“Breaking through the surface at a single point, drawing the bow without releasing the arrow—every ounce of strength is focused on the blade. His control of the sword is already approaching the level of an art.”
“His foundational model is stable and meets the criteria for an exceptional-grade talent.”
A voice came from the side. Southern Dipper pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the streams of data on the holographic screen. Yet his gaze never lingered on the numbers.
“What a pity. He’s too correct.”
“Being correct isn’t a bad thing, is it?”
Santai turned her head to look at this colleague who resembled a human-shaped machine.
“A correct sword can only cut out a correct result within a correct set of rules. That’s a virtue for a warrior, but not for us.”
Southern Dipper’s voice betrayed no emotion. He lifted a white porcelain teacup and used the lid to skim away the foam.
“After all, no matter how perfect a standard component is, it’s still just a standard component. What we’ve always wanted to see is something else.”
“Well said.”
A voice filled with amusement came from the seat of honor. White Tiger lounged against a broad sofa. “We have enough standard components to drown any battlefield. What we truly lack is unpredictability.”
His gaze swept toward Chen Beixuan, who sat nearby with his eyes closed, seemingly resting and silent from beginning to end.
“Kongchen, what do you think?”
Chen Beixuan rubbed his chin, recalling An Changqing’s performance at school.
“He’s a textbook example of a leader type. He’s suited to taking over from his father, but only if someone is there to guide and assist him. That child is still a little too kindhearted.”
At that, White Tiger let out a low chuckle.
“Well said. He is indeed a little too kindhearted.”
“Still, compared to that correct little boy, I’m more curious about…” Santai leaned forward, placed her wineglass on the table with a crisp clink, and licked her red lips. Her eyes shone with excitement.
“Our colleague, Little Xuanwu.”
The moment she said this, everyone’s eyes shot toward White Tiger.
White Tiger rubbed his temples, his face full of pain.
“Don’t look at me. How was I supposed to know that kid would cause such a huge commotion? I barely kept an eye on him. My philosophy has always been to let children grow freely.”
Southern Dipper set down his white porcelain teacup. The bottom struck the tabletop with a soft click.
“According to the records in my database, Black Tortoise’s weapon is unregistered. He is an unquantifiable variable.”
Ever since the battle between Chen Guan and Zhong Qingbai began, his database had fallen into a state of unprecedented chaos.
Under normal circumstances, he could analyze any esper’s energy composition, skill trajectories, and even mental fluctuations, thereby constructing an accurate behavioral prediction model.
But Chen Guan’s energy composition was chaotic. Every attack seemed to create an entirely new law out of thin air—then discard it the moment it had served its purpose.
His behavioral patterns were contradictory, and his attack patterns were bizarre.
What Southern Dipper found most incomprehensible was that at the end of the battle, after Chen Guan unleashed that devastating blood-red blade light, his own vital signs had not weakened from the enormous expenditure of energy. Instead, they had briefly—but genuinely—surged to a higher level.
You mean to say that after using your ultimate move, not only did you not weaken, you actually got stronger?
Is this even human?
The helplessness on White Tiger’s face deepened. He let out a long sigh.
“Southern Dipper, you need to understand that some things can’t be quantified by data. Talent, for instance. Luck, too.”
“I admit that the child is hiding plenty of secrets, but isn’t that exactly why we chose him?”
White Tiger raised his chin slightly, his tone carrying an air of absolute confidence.
He had managed to crash a human-shaped machine. Chen Guan was truly one of a kind.
Under the influence of his pride, White Tiger’s chin rose higher and higher.
Heh heh heh. This was the promising subordinate chosen by the brilliant and mighty Lord White Tiger.
Seeing him looking as though he might sprout a tail and wag it into the sky, Southern Dipper pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. He really didn’t want to admit that this man was his colleague.
And a colleague one rank above him, at that.
“All right. Compared to Chen Guan, we should focus on Long Ao’s situation first.” Chen Beixuan was the one who smoothed things over.
This time, even White Tiger’s expression turned serious.
“You’ve hit the nail on the head. If we didn’t sense it wrong just now, Long Ao successfully awakened his ancient bloodline.”
“No wonder the boss had all of us come here. He must have foreseen this happening long ago.” Santai leaned back in her chair, her face filled with admiration.
At first, she had been puzzled as to why so many of them had put aside their own business to watch a group of students compete. Now she understood.
They had come to serve as a safety net, preventing their power from running out of control too soon.
Fortunately, it seemed that the boy had managed to control himself quite well, and his body hadn’t suffered any major problems.
“This is a signal for us,” White Tiger continued. “Since the younger generation is beginning to rise one after another, we old-timers need to pick up the pace as well.”
“According to my calculations, we have at most one year left to prepare,” Southern Dipper said. “And more and more people are already starting to notice us. The actual time we have may be even shorter.”
“One year is enough.” White Tiger stood up and looked down at the others. “I believe they’ll be able to stand on their own within a year.”
“No. Based on the current data, that will be difficult.” Southern Dipper frowned, clearly disagreeing with White Tiger.
White Tiger smiled mysteriously.
“Don’t worry, Robot. They’ll be able to stand on their own.”
Southern Dipper fell silent. Although he didn’t know what White Tiger was relying on, he believed that the man never spoke without reason.
Since that was the case, he would wait and see.
He wanted to find out whether these children would be crushed to pieces beneath the wheels of the era—or ride against the current and dance upon the stage of the times.
…
Below them, the enormous holographic screen at the center of the arena began shifting once more, drawing everyone’s attention back to the competition.
“Quarterfinals Qualifier, Match Three.”
An Changsong’s voice rang out over the broadcast. After witnessing An Changqing’s smooth and effortless victory, even his tone had calmed considerably.
The light flickered, and two new portraits slowly solidified.
Huaqing Academy, Su Yuehe.
No. 0 Academy, Ivan.
“Oh? It’s that little girl.”
Santai’s gaze fell on Su Yuehe’s portrait as she recalled the match she had fought.
“And her opponent is that mechanical warrior from No. 0 Academy? This should be interesting.”
White Tiger was as casual as ever.
“I’d say thirty-seventy. The kind where she gets split into seven pieces in three minutes.”
In the Huaqing Academy rest area, An Changqing nodded at Su Yuehe as she rose to her feet.
“Be careful of his mechanical modifications. Ivan’s physical strength is extremely high.”
“I understand.”
Su Yuehe smiled gently and walked toward the arena.
[Saving this thread.]
[Class rep here with the rundown. Her opponent is Ivan, the mechanical warrior from No. 0 Academy. Seventy percent of his body has undergone mechanical modification. This guy is a real cyborg.]
[Lol, last time she muted her opponent’s voice. There’s no way she can shut off Ivan’s power supply too, right?]
[Hey, don’t say that. She really might be able to.]
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
