Dawn of a New Era

Chapter 773 - 746: Martial Arts Grand Event (Part 1)

Himalayas.

The sky was stormy, clouds raced like fleeting horses, rapidly changing.

As Chen Shouyi practiced the thirty-six forms, an invisible force permeated the space; the entire world seemed to resonate subtly with his movements, sometimes swelling, sometimes contracting like the pulse of the earth and sky.

Since refining his divinity, he hadn’t gone to the other world.

Of course, this wasn’t because Chen Shouyi feared Tamu.

It just felt unnecessary.

At his level of strength, the Original Force had minimal impact on him. He mainly relied on the continuous optimization of his body through cultivation techniques, which made no difference whether on Earth or in Tamu.

Since a hundred-kilometer-long rift appeared in the Himalayas, it drastically affected the region’s climate.

The warm, moist air coming from the Indian Ocean condensed when it reached here, causing it to rain almost every other day recently.

The once barren land, flattened after the peaks were leveled, had recently grown lush green weeds and colorful wildflowers.

This delighted the two little ones.

There were no large animals here, not even a mouse; even the occasional birds frightened away during Chen Shouyi’s practice no longer came.

For the two little ones, this place was undoubtedly paradise.

For the past few days, they had been enthusiastically busy collecting honey, catching bugs, and digging for treasures... The number of innocent bugs they squished daily took over ten minutes to count, making them forget about cartoons.

Chen Shouyi practiced for a while, then rested for a while, stopping intermittently until evening.

His whole body steamed, and his skin was flushed red.

Like a piece of red-hot iron, even the nearby weeds had shriveled from the heat.

He exhaled, checking his status panel:

Strength: 26.2

Agility: 26.6

Constitution: 26.2

Intelligence: 26.3

Perception: 30.2

Willpower: 27.8

Energy Accumulation: 14.21

Faith Value: 3250.2

Innate Abilities: Self-Healing (Super): 60.01%; Giant Battle Body (Super): 99.99%; Mastering the Atmosphere: 55.01%.

"It’s not easy, finally there’s a change."

A hint of joy appeared on his face, as his intelligence, stagnant for a month, had finally increased by 0.1 points.

Chen Shouyi looked at his willpower, which had increased by 0.1 points today, sighed, and closed the status panel.

"If only the willpower growth could all be converted to intelligence."

It was a peak period for his willpower growth.

After his perception broke through thirty points, his willpower seemed to open a valve and began to grow rapidly, increasing by 0.2 points in just over a week, shocking him.

"Stop playing, time to go home." He shouted loudly into the distance.

A faint buzzing voice came from afar, and soon, two little figures with their heads covered in flowers flew out of the blooms, wobbly flying towards him.

Chen Shouyi glanced at them, and a clean puff of dust erupted from them, leaving them tidy.

"Throw away the bugs."

"Okay!"

"Okay!"

The two unceremoniously discarded the already soft bugs.

"Good Giant, can we come back in a day?" the Shell Lady asked sweetly, her face blushing.

"Sure!" Chen Shouyi responded offhandedly.

"And the day after?"

"Busy, not coming, you two stay home."

"Oh, watch Peppa Pig."

"Yes, yes!"

"And the day after after?"

"Haven’t thought about it."

"Eh..."

"Why so many questions."

...

"Probably around twenty million tons."

"A trivial matter, I’m hanging up."

Chen Shouyi returned home and called the president, arranging for someone to come collect the materials.

Although he spent a lot of time training in the Himalayas, the accumulation of these twenty million tons of various light and heavy elements was done easily, with little effort, adding up to just three or four hours in total.

This also reflected the strength of his current willpower.

His progress was simply astonishing.

Just as he hung up the phone, it rang again. He picked up the receiver,

"Chen Shouyi here, who’s calling?"

The other end breathed heavily, hesitating for a moment before cautiously saying:

"Chen... Chief Advisor, hello, this is Zhu Xueqing, do you remember me?"

"You’re being too formal. We’re comrades-in-arms." Chen Shouyi happily replied upon hearing it was Zhu Xueqing calling, "It’s been a while since we contacted, what brings you today?"

At that thought, an image of Zhu Xueqing and her surroundings within a few meters appeared in his mind. She was calling from a public phone booth, looking at an ad featuring Zhonghai’s character beside her: "Are you in Zhonghai now?"

Noticing that Chen Shouyi’s attitude remained unchanged, Zhu Xueqing’s previously anxious mood calmed a bit: "Yes, my husband and I came to listen to your lecture."

"My sister said there are many attendees. Do you need me to arrange a seat for you?" Chen Shouyi chuckled.

"Sure, we were worried, thank you so much then."

"Don’t be so polite, it’s a trivial matter. Come visit me at my place, bring your husband, too. I haven’t given you a wedding gift yet."

Zhu Xueqing felt both touched and embarrassed; she knew she would likely receive another weighty gift.

Chen Shouyi was such a kind person to his friends; the Divine Flesh, invaluable to others, he gave away in dozens of kilos.

This, however, made her feel even more ashamed.

Initially, it had taken a lot of convincing from her husband to make this call alone, yet now she hesitated again.

"... We better not, we didn’t even dare invite you to the wedding, how could we accept your gift? Besides, we’re planning to visit the night market!"

...

Chen Shouyi hung up the phone, shaking his head.

Women really change after marriage.

Even their speech becomes hesitant, lacking the old directness.

Thinking of how once Zhu Xueqing was such a straightforward person, now she had become a delicate woman.

...

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

The weather wasn’t cooperative; it was gloomy and cold, with the thick leaden clouds overhead, appearing heavy and gray.

But this didn’t dampen the fervent atmosphere in Xingqing Town.

At dawn, in front of the second Martial Arts Academy, a queue kilometers long directly blocked the street. Everywhere in sight was a sea of dark-clad people, and despite the many military police trying to maintain order, the scene remained somewhat chaotic.

"Line up in order!"

"Without a Martial Artist Certificate, you cannot enter, lining up is futile."

Military police shouted hoarsely through loudspeakers, occasionally pulling out ordinary people attempting to sneak in.

There were simply too many people coming.

Without coming here, one wouldn’t know how many Martial Artists there were.

Over the years, the number of martial artists had continued to surge, and by the end of last year, the number of registered martial artists nationwide officially exceeded fifteen million, reaching sixteen million three hundred and fifty thousand.

One in a hundred people was a martial artist.

And the number of grand martial artists had reached an astonishing seven hundred eighty thousand.

Although the majority were in the military, civilian grand martial artists were also in the tens of thousands.

They had the money and the time, and a significant portion flocked to Zhonghai, many traveling long distances just to participate in this martial arts event.

In reality, the grand martial artists waiting in line to enter the campus were just a tiny fraction; many more set their sights on the surrounding buildings of the campus.

Windows and rooftops were filled with densely packed crowds.

As for the Feng Shui treasure of the campus’s teaching building, had it not been under military control since the previous evening, it would have long been overtaken by the crowd.