Spirit Source Energy

Spirit Source Energy.

Ji Xinghuo had never figured out how Spirit Source Energy was obtained, but from its name, he could guess that it was some kind of energy related to willpower or thought.

He opened the Myriad Stellar Eye interface and, upon closer inspection, immediately spotted the change.

Other than the numerical values, the information panel on the left side of the interface had not changed. But on the right, within the humanoid phantom identical to himself, the neural network representing Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands inside both arms was faintly flickering, making it particularly conspicuous.

The moment his gaze fell upon it, a prompt appeared: Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands, Level One, upgradeable.

There was now an additional "upgradeable" option.

"Upgrade?"

Ji Xinghuo's heart shook violently. He nearly lost control of himself. Does this mean I can directly upgrade an ability?

He struggled to calm himself and focused his mind on "upgrade."

At once, the dense lines in the phantom's arms representing Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands grew brighter, gleaming as streams of energy rapidly flowed through the neural network.

At the same time, Ji Xinghuo felt changes in his body.

Starting from the Brachial Plexus Nerve in his neck and extending through his arms, palms, and fingertips, a faint warmth spread through him. It felt as though something were crawling inside, itchy and numb with a slight prickling pain, though all of it remained within his tolerance.

The values on the left side of the interface were changing as well.

It had originally read: Ability: Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands (Level One 10/47). The first number in the parentheses represented his progress at the current ability level, and it was rapidly increasing! He had trained painstakingly for three weeks just to raise it from 1 to 10.

But now, it was rising every second!

Under the interrogation room's camera, Ji Xinghuo appeared completely motionless and calm, but turbulent waves were crashing through his heart!

Meanwhile, the value beside Spirit Source Energy: 137 was rapidly dropping.

Ji Xinghuo observed carefully. He paused once to test it and confirmed that every point of ability progress consumed one point of Spirit Source Energy. The increase and decrease matched at a one-to-one ratio.

Half a minute later.

Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands reached 47/47, and the upgrade automatically stopped.

Ji Xinghuo carefully sensed the changes within himself. His hands, hidden beneath the table, trembled at an extremely high frequency, though the movements were minuscule. After several seconds, they returned to normal.

He could feel that his hands had become more nimble, allowing him to easily perform movements he had been unable to do before.

His reaction speed and stability had also improved considerably! On the interface, the information for Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands had updated. The parentheses now read (Level Two 1/227), and the ability displayed within the humanoid phantom was still upgradeable.

"Level Two Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands!"

Ji Xinghuo let out a quiet breath.

He had long understood just how difficult it was to upgrade an Outstanding Ability.

The vast majority of Rangers remained at Level One for their entire lives. Only a small number of intermediate-level and above Rangers could reach Level Two after years of training.

Yet he had done it in only three weeks.

He glanced at his Spirit Source Energy. Exactly 100 points remained.

"The progress for Level Two Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands is actually 227. It increased by nearly five times at once." Ji Xinghuo calculated that even if he invested all his remaining Spirit Source Energy, it would not be enough to upgrade Thousand Spirit Dexterous Hands again.

Before he determined how to obtain Spirit Source Energy, it made more sense to save it for emergencies.

"Spirit Source Energy..."

Ji Xinghuo muttered inwardly. What exactly was this energy, that it could directly upgrade abilities? It was somewhat like experience points in a game, but after exploring it several times, he confirmed that Spirit Source Energy could not increase Stellar Force or evolve his life.

He could not understand it, but he was deeply shaken.

"If I could obtain more Spirit Source Energy..."

Just as Ji Xinghuo was studying the uses of Spirit Source Energy, Min Chongwu entered an office not far from the interrogation room, with Yan Xiao following behind him.

"Director Zhou!"

"Director Zhou."

The two spoke one after the other, but received no response.

A middle-aged man sat behind the desk. He looked to be in his forties, with an ordinary face and average build. There was no sign that he exercised. If he walked down the street, he would hardly draw anyone's attention.

Before entering, Min Chongwu and Yan Xiao had already restrained their mannerisms, even softening their footsteps.

They looked at the man behind the desk, their expressions slightly startled.

As one of the Sharp Sword Bureau's three deputy directors, ranked first among them and second only to the bureau chief in authority and status, Zhou Yishang was currently staring intently at the screen before him, brows furrowed as though he had not heard them at all.

"Director Zhou, what are you looking at so seriously?" Min Chongwu asked curiously.

Zhou Yishang finally looked up. "Take a look yourselves."

He lightly tapped the desk, projecting and enlarging the screen's image into the air. Min Chongwu recognized it at once—it was the area beneath the building where Ji Zongbang had been killed.

It was surveillance footage.

And it came from multiple angles, remaining very clear despite the nighttime setting.

Yan Xiao did not understand at first. But when he saw that one image showed the shadow beneath a bridge pillar, where post-processing had revealed a blurry figure, he immediately realized that this was Ji Zongbang's hiding place.

What happened next completely exceeded his expectations.

In the footage, Ji Xinghuo headed home like any other pedestrian, gliding swiftly in Power Shoes. He remained vigilant the entire way, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. When he reached the building's main entrance, he turned his head and glanced toward the side of the building, where Ji Zongbang was located.

Min Chongwu and Yan Xiao both found this strange.

Yan Xiao found it even harder to understand.

He had personally fought Ji Zongbang. Ji Zongbang was a super Shadow Blade, and his Shadow Stealth was highly accomplished, at least Level Three. He was exceptionally skilled at concealing his tracks, especially in dark environments, where even Yan Xiao found it difficult to lock onto his position.

Ji Zongbang had escaped despite his severe injuries precisely because of that Shadow Stealth.

Yet he had been seen through by a novice Ranger?

Then, the battle erupted without warning.

Ji Xinghuo entered through the main doors as usual, then suddenly seemed to sense danger. He took out his Compound Hunting Bow, nocked an arrow at top speed, and even took the initiative to attack.

Almost simultaneously, Ji Zongbang realized that his whereabouts had been exposed and flashed out from the shadows.

The two seemed as though they had rehearsed it countless times beforehand.

Ji Xinghuo drew his bow and fired three arrows, each more bizarre than the last.

The first arrow blew up an advertisement board. The second ricocheted off the building wall and struck Ji Zongbang's knee. The third came in at a lower angle, apparently aimed at Ji Zongbang's chest, but Ji Zongbang lost his balance and dropped, causing the arrow to fly straight into his eye without the slightest deviation.

"Damn..."

Min Chongwu stared in stunned disbelief. It felt as if he had been hit by an Electric Shock, and if he had any body hair left, it would all have been standing on end.

Yan Xiao's pupils shrank violently into pinpoints.

"How is that possible?"

His first reaction was that it was fake, an AI-generated fabricated video. But Director Zhou had watched it for so long—how could he not have considered that possibility?

The battle had been very brief, lasting less than five seconds.

The footage replayed on a loop. The three watched it more than ten times in a row, yet the more they watched, the less they understood.

Zhou Yishang paused the footage, a thoughtful expression on his face, and suddenly asked, "Which of his three arrows do you think was the most brilliant?"

Min Chongwu instinctively wanted to say the second arrow.

"The first arrow," Yan Xiao answered immediately, without the slightest hesitation.

"Oh?" Zhou Yishang seemed somewhat surprised.

"The second arrow used a collision to redirect the arrow. That technique is impressive, but many super Rangers and Trackers can do it as well." A hissing sound came from Yan Xiao's mouth, making his speech somewhat unclear. "The third arrow was a prediction, and its difficulty was slightly lower than the second."

"The truly impressive one was the first arrow."

Yan Xiao pointed at the exploded advertisement board on the screen. "This kind of advertisement board is designed very thoroughly, with virtually every safety hazard eliminated. In the vast majority of cases, even if it is damaged, it will not explode, let alone leak electricity."

"Yet he blew it up with a single arrow. I find that hard to understand. Was it luck, or did he already know there was something wrong with that advertisement board?"

"The explosion itself was not very lethal. It posed no threat to Ji Zongbang."

"He did it to force Ji Zongbang to avoid the electrified puddle and move closer to the building wall. Only then could he create favorable conditions for the ricocheting second arrow."

"These three arrows formed a chain of traps, one after another, each link connected to the next."

"If any one of those arrows had gone wrong, it would have been impossible to kill Ji Zongbang..."

Even as he said this, Yan Xiao's eyes remained filled with disbelief. Even after watching the surveillance footage more than ten times, he still did not believe this was something a novice Ranger could accomplish.

But the facts were right before him.

Min Chongwu could not help glancing at Yan Xiao. Sometimes, he had to admit that this viper's mind was more agile than his own, capable of seeing more information.

"But he succeeded!"

Zhou Yishang let out an exclamation of amazement, then shook his head. "But I don't understand."

He operated the screen, displaying Ji Xinghuo's citizen profile.

Yan Xiao had quickly browsed through it earlier, but this was Min Chongwu's first time seeing it, so he hurriedly read it in detail.

"This person is one of the Public Children. His identity and background are completely clean, and there are no issues with the record of his movements from childhood to the present. Based on his recorded statements, online browsing history, search content, and big-data analysis, the probability of him being a spy or hostile element is only one in a thousand."

Zhou Yishang said quietly, "Among his family, friends, classmates, and people he has interacted with over the past five years, several have been placed on the Level One surveillance list. But the issues are minor and have nothing to do with him."

"AI estimates place his political coordinates and ideological spectrum at 93% materialist inclination, 87% support for the Asian Commonwealth, and 68% Unificationist faction inclination."

"Ji Xinghuo is a model outstanding citizen!"

Zhou Yishang finished reading the file.

There was nothing to criticize in Ji Xinghuo's records or history. People like him were not rare in the Asia-Pacific Community; there were many, many of them.

More than ninety percent of the citizen profiles reviewed by the Sharp Sword Bureau were like this.

"So Ji Zongbang really did just happen to run into Ji Xinghuo, and then got shot dead by him?" Yan Xiao asked.

Zhou Yishang nodded. "Yes."

"Then how do we explain a novice Ranger killing a super Esper?" Yan Xiao still refused to accept it.

"Because he's a genius!" Min Chongwu declared loudly. "A peerless genius among the world's best, with combat talent beyond anything we possess!"