The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

These events, taken together, illustrate a very simple truth.

The struggle for the inheritance of the Penglai Islands is no longer just a matter for China.

Moreover—the fact that those people dared to bring guns shows that they didn't take cultivators seriously at all.

Before today.

Chen Siyao's lips curled slightly.

After today.

Now the whole world has seen that guns are no longer a panacea.

Her phone vibrated. Han Songyue replied.

[Received. Additionally, twelve bodies have been found southeast of the thirty-fourth island. They are not our personnel. The cause of death is blade penetration. Preliminary assessment: accidental killings by your formation.]

Twelve?

Chen Siyao blinked.

Her formation was called "Ten Thousand Swords Return to One," covering a kilometer radius. It could attack indiscriminately outside the formation's core.

In other words... there were twelve other people inside the Ten Thousand Swords Formation at that time, besides the mantis monster?

Just as she was about to reply, Han Songyue sent another message.

[These twelve individuals are foreign intelligence agents; their nationalities are currently being confirmed. You bear no responsibility. They illegally intruded first. However, this matter requires strict confidentiality, and relevant segments of the live stream recording have been technically altered.]

Chen Siyao stared at the screen, slowly processing the information.

Twelve people.

Follow behind her.

Without her knowledge, they were wiped out in one fell swoop using the aftershocks of the formation.

The screams that Yang Wanqing heard were the screams of these twelve people before they died.

She put down her phone and looked at Yang Wanqing, who was wiping his sword.

"Qingqing".

"Um?"

"The screams you heard earlier—"

Yang Wanqing pricked up his ears.

Chen Siyao opened her mouth, but ultimately shook her head.

"It's okay. You heard me right."

Yang Wanqing looked bewildered: "So what exactly is it?"

Chen Siyao looked at the gradually shrinking outline of the thirty-fourth island in the distance, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

"...I was using their Wi-Fi without permission."

"what?"

Yang Wanqing scratched his head.

The jade slip in Chen Siyao's hand felt slightly warm.

The speedboat sliced ​​through the black sea, its engine roaring. Everyone was either leaning or lying down, each in their own quiet place.

Ying Wenjie groaned, clutching his bleeding shoulder. Ye Chendong rested his injured leg on the seat, while Yang Wanqing drank water from the kettle, sip by sip.

Wu Tian closed his eyes and ignored everyone.

Chen Siyao read the contents of the jade slip three times...

The Crane Soars to the Nine Heavens Technique.

The core is not about cultivating Qi, concentrating the mind, or any flying or wind-riding techniques.

It is a pure body-refining technique based on the physical body.

Yang Wanqing leaned closer, the spout of the water bottle still in her mouth.

"What's wrong? You look so serious."

"Crane Soaring Through the Nine Heavens Technique, Body Refinement."

Yang Wanqing was stunned for a moment.

"Huh? A crane...practicing body cultivation? Shouldn't it be practicing something like spreading its wings and soaring high?"

Wu Tian didn't open his eyes, and replied calmly.

"Demons rely on their physical bodies. A crane can cultivate from the Foundation Establishment stage to the Mahayana stage not by reading books, but by refining every bone in its body thousands of times."

Ying Wenjie peeked out from behind.

"Will this technique be useful to us?"

Chen Siyao didn't answer directly, but only said two words.

"Flame Spirit Stone".

There was a two-second silence on the ship.

Ye Chendong dragged his leg over.

"you mean..."

"The enhancement path of the Flame Spirit Stone is itself body refinement." Chen Siyao put the jade slip into her pocket.

"After the ancient spiritual energy was severed, the Flame Spirit Stone, which was born from the mysterious revival in modern times, took a completely different path from the ancient Qi cultivation system. It strengthens bones, muscles, and meridians—all improvements at the physical level."

Wu Tian finally opened his eyes.

"Therefore, although the Crane Soaring to the Nine Heavens Technique is a demon beast cultivation method, its underlying logic is the same. The Special Affairs Bureau holds the largest reserve of Flame Spirit Stones in the country, but what it lacks is precisely a systematic body-refining method."

"Damn it." Ying Wenjie slapped his thigh—which aggravated the wound on his shoulder, causing him to wince in pain. "Isn't that tailor-made for them?"

"More or less." Chen Siyao had already started typing on her phone. "The professor has a sufficient theoretical foundation, so modifying the cultivation method shouldn't be difficult. The framework of demonic beasts differs from that of the human body, but the core meridian pathways can be mapped—"

Less than thirty seconds after the message was sent, Han Songyue called.

"You're talking about body-refining techniques? What grade are they? How many meridians are involved? Do they involve the bone marrow level?"

A barrage of questions came at Han Songyue, and his voice cracked.

"Director Han, please hold on a moment."

Chen Siyao gave a general overview of the core framework.

There was silence for five or six seconds on the other end of the phone.

Then Han Songyue blurted out...

"I'm at the dock now."

*Click*, the call ended.

Yang Wanqing muttered to herself, "Isn't Director Han usually quite composed...?"

Ying Wenjie said calmly.

"Think about those people in the Special Affairs Bureau. They just stare blankly at the Flame Spirit Stones all day, all brute force and no real system. Now, give them a complete body-refining technique, it's like equipping an army with truly suitable weapons and equipment. Anyone would be excited."

"I would do the same if I were in your shoes," Wu Tian nodded, grinning.

The speedboat docked.

Han Songyue was already standing on the dock. He hadn't had time to take off his white coat, and he was wearing blue plastic slippers from the lab, with one leg of his trousers higher than the other.

Three assistants followed behind, carrying two testing devices, jogging along the way.

Chen Siyao jumped off the boat and handed over the jade slip.

Han Songyue caught it with both hands, turned it over three times, and carefully placed it into the alloy shielding box.

"I have made a preliminary summary of the details of the exercise on the ship. I will send the complete text to your email later."

"well."

Han Songyue said "good" twice, completely distracted.

But suddenly, he remembered something else.

He lowered his voice.

"The Secret Service has preliminarily confirmed the identities of the people you encountered on the island."

Chen Siyao stopped in her tracks.

"A special operational unit of the United States and Japan. Not a regular army, but a secret assassination squad; the details are still under investigation."

Han Songyue held up one finger.

"The amount of Flame Spirit Stones in those people is more than forty times that of ordinary people."

A strong sea breeze was blowing in from the dock.

Chen Siyao stood in the wind, not speaking immediately.

Forty times. This isn't some amateurish method where ordinary people eat a couple of Flame Spirit Stones to "nourish their bodies"—it's a military-level, organized super-soldier project.

Some people are already systematically using Flame Spirit Stones to modify the human body.

These three modified warriors, with a 40-fold increase in strength, were completely suppressed by the five of them in less than a minute.

The entire process was broadcast live and spread across the entire internet.

"Director Han," Chen Siyao suddenly spoke up.

"Um?"

"That live stream... foreigners were probably watching it too, right?"

Han Songyue nodded, but did not give a direct answer.

At the other end of the dock, the Special Affairs Bureau's transport vehicle had already come to a stop. Qingfeng stood beside the vehicle and nodded to them from a distance.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean—

Some people are already replaying that less than 60-second video repeatedly.