42: Chapter 42 Official Response

July 25th, 12:00 PM.

Chen Mo finished his morning training.

Chen Mo pushed open the door to his old home, went to the kitchen to gulp down a large glass of cold water, and then picked up his phone, glancing at it habitually.

As the screen lit up, he saw the red text at the top of the trending list: "Official Response to Recent Global Anomalies".

Chen Mo tapped on it.

The original announcement was only a few hundred words long, and the phrasing was extremely cautious.

The gist was that recently, many places around the world have experienced abnormal vegetation growth, changes in human Physique, and other situations, and relevant departments are making every effort to investigate the causes.

There is currently no definitive conclusion.

Residents are reminded to avoid going to wild areas as much as possible in the near future.

Local governments are assisting residents in remote mountainous areas to relocate to urban resettlement sites in an orderly manner.

They didn't even use the word "confirmed".

Everything was "under investigation".

But after reading it, Chen Mo pondered for a moment.

The wording of the announcement is one thing.

Action is another.

Mobilizing residents in remote mountainous areas to relocate is not something that would be done during an "under investigation" phase.

This is already preparing for some kind of irreversible change.

Officials without high enough rank simply cannot mobilize this scale of cross-departmental coordination.

They must have confirmed something.

They just can't say it.

Or rather, it is not yet time to speak.

Chen Mo leaned back in his chair.

This judgment was completely consistent with his previous assessment; the authorities had long noticed the anomalies and had been waiting for the right moment.

And the action of "assisting remote mountain relocation" was equivalent to informing people in advance through action: stay away from the wild, come into the city.

Chen Mo continued browsing.

After the announcement was released, online discussions completely boiled over.

Those who were still using "abnormal weather" as an explanation were now collectively silent.

Replaced by an overwhelming amount of information sharing.

Someone posted a set of photos of city roads.

The originally smooth concrete road surface had been pushed up by the root Systems of street trees, creating dense cracks, with the longest crack extending from the middle of the road all the way to the sidewalk.

The poster captioned it: "I used to think tree roots breaking through the road was news, but now it's happening on every street."

Someone took a picture of the floor tiles in their residential complex.

The originally tightly fitted bricks were pried open by weeds growing from the cracks, making the brick surface uneven and crooked.

Someone commented below: "It's the same on my side; the property management has given up on repairing it. It's useless to repair it, it grows back in three days."

Chen Mo scrolled down one by one.

One post mentioned the extent of the damage.

The poster compiled the maintenance records of public facilities in their residential complex over the past two weeks: sidewalk bricks pushed up by plants, sewers blocked by root Systems, and walls warped by vines.

The data was more than five times higher than the same period last year.

In the comments below the post, someone asked: "What is going on? The authorities say they are investigating, but they should at least give a direction on what they are investigating, right?"

Someone replied: "If they gave you a direction, could you accept it? If they told you there was something in the air that humans currently cannot detect, would you believe it?"

More people were silent.

The reply with the most likes had only four words: "I believe it."

Chen Mo noticed a phenomenon: there was no large-scale panic in the comment section.

Panic buying, hoarding food, and panic-induced migration—none of these had appeared.

Although most people were discussing it, their emotions were stable.

The official regulatory capability was at work.

They did not directly deny the anomalies, nor did they block information; instead, they maintained credibility by saying "under investigation" while releasing signals of action with "assisting relocation".

This balance was struck very accurately.

When people face uncertainty, what they fear most is not bad news, but an information vacuum.

The authorities presented a stance of "we are handling it," and the public was willing to wait.

But Chen Mo also knew that this stability was temporary.

Once the changes intensified further, and once animals began to show obvious mutations, by then, a single announcement would no longer be able to contain it.

He turned off his phone.

He had learned enough about the information online.

He had long anticipated changes such as rampant plant growth, enhanced human Physique, and damage to infrastructure.

What really caught his attention were two other things.

The first thing.

He searched online and didn't see any discussions about "Spirit Medicine" or "Spirit Fruit".

No one had discovered that their Physique suddenly strengthened significantly after eating a certain special plant, nor had anyone photographed animals with obvious physical mutations.

Currently, all changes were still at the level of "quantitative growth"—plants grew faster and larger, humans recovered faster and better—but there had not yet been a "qualitative Breakthrough".

This indicated that the Spiritual Qi concentration was not yet sufficient.

Chen Mo kept this observation in mind.

The second thing.

The candidate to teach the Human Breathing Method.

Over these five days, he had been observing and screening in his spare time from training.

He locked his target range to Yi City and its surroundings, not going too far away.

The reason was simple: the further the distance, the higher the time cost of observation.

His training could not stop; his daily training time was at least twelve hours or more.

If he spent time on traveling, the losses would outweigh the gains.

Although Yi City was not a first-tier city, it had all the necessary institutions.

Military region, Armed Police Detachment, university, sports bureau—enough for him to filter through.

The first candidate was discovered by chance.

Two days ago, after Chen Mo finished training and was searching for spirit energy particles, he accidentally walked near the military base and discovered a group of soldiers clearing weeds outside the perimeter wall.

Those weeds grew too fast, crowding the originally spacious path until only a slit remained.

The leader was a major around thirty years old, a military academy graduate, whose commands were crisp and decisive; he stood motionless under the sun, exuding a rugged temperament that only professional soldiers possessed.

Chen Mo observed from afar for a while.

The major had a good foundation in physical fitness.

More importantly, the attitude of the subordinates toward him was not fear, not sycophancy, but that kind of crisp, clean obedience.

This showed that this person had prestige in the unit, and it wasn't prestige gained by yelling.

But the problem was also obvious.

The observation time was too short, and Chen Mo couldn't find detailed information about this major.

Name, resume, what he was like personally—all these were unknowns.

The second candidate was a squadron leader, Cheng Jian, from the Yi City Armed Police Detachment.

Thirty-seven years old. Chen Mo spent two whole days observing him.

This person was the first to arrive at the unit every morning; his training uniform was washed until it was faded but ironed without a single wrinkle.

When training, he demonstrated the movements, doing every move correctly; he was not the type of officer who just gestured and let the subordinates practice.

By listening to his conversations with team members from afar and checking information on his phone, Chen Mo figured out his general resume.

He had been a soldier, later transferred to the Armed Police, and had been awarded one second-class merit and one first-class merit.

When people in the unit called him "Captain", there was not only respect in their tone, but also a kind of trust akin to that for a family member.

What made Chen Mo most certain was the aura he perceived.

As his Mental Power value increased to 4.6, what Chen Mo could perceive was no longer just physical threats.

His perception System could sense emotions within a certain range.

Angry people carried a certain tension, and liars had subtle inconsistencies in their heartbeat and breathing.

And this squadron leader, his aura was always stable; that stability was not indifference, but more like a kind of certainty.

Knowing what he needed to do, knowing what was right, and then doing it.

Excellent character. Upright. Trustworthy.

This was the ideal candidate at the moment.

The third candidate was a biology professor at Yi City University, Su He, forty-two years old.

Chen Mo looked up his information online.

He graduated with a doctorate from a top domestic institution and had published many papers on plant growth mechanisms; his academic background was very solid.

Recently, he had been posting observation data on abnormal plant growth on social media, trying to find the cause from a biological perspective.

But Chen Mo quickly ruled him out.

There was only one reason: his physical fitness was insufficient.

This professor worked at a desk for a long time, had a thin build, and from the photos, his muscle mass was very low.

The Human Breathing Method had entry requirements for the human body, and the prerequisite training required a certain Physique to complete.

If he were to start Standing Post from scratch, he wouldn't even be able to hold the basic movements for a few minutes, let alone subsequent training.

Chen Mo listed the names of the three people in his notebook and drew a circle next to the second name.

That squadron leader from the Yi City Armed Police Detachment.

Judging from all the information he had mastered so far, he was the best choice: his character was reliable, his physical foundation was solid, his social status was enough for the manual to be taken seriously, and his personality and the nature of his work determined that once he verified the effect of the manual, he would definitely prioritize reporting it upwards.

Loyal, upright, disciplined—when someone like this received the Human Breathing Method, their first reaction would not be to secretly practice it and hide it, but to hand it over to where it should be handed.

But even though the candidate was determined, there were still a bunch of problems on the operational level.

How to get the manual into his hands?

Send it anonymously to the detachment?

Things sent over would most likely be unpacked and checked; an anonymous manual without a source, let alone getting it to the squadron leader's desk, would be thrown into the lost and found box once it reached the mailroom.

Give it in person?

That would be equivalent to exposing himself.

Chen Mo didn't want to stand in front of anyone just yet.

No rush.

The candidate had been preliminarily selected.

Over the next few days, he needed to observe more: this person's daily route, whether there was a fixed time for going out, and whether there was any way to make indirect contact.

The Armed Police Detachment was under semi-closed management, but at the rank of squadron leader, it was impossible not to come out for twenty-four hours.

Chen Mo closed his eyes and mentally prioritized the upcoming actions.

First, continue training. Regardless of whether he could find someone, increasing strength was always the most important thing.

Second, continue observing that squadron leader. Figure out his daily routine and habits.

Third, find a delivery method that wouldn't expose himself.

Within half a month, this task must be completed.

Because the authorities were already in motion.

No matter what it was, Chen Mo had to hand this ticket to the people of Xia Kingdom before greater changes arrived.