Chapter 9

“Wake up!”

Li Yi, immersed in cultivation, suddenly heard a voice beside his ear.

He was instantly startled, and his cultivation was abruptly interrupted.

Lin Yue looked at him with a half-smile and said: “You’re not exactly polite—you’ve been in cultivation for four straight hours, forcing me to act as your guide the whole time.”

“Four hours already?” Li Yi was surprised and glanced out the window.

It was already dark outside; the time was seven p.m.

He hadn’t expected cultivation to consume so much time.

“I just assessed your talent,” Lin Yue said. “In these four hours, I guided a hundred units of cosmic energy into your body, and you absorbed forty-five of them—the rest dissipated. Your energy absorption efficiency is forty-five percent.”

Li Yi silently thought: So it was as I suspected.

The cosmic energy that had surged into his body had indeed been deliberately guided by Lin Yue.

“Sister Lin, is forty-five percent really that low?” he asked next.

Lin Yue replied: “The number is low, but given this is your first time cultivating, it’s understandable. My own first result was seventy percent. Overall, you do have a slight cultivation aptitude—you can walk this path, and with enough effort, you’ll still achieve something.”

“So you mean I have talent, but not much?” Li Yi gave a self-deprecating laugh. “That’s really bad.”

“No, it’s already a good result,” Lin Yue said. “As your cultivation experience grows, your energy conversion rate will improve—I estimate you’ll reach around sixty-five percent without trouble.”

Li Yi said: “That’s barely passing.”

Lin Yue rolled her eyes. “Passing is good enough. Look at those trainees you saw earlier—they’ve trained for a while and still only hit forty to fifty percent. You’re already an above-average student in this class.”

“What’s the data like for cultivation geniuses? One hundred percent?” Li Yi asked curiously.

“No,” Lin Yue said. “One hundred percent isn’t genius. True geniuses exceed two hundred percent.”

“...” Li Yi.

He’d assumed the maximum score was one hundred, and sixty-five was decent—never imagining the scale had no upper limit.

“By the way, Sister Lin, when you were guiding cosmic energy into my body just now, did you sense any unusual energy field?” Li Yi suddenly asked.

Lin Yue frowned. “Unusual energy field? No. All I perceived was a gray-white void—no unusual field at all. Why? Did you sense something? If you did, be extremely careful—it might be a suddenly opened wormhole. Don’t let your consciousness get pulled in; it could cause damage. Severe cases lead to months of coma; mild ones cause days of headache.”

“I understand,” Li Yi nodded solemnly.

Yet he felt puzzled—his sensed energy field should have come from the broken coin, so why hadn’t Lin Yue detected it?

Could the broken coin’s energy field be too small, its range too limited?

“Hey, don’t rush into cultivation yet,” Biao’s voice rang out. “Come on, come on—I ordered some great dishes from the hotel next door. Let’s have a proper meal tonight, niece. Here, your favorite: braised giant shrimp.”

“Uncle, you’re spending money recklessly again,” Lin Yue said.

“Earn money to enjoy it,” Biao said enthusiastically as he unpacked the takeout boxes. “Look, there’s beer too. Li Yi, let’s have a drink—no sleep till we’re drunk.”

“Uh, I don’t drink,” Li Yi said.

Biao pulled him into a rough hug and laughed. “You’re twenty years old—how can you not drink? I’ll teach you.”

It wasn’t until ten p.m.

That Li Yi left Biao’s meditation room, slightly tipsy.

The cool night breeze of the city hit him, jolting him awake—he instantly regained his alertness, his previously foggy mind clearing.

Without delay, he hurried home at top speed.

On the way, Li Yi thought to himself: “Now I’m certain—the half-coin in my hand is a strange artifact. Though I still don’t know its exact ability, I know for sure it aids my cultivation. And from Lin Yue’s words, my cultivation aptitude isn’t bad—it’s above average compared to most people.”

“But now I must consider how to keep this broken artifact. It’s still unstable—if those people finish dealing with Investigator Wang Jian, they’ll come for me. Then I’ll face only two choices.”

“Either hand it over for sufficient profit and Bureau protection, or risk keeping it. As for Lao Ya? Sorry, we’re not close.”

Li Yi’s heart leaned toward the latter.

Because Lao Ya’s group didn’t know for certain he’d obtained the artifact—after all, on that day, besides himself, Wang Hu and Wei Li also took something. He also feared that if he revealed it, they might kill him to silence him.

A cultivator could kill him with a single glance. Li Yi dared not gamble on their promises.

With unease and anxiety, Li Yi returned home.

He greeted his parents, checked the medical pod, confirmed it was functioning properly, then examined the remaining nutrient solution.

Nutrient solution: less than ten percent.

The flashing alert forced Li Yi to worry again.

He checked his phone balance: 1,876.

That money could buy only one vial of nutrient solution—not even two.

“Wasn’t this day inevitable?” Li Yi sat alone in the living room, falling silent.

Since his parents became comatose, the household had been spending more than it earned. Unless they woke up, their money would eventually vanish. His own hard work merely delayed the inevitable.

He never imagined it had already been six years.

He’d once naively believed his parents would awaken in two or three years—but now, even three more years might change nothing.

“Maybe handing over the broken artifact is the right choice. At least I’d get money to ensure my family lives in peace—and maybe even afford more cultivation.”

Li Yi rubbed the half-coin in his hand, gazing at his parents lying in the medical pod, and thought to himself.

“But I risked everything to barely snatch this artifact that could change my fate. If I give it up today, I’ll regret it for life. And if I’m given time, my cultivation will soon bear fruit. Once I become a cultivator, earning money becomes far easier—how could a few vials of nutrient solution ever hold me back?”

After brief hesitation, Li Yi reaffirmed his resolve. He looked again at his parents in the room and said: “Dad, Mom, let me take this one chance. If you ever wake up, I know you’ll understand my choice.”

Saying this, he gripped the broken coin, closed his eyes, and sat still, clearing his mind to enter meditative cultivation.

If he was going to fight, he couldn’t waste a single second. The future was uncertain, but the present was his to seize. As long as the artifact remained in his hands, Li Yi would cultivate with all his might—only by growing strong enough could he face the troubles ahead without fear.

Soon.

He reentered the state he’d experienced that day.

Within his perception, the broken coin emitted a narrow energy field; under his will, pure energy was guided into his body.

Though Li Yi’s cultivation value was low and his energy conversion rate only forty-five percent, with this broken artifact, he didn’t need to waste time capturing scattered cosmic energy or worry about energy loss.

Talent no longer mattered to him.

Even geniuses spent most of their night cultivating just capturing energy—the scarcity of pure cosmic energy was the greatest chain binding their progress.

With the artifact’s aid, Li Yi could break this chain, achieving in one night results several times—or even dozens of times—greater than a genius.

Meanwhile.

Deep night, old district.

Ning Wu, tall with a long single braid, along with her companion Lao Ya and a group of subordinates in black suits, stepped out from behind the Bureau.

“Ning Wu, though someone intervened to protect you, I advise your group to behave,” came Investigator Wang Jian’s warning from behind. “If you cause more trouble, I guarantee you won’t leave prison for ten years.”

“Hmph.”

Ning Wu grunted in displeasure and walked out without turning back.

Once beyond the Bureau’s range, she stopped and said: “Lao Ya, you must contact Wang Hu, Wei Li, and Li Yi—by any means, as fast as possible—and make them return the artifact. Don’t let things drag on.”

“Of course,” Lao Ya nodded. “I don’t want any more surprises either.”

Ning Wu’s eyes flashed with anger. “If it weren’t for Wang Jian suddenly interfering, this wouldn’t have gotten so complicated. We already had the artifact in the Ruined District.”

“Ning Wu, don’t rush,” Lao Ya said. “They’re all ordinary people—easy to find. Even if they truly got something valuable, they won’t recognize it. We can just raise the price—they’ll hand it over the moment they see money.”

“I hope so. My patience is running out... this concerns a strange artifact.”

Ning Wu took several deep breaths to calm herself.