Free Web NovelChapter 112: Chapter 107: Shi Jingyi’s Invitation
’I think I’m starting to get the hang of it...’
After hanging up with Wang Yan, Guan Tong was still a bit concerned about Chen Na, but there was nothing he could do right now. So, he refocused his attention on circulating his energy.
He had been cooped up in the shelter researching ever since the Blood Plague rule. After half a month, he had finally memorized the body’s many acupressure points.
Even he was surprised by his own memory. ’It must be because my Psychic Power is constantly increasing, which is also subtly improving all my other physical attributes,’ he thought. It wasn’t something he’d normally notice, but the significant change became apparent when he actually needed to use it.
Guan Tong felt that if they were to hold some kind of world athletic games now, even if the competitors didn’t use any abilities and relied purely on physical fitness, they could still break every single historical record.
’According to what Shi Jingyi said in the first introductory class, the first step is to memorize the acupressure points all over the body. Then, you can try to circulate your energy, moving it between these points... Only by mastering this can you make Psychic Power cover and flow across the surface of your body like ’qi’.’
The online course hadn’t reached this stage yet; it was still focused on techniques for memorizing acupoints and some basic fist and foot exercises.
That’s right. Before the students could master techniques like acupoints and energy circulation, Shi Jingyi had also taught some of the fist-and-foot martial arts from her Guiyun Martial Arts Hall. She said that practicing them regularly would improve blood flow and circulation, which would help with their future training.
Guan Tong hadn’t been able to go out before, so he hadn’t practiced much. Training martial arts in a small room was just too confining. Now, however, he had the means. The entire Mingdao Mountain could be his training ground; he could practice wherever he wanted.
But he knew that no matter how much he practiced, he could never achieve Shi Jingyi’s level of effortless mastery. She’d said herself that she had been practicing martial arts for over twenty years. She must have started as a child, building a foundation that others couldn’t easily catch up to.
Therefore, rather than perfecting his martial arts, Guan Tong preferred to play to his strengths and spend more time researching the Wordless Book. As for Martial Arts, he’d be satisfied just being able to achieve Psychic Power Flow.
Since his progress was ahead of the course, he felt like calling Shi Jingyi to ask about tips and tricks for practicing energy circulation. But a glance at the time showed it was already 10:30 PM, so he decided not to disturb her and to wait until tomorrow.
With a thought, the Wordless Book appeared before Guan Tong.
He flipped to the fifth page. Staring at the blank sheet, he had no idea what his Psychic Power limit needed to be before he could write on it.
Considering the fourth page, which created the shelter, manifesting it back on Holy Grail Island had instantly drained all of his Psychic Power. The fifth page would only be more demanding. ’Perhaps... I’ll need a limit of 150, or even higher, before I can write on it.’
’My current limit is 137. It increases naturally by one point every seven to eight days, which is about four points a month... That’s still a bit slow.’
Four points a month meant less than fifty a year, which was hardly anything to look at.
He considered the other method for rapidly increasing his limit: intense combat. But what was the reason intense combat increased Psychic Power?
According to one of the academy’s main lecturers, Ouyang Shanyue—specifically, in his course, *Philosophical Reflections on Psychic Power*—Psychic Power was related to one’s emotions and spirit.
Looking back at the first rule, Sleep Deprivation, why did some people have high Psychic Power while others had low Psychic Power?
According to post-event statistics, those who used external aids to pass the trial had lower Psychic Power. Whether it was using Sober Mint Candy or receiving psychiatric drugs at a hospital, it all affected their Psychic Power limit.
On the other hand, those who didn’t use external aids and relied purely on their own willpower generally had higher Psychic Power limits. Even among them, there was a spectrum. Big data showed that adolescents tended to be higher, while older people were lower.
From this, it seemed that the Psychic Power limit reflected an individual’s potential on a spiritual and mental level.
However, according to Ouyang Shanyue’s theory, the rate of increase of one’s Psychic Power limit was also related to emotions. When a person was in combat, facing a threat would cause intense emotional fluctuations.
Anxiety about one’s own abilities, high tension when facing a strong enemy, extreme fear of defeat and death... These emotions were intense and complex, the kind that would never arise in the course of a normal, stable life.
Ouyang Shanyue had also given some examples in class, focusing on a few of the more famous Ascenders. Many of them were celebrities from before the era of Apocalypse Rules, including well-known athletes and stars.
One example was a famous young boxer who, after the first rule, had voluntarily revealed his Psychic Power limit on his social media account. It was 105, which was very high.
There was also a movie star whose publicly disclosed Psychic Power limit exceeded 100. Although this star was famous, they were also plagued by scandals and were constantly berated by netizens. However, the star paid it no mind, earning them the nickname "Thick-Skinned as a Mountain."
In that lecture, Ouyang Shanyue’s examples also included someone Guan Tong had heard of: the Go champion, Wenren Yizhi. She had gone viral after streaming herself playing Go for 72 hours straight during the Rule Stage, gaining countless followers.
But she hadn’t voluntarily disclosed her Psychic Power value; it was officially released. It seemed the authorities had taken a fancy to her explosive fame, recruiting her into their organization to use her popularity for promotional work.
According to the official announcement, after passing the first rule, Wenren Yizhi’s Psychic Power limit was 117. When this news broke, it caused a huge stir online, because it was so much higher than anyone else’s.
Most people were happy to have 80 points and be rated as ’Average.’ Her 117 points far surpassed the 100-point ’Excellent’ rating, a monstrously high figure.
Ouyang Shanyue used these examples to illustrate that the growth of one’s Psychic Power limit was related to emotion. Whether it was emotions that burned like a raging fire or emotions as steady as a mountain, as long as they were taken to the extreme, they could be beneficial for increasing one’s Psychic Power limit.
Coming back to Guan Tong himself, his personality could be described in a single word: mild.
He had all the emotions a normal person should, but none of them were particularly intense. Therefore, the path of increasing his Psychic Power limit through extreme emotions didn’t seem to suit him. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
’...Forget it. What’s the rush? I’ll just take it one day at a time.’
Guan Tong thought it over carefully. He didn’t need to be in such a hurry. His goal was just to keep completing the rule challenges and see if he could make it to the end and learn the truth, not to become endlessly stronger.
At 11 o’clock, he went to bed. When he woke up the next morning, he had a new message on his phone, sent by Wang Yan in the middle of the night.
"The Sheriffs checked the surveillance footage. Nana took a car to the outskirts. They haven’t found her yet, they’re still searching."
Guan Tong’s heart sank slightly as he read the message.
’If that’s the case, Chen Na probably won’t be back anytime soon...’
’No matter who’s in that organization or how powerful they are, they’ll definitely be worried about being exposed.’
’Even if Chen Na passes their selection, if they let her go back, she’s so young she might let something slip and expose some of the organization’s secrets.’
Looking at the message, Guan Tong was suddenly reminded of the multi-city serial kidnapping case targeting High Spirit Users that he and Xu Xiaotian had been involved in.
Although the local culprits in Yunhua, Shen Zuohu and his men, had been caught long ago and were probably already executed, it was still unclear whether the mastermind pulling the strings from afar had been apprehended.
Guan Tong only knew that Li Meng, the director of the Yunhai City Sheriff’s Bureau, had been transferred to Capital Yong’an specifically to continue the investigation.
’...Could the organization that recruited Na have some connection to those people from before?’
Guan Tong couldn’t be sure. Besides, he was now also a little worried about Wang Yan.
She was already terminally ill with not much time left. Now, with her daughter missing, the blow must have been devastating...
Guan Tong thought for a moment and replied, "Wang, even if Na is missing, her life probably isn’t in danger. Her ability is very rare. No matter who took her, it’s unlikely they would harm her."
All he could do now was offer Wang Yan some comforting words. He couldn’t help with anything else, whether it was Chen Na’s whereabouts or Wang Yan’s terminal cancer.
Wang Yan replied shortly after: "Thank you, Guan. I also believe Nana will be okay. I have to hold on. I will definitely find her!"
Guan Tong sighed and stopped dwelling on the matter. After breakfast, he called Shi Jingyi, who answered quickly.
"Hello, Guan Tong. Is there something you don’t understand that you need to ask me?"
Shi Jingyi got straight to the point. She probably knew that Guan Tong wasn’t the type to call her for a casual chat.
"Yes." Guan Tong explained the questions he had about energy circulation from the previous night, and Shi Jingyi was quite surprised to hear them.
"You’ve already started practicing energy circulation? Your progress is that fast? You’ve memorized all the acupoints?"
"I’ve memorized them."
Shi Jingyi tested him with a few tricky questions, and Guan Tong answered them all correctly.
"I didn’t expect your memory to be so good! You truly are... hmm." Shi Jingyi almost blurted out, ’You truly are the world’s number one Shadow.’
"Your progress is so fast that the online course can’t really keep up. How about this, I’ll send you some of the subsequent course materials on energy circulation in a bit. You can study them on your own first."
"Okay, thank you."
"Oh, right." Shi Jingyi suddenly remembered something. "Even if you hadn’t called me, I was planning to call you in the next few days anyway."
Hearing this, Guan Tong asked curiously, "Is something the matter?"
"The whole country is entering a state of war on the 10th. You should know about that, right?"
"I know."
"At that time, everyone will have to register and be assigned to a shelter. When I heard about it, I figured you probably wouldn’t go to a shelter."
Shi Jingyi knew about Guan Tong’s identity as Shadow, and she also knew he had been hiding it and hadn’t registered. But once the state of war began, hiding wouldn’t be so easy.
"...Actually, I’ve already left the city," Guan Tong said.
"Haha, I knew it." Shi Jingyi seemed to have guessed. She laughed a few times before saying seriously, "The reason I was going to call you was to extend an invitation."
"An invitation?"
"That’s right! When we spoke on the phone before, I noticed you were learning my course material very quickly. This time confirms it. You’re a whole step ahead of the other students in my class. So, if you’re willing, you can come to the academy and be my teaching assistant."
’A teaching assistant...’
Guan Tong hadn’t expected Shi Jingyi to have this in mind and was quite surprised.
"If you come, once the state of war begins, I can register you under the identity of a special guest teaching assistant. Then, aside from spending some time each day helping the other students, you’ll be free to arrange your time as you wish. Plus, you won’t have to live in a collective shelter. You can stay in the academy’s faculty dorms. They’re all single rooms, so privacy won’t be an issue."
Guan Tong listened to Shi Jingyi’s words and thought it over carefully.
’If I register as a teaching assistant, I’ll have a legitimate identity to move around the city. Otherwise, if I remain unregistered, living in the wild is one thing, but entering a city would cause a lot of trouble.’
’And Shi Jingyi specifically mentioned that as a teaching assistant, I could live in a single faculty dorm instead of a collective shelter... That also meets my need for privacy.’
’The price for all this would be setting aside some time each day to fulfill the responsibilities of a teaching assistant—helping Lecturer Shi Jingyi organize her course materials, assisting students with their studies, and so on.’
"You don’t have to decide right away," Shi Jingyi said. "My invitation is a standing offer. Whenever you want to come, just give me a call—but it would be best to decide before the 10th. After the state of war begins, it might be a bit troublesome for an unregistered person to enter the academy."
