His keen Psionic instincts let him sense the heat flaring across a hundred or more points on his body. It was an extreme reaction boosted by Psionics, allowing him to detect the direction of his opponent's attack almost instantly.
His Lightsaber darted out in a precise sequence, each strike perfectly placed to intercept hers. He didn't give an inch!
With Psionics boosting them, the two exchanged a hundred thrusts in the space of a few breaths. Their Lightsabers clashed more than a hundred times in quick succession, the rapid series of hissing sounds blending into a rumble like muffled thunder.
"Impressive swordsmanship!" Just then, Liu Manyun lowered her Lightsaber and retreated. She flicked her free left hand, sending a massive surge of Psionics, bound into a whip, lashing toward Lin Zhichen.
Bam!
The air shuddered violently. Psionic energy whipped through the air, sending astral force in every direction. If it struck, even a body forged from steel would be torn to pieces.
Lin Zhichen had been charging after her, but he had no choice but to stop. With a casual sweep of his hand, he raised a screen of Psionic energy before him like a shield.
The two forces collided with a violent tremor, scattering astral force that carved furrows into the sturdy alloy-reinforced concrete.
Li Murong, flying overhead, realized the battle was over and quietly approached. She gaped when she saw that between Lin Zhichen and Liu Manyun,
a furrow nearly a hundred meters long had appeared. The ground lay in shattered pieces, almost as if the entire area had been plowed. Under the two combatants' Psionic bombardment, the high-strength concrete, laced with metal powder, had been as soft as sand.
"What a brute!" She couldn't help sticking out her tongue.
By then, Liu Manyun had completely withdrawn her Psionics. A clear look of astonishment appeared in her beautiful eyes. "How quickly does your Psionic Reserve recover?"
Psionicists were said to have boundless energy and limitless Psionics, but every Psionicist had a limit to how fast their reserves could recover.
If they unleashed all their strength in a short time, they would spend more than they could replenish and enter a brief slump. In that moment, whoever recovered faster would gain the advantage—and it would be an overwhelming one.
The answer wasn't available on StarNet. Lin Zhichen hesitated, then asked, "What's yours?"
"Thirty percent." Liu Manyun gave him a long look before answering.
If her Psionic Reserve had a maximum of 100 points, she could recover 30 points every second.
"Mine's 29%," Lin Zhichen replied without changing expression.
"Heh." Liu Manyun chuckled.
"Wow, your talent is incredible!" the beautiful scientist watching from the sidelines exclaimed. "According to the Milky Way Galaxy Psionic Association's research, the upper limit for Psionic recovery is 30%.
"More than 80% of Psionicists recover at a rate of no more than 10%, and only 0.1% of gifted Psionicists can reach 20% or higher.
A recovery rate above % is found in fewer than one in ten thousand Psionicists. With talent like yours, you'd be considered a genius even across the entire Milky Way Galaxy!"
The Milky Way Galaxy Psionic Association was a loose, pan-civilization organization serving the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Its purpose was to expand the Psionicist population, raise their potential, and safeguard their well-being.
Lin Zhichen met Liu Manyun's half-smiling gaze without a change in expression, but inwardly, he felt relieved.
Only now did he learn that Psionicists didn't recover their Psionics instantly. There was actually a recovery rate!
That's right—his recovery rate was 100%!
What did that mean?
It meant he could completely ignore Psionic expenditure. As long as his Psionic Reserve was high enough, he could unleash his power almost without limit. Among Psionicists of the same tier, that made him practically invincible!
"Again!" Without a pause, their Lightsabers clashed more than a dozen times in an instant, making the air tremble.
By now, Lin Zhichen had caught on. Liu Manyun was teaching him Psionic techniques and Lightsaber swordsmanship. Whatever her reasons, she was genuinely helping him.
Suppressing his complicated feelings, he swung his Lightsaber, and the air hummed.
Their figures flashed like lightning. In a single breath, they fought from the ground to the sky, then back down again. Their blades crossed hundreds of times in an instant, thunder rumbling overhead as the air churned.
In the midst of their fierce exchange, Lin Zhichen quickly adapted to combat between Psionicists. His Light Blade counterattacks grew faster and faster, while his swings became smaller and smaller. Just using Psionics to release and constrain the plasma beam transformed the efficiency of his Lightsaber thrusts.
Only then did he understand why the Psionic Trooper Unit, despite being made up of flesh and blood, ranked among the five-star army alongside unconventional powerhouses like the Mechanical War Fortress and Bio-Armor.
In some ways, compared with Mechanical Ascenders who had abandoned their brains and coldly sealed them in jars, and Gene Ascendants who had forsaken humanity to become all manner of strange beings, Psionicists were the most dangerous of the three kinds of evolved humans—even though they retained their human form.
At first, Lin Zhichen was at a complete disadvantage. But once he began to adapt, his Diligence Repays the Heavens talent kicked in. The speed and lethality of his Lightsaber thrusts grew almost visibly. His movements, which had seemed a little sluggish, became ghostlike as Psionics accelerated him. A gust of wind swept by, and he was gone.
The people peeking out from the building were astonished to find they could now see only a red blur and a green blur flashing back and forth. In the blink of an eye, the two had circled several buildings. Thunderous booms rang out without pause, and the astral force they unleashed tore through the air, leaving conspicuous trails.
Wei Chenglin had already had someone record the scene. Once he got approval, he planned to edit the footage and use it to showcase the Meteor Mercenary Group's strength.
Psionicists had tremendous staying power, especially in a low-cost skill match like Lightsaber swordsmanship. The two fought for a full three hours. It wasn't until Liu Manyun knocked Lin Zhichen's blade aside with a strike and thrust her chest against him that he snapped out of the intricate swordplay.
To his delight, he realized that over the past three hours, he had beaten Liu Manyun with his Lightsaber technique. In the end, the relentless pressure of his sword strokes had forced her to resort to a move that would have left them both injured—if he hadn't stopped in time.
"Huh?! What a shameless man!" Li Murong gritted her teeth as she watched. She had still seen that scoundrel take the opportunity to grope her. The two had ended up grappling together before vanishing in a flash of light.
Only her keen Psionicist vision had caught the truth of what happened at the end: the two had fought their way into a high-rise villa, then pulled the bright curtains shut.
The next morning, in broad daylight, Lin Zhichen lay in bed holding the languid beauty in his arms, lost in thought.
"That was reckless. How did we go from fighting to... this?" He couldn't help lamenting to himself. Needless to say, now that they'd crossed this line, he'd have an even harder time getting rid of her.
"I really am too young. I can't resist temptation!"
The advantage of being a Psionicist showed itself: he didn't feel tired at all. If anything, he felt even more at ease.
"What are you thinking about?" Liu Manyun traced circles on his chest.
"I'm thinking about the development of the corps. What level is your Thorn Rose? How strong is it?" Lin Zhichen asked casually.
"It's level five. We just need to complete the military's advancement mission to be promoted to a Legion." Liu Manyun answered lazily.
"We haven't made the preparations yet, so we're putting it off for now."
"Level five? You're that strong? How many ships does your fleet have? It must have been around for quite a while," Lin Zhichen asked, intrigued.
"My mother started building it, and it's been around for over a hundred years." Liu Manyun continued, "We're doing all right. The corps currently has more than a hundred capital ships—Battleships and Battlecruisers—over a thousand Cruisers, and more than ten thousand other ships."
"Even a level-five Mercenary Group is that strong?" Lin Zhichen was genuinely shocked. "If a Mercenary Group is like that, what about a Legion?"
"No. Thorn Rose is a newcomer among level-five Mercenary Groups, and we're near the bottom in strength. Compared with established Mercenary Groups that have been around for two or three hundred years, our foundation is far too weak." Liu Manyun shifted into a more comfortable position and continued to lie there.
"As for Legions, even the weakest have at least a dozen large fleets. Each fleet is no weaker than one of those established level-five Mercenary Groups.
"Don't focus on how many ships they have. Pay attention to their Heroes. Every large fleet is bound to have four or five Heroes supporting it. The fleet is just a platform for them to display their strength!"
"They're that strong..." Only now did Lin Zhichen feel the depth of the Federation's resources. Even the private military groups under its command had that kind of strength. What about the Regular Army? Surely it wasn't weaker than private military groups. How much stronger was it?
He didn't ask, because there was no point. At this stage, all of that was still far beyond the Meteor Mercenary Group.
"What, not what you imagined?" Liu Manyun asked. "Did you think a little talent meant you'd eventually dominate the stars?
"The Federation has never been short on geniuses. The Federal First Academy and the Federal University recruit talented students from thousands of colonized planets across the Federation, but they accept only 1,000 students each year. On average, that's less than one per planet!
"By the time students graduate from this academy three years later, they're all elite-level evolved humans at a minimum. More than a hundred new Heroes graduate every year!"
Lin Zhichen licked his lips. "Tsk. The Federal University really missed out by not admitting me. Just imagine what they'll say when the strongest Hero in human history turns out to be a graduate of the Virtual Academy."
"Ha!" Liu Manyun laughed. "You really are confident!"
"Speaking of which, where do the fleets of those old Mercenary Groups and Legions come from? Do they build every ship one by one?" Lin Zhichen wondered.
"Surely ship blueprints alone wouldn't be enough?"
"Of course they don't rely only on loot drops. Most of those blueprints are drawn by draftsmen." Liu Manyun casually revealed some secrets.
"Most skills can be learned through independent study, and those skills can then be elevated into talents through spiritualization. Warship Piloting is one example.
"But a tiny number of special talents can only be innate; they can't be gained through Skill Spiritualization. Draftsmanship is one of them.
"To become a draftsman, you must have a talent for drafting. Only then can you acquire drafting skills and create different blueprints according to your skill level.
"Draftsmen are strategic assets to the Federation and all Civilized Nations. Without the support of advanced draftsmen, the number of ships in a civilization's fleet would shrink to one-thousandth or even one ten-thousandth of what it is now!"
"Damn." Lin Zhichen drew in a sharp breath. Her meaning was clear: advanced draftsmen were the backbone of Civilized Nations. If they ever lost the next generation, their civilization could collapse in an instant.
"That's why you'll never find an NPC with a talent for drafting in a Cloning Factory. Every faction does everything it can to stockpile these strategic assets," Liu Manyun concluded.
"I see." Lin Zhichen remembered now. Dr. Will's Ship Design skill involved draftsmanship. Because of the lack of key personnel, that skill had basically gone unused.
"Tell me, if I had some truly valuable treasure, would the Federation give me strong support?"
Liu Manyun rolled her eyes. "Do you think the Federation cares about ordinary treasures? We're in the Interstellar Era. Psionic Plants are everyday dishes on the tables of the upper nobility. What could possibly count as a treasure?"
Psionic Plants grew in certain Psionic environments and were extraordinarily rare across the universe. One way to cultivate them on a large scale was to have Psionicists draw Psionics from the Psionic Realm through their connection to it, then slowly release the energy into the environment to maintain conditions suitable for the plants' growth.
Put simply, it meant having Psionicists spend a great deal of time working as farmers and caring for Psionic Plants.
This had even given rise to an entirely new profession: Spirit Planter.
"An elixir made from a Relic!" Lin Zhichen said.
"Hm? A Permission Relic? You have a treasure like that?!" Liu Manyun sat up in shock, revealing her alluring upper body.
"Lie down while we talk." Lin Zhichen admired the view, then pulled the beauty into his arms and displayed the data for NZT-50. "This is it."
As Liu Manyun read through it, her expression grew serious.
Lin Zhichen hadn't told her about NZT-50 just because she was his lover. In the Interstellar Era, marriage and families had all but disappeared. Having children was simply a legal obligation.
That was right: Federation law said people didn't have to marry, but they did have to have at least two children before the end of their childbearing years. Having more earned rewards; having fewer was illegal. But once born, children were taken in by the Federation, which raised them to adulthood.
He told her as a point of reference. At least in the Solar System, he didn't have to worry too much.
"Do you know what kind of impact this would have if it got out? People would die!" Liu Manyun looked at him with a complicated expression. She had thought she understood him, but he was even more mysterious than she'd imagined. How important were Permission Relics? They were strategic assets possessed by nation-level powers!
NZT-50 in particular could change countless people's fates, even with a limit of one pill per month!
"Of course I know. I just don't know if the Federation would come after me for it," he said.
Before you continue