Chapter 26: The Plan to Exploit the System

The members of the Return to Earth Squad held the new edition of the "Qi Refinement Manual" in their hands, watching Chen Chushi leap and bound his way up to the rooftop of a tall building where he settled down to cultivate. A sense of emotion stirred within them.

Wu Fei, the survival expert, let out a long breath, patted his chest with a laugh, and said, "After spending a few days together, this 'Earth’s Last Descendant' is much easier to get along with than I imagined. I was worried he'd be like those cultivation maniacs in xianxia novels—reclusive, eccentric, and liable to smack you without warning..."

Chen Jingshan, the mechanical expert, frowned at him. "Before departure, the higher-ups provided us with a dossier, including a personality assessment. Didn’t you read it?"

Wu Fei rubbed his head. "Those things those emotion experts come up with are only half reliable! People's personalities are unpredictable—good and evil can be decided in a single thought. Something like that..."

Dr. Liu Qingqing pushed up her glasses. "His personality is gentle and matches his actions. But when I try to study him more deeply, it feels as if there's a layer of mist between us—he's hard to grasp, somehow..."

Wu Fei quipped, "Did you clean your glasses before you studied him?"

Liu Qingqing fell silent.

Everyone else did too.

At the corner of her eye, Liu Yinyun twitched slightly.

The team, by and large, was composed of calm and rigorous personalities—one might even say dull.

Wu Fei was optimistic and witty, talented and skilled. He was selected not only for his abilities but for his temperament as well, to keep the squad from sinking into a lifeless, humorless monotony.

Chen Jingshan said, "Enough out of you."

Wu Fei replied, "But I do have something serious to say, and it needs saying!"

"Go on," Chen Jingshan permitted.

Wu Fei said, "You know, our mission is to 'protect and assist Earth’s Last Descendant in cultivation,' but after two weeks here, it feels like we've been the ones under his protection. As 'ordinary people,' are we really of any use here...?"

Liu Jianghai, a computer genius with special access to the Xia Nation’s networks—allowing him to query, rewrite, and control any connected device in the country—was tapping on his phone. He suddenly smiled and said, "The advent of 'cultivation' will inevitably create new types of talent. We have a solid foundation—our skills may not come into play directly, but we're still far better off than ordinary people.

Don’t forget: when the leadership selected the Return to Earth Squad, another requirement was 'demonstrable results in practicing the Qi Refinement Manual!' Among all candidates in Xia, the five of us had the cleanest backgrounds, the most upright records, and the best cultivation progress! The captain managed to reach the entry stage of Qi Refinement under the harsh conditions of the spaceship; we’re not far behind. At the very least, we’ve stabilized at the Sense Qi level—talented, in other words!"

Wu Fei’s eyes lit up. "So, in other words, we’re basically ready-made disciples for cultivation?"

Liu Jianghai nodded. "That’s one way to put it. And before our cultivation bears fruit, our ordinary skills still have some value..."

Liu Yinyun cut in, "That’s enough discussion. After breakfast, we’ll try the new version of the Qi Refinement Manual."

The Return to Earth Squad members returned to their quarters.

Sitting atop the high-rise rooftop, Chen Chushi opened his eyes briefly to glance their way, then slowly closed them again. With his recent breakthrough, his senses were far keener than ordinary people's; even conversations hundreds of meters away could be faintly heard when the wind was right.

He hadn’t developed any new spells for over two weeks, nor had the system prompted him with any new achievement notifications.

The newly written version of the Qi Refinement Manual hadn’t triggered any achievements either. Chen Chushi sighed, feeling it was a pity—apparently, he couldn’t just milk a single method for all it was worth. Otherwise, the system would have witnessed what true human cunning looked like—beholding the terrifying spectacle of Qi Refinement Manual versions 1.0, 1.01, 1.02, and so on.

As he absorbed spiritual energy and cultivated, he could clearly sense his cultivation rising bit by bit, almost as if there were an invisible progress bar before him.

Effort that yields visible progress is the greatest encouragement!

He had also figured out the standard for the twenty-fivefold cultivation amplification: after some calculation, it was about twenty-five times his current cultivation efficiency.

If he was in poor condition and distracted, the gain would be five times twenty-five. If he was in excellent condition and wholeheartedly focused, the gain would be ten times twenty-five, and so on. The amplification was dynamic, not a fixed value.

Chen Chushi understood that twenty-fivefold was decent.

But it was still too slow; in three years, it wouldn’t save him from the solar catastrophe looming ahead.

Only by earning achievements, rewards, and higher amplification rates could he hope to survive.

In ancient times, everything revolved around the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Birthdays were reckoned by the five elements, houses built according to them, even the human organs were assigned their own element.

What he needed to do was compose a Five Elements Escape Technique—a manual for controlling the basic spells of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth with spiritual power. But these would have to be written separately: begin with "Water Arts," then "Wood Arts," followed by "Metal Arts," and so on—slowly racking up achievements from the system.

Frugal and thrifty—that’s me. Though, where exactly is my home?

Fragments of his previous world flashed unbidden through his mind: a bare room with several children hunched over their desks, frantically scribbling to solve problems, a stern examiner standing over them and watching every movement, jotting evaluations into a little booklet.

His spiritual power wavered for an instant.

Sitting on the rooftop, Chen Chushi’s brows drew together. He pressed both hands to the ground, and from beneath him, cracks radiated outward in a web. This expelled the unstable energy from his body, effectively preventing damage to his meridians.

He rubbed his brow. "This world is my new life. The past is gone."

There were surveillance cameras on the rooftop.

After the Return to Earth Squad arrived, netizens’ live streams had become little more than silent movies. Only when Chen Chushi was more than a kilometer away from the others did the audio occasionally break through, leaving viewers perpetually frustrated.

The spaceship’s online forums, by contrast, were in an uproar.

Everyone was discussing the reason Xia Nation had dispatched a team.

So long as there is network connectivity, absolute cybersecurity is impossible!

In the meantime, numerous foreign agents infiltrated the forums, spreading malicious rumors. They incited uninformed Xia citizens to attack their own government, claiming that the authorities were hoarding the secrets of cultivation for themselves, refusing to let ordinary people benefit, and so on—attempting to sow discord and destabilize Xia society.

Somehow, they even managed to recruit a handful of mentally unstable university students, hiring them to write false and slanderous reports, twisting the facts in an all-out assault on the government's reputation among the populace.

The Xia government responded with a public statement.

Its message, in essence, was: Earth’s Last Descendant is a citizen of Xia; the team was dispatched primarily for protection. The manuals he composes are available to all for cultivation. However, for societal stability, in the initial phase, every applicant must pass a thorough background check—no criminal record, no bad conduct, upstanding character will be given priority.

Those who do not pass need not worry; by reforming themselves and contributing to society, and showing clear evidence of improvement, they may also apply to cultivate.

Currently, the Xia network has been infiltrated by many hostile foreign agents seeking to incite unrest and undermine society. Citizens and netizens are urged to keep their eyes open, not to be deceived. If you encounter suspicious information or individuals, report it via the hotline and seek assistance.