Yun Chuan

As they spoke, the two arrived at the airship docked outside the Political and Commercial Bureau.

"Since I'm free today and my blood-qi value has surged, and you've become a Divine Sense Master, why don't we head to the Virtual Experience Pavilion and mess around for a bit?"

"Fine by me."

Chen Lie agreed to Wang Hui's suggestion, deciding to treat it as a trip down memory lane.

"Board the airship, let's hit the pavilion!"

With that, Wang Hui and Chen Lie boarded the airship together and headed toward the nearest Virtual Experience Pavilion.

The airship moved at incredible speed, reaching the Virtual Experience Pavilion in just a few minutes.

Chen Lie and Wang Hui disembarked, and Wang Hui went to the front desk, immediately topping up two thousand Star Dollars into the pavilion's system.

"Come on, let's go, let's start! I'm going in first, Chen Lie."

After loading the credits, Wang Hui immediately selected one of the most popular programs in the Virtual Experience Pavilion to begin his session.

The Virtual Experience Pavilion was one of the most popular forms of entertainment for the youth of Blue Star. It connected directly to the nervous system, allowing people to experience space travel, deep-sea exploration, or alien beast wars with startling realism, making it easy for users to become addicted.

Parents on Blue Star were often afraid that their children would neglect their studies and training, so they strictly limited the number of times they could visit the Virtual Experience Pavilion.

In his past life, although Chen Lie hadn't been one to neglect his training, certain exciting programs at the pavilion had indeed cut into his practice time.

But now, as he accompanied Wang Hui through a session, he felt not a shred of novelty.

Watching his good friend Wang Hui's excitement, Chen Lie knew he was completely immersed in the virtual world.

If his perspective were still stuck in his past life, he would certainly be playing here happily until nightfall.

After all, he had entered the Elite Class, his blood-qi value had broken into double digits, and he had awakened his divine sense to become a Divine Sense Master—his future looked bright.

Yet he knew that in this star region, so barren of martial arts, he was utterly insignificant, perhaps not even as substantial as a speck of dust.

After spending half a day at the pavilion, Wang Hui left with Chen Lie, looking quite reluctant to depart.

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

"Your cousin agreed?"

"He was only able to get promoted at the Sunlight Group because of you; how could he refuse a small favor like this?"

"Alright, just wait for me outside my house tomorrow. No need to come inside."

"Got it."

Upon reaching Chen Lie's home, Wang Hui maneuvered the airship to land, let Chen Lie off, and then piloted the craft away.

Chen Lie returned home and saw his mother, Feng Yuelan, already cooking in the kitchen, so he walked over to join her.

"Mom, I'm going out tomorrow."

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

"I'm taking a trip to Yun-chuan."

"What are you going to Yun-chuan for?"

"I have some business there. But don't worry, I'm not going alone; I'm going with my classmate, Wang Hui, and his cousin.

Wang Hui's cousin, Meng Jing, is already a grown man—his own child is almost as old as Yaoyao," Chen Lie explained.

Feng Yuelan thought for a moment and said, "Alright then, how long will you be gone?"

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

"Go ahead then. Do you need me to give you some money?"

Because her son's blood-qi value had risen and he had successfully entered the Elite Class, Feng Yuelan granted Chen Lie a great deal of freedom.

As long as it wasn't anything too excessive, she usually approved.

"No need, I still have money."

"Your father works in Yun-chuan as well. I remember you went there once a few years ago.

It's at the Lingfeng Group in Yun-chuan Province. If you run into any trouble there, just look for your father, or contact him and have him come to you," Feng Yuelan said.

"Alright, I understand."

During dinner, Chen Xingyao sat at the table and asked Chen Lie, "Big brother, you just told Mom you're going to Yun-chuan Province? Are you going to see Dad?"

Chen Lie shook his head. "No, I'm going to Yun-chuan because I have something to take care of."

"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 'Void-Breaking Fist Crystal Card' over there. He planned to give it to me next time he came home, and I wasn't in a rush.

But I recently discovered that I've mostly mastered the Void-Breaking Fist technique, and I've reached the point where I can use the 'Void-Breaking Fist Crystal Card'."

Chen Lie nodded and said, "Alright, I'll bring it back for you."

After finishing his meal, Chen Lie returned to his room.

Chen Lie spent another night practicing the Lingguang Divine Refining Chapter.

At dawn the next day, the first star of the Ghost Constellation Four Stars—the second of the seven mansions within the sea of consciousness—finally burst into brilliant radiance.

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

Just then, the communicator beside Chen Lie began to ring.

Chen Lie reached out, picked it up, and held it to his ear.

Wang Hui's voice came through the device.

"Chen Lie, we've arrived. We're right outside your house, hurry up!"

"Be there in a second."

After hanging up, Chen Lie put away the communicator, splashed some water on his face in the bathroom, and walked out of his home.

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

Seeing Chen Lie appear, the two men on the airship immediately climbed down.

The man in the lead stepped in front of Wang Hui and said to Chen Lie, "Mr. Chen, I truly cannot thank you enough. Not only did you help me keep my job at Sunlight Group, but because of you, I've even been promoted to deputy supervisor."

This man was Meng Jing, Wang Hui's cousin, who was twenty years his senior.

Facing the gratitude of Wang Hui's cousin, Chen Lie merely waved his hand. "It's a small matter, no need for thanks. Besides, you only got into trouble in the first place because of my request to purchase exotic beast meat."

"That's different," Meng Jing shook his head, then added, "Let's board the airship first. After all, the Divine Sense Master Association in Yunchuan Province is nearly a thousand kilometers away."

"Alright."

With that, Chen Lie, Wang Hui, and Meng Jing boarded the airship.

Meng Jing piloted the craft from the front, while Chen Lie and Wang Hui sat in the back.

"To become a Divine Sense Master at such a young age, Mr. Chen, your future is bound to be boundless," Meng Jing remarked from the front.

Chen Lie replied, "Cousin Meng, you've worked at Sunlight Group for so long and have naturally come into contact with all sorts of people. I wonder how much you know about Divine Sense Masters? Roughly how many are there in our Dongchuan Province?"

Meng Jing shook his head repeatedly. "I truly don't know, as that isn't a level I have access to. Despite my age, I've never actually met a living Divine Sense Master. If not for this incident, I wouldn't even have known that President Zhao of our group was one. However, I've heard people in the group say that even President Zhao holds you in the highest regard. I imagine you must be among the top tier of Divine Sense Masters, Mr. Chen."

Chen Lie nodded and said, "Cousin Meng, just call me Chen Lie."

"This... is that appropriate?"

Having spent over a decade grinding his way through Sunlight Group, Meng Jing had a profound understanding of the rigid social hierarchy. Being humble and respectful before big shots had become his instinct; since Chen Lie was on equal footing with Zhao Jinglan and was a Divine Sense Master himself, even if he wasn't a big shot now, he certainly would be in the future.

"What's inappropriate about it?"

Wang Hui chimed in, "Exactly, Cousin. Don't be so stiff. Chen Lie just got lucky and met a master who taught him divine sense cultivation. Other than that, he's no different from me. Just treat him the same way you treat me."

In Meng Jing's eyes, the composure in Chen Lie's words and actions was something no ordinary teenager possessed. To say he was no different from the boorish Wang Hui was complete nonsense.

"This... alright then."

After takeoff, the airship began to fly at high speed.

The airship's top speed was 1,000 kilometers per hour, but few dared to push it that hard. Most people kept their speed between four and five hundred kilometers per hour, and Meng Jing, like most, piloted the airship at that pace.

"Cousin, I heard Yunchuan is much more prosperous than Dongchuan. You spent some time there when you were younger—how are the Virtual Experience Pavilions there?"

After the airship had been flying for nearly an hour, Wang Hui, feeling bored as Chen Lie and Meng Jing remained silent, asked the question.

Meng Jing replied, "When people say Yunchuan Province is prosperous, they mean in terms of martial arts. The Virtual Experience Pavilions are the same everywhere in the world."

"Yunchuan's martial arts are prosperous? How prosperous? Can they really be that much better than our Dongchuan?" Wang Hui countered.

"Of the Three Provinces of Chuanzhong, Yunchuan is the best. Haven't you heard that saying? Our three provinces—Yunchuan, Dongchuan, and Xichuan—are all brothers in misfortune, as martial arts in Dongchuan and Xichuan aren't particularly impressive. But in Yunchuan Province, martial arts are a huge step ahead of the other two. Let me put it this way: in our Dongchuan and Xichuan provinces, the standard for an elite class in martial arts high schools is 3 cards of blood-qi, but in Yunchuan, the assessment standard for elite students is 5 cards. That alone should tell you the gap between the three provinces."

Meng Jing explained to Wang Hui while piloting the airship.

"So the martial arts students in Yunchuan are that unlucky, having to wait until their blood-qi value breaks 5 before they can enter an elite class."

"If I were from Yunchuan, I'd definitely transfer to Dongchuan for school."

Wang Hui couldn't help but say.

"You brat, if your old man heard you say that, he'd surely slap you silly. The martial arts high schools in Yunchuan Province have powerful faculty, and the average scores of their martial arts students are a huge cut above ours in Dongchuan. You'd have to be out of your mind to want to transfer to our Dongchuan Province." Meng Jing couldn't help but shake his head.

At this moment, the airship's intelligent computer suddenly played a notification sound.

"Entering Yunchuan Province borders."

"Head of the Three Rivers, Splendid Yunchuan."

"Yunchuan Province welcomes you!"

Hearing the airship's Superbrain prompt, Meng Jing said, "We've crossed the Yunchuan provincial border; we aren't far from the Yunchuan Divine Sense Master Association now."

"Wait, since when did Yunchuan become the head of the Three Rivers? Can their local large-scale enterprise, Lingfeng Group, even compare to our Dongchuan's Sunlight Group?" Wang Hui couldn't help but ask.

"The competition between the Three Provinces of Chuanzhong is about martial arts, not economics. Besides, Yunchuan's Lingfeng Group isn't necessarily inferior to our Dongchuan's Sunlight Group. Both are behemoth enterprises of the Chuanshan Eight Provinces, each with their own strengths," Meng Jing said.