Return (2)

On Blue Star, at the Spirit Awakening Base in Stone Creek City, the staff had been busy these past few days.

Ever since the third day of the Spirit Awakening Ritual, students had begun returning from the Spirit Realm from time to time.

Some students were lucky enough to return exactly the way they had gone.

Others were not so fortunate. They returned covered in wounds, and the staff had to promptly act as medical personnel, administering emergency treatment to the students.

In the command room of the Spirit Awakening Center, dozens of people sat in the spacious hall.

Among them were staff from the Spirit Awakening Base, officers of the stationed Great Xia Army, as well as university teachers and teaching assistants.

At the front of the command room stood a huge screen displaying a map of the entire Spirit Awakening Center.

From here, they could monitor every Spirit Awakening Room in real time. If a student opened a spatial rift and returned from a particular room, this place could promptly detect the aura produced by the spatial rift.

"Looks like Stone Creek City won't be getting a fixed spatial passage this time either."

From his tall seat, a burly, powerfully built officer spoke as he watched the surveillance screen.

"Battalion Commander Zhao, if fixed spatial passages appeared so easily, that might not necessarily be a good thing."

A middle-aged man dressed in splendid robes smiled as he spoke. He was the county magistrate of Stone Creek City and had also been working at the Spirit Awakening Base these past few days.

"That's true!" Battalion Commander Zhao said, shaking his head with a bitter smile.

This Spirit Awakening Base was currently garrisoned by him and the soldiers under his command. A battalion of the Great Xia Army possessed considerable combat strength.

A battalion had more than three hundred men, and every ordinary soldier was an apprentice-tier combat-class professional.

The noncommissioned officers and officers above squad leader, meanwhile, were all Black Iron-tier professionals.

As for the battalion commander, Battalion Commander Zhao had already reached the Silver tier and was a powerful combat-class professional.

On Blue Star, every fixed spatial passage leading to the Spirit Realm was both a treasure vault of immense profits and a source of danger.

This was because every student was transported to a different location in the Spirit Realm. Their arrival point might be safe, or it might be an exceptionally dangerous place.

That danger was not limited to terrain. Some students were transported directly into the settlements of other races. Even if they miraculously survived and returned, and even more luckily left behind a fixed spatial passage—

Once they returned to Blue Star, the garrison might not dare preserve that fixed spatial passage.

At times, the native races of the Spirit Realm could even use the passage to invade Blue Star in reverse.

Slaughter and blood sacrifices were methods used by many Spirit Realm creatures. They could offer sacrifices to their gods, gaining divine favor and an increase in strength.

In the more than three hundred years since Blue Star had been discovered by the Spirit Realm, such incidents had occurred countless times.

Especially during those first few decades, Spirit Realm creatures invaded frequently. Their extraordinary martial might left Blue Star's technological weapons with little room to shine.

In the end, they often had no choice but to use weapons of mass destruction like nuclear bombs, wiping out everything around the spatial passage.

Yet for Blue Star and for Great Xia, such measures were also a lose-lose outcome.

However, the wisdom of Blue Star's people was not to be underestimated. A sage had invented a kind of mana potion that improved the situation.

The ordinary soldiers in Great Xia's military were all apprentice-tier professionals for a reason. They could only ever remain apprentice-tier for the rest of their lives, with no possibility of advancement.

Most of them either did not dare participate in the Spirit Awakening Ritual, or had participated and failed.

After enlisting, they would take special potions and then be dispatched to bases in the Spirit Realm. There, under the effects of the potions, they too would gain extraordinary physiques.

But this expedient method limited their potential. They could only remain apprentice-tier for the rest of their lives.

This was also why, despite already having bases in the Spirit Realm, they still made students risk their lives to participate in the Spirit Awakening Ritual and be randomly transported into the Spirit Realm.

The reason was simple: these fixed passages to the Spirit Realm originated from students who had once participated in the Spirit Awakening Ritual.

Those who entered the Spirit Realm through such passages would not awaken extraordinary physiques.

Yet through potions, many people who had no way to awaken extraordinary physiques could still gain apprentice-level physiques. This greatly increased the strength of Blue Star and the people of Great Xia.

Even apprentice-tier professionals were many times stronger than ordinary people.

As more and more people of Blue Star mastered extraordinary inheritances, coupled with apprentice-tier professionals serving as soldiers and the greater numbers of Black Iron- and Silver-tier officers, Blue Star's people finally gained some ability to fight back against the natives of the Spirit Realm.

Only then did the tide begin to turn. Blue Star's people started leaving Blue Star and expanding their bases in the Spirit Realm.

Bases in the Spirit Realm offered countless benefits. First of all, Blue Star's spiritual energy concentration was extremely low. Cultivating on Blue Star required twice the effort for half the result.

Therefore, many people chose to enter the Spirit Realm and cultivate within its bases.

At the same time, Spirit Realm bases also served as outposts. Many people ventured deep into the Spirit Realm to hunt and obtain precious magical material resources.

They even developed plantations beside the Spirit Realm bases, growing all kinds of magical materials.

Thus, if these students undergoing Spirit Awakening happened to leave behind fixed spatial passages, there were both advantages and disadvantages.

If the other side was sufficiently safe, that was all well and good. But if dangerous alien races were on the other side—

Then this battalion of the Great Xia Army would need to step forward and withstand the enemy's first wave of attacks.

If the other side's strength was too great and the danger too high, they would have to grit their teeth and destroy the spatial passage.

As the blinding light of the spatial rift faded, a youth appeared in the previously empty Spirit Awakening Room.

Huo Ling had returned. He surveyed this Spirit Awakening Room, both unfamiliar and familiar, and the joy in his heart could no longer be contained.

Before long, footsteps sounded beyond the heavy iron door. Huo Ling raised his eyes and looked over.

Through the small opening in the iron door, he discovered two pairs of eyes watching him from outside.

"Spirit Awakening Room 1078 is currently normal. The student is in good condition. No injuries detected. No fixed spatial passage detected."

Outside the door, a soldier held a walkie-talkie and reported the situation to the other end.

"Received. Take him to the examination room!" A new order came through the walkie-talkie.

"Yes!"

Huo Ling listened to the conversation outside the room. This too was part of the standard procedure.

After all, these students returning from the Spirit Realm might have encountered all kinds of things. They might be carrying some danger from the Spirit Realm—or perhaps the one who returned was not even the student himself.

"Click—"

The heavy iron door was opened from outside, and Blue Star's warm sunlight once again streamed into this dim Spirit Awakening Room.