Shen Heng shook his head and did not dwell on it. Instead, he asked:
"Why did you ask if I'd transferred over from the Military Department?"
"Oh, that!" Fan Hong took a drag on his cigarette and explained, "Because almost everyone in your Supervision Bureau comes from the Military Department or the Police Department!"
"Why?" Shen Heng asked.
"Don't you need Origin Power Crystals to awaken?" Fan Hong asked in return.
"Yes!" Shen Heng nodded.
Fan Hong continued, "To get an Origin Power Crystal, you first have to encounter a Calamity Beast. Once you encounter one, you have to be able to kill it. And after killing it, you still have to know that Origin Power Crystals exist!"
"With those three factors at play, almost all Origin Power Crystals end up in the state's hands!"
"And once the state gets those Origin Power Crystals, considering both management and the need to fight Calamity Beasts, it gives priority to choosing people from the Police Department and Military Department to join the Supervision Bureau."
"I'm from the Police Department, and I'd never seen you before, so I guessed you'd come from the Military Department. I just never expected you to be that high school student who killed a Calamity Beast last week, or that you'd actually awakened!"
After finishing, Fan Hong slowly exhaled a plume of white smoke, feeling rather moved.
Shen Heng nodded thoughtfully. "So almost everyone in the Supervision Bureau comes through those two channels?"
Fan Hong nodded in reply. "Yes. Apart from those two channels, there are ordinary people who awaken like you, and places that pass down ancient martial arts. The state offers them opportunities to awaken in exchange for the martial arts they practice and such."
Shen Heng nodded. Recalling his interactions with everyone at the Supervision Bureau over the past few days, he asked with some uncertainty, "A lot of the people in our Supervision Bureau came from the Military Department and Police Department too?"
"Of course. Never mind Linhai-the Supervision Bureaus all across the country are like that!" Fan Hong nodded as though it went without saying. "Captain Wang, Han Ling, and Zheng Anlin in your bureau came from the Military Department, while Wu Cheng and Wei Leyang came from the Police Department!"
Shen Heng could see it with the captain and Zheng Anlin, but the others... He fell briefly silent.
Seemingly seeing what Shen Heng was thinking, Fan Hong smiled. "They don't seem like it?"
"Yeah, I couldn't really tell." Shen Heng nodded.
"Actually, people recruited into the Supervision Bureau used to be managed very strictly. But then there seemed to be some kind of problem, and they gradually stopped enforcing it."
Fan Hong took a drag and continued, "And people, well, you know-everyone has their own personality. When they were under supervision, it was fine; they all kept themselves in check. Once that stopped, they gradually let loose, and that's how things ended up like this!"
"What kind of problem?" Shen Heng looked at Fan Hong in puzzlement.
"That I don't know. I'm not from your bureau, after all. You can ask Captain Wang later. He's in charge of our Linhai City Supervision Bureau, so he knows more about that!" Fan Hong explained.
Shen Heng nodded in understanding.
The two stood there and waited quietly.
Insects chirped in the grass, officers murmured nearby, vehicles passed in the distance, and leaves rustled in the night breeze...
Shen Heng frowned slightly, then lightly pressed the tip of his tongue against his palate and began his breathing exercises.
A few minutes later, the screech of brakes rang out.
Shen Heng instinctively paused his breathing exercises and looked toward the sound. A black Porsche came to a stop outside the police cordon after a beautiful fishtail.
The door opened, and Wei Leyang got out and jogged over.
"Captain Fan!"
Wei Leyang greeted Fan Hong first, then looked at Shen Heng with some surprise.
"Shen Heng, why are you here too?"
"I came to see if there was anything I could help with," Shen Heng replied.
"The captain agreed even though you haven't entered a tier?" Wei Leyang looked at Shen Heng in surprise.
"It's precisely because I haven't entered a tier that I can only stay here!" Shen Heng smiled.
"Oh, I was wondering!" Wei Leyang nodded in realization, then asked, "Where are the captain and the others?"
"They went down!" Shen Heng pointed at the sewer, then added, to keep Wei Leyang from following them down, "The captain told you to guard this spot so the Calamity Beast doesn't come back up here!"
Wei Leyang leaned over to look into the sewer. Seeing no sign of activity, he could only nod.
The night breeze blew past.
The two waited beside the sewer entrance. The world around them seemed to have been muted, leaving only the wind whistling past their ears.
Feeling a little bored, Wei Leyang let his gaze roam around like a searchlight.
The distant road, the sparse traffic, the officers chatting together, Shen Heng with his eyes half-closed, up in the trees...
Wei Leyang suddenly stiffened, then swiftly turned his head back and stared hard at Shen Heng.
His gaze froze on Shen Heng for several seconds before he looked up in disbelief and scanned their surroundings again.
We're on the street, right? We're on a mission, right? Then what is he doing?
Wei Leyang looked down at Shen Heng again, sensing the disturbance in the Origin Power in the air. After confirming that he was practicing his breathing exercises, he asked in disbelief, "What are you doing?"
Shen Heng paused his breathing exercises and looked up at Wei Leyang. "Breathing exercises. Can't you tell?"
"No, of course I can tell you're doing breathing exercises. It's just... you... I... this..." Wei Leyang opened his mouth, but did not know what he should say.
Over the past few days, he-or rather, the entire Supervision Bureau-had learned how serious Shen Heng was. The moment he arrived at the bureau, he would start cultivating, barely stopping except to eat. But...
Do you have to take being serious this far? We're on a mission!! Do you really have to squeeze breathing exercises into the gaps during a mission? Are you really that short on time?
But Shen Heng ignored his inner struggle and sat down where he stood.
Compared with standing, sitting was more comfortable for breathing exercises, and slightly more efficient too, though not by much.
As though struck by an immobilization spell, Wei Leyang stared blankly at Shen Heng, his eyes filled with shock and hesitation.
A few seconds later, as though his conception and governing vessels had suddenly been opened, his body gave a sharp shudder, and his gaze grew firm.
So that's it! I understand!! I understand everything!!!
Shen Heng joined to remind me not to slack off too much!
Only by cultivating this seriously will I be able to save this world in the end!!
Wei Leyang kept talking to himself inwardly, his eyes growing brighter and more resolute.
With his thoughts flowing freely, he sat down just like Shen Heng, swiftly adjusted his condition, and began his breathing exercises.
Not far away, white smoke slowly seeped from Fan Hong's mouth and nose, half-concealing his expression.
Looking at the two sitting on the ground, he could not help shaking his head slightly and murmuring:
"Looks like working at the Supervision Bureau isn't easy these days either. It's actually gotten this competitive!"
Meanwhile.
In the underground drainage passage.
Wang Hai and the other two were still moving swiftly through the passage, though they had slowed from a fast run to a jog.
"Captain, what if it never stops? And the bloodstains used to be a meter apart, but now they're over ten meters apart. What if they disappear later, or we miss them by accident?" Wu Cheng asked from beside him.
"They won't. Soon. Calamity Beasts aren't that patient! Once it realizes we're still chasing it, it'll come at us soon!" Wang Hai looked up ahead.
The three continued onward, following the bloodstains on the ground.
Another twenty minutes passed.
Just as even Wang Hai could not help wondering whether his earlier thinking had been wrong, an extremely faint sound of running came from ahead.
"It's coming. Be careful!" Wang Hai said, his gaze fixed ahead.
The three did not have to wait long. A dark silhouette soon appeared ahead and rapidly closed in.
It was a rat-like Calamity Beast, grayish-brown all over, with a single horn on its forehead and a body roughly three or four meters long.
Wang Hai's gaze lingered briefly on the Calamity Beast.
I haven't seen it in the Calamity Beast bestiary. A new Calamity Beast?
And this aura...
"Careful! This Calamity Beast is tier 3!" Wang Hai shouted.
Hearing this, Han Ling and Wu Cheng also grew solemn.
They had encountered only two tier 3 Calamity Beasts in all of last year, and such beasts could easily injure them.
The only one who could fully withstand a tier 3 Calamity Beast's attacks was the captain, who was also tier 3 and whose ability was Body of Steel.
Watching the Calamity Beast charge toward them, Han Ling drew a short rod made of some unknown material from behind her.
The short rod rapidly transformed in her hands, unfolding completely in mere moments.
It was a gun-a specially made firearm resembling a sniper rifle!
Click, click...
Han Ling swiftly loaded the sniper rifle. A closer look would reveal that each bullet glowed a faint fiery red.
This was the B-rank ability Explosion, which could imbue objects with an explosive property, allowing them to explode violently upon impact.
Clack!
With the gun loaded, Han Ling immediately dropped into a half-crouch, pointing the muzzle straight ahead, her long flaxen hair swaying slightly behind her head.