The fragrance lingered in the air, as if offering a piece of pure land for the soul. As everyone gradually came back to their senses, many began uploading the scene online.
At this moment, Shen Ningze actually hoped Su Cha would say something to him—at least to generate some attention. Unfortunately, faced with reporters’ microphones, Su Cha didn’t mention Shen Ningze at all: “After yesterday’s stage play, I saw the comments online and realized the content had upset people. But I’m inherently someone with a self-sacrificing personality…”
At this point, he forced a smile. “So even my spirit form has no offensive capability.”
Shen Ningze: “…”
He had always despised those who solved problems with brute force—mere thugs in his eyes. But now, he only wanted to leap over and slap that smug face.
Su Cha revealed a restrained expression. “I’m really not the social butterfly everyone says I am.”
One reporter, feeling somewhat ashamed, forced a defense: “Perhaps because the Head of the Investigation Department is willing to be your guardian, people misunderstood.”
No military school graduate had ever joined the Investigation Department, let alone been considered an heir.
Su Cha nodded in understanding. “Chief Xie agreed to be my guardian because he understands my personality.”
Every word was true. Xie Rongjue had indeed taken a liking to his ten thousand little schemes.
“…There have been several accidents around me in the past. The Chief probably just wants to protect me.”
The onlookers understood now—this was someone so kind even the Investigation Department’s Chief felt the need to guard them!
Among the crowd, Ji Tianjin subtly glanced in a direction. Receiving the signal, Su Cha turned to the Investigation Department staff member.
Without needing Su Cha to say anything, the reporters quickly snapped some photos—this was solid proof that Xie Rongjue cared about Su Cha!
The staff member finally couldn’t take it anymore. He had never seen someone so shamelessly clinging to connections. He stepped forward and said, “As far as I know, you haven’t met the Chief that many times.”
Su Cha replied calmly, “We usually communicate by phone.”
The staff member asked, “Is that so?”
The atmosphere grew tense. Reporters sensed something was off. Was Su Cha just clinging to a one-sided connection?
Watching it all, Shen Ningze curled his lips. The Investigation Department’s banner wasn’t something you could just wave around lightly. He looked forward to Su Cha’s impending downfall.
Su Cha let out a soft sigh and slightly raised his communicator. Under everyone’s gaze, he dialed a contact labeled “Guardian Angel.”
In the Investigation Department, Xie Rongjue had just finished a call with the affiliated school principal. Seeing the incoming call, he instinctively picked up.
“Hello.”
Su Cha didn’t enable the immersive video mode but turned on speakerphone: “Chief, I’ve successfully awakened.”
Xie Rongjue’s rich, magnetic voice was instantly recognizable: “I know.”
Su Cha: “I’ll work hard.”
With that, he ended the call on his own.
The scene fell dead silent.
A reporter was the first to find their voice: “G-Guardian Angel?”
Su Cha nodded graciously. “Mm.”
No one was more shocked than the department staff. Their entire worldview was crumbling.
On the other end, having been hung up on, Xie Rongjue sensed something was wrong. Going online, he quickly found the real-time footage uploaded by netizens.
The moment he saw what Su Cha had labeled him in the contact list, his finger—mid-adjusting his glasses—froze.
The Investigation Department staff’s challenge had been spontaneous, and Su Cha hadn’t touched his communicator before this, proving that in Xie Rongjue’s phone, the contact name had always been “Guardian Angel.”
“Is he crazy?”
Xie Rongjue was utterly stunned.
Everyone’s attention was still on Su Cha. In a neglected corner, Shen Ningze was about to be taken into an ambulance. Faking injury was a key part of the plan—it couldn’t go wrong. With the exposure of the name “Wolenson,” even his so-called good father had grown suspicious. If this went wrong, all previous efforts would be for nothing.
Shen Ningze discreetly pressed a button. A small pill slipped into his palm. Originally, he’d planned to wait until his body had metabolized the previous injection before taking it in a few days. But he could no longer afford hesitation. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed the pill.
The medicine melted in his throat, and his whole body began to tremble.
The doctor immediately noticed something was wrong and supported him before he collapsed.
Before their eyes, Shen Ningze’s hair began to turn visibly blue, and the space around him distorted slightly. The doctor released some spiritual power to stabilize the area and prevent injuries from the spatial distortion. After everything, this finally drew the reporters’ attention.
Cameras turned toward him, but instead of joy, his heart was filled with hatred. The drug deepened his awakening and gave him some features of the Fog Star race. According to Wolenson, Fog Star people commonly had bluish hair.
Due to the premature injection, his blood now boiled through his veins, causing subcutaneous bleeding. Shen Ningze could feel that his life was being burned away.
Su Cha.
That name, soaked in hatred, made him grit his teeth so hard they nearly shattered.
The sound of camera shutters went off one after another. Under the lenses, Shen Ningze lowered his head, blue strands falling by his ear. Someone whispered, “Is it a reversion to ancestral traits?”
“What an unusual kind of spiritual energy.” A reporter examined the destroyed stone pedestal—it had turned completely to powder. It didn’t seem to have been smashed but compressed.
“Could he be another awakened with a mystic-type ability?”
It looked like a pretty formidable power!
Having finally attracted the attention he wanted, Shen Ningze relaxed and passed out. In the distance, Su Cha watched the ambulance speed away, followed by a crowd of reporters, and felt a subtle shift in his heart.
Ji Tianjin had come to stand beside him at some point, and together they looked out. He said blandly, “That awakening was even more abrupt than yours.”
Something so out of the ordinary must be suspicious. Su Cha had always considered himself strange enough, yet Shen Ningze had outdone him.
“Let’s go back.” He looked away.
Whatever Shen Ningze was aiming for, most of today’s spotlight had already been stolen by Su Cha.
Ji Tianjin: “How’s your spirit form?”
Earlier, the spirit form had dispersed into countless small flowers and flown into the crowd—it was a spectacular scene. But normally, a spirit form that scattered like that would take a long time to recover.
Su Cha smiled and easily summoned the lotus magnolia again. Since he’d spent so much spiritual power earlier, he didn’t keep it active for long. As it was being withdrawn, a petal lightly brushed Ji Tianjin’s palm, like a greeting.
Ji Tianjin raised an eyebrow.
Su Cha shrugged, indicating it wasn’t his doing.
Spirit forms had some degree of sentience. If Su Cha treated someone kindly, it would naturally mirror his attitude. If Shen Ningze were standing there instead, that irritable spirit form would probably slap him with a petal.
They were just about to board their aircraft when someone suddenly broke through the barricade, hoping to get another whiff of the flower’s scent. But before Su Cha or Ji Tianjin could react, a teacher from Yuxiong Academy delivered a hard over-the-shoulder throw.
Coldly staring at the dazed middle-aged man who looked intoxicated as he stared at Su Cha, the teacher immediately called for security. “Take this pervert away.”
The man’s throat moved as he stubbornly tried to approach Su Cha again.
A small portion of Imperial citizens had an intense obsession with certain scents—among them, some were die-hard supporters of the Xilin Group.
“Let’s go,” Ji Tianjin said, activating the aircraft.
The crowd hadn’t dispersed—word of mouth had drawn even more onlookers. Staying any longer could become troublesome.
As they left, the barricades at Yuxiong Academy’s entrance were finally lifted. The biggest winners today were undoubtedly the reporters, who now had enough material to publish a full-length feature the next day.
Seated in the aircraft, Ji Tianjin finally asked, “Why did you label Xie Rongjue as ‘Guardian Angel’ in your contacts?”
Su Cha: “The angel is me.”
Xie Rongjue had submitted an application to become his guardian. A guardian’s role is to protect, so he was labeled as ‘Guardian Angel.’
After hearing the explanation, Ji Tianjin was silent for a moment. “And the others?”
Su Cha replied, “Instructor Li is Guardian Angel No. 1, General Yise is No. 2, and so on.”
The number order represented Su Cha’s priority list for potential guardians. Xie Rongjue didn’t even make the numbered ranks.
…
The military academy had once been a place Su Cha fiercely resisted, but now it was the only place where he could truly relax.
The outside world was too dangerous. Who knew when those poisonous tumors would finally be eradicated?
From the moment he entered the dormitory building, everyone who passed by gave him extremely complicated looks. In the information age, even the tiniest ripple could spread fast—news of Su Cha forming a spirit form had long since gone viral. The most stunned were the students who had signed the leave forms alongside Su Cha. Their gazes practically burned holes through him.
Returning from his awakening, Su Cha had manifested a “peerless white lotus,” smiling at everyone and preaching love wherever he went.
“Love fills the world and protects us all.”
In the end, Li Huai couldn’t stand to watch anymore and gestured for him to hurry upstairs.
Before leaving, Su Cha still made sure to remind the curious onlookers, “Everyone must believe in love and justice.”
He waved at Ji Tianjin with a smile in the stairwell and, once back in his dorm room, slumped to the floor against the door. The aftereffects of the awakening hit him hard the moment he relaxed—he could barely stand. Even a shallow awakening had been this difficult, and now he had to achieve a deep awakening within a month. Not easy.
“Cuckoo V40.”
“Please speak.”
“How can I increase my chances of successfully achieving a deep awakening?”
This time, the AI assistant was surprisingly humanlike and skipped the usual string of useless definitions, responding immediately: “The Energy Chamber.”
The school had a Perception Room—but what was an Energy Chamber?
After further questioning, the AI explained, “Training in the Energy Chamber can help enhance physical fitness. Its operation requires burning precious meteor sand. Currently, there are only three Energy Chambers in the entire empire.”
Meteor sand and wormholes were the main sources of conflict on the interstellar battlefield.
“What are the requirements to enter the Energy Chamber?”
“You are already on the backup candidate list for the Energy Chamber. Please wait for notification.”
Su Cha was stunned. He had no idea when that happened. He wanted to consult the administrator, but he was far too exhausted today. After resting a while, he forced himself to wash up before collapsing onto the bed and falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.
He slept solidly through the night and woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm. Su Cha didn’t linger in bed—he left a few minutes early to find Li Huai for answers.
“The school will report the names of outstanding students. The Energy Chamber quota is extremely limited. The list will be reviewed by multiple departments before the final candidates are determined.”
Li Huai looked at him. “Originally, your chances were very high.”
Most of his peers were still stuck in the first phase of awakening.
The word “originally” signaled a change. Su Cha probed cautiously, “But?”
“But now there’s been a shift.” Li Huai casually handed over a newspaper hot off the press. The bold headline read: “The Rising Twin Stars of the Empire.”
Su Cha read through the article. It took their shared status as experimental subjects as the starting point and noted how both he and Shen Ningze had undergone rebirth on the same day, awakening mystic-type abilities.
“I heard Shen Ningze’s awakened power is space-related,” Li Huai took a sip of tea and continued, “and it seems his bloodline is showing signs of atavism—his hair color and eye color are beginning to change.”
An awakening meant that a gene left behind by some distant ancestor had been activated. Changes in both appearance and ability weren’t uncommon—especially in Galan, which had a messy history of intermarriage.
“Some believe his future potential may surpass yours.”
Su Cha frowned. “That’s just blatant nonsense.”
“…”
Li Huai gave him a long, meaningful look. “In any case, several major financial groups are now backing Shen Ningze.”
After all, if Su Cha successfully completed a deep awakening, the plants he could cultivate might completely replace current pharmaceuticals. They needed to quickly raise someone capable of keeping him in check.
Su Cha only replied with a faint, “Oh.”
“Not worried?”
Su Cha shook his head. “I have backing too.”
“Yise? I’m afraid this is beyond his reach.”
Su Cha remained silent.
As their eyes met, Li Huai suddenly curled his lips into a smile. “Go to class.”
Just then, Ji Tianjin and Rong Shao came down the stairs one after the other, and the three of them headed to the teaching building together. As they walked, Rong Shao said, “I had insomnia all night. Still can’t figure out why your spirit form feels so pure and ethereal.”
As soon as he finished, Wu Shui and Liu Xiqin also emerged from the girls’ dorm, both with dark circles under their eyes. They were polite about it, explaining they’d been reflecting on the meaning of life all night.
Di Yuansi arrived late from the cafeteria with breakfast, also sporting obvious panda eyes.
Su Cha remarked softly, “You were thinking about life too?”
Di Yuansi, face unmoved, nodded once.
Su Cha sighed, “You all don’t understand my kindness at all.”
Everyone got goosebumps early in the morning and quickened their pace to shake him off.
That morning, there was a philosophy class — one of the few literature-based courses — followed by a mechanics class. Su Cha had no talent in this area and watched enviously as Rong Shao’s hands flowed effortlessly through the work.
Su Cha: “Teach me?”
Rong Shao coldly shook his head. Some things still come down to talent — like the little tower model he was building. Rong Shao was convinced Su Cha was only good at knocking towers down.
The class didn’t forbid talking, so Su Cha turned around and fixed his gaze on Ji Tianjin in the back row, silently asking for help.
Ji Tianjin didn’t refuse. He demonstrated it step by step.
Su Cha felt like he understood and confidently started operating the tools — only to cobble together something unrecognizable. Ji Tianjin carefully demonstrated it two more times. Su Cha copied him — and created another twisted mess.
Ji Tianjin fell silent and returned to focusing on his own project.
Su Cha: “Older Brother, help me.”
Snap.
The force wasn’t well controlled — Ji Tianjin’s model collapsed.
When Su Cha called someone “older brother” or “older sister”, his sweet tone could melt anyone’s heart. A classmate nearby smiled and said, “Call me older Brothe and I’ll help you.”
Before Su Cha could speak, Ji Tianjin flatly cut in, “No need.” Then he told Su Cha, “I’ll do one step, you follow one step.”
The Palace.
The true ruler of Galan sat at the head of the hall.
Graham Sanses — his ancestor, Crofts Sanses, was the founding emperor of the Galan Empire. Graham was in no way inferior to his predecessor. His spiritual power had long exceeded traditional classification. He had personally led four military expeditions, conquering more than a dozen high-level planets and bringing them under the empire’s rule.
The people of the Empire revered him from the heart and called him “Emperor Sanses.”
Today, nearly all the most powerful figures in the empire were present.
The head of the Seventh Legion stood before everyone and said, “Over the past week, the star pirates have shown signs of launching a joint counterattack. If we’re to continue the sweep, we need reinforcements.”
The empire had twelve legions. The Seventh Legion’s combat power was considered average. When it came to diplomatic relations with Fog Star, Emperor Sanses had only sent troops as assistance, without giving a clear stance.
Now, his gaze fell on Yise. “Within three days, deploy five thousand elite troops to the interstellar front.”
Everyone felt a ripple in their hearts — sending soldiers from the First Legion signaled that His Majesty had made a decision to establish formal diplomatic relations.
“Has the candidate list for the Energy Chamber been finalized?”
Someone immediately stepped forward. “The military department has finalized its list.”
After a moment of silence from the emperor, they realized glossing over wouldn’t work. So the person continued, “As for the student list, it’s still under discussion. We’re considering selecting one of the rescued test subjects.”
This was a way to show concern for the victims, though with only one available slot, it could only be shown through a single person.
After a tense wait, the emperor finally spoke again, asking for others’ opinions.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education were the first to speak — both favored Shen Ningze.
These two departments had always been good at playing both sides. They had some ties with the financial conglomerates. Giving away one Energy Chamber spot wasn’t a big deal. Besides, His Majesty hadn’t moved against the big groups yet — clearly, he favored stability.
The Deputy Chief of the Investigation Department immediately voiced support for Shen Ningze as well.
Others either remained silent or feigned deliberation. Only Yise clearly stood by Su Cha.
“I believe Su Cha is more suitable.”
Without warning, Xie Rongjue suddenly stood up. Everyone looked at each other, confused about what kind of show this was — the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Investigation Department actually backed opposing candidates.
Sanses seemed intrigued. “Let’s hear it.”
Xie Rongjue: “Based on past performance, Su Cha is far more outstanding than Shen Ningze.”
Although the minority must obey the majority, with both the military and investigation departments divided, the situation hit a stalemate.
“That’s enough. Discuss this privately and report back once you reach a conclusion,” Sanses said sternly. “In three days, Fog Star will send representatives for a cultural exchange. Make arrangements quickly.”
Meeting adjourned.
Yise and Xie Rongjue walked out one after the other. As they stepped down the stairs, Yise received a message from Su Cha asking about the Energy Chamber list.
Su Cha rarely took the initiative to trouble others, but he would never easily give up on rights he deserved. Besides, he was already considering naming Yise as his guardian — a polite inquiry was justified.
[Just finished the meeting. No consensus yet.]
The next second, Su Cha called directly, nervously asking, “Are you the only one who picked me? Do I have a real shot?”
Having seen the video of yesterday’s awakening, Yise glanced at Xie Rongjue beside him and replied coolly, “You do. An angel will love you in my place.”
Xie Rongjue: “…”
