Dawn of a New Era

Chen Shouyi stood on a small hilltop outside the Safe Zone, his hands forming circles, as if an invisible force was being drawn down from the air and merging into himself.

The breeze blew through the nearby leaves, making a rustling sound. From afar, the rhythmic mechanical hum of steam trucks on the highway reached his ears, and dust floated gently before his eyes. He could even hear his own heartbeat and the faint sound of blood flowing through his veins.

A few minutes later, he gradually stopped his movements.

The invisible force instantly dissipated.

He was panting heavily, drenched in sweat, his body swaying slightly as he almost lost his balance.

He opened the attribute panel and glanced at it.

"Strength has finally increased by 0.1 points, reaching 15.1," Chen Shouyi thought to himself. So much time had passed that he almost believed the second optimized version of the Thirty-Six Forms of Body Refinement had no effect on him anymore.

For the past three days, apart from sleeping and eating to replenish his energy, he had spent all his time on high-intensity training.

The intensity of this training was terrifying. At the level of a Martial Artist, every move could mobilize most of the body's muscles to participate in the exercise, leading to extremely explosive force during attacks, which in turn resulted in insufficient endurance.

His fighting style was intense and brief, like a flash of lightning.

If the consumption of stamina were compared to pouring water, an ordinary person's way of exerting force would be like pouring a slow trickle, whereas a Martial Artist would splash the water out directly, and no matter how much water there was, it couldn't withstand such splashing.

Ordinary people could fight for several minutes, even ten minutes.

For a Martial Artist, even one minute is already the limit.

Especially with such high-intensity exertion, akin to the Demonic Path, it caused significant damage to the body. If the fight lasted even a little longer, muscles would suffer various tears and strains, affecting even internal organs.

Very few Martial Artists could advance smoothly to a Grand Martial Artist. Besides talent and diligence, many athletes' bodies were already worn out before reaching this level, like a machine full of patches, appearing strong but rapidly aging once past their prime, often with lifespans shorter than ordinary people.

As for three days of continuous high-intensity training, other Grand Martial Artists, even Martial Artists, would have their muscle fibers torn and their internal organs shattered.

Only Chen Shouyi, with the ability of Natural Healing, could sustain it.

Muscle tears and strains didn't exist for him.

It's like metal fatigue breaking; the breaking of metal isn't caused by the last action, but by the gradual accumulation of damage starting from the first action.

The muscle tears and strains in the human body are no different, and the powerful Natural Healing repaired these minute damages, often undetectable by the human body, before they accumulated to the point of eruption.

Chen Shouyi wiped the sweat from his face, looked at the sky, and noticed the sun was gradually setting, so he prepared to return.

He tore apart his tattered clothes to wipe the sweat from his body and took a new set of clothes from his backpack to change into. Then he dismantled the War Bow, packed it in his backpack, and shouted towards the forest ahead, "Let's go back!"

Soon, a small figure scurried out of a small tree hollow thirty to forty meters away, quickly ran over, and climbed nimbly up Chen Shouyi's pant leg to sit on his shoulder.

He glanced at Shell Lady, whose little face was dirty, and her skirt was full of stains, with bits of dried leaves and rotting wood chips clinging to it. Her hands also held a couple of plump little bugs, whose origin was unknown.

Looks like I need to wash her clothes again, Chen Shouyi thought to himself.

She's been playing wildly these days. Over the past three days, her routine has completely coincided with Chen Shouyi's, sleeping only five to six hours a day without showing any signs of fatigue.

"Throw away those bugs in your hand!"

"Okay!" Shell Lady obediently responded, tossing away the two bugs she had nearly tormented to death.

"These are good bugs; they don't bite!" she explained after throwing them.

Hearing this, Chen Shouyi nearly stumbled.

Are good bugs supposed to be bullied?

...

The sun slowly set, painting the distant sky with a red sunset glow.

Once they reached the foot of the hill, Chen Shouyi grabbed Shell Lady from his shoulder, brushed the dust from her dirty face, flicked the dried leaves and wood chips from her body, and tucked her into the lining pocket of his coat.

The highway had returned to its previous hustle and bustle, with heavily loaded steam trucks flowing continuously. The factories on both sides had become even denser. Hedong City was slowly recovering from the scars of war.

...

After returning home and having dinner, Chen Shouyi was summoned by a City Government employee to attend a meeting.

He parked his bicycle in the parking lot and walked with the staff towards the City Government building.

The glass facade of the building that had been shattered to deal with the Barbarian God had been replaced, and the craters left by two truck explosions had been filled in. The entire square had been repaved with concrete.

Chen Shouyi noticed the place where the Divine Corpse had originally lain was now cordoned off, with warning signs placed to prohibit entry.

The two of them approached quickly.

Perhaps he had been staring too long; suddenly, reality seemed to peel away, and the distant buildings became increasingly blurry. He vaguely saw countless tentacle-like black fogs rising from the ground, clawing towards him as if trying to drag him into Hell. In his stupor, a faint distorted shadow hovered above the black fog, roaring ferociously.

"General Manager Chen, General Manager Chen, please come this way..."

The voice seemed faint, coming from afar. Chen Shouyi shook his head, and the hallucination quickly faded. He realized he had unknowingly stood near the caution line.

"Did you feel something just now?"

"General Manager Chen, what are you talking about?" the staff member asked, puzzled.

"Oh, nothing," Chen Shouyi replied.

He couldn't help but ponder:

"Is it because my senses are sharper than an ordinary person's, so I was affected, or is it the impact of the curse from last time? But since they've cordoned it off, something strange must have happened here recently!"

Before entering the City Government building, he looked back once more, shook his head slightly, and then quickly walked into the building.

When he reached the large conference room, he found many soldiers in military uniforms had already arrived. Judging by their demeanor, they were all Martial Artists, numbering around two to three hundred, far more than the civilian Martial Artists in the Safe Zone. The two groups sat separately, clearly distinct, and the atmosphere seemed somewhat delicate.

He sat in the front row, where Qin Liuyuan had already arrived.

Chen Shouyi quietly inquired, "What's happening?"

"I'm not sure!" Qin Liuyuan shook his head and replied softly.

After nearly a quarter of an hour, all the Martial Artists arrived. Soon after, the number one official in the city and a young man in his thirties dressed in casual clothing took the stage to preside over the meeting.

Chen Shouyi noticed that the young man sat rigidly upright, clearly also a soldier, though his exact role was unknown.

"In this war against the invasion from another world, over twenty-five thousand soldiers in the whole Hedong City sacrificed their lives. Among the military and civilian Martial Artists, over two hundred perished, and the civilian death toll is uncountable. This has dealt serious disaster and great loss to Hedong City..."

The meeting summarized the loss, casualties, and lessons from this war, then shifted the topic to the Martial Artists:

"I will reiterate, this is no longer peacetime. For those Martial Artists who disregard discipline and act recklessly, we will show no leniency in applying severe punishment. Of course, most Martial Artists are still good; some were just impulsive. With the principle of curing illness and saving lives, this time there will only be minor punishments as a warning, hoping everyone learns their lesson."

At the end of the meeting, the city's top official and the young man gestured, then showed a slight smile on their stern faces: "Let me introduce the person next to me. This is Director Lei, Lei Ruiyang, the first in Jiangnan Province to become a Martial Artist, from the Hedong City garrison.

Based on the decision of the Provincial Standing Committee, Lei Ruiyang has been officially appointed as the Director of the Martial Arts Public Affairs and Discipline Supervision Office!"

Lei Ruiyang stood, nodding slightly in acknowledgment, and then sat back down.

The military Martial Artists applauded enthusiastically, soon followed by the civilian Martial Artists, though their applause was noticeably more perfunctory than the thunderous applause from the military side.

Chen Shouyi clapped, his mind churning with thoughts.

He couldn't help but glance at Xiao Changming, also a military Grand Martial Artist seated to his left, who seemed completely unfazed with a slight smile on his lips.

Could it be that he too has been promoted to Martial Artist?

How much Divine Blood have these two consumed?

Or was the reward given to civilian Martial Artists diluted?