Chapter 1 The Attitude

While it was unknown whether Military Saint was merely superficially convinced, his attitude, in any case, had been demonstrated.

The Xuan Bird-class aircraft took off, spewing forth pale blue flames, like a rocket propelling the entire fuselage into the high altitude. The fuselage, engraved with countless wind-traveling runes, continuously absorbed spiritual energy, dissolving wind force, and self-elevating, then rapidly accelerating into the stratosphere.

At this altitude, it was already possible to see that the entire Earth's atmosphere was faintly exhibiting a state of activation due to the spiritual energy resurgence. In the higher atmosphere, a strong collision zone generated by the interaction of cosmic spiritual energy and Earth's spiritual energy had begun to form a completely new '罡風層' (gangfeng layer) atmosphere. This layer would greatly restrict the use of traditional satellites, rockets, ballistic missiles, and space weapons. Without corresponding transcendent-technological integration technology, it would be equivalent to having related technologies sealed off.

"The spiritual energy resurgence is not only happening on Earth, but also in outer space, on other planets in the solar system."

Su Zhou sat in his seat. His gaze could penetrate the shell of the Xuan Bird-class aircraft, directly observing the scenery above the high altitude, as well as the gangfeng layer, which was extremely obvious to him.

His thoughts wandered because of this scene: "What will a universe filled with spiritual energy be like? If Earth is already like this, then what kind of spiritual energy storms will the gales in the Great Red Spot on a spiritualized Jupiter form?"

"Just imagining the gales that could engulf an entire planet, the enormous gaseous spiritual energy celestial bodies, and the sun, which is a thousand times more vast, and then thinking about the even more boundless universe..."

Su Zhou's serious expression and the low pressure generated by his earnest contemplation caused the other professors around him to look at each other in dismay. One of them asked if Su Zhou had something on his mind, or perhaps was feeling unwell. However, they received an answer that left everyone bewildered.

Su Zhou: "Indeed, I am still too weak."

Other professors: "?"

--You looked so serious, and that's what you were thinking?

Shocked by Su Zhou's divergent thinking, the other professors in the cabin did not continue talking to Su Zhou until the Xuan Bird-class landed on the Northwest Plateau—continuing the conversation would be a blow to their self-esteem.

Due to geographical factors, the team from Xijing Diligence Academy arrived the earliest, but because of the speed of the Xuan Bird-class, the teams from the other two academies were not far behind.

The team from Dao Discipline Academy was mainly composed of research teams and did not participate in the sealing and exploration of this relic. They were only responsible for investigating the relic's spiritual energy impact on the surrounding environment and the nature of the spacetime channel, in order to prepare for future defenses against otherworldly demonic beast attacks encountered by the Europa Alliance, striving to discover signs before the spacetime channel unfolded.

The vast majority of students had already been divided into teams during the freshman training camp. After disembarking and receiving their respective tasks and responsible areas, they all went directly to their mission locations with their team leader instructors.

Their mission was to eliminate all ordinary people around the relic, set up relevant spiritual energy data collection devices, lay down sealing formations, and conduct training and cultivation in the plateau environment—because of the Kunlun Mountain relic, the surrounding spiritual energy concentration was two to three times the global average spiritual energy concentration. The efficiency after laying down spiritual gathering formations soared even further, which could be considered a perk for this hard work.

However, only a small number of students with extremely outstanding grades could follow the professors, approach the Kunlun relic, and have the qualifications to enter the relic for exploration.

Su Zhou was naturally no exception. As a professor in the practical combat department, after disembarking, he was naturally assigned a special elite four-person team. The team members were all top performers from the Diligence Academy.

Coincidentally, he knew two of the four people very well, and he could be considered acquainted with the other two.

The first, Shao Qiming, naturally needed no introduction.

To be honest, Su Zhou was slightly surprised when he learned that Shao Qiming was also a member of the exploration department. He originally thought that the other party would choose a purely academic department, but he did not expect that Shao Qiming was actually an exaggerated triple major. In addition to the exploration department, he was also registered in the optics department and the spiritual energy botany department, and his grades were among the best.

--He also ate the Fruit of Wisdom, so it's not surprising that he's so exaggerated, after all, he's my brother!

And the second was Guan Wanjing, who also came from Hongdu and was the second place in the spiritual test besides Su Zhou.

It was quite tragic. With Guan Wanjing's spiritual energy affinity as high as 94% and his awakened high-level strength, if there was no Su Zhou, he would truly be a top ten genius in the country, perhaps even competing for the top three, attracting the attention of the Saint Seats. It was said that he was also a direct descendant of an ancient spiritual martial heritage in Tiandu. He should have been living a perfect life, but he was abruptly interrupted by Su Zhou. Since then, his presence had been weak. Whenever someone mentioned him, the impression was, 'Oh, that's the second place in the Hongzhou spiritual test.'

Guan Wanjing, a burly man with a proper height of about two meters, who looked completely composed of muscles, was also an iron-pumping friend who had worked out with Su Zhou. In addition, his strength was now close to reaching the peak of awakening. If this was converted to the Divine Wood World, it would be a Grandmaster under the age of twenty. Some professors' strength was only comparable to his, so it was not surprising that he was handed over to Su Zhou, who was familiar with him and whose strength was more than enough to suppress him. Guan Wanjing himself would not have any resistance, anyway, he was used to being beaten down.

When a person's edges are smoothed out, they become mature.

These were two acquaintances. They nodded and smiled at each other, and there was no need to say anything more.

The other two, one male and one female, were the two geniuses with bloodlines in the Diligence Academy.

The male, named Li Hanshan, came from the Chongming Li family, with a spiritual energy affinity of 81%. He was quite handsome, belonging to the conspicuous type in the crowd. However, he was taciturn and basically did not communicate with outsiders—not the arrogant type, but the autistic type. This friend was a dull gourd who could not be pried open with three sticks. Unless he was asked to go to the cafeteria to eat, he would not react no matter what was said.

Li Hanshan had a pair of cyan double pupils. This pair of divine bird eyes from the Chongming Bird allowed him to directly see the movements of squirrels in the forest ten kilometers away in the awakening stage. Only when he needed to report observation data would he speak. His voice was a bit hoarse, but the foundation was good. It was estimated that he was not used to speaking because he had not spoken for a long time.

The female, named Li Yeyu, had a spiritual energy affinity of 87%. She was also quite good-looking, and she was also the type with a high return rate in the crowd. However, this friend was also the taciturn type. Compared to Li Hanshan, she was better because she was not the autistic type, but simply had few words. Usually, when others spoke to her, it wasn't that she didn't respond, but she basically just smiled and finished.

Li Yeyu possessed the strange supernatural power of '通幽' (Tongyou - Understanding the Nether). In the dark and secluded realms such as shadows and dark nights, she could integrate into them and disappear like a spirit body. However, unlike spiritual body transformation, she would not be attacked by spiritual attacks, but she could not penetrate obstacles such as walls, and could only shuttle back and forth between shadows.

Li Yeyu's father was a member of the Security Bureau and also a professor. He was not very willing to let his daughter do such dangerous work as himself, but in this world, if there were no major disasters, working in the Security Bureau itself was the safest, and he could also obtain additional resources, so there was no reason to refuse.

Professor Li was not in the relic exploration team this time. He was responsible for monitoring the spirit world around the relic and collecting relevant data.

Coincidentally, these four people were very rational in the training camp and did not follow the crowd and go to besiege Su Zhou, who was taunting and attracting everyone to challenge him—Shao Qiming was out of the question, how could he attack his friend? Guan Wanjing had participated in the Holy Ascension Selection Test with Su Zhou and had seen him advance to transcendence and attract lightning strikes with his own eyes. Although he was full of muscles, he was not an idiot. Why would he want to go up and get beaten?

Li Hanshan, on the other hand, could see Su Zhou's strength at the time with his divine bird eyes, and his personality was also not the type to do such a thing—at that time, he just squatted on the ground, took out an energy bar from his pocket, and watched the excitement while eating.

Li Yeyu was even simpler—her father had reminded his daughter not to join in the fun, after all, Professor Li was instantly killed by Su Zhou when he sparred with him before. There was no need to let his precious daughter go up and get killed once too... Of course, there was no need to tell his daughter about this.

These four were all geniuses with a spiritual energy affinity of over 80% who needed to be cultivated and cared for as a priority. Li Hanshan and Li Yeyu were even descendants of related bloodlines, and they might be able to obtain related inheritances in the Kunlun relic and go a step further.

Before the relic was opened, Su Zhou's team's mission was 'emergency response team', which meant staying around the relic on weekdays and rushing to the rescue when receiving emergency communications, commonly known as the fire brigade, which also matched Su Zhou's strength positioning. Even without Su Zhou, the team of four had healing, melee, ranged, and reconnaissance capabilities, and the structure was very complete.

They took an armored vehicle to the vicinity of the Kunlun relic. On the way, Su Zhou announced the mission of his team—originally, he should have communicated more with the team members about the mission process at this time, after all, even Su Zhou, who was too lazy to think, knew that these team members were basically equivalent to the official team assigned to him by the Zheng Nation government. After all, Su Zhou himself did not seem like the kind of person who would form a force and form cliques. Since this was the case, the government could only do it for him.

However, there were people like Li Hanshan and Li Yeyu in the team who simply did not speak. Until they arrived in the vicinity of the Kunlun relic, Su Zhou only chatted with Shao Qiming and Guan Wanjing a few times, exchanging information about recent events and cultivation progress. He also sighed with Guan Wanjing about the international bodybuilding competition being suspended due to the spiritual energy resurgence... But this was after all a mission, not a time to chat idly.

Therefore, when Bai Canglang, who had been waiting here at the relic, came to greet Su Zhou and the others, what he saw was a team with an extremely solemn aura, and the low pressure seemed to have solidified into substance.