Breakthrough in Viscera Refining, Exhaling Arrows

As night fell, Shen Qing returned to his bedroom to continue his cultivation.

With the aid of two medicinal pills and his Spirit-Absorbing Root, he intended to attempt a breakthrough to the Organ Refining stage today, shortening the one-week timeline to three days.

Spiritual energy flowed through the pores of his entire body, transforming into blood-qi as it began to scour his skull bit by bit.

The sensation was incredibly awkward, like countless ants crawling back and forth under his skin.

Fortunately, his soul was strong enough to keep this restlessness under control; otherwise, he might have been too rash and aggressive in his progress.

Time slipped away bit by bit, leaving only the sound of his steady breathing in the room.

After an unknown amount of time, Shen Qing suddenly exhaled a sharp breath of turbid air, which actually left a faint mark on the wall.

This was the expulsion of impurities from his internal organs.

"So this is Organ Refining?"

He opened his eyes, feeling that his internal organs were now incredibly resilient—truly beyond that of an ordinary human.

The next day, Wednesday, Shen Qing arrived at the base.

Just after finishing breakfast and entering the training room, he heard a burst of jubilant shouting: "I broke through! I finally broke through to E-rank!!"

Xie Chong was running around the training room in excitement.

Yet, none of the people around him stepped forward to congratulate him; instead, they dodged away, as if he had been shouting for quite some time already.

"Right, right, right. We're heading out for patrol now."

In the blink of an eye, Xie Chong was the only one left in the training room. Seeing Shen Qing standing at the door, he immediately ran over, eyes shining with impatience.

"I broke through!!"

"Congratulations," Shen Qing nodded.

Xie Chong was quite unhappy with this reaction and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "No, can't you be a little more excited? E-rank! Even the captain is only at this level!"

Shen Qing gave him a strange look; it seemed that not all E-ranks were created equal.

Seemingly sensing the skepticism in Shen Qing's gaze, Xie Chong waved his hand confidently. "Come on, you're going to challenge He Ying anyway. I might as well let you experience the power of an E-rank in advance."

And then, not long after.

Xie Chong stared at the shattered stone wall before him, his mouth slightly agape, speechless for a long time.

"Sorry, I broke through too."

Shen Qing said this casually before jumping off the sparring ring.

He had figured it out: Xie Chong was genuinely afraid of pain. Both times, he had precisely timed his surrender just before he was about to get beaten up.

Still, people who fear pain generally tend to live longer.

Xie Chong stood rooted to the spot for a long time, eventually managing to squeeze out only one word: "Damn!"

It was another uneventful day. Aside from the abnormal rain and fog, Binhai City remained relatively peaceful.

"It's about time I went to see what's going on with Chen Chen," Shen Qing muttered to himself, looking at the chat box with Chen Chen on his phone.

He needed to confirm exactly how much Chen Chen knew. If it were just about a special department, that would be fine—he could just treat it like national security.

But if it involved supernatural powers, he would have to erase those memories.

It was not a good thing for ordinary people to learn about Supernaturalists; they would become curious and might even be unable to resist exploring further.

However, the world was currently in the midst of a drastic transformation, and exploring without the corresponding strength would only lead to life-threatening danger.

This was something Fang Shu had specifically warned him about during his training, citing lessons learned in blood.

He hurried off work, but he felt something was off on his way home.

"Why do I feel like I've forgotten something?"

Shen Qing frowned. He had already clocked out, but since he couldn't recall it for the moment, he couldn't be bothered to think about it; it probably wasn't anything important.

He went home first to tell Shen Qingtang that he was going out for a while and would bring her something to eat.

"Are you here?"

His phone pinged. Shen Qing glanced at the screen just as he was about to leave, but the phone rang again—this time, it was Xie Chong.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of Sunshine Residential Complex, the sun had already set, and the sky was gradually darkening.

Chen Chen was lost in thought, feeling inexplicably comfortable staying in the shadows.

He didn't know when it started, but he had begun to feel lethargic. The day before yesterday, he had slept for an entire day and night, and he didn't like to move around during the day.

He suddenly snapped back to reality and looked at an unexpected person beside him, his expression turning speechless.

It was Zhou Ming.

"Instructor, I'm saying this in advance: it's useless for you to follow me. I'm not getting involved in your business."

Ever since Saturday, Zhou Ming had been pestering Shen Qing incessantly after losing contact with him, even resorting to stalking; it felt as if the man was on the verge of a breakdown.

"I'll speak for myself."

Zhou Ming remained unmoved, his voice sounding somewhat parched.

The truth was, he had indeed been acting a bit unhinged lately, barely able to sleep a wink each night.

Because of the Wu Yuan incident at the university, although he hadn't been officially fired yet, he was treated no differently than a ghost.

The practice of taking kickbacks for student referrals was already teetering on the edge of criminality; it wouldn't be long before he was dismissed.

His only remaining hope was Shen Qing.

Even if the Public Security Bureau's special department didn't have jurisdiction over the university, at least they could tell him what the other party actually did, and how Wu Yuan had suddenly become a murderer.

Just as the two fell into a mutual silence, a crisp sound suddenly rang out.

They looked over instinctively, and not far away, a crimson figure no more than fifty centimeters tall was rapidly approaching.

Its entire body was vermilion, looking like a piece of moving red jade.

"?"

Both were stunned, wondering if their eyes were playing tricks on them.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, a red crystal shard tore through the air, heading straight for Chen Chen's face before he could even react.

Just as the red crystal was about to strike, a "bang" rang out—a bullet from an unknown source collided with it.

The crystal instantly shattered into red fragments across the ground, causing the earth to hiss and smoke.

A bullet?

Chen Chen turned his head in a daze to see Shen Qing, who had appeared out of nowhere, holding a handgun.

"How are you? Are you alright?"

"N-no, wait—"

Chen Chen stuttered, glancing at the crimson figure and then at the gun in Shen Qing's hand, his mind in total chaos.

"We'll talk about everything later."

After confirming Chen Chen was unharmed, Shen Qing turned his gaze toward the crimson figure.

Cinnabar is gold, and consuming it leads to immortality—he didn't know how one achieved immortality, but the Baopuzi recorded that its essence, when buried underground for a thousand years, transforms into a Cinnabar Spirit.

This thing was toxic.

He immediately took aim and emptied his magazine, landing every shot.

The crimson figure was instantly riddled with holes, and many red crystal shards fell to the ground, corroding the earth and sending up white smoke.

But this didn't finish it off; the wounds were even beginning to heal.

"As expected, these natural spirits are quite a hassle to deal with."

Shen Qing's expression grew solemn. This was clearly stronger than the Tree Demon from before; it was likely on the verge of breaking through to the Eighth Rank, not to mention he lacked Xie Chong's assistance.

Since the handgun was useless, he would have to resort to hand-to-hand combat.

He holstered the gun and pushed off with his feet, launching himself forward like an arrow released from a bow.

Before his fist even arrived, it carried a gust of fierce wind.

Shen Qing opened with a Splitting Fist, the momentum like an axe, smashing down from above and striking the Cinnabar Spirit squarely on the head.

With a muffled "thud," the Cinnabar Spirit staggered, and red crystals flew from its crown.

But at the same time, Shen Qing's fist was immediately corroded.

He didn't pause, knowing this thing had to be finished in one go. The height difference was too great for a Collapse Fist to generate power, so he could only clench his fist and strike down again.

Once.

Twice.

After his hands were covered in blood, the Cinnabar Spirit finally lost the ability to regenerate.

Waves of pain surged from his hands; Shen Qing looked at the large patches of flesh corroded away on both palms. If his strength hadn't far exceeded those of his rank, he truly might not have been able to handle this Cinnabar Spirit.

[Demon slain: Cinnabar Spirit. Obtained trait: Cinnabar Blood (Green · Anecdote).]

[Cinnabar Blood: Cinnabar-infused blood, wards off a hundred ghosts. The blood is as thick as cinnabar liquid and contains Cinnabar spiritual energy, which can intimidate ghosts and spirits and increase the success rate of talisman inscription.]