"OK."

The car started.

It was only then that Shi Jing snapped back to reality, cold sweat trickling down his spine.

"Was that an internal check?"

He'd almost been hypnotized just now. Luckily, his other body's reminder had kept him from slipping up—otherwise, he would've spilled the truth.

A few minutes later, the vehicle arrived at the scene.

The three team members immediately secured the target area and swiftly launched their operation.

Minutes later, someone was brought out.

The captain gave him a meaningful look. "We caught two people during this investigation and squeezed out some intel on the Insect Blood Society. You did well."

"Just lucky," Shi Jing said with a smile.

"Luck alone couldn't have pulled this off. There were supernatural artifacts on-site masking the traces—your senses are sharp."

With that, the captain walked into the building ahead. Before long, they escorted out a man covered in injuries.

The Chief?

Shi Jing recognized the guy at a glance, a flicker of surprise in his heart.

"Didn't expect them to nab him directly."

At the same time, in a café a kilometer away.

"The Shadow Bureau made their move." Cheng Junneng put down his phone, his expression complicated.

"They have the ability to influence official operations?"

He couldn't help but feel curious about the girl's identity in front of him.

Just then, Alice seemed to receive some news. She stood up and brushed off her skirt. "The Chief's been dealt with. I should be going now."

"That fast?"

"Mm. I originally thought we could handle it on our own, but I underestimated the opposition, so I borrowed a little extra power."

"A little extra..." Ji Xue muttered. "That's hardly 'a little.'"

"Miss Alice, is there some faction backing you? Are they clashing with the Insect Blood Society too?"

"What do you think?"

Alice gave a meaningful smile, waved her hand, and left the two of them staring at each other.

"This matter's settled for now. My situation should be safe for the time being, right?"

Back home, Ye Xin felt like a deflated balloon, flopping lazily backward onto the bed.

Three girls lay side by side on the bed.

One was unconscious, one was a vegetable, and only Ye Xin was still normal.

"The Chief will probably rat me out. But even if he does, it'll be hard for them to track my location. No... that's not certain. For safety, I should find a way to live separately from Alice."

The golden hair was way too conspicuous.

Ye Qian had come to realize her own weakness.

Her level had gone up, but looking at the stats alone, the improvement was very limited. To tank bullets with her body, she'd probably need several more levels at least.

"I need to learn more intel, get a clear picture of my future."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.

It was what the Black Mask had given her at the end of the transaction, recording the time of the next gathering.

"This should be my only lead for now."

Letting out a breath, she forcefully nudged the sleeping original body. After a minute or two of fussing, it finally woke up.

Suppressing the intense dizziness, she got up, put on her jacket, walked to the mirror, and tried to make herself look as presentable as possible. Then Ye Qian grabbed her ID and headed out.

Alone, she went to a nearby hotel, pretended to be exhausted, checked into a room, and collapsed into sleep.

The clones stayed entirely at home.

Evening.

"Shi Jing, the higher-ups think you've made a major contribution this time. This is your reward."

Called into the office, Shi Jing was a bit surprised to see the captain smiling as he slid a box over.

He opened it himself. A round orb and a document came into view.

He reached out to touch it, and the sphere dissolved into a stream of light, surging into his body.

[Acquired Life Energy ×600]

"This is..."

"Congratulations, you're now an official member of our team." The captain said with a grin. "Since your strength is still lacking, I applied for this Life Energy for you, and the Bureau approved it."

"Thank you, Captain." Shi Jing said, surprise and gratitude flooding his voice.

Damn, this was a jackpot.

The Shadow Bureau was seriously loaded—600 Life Energy in one go. He had no idea if he could even earn that much from a single mission on his own.

Best of all, this energy was allocated by Ye Qian herself, meaning she could use it directly on herself.

"Since I've managed to infiltrate the Shadow Bureau, I might as well use this chance to boost Shi Jing's body."

Lately, she'd been Proliferating more and more, and she keenly felt the lack of strength. She decided to use this free resource to level herself up.

"I'll leave 160 points for Shi Jing—that's exactly enough for two levels."

The remaining 440 points, she transferred entirely to Ye Qian herself.

Her main body went from LV7 to LV9, costing 320 points.

Then she spent another 100 to raise Ye Xin from level 6 to 7.

Everything settled, with 20 points left over.

"That burned through fast," she grumbled inwardly.

At lower levels, it wasn't so bad. But once you got higher, wasn't she basically raising a whole bunch of bodies at once?

This was a real headache. She'd probably have to slow down on nurturing some bodies selectively and focus on her main body from now on.

While her main body was dormant this time, she didn't waste a second. Instead, she took control of Shi Jing and immersed herself fully in recalling the knowledge of the Transcendent world stored in his mind.

She had to admit—though this guy wasn't high-ranking and had only been brought in recently, the intel he held was still pretty useful.

"So at LV20, you can choose a class and advance?"

Transcendent power encompassed a vast system.

Starting from LV1, each level granted a steady improvement.

But in the end, the attributes gained per level were limited for everyone. Even so-called geniuses couldn't push the maximum increase past 0.5. That meant leveling alone couldn't achieve a leap in individual power.

So how did one get stronger—or even extend their lifespan?

Simple: advancement.

In fact, the process of using Life Energy to level up was all about building a foundation for advancement.

Once an ordinary person reached LV20, the quantitative changes in their life force had accumulated. At that point, they could choose a path of their own to break through, becoming a higher-order existence.

That higher-order existence was called a Transcendent.

Interestingly, breaking through wasn't just a matter of meeting conditions. It required some rather abstract methods to achieve.

The most common method was a ritual.

You performed a corresponding ritual to break through.

Only a very few would seek help from a deity of a related domain, or some entity beyond the mortal world, to assist in their ascension.

"Seeking help from gods and entities beyond the world? I didn't expect this world to even have gods?"

She realized she might have misjudged the place she'd transmigrated to.

For instance, here, the steam engine was invented only a hundred years ago. The widespread adoption of tools like cars and phones was actually driven by The Church.

Take the local faith, the Light Prayer Church—they preached that all things were created by the God of Light Prayer, and that all technology existed only with divine permission.

Five years ago, The Church once caused an entire town's technology to completely fail. In that state, people found that all technological products lost their function, even microscopic particles vanished, and the world reverted to how it used to be.

Chapter 15: The Writing Sparrow

"So they can actually disable technology."

Thinking about it carefully, this place was originally a Transcendent world leaning toward the eerie and mysterious. It was just that some force—perhaps The Church—had interfered, pushing technology forward by leaps and bounds into its current state.

In past eras, ordinary people had little understanding of the Hidden World.

Now, thanks to advances in the internet, communication had become much more convenient. But for ordinary people to access hidden information around them was still no easy task.

The most critical point was that any information involving LV20 and above was problematic.

Level 20 was a watershed. Beyond it, power itself carried toxicity, and all knowledge would drive people to collapse and pain.

After roughly reviewing the information in Shi Jing's mind, Little Soul let out a soft breath.

"If I want to break through to LV20 quickly, relying solely on the alternate space is too slow."

In reality, she could consider using Purple Crystal Coins to buy some strength-boosting items. Of course, exchanging them for money was also important—she had several bodies to support now.

"If I can buy Life Energy, then earning Purple Crystal Coins becomes even more necessary."

She couldn't wait any longer—the next gathering was still days away, and she began to think about reaching out to relevant people.

"It's not like there's no chance."

The number of Transcendents in the real world was higher than imagined, especially with the large-scale emergence of otherworldly players in recent years, which had further boosted the count.

Even if only one in a thousand people became a Transcendent, that would still be a staggering number, and the actual ratio was likely far higher than that.

"Let Alice use Empathy."

The Yellow Dog from before had run off somewhere, so she shifted her target to a sparrow.

"Whew, so this is the world through a sparrow's eyes?"

Under Empathy, everything felt a bit strange.

But the view was remarkably clear—aside from the colors being different from human vision, it actually surpassed her own eyesight.

She tried to exert influence, and the sparrow began to fly.

The streets below rushed past, and after traveling a kilometer, the sparrow landed on a windowsill.

A pretty girl stood by the window.

"Wow, what a cute little sparrow." The girl leaned down, blinking excitedly at it.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Surprised that the sparrow hadn't fled, she quickly grabbed some sunflower seeds from nearby and placed them in front of it. "Want some?"

Normally, a sparrow would have bolted long ago, but under Alice's direction, it overcame its fear and pecked at a few seeds.

"So this is what it feels like for a sparrow to eat—not bad at all."

Alice was actually getting a little absorbed.

Thump, thump, thump!

Just then, the door to the room swung open, and the girl quickly sat up straight.