Cloud River

As they spoke, the two of them reached the airship outside the Political and Commercial Bureau.

"Since we're both free today, and my Blood Qi Value has soared while you've become a Divine Sense Master, why don't we head to the Virtual Experience Pavilion and play a couple of rounds?"

"Okay."

Chen Lie accepted Wang Hui's suggestion. They could use it to reminisce about the old days.

"Hop on the airship! Let's hit the pavilion!"

With that, Wang Hui boarded the airship with Chen Lie, and they headed for the nearest Virtual Experience Pavilion.

The airship was incredibly fast. In just a few minutes, they arrived outside a Virtual Experience Pavilion.

Chen Lie and Wang Hui got off the airship and entered the pavilion. Wang Hui went to the front desk and immediately topped up his account with two thousand Star Dollars.

"Come on, come on! Let's get started. I'll go first, Chen Lie."

After adding money to his account, Wang Hui immediately picked one of the Virtual Experience Pavilion's popular attractions and started his experience.

Virtual Experience Pavilions were one of the most popular forms of entertainment for the young people of Blue Star. They could connect to the nervous system and let people experience things like space exploration, deep-sea expeditions, and battles against Exotic Beasts with incredible realism. They were also highly addictive.

Parents on Blue Star were often afraid their children would neglect their studies and ambitions for fun, so most of them strictly limited how often their children could visit a Virtual Experience Pavilion.

In his previous life, Chen Lie hadn't exactly neglected his studies for fun, but some of the Virtual Experience Pavilion's more exciting attractions had indeed cut into the time he spent practicing martial arts.

But now, after joining Wang Hui for an attraction at the Virtual Experience Pavilion, he felt not the slightest bit of novelty.

Seeing how excited his friend Wang Hui was, Chen Lie knew he had become completely immersed in the virtual experience.

If his understanding of the world had still been stuck at the same point as in his previous life, he would definitely have played to his heart's content at the Virtual Experience Pavilion until nightfall.

After all, he had made it into the Elite Class, his Blood Qi Value had passed ten, and he had awakened Divine Sense, becoming a Divine Sense Master. His future looked bright.

But he knew how insignificant he was in this star region, so barren in the ways of martial arts. He might not even amount to a grain of dust.

After spending half a day at the pavilion, Wang Hui reluctantly left with Chen Lie.

Sitting aboard the airship, Wang Hui said, "Chen Lie, tomorrow morning my cousin and I will come straight to your house. Then we'll set off for Yunchuan Province."

"Your cousin agreed?"

"He got promoted at the Sunlight Group because of you. How could he refuse something this small?"

"Fine. Just wait for me outside my house tomorrow. Don't come in."

"Got it."

When they reached Chen Lie's home, Wang Hui brought the airship in to land and let Chen Lie off, then flew away again.

Chen Lie went inside and saw his mother, Feng Yuelan, cooking in the kitchen, so he walked over.

"Mom, I'm going out tomorrow."

Feng Yuelan turned to look at Chen Lie and asked, "Going out? Where are you going?"

"To Yunchuan."

"What are you going to Yunchuan for?"

"I have something to take care of. But don't worry, I won't be going alone. I'm going with my classmate Wang Hui and his cousin.

"Wang Hui's cousin, Meng Jing, is already an adult. His child is almost as old as Yaoyao," Chen Lie said.

Feng Yuelan thought it over, then said, "All right. How long will you be gone?"

"I'm not sure yet. I might be back the same day, or it could take two or three days."

"Then go ahead. Do you need me to give you some money?"

Because her son's Blood Qi Value had recently increased and he had made her proud by getting into the Elite Class, Feng Yuelan gave Chen Lie a great deal of freedom.

As long as he didn't go too far, she approved whatever he wanted to do.

"No need. I still have money."

"Your father works in Yunchuan too, if I remember right. You went there once a few years ago.

"He works for the Lingfeng Group in Yunchuan Province. If you run into any trouble over there, find your father, or contact him and ask him to come to you," Feng Yuelan said.

"Okay, I know."

At dinner, Chen Xingyao sat at the table and asked Chen Lie, "Brother, did you just tell Mom you're going to Yunchuan Province? Are you going to see Dad?"

Chen Lie shook his head. "No. I'm going to Yunchuan to take care of something."

"Then could you stop by Dad's place and bring something back for me?"

"What is it?"

"Dad bought me a D-Rank Martial Art, the Void-Breaking Fist Crystal Card, while he was there. He was planning to give it to me next time he came home, and I wasn't in a hurry.

"But recently, I realized that I've more or less mastered the Void-Breaking Fist. I'm ready to use the Void-Breaking Fist Crystal Card."

Chen Lie nodded. "Sure. I'll bring it back for you."

After dinner, Chen Lie returned to his room.

He spent another night cultivating the Lingguang Divine Refining Chapter.

At dawn the next day, the first star of the Ghost Constellation Four Stars—the second constellation in his Consciousness Sea World—finally shone with brilliant light.

This meant that his Lingguang Divine Refining Chapter had reached a new stage.

Just then, the Communicator beside Chen Lie rang.

He reached out, picked it up, and put it to his ear.

Wang Hui's voice came through the Communicator.

"Chen Lie, we're here, right outside your house. Hurry up!"

"I'll be right there."

After saying that, Chen Lie put away the Communicator, went to the bathroom to wash his face, then headed out.

As soon as he stepped outside, he saw an airship not far away.

When Chen Lie appeared, the two people aboard immediately climbed down.

The man in front stepped up alongside Wang Hui and said to Chen Lie, "Mr. Chen, I can't thank you enough.

"Not only did you help me keep my job at the Sunlight Group, but thanks to you, I even got promoted to deputy supervisor."

This was Wang Hui's cousin Meng Jing, who was twenty years older than him.

Faced with Wang Hui's cousin's gratitude, Chen Lie merely waved his hand. "It was nothing. There's no need to thank me.

"Besides, you only got into trouble because of my plan to buy Exotic Beast Meat."

"That's not the same thing." Meng Jing shook his head, then added, "Let's get on the airship first.

"After all, the Divine Sense Master Association in Yunchuan Province is nearly a thousand kilometers from here."

"Okay."

And so, Chen Lie, Wang Hui, and Meng Jing boarded the airship.

Meng Jing took the controls and sat up front, while Chen Lie and Wang Hui sat in the back.

"Mr. Chen, you're so young, yet you've already become a Divine Sense Master. Your future is sure to be limitless," Meng Jing praised from the front.

Chen Lie said, "Cousin Meng, you've worked at the Sunlight Group for so many years, so you must have met all sorts of people. How much do you know about Divine Sense Masters? About how many are there in East River Province?"

Meng Jing shook his head repeatedly. "I really wouldn't know. That's not a level I have access to.

"Despite my age, I've never even seen a living Divine Sense Master.

"If it weren't for this whole affair, I wouldn't have known that General Manager Zhao of the group was a Divine Sense Master.

"But I've heard people at the group say that General Manager Zhao thinks very highly of you. I suppose that means you're among the top Divine Sense Masters, Mr. Chen."

Chen Lie nodded. "Just call me Chen Lie, Cousin Meng."

"Is that... appropriate?"

After more than ten years of working his way up at the Sunlight Group, Meng Jing had gained a deep understanding of how rigidly society was divided by status.

Deference and respect toward important people had become second nature to him. Chen Lie had interacted with Zhao Jinglan as an equal, and he was also a Divine Sense Master. Even if he wasn't important now, he was sure to become important in the future.

"What's inappropriate about it?"

Wang Hui chimed in too. "Exactly, Cousin. Don't be so stiff. Chen Lie just got lucky and met a master who taught him how to cultivate his Divine Sense. Other than that, he's no different from me.

"Just treat him the way you treat me."

In Meng Jing's eyes, Chen Lie's composure and manner were far beyond what an ordinary teenager could manage. To say he was no different from the undisciplined Wang Hui was complete nonsense.

"Well... all right."

After the airship took off, it began flying at high speed.

The airship's maximum speed was one thousand kilometers per hour, but few people dared to fly it that fast. Most people kept their airships to four or five hundred kilometers per hour, and Meng Jing was no exception.

"Cousin, I heard Yunchuan is much more prosperous than East River. You spent some time there when you were young. What are the Virtual Experience Pavilions like over there?"

The airship had been flying for nearly an hour. Seeing that Chen Lie and Meng Jing weren't talking, Wang Hui asked out of boredom.

"Yunchuan Province's prosperity is in the field of martial arts. Virtual Experience Pavilions are pretty much the same everywhere in the world."

"Yunchuan's martial arts scene is prosperous? How much more prosperous can it be than East River's?" Wang Hui asked.

"Yunchuan is the foremost of the Three Provinces of Chuanzhong. Haven't you heard that saying?

"Of our three provinces—Yunchuan, East River, and West River—the martial arts scenes in East River and West River aren't much to speak of. You could say they're fellow sufferers.

"But Yunchuan Province is leagues ahead of both East River and West River in martial arts.

"Put it this way: the Elite Class admission standard at martial arts high schools in East River Province and West River Province is a Blood Qi Value of three, while Yunchuan requires Elite Students to have a Blood Qi Value of five.

"You should be able to see the gap between the Three Provinces of Chuanzhong from that alone, right?"

As he piloted the airship, Meng Jing explained it to Wang Hui.

"So Yunchuan's Martial Arts Students have it rough. They have to wait until their Blood Qi Value reaches five before they can get into the Elite Class.

"If I were from Yunchuan, I'd definitely transfer to a school in East River."

Wang Hui couldn't help saying that.

"You brat, if your dad heard you say that, he'd smack you across the face for sure.

"The martial arts high schools in Yunchuan Province have powerful teaching staffs, and the average scores of their Martial Arts Students are far higher than those of students in East River. Only a fool would want to transfer to a school in East River Province." Meng Jing shook his head.

At that moment, the airship's onboard computer suddenly played a notification.

"Entering Yunchuan Province."

"Foremost of the Three Rivers, Splendid Cloud River."

"Yunchuan Province welcomes you!"

Hearing the airship's Superbrain announce this, Meng Jing said, "We've crossed into Yunchuan Province. We're not far from the Yunchuan Divine Sense Master Association now."

"Wait, when did Yunchuan become the foremost of the Three Rivers?

"Can Lingfeng Group, the big company based in Yunchuan, really compete with our East River's Sunlight Group?" Wang Hui asked.

"The contest between the Three Provinces of Chuanzhong is about martial arts, not the economy.

"Besides, Lingfeng Group may well be the equal of East River's Sunlight Group. They're both corporate giants among the Chuanshan Eight Provinces, each with their own strengths," Meng Jing said.