4: Chapter 4: Being Controlled, Trending on Social Media

The woman looked to be in her thirties with an ordinary appearance, but strangely, her eyes were exceptionally captivating.

Xu Yan subconsciously looked into the woman's eyes, and his mind instantly went blank.

When he came to his senses, he realized that the road, which had originally been backed by a mountain, was now surrounded by mountains on both sides, and he was standing all alone in the middle of the mountain path.

"What is this…?"

His memory was a bit fragmented. Just as Xu Yan tried to recall what had happened, his legs suddenly went weak, and he stumbled, almost falling to the ground.

A wave of exhaustion washed over him; it felt as if every ounce of physical energy had been drained from his body, leaving him unwilling to even move an inch.

"It was that woman! Is she an Esper, too?!"

Xu Yan was horrified. At this moment, he finally recalled everything that had just happened.

After he made eye contact with that woman, he had been controlled by her and brought into the mountains. He just didn't know why she had left him here after controlling him.

"Damn it! I knew nothing good would come from running into a Transcendent! Shit!"

Xu Yan gritted his teeth. "You'd better all die in the mountains. Otherwise, once I grind my stats up, I'll definitely kill you all!"

Xu Yan did not want to experience the feeling of being controlled and unable to resist ever again. He decided that once he returned, he would cut down on his sleep and double his training to grind his stats.

However, the priority was to leave the mountains first.

With a flicker of his mind, he opened his Attribute Panel.

Name: Xu Yan

Status: Minor injury

Age: 26

Strength: 0.7

Agility: 0.72

Spirit: 0.67 (0.69)

Constitution: 0.96 (0.97)

Available Attribute Points: 0.02

"What is this…?"

Looking at the changes in his attribute column, Xu Yan understood after a moment of thought.

The values in the parentheses were his actual attributes, while the numbers in front were his current attributes after his body had been affected.

His gaze fell on the available attribute points.

"Is it because my Constitution increased, allowing my body to store more energy, so I can grind more attribute points at once?"

Xu Yan realized. Previously, he could only grind 0.01 attribute points per energy replenishment. This time, by accident, he had figured out another rule for grinding attributes.

Without overthinking it, Xu Yan added the attribute points to Constitution.

[Constitution: 0.96 (0.97) → 0.98 (0.99)]

The effect of adding attributes was immediate. Xu Yan immediately felt his body become much lighter. Too busy to rest, he immediately walked briskly along the road in the direction of the mountain exit.

Forest areas near towns generally didn't have Mutant Beasts, because they had basically been cleared out by the authorities.

But this mountain range they were in was connected to the Longji Mountain Range!

So, it was better to be safe than sorry. If a Mutant Beast really rushed out here in the wilderness, it would truly be a situation where heaven didn't answer and the earth didn't respond.

On the other side, the treasure-hunting trio continued to head deep into the mountains along the road.

"I originally saw that kid was handsome and wanted to take him along for fun, but I didn't expect him to be all show and no substance. His body was so weak that he was almost exhausted enough to break free from my control after walking just a few kilometers."

In the group, the woman said to the bearded man, "If it weren't for you reminding me, Brother Tian Feng, and me planting a suggestion in him beforehand to make him forget this memory, we would have been in trouble."

Hearing her words, the man called Brother Feng did not respond. He just looked at his phone. After a long while, he spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse but carrying an air that brooked no refusal.

"Speed up. We must reach the 'Gateway' before 6:00 PM, otherwise we'll have to wait until the next cycle to cross the official barrier and enter the Longji Mountain Range."

The man carrying the mountaineering backpack didn't speak, but his pace quickened.

"Deng Fang, your share will be halved this time!"

"What? I…"

The woman wanted to retort, but after meeting Tian Feng's calm gaze, she couldn't help but shudder, and the words on her lips changed.

"I… I understand."

"Damn it!" The woman was furious, but she dared not vent her anger on Tian Feng, so she held a grudge against Xu Yan instead.

"That kid is definitely from Xu Family Village at the foot of the mountain. When I come back, I'll definitely make you pay for this!"

...

It was almost one o'clock by the time Xu Yan returned to the village. He happened to run into Aunt Li sunbathing at the village entrance. Aunt Li was curious why Xu Yan had left in the morning and was only just returning now.

Xu Yan made up a random excuse, saying he took a detour to the town.

Aunt Li didn't suspect anything and even urged Xu Yan not to go running down the road into the mountains recently, saying that there were quite a few people going into the mountains lately.

"Think about it, people who dare to go into the mountains, could they be ordinary people?"

Aunt Li's concern warmed Xu Yan's heart. After nodding in agreement, he asked curiously, "Are there a lot of people going into the mountains recently?"

"You bet."

Hearing this, Aunt Li got excited and started counting them off for Xu Yan one by one.

"There were two groups at the beginning of the month, three groups in the middle of the month, and now, there was another group this morning. That's six groups already."

Speaking of this, Aunt Li's expression became a bit puzzled. "But I only saw people go in; I haven't seen anyone come out. It really is a bit strange."

"They probably left from the other side," Xu Yan said casually.

The mountain roads were winding and tortuous with many entrances and exits. Their location was just one of them, so Xu Yan wasn't surprised.

What really made him curious was that with so many people entering the mountains, could there really be Mutant Beasts in their mountains?

He shook his head. Even if there were truly Mutant Beasts, it wasn't something he could get involved with right now.

After saying goodbye to Aunt Li, Xu Yan returned home and forced himself to endure the exhaustion to start cooking.

Because he was too tired and didn't want to go through the trouble, Xu Yan simply used the rice cooker to boil a whole large pot of instant noodles.

The rice cooker was an old-fashioned one, so it was quite large. Most importantly, it was convenient; he could eat while it was cooking.

Xu Yan took out his phone while eating the noodles.

He had been too focused on training and grinding stats these past few days to pay attention to what was happening in the outside world.

He opened a short video app and ignored the dancing videos of young ladies that popped up.

If it were in the past, he would have been interested in these, but now, he was only interested in grinding stats.

The feeling of constantly getting stronger was just too great.

He opened the trending searches, and Xu Yan's gaze was immediately drawn to the first and second items.

#Authorities release cultivation techniques, claiming that persistent practice gives a chance to step into the Transcendent realm!#

#Suspected start of the second spiritual energy eruption; spiritual energy content in some areas reaches a shocking five times the normal level!#

Xu Yan's eyes narrowed. He scrolled down the rankings and found that the top ten were all similar headlines. Only further down were there news about where Mutant Beasts had been discovered, or who had been lucky enough to pick a heavenly treasure and achieve financial freedom.

"Cultivation techniques?"

Xu Yan's eyes gleamed. He had collected quite a few martial arts techniques. After all, in the internet age, information was shared, and no one kept these techniques private.

But apart from those true geniuses, wanting to master a martial arts technique without a teacher was no easier than going from an ordinary person to becoming a Transcendent.

Moreover, without a "Spiritual Root," ordinary people couldn't absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to practice martial arts.

But looking at what the authorities meant now, as long as one practiced the techniques they released for a long time, there was a chance to step into the Transcendent realm and become a martial artist?