Chapter 1 Eh, You’ve Leapt Forward Again?

Shao Qiming knew where Su Zhou had gone this time. He also knew how beneficial interdimensional travel could be.

But, even with his understanding of Su Zhou, a rational analysis made him feel that Su Zhou's advancement speed was a little excessive.

"I finally managed to cultivate to the peak of Awakening, and I feel like I might be able to try challenging to advance to the Transcendent stage within the year… I was even thinking that, at that time, I would only be a few minor ranks behind A'zhou, not a whole major realm."

The gentle and refined young man felt like a pathetic lemon meme from the internet, practically wanting to slam the table to vent the frustration in his heart: "This has widened to two major realms all at once! How can anyone catch up!"

As for whether it was true or not, Shao Qiming completely believed Su Zhou's words. After all, although his friend liked to boast, he was the type to tell it like it is.

The Dao Saint, after the initial shock, still subconsciously questioned whether it was true: "A Commander? Su Zhou, could it be that you advanced to the peak of Transcendent, so you have a feeling that's very close to the Commander stage… I mean, the Commander stage is a very difficult realm to cross. You not only need sufficient hard power, but you also need to have some understanding of your Dao, comprehend a divine ability…"

One should know that the Commander stage was the so-called 'Human Immortal' in ancient times! Although not considered a formal Immortal God, listed in the Immortal ranks, they were still worthy of having shrines built for them by the people for worship!

"Yes, that's why I said I 'might have already' broken through to the Commander stage."

Su Zhou would always take extra care of the elderly, trying his best not to stimulate their hearts, so he patiently said, "Although I have awakened a divine ability, I feel that my Commander stage is not yet complete. At most, it's only a half-step Commander stage. In the future, I may still need to train, hone, and cultivate a little more to solidify my realm."

Dao Saint: "?"

Logically speaking, objectively speaking, Su Zhou's current Commander realm could not be considered a complete state.

He relied on the Mingxing Transformation Dragon Art, using the flesh and blood of the Water God, to forcibly break through to the Commander stage with his true form, compensating for his lack of hard power.

However, after dispelling his true form, Su Zhou felt that although he was much stronger than the peak of Transcendent, if he had to say that this was the true strength of his Commander realm, he felt that it was not right.

The Mingxing Transformation Dragon Art was not his fundamental cultivation method, and the water attribute was even more of an auxiliary technique that Su Zhou had only begun cultivating in the past half year. His fundamental cultivation method, the Sacred Geometry, was still at the five-pointed star realm of the Transcendent stage.

——The Mingxing Transformation Dragon Art is just for fun, the real advancement still depends on the Sacred Geometry!

"Now that I have the experience of advancing to the Commander stage, I have the capital to either walk my own path in Sacred Geometry or try new techniques."

Thinking like this, Su Zhou, who was preparing to wait for life to settle down before using Sacred Geometry to advance, immediately made a decision: "The fire attribute is my fundamental cultivation method, the water attribute already has the Mingxing Transformation Dragon Art and the Water God's evil soul, and the thunder attribute, whether it's the Supreme Five Extremes Divine Thunder True Art or the Thunderous Swamp inheritance, is already strong enough."

"Among my current four attributes of spiritual power, the only weakest one is the wind attribute—even if the Gale Armor has been strengthened, it cannot compare with those complete inheritances… Perhaps, my advancement can be strengthened in this aspect."

"Coincidentally, the wing form of my true form has not yet been determined, I can go to the Zheng Nation's official to find some related inheritances to learn from."

Not to mention Su Zhou, who was humming a little tune in his heart at this time.

Already speechless, the Dao Saint was slowly turning his head, staring blankly at the road ahead, his heart half filled with 'My Zheng Nation has such talent, it can bring peace to the troubled world!', and half filled with 'I have cultivated for decades, how can I be surpassed by a junior by a major realm in just two years?' The mood could be described as extremely complex.

——After cultivating hard for many years, it was already tangled enough to be at the same stage as the younger generation, how has it become that I have to chase after his realm now?

"No, my speed isn't slow either!"

Putting his hand on his heart and asking himself, the Dao Saint felt that his advancement speed was already very smooth—the records of the Zheng Yi Academy also proved that his cultivation speed was already quite good in the era of spiritual energy revival. In the past two years, he has cultivated from the peak of Awakening to the peak of Transcendent. This speed would not be considered slow even in the ancient Earth Immortal God era!

One should know that the Dao Saint knew many old friends in the NW Foundation (new·worLd) of the American League, and the Concordance Bureau of the European region, and most people were at his level—everyone is a genius, the world's top cultivators, how could there be such a big gap, and this is the normal situation!

And Su Zhou's speed is not the level of a genius at all, it's a monster!

The atmosphere in the car was polarized. On one side, Su Zhou was happily thinking about his future advancement path, even taking out his mobile phone and starting to post his new updates on Weibo, arousing a burst of exclamations of 'He's alive, Judge Su is alive!' 'Grandpa, the user you followed when you were young has been resurrected!'

On the other side, Shao Qiming's face was as heavy as water, thinking about continuing to cultivate in seclusion at night, striving to advance to Transcendent as soon as possible, while the Dao Saint's eyes were solemn, and the same thought was running through his head.

After a long while, the self-driving car arrived at its destination, the Hong City Spiritual Energy Security Bureau located in the new urban area of Hong City.

The Hong City Security Bureau was not luxurious, but it was not low-key either. Its shape was an ordinary square office building, with a huge Security Bureau logo hanging on it.

There was also a monument standing at the entrance of the building, with several large characters engraved on it with iron hooks and silver strokes.

【Efficiency · Integrity · For the People · Dedication】

Very Zheng Nation style.

Getting out of the car and entering the office area of the building, Su Zhou couldn't help but feel a little puzzled as he watched the Security Bureau members who were busy running back and forth, and one by one seriously typing on the keyboard in front of the screen, or giving instructions to the walkie-talkie.

"Is this because the interdimensional events have increased the workload?"

In order to avoid disturbing the staff, he whispered to the Dao Saint, "I haven't seen the Security Bureau so busy before."

Ordinary civil spiritual energy cases are generally handled by the local police. The Security Bureau's studios target the opening of ruins, the unexpected appearance of powerful spiritual energy beasts, and high-risk cultivator criminals, so they are usually very idle, and they will be busy when they encounter major events.

"Yes, but not entirely."

Having already shaken off the previous feeling of self-doubt, the Dao Saint's tone was quite serious at this time. He took Su Zhou to the Security Bureau's conference hall, and explained, "Since the Descending Spirit Society has been conducting Descending Spirit rituals all over the world, there are more and more abnormal creatures and humans all over the world… Of course, we are not sure whether this is a natural phenomenon caused by the revival of spiritual energy, or the sequelae brought about by the large-scale opening of secret realms recently."

Shao Qiming also explained slightly from the side: "The main reason is that everyone now has techniques to practice. The power brought by cultivation, and the improvement in magical literacy, so now when people awaken special abilities, the damage caused is far greater than at the beginning… This can't be helped."

"I see." Hearing this, Su Zhou immediately understood the reason.

The so-called abnormal creatures are a neutral term for demonized creatures.

After all, not all demons are harmful to humans, and not all humans who are invaded by the power of the Great Existence will lose themselves.

In the final analysis, demons are actually the眷族 (juan zu, dependents) of other Great Existences. Except for a few, their dependents all have normal intelligence, just like the dependents of the Lord of Silence, who basically develop freely, and He doesn't care at all, without any constraints.

Individuals who accidentally gain superpowers, are stimulated by spiritual energy to awaken their own bloodline, awaken divine abilities, and are transformed into dependents by the power of the Great Existence, are now collectively referred to as 'Abnormal Awakeners'. The Agent Tang Yuan under Su Zhou is a cultivator who has awakened a divine ability, and also belongs to this category.

And now, the number of Abnormal Awakeners is increasing with the progress of the revival of spiritual energy. Although the vast majority are normal people, who report their abilities and continue to live normally, even if one percent of individuals want to use their abilities to make trouble, the Security Bureau will be too busy to stop. After all, the revival of spiritual energy has been going on for two years, and the citizen points system has been implemented for nearly half a year. If criminals really want to do evil, they will naturally have thoroughly explored their abilities.

Arriving in the conference room, Su Zhou reported to the Dao Saint and several relevant Security Bureau staff members who sat down, roughly about his experiences in the other world. Su Zhou had nothing to lie about, so he roughly said some of the battle fragments between himself and the Water God and the Wind God, and called the Blade of Extinction a 'unexpected harvest'.

Of course, he didn't lie, he just didn't tell the whole truth, and the Dao Saint and the staff would not suspect him in this regard.

Su Zhou is now the signboard of the Zheng Nation's era of spiritual energy revival. Judging from his past behavior, there is no need to doubt his loyalty at all. Because of this, whatever he says, the official believes.

It is worth mentioning that when Su Zhou slightly showed his aura, proving that he indeed had the strength of the 'half-step Commander peak Great Perfection' stage, all the hidden cockroaches, flying insects, and all kinds of small creatures, even including slimes, fled from the entire Security Bureau, triggering a large-scale riot… Even, according to subsequent investigations, it was found that this was a large circle with a radius of three kilometers, and all the lower creatures within the range fled the area.

In the awe-inspiring eyes of everyone, this was also a side proof of Su Zhou's realm - he himself had almost forgotten that he had the ability to repel mosquitoes and insects because he hadn't used it for too long.

"That's about it, thank you for your trouble, but these are necessary procedures."

The reason why the Dao Saint has been staying in Hong City during this time is to find the missing Su Zhou, and Shao Qiming, as the last person to see Su Zhou, often cooperates with him to find clues. Now that Su Zhou has returned, he is about to go to busy with his own affairs: "There will be a meeting on the channel later, you can participate in it, and the Yan Saint will remind you… As for this period of time, take a rest first, but you must pay attention to the exploration of the Beast God Realm, this matter concerns the future of mankind, and there must be no negligence!"

The Dao Saint naggingly gave a few more instructions, and then left.

As for whether Su Zhou really has the strength of the Commander stage, it's better not to measure it, anyway, he won't measure it, whoever wants to measure it can go, how can he always be the only one who is hit!

"By the way, Qiming, what you said before, recently someone actually wanted to challenge me when I was missing - what's going on?"

Just after the Dao Saint left, Su Zhou grabbed Shao Qiming with great interest and asked about the news about foreign challengers.

"How should I say it, haven't you been missing for nearly three months recently."

Shao Qiming waved his mobile phone and showed some news on Weibo to Su Zhou, explaining helplessly: "Those programs that were originally scheduled for you to participate in have been canceled because you were absent. Everyone said that you went into seclusion, or went into the devil, or were performing some secret mission, or were dead - coincidentally, several cultivators from the Europa League have advanced to the high level of Transcendent and have also participated in those programs. Implicitly, there seems to be a tendency to replace you."

"As for really fighting with you, no one has publicly challenged you in this regard yet. However, as everyone's strength is rising, there will definitely be guys who want to challenge you in the future."

Now, the cultivation progress of global cultivators is no longer just at the level of the Zheng Nation's Sages or the leaders of major forces.

Some extremely talented new generation cultivators have now also entered this field, and those cultivators who are located in major forces, have abundant resources, and complete inheritances, may also be able to cultivate to the high level of Transcendent with the support of various resources.

Even top cultivators like the Dao Saint are also trying to break through the threshold of the Commander stage with their years of accumulation - Su Zhou's cultivation time is only more than two years after all. If he hadn't relied on the Water God's flesh and blood to quickly overtake, he might have fallen behind the Dao Saint and the others, at most advancing in sync.

But this, to be honest, is already terrifying.

"What, no one dares to publicly challenge me?"

And when Su Zhou heard that no one had explicitly named him to say that they wanted to compete with him, he immediately lost interest: "As for replacing me, I can just find an opportunity to show off and reverse public opinion… Wait, Qiming, you said, do I have a chance to play the pig to eat the tiger once?!"

Although he was a little disappointed at first, he suddenly became interested again when he thought it was a good opportunity to show off.

But Shao Qiming cautiously replied: "I'm afraid not… Those people probably haven't caught up with your level before you traveled to another world. No matter how you pretend, in their eyes, you are at least a lion."

This immediately made Su Zhou sigh - being too strong is also a mistake, so that he can't even find a stepping stone.

Su Zhou and Shao Qiming did not stay in the Security Bureau for long.

May 20, 2016, 6:34 PM.

Shao Qiming said goodbye to Su Zhou and went home to continue his cultivation.

His talent and aptitude are also among the best in Zheng Nation. The credits and points he usually gets, as well as the points made up for the Kunlun Secret Realm actions, will be enough to exchange for Immortal God inheritances in a while, and the Shao family's resources are also rich enough to supply his normal cultivation advancement.

And Su Zhou, after sending his parents a WeChat message saying 'I'm back', didn't go home immediately, but returned to the old house of the Shao family, where the Tree of Wisdom was located - Su Zhou's parents thought that Su Zhou was really in seclusion in the Kunlun Secret Realm, but they didn't know the fact that Su Zhou was missing.

After all, the current Su Zhou has already cultivated a personal space, so it is best to collect it into the space as soon as possible so as not to have too many dreams at night.

Coincidentally, he can also temporarily count his gains in the cycle world in this quiet place.