High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

Anning City.

Song Zhengye was dragged out of bed by his wife before dawn.

Li Xiuying cried for half the night after receiving a phone call from her son saying he was coming home. Then, she wiped away her tears and started rummaging through drawers and closets looking for clothes.

"This one is too old, this one is the wrong color, and this one makes him look like his grandma."

Finally, she tried on all the clothes in the closet, chose a purple coat, and looked at herself in the mirror for a long time.

Song Zhengye sat on the edge of the bed, slowly sipping his tea: "So what if our son is back? What are you wearing? Does he think he won't recognize you?"

Li Xiuying straightened her collar in front of the mirror: "What do you know? My son is now a member of parliament, the strongest human being, and he's all over the world's news."

"What if someone takes pictures? I can't embarrass my son."

Song Zhengye didn't respond. He went to the window and looked outside. Then he heard a distant rumble like thunder.

It wasn't thunder, of course, but the sound of a crowd, a huge crowd.

He opened the window, and all the neighbors poured out of the house.

"Song Chen is coming back!"

"Congressman Song!"

"Song Chen from our Anning City!"

Song Zhengye was taken aback. He turned to his wife and asked, "How did they know our son was coming back? Did you tell them?"

Li Xiuying stammered, clutching the hem of her clothes, "I was so happy when I heard yesterday that my son was coming back that I mentioned it briefly in the group chat, just one sentence."

"One sentence?"

"I might have said a few more words, or I might have said dozens more."

Li Xiuying's voice grew softer and softer.

Thanks to Li Xiuying's big mouth, the news that Song Chen was going home had already spread throughout Anning and even Nanjiang Province.

Nanjiang University, girls' dormitory building.

When Lin Qingxue sat up in bed, it was still dark outside.

She tossed and turned all night, barely sleeping, her mind replaying the scenes from yesterday's global live broadcast.

Song Chen stood on the Greenland ice sheet, with the aurora borealis behind him and hundreds of thousands of kneeling mythical beasts at his feet.

He said in that voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar to her, "Humans are no longer prey."

The other three girls in the dormitory cried on the spot. She didn't cry, but she couldn't sleep all night.

When I combed my hair in front of the mirror this morning, I noticed two dark circles under my eyes. I washed my face with cold water several times before they went away a little.

She tied up her long hair in front of the mirror, and just as she inserted the comb into her hair, a muffled thunderous roar came from outside the dormitory building.

The windowpane rattled from the banging, and my roommate's lipstick bottle rolled off the table and shattered into two pieces.

The other three girls jumped out of bed.

"An earthquake?"

"No, listen, it's a spaceship."

Lin Qingxue walked to the window and drew back the curtains.

Outside the window, three military spacecraft, arranged in a triangular formation, were slowly descending over Nanjiang University.

The airflow stirred up by the spacecraft caused the sycamore trees on campus to sway and fall, scattering leaves everywhere.

The students on the playground were all looking up; some were screaming, and some were taking pictures.

"What's going on? Why are military spaceships at the school? Could it be that some high-level alien beast has been discovered on campus?"

One of the roommates leaned against the windowsill, his face pale as he thought.

outside the window.

Three spacecraft hovered overhead, and one of them began to descend.

The spaceship landed in the center of the playground, the hatch opened, and Lu Zhengbei, the garrison commander of Nanjiang Province, jumped out.

Behind Lu Zhengbei followed a row of impeccably dressed colonel-level officers, each with their shoulder insignia gleaming gold in the morning light.

They lined up in two columns, stretching from the center of the playground all the way to the edge of the track.

Lu Zhengbei personally walked to the edge of the playground and asked the teachers and students who were watching, "Which dormitory does Lin Qingxue live in?"

The entire playground fell silent for a few seconds, and then everyone started looking around.

Lin Qingxue's roommate turned to look at her, her mouth agape in an "O" shape.

Soon, Lu Zhengbei found Lin Qingxue: "Councilor Song is about to go home. You are his family. Please board the ship."

Her face flushed red from the base of her neck to the tips of her ears, and her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of her throat.

It seems everything is clear now; he's back, and this was all his arrangement.

Lin Qingxue bowed and said, "Thank you."

Lu Zhengbei gave a smile that only an elder would give a younger person: "No need to thank me. Song Chen is from my Nanjiang Province, so his family is family in Nanjiang Province."

Lin Qingxue's ear tips turned red again.

The spaceship ascended into the morning light, trailing a pale blue tail flame as it flew westward.

Outside the city wall of Anning City.

This small city ranks low among the 108 base cities of the Great Xia Dynasty.

The city walls were not high, and the city defense cannons were also old models.

But today, the city walls are full of people.

Starting in the early hours of the morning, the streets and alleys of Anning City were deserted, and everyone was rushing towards the city wall.

By nine o'clock in the morning, hundreds of thousands of people had crowded together on both sides of the main road outside the city wall, stretching from the city gate all the way to the edge of the fields in the suburbs.

Someone held up a handwritten banner that read, "Welcome Councilor Song home." The handwriting was crooked and obviously written by a child.

Some people were wearing T-shirts with Song Chen's name printed on them; those were made overnight by a printing shop in the city.

Some people brought fresh flowers they had grown themselves, tied them into bunches with colorful ribbons, and placed them on both sides of the city gate.

Some people even carried their children on their shoulders and told them, "Remember this person; he saved us all."

At the very front of the crowd, Shen Qingshan, the garrison commander of Anning City, stood ramrod straight.

Behind him were all the officials of Anning City: the mayor, the speaker of the council, the city defense commander, the president of the martial arts guild, the head of the Shenlong Martial Arts School, and the heads of various departments.

They were all dressed neatly and stood upright.

Shen Qingshan specially changed into a new military uniform today, and pinned on all his medals.

They didn't know when Song Chen would return, so they could only wait quietly.

More than half an hour later.

The space flickered, and a handsome young man in silver armor appeared in the air.

It was Song Chen who traveled back using the void portal.

The moment that figure appeared, hundreds of thousands of people fell silent.

The first thing Song Chen saw was this sea of ​​people, hundreds of thousands of faces looking up at him, including the elderly, children, martial artists, and ordinary people.

He knew some of the people: Old Zhao, who sold breakfast on the street corner, whom he used to secretly slip an extra meat bun to when he was a child; and Aunt Liu, who would bring him a plate of dumplings every Spring Festival.

He didn't know most of the people, but their eyes were full of reverence.

He had seen that look in the eyes on the walls of Nairobi, on the walls of Manaus, and on the walls of Mexico City.

He had seen that look all over the world, but seeing it in Anning City felt different.

He slowly descended from the air, and Shen Qingshan came forward, snapped to attention, saluted, and then extended his hand to Song Chen.

Song Chen took his hand.

Shen Qingshan was somewhat excited: "Welcome home, Councilor Song."

Song Chen let go of Shen Qingshan's hand and walked towards the city gate.

Hundreds of thousands of eyes followed his every move, and then someone in the crowd shouted, "Song Chen!"

This shout was like opening a floodgate; hundreds of thousands of people shouted at the same time, the sound so loud that even the flags on the city walls were shaking.

Song Chen spotted Lin Qingxue at the edge of the crowd. She was standing under the old locust tree by the city gate, accompanied by a female officer sent by Lu Zhengbei. She was wearing the uniform of Nanjiang University, her long hair was blown about by the wind, and she was clutching the hem of her clothes tightly.

Her eyes were red, her lips were pressed tightly together, and it was hard to tell whether she was nervous or excited.

Song Chen walked towards her, and the crowd automatically parted to make way for her.

He walked up to her and looked down at her.

Lin Qingxue tilted her head back, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but her throat seemed to be blocked.

She looked into his eyes, and they were the same eyes she had seen before, the same eyes he had when he looked at her under the streetlights after evening self-study in their senior year of high school.

Song Chen reached out, pried her hand off the hem of her clothes, and took it in his own.

The movements were very natural, as if they had done them countless times.

"Let's go."

Lin Qingxue finally couldn't hold back her tears. She cried and laughed at the same time, wiping away her tears with her other hand, but she couldn't wipe them away completely, so she simply stopped wiping.

She was led forward by Song Chen, her hand warmly held.

Hundreds of thousands of people were watching her, but she didn't care.

The person she had been thinking about for so long just now took her hand in front of the whole world, and that was enough.

Some people in the crowd whistled, some clapped, and some made a fuss.

Standing at the front of the crowd, Li Xiuying clutched her chest when she saw this scene, then turned to her husband and said, "Old man, our daughter-in-law is so beautiful."

Song Zhengye didn't reply. He watched his son's back as he walked hand in hand with that girl in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

He coughed helplessly to cover up his embarrassment.

When Shen Qingshan accompanied Song Chen inside the city gate, he stopped and took out a key from his pocket and handed it to him.

"Associate Song, the council approved the document overnight, transferring ownership of the former garrison commander's residence in Anning City to you, to serve as your and your family's permanent residence in Anning City."

"The document was personally signed by Speaker Li Qingcang."

"Now that the beasts are gone, the position of garrison commander will soon be abolished. The house is just sitting empty anyway, so we might as well give it to the person who needs it most."