689: Chapter 689: I’ve Also Killed B-Levels (Double-Length Chapter, Asking for Monthly Passes) 689: Chapter 689: I’ve Also Killed B-Levels (Double-Length Chapter, Asking for Monthly Passes) A thunderous voice exploded next to He Ao’s ear.
Imdiately after, a force as surging as ocean waves washed over his body.
He Ao activated his Super mory, and at the sa ti, he began to recall the inverted reflection of Winding Hill absorbing the surging pollution in his mind.
As the pollution rushed into his mind, an invisible and peculiar force seed to flow into his spirit.
Then, from the mont he entered this Copy World, countless scenes of battle erged in his mind.
At that mont, he was like an observer floating in the void, standing within his own mories, watching every movent of himself as if fra by fra.
Countless details he’d previously overlooked replayed in his mind—the flawed techniques, the movents that didn’t perfectly utilize energy, replaying over and over again.
With these movents replaying, the scenes hidden in He Ao’s mory, the battles of the main world, every single fight he’d experienced, and the combat mories of every Copy World character he had inherited, all converged together.
From childhood wrestling matches with school bullies to the mont he used the Backturn Spear to pierce the heart of the Shadow Cutter.
Those mories, fleeting as flashes of light, those moves once used within those flashes, erged like engravings one after another.
Up to now, most of He Ao’s combat had been do-or-die struggles, so his fighting skills were mostly straightforward and quick but, in a sense, independent of each other, lacking a systematic coherence.
But at that mont, vaguely, those chaotic and fuzzy fighting skills rged together, rged with the thods He Ao used to gather strength, and rged with the ‘perfect’ Fist Technique moves he sought with his Divine Sense.
The previously disconnected points, which seed incompatible, were as if being connected at that mont.
In such a blurry consciousness, He Ao raised his hand; his movents were slow and composed, looking like he was lifting a soft bundle of cotton.
However, the next second, he curled his fingers, and his protruding knuckles struck forward.
The force passed through his upper arm, forearm, and wrist, to his knuckles, and all this happened so fast it was almost impossible to capture, as if God had taken a segnt of ti away from the fabric of space-ti, showing only the final result.
Boom—
This terrifyingly fast force seed to shatter the air, emitting a violent sonic boom.
The howling wind swept through Sienzi’s hair.
He watched He Ao’s knuckles stop in front of him and swallowed hard.
He Ao’s knuckles did not let out any of their force, but he had no doubt that this strike could easily shatter his entire body.
Moreover, he could clearly feel that He Ao had sensed his presence nearby and had therefore held back his strength.
He Ao withdrew his hand, feeling the power within him becoming interconnected and took a deep breath.
The movents of the Fist Technique he’d originally designed were all optimized under the correction of Divine Sense, but they were not coherent.
It was like a series of perfect images, each movent perfect, but when all the movents were connected, it was as rigid as slides playing one after another.
There was no natural logical transition between his movents, which didn’t allow him to naturally transition from one movent to another to make the entire Fist Technique harmonious and natural.
He had thought about it a lot before, but he had never solved this problem.
It was like a huge chasm lying in front of him.
It seed he was only a step away from success, but no matter what, he could not cross it.
But this ti, during the advancent process of a Martial Master, after reviewing all his combat experience, he suddenly had an epiphany, and inspiration surged forth.
With this outpouring inspiration, he perfected many of the movents he had thought about before, adjusted the order of the original Fist Technique movents, and linked all the movents perfectly, turning rigid perfection into harmonious perfection.
Although his Fist Technique still had many flaws, it had completed the most fundantal foundation; the rest was just a matter of building upon that perfect foundation.
Martial Master truly was a Talent Sequence that created miracles, its effect not lying in powerful transcendent strength.
But in a sense, it increased the martial ‘comprehension’ of its possessor, the deeper the martial arts accumulation, the more they could experience sudden enlightennt under the blessing of this comprehension and thus break through existing limits.
For ordinary Transcendents, this Talent Sequence might just be a simple, relatively powerful combat sequence.
But for a Martial Artist stuck in a bottleneck, it was like a life-saving elixir.
What surprised He Ao a little was that the ‘epiphany’ brought about by Martial Master seed to occur only at the mont of advancent.
After the power of the Secret dicine gradually stabilized, although he still felt that his thinking had beco a bit sharper and his understanding of martial arts had deepened, he never again experienced that state of enlightennt where inspiration poured in.
Moreover, He Ao didn’t know whether this epiphany was a special reward for completing the ritual well or if his martial arts had just accumulated to the stage of sudden enlightennt.
After all, the legacy of Night Hawk didn’t ntion that Martial Master would trigger such an effect of epiphany.
Perhaps, it was both.
He Ao took a deep breath and looked at his personal information interface.
[He Ao (Cito)]
[Authority Level: Advanced Player]
[Physical Fitness: 1194 (727)]
[Skills: Talent Sequence 272: Super mory (C-level), Basic Firearms Mastery (Soul Part), Talent Sequence 72: Secret Mage (C-level) (Unavailable)]
[chanical Modification: None]
[Martial Arts: Qi Refinent and Spirit Transformation (C-level) (Partially Usable)]
[Character Skills: Talent Sequence 100: Martial Master (C-level)]
At this mont, his physical fitness had already reached 727.
A nearly five hundred increase from D-level to C-level, this physical fitness wasn’t as terrifying as warriors boosted directly to the C-level limit of 800, but it was quite strong compared to other skill-based Talent Sequences.
If you add the physical fitness of 576 from the burst of Super mory, then his temporary physical fitness would reach 1303.
And yet, this was not the limit of his current strength.
In the recent “epiphany,” He Ao had integrated the Strengthening Magic Array and the technique of concentrating energy into the fist technique he had created.
The fusion of multiple skills and their mutual enhancent further increased He Ao’s energy utilization efficiency.
During martial combat, he could now naturally gather the energy within his body, allowing this energy to converge or disperse according to his will.
This energy would also naturally form a Strengthening Circuit that strengthened and followed the perfectly smooth energy pathways created by his fist technique, gaining further amplification in the process.
He roughly estimated that this highly efficient thod of energy mobilization was about twice as effective as the bonus provided by the original Strengthening Circuit’s energy burst.
Originally, by concentrating power in one place using the Strengthening Circuit, he could increase his instantaneous explosive power by slightly over 40%, but now, with the fist technique to gather energy, this increase had reached 90%.
This ant that, with Super mory in use, He Ao’s physical fitness in his explosive state could reach nearly 2500 points.
This was far beyond the data of his own martial arts combined with his secret mage abilities and Super mory.
And because He Ao had successfully incorporated the more energy-efficient Strengthening Circuit into his fist technique, his energy consumption was further reduced when using this set of fist techniques to mobilize these forces.
The original state of forced explosion could only be used a few tis in one battle before his body would be unable to sustain it, so He Ao had always planned and controlled his usage.
Now, after the optimization, this explosive state could be used continuously.
Although it seed that the maximum cumulative use ti in the short term was no more than ten seconds, it also ant that He Ao could maintain the terrifying combat power of a physical fitness of 2500 in short and consecutive bursts.
This type of continuous and stable performance was even stronger than an instantaneous burst of 3000 physical fitness.
It was at this ti that the still-shaken Sienzi finally ca back to his senses.
He looked at He Ao and smacked his lips, “Alright, spill it, what kinds of divine friends do you have?”
“Didn’t you accuse of singing my own praises after taking the bait?”
He Ao withdrew his thoughts, picked up the cane leaning against the wall, and looked at Sienzi with a smile.
“It’s just that I’m soone who wouldn’t even recognize an Advent Angel if I saw one, blind as I am.”
Seemingly resigned to fate, Sienzi no longer had the energy to pick up the pieces of his shattered worldview after He Ao’s four-level rise today.
“Wouldn’t even recognize an Advent Angel” is a Federation colloquialism roughly equivalent to the Central Earth’s “can’t recognize Mt.
Tai right before their eyes.”
“Let’s go.”
He Ao lifted his cane.
“What about this person?”
Sienzi glanced at Night Hawk, who was still lying on the console.
At this mont, Night Hawk’s body was losing its transcendent powers and gradually turning grey and white.
“When I ca over, I contacted the funeral ho,”
He Ao also looked back, “They will send a car to pick him up tonight.”
“Although I have never t him,” Sienzi sighed, “judging by his transcendent powers, he might have been a heroic figure in life.”
“Yes.”
He Ao nodded lightly, leading Sienzi out of the room, “His na was Night Hawk, and he was once one of those who upheld the order in this city.”
Strictly speaking, the Pollution Cleaning Departnt did not have the responsibility to maintain order.
According to the information from YiXiya, many city branches of the Pollution Cleaning Departnt did not care about the lives of the common people.
And in reality, the Pollution Cleaning Departnt was not part of the official Federation agencies; it was an “extracurricular” special rcenary Corps that could borrow the na of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The fact that Saint Joen City did so well was entirely due to Night Hawk’s efforts.
Sienzi looked back at Night Hawk, lying on the console with an iron mask, and sighed softly.
He then turned his head to look at He Ao, “This path from Furious Man to Martial Master, was it always possible to advance four levels consecutively?”
He Ao turned his head and smiled at him.
Sienzi imdiately realized he had asked a foolish question.
Although he had never seen the Talent Sequence “Martial Master,” he was familiar with “Martial Artist.” Whether before advancing to “Martial Artist” or after, everyone had to genuinely grasp their Talent Sequence.
In fact, transcendent individuals, no matter which Talent Sequence they had, would either beco monsters in the wild or vanish without a trace if they tried to skip proper mastery and ritual processes and indiscriminately consu Secret dicines like soda.
“I’m just a little special; you can’t use as a standard to generalize,” He Ao replied with a smile, continuing to walk forward.
anwhile, Sienzi watched He Ao’s retreating figure, lost in thought for a mont.
Just “a little” special?
Even a normal advancent, without properly mastering the Talent Sequence and forcibly consuming a Secret dicine, would result in death or lingering issues.
As for skipping four levels at once, not only had Sienzi never seen such a thing, he hadn’t even heard of it.
This move had montarily made Sienzi think that He Ao had seen the underlying script of this world and then cheated by altering the code.
It was almost a miracle.
At this thought, Sienzi paused, suddenly realizing sothing.
Was there an existence in this world capable of creating “miracles” beyond human understanding?
Yes,
This doctor adjusted his glasses and gazed thoughtfully at He Ao’s back.
God.
······
As Sienzi was lost in his wild thoughts, He Ao had left the inner room and entered the pharmacy at the very front of the clinic.
Jia Xi was sitting on the chair, her eyes tightly closed, breathing in and out rhythmically.
The little guy was exceptionally hardworking today.
But it wasn’t until He Ao walked in that he realized Jia Xi wasn’t cultivating at all, but had simply dozed off in the chair.
“Girl.”
He Ao stood in front of Jia Xi and called out to her gently.
Jia Xi opened her eyes, looking at He Ao groggily, “Grandpa, are you done with your work?”
He Ao glanced at her and said with a smile, “Didn’t grandpa teach you a set of fist techniques before?
Today I’ll teach you an upgraded version, which is even more powerful than the last.”
Jia Xi was startled for a mont, then quickly nodded her head and jumped down from the chair, “Okay!”
He Ao raised his hand and took a stance; Jia Xi also raised her hand and followed suit.
This ti, He Ao moved very slowly, teaching while continuously correcting Jia Xi’s movents.
The little girl learned very quickly this ti around; she studied each movent carefully, morizing by rote what she couldn’t understand.
And not long after they had begun, Sienzi ca out, and He Ao dragged him along to learn as well.
The lesson lasted from the afternoon until the quiet of the night.
When everything was in order, He Ao took out a mory chip and a piece of shell fragnt, gave them to Sienzi, and then had a private conversation with him.
Then he turned to look at Jia Xi.
Having just finished learning the fist technique, Jia Xi was tired and sweating profusely; she looked up at He Ao with wide eyes.
He Ao crouched down and gently brushed aside the strands of hair stuck to the little girl’s face by sweat.
“Grandpa is going sowhere again?”
Jia Xi watched He Ao.
“I’m off to attend a banquet.”
He Ao smiled, his gaze resting on Jia Xi, “But grandpa might need Jia Xi to do grandpa a favor.”
——
Under the silent night sky, YiXiya threw the report in her hands out the car window, turned on her wristband, and casually opened the news app.
“This evening, Mayor Kroter finally persuaded the board of directors of Kajet Group to grant the rcenary Corps three days off, allowing the rcenaries to enter the city to visit their families.
“Mayor Kroter stated that the people of Saint Joen City who are wandering outside are still Saint Joen’s children; this is your ho, where you can always return.”
YiXiya glanced at the news; it had a high view count and seed to be specifically targeted for delivery to Saint Joen City by the news app.
Typically, the reason she saw this news on her screen upon opening the app was either because the app’s algorithms recognized her location and recomnded trending news or because soone had placed a large advertisent for this news.
In the lead up to the new mayoral election, it wasn’t unusual for Mayor Kroter to execute so PR moves to win over people’s hearts and heavily promote them.
She swiped past it, preparing to look at the next piece of news.
Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a vehicle approaching without its lights.
It was groping its way through the darkness.
But what the others probably didn’t realize was that the “Investigative Journalist” Talent Sequence’s strongest trait was her observational ability.
The mont YiXiya saw the vehicle, she tensed.
She looked up at the rear-view mirror to find, in her wake, another vehicle was slowly approaching without its lights on.
Both vehicles bore the uniform of the Pollution Cleaning Departnt, and that afternoon, she had already received her formal appointnt as the head of the Saint Joen City’s Pollution Cleaning Departnt.
In theory, no one should be able to bypass her to mobilize the Pollution Cleaning Departnt’s forces.
Clearly, though, her authority only mattered when the structure of the Pollution Cleaning Departnt was functioning normally, and everyone was following the sa set of rules.
She took a deep breath, let out a bitter laugh, exited the news interface on her wristband, and opened her ssages.
At this mont, the newest ssages contained only two sentences.
[Leave imdiately, do not hesitate.]
[Be careful of ambush, stay cautious.]
She guessed what the Elder ant, but she didn’t want to believe it, clinging to hope until the reality right before her eyes dispelled all her illusions.
After all, the organization was where she had worked for years, giving up the best years of her youth.
So she rely ca down from the seventy-seventh floor, staying in the pickup truck which offered better mobility.
But reality did not cater to her fantasies.
As the sound of bursting bubbles echoed in her mind, YiXiya abruptly started the pickup truck.
She knew that any hesitation in this mont could an staying here forever.
This was the price she paid for her naivety.
Amidst the shrill scream of the electric engine, the pickup truck shot out like a sword, streaking across the black night, heading straight for the off-road vehicle ahead.
The vehicle up front apparently didn’t expect to be discovered without its lights on.
The operator standing in the front imdiately raised the machine gun, while the driver viciously turned the steering wheel, positioning the vehicle sideways to block most of the road.
Their response was indeed quick and effective; by blocking the road like this, there wasn’t enough space for a car to get through anymore.
They were forcibly trying to stop YiXiya.
Almost the mont they made their move, YiXiya jerked the steering wheel sharply, and the high-speed vehicle tilted, leaving the passenger door slightly ajar.
Leaning on just the one set of wheels, she slipped through the gap past the SUV.
She turned her head, casting a glance at the stunned occupants of the SUV.
In the mont when the two vehicles crossed paths, a man in the back of the SUV locked eyes with YiXiya.
He suddenly leaped up, clinging to the rear of the pickup truck, and moved forward following YiXiya’s vehicle.
Then his hands transford into claws, instantly slicing open the tal of the truck’s rear seat like ripping through paper.
As the pickup’s wheels hit the ground and the vehicle righted itself, the man’s body burrowed into the hole he’d made, reaching for YiXiya in the driver’s seat.
YiXiya floored the accelerator and made a sharp right turn at the intersection ahead.
The figure in the back swayed, but he had tightly grasped the rear seat and was not thrown out.
“Minister YiXiya, abandoning your post during battle isn’t a good look,”
the man said, watching YiXiya with a light chuckle as he crawled forward into the cabin, his clawed hand swiping toward her neck.
“So this is how you got your D-level?”
YiXiya looked up at the rearview mirror, and in a swift motion, she pulled out a handgun from beside the door and fired a shot behind her.
The bullet hit the young man square in the forehead, penetrating his brain, but his flesh forcefully pushed it out, and it clattered to the ground.
This man tailing her was the sa D-level reassigned with YiXiya.
However, unlike YiXiya, who was transferred from a branch office, he ca from the headquarters of the Pollution Cleaning Departnt.
Initially, he was the one most likely to beco the head of the Saint Joen City branch.
“Sweetheart, it’s over,”
The man, with one arm already monstrous, stretched out his claw toward the driver’s side door to block YiXiya’s escape and, at the sa ti, aid to pierce her heart.
In that mont, YiXiya swiftly pulled a lever next to her seat, releasing the seat constraint.
Her body reclined with the montum, dodging the man’s hooking attack.
The man seed montarily stunned by her maneuver.
YiXiya seized the opportunity to roll over to the passenger side, pushed open the unlocked door, and jumped out.
The man, now half monster, imdiately turned to pursue her.
But YiXiya lifted the hand that had been on the steering wheel, revealing the detonator she’d been holding in her palm and pressed it suddenly.
Boom—
The pickup truck drove past her, and a fierce fireball exploded in the air behind her.
Waves of heat brushed through her auburn curls, and the intense flas burned behind her.
Within those roiling flas, a twisted form seed to struggle, but ultimately it was consud, reduced to char.
YiXiya glanced at her torn clothes, covered them with her hand, staggered to her feet, and walked toward the dark alley ahead.
She wasn’t naive enough to be unprepared.
She raised her bracelet and sent a ssage with her voice assistant.
Soon, she received an automated reply.
The ssage contained the address of a clinic in South City.
Before she could even react, an unmanned SUV slowly erged from the alley ahead.
The elderly gentleman opposite her had apparently anticipated this outco and had everything arranged in advance.
She let out a small sigh.
It felt like a kind, elderly relative was taking care of an innocent and impulsive granddaughter.
—
Pollution Cleaning Departnt Building · Top Floor Restaurant
This place bore a restaurant sign, yet it was strikingly sparse, with just a small dining table, a server, a small bookshelf, and an elderly man with a head of silver hair sitting behind the table, reading a book.
He Ao stood at the railing on the top floor, looking down.
Below, a group of rcenaries with synchronized steps and strict discipline was passing by.
They didn’t glance back as they marched, seemingly unfamiliar with everything around them.
“These rcenaries who co from outside the city don’t seem to be from Saint Joen,”
he remarked, turning away from the view.
“I hear the Kajet Group gave all its rcenaries leave, so so from other areas have co here, treating it like a vacation,”
the elderly man closed his book and looked up at He Ao, “Cito, my old friend, it’s nearly midnight, our dinner seems to be running late.”
He glanced at the server, who imdiately presented two bottles of expensive-looking red wine on the table, opened them, placed two wine glasses on the table, and used a walkie-talkie to signal the kitchen to serve the al.
“Not late,”
He Ao replied, setting down his briefcase and sitting opposite the elderly man, “the night is just right.”
“Hahaha, old friend Cito sure has a way with words,”
the elderly man chuckled with a hint of nostalgia as he poured the wine, “I used to have many old friends around my age.
Back when we could gather for a drink anyti, I didn’t think much of it, but now, when I want to drink with them, I’ve realized there’s no one left to find.”
Looking at He Ao, he smiled and said, “Let’s be frank, us two old chaps, halfway in the grave—looking at you walk with vigor, a straight back, with a natural rhythm to your movents, it seems like you’ve got a Talent Sequence that emphasizes combat.
I always feel a familiar sharpness when I’m around you.
Are you also a ‘Martial Master’?”
He slowly stood up, smiling as he poured wine for He Ao, “Martial Masters, I’ve killed them.”
He Ao too picked up the other bottle of wine, stood up, and poured for the elderly man,
“C-levels, I’ve killed them too.”
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