Jia Yi's Disciple

"Xiao Yu, now that you can walk freely, what plans do you have for your future life?" Jia Yi looked at Lin Qingyu.

Although Zheng Xinyi or Lin Meng should have been the ones to ask this, Jia Yi had truly taken a liking to Lin Qingyu's talent. Moreover, Lin Meng was his disciple, so he could be considered one of Lin Qingyu's elders. It was only natural for him to ask.

In fact, even if Lin Qingyu were not a Mental Master, a fifteen-year-old advanced warrior who had never cultivated any Origin Force was already astonishing enough.

That meant that once Lin Qingyu began cultivating, he could practically step into the Warlord level immediately. His future advancement to the War God level was almost guaranteed.

"I do." Lin Qingyu nodded. He had a very clear plan for his future. "I plan to start cultivating Gene Energy and improve my strength first. But I won't devote all my energy to becoming stronger. I'll probably also conduct some scientific research."

"Research?" Jia Yi was somewhat curious. "What kind of research?"

"Research into pharmaceuticals and biology," Lin Qingyu said. "The same field as my mother."

Lin Qingyu's mother, Zheng Xinyi, was one of Huaxia Country's foremost scientists. Her specialties were pharmaceuticals and biological sciences, and she had entered the Huaxia Academy of Sciences as top talent before reaching forty.

"Oh? Do you want to be like your mother?" Jia Yi nodded. "Wanting to become a scientist is a good thing, but with your talent, you have every chance of becoming a top-tier powerhouse. Why not devote all your energy to becoming stronger?"

Is he testing me? Lin Qingyu pondered inwardly. Jia Yi's question had already gone beyond the scope of an elder simply showing concern for a junior. It sounded more like a master testing his disciple's character.

Still, Lin Qingyu was not worried. After all, he had his own reasons for choosing to become a part-time researcher.

"I've calculated the number of human martial artists. The total should not exceed two million. The reason we can currently maintain a balance with the monsters is because the gap between our top powerhouses and theirs is not large—if anything, we are slightly stronger." As the child of a War God, he had been exposed to quite a bit of information since childhood. "But the gap between ordinary people and monsters is far too great. Once the monsters break that balance, perhaps the top powerhouses will survive, but vast numbers of civilians, and even ordinary martial artists, will die. Humans grieve when their compatriots die, but monsters do not care whether low-level monsters live or die. Therefore, the initiative in the balance between humans and monsters actually lies with the monsters. I don't think that is favorable to humanity."

"Oh? Then what do you think can break the current situation?" Jia Yi asked.

"There are two ways. First, humanity's top powerhouses make an enormous breakthrough—one so great that the monsters cannot wear them down through sheer numbers. But judging from the current situation, that is difficult. The second is for the non-powerhouse portion of humanity to grow stronger! On one hand, they need to become stronger themselves; on the other, we need to develop low-cost weapons capable of threatening monsters." Lin Qingyu's thoughts were clear. "There are actually many ways to strengthen people themselves, such as Dragon Blood. But Dragon Blood is very expensive. If we can conduct research and reduce the cost of these methods, humanity as a whole will definitely receive a tremendous boost. Only when all humans become stronger can humanity truly stand tall again and reclaim its place as Earth's master. If, by some chance, the monsters launch an all-out assault, having everyone become stronger would at least reduce the casualties."

"Good. Very good." Jia Yi happily praised him after hearing Lin Qingyu's answer.

Lin Qingyu's willingness to consider the vast majority of people beyond the top powerhouses made him very happy.

Most powerful martial artists on Earth focused on breakthroughs in their personal strength. Of course, that was not a bad thing, and Jia Yi could only be pleased to see most powerhouses grow stronger.

After all, once those powerhouses successfully reached higher realms, humanity's overall strength would increase. It would make those Lord-level and King-level monsters wary.

But the monster world did not consist solely of top-tier monsters!

Beast Soldiers and Beast Generals might be beneath the notice of top powerhouses, but for ninety-nine percent of Earth's population, they were already nightmare-like existences!

And most of the time, it was the military that resisted those Beast Soldiers and Beast Generals. Many soldiers in the military were not even martial artists.

Thus, there had always been sacrifices, and there were never few of them.

Jia Yi was a powerhouse, but he was more than just a powerhouse. His gaze had never been limited to humanity's peak.

If he had previously wanted to take Lin Qingyu as his disciple because of his talent, then now both Lin Qingyu's talent and character delighted him.

"Xiao Yu, are you willing to take me as your master?" Jia Yi asked without hesitation.

"Uh, Grandpa Jia, my dad is your disciple too, isn't he?" Lin Qingyu wanted to evade the matter, but he could not say so directly.

Jia Yi asking him to become his disciple was not like the relationship between a student and teacher at school. It was closer to the relationship between master and disciple in ancient times. But if that happened, the generational hierarchy between him and his father would become a problem.

Moreover, he understood why Jia Yi thought so highly of him, but what Jia Yi saw did not necessarily match his true self completely.

"It's fine, Xiao Yu. Your father would be overjoyed that you could become Commander Jia's disciple. If it really comes to it, you can each address things according to your own generation," Zheng Xinyi said.

"That's right." Jia Yi smiled. "A'Meng surely won't mind."

"Disciple Lin Qingyu greets Master." Lin Qingyu hesitated briefly, but in the end, he performed the formal rites of a disciple before Jia Yi.

Lin Qingyu's hesitation was not because he would be gaining another master.

After all, as Lin Meng's son, he should already treat Jia Yi with the filial respect due to a grandfather. Changing his status to disciple was not much of an issue. No matter what, he would still have to show respect.

The real reason for his hesitation was that he was not truly the kind of person who cared for the whole world as Jia Yi believed.

His analysis had been genuine, but it was based on the premise that he had not read the original work.

It was also true that he wanted to become a researcher, but his fundamental purpose in doing so was not to reduce the sacrifices of ordinary soldiers. Rather, according to his plans, he wanted to become a "pharmacist," or rather, a "Cosmic Researcher," in the future, then use pharmacy as a starting point to develop in the field of refining treasures.

This profession would make the fullest use of the special abilities of "Absolute Record" and "True Deduction" within his Will Space, and it could also make money.

Besides, becoming a top researcher had been one of his dreams in his previous life.

Lin Qingyu knew very well that while he was not a bad person, he was certainly not as noble as Jia Yi believed.

Even in his previous life, when he had read Swallowed Star, he had admired Jia Yi as a person. Now, as Jia Yi's junior in this life, he was even less willing to gain Jia Yi's favor by "putting on an act."

Of course, Lin Qingyu ultimately agreed.

On one hand, it would not be easy for him to refuse under the current circumstances.

On the other hand, after thinking it over carefully, taking on another responsibility was not something he could not accept.

In any case, he would sooner or later become one of Earth's strongest people. The responsibility of protecting Earth would naturally fall upon him.

So whether it came earlier or later was not a major issue.

Since I'm doing research anyway, it wouldn't be bad to research more medicines that can help Earth's people evolve. Lin Qingyu made his decision inwardly.