Reborn as a tiger, he was chosen by the nation as its guardian beast.

Rumble!

On the very night the nation announced the news of the extraordinary event, the sky over Hwaseong suddenly darkened without warning.

The weather forecast clearly predicted a sunny day, but now it was shrouded in thick dark clouds, and soon, large raindrops began to fall.

In the pouring rain, a figure walked along the muddy mountain path, holding an umbrella.

This figure was Zhang Shouzhou.

He had now reached the entrance to a mass grave about four or five miles away from Wangjia Village.

He stopped halfway up the mountain and took a deep look at the brightly lit, now heavily guarded military base in the distance. That area was once Wangjia Village.

After a moment, he withdrew his gaze, resolutely turned around, and walked into the dark, chaotic graveyard.

Rain washed over the weeds and earthen graves, and all around was deathly silent except for the sound of rain and wind.

Following the strange dream that had been haunting him every night, Zhang Shouzhou wandered through the graves scattered everywhere, finally stopping in front of a tiny, inconspicuous earthen grave that didn't even have a tombstone.

The grave looked completely unremarkable, but Zhang Shouzhou was absolutely certain that this was the tomb of the ghost baby.

He stood before the grave, letting the rain soak his trouser legs, and remained silent for a long time before suddenly speaking, his voice muffled by the sound of the rain.

"You said in the dream that if I came here, you could help me enter the transcendent realm using a guiding technique. Is that true?"

Boom!

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a pale white bolt of lightning tore through the night sky and exploded with a deafening roar.

The flash of lightning illuminated the small grave.

In a daze, Zhang Shouzhou seemed to see the phantom of an infant sitting on top of a grave mound. The infant stretched out its little hand and pointed behind the grave mound.

The illusion was fleeting.

Zhang Shouzhou understood immediately and stepped around to the back of the grave.

With the help of the occasional flash of lightning, he spotted a strange little tree at a glance.

The sapling was no more than half a foot tall, emitting a faint fluorescent glow that stood out starkly in the dark, rainy night. At the very top of the sapling hung a black fruit the size of a thumb.

Zhang Shouzhou understood instantly.

The ghost baby was made to eat this fruit.

As one of the earliest people to come into contact with the extraordinary, Zhang Shouzhou was well aware of the dangers of these things.

Swallowing extraordinary plants whole, whether roots, stems, flowers, or fruits, almost always results in a near-death experience, except for fruits like the Vermilion Fruit which are virtually harmless.

Nationwide, there are at least eighty to one hundred cases of people dying from exploding bodies after eating unknown supernatural fruits.

Even those lucky few who survived mostly suffered from various problems.

Just like Huang Yifan, who swallowed the extraordinary cockscomb flower at the power plant, if it weren't for the powerful suppression by the extraordinary tiger, he would have ended up burning himself to death.

Moreover, this fruit is related to that strange ghost baby.

Who knows what will happen after eating it? Even if you're lucky enough to survive, you'll probably be haunted by that brat for the rest of your life.

Zhang Shouzhou knew very well that, following the correct procedure, he should immediately report to the state and send the fruit to the research institute.

We'll decide whether to take it after the researchers analyze the ingredients and determine its effects.

But he ultimately did not do so.

In his view, those so-called research institutes were nothing more than a group of ignorant people.

They only boast about their research results from other worlds. They don't even understand what spiritual energy is. How could they possibly understand the various spiritual fruits and extraordinary plants that are naturally generated by spiritual energy on this land?

This is similar to Western medicine, which, even today, cannot use instruments to detect the meridians in traditional Chinese medicine theory. Yet, he himself could clearly feel the existence of the meridians and used this to treat countless people.

The two sides' worldviews are fundamentally different, so how can he be convinced by those people?

The Buddha said, "If I don't go to hell, who will?"

"Since I'm going to be the first person to attempt to guide someone into the extraordinary realm, I've already prepared myself to die."

"So even though I am a Taoist priest, I am afraid I must act as a Buddha today."

A resolute glint flashed in Zhang Shouzhou's eyes.

In fact, he had been practicing the guiding technique every day for so long, but he had been unable to reach the crucial step of drawing qi into his body, and he had long suspected something was wrong.

This crucial step from mortal to extraordinary likely requires some special spiritual energy as a catalyst.

And this so-called catalyst might be obtained from these spiritual fruits.

Since that's the case, let him be the first to try it!

Without further hesitation, Zhang Shouzhou reached out and plucked the black spiritual fruit, then put it into his mouth without hesitation.

The fruit melts in your mouth.

The next moment, an extremely violent surge of energy rushed into his body through his throat, and then began to thrash around inside him, as if trying to tear his internal organs apart.

Zhang Shouzhou groaned, feeling the pain. He immediately threw away his umbrella and began practicing the guiding technique in the pouring rain.

Even in a chaotic graveyard, even with a little ghost lurking nearby, his movements remained meticulous, strictly following the guiding technique and accompanying breathing method that hundreds of predecessors and fellow practitioners across the country had spent a year developing.

He firmly believed that he could control the violent energy that had invaded his body, allowing it to travel along a fixed route through his meridians, ultimately helping him to enter a true realm of transcendence!

Once.

One more time.

Zhang Shouzhou practiced the guiding technique more than thirty times in a row. The extremely violent energy in his body that was initially so intense had become much gentler. Under his guidance, it flowed through his meridians again and again.

With each circling motion, he felt his meridians widen slightly, leaving a trail in his lower abdomen.

He felt his lower abdomen becoming increasingly hot.

Finally, at the moment the thirty-sixth induction was completed.

Each time he circulates a large cycle of energy in his lower abdomen using a guiding technique, a wisp of energy gathers there, gradually forming a small vortex.

The energy that had been wandering aimlessly within him, finding no place to rest, now seemed to have found its final home, and like rivers flowing into the sea, it was all sucked into that small vortex.

Zhang Shouzhou slowly finished his practice, stood still, and silently sensed the changes in his body.

Gradually, a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

He could clearly sense that his and many of his colleagues' conjectures were correct.

The art of guidance can indeed help people achieve extraordinary things, and it is a path that is completely different from the crude methods of gene-enhancing drugs.

Their approach and guesses were correct.

His Qi Sea has opened!