Chapter 1 Since the Spiritual Qi Recovery Went Public

Since the world's official disclosure of the Spiritual Qi Recovery, showcasing the extraordinary to the public, all the academies have dispatched relevant extraordinary individuals to popularize related knowledge and key points for the masses.

Even ordinary people who wish to cultivate can directly go to the lecture halls of various academies to receive teaching materials and cultivate independently—of course, the authorities and academies are not responsible for the adverse consequences caused by reckless cultivation.

For safety's sake, it is best to cultivate under the assistance and care of professional teachers.

As for the current students taking advantage of free spiritual energy lessons and professional guidance from extraordinary professors, that is something everyone can understand.

In short, because Zhengguo (the main country in this story) created three new first-class extraordinary academies and established a new major called the 'Spiritual Qi Department', as the first generation of participants in the Holy Ascension Selection Examination after the Spiritual Qi Recovery, all current senior high school students aspiring to the Spiritual Qi Department have developed great enthusiasm for it.

Undoubtedly, Su Zhou is one of them.

Originally, he planned to display his powerful talent in the academy and naturally become a member of one of Zhengguo's three first-class Spiritual Qi Academies, eventually becoming one of the new Sages—this is the highest wish of every Zhengguo student, and Su Zhou is no exception.

But, perhaps because he had been fighting large-scale global mysterious organizations and primordial god-descendant devils from beginning to end, and had been rapidly cultivating by absorbing devil crystals and wraith crystals all along, he had a slight misconception.

During the first spiritual energy lesson, when everyone was trying to guide the Qi into their bodies for the first time, Su Zhou, who felt he had already suppressed a large portion of his power, instantly drained the spiritual power from around two hundred classmates, greatly disrupting classroom order.

Since then, he has become a prominent figure at the school (he already was), and incidentally, he has been surrounded by multiple academy professors or other extraordinary individuals of the same level every spiritual energy class.

—Innate Dao Body! Initial spiritual energy absorption speed is approximately three hundred and eighty-nine times the standard value! Exceptional natural endowments!

In short, a bunch of titles were thrown at him directly, giving him the illusion of being 'praised to death'.

But in fact, not only the academy side, but even Feng Qiang, the owner of the 'Ruian Fitness Center' that Su Zhou usually frequents, revealed that the high-level officials of their Tiandu (Heavenly Capital) headquarters were willing to invest in him, not to mention other things—

Especially his mother, Doctor Ning, who pinched her son's face with an expression that said 'I knew it all along', proudly saying to his father, "How could a normal person's skin be so smooth and resilient!" "Worthy of the ten months of hard work I put in during pregnancy," while his father often muttered to himself happily, "Worthy of being my seed!" "My son is amazing, my wife is amazing, and I am amazing too!"

And the grades in all subjects, which had risen sharply due to the Wisdom Fruit, were attributed to the thinking enhancement brought about by his spiritual energy cultivation progress. After all, any No. 1 High School student knew very well about a certain ordinary high school student's not-so-ordinary physical fitness before the Spiritual Qi Recovery.

"Don't worry, Su Zhou, about becoming arrogant. If the Sages hadn't already set the rules that everything would be decided by the Holy Ascension Selection Examination and the students' own wishes, then in ancient times, there would be at least a dozen academies gathering in Hong City to fight each other to decide where you belong."

These were words of praise from a professor at Bailudong (White Deer Grotto) Academy: "Cultivation doesn't care about speed, the most important thing is smoothness and stability. Now you just cultivate quietly here, lay a good foundation, and learn relevant spiritual energy knowledge. When the academy conducts a collective examination next year to test your foundation, you will surely amaze everyone and even win the top spot in the Holy Ascension!"

—Is this what you call quiet cultivation? Well, thank you very much!

In response, Su Zhou showed a somewhat melancholy (unhappy) smile, and the meaning of this smile seemed to be misinterpreted. The other party laughed and said, "You're welcome! Now is a new era, emphasizing freedom of choice—it's the same to enter any academy, all are contributing to the cause of all mankind!"

—Which eye of yours saw me being polite?!

When spiritual energy class was over, Su Zhou and five other students who had already begun guiding Qi into their bodies were kept behind—Shao Qiming was among them—the professors, in addition to instructing them on some precautions regarding the Proper Origin-Solidifying Source Breathing Technique, also informed them of some related safety information.

"Perhaps your teachers have already told you, but I will say it again now—because of the Spiritual Qi Recovery, the carp all over the country have some spiritual tendencies, which are becoming more and more common in other regions. You should have seen the Dragon Blood Carp on the internet."

The old professor from Yuzhang Academy spoke crisply, as if he had been on the battlefield before: "These carp have a trace of dragon blood, are red all over, although very weak, but have tenacious vitality, can live anywhere, and who knows when they will awaken their true blood and become dragon species... They should have been rampant, but have never appeared in Hong City. This represents one thing."

Speaking of this, his eyes were filled with deep worry: "That is, there is probably a real dragon species in this city.

Moreover, the purity of the bloodline is quite high.

You, as good children with talented spiritual roots, are different from ordinary people, and are likely to be food for supplementing spiritual energy in the eyes of that dragon demon, so it is best not to approach the water, especially the Gan River."

"It's strange to say, seven or eight White Emperor Guards have drilled through the sewers and the bottom of the Gan River four or five times, grumbling, but they can't find that rumored dragon species... It's really too cunning!"

"Understood!" x6

The cunning dragon blood holder lazily mingled in the crowd to speak.

Then, it was time to leave school.

Originally, when school had just started, Su Zhou would be watched as a monster when he left school, but after all, it had been more than a month since school started, and the people in the school had adapted to the fact that a genius of a century had appeared in their school.

In addition, Su Zhou was not an unknown person in the first place, and his parents, relatives, and friends seemed to accept the setting of 'My son should be a hero of this world' 'My son Su Zhou has the posture of a great emperor' very simply, and he had returned to his ordinary daily life... more or less.

"Then goodbye... Huh?"

Originally, Su Zhou planned to say goodbye to Shao Qiming, and then go home to continue practicing Sacred Geometry plus some marksmanship, but as a result, he saw the other party give him a look.

—Let's talk next door.

Su Zhou didn't know why, so he followed the other party to the emergency exit where there was usually no one.

Then, before he could ask 'What's up', Shao Qiming directly displayed the notepad on his phone that had already been typed.

[I may have found the mysterious organization that cursed me and my mother]

"Oh?"

Just the first sentence made Su Zhou's eyes become dangerous.

After reading it, Su Zhou had to admit that Shao Qiming's private investigation results were very complete. At least Su Zhou felt that even if he used the Regression Spell, he probably couldn't have been as thorough as the other party.

The Blue Gold Foundation.

This is the surface identity of that mysterious organization, a progressive foundation that has poured a lot of money into various new energy fields.

About ten years ago, when the Shao family began to develop solar and other new energy technologies in Hongzhou (prefecture) locally with the support of academies and officials, the Blue Gold Foundation also began to extend its tentacles into related industries almost simultaneously.

Of course, as a large foundation, in addition to this, they also provide funding for new materials science, high-energy physics, and some related biology. In the south of Zhengguo, the name of Blue Gold is very loud, and its tentacles have spread to all walks of life in the new industry.

Shao's Photovoltaics should have also become their funding target, but in the face of the other party's high investment, Shao Nantian, Shao's father at the time, chose to refuse.

This seems to involve some sensitive factional struggles among the academies in various places. Those who understand will understand, so I won't talk much about it. In short, after that, Shao's Photovoltaics and a similar company supported by the Blue Gold Foundation competed for a large military order, and Shao's Photovoltaics won the order.

"The time difference is not too far, I specifically checked the relevant records."

At this time, Su Zhou and Shao Qiming were walking along the Fu River. They told the driver who picked up Shao Qiming that they would go outside to take a walk and chat about relevant issues.

Shao Qiming's eyes drooped, watching the grass by the river, his tone without fluctuation: "Not long after my dad won the order that year, I got sick, and my mother was a little later—but it may also be that my mother is an adult, and her resistance is much stronger than mine."

"The extraordinary in this world are roughly divided into official and folk forces. They may not dare to attack my father who has an official background, but if they just harm his wife and children, it is not a troublesome thing."

Su Zhou did not reply to Shao Qiming's words. Because as the strongest extraordinary in Hong City, he had a deep feeling about this.

"It is very simple for me now to kill an ordinary person unknowingly. I only need to send my spiritual energy into that person's body and strengthen and change some parts of his internal organs, and his body will become abnormal, and then he will die of serious illness. The more active the spiritual energy environment, the faster people die."

"And an extraordinary person of the Yin attribute only needs to find an opportunity to inject his own spiritual power into other people's bodies, which is equivalent to a continuous curse—there will be a continuous stream of vengeful spirits and evil spirits pouring in, spontaneously deepening the harm."

The other party doesn't even need to be as strong as him, just an ordinary Awakened can do this—before the Spiritual Qi Recovery, spontaneous awakening without inheritance was indeed a very valuable talent, but for mysterious organizations and officials with inheritance, it is still possible to spend ten years to cultivate a serious Awakened extraordinary.

Thinking of this, Su Zhou couldn't help but shake his head slightly. The huge gap between the extraordinary and ordinary people is why major forces all over the world are sparing no effort to popularize the cultivation method.

Even if it is just the most basic Spiritual Opening, compared to complete mortality, it can also deal with many malice, just like the above-mentioned tricks will completely fail, so as not to completely tear the two classes apart... In order to maintain order, all this is necessary.

At this time, Shao Qiming was still introducing: "The Blue Gold Foundation is very loose in nature, and there are many factions and contradictions within it, and the one who conflicts with my father is a 'Hengcheng (Equilibrium City) Safe Energy Development Company' located in Hengcheng."

"This is a family business. I asked people to find a lot of local classics and records. The ancestors of this family were famous local 'Ghost Witch Families'—that is, the so-called sacrificial priests. They surrendered when the previous dynasty was overthrown and the righteous soldiers swept the world to cut down mountains and destroy temples, so they still have some power locally and may have preserved considerable inheritance."

Speaking of this, Shao Qiming raised his head, looked at Su Zhou, and said seriously: "This matter is too dangerous, A'Zhou."

"If it is a messy account caused by my dad's romantic debts, or other folk warlocks who were crushed by my dad in a business war and caused their families to be destroyed and want revenge, then you help me take revenge, and I will be very happy. Because I know your strength very well, it's just a matter of raising your hand for you, just like I invite you to dinner, and you won't have any psychological burden."

"But a Ghost Witch Family with hundreds of years of inheritance is different. We don't know how many extraordinary people there are inside, we don't know what treasures they have inherited for a long time, we don't even know how strong the enemy is, but they are definitely not weak—to put it another way, after all, my mother and I are not dead yet, and this revenge has not reached the point where you need to risk your life to take revenge."

Until he got home, Su Zhou still remembered Shao Qiming's sincere words at that time, and his angry answer.

"—We are still young, and your talent is the seed of the future Sages. We have many ways to take revenge on this family, so don't rush it... So A'Zhou, let's forget about this matter for now."

"—You told me to forget it?! I can't forget it!"

"I know, what Qiming said is right, a step back leads to a broader world." Back home, Su Zhou threw his schoolbag on his bed, and lay down on it. He frowned and muttered to himself: "But I just want to blow them up—screw the danger and possibilities, I want to scatter these people's ashes into the South River now!"

"Then go scatter them." The Snake Spirit emerged from Su Zhou's temples very calmly: "Do you need other reasons to take revenge for a friend?"

"But I know, my strength may not be enough, Qiming won't lie to me, and I know it myself."

Su Zhou straightened his waist and sat up directly. He grabbed the long spear that he had placed by the window, disguised as a Cosplay prop with foam board, and waved it a few times, bringing up a rolling storm.

His tone was a little depressed: "I know I'm strong, and it's no problem to blow up seven or eight ordinary Awakened—but what if they are fully armed with cold weapons, modern firearms, and exoskeleton armor? What if their family also has PPG rocket launchers, anti-material sniper rifles, and various induction mine defenses? Don't say I have a persecution complex, a modern family group with hundreds of years of inheritance, even if they don't have military-grade weapons, they have civilian-grade weapons, at least we have to be prepared to defend against these."

"And how can a poor high school student like me, who is lonely and has nothing but a weapon, fight against a whole big group head-on and win?"

Yala: "......?"