Lin Yuan: Brief but Brilliant

"Lin Yuan."

Su Qingxue spoke two words.

The entire command room fell utterly silent.

"This Lin Yuan, would he reach the peak of the Seventh-Tier Stage in the future?"

"Or would he attain the Eighth-Tier Stage, something humanity had never achieved?"

Nie Dingguo's eyes were full of anticipation.

If that was truly the case, they absolutely could not miss him.

"Neither."

"When Lin Yuan died."

"He was only at the Peak Second-Order Stage."

Su Qingxue shook her head.

As her words fell.

The air in the command room instantly froze.

Several senior staff officers exchanged looks.

Nie Dingguo's brow furrowed deeply.

"Are you joking?"

"The people you reported earlier all started at the Sixth-Tier Stage, and several were Seventh-Tier Stage War Gods."

"And now, with such solemnity, you want me to find a martial artist at the Peak Second-Order Stage?"

Nie Dingguo forcibly suppressed his displeasure.

It was like selecting astronauts for a lunar mission. All the previous candidates had been top-notch pilots.

Then, for the final recommendation, she brought up someone who drove a tractor.

Wasn't this nonsense?

"Sir."

"Please hear me out."

Su Qingxue met Nie Dingguo's eyes without yielding an inch.

"His name was Lin Yuan. He was from Shu Capital."

"His parents were alive, and his family ran a small convenience store."

"He had a younger sister, four years his junior, named Lin Xiaoxiao. She was eighteen this year and preparing for her college entrance exams."

"Lin Yuan was twenty-two this year and had just graduated from vocational college."

"His current occupation... was a food delivery rider."

A few coughs sounded through the command room.

A food delivery rider?

A Second-Tier Martial Artist?

This was the person she claimed was more important than a Seventh-Tier Stage War God?

Ignoring everyone else's reactions, Su Qingxue continued.

"In the second year of the Spiritual Energy Revival."

"To improve the survival rate of the general population, the nation publicly released the most basic Breathing Method."

"Lin Yuan did not enlist, nor did he have enough money to buy expensive mutant beast meat to replenish his vitality and blood."

"Every day after finishing his deliveries, he practiced that commonplace basic cultivation technique in his rented room."

At this point.

Su Qingxue's tone gradually turned solemn.

"In the fifth year of the Spiritual Energy Revival."

"Shu Capital suffered an unprecedented massive Beast Tide."

"Millions of mutant Ferocious Beasts broke through the outer defensive lines."

"At that time, the strongest martial artist the military had cultivated with all its resources had only just reached the Peak Second-Order Stage."

"But no one had expected."

"Lin Yuan, a commoner with no background, no resources, and nothing but the Basic Breathing Technique."

"He had also reached the Peak Second-Order Stage."

The instant those words were spoken.

Nie Dingguo, who had found the matter absurd moments ago, suddenly narrowed his pupils.

The staff officers beside him also drew sharp breaths.

They were not fools.

The military's elites enjoyed the best cultivation techniques, the most ample nutritional rations, and the most professional guidance.

Five years to reach the Peak Second-Order Stage.

Yet a poor kid who delivered food all day.

By relying on a commonplace technique and practicing whenever he found the time, he had somehow reached the very same level?

What kind of terrifying comprehension did that require?

But that was not enough.

Su Qingxue's next words completely ignited the command room.

"On the day the Beast Tide breached the city."

"Official martial artists fought bitterly on the front lines while civilians were urgently evacuated from the rear."

"A fatal gap appeared in the defensive line on Shu Capital's Second Ring Road."

"Large numbers of Ferocious Beasts flooded into the civilian evacuation route."

"Lin Yuan was there."

Su Qingxue closed her eyes, as if she could once again see that brutal scene from her previous life.

"He did not run."

"With a battered combat saber in hand, he stood at the entrance to the evacuation route."

"In that battle."

"Lin Yuan faced hundreds of Second-Tier Ferocious Beasts."

"And... three Third-Tier Ferocious Beasts!"

Nie Dingguo slammed his palm onto the table and shot to his feet.

"Impossible!"

"You told me yourself just a few days ago."

"A Ferocious Beast's body far surpassed that of a human of the same tier. It took three martial artists of the same tier to deal with one Ferocious Beast of the same tier."

"Fighting above one's tier was even more absurd!"

"A Peak Second-Order martial artist against three Third-Tier Ferocious Beasts, plus hundreds of Second-Tier ones?"

"That completely contradicts the martial arts logic you described!"

Everyone thought Su Qingxue was making up a story.

Second-Tier against Third-Tier?

And one against three?

How was that possible?!

Su Qingxue opened her eyes, which had already turned red around the rims.

"Yes."

"Everyone thought it was impossible."

"But Lin Yuan did it."

Su Qingxue's voice trembled slightly.

"By himself, he held the passage entrance for a full three hours."

"He personally hacked all three Third-Tier Ferocious Beasts to death beneath his blade!"

"The corpses of hundreds of Second-Tier Ferocious Beasts filled the entire street."

"He covered the safe evacuation of more than a hundred thousand civilians behind him."

The entire command room was silent.

Only heavy breathing echoed through it.

"What happened in the end?"

Nie Dingguo's voice was hoarse as both hands pressed tightly against the tabletop.

"In the end..."

Su Qingxue gave a miserable smile.

"He ran out of strength."

"Eighty percent of the bones in his body were shattered, and he bled dry."

"He was... swallowed by the Beast Tide that surged in afterward."

"Not even an intact corpse remained."

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Though they had not personally experienced that battle and had only heard Su Qingxue's account.

The iron-blooded soldiers present could still picture that tragic scene in their minds.

A food delivery rider in a yellow vest.

Holding a chipped combat saber.

Amid torrential rain and an endless Beast Tide, he fought to the death without retreating, like a War God.

Using his own life to buy a path to survival for more than a hundred thousand people.

"The future Federal Martial Arts Research Institute once conducted an exceptionally detailed war-game simulation."

"The subject of that simulation was Lin Yuan."

"The experts came to an utterly insane conclusion."

"If Lin Yuan had not died in that Beast Tide."

"If the military had discovered him from the very beginning and given him top-tier cultivation techniques and unlimited resource rations."

"With his terrifying combat instinct and martial arts talent that defied all common sense."

"He would have been highly likely to become the first martial artist in human history to break through to the Eighth-Tier Stage."

"As long as he grew up."

"The world-ending calamity eighty years later might have been ended by him alone."

"Humanity could have completely defeated the Ferocious Beasts."

Su Qingxue steadied her emotions.

She stared directly at Nie Dingguo and spoke each word with deliberate force.

Bang!

Nie Dingguo drove his fist into the tabletop.

The impact sent water splashing from the teacup.

"Good!"

"What an incredible Lin Yuan!"

An intensely bright light burst from Nie Dingguo's eyes.

Those Seventh-Tier Stage War Gods from earlier were certainly formidable.

But all of them had grown step by step within the conventional system.

As for this Lin Yuan.

He was a monster who shattered every convention!

Most importantly.

Lin Yuan's character.

At such a life-or-death moment.

An ordinary civilian with no official identity had been willing to die on the battlefield to protect fleeing strangers.

No background.

An intense love for this land and its people.

Combat talent so monstrous it could only be called demonic.

A person like that was precisely the super seed the military dreamed of finding!

This was the true pillar of the nation!

He did not even need to be taught patriotism and devotion; the word protect was carved into his very bones!

"Adjutant!"

Nie Dingguo suddenly turned, his voice booming like a great bell.

"Here!"

A senior colonel immediately snapped to attention.

"Put the search for all other candidates on hold!"

"Activate the First-Level Combat Readiness Communications Network and immediately establish contact with the Shu Capital Military Subdistrict."

"Have Shu Capital mobilize every resource they have and turn the entire city upside down."

"Within three hours."

"You must bring this food delivery rider, Lin Yuan, safely to the military base!"

"Yes!"

"Commander!"

The colonel, drenched in sweat, immediately ran to the encrypted communications station.

The entire command center of the Northwest Military Region was thrown into an uproar over the name of a deliveryman.

Watching this scene.

Su Qingxue let out a long breath.

Lin Yuan.

In your previous life, you had been like a meteor—brief yet brilliant.

In this life.

Dragon Country's military would pour the strength of the entire nation into paving a road to the heavens for you.

Could you change humanity's fate?