Seeing how much he cared for her, and even took the initiative to hold her hand and ask about her well-being, Li Lingling was overjoyed. Her rosy cheeks flushed with shyness. If it weren't for Zhang Yunfeng being there as a third wheel in the ward, she probably would have buried her head in her sweetheart's arms and started acting coquettishly.
But then Zhang Yunfeng suddenly acted like a fool. Instead of leaving, he treated the hospital room like a cafeteria, devouring all the fruits, pastries, candies, and drinks that others had given Li Lingling—foods the young woman couldn't possibly eat. This infuriated Li Lingling, who repeatedly cursed Zhang Yunfeng, calling him a pig and asking if he was there to see her or just to freeload.
Ling Yun smiled wryly. In truth, Zhang Yunfeng had long wanted to avoid having them alone. But Ling Yun was resolute; since he had no feelings for Li Lingling, he absolutely couldn't give her any false impressions, otherwise he would be deceiving her. So, adopting the boss's stance, he forcefully demanded that Zhang Yunfeng stay with him in Li Lingling's hospital room, and that he not reveal the truth. Zhang Yunfeng had no choice; he couldn't disobey his boss's orders, so he had to play the villain…
Nothing much happened during the day, but at night Ling Yun pretended to be sleeping in his bedroom, when in reality he had entered Yu Xiujie's barrier.
Yu Xiujie's first step in training Ling Yun was simple: meditation. It was also the basic training for the most fundamental superpower—the mental field.
According to Yu Xiujie's teachings, meditation can strengthen one's mental energy field and simultaneously cultivate subtle control over it. Because one cannot think of anything during meditation, the mind enters a state of profound emptiness, allowing the mental energy field to be released naturally, thus achieving balance against the forces that randomly arise from all directions within the barrier.
Initially, Ling Yun was only subject to downward gravity, while his mental energy field lifted his body upward. If these two opposing forces were balanced, Ling Yun would float motionless in the air. However, while using his mental energy field to levitate wasn't difficult, the challenge lay in maintaining a precise balance between his mental energy field and gravity at all times to remain still, rather than bobbing up and down like in a tug-of-war. This was a test of Ling Yun's control over telekinesis, a meticulous mastery of every aspect of his mental energy field.
When Ling Yun can achieve balance, the force of gravity will increase, training him to increase his strength to resist gravity. Then, when Ling Yun can adapt to the increased gravity, the gravity will fluctuate in intensity at a certain frequency, training Ling Yun to control his telekinesis to achieve balance more quickly.
Of course, meditation is far more complex than that. Gravity isn't just downward; it also exerts forces upward, to the left, to the right, and even in all directions. Ling Yun must achieve balance under these forces simultaneously to meet Yu Xiujie's standard for proceeding to the next stage of cultivation. Cultivating through meditation allows for no shortcuts; one must gradually strengthen their mental energy field.
Of course, the effects were also very obvious. After only three nights, Ling Yun clearly felt his mental energy field become stronger and his control more precise. This was more than ten times stronger than when he used a spoon and chopsticks to practice telekinesis. Moreover, inside the old man's barrier, Ling Yun had a feeling that his cultivation speed was much faster than outside, just like a martial arts master who was diligently practicing while also taking elixirs to enhance his power.
With Master Yu's guidance, Ling Yun learned that the barrier consisted of seven layers. He had already seen the first layer. The second layer was where Ling Yun practiced meditation to cultivate his spiritual energy field. The third layer was for training combat skills, and the fourth to sixth layers were a treasure trove of Yu Xiujie's extraordinary techniques and unique skills, including all his combat experience and insights gained from his life's work. It was extremely precious. However, Ling Yun was not yet qualified to enter.
The final layer represents Yu Xiujie's bewilderment and understanding of the ethereal and intangible Dao of Heaven. It contains no answers or conclusions, only the confusion and insights gained from various attempts. These seven layers of barriers represent the culmination of all of Yu Xiujie's wisdom and skills throughout his life. It is also the greatest extraordinary technique he created. Ling Yun is unaware that his ability to cultivate within this barrier is something countless individuals with supernatural abilities dream of.
When Ling Yun heard that the third floor was a place to train combat skills, his eyes immediately lit up, and he mentioned Chen Feng's masterful combat skills to Yu Xiujie. Although he won with his supernatural abilities, Chen Feng's astonishing kick still left a very deep impression on him. If he were just a normal person, he probably would have been knocked unconscious by that blow.
Yu Xiujie nodded and explained that for people with superpowers, physical combat skills are actually just the most basic abilities. Superpower duels are often decided by a combination of supernatural abilities and physical combat, with supernatural abilities taking precedence and physical combat skills merely a supplementary means. Superpowered individuals who cannot use supernatural abilities cannot survive. The stronger the superpowered individual, the greater the proportion of their abilities required.
Afterwards, Yu Xiujie led Ling Yun to the third level of the barrier for cultivating combat skills. He directly used a mental energy field connection to allow Ling Yun to instantly master the combat techniques—pure fighting skills that Yu Xiujie had refined by blending Chinese Kung Fu, foreign martial arts, and various other physical techniques. Because Ling Yun possessed supernatural abilities, his strength, reaction time, and agility were already at an extremely high standard. Therefore, after mastering the fighting techniques, he immediately became a fighting master, much like Neo in The Matrix, who, by simply inputting a program, instantly learned judo and Muay Thai.
However, Ling Yun lacked combat experience, so Yu Xiujie created a virtual, expressionless figure within the third layer of the barrier to spar with Ling Yun. When Ling Yun was able to defeat the figure, it would automatically disappear, and then a stronger figure would be summoned to spar with him, thus enriching Ling Yun's combat experience.
Thus, after temporarily completing his meditation training within the barrier, Ling Yun immediately rushed to the combat barrier to hone his fighting skills against increasingly powerful figures, making every second count. If it weren't for the fact that superhumans possess strong mental fields that allow them to not need sleep, and also have formidable physical strength, Ling Yun would probably have been exhausted and unable to move on the ground long ago.
Just as Ling Yun felt suffocated and was about to protest to Elder Yu, Yu Xiujie shook his head, feeling that Ling Yun's cultivation speed was too slow and wanting to increase the intensity of his cultivation. Ling Yun was speechless, silently swallowing all his bitterness and tears...
A dozen days later, on a bustling street, Ling Yun entered a bookstore and went to the section on ancient Chinese history, beginning to peruse the ancient books one by one. This was also one of the cultivation tasks assigned by Yu Xiujie. Yu Xiujie himself was a learned scholar, so why wouldn't he let Ling Yun read? Moreover, the great principles reside within books; after reading countless books, one would naturally experience that supreme realm of wonder. The principles are the same; seemingly unrelated, reading and cultivation can actually be interconnected at a certain level.
So, Ling Yun started coming to the city's largest bookstore every day. Yu Xiujie told him a long list of book titles, some of which weren't available in the store, so Ling Yun just picked what was available to read. Although the ancient books were obscure, difficult to understand, and utterly uninteresting, Ling Yun faithfully followed his teacher's orders and forced himself to read them diligently. At first, he could barely get into these neglected ancient books and almost gave up. But after a few days, he felt much better; at least he had the desire to continue reading, and he began to seriously consider the meanings in those ancient books.
The shop's lobby manager, a young woman, was sitting idly at the cashier, curiously observing Ling Yun, who was engrossed in the world of ancient books. Ling Yun's daily, unwavering dedication to reading ancient texts had caught her attention; she thought it was rare to find someone so absorbed in these old, outdated books, especially a young man. Just then, the strange young man suddenly looked up and smiled slightly at her. The girl, as if her secret had been exposed, blushed instantly and quickly looked away.
A sense of déjà vu welled up in Ling Yun's heart. He turned his head sharply and saw a figure slowly walking out of the bookstore. It was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man who had just walked around the bookstore and left without buying anything.
Ling Yun was certain he had never seen this middle-aged man before, but it was precisely this back view that gave Ling Yun a very strange feeling of déjà vu. Ling Yun frowned. Before gaining his superpowers, he certainly wouldn't have bothered with such matters. But now, after his mental energy field had been cultivated, even in just over ten days, it had made astonishing progress. His intuition couldn't possibly be wrong.
"I must have seen that kind of back view somewhere before!" Ling Yun hurriedly recalled, and suddenly remembered that day in the abandoned factory, when Ma Ping and the others slunk out of the factory after being reprimanded by Chen Feng, those thugs had just the same back view. Although they were not the same person as this middle-aged man at all, and their appearance, build, and height were completely different, for some reason, their back views felt so similar.
It was a lifeless, extremely uncomfortable feeling.
Seeing that the middle-aged man's figure was about to disappear into the crowd, Ling Yun thought for a moment, put down the ancient book, and chased after him.
The girl stood up from her seat with some disappointment. Based on her experience from the past few days, this student-looking boy should have been reading in the bookstore for at least two more hours. Why was he leaving so soon today? The girl shook her head. For some reason, this seemingly unremarkable and ordinary boy, who hadn't even said a word, had left a strong impression on her. She unconsciously walked to where Ling Yun had just stood, picked up the ancient book he had put down, and began to read it intently.
Ling Yun turned several corners and came to a secluded alleyway, where the middle-aged man's figure suddenly disappeared from sight.
An extremely strong warning suddenly arose in my mind!
Chapter Seventeen: The Man in Blue
Ling Yun had no time to think. His mental energy field, cultivated for over half a month, activated instantly, forcefully shifting his body several meters to the right. If anyone else had witnessed this, they would have cried out in astonishment. It seemed Ling Yun hadn't moved at all; his body had suddenly and mysteriously appeared several meters away, like a ghost.
A powerful gust of air swept past where he had been standing, the sharp sound of it cutting through the air penetrating the entire alley.
In a wondrous world beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, Ling Yun's pupils suddenly dilated. Time seemed to slow down drastically in the stark black-and-white image, gradually revealing a distinct vortex of airflow in the air. At the very front of this vortex was a bronze-yellow, columnar metal object, about the size of a little finger joint, with its pointed end pointing forward. Several tiny letters were engraved on its orange-yellow metal casing: MIC.
That was an M5906 automatic pistol bullet! A picture from a military weapons magazine he'd once read flashed through Ling Yun's mind. Its power was immense; a single shot could take down a strong male wolf.
In an instant, Ling Yun broke out in a cold sweat. Someone had actually fired at him from the shadows. And it happened so suddenly. If his mental energy field hadn't become stronger through his recent training, and if his senses hadn't given him a warning in advance, he would probably be dead from the bullet right now.
"Huh?" A surprised voice rang out not far behind Ling Yun. Before he could think further, a sense of alarm rose in Ling Yun's heart. With a soft thud, the distinctive sound of a silenced gunshot rang out, and another M5906 automatic pistol bullet struck Ling Yun's back.
Ling Yun was both shocked and furious. This shot was closer than the last one, and Ling Yun was right at the entrance of the alley. After moving a few meters to the right, he would be next to the wall of the alley entrance. It would be much harder to dodge than before. The person who shot him from behind was determined to kill him.
Ling Yun gritted his teeth, his mental energy field almost at full power. He suddenly turned around, grabbed forward with one hand, and shouted into the air, "Stop!"
Transparent ripples appeared in the air, slowly circling forward until they stopped just centimeters from Ling Yun's palm. A bright yellow bullet gradually appeared in the air, then froze in front of Ling Yun's hand.
“Not bad, very good telekinesis. It seems I came to the right place today.” As the words fell, a young man in blue robes turned out from the other side of the alley. He looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a handsome face and bright, intelligent eyes under his sword-like eyebrows. If it weren’t for the cynical smile on his face, he would have appeared dignified and composed.
"You're Ling Yun? Your mental energy field cultivation is quite impressive, and your control is very precise. I admire you. No wonder you were able to dodge my marksmanship." The man in blue tucked his M5906 automatic pistol into his waistband and slowly approached Ling Yun. He greeted him casually, as if he were meeting an old friend.
Ling Yun stared coldly at him, then grabbed the frozen automatic bullet in her hand: "Who are you? Why are you trying to kill me?"
"Me?" The man in blue smiled more frivolously, as if mocking himself, "Just a piece of trash that no one respects. I have a hollow title, but my life is actually quite meaningless. Even you don't want to see me, do you?"
"What? I don't want to see you anymore?" Ling Yun was baffled. Was this man in blue a patient who had escaped from a mental hospital?
"Can't remember, huh?" The man in blue chuckled. "So I had no choice but to come see you, Brother Lingyun. You have quite the airs, and you certainly have some skill. But I'm not convinced yet. Let's have a proper contest." As he spoke, a strange silver glint suddenly flashed in his bright eyes.
"A superhuman!" Ling Yun hadn't even had time to cry out in surprise when an invisible telekinetic force slammed into his chest.
With a loud crash, Ling Yun flew through the air for more than ten meters before his body slammed into the brick wall on the right side of the alley entrance, causing the entire wall to collapse. Just as Ling Yun stood up from the brick wall in a disheveled state, the man in blue had already pounced on him, leaving a trail of afterimages in the air. His speed was so fast that compared to the kung fu master Chen Feng, it was like a slow-motion scene in a movie.
The man in blue was met with a fist brimming with anger.
The air around his fist crackled and popped violently, showing that Ling Yun had used almost all his strength in that punch.
The man in blue was taken aback, not expecting Ling Yun to react so quickly and with such great strength. He was rushing forward at high speed and had no time to dodge, so he could only throw a punch as well. However, in his haste, he could not use his full strength, and the angle was also slightly off.