Chapter 67
The reason the initial screening was set in the military was because the leaders had absolute trust in their soldiers. Their loyalty, cooperation, and willpower had all been tested by the state.
Ren Yi wasn’t in uniform today, so not many people recognized him when he entered the training ground. The soldiers saw General Chen leading in a man and a woman who looked like civilians. Although they were curious, they kept their eyes forward, standing at attention.
“These are the soldiers of the special forces, the best of the best,” General Chen introduced.
The Qilin had returned to its temporary residence, the jade pendant, and the psychic power detector was in Xia Anran’s pocket. Ren Yi, having come from the special forces himself, could tell at a glance that this was the most elite unit.
General Chen stepped forward. “What I am about to tell you is a top secret of our Hua nation. Not a single word is to be revealed to the outside. Can you do that?”
“Yes, sir! We guarantee the completion of the mission!” The reply was a unified, powerful shout.
“These two are special envoys from the central government. They will tell you the details of what is to come.”
General Chen gave the floor to Xia Anran. She had never spoken in front of so many people before. She cleared her throat, trying to make her voice as loud as possible. “Our main mission today is to find individuals with special qualifications. These individuals can currently activate an ability called psychic power, or you could call it a special ability.” She thought for a moment and decided not to overcomplicate things, referring to both psychic power and Horn Power as “psychic power.”
As expected, the moment she said this, even the faces of the special forces soldiers, who had seen it all and had extremely strong psychological fortitude, showed expressions of shock. What? Psychic power? Did we hear that right? They had imagined countless possible top secrets they might be told today, but no one had expected something that sounded so unreliable, like a scam.
But they were special forces, well-trained. No matter how doubtful or confused they were, they remained disciplined and did not break out in an uproar.
Xia Anran knew that more words would be useless; language was too pale. She took the psychic power detector from her pocket and activated it. The detector emitted a familiar white light and flew up from her palm.
[Scanning…]
Perhaps because there were so many people present this time, the search took a little longer than it had in front of the leaders. After about half a minute, the detector lit up with a green light.
[Scan complete. Three psychic power users detected within a ten-meter radius.]
Excluding Ren Yi, that meant there were two others in this group of soldiers who could awaken their psychic power. There were about two hundred soldiers on the field, a ratio of nearly one hundred to one. For a moment, she really didn’t know if that was high or low.
The detector first flew to Ren Yi, who was closest, and paused for a moment. After making its report, it continued forward and stopped in front of a tall young man in the first row.
The moment this little remote-controlled-plane-like thing approached him, Yuan Qun felt a little nervous. His years of frontline combat intuition told him that although this little thing looked like an ordinary sphere, it secretly harbored great danger.
One could only say that his feeling was not wrong. Ren Yi had already been registered in the detector’s system, so it didn’t ask if it should use compulsory measures like the first time. Yuan Qun, however, was not so lucky.
[Take compulsory measures?]
Hearing this, both Yuan Qun and Ren Yi’s pupils shrank in shock.
Xia Anran quickly said, “No need.”
The detector wobbled and then floated away from him, flying straight to the back. This time, it stopped in front of a valiant-looking female soldier.
Chu Yan stood at attention, not even blinking, letting the detector circle her twice before it issued the same command as it had in front of Yuan Qun.
Xia Anran went forward and retrieved the detector. As she got closer, she noticed that this particularly upright female special forces soldier seemed to have just returned from a mission. Her clothes were a little torn, and she had a slight, untreated scratch on her face.
The two individuals selected by the detector stepped forward. The rest were a little disappointed. Although they hadn’t yet seen this so-called psychic power with their own eyes, from the moment she had taken out that strange instrument, they were about seventy to eighty percent convinced, and their hearts were pounding with excitement. After all, who hadn’t fantasized about possessing unparalleled power?
Yuan Qun and Chu Yan stood to the side, waiting for further instructions. Seeing the disappointed faces of the unselected soldiers, Xia Anran added, “We have a second screening method. Next, something… that may not be so easy for everyone to accept is going to happen. I hope you won’t be too alarmed.”
The soldiers were already a little numb. What could be harder to accept than the fact that people could awaken psychic power?
And then they saw a fiery red Qilin, treading on auspicious clouds, suddenly appear in mid-air.
Xia Anran: “…” Did it specially design an entrance for itself?
The Qilin was extremely satisfied with its long-contemplated, cool entrance. It leaped down from mid-air, its head held high, looking very majestic.
And then the extremely calm team members were completely petrified. Were they hallucinating? A few of them couldn’t hold it in, their mouths agape wide enough to fit an egg.
General Chen coughed twice and casually slapped the back of the head of the team member next to him who was having the most exaggerated reaction. “Useless. You haven’t been training enough.” He had completely forgotten his own excitement when he had first seen the Qilin.
The Qilin’s auspicious cloud-like tail glowed with a faint red light, like a flame. It walked gracefully to Xia Anran’s side, a rare hint of majesty on its round head. She shot it a sidelong glance. It’s really putting on a show this time.
Everyone could tell it was a Qilin, because it looked so… Qilin-like. It was almost identical to the portraits that had been passed down.
She had actually asked it about this before. At the time, it had smugly tossed its head and said it couldn’t remember the specifics, but a long time ago, a painter with extraordinary skill had insisted on painting its portrait. Unable to refuse the human’s enthusiasm, it had taken the painter on a tour for several days. In the end, the painter had been so moved he had nearly burst into tears, holding a whole book of its daily portraits. Good heavens, a master had given it a free photo album. A candid one at that.
After hearing about this, Xia Anran had even specially contacted Professor Gong to ask if there were any historical records of who this painter was, wanting to pay her respects to this first-ever “candid photographer” master. Unfortunately, it was probably too long ago, and there were no records to be found. After all, in the Qilin’s description, they weren’t even using paper for painting back then. That was indeed a very long time ago.
According to the Qilin, in that era, divine beasts would often wander the mortal world, and it was normal for them to appear before humans, unlike now, where they had to hide.
Seeing this mythical creature appear before their eyes, even the well-trained soldiers couldn’t help but sneak glances, their eyes filled with curiosity and excitement.
In this situation, Xia Anran still gave the Qilin enough face, satisfying its little vanity. “Teacher Qilin, could I trouble you to see which of the soldiers have talent?” she asked, suppressing a laugh. After staying at the Academy of Sciences for a few days, the Qilin had discovered that modern humans called knowledgeable old men “teachers,” so it had diligently learned this new trend and started to have the people around it call it “teacher” as well.
The Qilin was indeed very satisfied. It gave a haughty “Hmm” and began to walk forward slowly. Seeing it approach, the soldiers instantly tensed up, not daring to breathe, their posture even more rigid.
It circled among the crowd, its soft fur brushing against their hands, making them itch. I want to pet it so bad!
After circling once, it turned its head and scanned the crowd again before returning to her side. “Well? How many have potential?” she asked.
The Qilin flicked its tail and lifted its chin towards the back left. “The third one from the left in the second row is not bad.”
Unexpectedly, there were even fewer people with Horn Power than with psychic power.
The third person in the second row was Li Yijia, who had just been selected for the special forces not long ago. He was a very young soldier, only 35 this year. Hearing that he had been chosen by the Qilin, he was incredibly excited. This was a Qilin! He was a person chosen by a Qilin!
“This kid was just selected this year. Speaking of which, he has a bit of a connection with you,” General Chen whispered to Ren Yi on the side.
Ren Yi: “Hmm?”
“He almost broke your thirty-kilometer obstacle course record that you’ve held for several years. I think he was only off by a little over a minute,” the general teased. “This kid has been gearing up to break your monopoly.”
When he was in the army, Ren Yi had been an extremely strong soldier in all aspects, setting countless records. He actually had a rather deep impression of this thirty-kilometer obstacle course record. There was no helping it; their instructor had been a bit too sadistic. The training course had been set up to be simply daunting. Even he had found it a bit difficult when he had run it back then.
Ren Yi lifted his chin and said with a bit of a roguish air, “I’m not at the same level as I was back then. He’s more than just a minute behind me.”
General Chen rubbed his nose. He hadn’t seen him in a while and had almost forgotten how arrogant he had been in the army back then. Of course, he did have the capital to be arrogant.
The Qilin was relying on manual identification, and the soldiers were standing close together. Fearing it might have missed someone, it circled the field again. After confirming that no one else had a response, just as it was about to report to Xia Anran, it suddenly sensed a strange yet powerful aura. It twitched its nose and soon found the source: Chu Yan, who had already been confirmed to have psychic potential and was standing on the side.
It went up to her and circled her two or three times, then ran to Xia Anran, its eyes shining with a golden light. “Wow, wow, wow! She’s a double-talent!”
Chu Yan blinked, a little confused.
Xia Anran was also a little surprised. “You mean she has both psychic power and Horn Power?”
The Qilin waved its paw. “I can’t really sense the psychic power, but she definitely has the power of the beast race.”
Hearing this, even Ren Yi couldn’t help but look at Chu Yan a few more times. But Chu Yan, who had suddenly been confirmed to be extraordinarily talented, remained expressionless after a brief moment of surprise, still as unmovable as a pine tree.
After the screening was over, General Chen had the rest of the soldiers disperse, leaving only Chu Yan, Yuan Qun, and Li Yijia.
Xia Anran took out the pre-prepared black boxes and handed them to Chu Yan and Yuan Qun. “Just touch it.”
The two of them touched the black boxes without hesitation. In an instant, a hint of confusion appeared on their faces, and their brows furrowed. A reaction was a good thing.
Ren Yi stood on the side with his hands in his pockets, secretly using his psychic power to probe their condition. After they touched the boxes, a faint psychic response began to appear in their previously calm bodies.
She took back the boxes and asked how they felt.
“It’s a little hot, but it’s very warm after it enters the body,” Yuan Qun said.
Chu Yan thought for a moment and added, “There’s also some tingling, like something has entered my blood vessels.”
The sensation was similar to what Ren Yi had felt at the time. The two of them hadn’t officially started to awaken yet, only feeling a numbness in their bodies, as if something were swimming in their blood.
“This is a normal phenomenon. In a little while, your bodies might get hot, and then you’ll fall asleep. It will be a little uncomfortable. Just get through it, and you’ll be fine. Don’t worry,” Ren Yi said, sharing his experience.
Li Yijia, who had been waiting on the side, found Ren Yi more and more familiar the longer he looked at him. His eyes lit up as if he had suddenly remembered something. “Are you Senior Ren Yi?”
Ren Yi raised an eyebrow. As expected of his record-challenger; he was the first to recognize him. He nodded and smiled. “I am Ren Yi. This is our first meeting. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the future.”
Ren Yi’s name was like thunder in the special forces. When they were training, their instructors would always talk about him. “Ren Yi finished this project in only six minutes back then! Look at you guys, crawling on the ground like a bunch of monkeys! You still want to go to the front lines? Dream on!” Almost everyone had heard similar words.
“Senior, are you also a psychic power user?” Yuan Qun also couldn’t help but ask excitedly.
Ren Yi nodded. The few of them became even more excited, surrounding him and asking all sorts of questions.
After the psychic power awakening, it was the Qilin’s turn to awaken Li Yijia’s Horn Power.
The Qilin, with a dark face, pushed Ren Yi aside and squeezed to the front. “Hey, hey, you humans are so rude!” Only surrounding Ren Yi and completely ignoring it!
After being coaxed by Xia Anran for a few sentences, the Qilin was finally barely satisfied. It walked up to Li Yijia and lightly tapped his forehead with its front hoof. A distinct red light flew into his body.
Li Yijia touched his forehead. “Is that it?” He didn’t feel any heat or numbness at all.
The Qilin said smugly, “Our power is very gentle. It won’t harm your body at all. Don’t worry.”
As for Chu Yan, her constitution was too special, so after careful consideration, the Qilin did not awaken her Horn Power, thinking it would be better to wait until after she had awakened her psychic power.
But Xia Anran suddenly had a flash of inspiration. A special person like Chu Yan might very well be one of the ten people in the system’s mission. With this thought, she extended her hand to her with an expectant expression. “Can we shake hands?”
Although Chu Yan found it a bit sudden, she still held out her hand. Sure enough, the moment the two of them made contact, Xia Anran heard the familiar prompt. She had collected another one!
She was overjoyed. Chu Yan was a little confused.
After shaking hands, she looked at the other two. Based on the principle of “since we’re already here, there’s no harm in trying,” she shook hands with each of them.
Seeing Xia Anran’s eyes suddenly light up for some reason, General Chen was also a little confused. “What’s wrong with Little Xia?”
Ren Yi knew what she was doing, and from her expression, it was highly likely she had succeeded. But he couldn’t tell the general about these things, so he just said, “They are our future colleagues. Just a greeting.”
But wasn’t this a bit too enthusiastic…
To Xia Anran’s surprise, Yuan Qun and Li Yijia were also qualified! Her mission was suddenly half-complete. In that case, she just needed to find five more people with psychic potential, and her mission would be complete! Maybe this mission could even be finished today!
With this beautiful dream in mind, she continued to the remaining few training areas to find people. But after screening the last batch of soldiers, her dream was shattered. It turned out that the 100:1 ratio in the special forces was actually the highest. They had been busy all day, going through the entire military region, and out of tens of thousands of people, they had only found two with psychic potential, and not a single one with Horn Power.
In contrast, the Qilin said that their bloodline was very precious. It was normal not to find any. Finding two today was already considered lucky for them.
Actually, today’s harvest was quite good. They had found a total of five qualified individuals, and Chu Yan was even a double-talent. It was just that Xia Anran was still three people short of completing her mission.
After awakening the psychic power of the remaining two, it was already evening. Yuan Qun and Chu Yan, who had awakened in the morning, were already showing signs of flushing and rapid breathing. Ren Yi stayed behind to look after them. Xia Anran got back in the car and returned to the villa.
It was already past eight when she got home. The villa was still brightly lit. Master Guo had left her some food. She had a great appetite and ate two bowls of rice. As she was eating, Director Huang and Ji Minghui came down.
“We’ve been thinking about it all day. We’re planning to release this film on the StarNet first. What do you think, Little Xia?”
She was in the middle of her meal. She looked up and saw the familiar logo.
A Bite of Hua Nation.