Changes in the Ruan Family

January 23rd, early morning.

The next day, Wu Ming got up early.

He had stayed up late the previous night, constantly exploring ways for a Spirit Reader to improve.

However, he had not been studying something as lofty as Force of Will Amplitude, but rather how to raise his own Spirit Reader rank.

By searching through his memories of the original story, Wu Ming discovered that the book contained pitifully little about a Spirit Reader's daily training, especially when it came to raising the level of their Spiritual Force.

After all, Luo Feng's advancement during the Apprentice stage had always relied on the "Dark Golden Orb" in his Sea of Consciousness. But that was his talent and had no universal applicability at all.

Therefore, for a Spirit Reader like Wu Ming whose potential had already been exhausted, how to continue increasing his strength had become the most important question.

Fortunately, after spending most of the night experimenting, Wu Ming had finally found a method, and it was extremely simple.

It was to absorb Cosmic Energy!

However, unlike Genetic Warriors, Spirit Readers mainly absorbed Cosmic Energy through their brains, then transformed it into Spiritual Force through the Sea of Consciousness.

But the absorption efficiency was appallingly slow, equivalent to a Genetic Warrior who had not practiced a Guidance Technique.

Wu Ming guessed that since both paths involved absorbing energy, perhaps Spirit Readers should also have something similar to a Guidance Technique. As for whether it was the same as the Guidance Techniques used by Genetic Warriors, he did not know.

"At this rate, by the time the Beast Tide begins, my Spiritual Force will at most break through to the Advanced Warrior level. My strength as a Genetic Warrior will be about the same."

There was no helping it. He did not know any cultivation methods yet; he was basically a blank slate.

Wu Ming knew full well that such strength would only make him cannon fodder before the Beast Tide. If he wanted to obtain greater power, he had to master cultivation methods.

As for the path of a Genetic Warrior, he already had a rough direction in mind: start with Internal Martial Arts, master force-generation techniques, and perhaps even derive a Guidance Technique.

The batch of books Zhao Minghui had sent included quite a few introductions to Internal Martial Arts, even boxing manuals.

Unfortunately, whenever they reached a crucial point, the content had either been cut until it was unrecognizable or glossed over with obscure coded language. It was impossible to truly get started through self-study alone.

To genuinely grasp the essence of Internal Martial Arts, he could only personally visit a martial arts school and take on a master.

Therefore, Wu Ming planned to begin visiting various martial arts schools and learning Internal Martial Arts techniques after obtaining his new equipment.

As for the Spirit Reader path, he could only rely on himself. Even if he wanted to learn, there was no one to teach him.

Because at this point in time, he was most likely the only Spirit Reader in the world. He could only explore cultivation methods on his own.

"Still, there's no rush. I'll solve the equipment problem first."

"Sharpening the axe won't delay the chopping. Even if I want to create cultivation methods, I need to raise my talent first before I have any hope."

As his thoughts turned, Wu Ming had already reached the entrance of the residential complex.

His home was not actually far from Jinjiang Riverside Villa Area, less than ten kilometers away. Too lazy to call a taxi, Wu Ming chose to run there.

As for flying with Spiritual Force? At this point in time, that would be far too conspicuous and did not suit his personality.

A few minutes later, he arrived at Jinjiang Riverside Villa Area. Not far to the left of the road was the Jinjiang River, its banks lined with weeping willows whose branches stood bare in winter.

Ruan Qingzhu's home was just ahead.

However, as he passed the Jinjiang River, Wu Ming had a thought. The RR Virus had been in Shushi for some time now.

As the largest source of infection, he was curious about what had become of the creatures that originally lived in the river.

If mutated creatures had already emerged, he could kill them and preserve them as evidence to warn the higher-ups and let the country prepare countermeasures in advance.

However, when Wu Ming swept the river with his Spiritual Force, he found that the appearances of its various creatures had not changed much. At most, they had become somewhat stronger, but they did not yet pose a threat to humans.

Perhaps it was still too early. The RR Virus had not transformed them thoroughly enough, and the aquatic creatures in the Jinjiang River had not had time to mutate.

Shaking his head, Wu Ming withdrew his Spiritual Force and stopped dwelling on it. He walked straight to Ruan Qingzhu's door and rang the bell.

A moment later, the door opened, revealing his fiancée, whom he had not seen for two days.

"A-Ming, you're here so early." The moment Ruan Qingzhu saw him, a delighted expression appeared on her face.

"Yeah, I have something I want to discuss with you." Wu Ming got straight to the point, then added after a moment's thought, "More precisely, I want to cooperate with Xingzhu Group, so I came to ask you about the situation first."

"Cooperate?" Ruan Qingzhu was slightly surprised, but she did not ask further. Instead, she said, "If you want to cooperate with the group, wouldn't it be enough to talk to my parents? They're home right now."

Wu Ming paused, somewhat surprised. "Uncle Ruan and Aunt Miao didn't go to the company?"

In his impression, those two were extremely busy people, even busier than his mother.

Shen Xinglan would at least make time to come home once every ten days or half a month. But once Ruan Zaixing and Miao Yueling got busy, it was common for them not to return home for two or three months.

"No, they were infected two days ago too. But they took the special medicine in advance, so their lives weren't in danger."

Ruan Qingzhu explained, "After their symptoms improved, they... forget it. Just come take a look and you'll understand."

Wu Ming did not quite understand, but he said nothing and followed her into the villa. They passed through the living room and arrived at the door of a secluded room on the first floor.

If he remembered correctly, this room had once been used as a guest room.

Uncle Ruan and Aunt Miao were inside?

Yet as he stood before the door, Wu Ming could already sense the activity inside. A strange expression involuntarily appeared on his face.

Ruan Qingzhu pushed the door open directly and called out as she entered, "Dad, Mom, stop for a moment. A-Ming is here!"

Wu Ming followed closely behind her into the room. The moment he saw the scene before him, he could not help raising an eyebrow.

The former guest room had been completely transformed. The bed and wardrobe had been moved somewhere unknown, replaced by a full set of professional fitness equipment.

As for Ruan Zaixing and Miao Yueling, they were inside, working out in a sweat.

When she saw Wu Ming, Miao Yueling set down an absurdly large dumbbell, let out a light breath, and greeted him with a smile. "Xiao Ming, you're here. Old Ruan, stop training for now."

Ruan Zaixing was doing bench presses. Hearing that, he stopped pretending and easily sat up while holding the barbell. He gave Wu Ming a proud look. "Well? Your Uncle Ruan's strength is pretty impressive, right?"

"A 300-kilogram bench press is indeed impressive." Wu Ming swept his gaze over the two of them and smiled faintly. "It seems the virus's transformation has greatly improved Uncle Ruan and Aunt Miao's physical fitness."

"So you know the reason." Ruan Zaixing visibly relaxed and exchanged glances with his wife. "I thought only our family had mutated after being infected. I was so scared these past two days that I didn't dare go out. I only dared secretly buy equipment to test ourselves."

"From your tone, the higher-ups know about this, right?"

"Mm. Although the RR Virus has now spread across the country, the number of infected people in each region is still low."

Wu Ming explained, "So the country has not announced the news for now, lest some people take desperate risks in pursuit of the power brought by the virus's transformation."

"In fact, once everyone survives the infection stage, their genes will be transformed, and their physical fitness will at least double."