Chapter 3

....

7 pm.

Arius's family finally sat down together to have their dinner.

"Your father was halfway home when something cropped up at work again. He had to go back, so he was delayed by more than an hour. Can't you go back after you finish your dinner?" Dianne complained as she placed some food in Arius's bowl.

Arius was holed up in his room for more than an hour. He also forgot about his dinner, but fortunately, his father was late because of work.

"It was an emergency. I had to go back and take care of it first," Alexander replied helplessly.

"Let's ignore your father. His mind is always fixed on his stupid company." Dianne rolled her eyes at Alexander.

Arius smiled.

When he was in high school, his relationship with his father was a little tense. Alexander had great hope for his child, so naturally, he was strict. However, Arius was in his rebellious phase, and he didn't study at all. Thus, the conflict between him and his father got more intense.

Thinking back on it, Arius felt that his actions were childish in the past.

On the dining table, Arius and Alexander were quieter as compared to Dianne. She placed food in Arius's bowl and chatted with the father and son.

Arius enjoyed this atmosphere.

Alexander had a short conversation with Arius. He was mostly concerned with his studies.

Arius's replies were quite standard. He wasn't as childish as before, and he didn't throw tantrums or smash his chopsticks.

Alexander was pleasantly surprised. He felt that his son was different today, but he didn't overthink. After finishing his dinner, Alexander left the house in a hurry.

As the boss of a huge company, he had many things to settle every day. Most of the time, he could only sleep for four to five hours daily.

Arius informed his mother before leaving the house too. He rushed straight to the Shining Martial House.

A yellow sports car zoomed along the streets in the night, its loud engine catching the attention of many pedestrians. Most of the cars today used the Spiritual Ki as their source of energy. Fuel had long been eliminated. The Spiritual Ki was more environmentally friendly and cheaper.

The pioneers didn't just bring back the methods of cultivation from the Amazon Continent. They also brought back many new technologies.

The Spiritual Ki rune was one of them.

By combining the technologies from the Amazon Continent and the Earth, the Spiritual Ki technology was born. From then, cars started to use the Spiritual Ki. Later on, computers and phones also shifted to the newly invented Spiritual Ki runes chip and batteries. They worked faster and could last longer…

Half an hour later, Arius parked his car outside the martial arts school.

Based on the information he found, Shining Martial House was one of America's top three martial arts academies. The principal of this school was a 12-star general-rank martial warrior. He was ranked among the top 5 warriors in America.

Worldwide, he was ranked among the top 20.

There were different ranks for martial warriors: 1-star to 9-star were soldiers, 10-star was brigadier general, 11-star was low-tier general, 12-star was general, 13-star was high-tier general…

From this, one could tell how powerful the principle of the Shining Martial House was.

The headquarters of the Shining Martial House was in Texas State Capital, with its branches spreading over the big cities in America. They had a lot of martial warriors in their employment and had given birth to many powerful people.

The Whitebridge County branch of the Shining Martial House was situated beside the sea. In the dark, it looked like a huge wild beast lying prone. The landmass it covered was comparable to a high school.

The martial arts academy's main gate was wide enough for five cars to drive through side by side. It was grandeur and magnificent, to say the least.

There was a huge rock erected in the middle of the main gate. The words 'Shining Martial House, Whitebridge branch' were written conspicuously in gold.

When he reached the sentry box, a few guards carrying guns walked to his car.

"Routine inspection, please cooperate."

Arius lowered his car window and nodded. Then, he got out of his car.

The guards inspected the interior of the car and used the scanner to check Arius's body. The whole process was done very carefully.

At the same time, Arius also sized up the guards.

They wore black protective vests and had large-caliber machine guns in their hands. Just their menacing looks and sophisticated gear was enough to frighten the onlookers.

There were Spiritual Ki runes carved on the machine guns, signifying that they were Spiritual Ki machine guns. They were ten times more powerful than their normal counterparts. Even if an official martial warrior got hit by them, he would be crippled.

After the inspection, the guards let him in.

Arius parked the car properly and walked along the paths in the martial arts academy.

It was already past 8 pm, but the place was brightly lit. Plenty of students could be seen on the roads and the grass.

There was no lack of people training at night.

Every second counted when you were training to become a martial warrior. Being talented was the basic criterion. One still needed to work hard to achieve progress on his cultivation journey.

There were three tall and huge buildings in the martial arts academy. With their silver-white color with distinctive characteristics, it was easy to spot them.

The one in the middle was the administrative building. It was rectangular in shape and a hundred meters in height. It stabbed straight into the clouds like a spear. At the tip, there was a strange half circle.

On the left was the martial disciple teaching building, while on the right was the martial disciple training building.

These two buildings looked like two huge round balls. They weren't tall, though, only having three floors, but they were extremely spacious. By rough estimate, they were two times bigger than Orange County No. 1 High School's stadium.

The placements of these three buildings made Arius suspect that this was the work of the principal's poor sense of humor.

Arius had done his homework, so he ran towards the administrative building without hesitation.

Under the staff's guidance, he registered himself as a martial disciple and went to the martial disciple teaching building.

The martial arts academy would only accept students between the age of 16 and 30. This was to prevent wastage of resources.

Arius was merely 17 years old, so age wasn't a problem for him.

The noise in the teaching building struck him the second he walked into the building.

The first floor was where beginner disciples trained. Beginner disciples were beginner stage martial disciples, and there were more than 3000 beginner stage martial disciples in the Shining Martial House.

On the first floor, all the students were cultivating on their own. It looked extremely lively.

The second Arius entered the main lobby, he froze on the spot.

What did he see?

Around 50 transparent bubbles were floating above the ground.

Strength*1

Speed*3

Physique*1

Intelligence*0.5

Strength*2

…

Arius blinked. He blinked again. The bubbles were still there, but the other students in the lobby couldn't see them.

This was his special skill?!

He wasn't sure, so he pulled a student that was walking past.

"What do you want!"

The student was around 17 years old. He glanced at Arius irritatedly with a 'why are you more handsome than me' expression.

"Brother, this floor… it's paved really nicely," Arius pointed to the floor and said.

The transparent bubbles were floating at the height of his calves. He could see them just by lowering his head.

The student ignored the bubbles and replied impatiently, "Of course. This is the best rubber flooring. There are Spiritual Ki runes carved in it that can minimize vibration, last longer, and have many other functions.

"Where do you come from? Don't you have common sense?"

The student flicked his hand and walked away without looking back.

Arius touched his chin. From the person's reaction, he obviously couldn't see the bubbles. That meant that he was the only person who could see them.

The students walked around the training area, some going through the bubbles. To them, the bubbles didn't exist.

Arius moved closer to the bubble nearest to him to test if he could walk through it.

The instant he touched it, the bubble disappeared.

His vision blurred for a moment, and a transparent board popped out.

Intelligence : 18

Physique: 41

Strength: 50 (+1)

Speed: 32

…

Arius's heart palpitated as he stared at the transparent board. He felt as though his heart was going to jump out of his throat.

This was exhilarating.

Arius felt that he wouldn't be so excited even if he struck a hundred million lottery.

He couldn't control himself.

This must be a bug!

In this era where martial warriors were the mainstream, becoming stronger was the only path to success.

His bug allowed him to collect attributes from other people and turn them into his own. This was heaven-defying!

Other people had to cultivate diligently while he only had to pick up attributes. Arius saw an unobstructed path to success in front of him.

One day, he would go straight to the top of the world!