Free Web NovelChapter 184: Chapter 149: Each Showing Their Divine Power
This was also why the Ghost Core secretly monitored the movements of the celestial prides.
’I hope you’re just messing around!’
Zhuo Feiming continued to monitor the other celestial prides. Regardless of whether Yu Fei was acting abnormally, now that his strange behavior had been discovered, he would have no opportunity to cause any trouble.
The Shenxiao Army’s investigation order was extremely high-level. Paired with the special review order for the celestial prides, their combined authority unleashed a powerful but covert torrent of information. In less than an hour, her adjutant entered with a stack of files and a storage device.
"Ming, the military doctors have finished their examinations. The celestial prides show no physical abnormalities!"
"Alright, leave the files here. Also, could you get me something to eat? Thanks."
Zhuo Feiming devoured the files, her eyes flying across the pages. The reports laid bare the details about Yan Sea and Su Yue, including their relationship with Yu Fei. Information about the death of the Dust Sacrifice, Yu Fei’s use of formless Sword Qi to slay a group of cultists, and more was all extremely detailed, as if an eyewitness had reported it.
And in fact, that was the case. The file contained reports from Kong Sheng and Tang Shengquan on the cultist attack.
A smile touched Zhuo Feiming’s lips as she read this. ’What a coincidence,’ she thought. She remembered that Yan Sea had served in the Shenxiao Army and had even received a commendation once. She recalled who he was.
It was just that she’d never had a good impression of Mr. Lanren. The man had been a significant figure in his day, but he had once stoked the flames of conflict between the celestial pride Martial Artists and commoner Martial Artists. Even if it hadn’t been his intention, she disliked him on instinct.
She didn’t know Kong Sheng, but she was quite familiar with Tang Shengquan. After finishing the files, she had basically ruled out any suspicion regarding Yu Fei’s identity. Still, the boy’s behavior remained very strange.
Looking at the data, she started flipping through Yu Fei’s martial progression records.
’His cultivation in the first realm seems... too slow.’
Zhuo Feiming’s brow furrowed slightly. She dealt with all sorts of celestial pride Martial Artists year-round and was familiar with their cultivation progress.
Toward the end of the file, a report from Shen Tuli noted that Yu Fei’s foundation had once been damaged and that he had taken a Celestial King Wisdom Elixir, which was a gift from Yan Sea.
’That’s a lie!’
Zhuo Feiming tapped her index finger lightly on the table, suspicious. ’What is Yan Sea trying to hide?’ she wondered. She had seen Yu Fei herself, and he didn’t show the slightest sign of a damaged foundation. Such a thing could not be hidden from a Martial Saint, one who stood at the pinnacle of human cultivation.
Mulling this over, she accessed the data on the storage device. It contained a comprehensive record of Yu Fei’s life, from childhood to the present, including all his competitions and even security camera footage of him practicing martial arts at his middle school. Nothing was left out.
Zhuo Feiming focused on the period after he began his martial arts journey. After fast-forwarding through more than an hour of footage, her brow suddenly furrowed.
A montage of scenes flashed by: training videos from before Yu Fei had even started on his martial path, competition scenes from city and county tournaments, the brutal slaying of the cultists.
"Clever boy!" Once all other possibilities were eliminated, the most abnormal behavior was the very thing that would expose a person’s true intentions.
Yu Fei’s past behavior had been deliberately arrogant on certain occasions. It was unnatural, which meant it must have been concealing his true motive.
Zhuo Feiming’s brow smoothed out. She paced back and forth in the command center for a moment before summoning her adjutant.
"Orders. Use the Shenxiao Army Authorization Order and the Red Lotus Martial Saint Order to seal all of Yu Fei’s past records. Also, classify all surveillance data on Yu Fei from the second stage of this competition as top secret. I will handle the universities later.
Furthermore, notify Dong Yu of the Seventh Division that her mission has changed. She is to covertly protect Yu Fei until he enrolls in university!"
After a moment of thought, Zhuo Feiming recalled the intelligence report stating that Yan Sea had broken through to the Grandmaster realm.
’Looks like it’s time for that kid to rejoin the ranks!’
Zhuo Feiming had a theory. If she wasn’t mistaken, Yu Fei likely possessed a growth-type innate ability.
Every Martial Saint of the current era possessed extraordinary powers of perception, and their life stories were the stuff of legends.
That Yan Sea kid was clever, but not by much.
In modern society, unless someone lived as a hermit deep in the mountains, it was impossible for their life story to escape the notice of the ubiquitous security cameras.
The transformation from Yu Fei’s early clumsiness in martial arts to his gradual growth into a celestial pride Martial Artist was simply too abrupt. It was far more than a single Celestial King Wisdom Elixir could explain.
Verifying her theory would be simple enough: she just had to see if Yu Fei’s personal strength took a massive leap forward after the Celestial Pride Positioning Competition.
Normally, without external resources, a Martial Artist’s growth trajectory is linear or a smooth curve. Yu Fei’s growth over the past year and a half, however, had been a series of abrupt, step-like jumps.
The difference in his abilities before and after becoming a celestial pride Martial Artist was so stark it was as if he were two different people. In fact, this period coincided precisely with when Yu Fei had acquired the Void Martial Body.
With everything arranged, Zhuo Feiming leaned back contentedly in her chair, enjoying the late-night snack her adjutant had prepared for her.
It was a bit late to call it a late-night snack; she had been busy all night, and it was now the wee hours of the morning.
She mulled over her plan to have Yan Sea rejoin the ranks first. The terms could be generous. Besides, Su Yue was also a rare talent; her cultivation realm was a bit low, but she could be trained.
With those two as hooks, she could logically reel the young Yu Fei into the Shenxiao Army down the line. After twenty or thirty years of training, if all went well, the Shenxiao Army would have a Vice Marshal at the Martial Saint level, and some of the pressure on her would be relieved.
If her theory was correct, Yu Fei had the potential to become a Martial Saint, and that alone made him worth investing heavily in.
Ever since Marshal Ling retired, she had been in complete command of the Shenxiao Army. And though they had recently won a major victory, their losses had been catastrophic. As things stood, there was still no clear successor in the Shenxiao Army.
