Zhang Beihai remained where he was. He lowered his head and looked at his right palm. The lines in it were clearly visible beneath the fluorescent lights, yet he could feel the warm golden gleam beneath his skin slowly flowing along the paths of his meridians like a quiet underground river. He clenched his fist, then released it, and slowly let out a breath.
He turned to face the others. "Once the defense assignments are issued, everyone will take up position in their respective sectors. If you have questions, keep them to yourselves for now. We'll discuss them after we've figured out the true limits of this power."
No one objected. The seventeen people left the hall one after another, following the corridors toward their assigned areas. Zhang Beihai was the last to leave. He paused at the entrance, looked back at the silver gate of light beside the control console, which had already closed, then stepped outside.
Within two months, the number of successful Forging subjects had risen to over a hundred. Fang Yan's workstation maintained an output of seven or eight people a day. The logistics and training systems arranged by Zero One moved those who had completed the Forging from the workstations to the transition camp like a precise conveyor belt, then assigned them from the transition camp to various nodes throughout the territory. Those stationed at border outposts and energy nodes discovered that the gleam within them would gradually adapt on its own to the energy density of the surrounding environment as it continued circulating, much like living plant roots slowly growing toward water.
Yet the first seventeen people to complete the Forging underwent changes noticeably different from those of the later arrivals after two months of high-intensity training and combat coordination. The warm golden gleam