Chapter 84: 84. Chapter 84: Consecutive Breakthroughs (In Celebration of Master Chu Ding

84. Chapter 84: Consecutive Breakthroughs (In Celebration of Master Chu Ding’s Ascension)

City Hall.

Second floor.

Inside the Professional Certification Office.

The hall appeared unusually empty; the walls, pillars, and furniture seemed specially reinforced.

Before Fang Xing floated a glowing orb, looking profoundly mystical.

【Hello, Bio-Android ID wyx1882… Please select your certified profession: Martial Artist, Mech Pilot, Mentalist, Beast Tamer, Illusionist, Psionic…】

A mechanical voice emanated from the orb.

“Martial Artist!”

Fang Xing replied in a low tone.

“Project your martial will toward the target before you!”

The orb spoke again; the floor split open to either side, and a punching target slowly rose.

Fang Xing touched his third eye, releasing his mental energy, sweeping over the target with a faint dragon’s roar.

【Ding… Confirmed as ‘Dragon’s Essence,’ external mental energy signature verified… Congratulations, professional certification successful!】

The orb’s voice carried a hint of delight.

【Your clearance level has been upgraded; you are now a Level 1 Citizen!】

【Your citizen ID is wyx1882…】

【You have unlocked the Professional Marketplace…】

The orb rapidly flashed a stream of messages.

Fang Xing opened his phone and checked—indeed, many new clearances had appeared.

First, he could now enter the Professional Marketplace; previously inaccessible goods and rare resources were finally visible as images.

Additionally, he gained permission to purchase interstellar spaceship tickets!

Before becoming a professional, Fang Xing couldn’t even leave Chuying Star.

And now?

He glanced at the string of zeros after the ticket price, pretended he hadn’t seen it, and walked out of City Hall.

In the air, countless micro-drones prepared to follow.

Street cameras began capturing his figure.

These were covert surveillance operations by the Prevention Bureau.

With their technology, they could easily monitor a Jade-level Martial Artist without a trace.

“What did the target do at City Hall?”

“We’ll know soon enough. Our drones are excellent, but many areas are off-limits—otherwise we’d cause trouble!”

Two operatives watched the feed, exchanging words.

Suddenly!

A bright red warning box appeared:

【WARNING! You are monitoring a Level 1 Citizen of the Federation!】

【No illegal records found for this citizen. No superior surveillance orders detected!】

【This constitutes illegal surveillance. First warning issued. If not terminated within 30 seconds, a second warning will follow…】

…

“Damn, it’s the Omniscient Brain!”

The team leader’s face turned pale: “Cease surveillance immediately!”

“Shit!”

Another member slammed a fist into the wall.

Though the most advanced surveillance gear was effective, as government equipment, it contained backdoors implanted by the Omniscient Brain.

“According to Federation law, we cannot monitor Level 1 Citizens without cause… but that Fang Xing… he, he… did he just get promoted and certify as a professional?”

The team leader suddenly realized something, his expression turning to dawning understanding.

Then, he grew utterly stunned: “How old is he? What were we doing at seventeen?”

“Probably fighting in school gangs…”

Another member looked dazed: “The real issue is… unless we get a higher-order order, any unauthorized surveillance like this, if caught, brings serious consequences. Now we need to figure out how to write the report—and how to face Big Boss’s wrath…”

At this thought, both men’s expressions darkened.

…

“Hmm… Disengaged.”

On the levitating train, Fang Xing touched his third eye, a faint smile forming on his lips.

Since awakening his mental energy, his spiritual perception had grown far sharper.

Ever since leaving home, he’d felt watched—like thorns pricking his back.

Now, that sensation was finally gone!

“Level 1 Citizen status… this identity is pretty useful.”

“This is only Level 1. What about Level 2 or 3? If I get into a top-tier university, maybe even murder wouldn’t stick—just seal the file… as long as I don’t betray the Federation.”

“It seems fair, but it’s the greatest injustice of all…”

“Still, power resides in the self—that’s how it is.”

He returned home, went to his bedroom, and pasted another “Protective Household Talisman.”

Then, with a flash of silver light, he appeared in Qinglin Marketplace.

Now that his clearance had been upgraded, surveillance was gone.

According to the Prevention Bureau’s protocols, this team would have to return, file reports, and wait for approval—giving him a perfect window to cross over.

Inside the high-grade cave dwelling.

Before Fang Xing lay several artifacts, the mechanical puppet bird he’d bought earlier, and two storage pouches.

These two pouches belonged to Chen Yi and Old Ghost Long; due to his previous limitations, he’d been unable to open them, and his anticipation ran high.

“Pre-Qi Martial Artists can’t use these items… what about a Courage Realm Martial Artist?”

“My martial path, even in the cultivation world, would be unprecedented… and now I’ve awakened mental energy. Perhaps I can try?” With this thought, Fang Xing picked up the low-grade mechanical puppet bird, and a thread of mental energy curled from his crown dantian toward it.

Instantly… he “saw” the miniature arrays inside the puppet bird!

This was content he’d never perceived before; through these miniature arrays, he could now perform basic control—takeoff, landing, simple maneuvers.

“Input spiritual energy to activate… I have no spiritual energy…”

Fang Xing shook his head, but puppets weren’t limited to spiritual energy.

He flipped the puppet bird over, tapped its belly gently.

?Co

Click!

Gears turned; the belly opened, revealing a small recess.

Fang Xing pulled out a low-grade spirit stone, the size of a die, shoved it in, then activated it with mental energy.

“Chirp-chirp!”

The mechanical puppet bird suddenly seemed to come alive, flapping its wings upward.

At first clumsy, then swiftly agile; its eyes gleamed with a touch of anthropomorphic liveliness.

“Controlling the puppet bird feels different… with mental energy, it’s like I’m right there…”

Fang Xing compared it to drone surveillance and found the fundamental difference.

“Cultivation-world mechanical puppets are like extending part of my own vision… while drones are just raw video feeds.”

He played with the puppet bird a while longer, then took up a low-grade artifact.

He’d long forgotten whose unlucky possession it was—a black shield, palm-sized.

Now, with mental energy entering it, he could fully control it—but…

“Damn… no spiritual energy!”

Fang Xing “stared” at the artifact’s internal arrays—“Size Alteration,” “Flight”—and grew frustrated.

This artifact wasn’t a puppet; it didn’t run on spirit stones—it required a cultivator’s spiritual energy!

But what did he have? A drop of spiritual energy?

As a Courage Realm Martial Artist, his body still circulated qi and blood—only vastly refined.

Fang Xing tried pouring his thickened internal qi into the shield artifact.

The artifact remained lifeless, unchanged as ever.

"Alright, still unusable... As expected, martial artists are martial artists—they can't cultivate."

He grumbled: “Maybe I’ll need to reach External Manifestation, or even Golden Core… with a Martial Golden Core’s power, I swear I could force an artifact to obey… wait, if I’m already a Martial Golden Core, why bother controlling a lowly artifact?”

With a touch of irritation, Fang Xing picked up one of the storage pouches.

“Huh?”

This time, his eyes lit up instantly.

Through mental energy, Fang Xing saw a hazy “space.”

The space was small—about one cubic meter—and held several items inside.

But at this moment, all these items were shrouded in a layer of mist, hard to see clearly.

This mist originated from a spiritual imprint.

The imprint was like a candle flickering in the wind, as if about to be snuffed out at any moment, yet it blocked his probing.

“The Drift of the Dragon!”

Fang Xing’s martial will surged forward, and the spiritual imprint shattered with a crash; the items instantly became clear.

He shifted his intent, and a cluttered heap of objects instantly materialized before him.

The most dazzling among them were fifty-six middle-grade spirit stones, along with several hundred low-grade spirit stones.

Besides these, there were many ores, each emitting a gentle or intense spiritual glow.

“Hmm… I didn’t expect the items I sold would return to me…”

Fang Xing picked up the Grade-One Superior Qing Que Sword, his expression peculiar.

This storage pouch was naturally the old devil Long’s.

He shook his head and examined the other items, finding several vials of healing and satiety pills—none to enhance spiritual power, since Long the Devil had long since reached the peak of Qi Refinement, with nowhere left to advance except Foundation Establishment.

There were also several jade slips.

Fang Xing had long heard of these information carriers used exclusively by cultivators.

Now, as his spiritual energy probed inside, he saw vast amounts of text and illustrations, each rendered in exquisite, lifelike detail.

“Hmm… far more vivid than paper…”

Fang Xing looked further and discovered it was a cultivation manual on forging, titled *Identification of Minerals and Crafting of Artifact Blanks*.

The remaining scrolls were *Comprehensive Guide to Crafting Grade-One Flying Swords*, *Red Yuan Forging Essentials*, and others…

There was also one titled *Fire Refinement Scripture*, a fire-affinity cultivation technique capable of carrying one all the way to mid-Foundation Establishment.

“Too bad… useless to me…”

He shook his head and began mentally stuffing the items back into the pouch one by one, taking them out and putting them back, thoroughly enjoying himself.

“This kind of storage pouch only requires a cultivator’s spiritual awareness to operate… perfect for me.”

Fang Xing’s spiritual energy was slightly stronger than a Qi Refinement cultivator’s spiritual awareness, so there was no obstacle.

With a hint of anticipation, he picked up Chen Yi’s storage pouch.

This cultivator’s spiritual imprint was even weaker than Long the Devil’s, nearly vanished already; Fang Xing’s intent alone shattered it instantly.

Though a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator, Chen Yi was clearly a pauper—the pouch held little.

Only a few middle-grade spirit stones, a few dozen low-grade ones, a handful of magical artifacts, and some talismans…

“I thought Chen Yi had grabbed plenty of good stuff in the Ten Thousand Methods Secret Realm—turns out he’s just a beggar!”

Fang Xing didn’t know that Chen Yi, having gained opportunities, had surely exchanged them for items to boost his strength.

Most of the opportunities he obtained had been traded for the superior-grade cultivation robe he wore, the storage pouch itself, and pills to break through his realm.

Due to his low power, he could only take so much from his first entry into the secret realm, and was planning to divert the danger elsewhere, waiting for a chance to re-enter the realm and use his late-stage Qi Refinement cultivation to plunder heavily—when he fell into Fang Xing’s hands.

If Chen Yi heard Fang Xing’s complaint, he’d probably be so depressed he’d spit blood!