Chapter 29: The Nine Xuanguan

In front of Fang Can’s villa, a large crowd stood in dense silence.

Nearly one-tenth of Z City’s population had gathered here, stretching beyond sight.

Due to Fang Can, the crowd remained unusually quiet, all clustered seven or eight meters away, daring not to approach or disturb him.

Fang Can pulled out his keys from his pocket, unlocked the door with practiced ease, ignored those behind him, stepped inside, and firmly shut the door.

As the door sealed shut, a plaintive female voice came from beside Fang Can’s ear.

“What exactly are you trying to do? Why did you draw so many people here?”

Seeing Fang Can’s calm expression, Jiang Ningan nearly clapped her hands over her head and screamed.

She had sensed the sound of tens of thousands moving hundreds of meters away.

Especially after realizing they were heading this way, it jolted her already uneasy nerves from living in such a hostile environment.

Had she not judged from their voices that most of these people were ordinary, and that even if they meant to kill her, they wouldn’t be this foolish, she might have reacted instinctively.

Looking at this boy before her with such an innocent expression, Jiang Ningan was furious enough to want to beat him.

“They followed me on their own,” Fang Can said casually. “Senior, rest assured—they won’t dare enter. As long as you don’t leave this door, no one knows you’re here.”

After speaking, Fang Can hung his backpack on the rack as if nothing had happened and began his training with relaxed composure.

Watching this utterly insensitive boy, Jiang Ningan gritted her teeth in frustration, but with the crowd blocking the exit, she couldn’t leave—she could only sigh coldly and return to the upstairs room to sit in silent meditation.

But before she walked away, she suddenly halted, then turned back in disbelief to study Fang Can: “Your mental manifestation has already taken preliminary form!”

“You mean that aura?” Fang Can recalled.

“Back in school, I felt stifled holding it inside, so I tried it out on the whole class.”

‘Hmph… heh… heh… just tried it out?’ Jiang Ningan’s icy face stiffened—she had no words left to describe this boy’s talent.

Outside, as the superhuman entered and did not emerge, after ten minutes of waiting, the crowd grew restless, as if they had lost their anchor.

“What do we do now? What should we do?”

“I don’t know. The superhuman didn’t give us orders—we gathered on our own.”

“We can’t leave. Splitting up across the city is too dangerous.”

…

Outside, the crowd’s silence gave way to minor unrest; someone couldn’t hold back and tried to knock on the door to ask Fang Can, but was stopped before he could approach by the Royalists.

“The superhuman acts with his own reason. You just wait. Fang Can has far more to consider,” Fang Can’s classmates glared at these ordinary people daring to overstep.

Having been classmates with Fang Can for three years, they felt privileged—close to the source, they’d naturally begun defending his interests.

Watching the blocked door, the crowd helplessly sat cross-legged on the ground, waiting for Fang Can’s next instruction.

Not long after, two middle-aged men walked through the crowd, arriving breathless: “Who is the superhuman? Where is the superhuman?”

“Principal / Mayor”

Seeing the two approach, those around them gasped in surprise:

‘Hey! So you two haven’t escaped either?’

Facing the students’ astonished stares, the two men looked uneasy.

The event had erupted too suddenly—no prior notice had been given, and all the previously well-fed superhumans in the city had vanished from contact.

Hearing that a lone superhuman still remained here, they had rushed over without delay.

Unable to bear the weight of everyone’s gaze, they repeated their question.

One student proudly pointed: “Master Fang Can is resting inside. No one should disturb him.”

Even facing the Mayor of Z City, the students stood firm—and the mayor nodded in agreement:

“Understood, understood. But has the superhuman left any message for us?”

“This…” Several students hesitated, until their history teacher finally relayed Fang Can’s last words before leaving for home.

‘Can we use his name to act?’ The two shrewd men exchanged glances—already stirred by the thought. Could such a thing be true?

“I understand. Since Master Fang Can has said this, he clearly wishes for us to uphold the city’s order ourselves. We must not betray his earnest intentions,” the mayor declared firmly, first to speak.

“Yes, yes! In this critical time, since Master Fang Can has granted authority, we must fulfill our duty,” the principal added.

Perhaps they were unskilled in combat, but at their rank, they understood administration—what they didn’t know, they delegated to subordinates.

Now that Fang Can had spoken, they instantly knew what needed to be done.

Without instruction, their faces immediately took on an air of authority as they began addressing the seated crowd in Fang Can’s name.

Though the law had lost its power, with a superhuman as backing, their word carried credibility. Soon, former police officers and veterans among the crowd were organized—the first signs of restored order emerged.

Throughout it all, Fang Can never left his villa. Merely by the mere veneer of being a superhuman, everything settled naturally.

In some sense, perhaps human society’s order is idealistic—believe in it, and it gains legitimacy.

Ignoring all outside commotion, Fang Can continued his orderly physical training indoors. This time, however, he no longer spat out the arsenic—he let his abdomen digest it.

With his body strengthened, arsenic could no longer severely damage him; refusing the drug meant accepting slower cultivation.

By the end of the night, under Jiang Ningan’s numb gaze, Fang Can’s aura had risen another notch from the day before.

Observing Fang Can’s condition, Jiang Ningan deduced: “At this rate, you’ll cross the first Xuanguan in no more than seven or eight days.”

“The first Xuanguan? What’s that?” Fang Can asked.

Jiang Ningan, who now truly believed the boy was a martial genius, replied: “The Transformation of Mortal Form has nine Xuanguan. Each level reached means a ten percent increase in the proportion of new blood within your body.”

“Until your mortal form is completely shed, you’ve reached the peak of the Transformation of Mortal Form.”

Looking at the 5.2% flesh transformation rate on his panel, Fang Can nodded in understanding.

So every ten percent increase in transformation rate crosses one Xuanguan—until reaching 100%, you achieve the peak of the Transformation of Mortal Form.

(End of Chapter)