A Difficult Registration
The technical team leader's words plunged the squad members into another stretch of silence.
If he was not from another city, then he was a local martial artist from Jiang City.
Seventeen to nineteen years old, blood qi between 1.3 and 1.4, and a combat power rating above 5.0.
When had Jiang City produced a genius like this?
"Could the blood qi and age readings be wrong?" one member could not help asking. "Jiang City is only so big. The Martial Arts Bureau's system has records of all the top prospects in every high school's martial arts classes. We've never heard of anyone like this."
"We checked three times. There is absolutely no mistake." The technical team leader's tone did not waver in the slightest.
She swiped across the screen in her hand and pulled up another set of data. "Moreover, we reconstructed the force trajectories of the fatal wounds on both demonic spiders. From beginning to end, their killer used nothing but the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist."
"The Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist?!"
The squad members all cried out in astonishment.
This time, even Lin Qing, who had kept her emotions steady all along, widened her eyes in shock and sucked in a cold breath.
The members around her erupted into an uproar.
"You mean that introductory fist technique that's compulsory in high school martial arts classes?"
"Are you kidding? Even martial artists who've only just started think that technique lacks power. Who would use it in a fight to the death?"
"And the scariest part is, he actually killed two Shadow Mimic Spiders with it?"
"Then it looks like the blood qi and age readings really are right. Other than a high school student, what martial artist out in society would use the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist to kill enemies?"
The veteran member crouching beside the corpses to inspect their wounds stood up, undisguised amazement in his voice. "I've been doing this for eight years, and this is my first time seeing someone kill demonic beasts with a basic fist technique. Every move struck a lethal point. There wasn't a trace of wasted motion in the force trajectories, and even the dispersal and redirection of force fitted together without a gap. He has definitely trained this basic fist technique to perfection."
Waves stirred in Lin Qing's heart. She knew the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist all too well.
Back in high school, she had practiced this fist technique for three full years.
That was why she knew exactly where the limits of this introductory fist technique lay.
To train it to the point where he could kill both spiders, this young man's control over martial techniques had already reached an inconceivable level.
She immediately turned to the member responsible for technical surveillance. "What about the surveillance footage for this area? Have you pulled it up? I want to know exactly who this person is."
The technical team member looked troubled. "Captain, these two demonic spiders scouted the area beforehand. They were far too cautious. The lenses on all three security cameras at the alley entrance and the five private cameras nearby were destroyed. They didn't leave a single image behind.
"We're expanding the search and tracing footage from cameras on the three surrounding streets, but this old district has a lot of alleys and blind spots. We might not find any usable footage."
Lin Qing knitted her brows and began to think.
There was no surveillance footage and no record of an outsider.
Fortunately, though, they knew this young man was seventeen to nineteen years old, had blood qi between 1.3 and 1.4 and combat power above 5.0, and had trained the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist to a transcendent level.
He simply refused to believe that she would fail to find such a monstrous genius...
"Pass down my orders."
Lin Qing gave her instructions. "First, compile all the on-site examination data and test results into an official report and send it to the municipal bureau's Martial Arts Administration Office within an hour. Highlight the combat methods, the martial artist's age, and the martial technique used.
"Second, notify every high school and subdistrict office in Jiang City to screen young people aged seventeen to nineteen and see whether they can find this genius.
"Third, if that really doesn't work, submit a request to headquarters to test the blood qi and combat power of every registered second-year, third-year, and repeating student at every high school.
"A genius like this is extremely important to Jiang City and holds tremendous significance. We must find him as soon as possible."
"Yes!" the squad members answered in unison.
They knew very well that if Jiang City did not discover a genius like this early, another major city would surely poach him again.
This was largely why Jiang City had ranked at the bottom in the martial artist examinations for so many years.
More importantly, the major cities' scramble for talent had caused a massive outflow of local martial artists from the relatively underdeveloped Jiang City.
By now, they were even beginning to face a gap between the old generation and the new.
Saturday, at the central plaza of the Jiang City Martial Arts Association.
With his hands in his pockets, Lin Hao stood at the edge of the plaza, reading the registration instructions for the Six-City Young Pharmacists Competition.
The instructions were clear: registration closed at noon today, and eligibility was limited to those under twenty who held an apprentice pharmacist certificate or higher officially recognized by the Dragon Nation.
He barely recognized even a handful of the most basic medicinal herbs, so naturally, he had no apprentice pharmacist certificate.
But he had not come today with any intention of registering according to the rules.
In fact, whether he could register did not matter to him.
What he really wanted was to trigger a pharmacist quest from the system.
He watched the registration line and noticed that many of the apprentice pharmacists registering had brought several attendants.
So he followed a young man wearing an apprentice pharmacist badge on his chest, pretending to be his attendant and hoping to slip inside first.
Who would have thought that the moment he stepped onto the yellow line of the registration lane, a staff member wearing an ID badge would approach him, speaking calmly but without emotion? "Please show your apprentice pharmacist certificate or higher."
Lin Hao had no certificate to produce, so he could only smile politely and leave the line.
He deliberately spent a while checking, but the system in his mind remained completely silent.
Of course, he was not going to give up just like that.
He went around to the office area at the side, found a staff member on duty, and asked whether there were any other registration channels. Although he had no apprentice pharmacist certificate, he had been deeply interested in potions since childhood.
The staff member glanced at him, pushed a copy of the "Six-City Young Pharmacists Competition Management Regulations" in front of him, and replied mechanically, "Get your qualification certificate first, then we can talk about competing. That's a fixed rule. No exceptions."
Lin Hao then asked whether he could take the apprentice pharmacist assessment on-site. The staff member shook his head and said that Jiang City's unified assessment was held on the first of every month, and this venue did not handle apprentice pharmacist assessments.
With no other choice, Lin Hao could only leave.
He waited another ten-odd minutes, but the system remained silent, without the slightest fluctuation.
He tried heading toward the preparation area inside the competition venue, but he had only just gone around two barriers when two people in security uniforms approached him.
Their tone was polite but firm. "Only competitors and staff may enter the preparation area. Please leave."
After spending the entire morning trying one thing after another, registration had already closed, yet his system still showed no sign of activity.
He knew there was no point wasting any more time, so he could only grumble inwardly about the system before turning toward the potion shop beside the plaza.
From the thirty thousand in cash he had gotten from Xia Zhi, he counted out twenty thousand and handed it to the owner in exchange for five bottles of Crimson Potion, planning to head back and cultivate his blood qi first.
However, he knew very well that five bottles would not even last him one afternoon of cultivation.
That was why this pharmacists competition was the opportunity most likely to trigger the system's pharmacist quest that he could find right now. He absolutely could not let it slip away just like this.