"Brother..." Jiayi's eyes reddened again. Lowering her head in embarrassment, she muttered with a hint of coquettishness, "You treat me so well. How am I supposed to find a boyfriend in the future?"
"Uh, why?" A barrage of anime tropes flashed through Shen Yun's mind in an instant.
"Don't you know there's a saying among us girls?" Jiayi said in all seriousness. "You can't find a boyfriend who is worse than your older brother."
Alright, Shen Yun admitted that he had been a shut-in for so long that he was somewhat out of touch with reality. He shook his head helplessly.
"Don't worry about that. In the future, no matter whose kid it is, if he dares to treat you poorly, I'll strike him with lightning from the sky."
"...Mhm!" Jiayi nodded vigorously.
In just a single day, this pair of biological siblings, who rarely interacted in the past, seemed to have developed a true sibling bond. In China's millennia-old culture of blood ties, this was exactly what it meant to be family. Shen Yun glanced at Shen Xiangchen beside him, feeling a wave of relief wash over his heart. It was time to turn the page on their past family drama.
Just as this thought arose, he heard a series of CRACKLE and POP sounds from within his body. In a daze, a warm current surged through him. He suddenly felt the entire world open up, as if he had grown countless pairs of eyes, allowing him to "see" beneath his feet, behind him, above him, and even himself.
"Congratulations, Master..." Xiao Jiu's voice carried obvious excitement. "You've actually entered the Divine Thought Stage. As expected of you, Master."
"The Divine Thought Stage... Are you sure?" Shen Yun was stunned. "I haven't even officially started cultivating yet."
"Master's body hasn't gone through the first stage yet, but you have already unlocked your Divine Thought." On the phone screen, Xiao Jiu cupped her flushed cheeks, her eyes full of stars. "Master is super amazing after all!"
"So this kind of situation is possible." Shen Yun was still a bit bewildered, unable to fully grasp the significance of it all.
However, he could roughly sense that this was due to the efficacy of the Bodhi Branch just now. Originally, the Bodhi Tree was meant to bestow Enlightenment of the Great Dao. Wasn't it perfectly normal for it to provide some assistance in cultivation?
Shen Yun spent some time with his family. When the time approached eleven o'clock, personnel from the Spiritual Power Special Service Bureau arrived outside the door.
"I won't be coming back tonight." After saying this to his father, Shen Yun followed them and got into the sedan.
The streets were completely deserted now, utterly devoid of their former bustling nightlife. Shen Yun rode in silence all the way to the government office building. It was still brightly lit through the night; after all, there were countless subsequent troubles from the day's events that needed to be handled.
By this time, the Director of the Spiritual Power Special Service Bureau had already arrived. When Shen Yun saw the man, he was genuinely taken aback. He was a massive, three-hundred-plus-pound man with a comical, perfectly round face. His figure resembled a giant marshmallow, completely smooth without the typical rolls of fat seen on ordinary overweight people.
"I didn't use to be this fat." The man in front of him patted his belly, his small eyes filled with helplessness. "Perfected One Shen, I am Wei Er, Director of the Special Service Bureau. Like you, I advanced to become a Golden Core Level Perfected One last night. The fortuitous encounter and inheritance I received were related to the Taotie."
"Perfected One Wei," Shen Yun greeted him in return.
A fat man of this caliber was rare in China, and even rarer within the government system. If someone were this obese, their superiors would constantly express concern over their health.
"Since you already know about the Otherworld, let's get straight to business," Wei Er said, opening a small leather suitcase on the table. Inside lay a jade bottle, two perfectly square Jade Pendants, a green plant, and a small incense burner.
"An Elixir, Inheritance Jade Scrolls, Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, and a Dharma treasure," Wei Er pointed to them one by one. "These are the benefits found in the Otherworld, but they aren't everything."
The Otherworld...
So it was indeed possible to enter a completely new Otherworld.
"Is the power level high?" Shen Yun asked directly, voicing his biggest concern.
If there was a risk of his cheat ability being discovered, it would be best to avoid going if possible. He Anhe ended up so miserable precisely because he didn't play it safe.
"In the past, they were very formidable, but now..." A smile piled onto Wei Er's face. "At the very least, the strongest ones on the surface are only at the Golden Core Level. Oh, they call them Grandmasters. There are about forty or fifty of them."
"Forty or fifty..." Shen Yun's expression carried a hint of doubt. He thought it was impossible to have so many Golden Core Level experts without a single one above that level.
"There are nearly two thousand people in the Divine Thought Stage globally, but how many at the Golden Core Level? Only six!" Wei Er noticed Shen Yun's skepticism and shook his head. "You'll understand once you get there. It seems that cultivation is much harder for people in the Otherworld than it is for us. If that weren't the case, we would be sealing the passage instead of constantly risking our lives."
After all, this wasn't just about the interests of ordinary individuals that could be fought for with their lives. This involved an entire country, and even the entire world. If a villain surpassing the Golden Core Level were to arrive, Earth might be plunged into despair.
"Then, what do you need me to do?" Having figured this out, Shen Yun felt slightly more relaxed.
In front of him, Director Wei's expression suddenly turned indignant. He slammed his fist down hard.
"Steal the bride!"
"..."
Shen Yun stared at him, utterly bewildered.
It wasn't until Wei Er began to explain that he understood what was going on. In the Otherworld, the Cultivation Realm had always been prosperous, so their technological level had barely progressed. They were still in a feudal dynasty era. The largest empire had ruled over roughly half the continent's landmass for two thousand years. It was already riddled with problems.
After Wei Er and the others went there, they decided to help the people of the Otherworld break free from the oppression of feudal society. Drawing on Earth's thousands of years of civilized development, they aimed to gradually liberate their feudal mindset, starting by supporting the first Empress.
The result—
They were played dirty by the locals.
"Before, we didn't know how strong a Grandmaster was, so we acted with a lot of restraint. However, it still wasn't enough to beat them when they decided to play hardball." Wei Er let out a long sigh, but his demeanor instantly turned excited. "However, man proposes, but Heaven disposes! Now we also have Grandmaster Level experts, especially a top-tier Grandmaster like you, Perfected One Thunder! This changes everything!"
Originally, before the Heavenly Dao was reshaped, they had planned to give up. Once the Golden Core Level Perfected Ones appeared, a glimmer of hope seemed to emerge. And after Shen Yun demonstrated his strength, thorough discussions led them to believe that there was still much to be achieved!
"Pardon me for asking," Shen Yun said, looking at Director Wei in front of him, unable to shake the bizarre feeling in his heart. "What did you do before the Spiritual Qi revival?"
"Uh." Wei Er wiped his forehead, looking somewhat embarrassed. "I used to be a low-level civil servant, and a part-time web novelist."
Shen Yun's mouth couldn't help but twitch uncontrollably.
"Perfected One Shen, please don't think we are just ordinary people anymore." Clearly noticing Shen Yun's expression, Wei Er couldn't help but laugh helplessly. "Admittedly, I am a Director mostly in name only, but as long as it's something within my capabilities, I will still receive the utmost support and can act boldly."