Chapter 419: Sixth Sense Amplification

Without a moment's hesitation, Xu Qiao'er shrank back in terror the instant she saw Yan Jing. Face completely drained of color, she darted straight behind the vice president.

"..."

No one had expected Yan Jing's intervention to heal Xu Qiao'er completely.

So—

The man before them was also skilled in healing?

Shock rippled through the group. Those who had crossed hands with him earlier had already experienced his offensive might; none of them imagined he also understood the ways of healing.

For a moment, a single word flashed through everyone's minds: solo operative.

Along with it came the mental image of the vice Domain Chief, the man hailed as Moon Yin's strongest solo operative.

Seventh Rank, Ye Jinyuan.

Naturally, no one directly compared Yan Jing's raw strength to the vice Domain Chief's. But if Yan Jing also possessed some sort of crowd control ability—

They couldn't help but suspect that the domain lord's recent summons meant he intended to groom Yan Jing as that man's successor.

Yan Jing neither knew nor cared what they were thinking. He looked at the stunned vice president and offered a slight bow. "As you can see, Miss Xu has no intention of taking things further with me. Matters of the heart require two willing participants. Let's drop the matter we discussed earlier."

With that, he stepped aside, preparing to pull out his phone and text Shen Youran. To his surprise, the vice president's voice rang out again. "Wait."

"Is there something else?"

Yan Jing looked up at the vice president.

He felt he had done everything required of him. Surely the other party wouldn't be... so utterly shameless.

"Was that... an Advanced Healing Potion you just took out?"

The vice president didn't even realize her own voice was trembling.

Yan Jing blinked, failing to grasp her implication.

But the words set off a shockwave through the crowd.

Almost in unison, the onlookers' pupils contracted as they stared at him in disbelief.

Even more puzzled, Yan Jing gave a hesitant nod. "It was."

After healing Old Master Liu, he had four Advanced Healing Potions left. Since they weren't of much use to him, he had just used two of them here.

It really was!

The vice president's breathing quickened. She stared blankly, mouth agape, unable to speak for a long moment.

"Um..." Yan Jing blinked again. "Are they rare?"

The crowd nearly choked in exasperation.

If they weren't fully aware they couldn't beat him, they would have ganged up to thrash this infuriating show-off on the spot.

"The last Advanced Healing Potion to circulate on the market appeared at a high-end auction seven years ago," Sheng Xia finally stepped forward to explain. "Everyone in attendance was a major political figure or an industry titan. The potion ultimately sold for thirty million surface coins."

She looked at him with complicated emotions, entirely blindsided by the fact that he had casually tossed out two of them.

That was a staggering sixty million!

And he didn't look the least bit pained by the loss.

Even after her explanation, his expression remained completely unchanged.

Yet beneath that calm exterior...

Yan Jing's heart was bleeding.

He had no idea these trash items rewarded by quests were so expensive. Sure, sixty million meant nothing to him now, but still—

It was sixty million!

Having been poor his entire life, Xiao Yan suddenly felt a tight ache in his chest, leaving him short of breath.

"Right, then we're even," he said softly, looking across at Xu Qiao'er.

A violent shiver suddenly wracked Xu Qiao'er's body. For some reason, she caught a faint glimmer of killing intent in Yan Jing's eyes.

Terrified, she shrank even further behind the vice president.

But the vice president ignored her entirely, forcefully pushing Xu Qiao'er forward. "What are you being so shy for, child? Can't you see Xiao Yan's dedication and feelings for you? Speak your mind, go on, hurry up..."

In truth, the vice president could also sense the killing intent rolling off Yan Jing. But as a seasoned veteran of society, she simply pretended not to notice. As the saying went, a person lives for face, a tree lives for bark—but while a tree dies without its bark, a person without face is invincible.

The man standing across from her was a walking mountain of gold. If they could latch onto even a fraction of it, the Precognition Society would thrive for at least a century. Compared to that, what was face?

Finally, Zhao Dongchuan stepped in to smooth things over. "It's getting late, and everyone has been traveling for a while. You must all be tired. The Precognition Society has prepared a banquet featuring local delicacies from the Fourth Ring Domain. You can all enjoy a good meal and relax."

"Furthermore, another team has arrived alongside us. It'll be a good chance for everyone to get acquainted."

With Zhao Dongchuan's words, the crowd seized the excuse to drop the subject and set off for Precognition Gorge.

Sitting in the car, Yan Jing spoke on the phone with Shen Youran. "Yeah, I've arrived. Right, Dongchuan is here too."

"The scenery in the Fourth Ring Domain is definitely different from the Fifth Ring Domain. The mountain views are beautiful, and the starry sky is stunning. Paired with the vast, open landscapes, it's a very unique feeling."

Yan Jing gazed out the window.

Stars scattered across the vast night sky like sprinkled gold, forming faint nebulae. The mountains below resembled the karst topography of his past life—rolling hills almost entirely barren of trees. As the vehicle started up, the stars seemed to move with it, as if weaving through the mountain ranges. The sheer expanse of the sky and earth lifted his spirits and cleared his mind.

He controlled his voice so no one else could hear him. It was a five-seater vehicle; aside from the driver, Xu Qiao'er, Zhao Dongchuan, and Sheng Xia were in the same car with him.

Originally, the vice president had arranged for Xu Qiao'er to sit right next to him, but upon boarding, both of them tacitly swapped seats.

It ended up with him in the passenger seat, while Dongchuan and Xu Qiao'er took the window seats in the back, leaving Sheng Xia in the middle.

Sheng Xia watched Yan Jing converse on his phone without a single sound coming out, her gaze growing solemn.

However he was doing it, this ability to control sound was incredibly practical. It could be of massive use during Inner World Dungeon missions.

The term 'solo operative' surfaced in her mind once again.

Now even she couldn't help but suspect that the man truly wanted to groom Yan Jing into the next Ye Jinyuan.

At that thought, she turned to Zhao Dongchuan beside her and asked softly, "Are you and Mr. Yan well acquainted, Mr. Zhao?"

Zhao Dongchuan was a bit bewildered. Given that Yan Jing was sitting right in front of them, he hadn't expected Sheng Xia to ask so bluntly.

"Actually... we aren't that close. This is only our second time meeting..."

"Then what exactly... is your relationship?"

"Our relationship?" Zhao Dongchuan rubbed his nose. "About two boxes of mooncakes, I suppose..."

"Two boxes of mooncakes..."

Sheng Xia blanked. Before she could make sense of it, Yan Jing's voice suddenly drifted over. "If you want to know, you can just ask me, Miss Sheng. There's no need to be secretive about it."

Sheng Xia's expression shifted.

She looked at the space between herself and Yan Jing, verifying that the invisible Screen she had deployed remained intact. It was one of her abilities—similar to a barrier, one of its effects was isolating sound.

Yet Yan Jing had not only heard her conversation with Zhao Dongchuan, but had even projected his own voice over, leaving her heart unable to calm.

In her eyes, this man was becoming more and more mysterious.

Yan Jing didn't speak again to push the topic further, quietly bidding Shen Youran goodbye on the phone.

Unexpectedly, before he hung up, Shen Youran said, "Xiao Yanzi, I'll send you a message. No one over there is looking, right?"

"It's fine, you can just say it."

Yan Jing had long since isolated the two of their voices. Compared to electronic programs he couldn't control, he trusted his own abilities far more.

"Alright. I looked into that guide of yours."

"I found out... she has a bit of a problem."

"What problem?" Yan Jing asked, his expression calm.

"Based on the intelligence I've gathered from various channels, I suspect..."

"She's one of the six people from the First Ring Domain in your generation."

As Shen Youran's words landed, Yan Jing's gaze narrowed slightly.

The two chatted a little longer before Yan Jing finally hung up the phone.

Through the rearview mirror, he shot a glance at Sheng Xia in her leather skirt and heavy coat, then slowly retracted his gaze.

Perhaps the purpose of this trip wasn't as simple as just an early recruitment like Sheng Xia had claimed.

The car drove all the way forward. About an hour later, the group smoothly arrived at the Precognition Society's headquarters.

Waiting for them here was another team similar to Yan Jing's.

The one leading them was a strong, powerfully built man wearing a goose-feather cloak.

The man had his hair slicked back, sunglasses perched on his forehead, and perfectly defined muscle lines showing on his upper body.

Upon seeing everyone get out of the cars, he smiled at the crowd and called out, "Finally here, everyone! Any later and we would have starved to death!"

Though he didn't communicate directly with Sheng Xia, Yan Jing still caught the brief exchange of glances between them. After seeing Sheng Xia, the smile on the man's face became even more pronounced.

The dinner banquet went very smoothly, and blandly.

There were no clashes or conflicts; it felt as ordinary as a normal trip.

But Yan Jing still noticed a few unusual details. The six people on the opposing team all looked a bit grim, and the atmosphere was very silent. Throughout the meal, the six of them would occasionally steal glances at the man in the goose-feather cloak—Zhou Kai—as if checking his expression.

While the atmosphere on his own team wasn't exactly high-spirited, it was much more harmonious after the apologies on the plane.

Nothing else was said that night. After everyone got a good night's sleep, it was the "check-in day" on the second day.

The "check-in" location was on the roof of a large building constructed on a sheer cliff.

Sunlight spilled from the other end of the horizon, stretching the shadows of countless mountains and gorges before finally falling onto the crowd on the roof. As the mountain breeze blew past, Yan Jing narrowed his eyes, enjoying this chance to empty his mind.

The one in charge of this project was still that same vice president, Ye Liu.

Standing on a raised platform, she spoke softly. "Greetings, everyone. On the way here, your guides should have briefed you on the purpose of this trip. The reason the Fourth Ring Domain check-in point was set here at our Precognition Society's Precognition Gorge is so that you can all experience our Precognition Society's project—Sixth Sense Amplification."

"As everyone knows, people possess five senses. And the sixth sense outside of those five is often referred to as heart-sense or intuition. This ability provides immense help for crisis prediction and flexible adaptation in combat. And our Precognition Society possesses a heart method excavated from the Inner World, capable of amplifying your sixth sense."

"What we will be leading you to experience today is the first chapter of this heart method."

With that, Ye Liu had everyone sit cross-legged, close their eyes, and clear their minds of distractions. She then recited a passage of scripture, instructing the group to silently chant along word by word in their minds.

Yan Jing followed suit. As those obscure verses were chanted in his mind, he quickly grasped the brilliance of this heart method.

This heart method was not a product of the current era.

The characters surfacing in his mind flickered with a faint white light, gentle as a handful of hot spring water. Yan Jing was certain it was something entirely different from weird energy, because he had come into contact with too many similar energies.

Whether it was from behind the great curtain or the Power of the White Stone, Yan Jing was incredibly familiar with it. So he immediately deduced that this heart method must be an item the Precognition Society had collected in the Inner World that had evaded infection by the Source of Mutation.

Such items had to be unfathomably rare. It was no wonder the Precognition Society treasured it so.

The power of those characters was incredibly mild, but when Yan Jing tried to absorb them, he found the rate wasn't fast. Upon contact, he could feel the characters actively resisting him.

It seemed to be because of the weird energy inside his body.

Immediately, he channeled the Power of the White Stone.

Instantly, his absorption speed skyrocketed.

If his original speed had been a mountain stream about to dry up, his current rate of absorbing these characters was like a great river. They simply couldn't be compared.

Up on the platform, the Precognition Society's vice president observed the meditating crowd. Sweeping her gaze over them one by one, she quickly noticed that the team led by the man in the greatcoat was catching on much faster than Yan Jing's side.

Though only a few seconds had passed, almost all six of them had already begun to retract their weird energy fluctuations.

However, she showed no signs of delight. Instead, she shot Zhou Kai a helpless glance.

She knew without thinking that Zhou Kai had definitely leaked the answers beforehand.

Having guided this heart method for so many years, she was very clear on who was cheating beforehand.

But she couldn't say anything. She had heard rumors about the roster of guides this time around, fully aware that these individuals would be the true pillars of authority later on, and might even become her leaders.

Some things were better left pretended not to be known.

Even so, she still spotted someone relatively unique among the six: a young man who looked to be in his twenties, whose weird energy suppression was clearly a cut above the rest.

He should be the leader of that team.

She understood in her heart.

Right at that moment, she looked toward the one she had been keeping in mind—Yan Jing.

Suddenly, her pupils contracted.

"You cheated..."

Sheng Xia didn't give Zhou Kai a good look, directly rolling her eyes at him.

"Hey! Don't slander a good person."

Zhou Kai chuckled. "Don't spout nonsense without proof."

Sheng Xia had no desire to bicker with him. She knew Zhou Kai's personality—a typical contrarian. He would argue back a few times even if that person came.

The key point was his extraordinary talent; he had been born with an innate Inner World ability, and his current strength was terrifyingly strong. As a result, even that person let him have his way from time to time.

"Is there anyone worth noting on your end?" she asked softly, looking at him.

"Nope."

Zhou Kai shook his head. "They're all weak. Unbelievably weak. It's hard to imagine they're seeds from the same generation as us. I'm going to apply for a new batch when I get back. I don't want a subordinate team like this."

"..." Sheng Xia sighed. "They don't have as many resources as we do. There's no need to be so harsh."

"Resources are fought for." Zhou Kai smiled, completely dismissing Sheng Xia's words.

"Though there is one kid who isn't too bad. He was very arrogant at first, but after I knocked some sense into him, he became honest. He can barely qualify to join my team later."

"You made a move?" Sheng Xia's expression changed. She'd had a feeling during dinner yesterday, but she hadn't expected Zhou Kai to actually act on it. After all, that person had explicitly ordered them not to expose themselves during the first half of the journey. Even if they were guessed, they were to try their best not to make a move.

"Hey, hey, didn't you hear me? The kid was arrogant. I was just giving him an education."

Zhou Kai gave a cruel smile. "Besides, I didn't expose my identity. It was just a little beating. If you don't discipline people like them, what happens when they get slaughtered outside by someone from another region? Who's going to listen to reason?"

"At the end of the day, they're simply too weak."

"Take this heart method learning, for instance. How long do you think they need to absorb it? Half a day? Three hours?"

"Stop joking. I'd guess there isn't a single one who can do it in under two hours."

"I remember it took you twenty-four minutes back then. I was a bit faster—twenty-two minutes."

"Later on, Moon Yin will still have to depend on us."

"Depend on you for what?"

Suddenly, Yan Jing's leisurely voice sounded. Zhou Kai's pupils constricted as he stared in disbelief at Yan Jing, who had stood up at some unknown point.

"Did I scare you? My apologies."

Yan Jing spoke. "I'll keep my voice down next time."