Chapter 66: Spying

When night had fully fallen, Chen Chong braved the thick darkness and arrived at the Power Station once again.

A wave of heat rushed toward him, and the roar of the electric motors echoed throughout the factory building. The other five laborers at the Power Station had already finished their shifts, leaving only Old Xu wandering around idly, bored out of his mind.

Seeing Old Xu emerge from the generator room, Chen Chong raised a hand and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Old Xu, waiting for me? Why didn’t you drink a little more tonight?”

“Not drinking anymore. I finished the last of my stash a few days ago.”

The sudden voice startled Old Xu. He first responded with a touch of irritation, then turned around and stared intently. By the dim light, he eyed Chen Chong’s now tall and imposing figure with suspicion and couldn’t help but say,

“I gotta ask, kid—is it that this old man’s eyes are going blurry, or did you eat some kind of feed? How come I feel like you’ve not only gotten a lot taller, but your whole frame looks like it’s been pumped full of air?”

After spending the past half-month together, Chen Chong already knew that Old Xu relied on his electrical knowledge and skills to make a living in the Territory. He stayed out of conflicts, had no ill nature, and was mostly just teasing him. Chen Chong immediately burst out laughing.

“Old Xu, who are you looking down on? I’m an Awakener, after all. Now that I can eat and drink my fill every day, what’s so strange about bulking up a little?”

But in such a short time, your growth is way too exaggerated!

Suppressing the urge to poke Chen Chong’s bulging muscles to see if he was some kind of inflatable doll, Old Xu grumbled inwardly. He didn’t press further, nor did he think too deeply about it.

In his mind, all Awakeners were freaks, not something an ordinary person like him could understand with common sense.

“You finished your stash? Then you’re in for a treat again.”

Chen Chong chuckled, pulling out a small bottle of alcohol from his pocket. “Old Xu, my ration just came in. You got lucky.”

Seeing the bottle Chen Chong produced, Old Xu’s eyes lit up. He immediately tossed all his questions to the back of his mind and beamed.

“Kid, you’ve got a good heart!”

…

Late at night, the roar of the electric motors continued without pause inside the Power Station, while outside, everything was completely silent.

Old Xu was already dead drunk, snoring loudly in his room. Chen Chong, meanwhile, went to a hidden corner of the generator room and began his training step by step as usual.

It was not yet past midnight, so he temporarily held off on using Electrotherapy to cultivate his Qigong. Instead, he struck one complex pose after another, practicing the Body Tempering Iron Body chapter of the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art.

During this period of training, aside from his body rapidly expanding, Chen Chong’s skin all over had faintly taken on a dark, bluish hue. And now, as the twenty-seven secret poses shifted one after another, Chen Chong’s blood and Qi surged throughout his body. Every single one of his power ful muscles trembled and flexed slightly, emitting an exaggerated luster like that of iron, making his entire figure look as if it were cast from metal.

This, naturally, meant that Chen Chong’s training results were remarkable, and he was not far from achieving the first stage of the Vajra Indestructible Divine Art, the Body Tempering Iron Body!

During this process, apart from his internal organs, which were continuously nourished by True Qi, every single muscle fiber of Chen Chong’s felt as though it was being repeatedly hammered and forged, growing thicker, stronger, and tougher.

…

While Chen Chong was silently training inside the Power Station, a figure drifted silently closer in the pitch-black night, like a ghost.

Yin Hu moved like a leopard hunting in the jungle, making no sound as he walked. He arrived at the outer wall of the Power Station, a mysterious glint flickering in his eyes.

He looked up at a row of ventilation windows three meters above the ground. Yin Hu kicked off the wall and lunged upward, easily hooking his arm onto the windowsill. He climbed up with ease and then cast his spying gaze into the Power Station.

Within his line of sight, an iron shovel stood quietly in a corner. The interiors of the five boilers blazed fiercely, emitting billowing waves of heat. The entire Boiler Room was completely empty.

“There’s definitely something fishy going on!”

His gaze swept back and forth, but he still couldn’t spot Chen Chong. A sinister smile curled at the corner of Yin Hu’s lips.

“But unfortunately… you can’t hide it from me!”

The change in Chen Chong’s physique was especially obvious to Yin Hu, who had more frequent contact with him. In just this short half-month, Chen Chong seemed like a completely different person compared to the memory of when he first arrived.

When Awakeners were close to each other, they could vaguely sense the intensity of the other’s Life Field. The moment Chen Chong walked into the room that evening, a faint sense of threat had stirred in Yin Hu’s heart. At first, he thought it was his imagination, but after careful consideration, he realized that some enormous change he was unaware of might have occurred within Chen Chong, which triggered this feeling!

“The Power Station only has the main gate as an exit. He should still be inside.”

“What could it be? What is it that made this kid’s body grow so wildly and let him jump from an Initial Awakener to a level that even I find threatening? What secret is he hiding?”

“Could he be an Awakener with some kind of Dominant Ability?”

“No, that’s not right. Even if it were a Dominant Ability, it would only gradually take effect as his Life Field improved. Chen Chong is just the weakest Initial Awakener, and his Spiritual Fruit ration is at the lowest tier. There’s no way it could let him grow to this extent in just half a month.”

“The Power Station… he voluntarily chose to work at the Power Station. Could it be related to this?”

Yin Hu licked his lips. No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out why Chen Chong had undergone such a massive change. However, convinced that he had caught onto Chen Chong’s secret, his eyes were filled with nothing but excitement.

“I wonder if Gu Jun has noticed something off about this kid. I have to dig out his secret as soon as possible!”

After waiting a moment and still seeing no sign of Chen Chong, Yin Hu nimbly leaped down from the high windowsill, making almost no sound. He quickly approached the main gate of the Power Station and slipped inside without a trace.

The light inside the Power Station was dim, and the roar of the electric motors rumbled on, perfectly masking every subtle sound of Yin Hu’s movements. First, like a phantom, he quietly crept to Old Xu’s room. Through the window, he saw Old Xu, drunk and snoring loudly in his sleep.

“Not here… Let me see just what you’re up to?”

Finding no trace of Chen Chong, Yin Hu sneered inwardly. Like a drifting specter, he quietly made his way toward the generator room.

The entire Power Station was roughly divided into two sections. Since Chen Chong wasn’t in the Boiler Room, the only place he could be hiding was the generator room. He had a feeling that Chen Chong’s choice to work at the Power Station, combined with such strange changes in his body, was most likely connected to it.

And just as he crept into the generator room, concealing himself behind a rumbling electric motor, Yin Hu immediately spotted a faint shadow cast on the wall in the farthest corner of the corridor to his right, holding a strange posture.

“Got you!”

Overjoyed, Yin Hu silently crept closer.