"Yuan!"
Lin Xiaoxiao threw her arms around Lin Yuan's arm.
She looked him up and down, her eyes wide.
Zhang Hui hurried over.
She still held a spatula speckled with oil, but tears were already welling in her eyes.
"You've gotten darker."
"And stronger."
Zhang Hui reached out and touched Lin Yuan's cheek.
Her fingers were rough, callused from years of work.
Lin Jianguo stood beside the sofa without moving.
Excitement shone through his slightly clouded eyes.
But he was too proud to show it and forced his feelings down.
"You're home. That's what matters."
"Go wash your hands. It's time to eat."
Lin Jianguo cleared his throat. His voice sounded dry.
The heat was turned up high inside.
A noisy variety show played on the television.
The rich aroma of braised pork ribs drifted from the kitchen.
Lin Yuan stood in the entryway.
He breathed in that warm, homely air as deeply as he could.
This was the life he had staked everything to protect.
A few minutes later.
The family sat around the dining table.
Zhang Hui kept piling food into Lin Yuan's bowl until the ribs formed a little mountain.
"Yuan."
"What have you been doing?"
"The people who came to get us before were armed to the teeth."
"They wouldn't even let us ask where you'd gone."
"Did they recruit you for some secret esports tournament?"
"You were always so good at games!"
Lin Xiaoxiao bit her chopsticks and looked at him curiously.
All this time.
She had often wondered where her brother had gone.
Now.
With Lin Yuan back.
She intended to get to the bottom of it.
At his sister's words.
Lin Yuan nearly choked on a rib.
He put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a tissue.
He absolutely could not mention the Spiritual Energy Revival or the Ferocious Beasts.
If even a hint of it got out.
All of Shu Capital, perhaps even all of Dragon Country, would descend into panic.
"The military recruited me specially."
"I showed exceptional talent in a certain area."
Then.
Lin Yuan spoke casually, as though it were nothing out of the ordinary.
Zhang Hui stopped eating.
Worry flashed across her eyes.
"Is it dangerous?"
"You used to deliver food, and then they suddenly recruited you..."
Lin Jianguo tapped the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks.
"What would you know about it?"
"If the country made the arrangements, it must have its reasons."
Even so.
Lin Jianguo had plenty of questions himself.
Specially recruiting a delivery worker?
And arranging for his family to live in an upscale Military Dependents Compound?
The treatment was almost absurd.
Lin Yuan sensed his parents' unease.
He knew that unless he showed them something concrete.
None of them would finish this meal in peace.
He slipped a hand into his inner pocket and touched the dark red booklet.
A moment later.
Lin Yuan gently placed it on the dining table.
The national emblem gleamed with a solemn, dark luster under the light.
Lin Xiaoxiao reached for it first.
Curious, she opened the ID and glanced at the photograph.
Then.
She sprang from her chair as if she had seen a ghost.
"C-Colonel?"
Lin Xiaoxiao's voice cracked.
Zhang Hui jumped.
She hurried over to look, though she did not quite understand what the rank meant.
"How high up is a colonel?"
Lin Jianguo snatched the ID.
He pushed his reading glasses up his nose and stared at the embossed seal.
"A regimental-level officer..."
"He could even serve as a brigade chief of staff!"
Lin Jianguo began to stammer.
He had served two years in the military and knew how hard it was to rise through the ranks.
A twenty-two-year-old kid with no connections had become an army colonel?
If he told anyone.
They would think he had lost his mind.
"Yuan."
"Did you go save the Earth?"
"Or are you actually the Terminator?"
Lin Xiaoxiao swallowed.
She now looked at Lin Yuan less like her brother and more like an alien.
"Lay off the sci-fi movies."
Lin Yuan laughed despite himself.
He put the ID back in his pocket, his expression turning serious.
"Dad, Mom, Xiaoxiao."
"The details of my work are top secret."
"Pretend you never saw that ID."
Lin Jianguo immediately sat up straight and nodded firmly.
"I know the rules of confidentiality!"
"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask, and don't say what you shouldn't say!"
Zhang Hui was still full of worry.
But seeing her husband's attitude, she swallowed her questions.
"Then... how long can you stay this time?"
"Twenty days."
"I have to leave on the morning of the fifth day of the new year."
Lin Yuan answered softly.
"Twenty days is good."
"We can spend the new year together properly."
Zhang Hui began adding more food to Lin Yuan's bowl.
But her movements were much gentler now, as if she feared disturbing the colonel.
Late that night.
The rest of the family had gone to sleep.
Lin Yuan returned to his bedroom and locked the door.
He stared at the ceiling, complicated emotions flickering in his eyes.
His father had gained several more gray hairs.
The wrinkles at the corners of his mother's eyes had deepened since he last remembered them.
Time had left marks on them that could never be undone.
Suddenly.
His encrypted phone vibrated.
Lin Yuan came back to himself at once and answered.
"Hello, Comrade Lin Yuan."
"This is Zhao Dingbang, Commander-in-Chief of the Southwest Military Region!"
A deep, resonant voice came through the phone.
"Sir!"
Lin Yuan's expression sharpened.
He understood that he had now been transferred to the southwest defense zone.
Inside the Southwest Military Region's command center.
Zhao Dingbang stood before a massive electronic sand table.
He held a top-secret file.
The cover bore three bright red letters: "SSS."
It contained only a few pages.
But the data recorded there had kept the battle-hardened old general awake all night.
[Striking force test: Equipment destroyed. Estimated force exceeds 30 tons.] [100-meter sprint: 0.8 seconds.] [Ability: True Qi Projection. Destructive power equivalent to a man-portable thermobaric bomb.]
What kind of soldier was this?
He was a strategic weapon in human skin!
Most frightening of all, that weapon was only twenty-two.
Zhao Dingbang looked at the holographic map of the area surrounding Shu Capital on the screen.
Several red dots blinked across it.
The Research Department predicted that once the Spiritual Energy Tide erupted, those locations were likely to see major upheaval.
"Comrade Lin Yuan, welcome home."
"My superiors have already briefed me on your situation."
"I'll send a car to pick you up on the fifth."
"The lives of Shu Capital's sixteen million people are in your hands."
"You can count on me, sir."
"As long as I'm breathing, the Shu Capital Defense Line will hold."
At Zhao Dingbang's words.
Lin Yuan's grip tightened slightly around the phone.
His voice was quiet, but his resolve was absolute.
After he hung up.
Lin Yuan glanced at the wall clock.
After hesitating for a moment.
He still dialed Nie Dingguo's number.
The ringing tone sounded only once before it was instantly picked up.
"You brat."
"You just got home and you're already calling me?"
A hint of fatigue laced Nie Dingguo's voice.
During this period, he had been so busy propagating the Breathing Method that his feet barely touched the ground.
"Commander!"
"I'd like to ask for instructions on something."
"I want to teach the Basic Breathing Technique to my parents and younger sister."
Lin Yuan did not waste words and went straight to the point.
The other end of the phone fell into a brief silence.
Before the full outbreak of the Spiritual Energy Revival.
The Basic Breathing Technique could only be circulated within the military and was forbidden from being pushed to the civilian population.
It was precisely because of this.
In the daytime, Lin Yuan had not even dared to mention the matter of the Spiritual Energy Revival in front of his parents.
On the other side.
The Northwest Military Region Underground Base.
Nie Dingguo rubbed his throbbing temples, his gaze flickering wildly.
The rules were dead, but people were alive.
Who was Lin Yuan?
He was Dragon Country's only Second-Tier Martial Artist at present, and the pillar who carried the first wave of the Beast Tide.
If his worries back home were not resolved.
What if he got distracted on the battlefield?
"Commander."
"If it's difficult, forget it."
Just at that moment.
Lin Yuan's voice rang out once more, taking the initiative to step back.
"Teach it to them!"
"Just say it's health-maintenance gymnastics specially supplied by the military region."
"But make sure to warn them strictly that it must never be passed on to relatives and friends!"
After hesitating for a few seconds.
Nie Dingguo finally spoke and agreed to Lin Yuan's request.
"Thank you, instructor."
"Get lost, get lost, get lost, go to sleep immediately!"
Before you continue