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Li Feng was very unhappy about it. Most students who got into Hanjiang University were proud and ambitious, and Li Feng was a well-known outstanding student across the whole university. The fact that he had become vice chairman of the student union alone was proof of his ability.

"You may not know much about me. I'm the vice chairman of the Hanjiang University Student Union and one of last year's province-wide Top Ten College Students. And I can let you in on a top-secret bit of news: because I made a breakthrough in practicing Big Dipper Long Fist, a mysterious government department sent people to contact me a few days ago. In half a month, I'll have the chance to go to a secret organization for further training. If I successfully complete the training and come back, I'm sure to become a major figure in the Dragon Kingdom. Do you still think I'm not good enough for your sister?"

Zhang Shuai shook his head with a laugh. Young people really did love showing off. But no matter how outstanding Li Feng was, Zhang Shuai couldn't let the guy get away with stealing his girlfriend.

"That's right, you're not good enough for her. You think you're so impressive? With that habit of bragging, you're a joke in my eyes! Come back and brag once you really become a major figure in the Dragon Kingdom."

Hearing Zhang Shuai's merciless mockery, Li Feng, despite doing his best to keep his temper in check, could no longer hold back his anger. "And what kind of big shot are you? What gives you the right to look down on me?"

Zhang Shuai replied calmly, "I may not be a big shot, but at least I don't make up ridiculous boasts like you do."

At that, Zhang Shuai decided he had no reason to keep talking with Li Feng. He still had to hurry back for class.

So Zhang Shuai took Sun Xiaoya by the hand and headed out. By now, Li Feng really thought Zhang Shuai was Lin Xiuwen's biological older brother. Out of respect for his status, he didn't dare stop him.

When Zhang Shuai reached the door, he found a dozen or so students gathered in the hallway, completely blocking the way.

Zhang Shuai raised an eyebrow and was about to knock them down one by one when Li Feng came out of the room and ordered them to stop.

"What are you doing? Don't cause trouble. Let them leave!"

Li Feng had quite a lot of influence among the students, so they moved aside and watched as Zhang Shuai and Sun Xiaoya left.

After going downstairs, they stopped outside the campus's main building. Sun Xiaoya looked at Zhang Shuai gratefully and said, "Zhang Shuai, thank you for helping me today."

Zhang Shuai smiled. "Don't mention it. We're friends. It's only right that I help when you're in trouble. But why was Li Feng looking for you?"

"He was pressing me for information about Lin Xiuwen's whereabouts. I said I didn't know, but he wouldn't stop pestering me. I got fed up and started arguing with him."

Sun Xiaoya looked worried as she continued, "I haven't seen Lin Xiuwen for days, either. She doesn't answer my calls or reply to my messages. I had no choice but to go to Vice Principal Jiang—uh, Vice Principal Jiang is Xiuwen's uncle by marriage. He told me Xiuwen went abroad to take part in some research project involving computer artificial intelligence. Honestly, Xiuwen could at least have said goodbye before she left."

Zhang Shuai knew exactly what Lin Xiuwen had gone off to do, but he wasn't going to tell Sun Xiaoya.

Time flowed by, and before long, another month had passed.

The new year began. Over the past month, even more people in the Dragon Kingdom had undergone physical mutations after practicing Big Dipper Long Fist, breaking through the limits of the human body. At least a dozen or so stories about such extraordinary people had appeared on short-video platforms.

Strangely, the early reports of these extraordinary people, posted by people in the know on Douyin and Kuaitui, would quietly disappear from the internet after only a short time. And the people said to have broken through the limits of the human body would mysteriously vanish. No one knew where they had gone. Even their family and friends kept silent, refusing to reveal anything about their whereabouts.

It was as though an invisible hand was deliberately suppressing all news about these extraordinary people.

Zhang Shuai could more or less guess what had happened. They had probably been secretly taken to the 749 Bureau to cultivate immortality, just like Lin Xiuwen.

During this time, Lin Xiuwen hadn't called or messaged Zhang Shuai once.

Although Zhang Shuai knew she was cultivating at the 749 Bureau and probably couldn't contact him, the long silence still left him feeling uneasy.

It seemed the 749 Bureau had confidentiality regulations that prevented people from contacting the outside world.

That was understandable. Cultivating immortality was so astounding that if the news got out, it would shake society to its core. So it made sense for the 749 Bureau to suppress the news and keep everything strictly confidential.

Huang Tianli stayed in touch with Zhang Shuai during this time, keeping him updated on the First Qingshui City Big Dipper Long Fist Exhibition Tournament from start to finish. The prize money had attracted a lot of participants, ranging from teenagers to people in their sixties.

The city of Qingshui really did uncover several talented people. One was a woman who worked at a subdistrict office as a civil servant. There was also a middle-school teacher, a police officer, an office worker, and a migrant laborer who worked on construction sites.

All five had practiced Big Dipper Long Fist to a high level, and their explosive power had already surpassed the limits of the human body.

The migrant laborer's strength was particularly incredible. He could carry ten bags of cement, each weighing a hundred pounds, five on each shoulder, from the first floor to the sixth without breaking a sweat. He could also stack ten red bricks together and smash all of them with a single punch.

In view of the laborer's strength, he was awarded first place in the tournament. The woman from the subdistrict office and the police officer tied for second, while the middle-school teacher and the office worker took third.

Huang Tianli had a question he couldn't answer. He told Zhang Shuai that after the prize money was handed out, government representatives contacted the five winners. Before long, all five had quit their jobs, and no one knew where they had gone.

Huang Tianli didn't know, but Zhang Shuai did. If nothing unexpected had happened, those five would have been sent to the 749 Bureau, too.

It wasn't just Qingshui City. Almost three hundred prefecture-level cities across the country held their first Big Dipper Long Fist exhibition tournaments at around the same time. There were no reports from television stations or the media, but Douyin and Kuaitui were flooded with news about the tournaments.

Ordinary people might have watched these nationwide Big Dipper Long Fist tournaments for the novelty and excitement, but in Zhang Shuai's eyes, the government's talent search was unprecedented in both its scale and intensity. With a recruitment effort like this, just how many extraordinary people would turn up?

Although the winners from other places weren't mentioned on Douyin, judging by Qingshui City's results, there should have been about five winners per prefecture-level city. That meant the 749 Bureau had recruited at least fifteen hundred people. Add in the students from schools and the soldiers from the military, and there might be two or three thousand altogether!

That was enough people to start a cultivation school!

Zhang Shuai couldn't help wondering: just how many people was the 749 Bureau trying to recruit? Were they planning to round up every person in the country with the talent to cultivate immortality?

What was the government planning to do with so many people? Could they be preparing something that would shock the world?

These questions stayed buried in Zhang Shuai's mind. For now, he had no answers.