As spiritual energy revived, I, having acquired certain attributes, gradually ascended to immortalit

"Gu Jingshi".

Thinking of that familiar figure, Shen Qing shook her head; it seemed like it had been half a year since she last saw him.

But it doesn't matter anyway.

The fact that she, a rich heiress, would fall for him, an orphan, already seemed absurd. When they got together, his roommates said he must have saved the Milky Way in his past life.

Looking back now, I guess high school was too strict. I wanted to try dating in college, so I used him as a practice subject.

Their high school was the best in Binhai City, so the management was quite strict. Even someone like him, who was considered a bottom-tier student, still managed to get into a top-tier university.

Plus, the university is close by, and he's someone I knew from high school, so I chose him?

As for why the two met—it was simply because he was poor and secretly did some small business, which led to them becoming acquainted.

Thinking back to what happened back then, Shen Qing couldn't help but smile.

As for the breakup, just as he said, it's over and done with. There was no awkwardness involved, and the two parted ways peacefully. Why would he insist on going after them?

"Let's go."

Shen Qing shook his head, clearing his mind of all sorts of random thoughts, and prepared to return to the base.

As he passed a commercial street, looking at the crowds around him, he remembered the important matter he had asked Xie Chong earlier.

"The more people there are, the more popular it is?"

His question, "Do you have family?" wasn't meant as an insult; he was just curious about how the other "Hummingbird" members managed their families.

Xie Chong's solution was to move to a more populated neighborhood; the more people there were, the more the demons would fear.

The entire coastal city's anomaly monitoring system is also built on the basis of population density, so places with many people are safe.

"How can we let my older brother and the others move?"

Buying a house is definitely not realistic right now, but even renting, especially in a high-occupancy neighborhood, would likely result in high rents.

……

Back at the underground base, after telling his older brother that they weren't going to eat today and getting a lecture, Shen Qing started training as usual.

"Damn, you need to roll it up."

Seeing this, the other members also felt embarrassed to be idle. After all, it's not that they're afraid of geniuses being strong, but that they're afraid of geniuses who also work hard.

Shen Qing dealt them a significant blow during the day.

Xie Chong, a newbie who had been with them for less than two months, was stronger than them, and it could be said that he came from Night Owl. But this newbie who had only joined for a week and hadn't even been officially promoted yet, was even more outrageous.

They exchanged a glance and then started practicing even more.

Soon, an hour had passed.

With 206 bones in his body, Shen Qing could clearly feel spiritual energy entering his body and slowly cleansing it, starting from his torso, then his limbs, and finally his skull.

A tingling, numb sensation; I could almost feel my bones becoming denser, heavier, and harder little by little.

"Excellent Bro."

Xie Chong, who was training alongside him, said slightly out of breath, "Can't we take a break? Or maybe we could go meditate and cultivate?"

Shen Qing rolled her eyes at him.

For F-rank, or ninth-rank, the focus is mainly on tempering the body. Meditation is more effective than physical training, unless one is about to break through.

"Da da da".

Just as Xie Chong was about to say something more, a group of people walked towards the training ground from the direction of the elevator at the end of the corridor, following the sound of footsteps.

"Is it the captain and the others who are back?"

Seeing Xie Chong craning his neck to look, Shen Qing subconsciously turned his head away.

Apart from these F-rank semi-new members, "Hummingbird," as the main force of the E-rank members, had all gone out on missions a few days ago.

The leader was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, Fang Shu, one of the seven captains of the Binhai Hummingbird branch.

However, only six people have returned, and each of them has a tense face and an unpleasant expression. One of them even has a bandage wrapped around his arm.

Another group of people followed beside them, wearing uniform dark gray outfits, unlike the "Hummingbirds'" casual clothes.

"That's... Night Owl's men?"

Someone frowned, their tone clearly defiant.

Everyone present had heard of the other party's reputation; they were an elite department selected from various places by headquarters, specializing in hunting down demons.

Normally, both sides have their own division of labor, so how did they end up in the hummingbird's base?

The marching contingent clapped their hands to signal everyone to be quiet, and then answered the question.

"Recently, Night Owl's friends have been using our lounge to rest and recuperate here for a while."

"Borrow? Why? It's not like they don't have their own base..."

Someone couldn't help but mutter to themselves.

Why?

Among the Night Owl team, a young man scoffed, "It's all because you guys aren't strong enough. If a demon escapes, you wouldn't be able to handle it even without us."

"What do you mean?!"

Behind the formation, the captain, whose arm was wrapped in bandages, immediately looked grim, his voice filled with suppressed anger.

"This mission was clearly your fault! It even resulted in one of our members being critically injured and on the verge of death. How dare you say we're not capable?!"

Upon hearing this, all the Hummingbird members present were stunned. Then, one of the members immediately deduced who was injured based on the absence of their captain.

"Squad leader, what happened to our captain?!"

The squad leader raised his hand to interrupt the commotion, and said in a heavy voice, "Team Leader Li is still receiving treatment in the hospital. As for the details... please don't disturb him for now."

The leader of Night Owls frowned and glared at the boy, but although he kept quiet, he still looked somewhat dismissive.

"Sorry, Captain Wu, and Captain Fang as well."

The Night Owl leader lowered his head and said sincerely, "He Ying is still young and may not speak tactfully. Please forgive him. This mission was indeed our mistake..."

"No need for an apology."

The squad leader snorted and interrupted, "The rest area is over here. I hope you won't wander around unnecessarily, so as not to cause any trouble."

"Don't worry, squad."

Night Owl, the leader, nodded and led his men to follow.

After watching the group disappear around the corner of the corridor, the training ground was quiet for a few seconds before a hushed murmur of discussion broke out.

"Damn, what kind of attitude is that kid?!"

"Exactly, it's clearly their problem. Captain Li was seriously injured because of it, and they still came here to swagger around... Well, to put it bluntly, it's because we're too weak."

Shen Qing did not participate in the discussion, but her brows furrowed.

One mission resulted not only in the captain losing his arm, but also in another captain being critically injured and on the verge of death.

He had only been a week since joining the official organization when he heard this news, and even though he didn't know the person in question, he was still somewhat unsettled.

My recent rise in strength has made me a little complacent, but I was immediately given a cold shower.

And there was the night owl, Shen Qing thought, looking towards the corner of the corridor.

"Have they always been this arrogant?"

Xie Chong said unhappily, "How can we not be arrogant? In our Hummingbird group, E-rank is the main force and captain, while the most ordinary members of other groups are E-rank, and the captains are even D-rank."

This kind of capability is limited in number nationwide.

He pursed his lips and continued, "The older ones are alright, many of them are from the military, but the new recruits are all incredibly arrogant."

Headquarters selection, resource allocation, impressive results... it's no wonder they get cocky.

"Especially that little brat, he'd better have fallen for it the other day."

With that, Xie Chong stretched and said listlessly, "Alright, I'm leaving now. I can't concentrate on training anymore since they're here."

Watching Xie Chong's retreating figure, Shen Qing didn't say anything and turned back to continue training. It can only be said that where there are people, there will inevitably be conflicts.

Strengthening one's own capabilities is the most important thing.

Since he's not going to visit his older brother and sister-in-law, it doesn't matter whether he goes home or not.

Now that the crowd had thinned out, he wanted to know how far he was from reaching E-level.