Mysterious Text Message

"Dr. Qin, could this... could this be an instrument malfunction..."

"Shut up."

Dr. Qin didn’t even turn his head.

"Death leaves a data trail—cell decay, energy dissipation, a slow downward curve."

"But this..."

"This is absolute 'nothingness.' He’s erased himself from our dimensional observation entirely. Not a single trace left."

Lin Xiao felt speechless.

He didn’t understand the complex theories, but he grasped one thing.

This looked an awful lot like someone had just... walked away.

"I’ll send someone to check Room 23."

Lin Xiao turned to leave.

"Wait." Dr. Qin stopped him, adjusting the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. "Don’t disturb the scene. I need pristine data."

"But the person—"

"Go." Dr. Qin waved him off, his eyes never leaving the screen.

Lin Xiao hurried down the hall with two guards in tow.

The heavy footsteps startled many trainees meditating in their cubicles.

"What’s going on?"

"Did something happen?"

Forced out of their cultivation, they peeked out curiously.

Few young people could resist a spectacle.

They watched as Instructor Lin Xiao and his team marched straight to Cubicle 23.

Li Ran was also roused. Leaning against his doorframe, he smirked at the sight.

That guy must’ve pulled some shady stunt and got caught.

Serves him right.

Yun Huang stepped out too, frowning as she stared toward Room 23.

"Beep! Access override!"

Lin Xiao unlocked the door with top-level clearance.

The metal door slid open silently.

The room was empty.

The specially designed cultivation bed was neatly made.

On the desk, a few Tier-1 Source Crystals lay untouched.

Dr. Qin froze.

"Where is he?"

...

Meanwhile.

Inside a cave behind a waterfall.

Su Qi sprawled across a plush recliner, noisily munching on potato chips.

Liu Yuan sat cross-legged on a rug.

A nearly imperceptible mist of energy swirled around her, flowing like living tendrils, enveloping her completely.

After a long while, she opened her eyes. Flickers of starlight shimmered in her clear gaze.

"Brother, I think... I can feel the tiny Source Particles in the air now."

Su Qi tossed another chip into his mouth.

"Normal."

He picked up a juice box and took small sips.

Liu Yuan nodded, half-understanding.

...

"Check his temporary quarters."

The group rushed to the other side, only to find the obvious.

"Report—he’s not here. His belongings are gone too."

Lin Xiao’s cheek twitched.

Dr. Qin adjusted his glasses, his brow furrowed.

"What a waste."

"Whatever." Lin Xiao waved a hand, his expression a mix of exasperation and indifference. "Let him go wherever he wants. I’m not mobilizing a manhunt for one person."

Dr. Qin opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.

Without military support, a researcher like him couldn’t authorize a private search.

"Everyone else, resume cultivation!" Lin Xiao barked at the gathered trainees before storming off.

And just like that, the commotion fizzled out.

...

Observation room.

Dr. Qin returned to his seat, but his focus was clearly scattered.

The enigma of Cubicle 23 pricked at him like a thorn.

Rubbing his temples, he forced his attention back to the screen.

"Pull up Subject 22."

He spoke abruptly.

"Instructor Lin praised her highly—said she’s a genius earmarked for direct recruitment into the military."

An assistant quickly enlarged the data stream for Subject 22: Yun Huang.

Dr. Qin’s eyes locked onto the display.

Yun Huang’s vitals were steady and robust, indicating deep cultivation.

Everything seemed normal.

But when Dr. Qin glanced at the numerical values, he stiffened.

[Source Crystal Energy Depletion Rate: 29.7%/minute]

The assistant saw it too and blurted, "That unit must be wrong—it’s supposed to be per hour, right?"

Even an elite seventh-tier Awakened would take three hours to refine one Tier-1 Source Crystal.

This rate was absurd.

"No mistake..." Dr. Qin’s voice was parched. He leaned in until his nose almost touched the screen.

His fingers flew across a secondary panel, summoning deeper analytics.

"Look at her vitals! Unnervingly stable! Source conversion efficiency—99.8%!"

"Bodily stress increase—asymptotic to zero!"

"This is impossible!"

Lin Xiao crowded in, staring blankly at the baffling data.

Yun Huang wasn’t just absorbing energy at a monstrous pace—she was doing it with near-perfect efficiency and zero strain.

It defied all conventional understanding.

Yet that wasn’t what shattered Dr. Qin’s composure.

His gaze was riveted to another diagram.

A real-time map of Source Energy flow across the cultivation zone.

Normally, each cubicle should be an isolated energy loop with negligible external exchange.

But now...

Pale blue dots representing ambient Source Particles converged into slender streams, piercing walls and space alike, all funneling toward one destination.

Cubicle 22.

Yun Huang’s body had become a miniature vortex—a black hole devouring all surrounding energy.

"She’s not just draining the crystals..." Dr. Qin’s breathing turned ragged, his eyes alight with a scientist’s fervor, fiercer than when Su Qi vanished.

"Look! She’s passively absorbing ambient Source Energy from the entire sector!"

"Her body has become an energy ‘potential’!"

"The others don’t notice because the absorption is too gentle, and the air’s Source density is sufficient."

"But..."

Lin Xiao gaped at the spectacle, rendered mute.

He couldn’t parse the data, but Dr. Qin’s ‘episode’ said enough.

This was big.

"Whale’s Maw..."

Dr. Qin muttered, voice trembling with exhilaration.

"This is a Whale’s Maw!"

"She’s not cultivating—she’s plundering!"

Whale’s Maw?

Plundering?

Such terms for a seventh-tier Awakened sounded like fantasy.

Ignoring their shock, Dr. Qin’s fingers blurred across the console.

A rapid-fire sequence of commands deployed.

"Prioritize Booth 22 as the highest observation sequence."

"Activate the 'Deep Resonance' probe—I need a complete model of this energy cycle."

"Redirect all monitoring resources to Booth 22. Operate at 90% capacity!"

"Dr. Qin!" Lin Xiao finally snapped out of his shock and grabbed the man's arm. "At that level, you’ll have to suspend data collection for others. That’s unfair to them."

Dr. Qin didn’t even glance back, shaking off Lin Xiao’s grip.

His eyes burned with near-fanatic intensity.

"Fairness? Who cares about fairness?"

He jabbed a finger at the soaring data on the screen, his voice cracking with excitement.

"She’s creating a miracle!"

"Listen, Lin Xiao—this isn’t your rookie training camp anymore."

"At the very least, I’m in charge here."

"My authority overrides yours."

"And I say any cost is worth it!"

"You—"

Lin Xiao’s chest heaved with anger, but no words came out.

They held equal rank, though their responsibilities differed.

And as the institute’s top expert, Dr. Qin’s word was law in this domain.

---

In the training zone.

Li Ran irritably opened his eyes.

The source crystal before him dimmed faster than usual—over 10% quicker.

Yet his absorption efficiency had plummeted, barely hitting 60%.

Worse, the once-thick energy in the air now felt disturbingly thin.

Frowning, he stood and walked to the door, just as Liu Feiyu emerged from the neighboring booth.

Liu Feiyu’s expression mirrored his frustration.

"Feel that?" Li Ran muttered.

"Yeah." Liu Feiyu adjusted his glasses. "Ambient source-particle density dropped at least 20%."

"What’s going on?"

"No clue." Liu Feiyu’s gaze drifted toward Booth 22—Yun Huang’s space.

They weren’t alone.

More trainees spilled into the hallway, faces twisted in confusion and annoyance.

"What the hell? How are we supposed to train like this?"

"My absorption rate’s in the gutter."

"Did the energy grid malfunction?"

---

Booth 22.

Yun Huang remained oblivious to the chaos outside.

She floated in a warm ocean of energy.

The "canal" inside her roared unchecked, no longer needing her guidance.

It had become a ravenous, autonomous force—devouring incoming energy, refining it, then flooding her limbs with purified power.

Her body, her mind, every cell sang with euphoria.

Strength.

A surge unlike anything before.

The barrier to mid-tier Seventh Rank felt like tissue paper now.

One push would tear it apart.

She willed it.

The canal accelerated.

BOOM.

A suction force—vastly stronger—erupted from her core.

Every wisp of energy in the training zone bowed like subjects to a monarch, hurtling toward Booth 22 in frenzied worship.

Outside, trainees recoiled.

"Holy—! The source particles—they’re all getting sucked in!"

"My crystal’s draining dry!"

And in that instant—

The barrier shattered.

CRACK.

A new, denser, more potent aura erupted from Yun Huang.

Mid-tier Seventh Rank.

---

Observation room.

The screen’s numbers skyrocketed before stabilizing at a staggering value:

[Life Sequence: Mid-tier Seventh Rank]

[Energy Activity: Peak]

Dr. Qin trembled—not from fear, but ecstasy.

The rapture of a scientist witnessing divinity.

"It worked… It worked!"

He clawed at his hair, laughing wildly.

"Fifty-seven minutes! Fifty-seven!"

"I checked her records."

"Tri-path cultivator. Just reached early-tier Seventh Rank two and a half months ago."

"Normally? Three more months to hit mid-tier. Half a year total."

"That’s not slow."

"Initial data showed her at 14% Seventh Rank progression."

"Then—fifty-seven minutes later—36%. Early to mid-tier leap!"

"HAHAHA! We’ve witnessed a miracle!"

Lin Xiao stood frozen, blood running cold.

His gaze flicked between the raving scientist and the screen’s relentless data.

No.

He’d been wrong.

Miracles could be handed out.

Su Qi wasn’t the pioneer.

He was the wholesaler—tossing miracles like cabbages to anyone nearby.

And Yun Huang? Just the first lucky recipient of his "free samples."

Explaining this to mere mortals would’ve been exhausting.

---

Behind the waterfall, in the cave.

Su Qi sneezed.

"Who’s talking about me?" He rubbed his nose, then tossed the last potato chip into his mouth.

Liu Yuan opened her eyes, concerned. "Brother, are you sick?"

"Nah." He dusted crumbs off his hands. "How’s cultivation?"

"Hmm…" She tilted her head, sensing the subtle shifts within. A small smile appeared. "A little… faster again."

Her adapted "sourceflow construct" worked differently from Yun Huang’s domineering canal—nourishing her body in gentle, unbroken waves.

No explosive leaps. Just steady, seamless growth.

"Good." Su Qi nodded approvingly.

This was the ideal form of the Sourceflow Method.

Soft as drizzle, enduring as bedrock.

Yun Huang’s accelerated version? A forced bloom. Quick results, weaker roots.

But speed was all she cared about—reaching Ninth Rank, no matter the cost.

Su Qi swiped lazily on his tiny phone.

Military signal towers allowed contact within shared source-realms.

No notifications.

"Guess nobody needs me."

He tossed the phone aside, savoring the quiet.

Then—

A ping.

An encrypted message flashed on-screen.

Sender: [BLOCKED].

Su Qi raised an eyebrow and opened it.

Three words:

[Got time to talk?]