Chapter 1 The Stars Foretell

The night sky hung high, the stars adorned it, deep and vast.

"Yinghuo guards the heart, a harbinger of great misfortune and the descent of a sage. The ancients did not deceive me!"

Outside a hidden Taoist temple, Xu Hongyun lay sprawled on the grass, gazing at the stars.

Having just returned from the Wangquan Dreamland, he felt as if he had gone through a series of fierce battles, and didn't want to move at all.

Since he had mastered the 'Tianren Wangqi Technique' (Heavenly Observation Technique) in his dream, he had never missed a night of observing the celestial phenomena. Compared to Ying Long's cold calculations,

he trusted his own feelings more.

Everything that had happened in the past few years had proven that what he said was true. Imperceptibly, his status in the Special Affairs Bureau had been greatly elevated.

This was also related to the collective death of Qing Long, Wang Zhixuan, and other high-level members in the Pacific.

Swish~

The wind rustled through the grass and trees.

Bai Hu appeared ghostlike before the Taoist temple, glanced at Xu Hongyun, and said, "A few days ago, observers discovered unusual messages from distant star seas in the 'Heaven's Eye'. What do you think?"

"So many light-years away, how can I see it?" Xu Hongyun rolled his eyes. "Don't even mention me, even the 'Huangfu Ancestor' in the Wangquan Dreamland might not be able to see it."

Of course, he had heard about the messages from the depths of the starry sky, but instruments could detect them, while the human eye could not.

"I hope it won't be bad news again..."

Bai Hu sighed softly.

After the Mars incident, countries had elevated their attention to space to the extreme, even breaking some technological blockades to share information.

They had established the world's largest and most accurate 'Heaven's Eye Observatory'.

Unfortunately, even so, the analysis of the blurred messages was not very meaningful.

"How could it not be bad news?"

Xu Hongyun sat up, the old Taoist, who looked much younger, said mockingly, "I heard that those idiots on the other side of the ocean released signals of human existence into deep space many years ago, and now, with this 'Heaven's Eye' anomaly, they even want to release electromagnetic waves to communicate?"

"They were stopped."

Bai Hu also smiled wryly.

The uniquely blessed Golden Eagle Country and the greatly troubled Da Xuan were two extremes, and their ways of thinking were too different.

Things that seemed incredible to them, they could do.

"Let's not talk about those idiots."

Xu Hongyun waved his hand and said, "You came to me for the newly ranked 'Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings' of the Wangquan Dao, right?"

Bai Hu nodded. "That's right. The higher-ups are very concerned about the Dream Enterers."

"The Human Ranking goes up to Qi Meridian Completion, the Earth Ranking to Yin-Yang Limitless, and the Heaven Ranking to the Ninth Level of Tianren."

Xu Hongyun flipped his hand and took out a piece of white paper filled with text:

"Three years in reality, thirty years in the dreamland. The time is too short. Even Truman has not cultivated to Tianren. What you need are still the Earth and Human Rankings."

Whoosh~

Bai Hu took the white paper and shook it open, revealing the words "Earth Ranking First, Killing Fist Truman" at the top.

"Truman."

Looking at the name, Bai Hu's heart still sank. "Master Xue and Master Juechen entered the dreamland later, but they still couldn't surpass this person."

"The conversion between dreamland and reality takes a long time and many resources. Being strong in the dreamland doesn't mean you're a threat in reality. Old Xue chased him for a year, and he disappeared without a trace, which is proof of that.

Not to mention, Da Xuan still has that person..."

Xu Hongyun wasn't too worried, and instead asked about Qing Long and the others.

In that great battle a few years ago, the Special Affairs Bureau was almost completely wiped out, except for Chu Fan, who survived with a half-crippled body.

However, the dreamland seemed to have an unknown hidden mechanism.

Qing Long and the others were pulled into the dreamland, even though Qing Long had been repeatedly rejected from being a Dream Enterer before.

"The higher-ups have agreed to their 'rebirth' plan."

Bai Hu suppressed his thoughts, but didn't go into too much detail.

Whether domestically or internationally, such things would be rejected, although the Golden Eagle Country had already done something similar.

"That's good."

Xu Hongyun breathed a sigh of relief. "Although Qing Long is annoyingly rigid, he's still much better than that new 'Mediterranean'..."

The Special Affairs Bureau had been almost completely destroyed. To deal with the increasing number of Dream Enterers, it had naturally been expanded. A large number of Dream Enterers from the military and political systems had been brought in to fill the Special Affairs Bureau.

'Mediterranean' was the one who replaced Qing Long's position, and was now the head of the Special Affairs Bureau.

Before Xu Hongyun could finish speaking, his expression changed slightly, hearing a pretentious, official-sounding voice.

"It seems that Taoist Xu has a prejudice against those of us with sparse hair. That's not right of you..."

In the night breeze, a short, pot-bellied, balding middle-aged man in a suit slowly walked to the Taoist temple.

He looked at Xu Hongyun with a smile.

"Mr. Di."

Bai Hu's expression tightened slightly. This balding middle-aged man was not to be trifled with. Or rather, none of those who could rise to high positions from scratch were kind people.

This person was originally a clerk in the organization, one of the first Dream Enterers. He didn't know what kind of amazing opportunity he had obtained, but he had actually cultivated to Yin-Yang Limitless, and now ranked among the top ten in the Earth Ranking.

It should be known that this was the top ten out of millions of Dream Enterers. Alongside him were powerful martial artists such as Truman, Daoist Juechen, Xue Zheng, and Garuda.

To climb to this point from being an organizational clerk, one could imagine how dangerous this person was.

"So what if I have a prejudice?"

Being exposed for talking behind someone's back, Xu Hongyun didn't back down. He rolled up his sleeves and said, "I'm specially hired, not your subordinate!"

"Old Xu!"

Bai Hu was very troubled and stepped forward to smooth things over, "Mr. Di, he..."

"I just like Taoist Xu's straightforward temper."

Mr. Di smiled, seemingly not minding at all, and even touched his hairline, which was almost at the back of his head:

"With just a few strands of hair, it's not even a Mediterranean anymore. Shave it all off and put on some precept scars, and people would believe I'm a monk!"

He mocked himself and laughed, causing Xu Hongyun to become even more cautious. What was this Mediterranean trying to do?

Bai Hu was also helpless.

Seeing him smiling now, he was probably cursing him in his heart.

"It seems that you two have a deep misunderstanding of me."

Mr. Di sensed the rejection from the two and sighed helplessly, "You think I took Qing Long's position, but you ask yourselves, is this position really glorious?"

He said these words very sincerely.

Xu Hongyun and the other were stunned, but they had to admit that the Special Affairs Bureau had always suffered high losses, especially with the large-scale appearance of Dream Enterers.

After the Special Affairs Bureau was almost completely wiped out, no one was willing to take over this mess.

"Mr. Di, is there something you need?"

Bai Hu broke the silence and took the lead in speaking, "Old Xu is also missing his old superior. Please don't take offense."

"Not at all?"

Mr. Di waved his hand, indicating that he didn't mind at all, and then stated his purpose: "The latest news from Ying Long, Master Xue was ambushed in the Pacific and is missing. The person who did it is suspected to be Truman!"

"Hmm?!"

"Impossible!"

Hearing these words, Bai Hu and the other were first stunned, and then their expressions changed, unable to believe it.

Who was Xue Zheng?

A Southern Fist Grandmaster who had seen the Divine for decades, and had almost single-handedly unified the northern and southern martial arts worlds. In ancient times, he would have been the leader of the martial arts alliance!

Truman had been beaten into fleeing around the world before, how could he possibly counter-kill Xue Zheng?

"I don't want to believe it either, but unfortunately, that's the fact."

Mr. Di also seemed troubled, "Old Master Xue has contributed to the country and must not be lost. We must go and search for his whereabouts no matter what."

Xu Hongyun's expression was not good, and he didn't want to beat around the bush with him, directly asking, "Send me the specific location and coordinates, and we'll set off immediately!"

This Mediterranean seemed to have other thoughts, but he didn't have the patience to beat around the bush. Xue Zheng had been his friend for decades, and if something happened to him, he would have to go.

"Get ready, and let's set off."

Mr. Di straightened his tie and smoothed his remaining hair, "I'll lead the team this time. Just look to me for the location and coordinates!"

"You lead the team?"

Bai Hu and Xu Hongyun exchanged glances. Why had this middle-aged, fat, balding Mediterranean suddenly changed his nature?

.......

Swish, swash~

Under the night sky, the sea appeared black and turbulent, making people flinch.

In the faint night wind, a cruise ship sailed through the waves, circling this sea area, turning around again and again, as if looking for something.

Whoosh, whoosh~

The salty sea breeze blew across the deck, stirring Chu Fan's empty sleeves on the wheelchair.

"Having this skull on me is quite beneficial to my research."

On the deck, Su Jie held a crystal skull in his hand, looking at it intently: "This crystal skull shouldn't exist alone, there should be a set, a complete set."

The reason why he was staying in this sea area was to find other crystal skulls.

"It does have some strangeness, but it shouldn't be easy to find others."

Chu Fan nodded.

Thirty years in the dreamland, although he hadn't cultivated to Yin-Yang Limitless, he had forged divine meridians, and naturally sensed the strangeness of this skull quite clearly.

He could sense it, could other Dream Enterers also sense it?

If they could, then...

"It's good to try your luck. Anyway, the research has run into difficulties. I've tried many directions and none of them work. It's hard to make progress in the short term."

Su Jie put away the skull, his eyes deep and concentrated:

"I have a premonition that the final breakthrough lies in this crystal skull."

Constructing an information cluster, or rather, a mental template, was by no means an easy task. This was not comparable to artificial intelligence.

In the words of storybooks and novels, this was a 'divine spark', the foundation for achieving the Dao.

Naturally, it was not something that could be easily created.

"I'm looking forward to it."

Chu Fan glanced at the wheelchair under him, sincerely saying.

If he didn't want to do 'mental transmission' to replace it with a 'prosthetic body', then this Dr. Su was the only one he could rely on.

"That day won't be too far away."

Su Jie walked to the edge of the deck, leaning on the railing and looking out, only feeling that the sea was deep and endless, and even more unfathomable under the night sky:

"In this world, everything that doesn't change and doesn't progress will be eliminated. We don't have much time left..."