Chapter 1 An Early Start

August 7th, 2014, 7:35 AM, Hongcheng, Hongzhou.

A week and a half after a certain young transcedent awakened.

Although it was early August, for students going from their second to third year of high school, school was about to start. Many students who had finished reviewing and completing their summer homework had already started gathering to meet and chat, discussing how their homework was going, which topics they focused on, and other such trivial matters.

However, a certain demon hunter, simultaneously monitored by the National Security Bureau and the local constabulary, had been immersed in hunting small transcedent monsters, forging weapons, and practicing cold weapon techniques, leaving him no time for distractions.

The practice of [Sacred Geometry] wasn't complex, but it varied depending on the individual and race. Each person's specific cultivation method was different, making it difficult to share experiences before reaching a certain level.

For Su Zhou, cultivating Sacred Geometry simply meant connecting all the scattered spiritual energy points within the acupuncture points and meridians in his body, transforming them into small or large sacred triangular structures. Countless sacred triangles forming a large sacred triangular pyramid signified the completion of this level of cultivation.

With Su Zhou's cultivation talent and physical gifts, manipulating spiritual energy to construct spiritual energy sacred triangles to strengthen his physique, spiritual energy, and soul was not difficult. And his physical strength, even before the full resurgence of spiritual energy, allowed him to absorb spiritual energy at a rate sufficient for his cultivation needs.

This was where the difficulty lay for most cultivators. Either they couldn't control their spiritual energy well enough to construct the spiritual energy structure within their bodies and achieve transcedence, or their absorption of spiritual energy was too slow. Even if their cultivation realm was sufficient, their strength couldn't increase.

But even though Su Zhou was incredibly talented, cultivating for half a day and then spending the other half eating and sleeping left him with no time to interact with others.

"He's still reviewing."

"Oh, I believe that."

In order to explain his friend's absence to his classmates, Shao Qiming, who wasn't good at lying, had racked his brains for a reason. Fortunately, everyone respected the top student, so they believed him.

Until this day.

"This azure spiritual energy is at least two or three times denser than it was at the beginning, Yala,"

Su Zhou, who had just come out of a riverside breakfast shop with a stack of electronic equipment advertisements, raised his head and made a bright exclamation that only a well-fed, idle transcedent could make: "I feel like I can get stronger just by lying down!"

"Illusion. Don't be immersed in the false strength brought by the resurgence of spiritual energy. What you need most now is to build a solid foundation for the future."

The ruby-like little snake appeared from Su Zhou's ear and sighed, "After you crudely forged your cross spear a few days ago, you've been studying weapon combat—that's not a bad thing, but don't forget that the essence of cultivation lies within yourself. You promised to continue searching for and hunting evil, but you've only been killing some spiritual energy creatures and ordinary wraiths every night... That's not good. The growth of your Wisdom Fruit isn't very pleasing."

"I know, Yala, but compared to running around in a city full of cameras and relying on luck to find traces of evil, which is a dangerous act,"

Regarding the snake spirit's complaint, the eating machine stuffed the advertisements into his pocket, stretched his arms, and then got on his bicycle, heading towards his residential complex: "I have a simpler and more time-saving way to find evil!"

"Oh?" Yala couldn't help but ask curiously, "What is it?"

Su Zhou, who had inherited the blood of the family constabulary, had a glint in his eyes. He proudly said in his heart: "It's very simple."

"Ask my dad."

Ask Dad.

Ask a dad who is a criminal investigation captain.

"That is indeed a good method, but don't you feel ashamed!"

Yala couldn't help but retort, "Oh right, your family's education seems to be that if you encounter any problems, call the police directly and don't do it yourself—but I guess when they said those words with worried faces, they definitely weren't thinking of the current scene!"

"It's all similar, all similar."

While the man and snake were chatting, they had already arrived home.

Unknowingly, August had passed seven days, and it was also the ninth day after Su Zhou awakened and dispelled the curses on Aunt Wen and Shao Qiming.

During this period, it wasn't just Su Zhou who had changed, but the entire world.

Because he hadn't turned off the TV when he went out, the first thing he heard when he entered the house was a report in standard Mandarin from the Zheng Nation Central Station news.

"...The reform of the new-style academies is necessary. The Central Committee has decided that in the coming months, three brand new, specialized, first-class special academies will be established in Tiandu in Tian Prefecture, Modu in Hu Prefecture, and Ancheng in Shan Prefecture, and a brand new major will be added to the existing seven hundred and twenty academies..."

"Huh?" This news immediately shocked Su Zhou, who was about to become a third-year high school student. He exclaimed, "Brand new first-class academies? Opening brand new majors?! This is the first time in the three hundred years since the founding of Zheng Nation!"

"Even when Longzhou Jiuquan Academy was upgraded from a second-class 'Rocket Technology' academy to a first-class 'Space Exploration Major' academy, it replaced another technologically backward first-class academy... Also, opening new majors, although not uncommon, combined with the previous new academies, is this a brand new path for the Sages?"

"That's not simple." Yala only glanced at it and knew what was going on. It explained to its contractor: "Think carefully, hasn't the spiritual energy recovery already started for a while in a few months? Imagine, who might this academy be facing?"

"Transcendents? Young transcendents like me, or people with transcedent talent!"

Su Zhou was just a little slow in thinking sometimes, but his thinking speed was still very fast after being reminded. He suddenly understood what these three new academies were all about.

"That's right, middle-aged people who awaken transcedent powers still have to support their families and have concerns, and children who awaken, unless their abilities are extremely strong—which is practically impossible, as spiritual power depends on vitality and soul strength, which children are very weak in—otherwise they're not much of a threat. Only teenagers like me, who are half-grown and think they know everything from middle school to high school, are the biggest unstable factors!"

Rather than being wary day and night, it's better to open academies and specialized official institutions. The three first-class academies accept future seeds of the Sages with extremely good talent, and the affiliated majors of other academies can also popularize transcedent knowledge and control them, lest these self-righteous teenagers use their abilities to cause destruction everywhere, making the whole world a mess.

Of course, only those who know about the spiritual energy recovery can deduce these analyses. Most ordinary people are kept in the dark, at most vaguely guessing that there will be major changes in the world.

"If it's really a brand new transcedent major at a first-class academy..."

Thinking of this, Su Zhou couldn't help but start fantasizing, but also felt a little embarrassed: "For me, it's definitely better to enter this kind of specialized academy... But if that's the case, I might have to separate from Qiming."

"Not to mention so many years of brotherly love—without Qiming's financial support, what would I use to exorcise demons and eat!"

Whether it was weapons, nightwear sets, or other miscellaneous equipment, food expenses, and a series of other things, they all cost money. Although Su Zhou couldn't solve it himself, if he could get his brother to help, why would he have to do it himself? Su Zhou·Fat Tiger thought so.

Although Su Zhou had also learned some basic forging techniques from Yala—such as forging the two large mandibles and poisonous thorns of the wood centipede into a cross-shaped gun blade and forcibly installing it on a wooden gun shaft—it was far from enough to be self-sufficient.

Then again, it was fortunate that the wood centipede was essentially a wood-attributed evil spirit, otherwise, with Su Zhou's rather rough forging method (referring to directly sticking it on with supernatural demonic fire), the cross gun blade wouldn't have been able to be installed on the wooden shaft at all. It was precisely because of this that the shadowy crystal hadn't been used yet, lest it be wasted.

"Not bad, your world has some level of skill—not only Zheng Nation, but also the Europa League, the American Federation, the Rosse Empire, Fusang, and other scattered countries have also begun corresponding reforms."

Yala didn't care about its contractor's troubles. It took out its own phone (Shao Qiming's sponsorship) from Su Zhou's pocket and poked it with its tail to search for news, and suddenly understood: "The handling of the spiritual energy recovery is quite appropriate, unlike some worlds that have to use high-pressure suppression... Of course, it may also be because your world has ancient transcedent traditions."

"I can even predict what measures they will take: all the folk transcendents who have been exposed will be accepted with a gentle approach, and all the transcendents who may awaken in the future will be given opportunities for advancement—except for criminals."

"Even if they're really weak and can only be used for comedy, they're willing to promote them to popular stars, buying horse bones with gold... There are indeed many idols in Fusang with traces of spiritual energy, and their abilities are probably just releasing some colorful light."

"Whatever, there's still a long time until the college entrance examination." At this time, Su Zhou was too lazy to think about the relatively distant matter of choosing an academy. He took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to his dad.

[Dad, what have you been busy with lately? You always come back late at night. Didn't you say that the 719 murder case has been solved? Could it be the murder cases in the old district?]

[My craftsmanship has improved recently, and I want you to try it.]

After sending it, Su Zhou began to take out his textbooks and memorize the key points—after all, he was still a student, and he hadn't forgotten that—and after a long time, the phone vibrated, showing a reply.

[Good son, Dad is very happy, but I'm really busy with other cases recently... You guessed right, be careful during this time, don't go to the Wanshou Palace shopping mall in the old district.]

To be honest, when Su Zhou saw the words 'Dad is', his inner contrarian instinct wanted to flare up a bit, but after realizing that the other party was really his dad, he couldn't help but feel a little strange.

But in any case, the message was easily tricked... no, it was explored!

"Got it, Yala, the new evil spirit or demon monster, its range of activity is probably next to the Wanshou Palace in the old district of Hongcheng."

After pretending to be a good boy on WeChat and saying 'Okay Dad', Su Zhou turned off his phone and said spiritedly, "At least it's a murder case."

"It's really convenient to be born in a constable's family." Yala was quite speechless. It naturally understood the secret—after the 719 major serial murder case, the city's constables were basically on edge, and small thieves who didn't dare to provoke the authorities had long been scared to tremble and dare not do anything. Bold robbers wouldn't be bored enough to go up against the oversensitive government.

If there were similar transcedent murder cases in a short period of time after this, it would mean that there were still demons in this city.

"Recently, there have indeed been some strange death cases, but those death locations are confidential information, and we definitely wouldn't be able to investigate them. And this time the situation is different from the last time with the wood centipede. The trend of spiritual energy recovery is already evident. My dad probably has already come into contact with transcedent powers and signed a related confidentiality agreement, so he shouldn't tell me so easily."

At this time, Su Zhou showed an unexpectedly skilled expression. He talked eloquently: "Since he specifically told me not to go near Wanshou Palace, it's basically confirmed that the murderer's range of activity is in that vicinity. Of course, he can't tell me that this is related to the case, but reminding relatives to be careful is not a violation of the rules."

"Are you going to go check out the situation now?"

Yala narrowed its eyes slightly. It could see that this guy was probably a habitual offender in this regard. It wondered why he had been getting information like this in the past... It didn't know why.

Regarding this question, Su Zhou nodded, then shook his head again: "Not now. I'll memorize this key point that Qiming gave me first."

"In the afternoon, I'll go to the electronic street in the old district to buy a new laptop, and observe the traces of spiritual energy along the way to see if it's an evil spirit or an ordinary monster, and what it's doing."

"Huh, why do you want to buy a new computer?"

Yala nodded first, then widened its snake eyes: "Could it be for me?"

"Wow, I understand why you have such high charm, you can use 'Emotional Intelligence'!"

"That's also a reason, otherwise it's troublesome for you to use my computer every time you look up information... Of course, the most important reason is naturally the discount!" Su Zhou took out the previously folded advertisement from his pocket, his eyes burning: "70% off, who can resist that?!"