Mayor's Office.
"How interesting." The mayor of East Sea City was a refined, scholarly-looking man who wore glasses.
He chuckled.
"Are you telling me that a teenager beat the White Elephant Hall Master to death with just two punches?"
"That's right. And I just pulled up his file from the Inspectorate's system. Guess what I saw?"
"Don't keep me in suspense," the mayor said with a gentle smile.
The chief secretary scratched his head, then exclaimed in amazement.
"The kid went to the Inspectorate to apply for the monthly stipend for Cultivators... but that's not all. According to the records that were just certified, he was an unregistered citizen with no household registration information. And most importantly, he..."
He paused, a look of shocked disbelief in his eyes.
"The most important thing is that after being certified by the Inspectorate, this Lu Xuan is... just a Great Martial Artist at the Second Level of the Jade Tower, the Bone Forging Realm!"
The mayor was visibly stunned.
After a moment, he adjusted his glasses and murmured to himself,
'In his teens... an unregistered Federation citizen... killed a Bone Marrow Refining Martial Master in two moves, despite only being in the Bone Forging Realm...'
'Interesting. Very interesting.'
The chief secretary swallowed hard and asked,
"Should we contact this Lu Xuan?"
"Let's wait and see for now." The mayor slowly rose and walked to the window, gazing at the sunset. "Our East Sea City is becoming quite the lively place. Sakata Heavy Industries, Longque Technology, that mysterious barefoot doctor, and this Lu Xuan."
After a moment, he tilted his head.
"I'm rather curious. What is it about our third-tier city that has such a strong appeal?"
The chief secretary thought for a moment, then said quietly,
"Longque Technology is easy enough to understand. I heard that their current chairman's hometown is here, you know..."
"Perhaps," the mayor said, his gaze deep and inscrutable.
......
Inspectorate Building, top floor.
"Here, have some tea," Director Ji said gently as he poured a cup. "Mr. Lu, your identification and bank cards are being processed with urgency. The certification is complete, and your stipend will be deposited as soon as your bank card is ready."
Lu Xuan sat stiffly on the sofa and nodded cautiously.
"Thank you."
"It's simply our duty at the Inspectorate," Director Ji said with a smile, his curiosity then getting the better of him. "May I ask, Mr. Lu, why you didn't have any household registration or identification records before?"
Lu Xuan shook his head and answered earnestly,
"I don't know either."
'Ever since he escaped Qianlong City, he'd discovered that not only had he and the tens of millions who perished there had their registrations erased, but it was as if their original identities and household records had never existed at all.'
'Later, when he tried searching for Qianlong City on his phone, he found nothing—no information, no news about the massacre.'
'It was as if Qianlong City had never existed at all!'
'Although Lu Xuan was naive, he wasn't a fool. He sensed a massive cover-up and wisely chose to keep it to himself, planning to investigate it slowly on his own.'
'If everything about Qianlong City was deliberately erased, then what kind of person, what kind of power, could make an entire city and the records of tens of millions of people vanish completely?'
A brief moment of thought sent a wave of inexplicable fear through Lu Xuan's heart, but it vanished as quickly as it came.
'No matter who you are... I will find you.'
Meanwhile, Director Ji took a sip of tea, his expression growing solemn.
"Mr. Lu, there's one more thing... You killed a member of the Martial Arts Alliance. I'm afraid they'll come looking for you."
"I'm not afraid," Lu Xuan said calmly, snapping out of his thoughts.
A wry smile touched Director Ji's lips.
"Mr. Lu, even though you can defeat a Bone Marrow Refining Martial Master while still in the Bone Forging Realm, and might even be able to fight a One-organ Grandmaster, the Martial Arts Alliance is teeming with powerful experts..."
Lu Xuan tilted his head. Instead of asking about the Martial Arts Alliance, he asked with curiosity,
"One-organ Grandmaster? What's that?"
"You don't know?" Now it was Director Ji's turn to be dumbfounded. He recovered quickly, however. A thoughtful glint appeared in his eyes as he began to explain.
"In the Nine Gates of the Jade Tower, the first three levels are the realms of Martial Artist, Great Martial Artist, and Martial Master, which correspond to Skin Tempering, Bone Forging, and Marrow Cultivation. The middle five levels involve unlocking the potential of the internal organs. Each organ you cultivate advances you one level. These five levels are collectively known as the Grandmaster realm, and practitioners are differentiated by their progress in cultivating their organs."
'So that's how it is,' Lu Xuan realized. 'The Fourth Level is a One-organ Grandmaster who has cultivated one organ, the Fifth Level is a Two-organ Grandmaster who has cultivated two, and so on. Does that mean the eighth level is a Five-organ Grandmaster who has cultivated all five organs?'
'And the ninth level... is that the Purifying Acupoints Uncle Wu talked about?'
He cupped his fists in a salute.
"Thank you for the explanation, Senior."
Director Ji waved it off.
"So, Mr. Lu, will you reconsider joining the Inspectorate? I can submit a special report and try to have you promoted to Deputy Director. That way, you wouldn't need to fear retaliation from the Martial Arts Alliance."
Lu Xuan fell silent for a moment before simply asking,
"What have I done to deserve that?"
Director Ji smiled.
"I can tell you have a strong sense of justice, Mr. Lu. Think of it as helping to maintain law and order in East Sea City. What do you say?"
'He had already made his calculations. Based on those world-shattering techniques alone, this young man's background had to be terrifyingly powerful. If he could be tied to the Inspectorate...'
At that, Lu Xuan paused, stunned, and murmured,
"Help maintain law and order in East Sea City... All right, I accept."
A look of delight spread across Director Ji's face.
......
Inside a luxurious villa in the Upper City District.
"The killer... Lu Xuan?" The old man slowly rose to his feet. The air churned around him, and the furniture began to vibrate intensely.
"Killing one of my Martial Arts Alliance's members in public... This is a provocation!"
He roared in fury,
"I don't care who this boy is, even if he's the mayor's own protégé, he must die! Gather all members of the Alliance. We will storm the Inspectorate directly! Give that Lu Xuan fellow no time to breathe. Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit!"
"Yes, Elder Chu!" the young man reporting said cautiously. "Oh, and we've already checked our information network. There's no data on that Lu Xuan. But based on current intelligence, he can't be more than eighteen years old."
"Oh?" The old man lifted his eyelids slightly, revealing pale gold pupils. "Eighteen? And he killed the White Elephant Hall Master in two fatal moves?"
"That's right. I've seen a photo of this Lu Xuan. He might not even be eighteen." The young man lowered his head respectfully. "I will go gather the other Alliance members and march on the Inspectorate now!"
"Wait."
The old man fell silent for a moment, then gave a soft, cold snort.
"Hmm, in that case..."
"Let's befriend him."
"What??" The young man froze, suspecting he'd misheard.
But the old man had already retracted his icy aura, and the vibrating furniture settled back into place.
"A teenager who can beat a Bone Marrow Refining Martial Master to death either has the talent of a future immortal or is backed by a colossal power—or even both. Whichever it is, he's someone worth our utmost effort to befriend. Why would we fight to the death? Are we fools?"
He paused, then continued in a matter-of-fact tone,
"It's not like there was some deep-seated feud. Didn't you say the White Elephant Hall Master provoked him first? If that's the case, he deserved to die. We should try to resolve this grudge... On second thought, you lot probably can't handle it. I'll pay him a visit myself later."
The young man opened and closed his mouth, looking around in a daze. 'This... this complete one-eighty...'
'It seems Elder Chu didn't get to where he is today—a Grandmaster of the Ninth Level of the Jade Tower, a legend on par with the mayor of East Sea City—through sheer luck alone...'