Chapter 1 The Beginning

Su Zhou didn't immediately choose to advance to the Transcendent realm because he knew that the spiritual power anomaly caused by his advancement had a high probability... no, it would definitely be noticed by others, especially the Zheng Nation's officials.

The spiritual energy fluctuation when he first awakened had caused the dragon species of a whole city to flee in panic, and all spirits within a thousand meters had retreated.

Advancing again, who knows how large the affected area would be. At least within the city, it would definitely affect the surrounding ordinary people, just like when he cultivated in the school's spiritual energy class, it would affect the surrounding classmates.

Especially now that spiritual energy has recovered, many Dao techniques and spiritual artifacts can be used. Below the Transcendent level might be okay, but the appearance of a brand new Transcendent-level creature is big news for major forces around the world. Su Zhou believed that within three minutes of his breakthrough to the Transcendent realm, Zheng Nation's official Transcendent cultivators would definitely descend from the sky, and within an hour, the Sages might receive him—or he might be surrounded by helicopters and ground troops within half an hour.

"So, instead of advancing secretly and alone, it's better to achieve the Transcendent realm in full view of the public."

Su Zhou wasn't very clear about the Zheng Nation's official response. After all, he was just a student who had just turned eighteen not long ago, whose birthday gifts were a new mobile phone and a complete set of hardcover *Zizhi Tongjian* (Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government)—even vertically formatted, which made his eyes hurt.

Rather than guessing the official response with his own ideas, it's better to be steady.

"Before, several professors from the academies revealed that before the Spring Festival, all eligible students will participate in a large-scale aptitude test, which can be regarded as a warm-up for the Holy Selection Test."

Taking a cup of strawberry sundae ice cream (422 calories) from the refrigerator, Su Zhou had a pleasant expression. After taking a comfortable lick, he shouted, 'Eating ice cream on a snowy day, that's life!', then raised the cup, letting Yala also take a comfortable lick: "But if you ask me, cocoa-flavored ice cream is still the best."

"All good, all good, as long as it's not durian flavor."

Chatting with the snake spirit, he opened his mobile phone with one hand, skillfully typing, and writing some words and numbers that only he could understand on the document. Su Zhou thought: "When I reveal my aptitude during the school's major exam, and then break through to the Transcendent realm, it can undoubtedly be regarded as being in full view of the public. Not only is the danger minimal, but I'm also very likely to get a recommendation to enter a Transcendent academy without taking the exam."

"Before that, I just need to forge an alibi, and then hide the nature of my abilities. For example, I used thunder techniques when killing the chief villain of the Ghost Witch Family, and I'll show fire-attribute spiritual power and dragon blood during the test."

"In that case, as long as I don't leave any traces, it will be seamless, and no one will suspect me!"

After thinking about it, Su Zhou felt that this series of plans was basically flawless. There might be some small loopholes, but they were irrelevant—as long as he could quickly kill those few people who needed to be killed, without being held back, and surrounded by official Transcendent cultivators.

Of course, there are risks, but Su Zhou believes in his own strength.

"As for now, I just came back from another world, no rush, let's just rest for a day!"

Thinking this way, Su Zhou hummed a little tune, closed the document, and clicked on the forum App: "Let me see what those silly netizens are cloud-thinking about again!"

And just as Su Zhou shouted loudly in his own living room, returning to the realm of the internet giant.

December 7, 2014, Japan time, 11:27 a.m.

In a game studio in Tokyo, Japan, a slightly chubby middle-aged man holding a manga was taking a nap on a massage chair.

This slightly chubby man had a slightly worrying hairline and wore a pair of black-framed glasses. The manga in his hand, if translated into Chinese, would be called *Berserk*, and the logo on the studio's nameplate exposed his identity.

——Yumi Tensei.

An internationally renowned game producer, the creator of the Dark Wolf series, the enemy of players, insidious and cunning, old thief...

He had a plethora of nicknames, but they were nothing more than a few core ones, that even game outsiders could clearly understand from these descriptions that the games he makes are difficult!

Since the advent of the auxiliary intelligent programming system six years ago, game creation no longer required so many people, and the speed of research and development has also greatly accelerated. Even a single person, as long as they are willing to spend time, can create their own independent game.

For a time, the world ushered in a period of electronic game frenzy. Many large game companies, such as a certain eA, were impacted and split, and the major studios under its jurisdiction were independent.

However, the quality of various independent games varied, and it could even be said that most of them were garbage. Only a very small number could be called excellent. After the electronic game craze, it was a major industry depression, with garbage flooding and good works difficult to find.

And Yumi Tensei's group was a well-known studio that survived that difficult period and whose reputation was verified.

At the beginning of this year, the sixth part of Dark Wolf, 'Nioh Undying', based on ancient Japan, was released and unsurprisingly sold very well, attracting rave reviews from players at home and abroad. Even the usually stingy major game scoring organizations generously gave very high evaluations.

Yumi Tensei was naturally very satisfied with this, but it is difficult for game producers to stop. All creators have something in their hearts that they want to confide, to describe a world for others to see—and he is one of the best.

The release of Nioh Undying made the entire company and studio rejoice for a few days, but soon, including Yumi Tensei, everyone began to nervously plan and discuss new games again.

Some people said that the Dark Wolf series could be put on hold for the time being, and they could keep up with current affairs and make a modern urban work related to 'spiritual energy recovery'.

And other people felt that the recovery of spiritual energy has only just begun. Blindly following hot topics would instead fail to grasp the real trend. At least wait until the major players around the world fully accept the fact of spiritual energy recovery before they can carry out the best and most realistic creation.

Before that, they could continue to enrich the background of the Dark Wolf world and earn more money from the series' fans.

Of course, as the head of the studio, Yumi Tensei's own opinion was the most important. And he himself was quite hesitant.

Originally, Yumi Tensei was more inclined to a new work in the spiritual energy recovery series, not to follow the hot topic, but because they had never made a game with a modern background. It was novel and challenging, and even if it was not well done, it could be used as a lesson and art resource reserve to pave the way for subsequent games—they had the capital to fool around.

That's what he thought, but he didn't express his opinion at the meeting, letting the two sides continue to discuss. After all, in this world, many ideas only blossom in mutual opposition and support.

But today, for some reason, Yumi Tensei, who was taking a nap, suddenly opened his eyes and suddenly got up from the massage chair, with his forehead and eyes shining brightly!

"I got it! I got it! That's the feeling!"

At this moment, inspiration was constantly bursting in his mind, as if the information of a whole world was eager to gush out!

"Meeting, meeting!"

He put down the manga in his hand, and then shouted to everyone: "I have a new idea!"

A few days later.

December 10, 2014, late at night.

The Shao family mansion.

In a certain second-floor room with a Demon Expelling Power as high as 185 due to the addition of two 'Nioh Undying Collector's Edition' Japanese samurai swords in the cabinet.

Shao Shuangyue, who had her day and night schedule reversed and had just woken up, casually tied a high ponytail and was boredly swiping through Weibo and the Steam platform game store on dual screens.

"Yawn~ There's no big news recently. Weibo is also very quiet. It's snowing heavily on the street, which is very different from the end of the year in the past."

Opening her mouth, stretching lazily in an extremely unladylike manner, and yawning, Shao Shuangyue drowsily browsed every discount and game that looked fun, and then added them all to her wish list and bought them all in one go!

The life of a rich person needs no explanation. As for whether she has time to play so many games...

That's ridiculous! She spent money to buy them, why should she spend time playing them!

But just as Shao Shuangyue was controlling the mouse with one hand and fixing her hair with the other, a dialog prompt suddenly popped up in the lower right corner of the computer screen.