Translator: CinderTL
Star City Academy.
Deep into the night, all was silent.
Feng Qi sat on a bench by the lake, gazing at the moonlit waters and artificial rock formations, lost in thought.
The afternoon's Cultivation Exchange Class had sparked a strong reaction from the students, giving him a new idea.
He couldn't guarantee he could save the future with his own power alone.
But he knew that simply increasing his own strength wouldn't be enough; humanity needed to work together.
Therefore, he needed to create opportunities to accelerate the development of human civilization.
During the class, an idea had struck him: could he become a teacher at the academy and nurture exceptional talents?
Before graduating, he couldn't join the major cultivation technique research institutes, so perhaps teaching was worth a try.
For example, the Fierce Tiger Fist he had taught the Cultivation Exchange Class students would inevitably spread, gradually influencing all of Star City and eventually the entire world.
But he also knew that such actions would inevitably bring a series of troubles.
Suddenly possessing vast cultivation knowledge and being able to pioneer cultivation domains that humans had yet to explore did indeed seem highly suspicious.
But Feng Qi had already formulated a plan to address this issue.
"Let others think what they want. I'm a genius! I can create new cultivation techniques and open up new cultivation domains with ease. What's wrong with that?!"
At that moment, Feng Qi made a decision.
He was going to put on a grand show.
He had no choice but to do so. Otherwise, he'd have no way to explain where he acquired his cultivation techniques. It was better to simply declare to the world:
"That's right, I am a super genius, one in ten million years!"
With his thoughts resolved, Feng Qi stood up, stretched languidly, and prepared to return to his room for a good night's sleep. He also planned to enter the dream realm to level up by fighting monsters, increase his bloodline strength, and uncover the secrets hidden within the dream.
As he walked toward the dormitory building, he suddenly heard the sound of a harmonica drifting from afar.
Looking up, he saw a slender figure sitting beneath a willow tree not far away, illuminated by the lakeside streetlights.
She sat cross-legged beneath the willow tree, her hands cupping a harmonica pressed against her lips. The melody she played was deep and melancholic, its shifting tempo—sometimes fast, sometimes slow—seeming to tell a story of sorrow.
As Feng Qi approached, he realized the girl beneath the tree was none other than the voracious senior he'd encountered at the academy cafeteria earlier that day. What struck him as odd was the vertical pupils of her eyes, now glowing with an eerie purple light.
Sensing his approach, the girl stopped playing, turned her head, and gazed at him. The eerie purple light swirled in her eyes as she parted her lips, revealing two small, pointed fangs.
A primal, feral aura washed over Feng Qi, giving him the unsettling impression that he stood before a wild beast poised to devour him.
"Aren't you afraid of me?" the girl suddenly asked.
"Why would I be afraid of you?" Feng Qi replied, bewildered. Her words struck him as utterly nonsensical.
Just a little girl, not some three-headed, six-armed, monstrous creature with a hideous face. Why would I be afraid? Bet I could knock you down with one punch, he thought to himself.
"My name is Mu Qing!" The girl said, meeting Feng Qi's gaze directly, waiting for his reaction.
Normally, upon hearing her name, students at the academy would immediately back away.
She was a rune augment—an imperfect one, prone to losing control.
Interacting with her was extremely dangerous, potentially life-threatening. As a result, students avoided her like the plague, treating her as a monstrous anomaly.
Hearing Mu Qing introduce herself, Feng Qi assumed it was a formal introduction. He politely extended his hand and introduced himself in return:
"Nice to meet you, Senior. I'm Feng Qi."
Feng Qi's reaction was completely different from what Mu Qing had expected. She frowned.
"You don't recognize me?"
"Recognize you? Are you famous, Senior?" Feng Qi asked, his expression puzzled.
After staring at Feng Qi for a few seconds, Mu Qing abruptly stood up and walked away.
Watching her retreating figure, Feng Qi felt a sense of bewilderment.
"This senior... she's definitely got some screws loose."
Back in his dorm room, Feng Qi retrieved his tablet from his suitcase and began researching.
Senior Mu Qing had piqued his curiosity, especially the rune crystal embedded in her right arm, which reminded him of domain creatures.
The presence of rune crystals embedded in their bodies was one of the most distinctive characteristics of domain creatures.
After logging into the Star City Academy forum, Feng Qi typed "Mu Qing" into the search bar.
As he scrolled through the results, his expression gradually turned serious.
It was only then that he discovered Mu Qing was a rune augment.
Wang Jinsheng had briefly mentioned rune augments during his history class.
Like Spiritual Energy Cultivation Studies, rune augments originated from early human experiments exploring and researching domain creatures.
At the time, in addition to studying the spiritual energy of the world, a group of scholars sought to extract power from domain creatures.
Each domain creature possessed a rune imprint on its body surface, connected to its internal organs. The scholars who believed the key to strengthening oneself lay within domain creatures began researching these rune imprints. After countless trials, they proposed a daring plan: the Rune Augment Project.
They proposed extracting "rune power" from domain creatures and implanting it into ordinary humans, granting them strength comparable to domain creatures.
At the time, this plan even overshadowed the "Spiritual Energy Research School," which later evolved into modern cultivation studies, and briefly became the mainstream approach to human development.
However, the drawbacks soon became apparent. The first batch of experimental subjects, after having runes implanted, initially gained immense power. But as time passed, their personalities warped, they gradually lost control, and they posed significant security risks.
Although a small number of subjects successfully mastered the rune power, becoming formidable rune warriors, the experiment's success rate remained appallingly low, and the risk of potential loss of control persisted. Ultimately, the "rune augment" project was shelved.
Through subsequent research and innovation, cultivation studies solidified its position as the most vital pillar of human development.
(End of the Chapter)
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