The early morning sun failed to pierce the dense, metallic mist blanketing Capital Grid Sector 01, but the administrative clearance levels beneath the Imperial Cultivation Academy were entirely illuminated.
Lin Feng walked calmly through the high-security corridors of the Academy's inner sanctum. The passing defensive units from the Central Regulatory Bureau didn't raise their specialized rifles. Instead, the moment his student identification pass interacted with their terminal sensors, the monitors flashed with an elite, absolute clearance code:
[DIRECTORIAL PRIVILEGE — GROUND LEVEL LOOPS]
.
The military cordon was total. Following the flawless execution and grounding of the Sector 04 rift beneath the western docks, Director-General Sun had permanently altered the Academy's security layout. The legacy clans and shadow brokers had been ruthlessly pushed beyond the academic perimeter by federal administrative decrees.
The state has completed its first full institutional pivot,
Lin Feng analyzed, his eyes tracking a patrol of autonomous tracking drones executing a flawless diagnostic sweep.
They have ceased their reliance on linear kinetic artillery matrices. By adjusting their fault line dampeners to match my precise evolutionary blueprints, they have locked down Sector 01 ahead of the winter solstice.
He arrived at the threshold of the
Great Archive Vault
, a multi-ton subterranean installation carved directly into the ancient granite bedrock intersection.
Standing before the primary titanium bulkhead was Instructor Meng. Her severe, blade-like posture was entirely unchanged, but as her sharp eyes locked onto Lin Feng’s lean frame and unremarkable gray utility jacket, the institutional disdain that had defined her previous evaluations was completely absent.
"The Bureau's Inner Directory has approved your entry, Student Lin," she said, her voice dropping into a disciplined, quiet frequency as she swiped her master clearance tag across the reader mechanism. "The academic restrictions for the independent representative block are suspended. The primary core database is open to your hand."
The massive bulkhead doors glided open with a deep, pressurized hydraulic hiss.
"Thank you, Instructor," Lin Feng replied softly, his voice carrying an unhurried spatial resonance that caused the metal door tracks to hum in sympathy.
He stepped through the threshold and into the immense, cavernous interior of the vault. The space was a high-tech labyrinth of floating holographic data matrices, glowing blue memory pillars, and preserved ancient text tablets salvaged from early geological excavations. This was the absolute neural center of New Huaxia's hidden history—a repository of lost breathing forms, meridian mapping logs, and forgotten inheritance telemetry that the elite legacy clans had spent decades trying to monopolize.
Lin Feng walked down the central aisle, his footsteps completely soundless against the polished composite tiles. Within his lower abdomen, his
Dantian
spun with a heavy, pressurized density, guiding a single current of pure liquid Qi through his
Ren Channel
.
He didn't waste time scanning the introductory combat forms or the basic muscle-refinement manuals designed for legacy descendants like Zhao Ming. He walked straight toward the absolute center of the vault, where an ancient, obsidian-encased data terminal was pulsing with a dense, heavily encrypted crimson light loop.
The
Nine Heavens Spatial Archive
.
In his previous life as a bottom-tier scavenger, this specific directory was a complete myth—a classified strategic secret that was thoroughly destroyed when the Capital Core branch experienced its tragic collapse during the grand awakening.
Lin Feng raised his bare right hand, his porcelain-smooth palm pressing flat against the obsidian interface terminal. He didn't execute an intricate decryption script or employ a digital cloner token. Instead, he simply released a microscopic, highly compressed strand of his liquid Qi straight into the processing logic matrix.
HUMMMM.
The obsidian console violently shuddered, its crimson light loop instantly snapping into a pristine, blinding golden brilliance. The automated systemic defense firewall built by the Central Bureau didn't trigger an alarm; the moment the system identified the flawless, absolute density of his Stage 1 Qi Circulation, the encryption logic boards unconditionally dissolved.
High above his head, the suspended holographic display arrays rapidly populated with rows of prehistoric geographical telemetry and uncorrupted energetic formulas:
[SYSTEMIC CLEARANCE: ABSOLUTE SOURCE LOG]
[DATASTREAM IDENTIFIED: THE GRAND FAULT LINE INHERITANCE — MOUNT TAI SECTOR 02]
[ESTIMATED BREAKTHROUGH CALIBRATION: 100% ALIGNMENT]
[WARNING: PRIMARY DIMENSIONAL TEAR IN THE CENTRAL SANCTUARY SCHEDULED TO BREACH IN 72 HOURS]
Lin Feng stared at the cascading lines of gold code, a cold, undefeated smile curling the corners of his lips within the dim, ancient vault.
The institutional chessboard was completely scoured, and the mishap of the corporate pursuit had been transformed into an unshakeable national shield. The legacy clans were operating in total blindness, the Central Bureau was completely bound to his blueprint, and the true, undefeated path toward the absolute apex of New Huaxia was leading him right out of the classroom and straight toward the primary grand rifts of the country.
He slung his worn backpack tighter over his shoulder, his vacant, bottomless eyes reflecting the infinite geometric expanse of the golden light as the countdown to the global solstice continued to tick.