December 15th, early morning.
In the quiet academy dormitory, only the students' alternating sounds of breathing could be heard.
Along with a constant sound of tossing and turning.
Lu Cheng tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep no matter what.
Tonight was the third night of his "seven-day training halt."
He had previously thought the promise he made in front of Shi Jingyi would be easy to fulfill, but he never expected that before even half the time had passed, he would fall into severe insomnia.
Starting from last night, he couldn't sleep. He forced himself to stay in bed until five in the morning, then dozed off for three or four hours before getting up again for class.
Logically, having slept poorly yesterday and attended a full day of classes today, he should have fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow tonight, sleeping like a log.
But he never expected to suffer from insomnia again tonight.
"...No good. Lying here any longer will just mean staying awake until dawn."
After forcing himself to lie still for three hours, Lu Cheng finally couldn't take it anymore and sat up.
His other three roommates were sound asleep. He sat alone at the head of the bed, staring out the window with a deeply furrowed brow.
"What's wrong with me? Have I really become addicted to the spores, experiencing withdrawal symptoms?"
He carefully recalled that he had indeed become somewhat different from before during this period.
For example, his need to eat had decreased. But he didn't consider this a drawback; instead, he saw it as the moization of his body's accelerated optimization.
Being able to maintain abundant energy even when eating only one meal a day, or even one meal every two days—wasn't that the moization of his body improving?
"The insomnia is probably just a broken habit... It has nothing to do with the spores."
Lu Cheng felt that ever since joining the academy, he had been practicing Mind Power Flow continuously. Suddenly stopping such a long-standing habit would definitely cause his body to feel unaccustomed.
"Just persevere for a few more days. If I can't sleep during this period, then I just won't sleep!"
Lu Cheng got out of bed and sat at the desk, turning on his computer.
He wanted to watch other online courses to pass the time until dawn, but no matter what he watched, he couldn't concentrate.
Even watching mindless entertainment videos, variety shows, and the like, he couldn't get into them.
Moreover, it seemed like there were always some voices in his head trying to persuade him.
Practice. If you don't practice, you'll fall behind.
Sailing against the current, you either advance or fall back.
If you slack off for an entire week, others will catch up and surpass you.
Practice secretly. As long as you don't tell anyone, Shi Jingyi won't know.
...Lu Cheng couldn't tell if these gentle voices truly existed or if he was imagining them.
He wanted to drive them away but couldn't do it at all.
Even wearing headphones and blasting heavy metal rock music couldn't cancel out the influence of those voices.
And as those voices increased, he found them more and more reasonable.
The academy's academic system is only a short year in total, which is 52 weeks.
Subtracting the time affected by rules when classes can't be held, having half, or 26 weeks, to practice and grow stronger is already pretty good.
In these precious and brief 26 weeks, Shi Jingyi wants him to take out a whole week to halt training and do nothing... Isn't that incredibly cruel to him?
Three days would be more reasonable; a whole week is simply too much.
A trace of resentment sprouted in Lu Cheng's heart. On second thought, he and Shi Jingyi didn't sign any agreement; it was just a verbal promise.
Just like the voice in his head said, practice secretly, she won't know... No!
Lu Cheng shook his head vigorously, trying to reject this thought. But it had taken deep root in his mind.
"Lu Cheng, what are you doing?"
His roommate from the opposite bunk got up to use the bathroom and was startled to see Lu Cheng sitting there in the middle of the night.
"I'm fine, just can't sleep, watching some online courses."
"Can't sleep so you watch online courses? That's too hardcore..." his roommate advised. "You weren't serious about what you said last time regarding Teacher Guan, were you? He's a genius; no matter how hard you try, you won't catch up."
After saying this, his roommate got off the bed and went to the bathroom, completely unaware of how ugly Lu Cheng's expression became after hearing those words.
"Teacher Guan..."
It was fine if he didn't mention Guan Tong, but once mentioned, Lu Cheng's mental scale instantly tipped.
That's right, relying on ordinary effort to catch up to a genius like Guan Tong is simply impossible.
But previously, under the amplification of the spores, Lu Cheng deeply felt his strength advancing by leaps and bounds... Would such an opportunity ever come again in the future?
Lu Cheng glanced at his phone screen.
"Today is the 15th. The rules only have half a month left. That means after half a month when the rules end and the spores disappear, without their help, it will be fundamentally impossible to make leaps in progress every day like now."
Lu Cheng took a deep breath.
He had to consider if this was the only chance of his lifetime.
Should he keep the promise he made in front of Shi Jingyi, wasting a precious week of spore-assisted time? Or should he believe in himself, seize this opportunity that might never come again in the future, and improve his strength as much as possible?
Lu Cheng's breathing became a bit heavier.
He had already made his decision.
...
Countermeasures Research Office base.
In the cafeteria, several researchers watched curiously as a group of people wolfed down their lunch and hurriedly left.
"Are they from the intelligence department? Why are they in such a rush even during a meal?"
"It seems something happened these past two days; the personnel departments are all very busy."
"You guys still don't know?" one of the group said. "Something big definitely happened, and not just one thing."
"What is it? Stop keeping us in suspense and tell us."
"I only heard about it. One thing is related to Shadow's true identity. The other is about Sakura Prayer Country. Apparently, Shadow went over there, caused a huge ruckus, and killed the Divine Child."
The others at the table, who buried themselves in research every day and were unaware of outside events, were all greatly shocked upon hearing this.
"Shadow's identity has been figured out?"
"Isn't the Divine Child the leader of Sakura Prayer Country's ruling family? Shadow actually killed him?"
"This really is a major incident..."
The topics being discussed among the base personnel had long been placed on the desk of the person in charge, Gao Liangwei.
He was currently holding a discussion meeting, with attendees being leaders from various departments.
"Although there is no conclusive evidence yet, based on the experiences of our internal personnel, it is speculated that the true identity of the Ascendant 'Shadow' might be this person."
Displayed on the large screen was a young face with a calm expression.
The people from various departments recognized the photo upon seeing it.
"Isn't that the academy lecturer, Guan Tong?"
"He is Shadow?!"
Gao Liangwei said, "Currently, the intelligence department is conducting a detailed investigation to find evidence. One thing that can be confirmed is that this Guan Tong has been missing ever since he left the academy. And it has been confirmed that Shadow recently appeared in the Sakura Prayer Country region."
"Currently, our intelligence department personnel have requested Sakura Prayer Country to transmit surveillance data from various locations. If there are records of Guan Tong appearing, then it can almost be confirmed that he is indeed 'Shadow'."
Everyone looked at each other.
It would be good if Shadow's identity could be confirmed, but what about the next step?
"Another matter." Gao Liangwei continued. "Sakura Prayer Country's foreign affairs department has already lodged a serious protest during the Human Consortium's remote meeting, accusing Shadow of committing war crimes against their country."
"War crimes?"
"Yes. The Sakura Prayer Country side accuses Shadow of attacking the official administrative building, capturing and killing multiple official Ascendants, and also assassinating the head of the Yuzawa family, Yuzawa Jun... commonly known as the 'Divine Child'."
"Given Sakura Prayer Country's national system, Yuzawa Jun is considered their supreme commander. Therefore, the Sakura Prayer Country government believes Shadow's assassination of him is not limited to murder but constitutes an act of war against the entire Sakura Prayer Country."
Zhang Minglu asked at this point, "Person in charge, what is the Sakura Prayer Country government's demand?"
"The Sakura Prayer Country side, as a member state of the Human Consortium, demands that our Beixing Country provide assistance in carrying out an arrest operation against Shadow. If Beixing refuses, Sakura Prayer Country will withdraw from the Human Consortium and regard Beixing as a hostile force."
"Hostile force?" someone immediately became angry upon hearing this. "Where do they get the nerve to threaten our Beixing Country! If we hadn't sent ships to help them relocate their population during the earthquake rules, how many people would Sakura Prayer Country have left by now?!"
"It's probably just for show. Becoming a hostile force with Beixing is inviting their own destruction. Do they think secretly buying some weapons from the Suroma Empire will be of any use?"
"That's right. Moreover, the reason why Shadow did this is still unclear; making a rash judgment is not wise. If the situation is similar to the previous Andai State, then our assisting Sakura Prayer Country in arresting Shadow would only anger our own citizens."
"How to decide on this matter is not something we can determine." Gao Liangwei said. "What we can do now is try to contact Shadow as soon as possible to clarify the specific situation."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Minglu thought of a few people.
If Shadow is suspected to be Guan Tong, then naturally a breakthrough could be sought through Guan Tong's interpersonal relationships.
Such as Wang Yan and Chen Na, the mother and daughter, Xu Xiaotian, Shi Jingyi, etc. Attempts could be made to contact Guan Tong through them.
"However." Gao Liangwei's tone shifted. "I personally cannot accept the threat from the Sakura Prayer Country side either. The Countermeasures Research Office's opinion will be reported by me to the decision-making level."
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