The vast, refined spiritual energy had barely been swallowed when it brought with it fragments of broken memories.
Chen Yan didn't let them go to waste.
His divine sense swept through them, parsing every last piece of information.
It turned out that the Spirit Race member Wang Jian had blown apart with a single punch was designated "Scout-734."
Among its people, it was lowly cannon fodder, not even entitled to a real name of its own.
Its mission was to serve in the first wave of suicide scouts, traversing an extremely unstable passage to reach this world.
The spatial passage between the Spirit Race homeworld and Blue Star had not been constructed successfully.
The energy was unstable, and the passage was filled with spatial turbulence. Nearly half of the Spirit Race members who entered it were torn to pieces, lost forever in the gaps between dimensions.
That was why they needed cannon fodder scouts to come through first.
From Blue Star's side, the scouts were to find suitable energy nodes, sacrifice their lives to pinpoint the coordinates, and stabilize the passage, paving the way for the main force to arrive.
As for the passage's exact location...
Chen Yan tried to probe deeper, only to find that the memories abruptly ended there.
Cannon fodder like Scout-734 had no right to know the full plan.
But Chen Yan wasn't discouraged.
Instead, his thoughts suddenly cleared.
If one wasn't enough, then ten.
If ten weren't enough, then a hundred!
As long as he hunted enough Spirit Race cannon fodder, sooner or later he would piece together the complete coordinates of the invasion passage from their scattered memories!
Pity them?
The word didn't exist in Chen Yan's dictionary.
Whether these Spirit Race members had come of their own accord or been forced, they had already committed an act of invasion.
The ordinary people hanging on the walls of the alley, dead with their eyes still open, were ironclad proof.
Faced with aliens invading his home, Chen Yan had only one thought.
Kill them all!
Eat them all!
Leave not a drop!
Only after finishing everything did the divine sense, almost solid in form, turn into a streak of light and silently return to its original body, far away at the Du Family Martial Arts Hall.
The vast spiritual power returned to the sea of consciousness, raising enormous waves.
Chen Yan felt his mind grow crystal clear, and the entire world seemed different to his senses.
[Spirit: 2446/10000]
[Fortune: 95 (Run of Good Luck)]
[Meditation Method (Mastered) (0/10000)]
[Divine Sense Differentiation (Mastered) (0/10000)]
The breakthrough in his skills and the surge in his attributes filled Chen Yan with profound, soul-deep exhilaration.
His heart and mind soared.
There was no end to the path of progress!
Meanwhile.
Wang Jian hadn't been waiting long when he heard hurried footsteps approaching.
The person who arrived wasn't from the Public Security Bureau, but his teacher, Du Chun.
"Teacher!"
Seeing Du Chun's face, etched with worry and concern, Wang Jian felt a warmth in his heart. His taut nerves nearly gave way on the spot.
Du Chun hurried forward and caught Wang Jian as he teetered. His vigorous qi and blood flowed into Wang Jian's body, quickly checking him over.
"Good. You're only exhausted; your foundation's unharmed."
Du Chun breathed a sigh of relief, but when he saw the carnage at the mouth of the alley, his expression darkened at once.
He had arrived even faster than the Public Security Bureau.
Wang Jian was deeply moved by how much his teacher cared.
Before long, shrill sirens split the night as several vehicles marked with the Special Investigation Team's insignia rushed over.
Leading them was Deputy Captain Falcon.
He was lean and powerful, his eyes as keen as a falcon's. After surveying the scene, his brows knitted tightly.
"Hello. Please describe what happened." Falcon's tone was concise and direct.
Wang Jian forced himself to stay alert and recounted everything that had just happened, from beginning to end.
When he heard that "a senior independent cultivator who specialized in spiritual power happened to pass by, exhausted his soul to save me, and passed away," every member of the Special Investigation Team present wore a strange expression.
Especially Falcon.
After all his years on the job, the one thing he believed in least was coincidence.
A martial artist who specialized in spiritual power?
They were already as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, about as uncommon as giant pandas.
Just happened to pass by?
Just happened to find you under attack by a high-level Spirit Race member?
Just happened to step in and save you?
And just happened to die from the effort of saving an amateur third-stage fighter like you?
How could there be so many coincidences in this world?
"Captain, we found something!" A team member ran out of the alley, his face pale. "The whole of Willow Shade Lane, along with several nearby apartment buildings—172 households in all—have been wiped out! Not one survivor!"
"Initial estimates put the time of death within the past week, but we never received a single report."
"It was a Spirit Race illusion. It concealed this place and turned the entire area into its hunting ground!"
Falcon's expression turned grim in an instant.
172 households!
Since the Spirit Race incidents had begun in Jiang City, this was the worst casualty count yet!
He took a deep breath, tamping down his rage, then turned to Wang Jian and Du Chun. "This is a major criminal incident. We may need Wang Jian's cooperation with the investigation later. I hope you understand."
"It's our duty," Du Chun replied solemnly.
Only after the Special Investigation Team had sealed off the scene and begun its follow-up work did Du Chun take Wang Jian away.
After they had walked some distance and confirmed there was no one nearby, Wang Jian lowered his voice, excitement and grief mingling in his expression.
"Teacher, before that senior passed away... he taught me a cultivation method!"
Du Chun stopped in his tracks and whipped around.
"He said it was a Meditation Method, a... a martial art for cultivating spiritual power!"
"!!!"
Du Chun's pupils contracted sharply!
He grabbed Wang Jian by the arm and looked around, making sure no one was eavesdropping.
Then, without another word, he lifted Wang Jian up and raced toward home like the wind.
Once they got back, Du Chun took Wang Jian straight to the seclusion room built of alloy.
"Are you sure it's a spiritual martial art?"
Du Chun's voice trembled slightly, his eyes full of shock and disbelief.
A method for cultivating spiritual power!
"If you sold this to the Martial Arts Association, the cultivation resources you'd get in exchange would be enough to push you all the way to the professional upper ranks!"
Du Chun was breathing a little faster.
He added, "Of course, you don't have to hand it over! Keep it to yourself and practice in secret. Make a fortune without anyone knowing!"
"As long as you don't tell, and I don't tell, no one in the world will ever know! This is an incredible stroke of fortune for you!"
After hearing his teacher's analysis, Wang Jian merely shook his head.
He looked at Du Chun, his gaze clear and resolute.
"Teacher, I want to give you this Meditation Method."
Du Chun froze.
Give it to me?
But Wang Jian's next words left him rooted to the spot.
"Then, please... give it to the Martial Arts Association for free!"
"What?!" Du Chun cried out. "For free?! Do you understand what you're saying?!"
"I do."
There wasn't the slightest hesitation on Wang Jian's face. Instead, he wore a resolve unlike anything he'd shown before.
He thought of the bodies hanging on the walls of the alley, of the faces, familiar and unfamiliar.
He clenched his fists tight.
"Teacher, I don't want any resources, and I don't want to make a fortune in secret."
His voice was hoarse, but every word rang like thunder in Du Chun's heart.
"I just hope... no one else ever dies because of the Spirit Race!"
Silence fell, heavy as death.
Du Chun stared blankly at the boy before him, at the fire burning in his eyes.
There wasn't a trace of greed or selfish desire in them, only the purest, most ardent heart.
At that moment, he suddenly understood.
Why this boy had managed to forge an unprecedented path out of the National Health Exercises—something everyone knew how to do and no one thought much of.
It was because his heart was big enough to hold the whole world.
Du Chun's chest heaved. A surge of indescribable excitement and pride swept away every last bit of reason and calculation.
He looked at Wang Jian for a long, long time.
His gaze shifted from shock to complicated emotion...
And finally settled into heartfelt, overwhelming admiration and relief.
"Good!"
"Your teacher promises!"
Before you continue