, you brat, you're here! I just tested myself, and my energy has already reached 200 to 300 crystals, haha... Li Yang, are you jealous?" A man roughly fifty meters away laughed loudly at Li Yang.

Whoosh!

A streak of blade light flashed. The man froze, slowly touched his lower body, then suddenly wailed, "Ah! Li Yang, you bastard, you actually went for it! Just a little closer, just a little closer, and Tian Lin's beautiful life would've been buried by you! You've gone too far, way too far..."

Li Yang did not care. With a faint smile, he said, "Let's see if you still dare show off. My energy is only around eighty crystals, but as long as I have a flying dagger in hand, dealing with you is no problem at all. Enough chatting. I'm going to train!"

Tian Lin smiled as well. Everyone in Security Bureau Group 9's Shanghai base greatly admired Li Yang, because Li Yang was the only one selected from the special forces, while Tian Lin and the others had undergone special training since childhood.

"That blockhead Hei Yan is still in the training area. Sister Yan, the big sis of the group, is at the base too, but she's in the testing area. The Tan Family Five Brothers are also testing their energy. All right, I've trained for six hours today as well. I'm leaving first, haha... A wonderful nightlife is waiting for me! Heh heh, why am I telling that to a hypocrite like you? Hmph, hmph..." Tian Lin snorted and left.

Li Yang merely shook his head with a bitter smile. He took out his phone and looked at the colorful wallpaper on its screen. It was a beautiful girl. Li Yang smiled, though a trace of melancholy flashed deep in his eyes before vanishing in an instant. He entered his private changing room, put on his training clothes, gently kissed his phone, and placed it in the locker.

"Xue, wait for me!" Li Yang murmured. Then he suddenly shook his head, the brilliant smile returning to his face as he walked into the training area.

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