Lineage from Beyond the Stars

Chen Lie took the elevator to the 28th floor of Sunlight Tower and arrived at the CEO's office, where he knocked twice on the door.

Without waiting for a response from inside, Chen Lie pushed the door open and walked in.

Upon entering, Chen Lie saw Zhao Jinglan standing in front of her desk with an icy expression, holding a document in her hand.

"Chen Lie, currently 17 years old, a martial arts student in a regular class at a key provincial high school."

"Family members include your father Chen Gequn, mother Feng Yuelan, and younger sister Chen Xingyao; your family background is upper-middle class."

"Take a look yourself. This is the personal information I had a political contact investigate for me yesterday. See if there are any errors or omissions."

Chen Lie took the document from Zhao Jinglan's hand, scanned it briefly, and then placed it on the desk.

"Not bad, very detailed, and there are no errors."

Zhao Jinglan said coldly, "You have a lot of nerve! To think you would dare to deceive the Sunlight Group. Do you know that I only need to lift a finger to make you disappear from this world without a trace?"

Facing Zhao Jinglan's intimidation, Chen Lie remained expressionless. "You are testing me like this, presumably because you don't believe the results of your investigation, right?"

"Actually, there is no need for that. I only need to solve your problem today. You and I exist on two different levels; we shouldn't have any intersection."

Hearing Chen Lie's words, Zhao Jinglan immediately retracted her cold expression.

She stared at Chen Lie with her beautiful eyes, deep in thought. Was this kid trying to drop a hint?

Was he mocking her for being unable to uncover his true background?

And saying they were on two different levels—could his true background be something that would force her to look up to him?

People who could make her look up to them were, if not non-existent on Blue Star, then at least incredibly rare.

"Let's begin. What do I need to do?"

Since Chen Lie had already laid his cards on the table, Zhao Jinglan stopped talking and got straight to the point.

"Just sit there, empty your sea of consciousness, and leave the rest to me."

Zhao Jinglan nodded slightly, sat in the CEO's chair, and closed her eyes to clear her mind.

Chen Lie stood in front of Zhao Jinglan, took a glance at her exquisite figure, and extended his index finger, gently touching the center of her forehead.

Chen Lie's mental energy flowed methodically through his index finger into Zhao Jinglan's sea of consciousness.

Zhao Jinglan felt a condensed and solid stream of mental energy enter her mind, beginning to slowly rectify her chaotic mental state.

She couldn't help but open her eyes to look at Chen Lie, thinking to herself, He is also a Psionicist? The purity of his mental energy is even more refined than my own.

Looking at Chen Lie's youthful face, Zhao Jinglan fell into deep doubt. What did it mean to be a 17-year-old Psionicist on Blue Star?

She had become a First-Rank Psionicist at 20 and was hailed as a once-in-a-generation genius in Dongchuan Province, but compared to the Chen Lie before her, she truly didn't know what to say.

"Close your eyes and empty your mind!"

Hearing Chen Lie's reminder, Zhao Jinglan immediately closed her eyes.

As Zhao Jinglan's chaotic mental energy was corrected bit by bit, Chen Lie's mental energy began to slowly retract through his finger.

A wisp of Zhao Jinglan's mental energy followed Chen Lie's guidance into his sea of consciousness.

Suddenly, her mind jolted.

Through that wisp of consciousness, Zhao Jinglan's spiritual perception caught a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg that was Chen Lie's sea of consciousness.

It was a pitch-black, vast universe. She felt as if she were standing beneath a starry sky shrouded in mist, surrounded by stars above, but only eight brilliant celestial bodies formed the shape of a "well" character, indescribably magnificent and grand.

Chen Lie withdrew his mental energy, and his fingertip left Zhao Jinglan's forehead.

"Your problem has been solved."

Zhao Jinglan hurriedly regained her composure and tried to circulate her mental energy, discovering that the splitting headache had indeed vanished.

However, her beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Chen Lie in a daze.

That brief glimpse from just moments ago had allowed her to see Chen Lie's mental world.

His foundation of psionic power was actually this profound?

That pitch-black universe, the empty starry sky, and the eight brilliant stars—what kind of mental cultivation technique could forge such a world within the sea of consciousness?

She had once had the fortune to witness the sea of consciousness of a Grandmaster-level Psionicist, but it was nowhere near as exaggerated as Chen Lie's.

The teacher who guided her mental cultivation had once said that the world within the sea of consciousness best reflected a person's potential as a Psionicist.

If the youth before her possessed a sea of consciousness more magnificent and vast than a Grandmaster-level Psionicist, did that not mean he was a living seed of a Psionic Grandmaster?

As far as she knew, whether on Blue Star or beyond the stars, a Psionic Grandmaster was not something a Martial Arts Grandmaster could compare to.

Thinking of this, a charming smile bloomed on Zhao Jinglan's beautiful face, and her gaze toward Chen Lie softened by three degrees.

"Little Brother Chen Lie, thank you for solving the problem that has plagued me for nearly two years."

"I am ten years older than you, so I will be bold and call you 'Little Brother.' If you don't mind, you can call me 'Big Sister.' From now on, let us address each other as siblings. What do you think?"

"If CEO Zhao thinks highly of me, I naturally have no objections."

Chen Lie was not at all surprised by Zhao Jinglan's shift from arrogance to deference. Not just on Blue Star, but even in the Central Galactic Empire, one could never escape these social conventions.

If Chen Lie guessed correctly, Zhao Jinglan must have already filled in the blanks and imagined a mysterious and unfathomable background for him, right?

Zhao Jinglan sighed, "You must be blaming your elder sister for testing you just now."

"To be honest, while outsiders might see me as the glamorous president of the Sunlight Group, the Zhao Family is a massive clan. I am merely one part of it, not the only one; many cousins among my peers are eyeing my position like tigers watching their prey."

"The elders handed the presidency of the Sunlight Group to me expecting results. If I cannot deliver a report that satisfies them, I could be replaced at any moment."

"The group's new medicinal serum is currently at a critical stage of development and cannot afford a single mistake, so my test earlier was a matter of necessity."

Chen Lie nodded thoughtfully, "It is human nature; I understand."

Zhao Jinglan smiled, "I am glad you understand, but your elder sister still owes you an apology."

Chen Lie immediately waved his hand, indicating that the matter was settled.

Zhao Jinglan's eyes suddenly flickered, and she asked nonchalantly, "Is your mental energy cultivation method, little brother Chen Lie, passed down from Starry Sky University?"

"I studied under a master from beyond the stars, and my mental energy cultivation method originates from the Central Galactic Empire."

"The Central Galactic... Empire?"

Zhao Jinglan was bewildered. It was not that she was unaware of the Central Galactic Empire's existence; on the contrary, every ordinary citizen on Blue Star was well aware of it.

Over a hundred years ago, when Blue Star ventured into the stars and made initial contact with interstellar civilization, prominent figures from beyond the stars visited Blue Star to disseminate martial arts knowledge.

Shortly thereafter, the Blue Star United Government announced to the ten billion ordinary citizens of Blue Star that, since its inception, Blue Star had been an inherent territory of the Central Galactic Empire, and the people of Blue Star were all citizens of the Central Galactic Empire.

The Central Galactic Empire was a supreme divine nation that had stood in the cosmos for over seven thousand years, its territory spanning hundreds of millions of miles of starry sky.

Every person on Blue Star was expected to feel proud to be a citizen under the Central Galactic Empire.

At the same time, the Blue Star United Government announced that the traditional Common Era Calendar would be replaced by the Galactic Calendar.

With the official certification of the Blue Star United Government, no one on Blue Star would ever question the existence of the Central Galactic Empire.

However, even for a high-ranking figure in Dongchuan Province like Zhao Jinglan, the Central Galactic Empire remained intangible and untouchable, existing only in the realm of legend.

Could the youth before her truly possess a background connected to the Central Galactic Empire?

Zhao Jinglan shook her head, casting aside the chaotic thoughts in her mind.

Regardless of whether this youth possessed some unfathomable background, the mere fact that he was already a Divine Sense Master at his age, with the potential to become a Grandmaster of mental energy, made him worthy of her lowering her status to befriend him.