Trained Beyond the Stars

Chen Lie took the elevator to the president's office on the twenty-eighth floor of Sunflare Tower. Outside the office, he knocked twice.

Without waiting for any response from inside, Chen Lie pushed the door open and walked in.

The moment he entered, Chen Lie saw Zhao Jinglan standing before the desk with a cold expression, a document in her hand.

"Chen Lie, seventeen years old, a senior-year martial arts student in an ordinary class at a provincial key high school.

"His family consists of his father, Chen Gequn; mother, Feng Yuelan; and younger sister, Chen Xingyao. His family is comfortably above middle class.

"Take a look. These are the personal details I had a friend in politics investigate yesterday. See if there are any errors or omissions."

Chen Lie took the document from Zhao Jinglan, gave it a quick glance, then set it on the desk.

"Correct. It's very detailed, and there are no errors."

Zhao Jinglan said coldly, "You've got some nerve! You actually dared deceive Sunflare Group. Do you know that with a flick of my finger, I could make you vanish from this world without a sound?"

Faced with Zhao Jinglan's threat, Chen Lie merely replied expressionlessly, "You're testing me because you don't believe the results of your investigation, aren't you?

"Actually, there's no need. As long as I can resolve your problem today, that will be enough. You and I exist on different levels; there should be no intersection between us."

Upon hearing Chen Lie's words, Zhao Jinglan immediately dropped her cold expression.

Her lovely eyes studied Chen Lie with hidden meaning. Was this brat hinting at something?

Was he mocking her for failing to uncover his true background?

Different levels? Could his true background really be enough to make her look up at him?

There were not no such people on Blue Star, but they were exceedingly rare.

"Let's begin. What do you need me to do?"

Since Chen Lie had already made things clear, Zhao Jinglan said no more and went straight to the point.

"Just sit here and empty your mind. Leave the rest to me."

Zhao Jinglan nodded slightly, sat in the president's chair, closed her eyes, and cleared her mind.

Standing before Zhao Jinglan, Chen Lie glanced over her delicate, curvaceous figure. Then he extended a finger and lightly touched the spot between her brows.

Chen Lie's spiritual power entered Zhao Jinglan's sea of consciousness through his fingertip in an orderly stream.

Zhao Jinglan also felt a solid, condensed force of spiritual power enter her sea of consciousness and slowly begin correcting her chaotic spiritual power.

She could not help opening her eyes to look at Chen Lie. He's a Mind Reader too? The purity of his spiritual power is even more refined than mine.

Looking at Chen Lie's youthful face, Zhao Jinglan fell into deep doubt. What did it mean for a seventeen-year-old to be a Mind Reader on Blue Star?

She had become a first-rank Mind Reader at twenty and had already been hailed as a genius rarely seen in East River Province for decades. Yet compared to Chen Lie before her, she truly did not know what to say.

"Close your eyes and empty your mind!"

Hearing Chen Lie's reminder, Zhao Jinglan immediately shut her eyes.

As Zhao Jinglan's chaotic spiritual power was corrected bit by bit, Chen Lie slowly withdrew his own spiritual power through his fingertip.

A strand of Zhao Jinglan's spiritual power followed Chen Lie's guidance into his sea of consciousness.

Suddenly, her mind trembled.

Through that strand of spiritual power, Zhao Jinglan's Mind Sense caught a glimpse of Chen Lie's sea of consciousness.

It was a vast, pitch-black universe. She felt as though she were standing beneath a starry sky shrouded in mist, surrounded by stars overhead. Yet only eight dazzling stars formed a tic-tac-toe grid, exuding an indescribably majestic and boundless aura.

Chen Lie withdrew his spiritual power, and his fingertip left Zhao Jinglan's brow.

"Your problem has been resolved."

Zhao Jinglan hurriedly came back to her senses and tried circulating her spiritual power once. Sure enough, the splitting headache had vanished.

Yet her lovely eyes narrowed slightly as she stared blankly at Chen Lie.

That fleeting glimpse had shown her Chen Lie's spiritual world.

The foundation of his Mind Reader abilities was actually this profound?

That dark universe, that empty starry sky, and those eight brilliant stars—what kind of spiritual power cultivation method could forge such a sea of consciousness?

She had once been fortunate enough to witness the sea of consciousness of a master-level Mind Reader, but it had been nowhere near as exaggerated as Chen Lie's.

The teacher who had guided her spiritual power cultivation had once said that a sea of consciousness best reflected a Mind Reader's potential.

This youth before her possessed a sea of consciousness even more grand and boundless than that of a master-level Mind Reader. Did that not mean he was a living seed of a spiritual power master?

As far as she knew, whether on Blue Star or beyond the stars, spiritual power masters were beyond comparison to martial arts masters.

At that thought, a captivating smile bloomed across Zhao Jinglan's exquisite face, and her gaze toward Chen Lie softened considerably.

"Little Brother Chen Lie, thank you for resolving the problem that has troubled me for nearly two years.

"I'm ten years older than you, so I'll take the liberty of calling you little brother. If you don't mind, you may call me sister as well. From now on, we'll address each other as siblings. How does that sound?"

"If President Zhao thinks highly of me, then I naturally have no objection."

Chen Lie was not at all surprised by Zhao Jinglan's change in attitude. Not only on Blue Star—even in the Central Galactic Empire, no one could escape such worldly conventions.

If Chen Lie's guess was correct, Zhao Jinglan had surely already imagined some unfathomable background for him.

Zhao Jinglan sighed. "You must be blaming your sister for testing you just now.

"To speak honestly, outsiders may see me, the president of Sunflare Group, as infinitely glamorous, but the Zhao family is a large clan. I am merely one member of it, not the only one. There are many cousins of my generation eyeing my position like tigers.

"The elders gave me the position of president of Sunflare Group because they wanted me to produce results. If I cannot give them an answer that satisfies them, I could be replaced at any time.

"The group's new medicinal solution is at a critical stage of development right now, and there can't be the slightest mistake. That is why I had no choice but to test you earlier."

Chen Lie nodded thoughtfully. "Only human nature. I understand."

Zhao Jinglan smiled. "It's good that you understand, but your sister should still apologize to you."

Chen Lie immediately waved his hand, indicating that the matter was settled.

Zhao Jinglan's eyes suddenly flickered, and she casually asked, "Little Brother Chen Lie, was your spiritual power cultivation method passed down by Starry Sky University?"

"My master is from beyond the stars. My spiritual power cultivation method comes from the Central Galactic Empire."

"The Central Galactic... Empire?"

Zhao Jinglan was bewildered. It was not that she did not know of the Central Galactic Empire's existence. On the contrary, every ordinary citizen of Blue Star clearly knew about the Central Galactic Empire.

More than a century ago, when Blue Star entered the interstellar age and first came into contact with interstellar civilization, important figures from beyond the stars visited Blue Star and spread knowledge of martial arts.

Soon afterward, the Blue Star United Government announced to the billions of ordinary citizens of Blue Star that Blue Star had been an inherent territory of the Central Galactic Empire since its existence, and that the people of Blue Star were all citizens of the Central Galactic Empire.

The Central Galactic Empire was a supreme divine empire that had stood in the cosmic starry skies for more than seven thousand years, its territory spanning countless miles of stars.

Every person on Blue Star should be proud to be a citizen under the Central Galactic Empire.

At the same time, the Blue Star United Government announced that Blue Star's traditional Gregorian calendar would be replaced by the Galactic Calendar.

With the official certification of the Blue Star United Government, no one on Blue Star questioned the existence of the Central Galactic Empire.

But even for a high-ranking figure of East River Province like Zhao Jinglan, the Central Galactic Empire was something invisible and intangible, something that belonged to legend.

Could the youth before her truly possess a background connected to the Central Galactic Empire?

Zhao Jinglan shook her head and cast aside her jumbled thoughts.

Whether or not this youth possessed some unfathomable background, the fact that he was already a Mind Reader at his age and possessed the potential to become a spiritual power master alone made him worthy of her humbling herself to befriend him.