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During the first attempt, his mental energy fluctuated chaotically; the pen only shook a bit, and nothing happened.

On the second try, he adjusted his rhythm, focusing solely on the single concept of visual deception. The space around the pen warped slightly. It seemed to truly lift off the desk a little, but it dissipated in less than half a second.

Third time... Fourth time...

Sweat rolled down his forehead; the consumption of mental energy was greater than expected.

But Chen Guan did not stop. He knew deeply that mastering this kind of ability was not an overnight task. Especially in the early stages, going from zero to one required a massive amount of practice.

He didn't know how much time had passed. Just as he felt his mental energy nearing exhaustion again, the pen finally floated steadily above the desk. Although the edges were still a bit blurry and shaky, looking slightly fake, it had already taken its initial form.

It lasted for about three seconds before the illusion shattered.

Chen Guan let out a long breath and opened his eyes. A trace of exhaustion flashed in them, but it was mostly excitement.

The entry level of an illusionist was harder than he had imagined, but it also held more potential. This was just the simplest static visual deception. More advanced sensory layering, memory implantation, and even reality interference would require a long period of exploration.

He glanced at the system panel.

Spirit: 20.4

One ability practice session actually increased his spirit by 0.1 points.

According to the market rate for attribute points, this saved him 1,000 popularity points.

He stood up and walked to the window. Night had fallen, and the lights of Huaqing Academy were dimming. In the distant training ground, some students were still doing extra practice, and faint shouts could be heard.

The peaceful campus life always made one feel much more relaxed.

But this was not enough. He couldn't be a greenhouse flower on campus forever.

"Strength..." Chen Guan clenched his fists.

Everything pointed to this word. Without strength, he could only drift with the tide, not even holding his own life in his hands.

He returned to the bed and took out the cold little wooden box from his storage ring.

Opening it, a palm-sized fragment lay quietly inside. The material was neither gold nor jade, cool to the touch, with irregular edges. Its surface was engraved with extremely fine, illegible patterns, and in the center was a faint white dot of light that seemed ready to extinguish at any moment.

The Origin Return Token fragment.

The observation period qualification token given by White Tiger.

"When you feel you have enough strength, you can contact me through this..."

Chen Guan held the fragment in his palm. The icy feeling made his mind exceptionally clear.

"Not enough... nowhere near enough."

He put the fragment back into the wooden box and stored it properly. Now was not the time to contact White Tiger. He needed time to grow, more resources, and to figure out exactly what kind of existence this so-called Origin Return Group was.

The forum.

With a thought, Chen Guan opened the feature that cost him 1,000 popularity points to unlock.

His consciousness seemed to connect to a vast space. Countless lights, shadows, and streams of information flashed before his eyes, requiring him to concentrate to filter and read them.

Plot Discussion, Combat Power Analysis, Fan Creation Area, Worldview Lore, Author Complaint Area.

Chen Guan first clicked into Worldview Lore.

A pinned post's title blatantly read:

In-depth Analysis: Origin Return Group Chronicles and Current Member Speculation (Contains Spoilers, Enter with Caution).

Poster ID: Scavenger.

Chen Guan immediately clicked on it. The poster was a detail freak who had written many awesome sharing posts; he knew this.

The post's content was extremely detailed. From the rise, philosophy, and peak of the old Origin Return Group a hundred years ago, to its sudden interruption of inheritance and near annihilation due to unknown reasons, to the clues of the group's reorganization led by someone codenamed Zero Sum in recent years, everything was listed out.

It mentioned that the core goal of the old Origin Return Group was to "correct errors," though what that specifically referred to was unknown.

And the currently known members of the new Origin Return Group, besides the leader Zero Sum, were White Tiger, Southern Dipper, Kongchen, Santai, and Beidou—six people in total.

Beidou: Ability unknown, transcendent status, suspected second-in-command.

White Tiger: Summoning type, top-tier combat power, terrible personality, a sadist and a collector.

Santai: Knowledge-type ability Myriad Phenomena Scroll, limitless potential, but currently at the bottom of the group in strength, one of the only two females.

As for the others, there were large blanks. Obviously, one cannot make bricks without straw, and even a detail freak couldn't conjure up a massive amount of information out of thin air.

The post also speculated that the Origin Return Group followed a strict establishment of nine people, none of whom could be missing, and was currently severely understaffed.

The replies below varied greatly:

Who exactly is Zero Sum? Some say it's an old monster from ancient times who lived to the present, some say he's secretly cultivated by a major country, and others say he's a transmigrator (manual funny face).

Sister Santai is the best! Rumor has it she's a beautiful girl.

OP is awesome, where did you dig up all this info? The author only mentioned it briefly in the previous comics, are you an insider?

So what Chen Guan got is White Tiger's token? Brother Ao will be Vermilion Bird in the future, so will Chen Guan be Black Tortoise or Azure Dragon?

Impossible, Bro Coffin is too weak, and the threshold for the Origin Return Group is so high.

Do you know anything about the future? White Tiger obviously took a liking to him, and Long Ao is also still weak right now.

Most of the comments below were just trash talk with little value. Chen Guan silently memorized this information, especially the description of the Origin Return Group. Although the post's content might not be entirely accurate, combined with his own experience, its credibility was not low.

He also browsed some other posts, including discussions about An Changqing's father and Long Ao's family.

However, what surprised him was that compared to "my guild master father" and "my general grandfather," the truly hidden one was Su Yuehe.

Mother Su was the speaker of the Supreme Council, and although Father Su's identity was a mystery, it was probably not simple either.

"Sure enough... none of them are ordinary." Chen Guan closed the forum and rubbed his temples.

Over the next few days, academy life returned to its superficial calm.

Classes, training, meditation, practicing abilities—Chen Guan's life was regular and fulfilling. He maintained his usual low profile, spending most of his time in the library or training room.

As for the harvest from the Ancient Tower District and the Misty Manor, aside from that dark purple essence stone, none of the others had been used yet.

An Changqing handed the token and scroll over to the relevant academy departments for appraisal. It was said that they caught the attention of several old professors, but the results were still pending.

Chen Guan tried absorbing that essence stone once. The pure dark attribute energy inside indeed had a nourishing effect on the gray energy. However, the absorption speed was very slow. The gray energy possessed the characteristics of both mental energy and spiritual power; it was just that, even now, Chen Guan couldn't determine what attribute of spiritual power the gray energy belonged to.

With the smooth progression of the daily plot, the growth of popularity points slowed down. Over the past few days, it only increased by a hundred or so points, barely breaking a thousand.

Chen Guan was not in a hurry either. He knew that when the next climax of the plot arrived, that would be the time for his popularity points to skyrocket.