Faced with Xia Yu bending down and amicably extending a "delicate jade hand" representing reconciliation, Pei Yan rolled his eyes and took it, being pulled up by her.
Don't be fooled by Pei Yan's disheveled appearance; in fact, he wasn't seriously injured. After all, he had undergone more than a month of combat training. At the moment he was struck, he protected his most vulnerable body part - his head, and rolled on the ground to dissipate most of the force.
Moreover, as his arms bore the brunt, they had been converted to mechanical ones, losing touch sensation and pain. Yet, even so, the ear-piercing wail of steel deformed by gravitational hammering and the subconscious feedback to his mind told him just how powerful the opponent's punch was.
This wasn't a girl's punch at all; it was like being hit by a small cannon!
Meanwhile, Hu Wenjun and Instructor Miao, who had gathered around, looked at Pei Yan in amazement. The mechanical arm, which was punched and caved in, was quickly returning to its original shape at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Instructor Miao squeezed Pei Yan's right arm, using his right hand as a hook to press lightly and create a shallow fingerprint indentation. Shaking his head and lamenting, he said, "This steel quality is lacking!"
"This might be related to the properties of the absorbed items. How good can the steel quality of an ordinary car be?" Hu Wenjun bent down, patting Pei Yan's body up and down to make an assessment.
Half an hour later, in an office on the rooftop
After completing the report, Hu and Miao looked at the middle-aged man sitting behind the desk, his face dark as he flipped through the report. This man, with a long scar extending across half his face, was the highest leader within the Otherworld Affairs Bureau and also one of the strongest ability users on Earth.
"It seems we have to go with this fool's wishes. Suppressing his abilities like this might not be a good thing. If it leads to internal sources being out of control due to prolonged pressure, it would be counterproductive. Anyway, the preparations made for him by the bureau are almost in place. Advance the superpower training! It will officially start in three days. By then, a two-shift system will be implemented; morning training will continue with combat and shooting, and in the afternoon he'll undergo superpower testing. All training processes should have video and written records, and all data must be archived." Closing the report and placing it in the drawer, the middle-aged man tossed some betel nut into his mouth, revealing teeth as black as ink, and finalized the decision.
Black Teeth Gu Shenghui, a name that sounds gentle and cultivated, had left a notorious reputation in the four realms. Known for his cunning and ruthless methods, his claim to fame was a mission that Hu Wenjun remembers vividly - capturing the murderer and rapist from the Celestial Sword Manor.
Back then, Hu Wenjun, a rookie team member, participated in that mission under his leadership. Watching the supposedly dignified Immortal, who was forced by Gu Shenghui to reveal his true filthy nature, lose his reputation, sanity, and finally be humiliatingly shot dead by a sniper once deemed the most worthless, left an indelible scene.
It not only made Hu Wenjun look down on the so-called Immortals but also helped him find a goal to pursue.
Meanwhile, unaware that the bureau big shots had already determined he could begin training, Pei Yan was sitting on his dorm bed, opening a parcel that Wang Wenze helped forward from the army.
The two parcels were sent from Pei Yan's hometown and his sister in distant Shanghai, respectively. Their destination was the address of the military unit Pei Yan claimed to be stationed at. Once his family learned via phone that he had completed the new recruit training and could receive parcels, they eagerly sent their love and thoughts in tangible forms.
Sitting on the nearby bed, Wang Wenze unceremoniously crossed his legs and ate the vacuum-packed Qiulin red sausage from the opened package while watching Pei Yan open the largest parcel. After Pei Yan took out the item upon unwrapping, Wang Wenze couldn't resist teasing, "Oh, didn't realize you're an artistic youth! You also play the guitar!"
"Hmm, besides painting, this counts as another hobby of mine, though I play just okay!" he said, pulling out a brand-new guitar from the case and strumming the strings to listen to the tone.
"Hey, there's a postcard in the bag too!" Wang Wenze mumbled with a mouthful of sausage, pointing at the guitar bag to remind him.
Pei Yan picked up the dropped postcard from the bag. It was a special postcard featuring a family photo taken last year during their trip to Dunhuang by Crescent Spring. The picture shows the family in the desert, smiling brightly against the backdrop of blowing sands.
On the back of the postcard, there was an elegant line written: "Life isn't just about the struggles in front of you; there's also poetry and the fields in the distance."
With mixed emotions, Pei Yan gently caressed the photo on the postcard repeatedly, then carefully tucked it into a book on his bedside table after a long while.
Three days later, after finishing the morning combat training and eating lunch, Pei Yan was once again taken by Hu Wenjun into Jiezhi Space, and he felt a bit bewildered by what he saw.
Having grown accustomed to the usual shooting practice in the afternoons, he didn't see the virtual shooting range as before. Instead, a team of workers was bustling about in the Jiezhi Space, moving various instruments and generators, while a dozen individuals in white coats stood listening to a bespectacled mid-aged intellectual commanding the assembly and tuning of disassembled instruments.
Faced with Pei Yan standing dazedly in the center of the venue, Hu Wenjun spoke up, "All of this has been prepared for you. This is the superpower training you've been anticipating. From today, you will exceptionally be using two Jiezhi Spaces for training. This Jiezhi Space will serve as your special venue for superpower training."
"Really!" Pei Yan's eyes lit up. When he saw Hu Wenjun nodding in confirmation again, he excitedly clenched his fists. The long-repressed desire to use his abilities had turned into a pent-up emotion, prompting him to shout loudly, drawing everyone's attention to him as they stopped working to watch.
Hu Wenjun did not stop Pei Yan's outburst. After signaling others to continue their tasks, he watched with a smile at Pei Yan's almost convulsive actions, fully understanding Pei Yan's mindset. For an ability user, being forced not to use their abilities for a long time after initial awakening is indeed a painful ordeal, both physically and psychologically.
In fact, most discovered ability users entering the bureau did not have this restriction, and their ability training usually commenced alongside physical training.
However, due to the peculiar nature of his abilities and internal source, both bureau and military leadership approached Pei Yan's superpower training with great caution.
Seeing Pei Yan in front of him quickly recover from excitement, salute, and return to standing upright, Hu Wenjun nodded with satisfaction, knowing that the training during this period finally paid off.
"Now, let's delve into the origins and use of our abilities!"