*BOOM!*
The sword light pressed on without losing a trace of its momentum, tearing across the distance and gouging a trench several meters deep into the ground before finally crashing into the perimeter wall at the far edge of the field.
The impact was thunderous. The wall collapsed instantly. Dust surged upward in a great billowing cloud and fragments of stone scattered in every direction.
Only when the dust began to thin could anyone see clearly what had happened. The sword light had carved through the wall, leaving a gap dozens of meters wide. Even the trees further beyond had been knocked askew and toppled, brought down by the shockwave left in the strike's wake.
Silence fell over the field.
Every pair of eyes fixed on Ye Xuan, as though he were the only thing that existed in the world.
He stood where he was, still. The Wangquan sword was already back in its scabbard. His expression hadn't changed, and his gaze was level and quiet.
"One strike to cleave heaven and earth. That is Wangquan."
His voice was unhurried, but it carried an invisible weight that pressed clearly into the ears of everyone who heard it. It wasn't loud, yet it passed through something deeper than sound, and without realising it, the people around him held their breath.
In the air, the remnants of the sword light's aura seemed to linger. The golden gleam faded slowly beneath the morning sun, but the faint dread it left behind in the hearts of those watching didn't fade with it.
Zhang Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, and found his voice was gone. His mind kept replaying the moment of the strike, as though his capacity for thought had been cleanly severed along with everything else.
Chen Hao stood not far away. Somewhere along the way, the phone he had been holding had slipped to the ground, its screen shattered to pieces. Compared to everyone else, his Hawkeye ability meant he had seen every detail with crystal clarity.
That strike, in his eyes, had genuinely split heaven and earth.
Even the students who had been in full flight stopped where they were. They stared at Ye Xuan with blank expressions, as though they were looking at something that didn't belong to the world of ordinary people.
Ye Xuan paid none of it any attention. He simply straightened his sword.
"That was a bit conspicuous."
"But then again, it's not as though it matters."
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
At that same moment, on the other side of the city.
Inside a large and imposing building, deep within a command centre, a massive screen was broadcasting everything that had just unfolded at Hangzhou No. 3 High School.
A group of young people stood before the screen, men and women who appeared to be in their early twenties. They wore matching dark blue uniforms bearing the emblem of the "Celestial Pivot Bureau" on their chests, and they carried themselves with the sharpness of people who were used to moving fast.
"Using something this obvious to flush out students who are deliberately hiding their abilities, do you actually think it'll work?"
Lin Mo, the one wearing thick-framed glasses, pushed them up with a finger, his tone carrying genuine doubt.
"Should work, shouldn't it? We were the same way back then, weren't we? The type that runs toward danger while everyone else runs away from it."
"Besides, we planned this together. Why are you second-guessing it now?"
Zhou Yao replied after hearing Lin Mo's comment. Though as she said it, she felt privately that the plan had always been a little shaky. But it was already in motion. What was the point in regretting it now?
"There's nothing wrong with the plan itself. Since we're dealing with students, safety comes first. The magnitude three tremor drives them out to the open field, and then the Wind-Chasing Rats give them enough of a scare to draw out any ability users who are keeping a low profile."
"But Zhou Yao, your Wind-Chasing Rats are terrible actors."
Zhao Feng pointed at the screen, where the rats were clearly performing attacks while carefully avoiding any actual biting, and clicked his tongue.
Ye Xuan's suspicion had been correct. The creatures weren't mutant rats at all, but summoned beings called forth by Zhou Yao's ability. Because they could manipulate wind to a limited degree, they had been given the name Wind-Chasing Rats. Their strength sat somewhere in the middle ground, a cut above ordinary humans but not by a wide margin.
A calm, unenhanced person could in theory handle one alone. For someone with an ability, they posed even less of a challenge. The students had likely never seen anything that size before, so some degree of fear was understandable, but the scale of the panic had genuinely surprised them.
"Terrible? What was terrible about it? Which part was lacking?"
"It's not as if I could actually let them bite anyone."
"Personally, I wouldn't have minded, but someone upstairs would have had opinions about that."
Zhou Yao rolled her eyes. These students were Xia Nation's future. If any of them had actually been hurt, it would have been her neck on the line.
"Besides, we already found two people."
"Lightning ability. The output's nothing remarkable, but it's a start."
"The second one isn't as clear. Looks like physical enhancement, but there could be more to it."
"One school and only two ability users. Who's going to believe that?" Lin Mo shook his head.
"The entire registered ability user population of Hangzhou is only ten thousand. Do you believe that figure either?"
"There's simply no incentive for them. Ask people to report themselves without offering anything in return, and of course they won't." Zhao Feng shrugged, his tone resigned.
"The ability users are a secondary concern anyway. The main objective is to see whether anyone here holds a cross-dimensional treasure."
"Students have a higher chance of stumbling across one than adults who are already out in the workforce."
"Working adults exhaust themselves just keeping up with their jobs. Very few have the time or energy to chase after anything else."
While they were talking, the feed on the screen shifted to the moment of Ye Xuan's strike.
A blade of golden light tore across the sky as though it meant to divide the world in two. In its wake, the air split open, the ground cracked into a trench several meters deep, stone shattered, and dust billowed upward in thick columns.
When the light met the wall, it came apart as easily as paper being torn. The gap, dozens of meters wide, stood stark and unmistakable beyond the settling dust. Trees toppled in the distance, their branches and leaves ripped away as though a great storm had passed through.
Even without sound, the destructive force captured in that footage made it hard to breathe.
"What in the—"
"What was that!"
Lin Mo's eyes went wide, his expression stripped of everything except disbelief.
"Is that an ability user? Can ability users actually reach that level of power right now?"
"Has the next tide of spiritual energy already begun?"
"Could that be... a cross-dimensional treasure holder?"
Zhou Yao looked barely able to contain herself. If this was genuinely a cross-dimensional treasure holder, it was a find of enormous significance.
Lin Mo's fingers were already moving across the keyboard.
"The energy fluctuations far exceed anything in the ability user range. Preliminary assessment: this individual is either a cross-dimensional treasure holder or a character template inheritor. And based on his expression, that attack placed no visible strain on him whatsoever."
"That was a casual strike. You could even call it a move thrown out with minimal effort."
"His actual ceiling is almost certainly far beyond what we just saw."
Hearing the data Lin Mo was reading out, Zhao Feng's expression shifted into something barely short of excitement. His fist clenched, and there was nothing composed left about him.
"This is exactly the kind of person we're looking for. That level of power. That kind of strength!"
"File the report immediately."
Zhao Feng drew a slow breath and turned to Lin Mo and Zhou Yao.
"Whether it's a cross-dimensional treasure or a character template inheritance, this individual is already beyond anything the three of us could approach on our own."
"Anyone who has obtained a treasure or a template is one of the chosen of this era. Someone with the right clearance will be assigned to make contact and extend an invitation to join the Celestial Pivot, to prepare for whatever dangers the future may bring."
"Understood."
Zhou Yao and Lin Mo nodded together, their voices carrying complete seriousness.