Two days later, Bai Mo arrived at the Dao Academy headquarters building. For the first time, he witnessed the magnificent sight of thousands of Ability Users gathered in one place simultaneously, and this was merely a fraction of the tens of thousands of Dao Academy Ability Users intending to participate in the selection for this delegation.
He surveyed his surroundings, feeling as though he had entered an open treasure vault. Under the scrutiny of his Divine Sense, the structures of nearly all the Ability Users' bodies were laid bare before his eyes.
"With Huaxia's immense population base, it truly doesn't lack geniuses. How little time has passed, and yet, surprisingly, one, two, three, four, five, six—six people have already manifested Life Fields, capable of shielding their internal bodies from my Divine Sense. It seems this Ability User Conference will be my last chance to accumulate useful data."
Taking advantage of the chaos, with Ability Users chatting in twos and threes, he seized the moment to record the structures of more Spirit Hubs.
It was also fortunate that the three weeks in Ukraine had trained his brain to process a massive amount of information in a short time, enabling him to handle such a large volume of data.
Before the gap in combat power widened to a chasm of life levels, many far-sighted Ability Users intended to make more connections while the crowd was large, for who knew if someone might skyrocket to success within a year or two?
As long as one harbored ambitions of standing out in society, building connections was indispensable. After all, this was still a society driven by personal relationships, so numerous small cliques quickly formed within the venue.
Bai Mo, meanwhile, sat clutching his laptop, recording everything he perceived at a rapid pace of over two hundred words per minute.
He felt that his spirit-energized hands could still increase their speed; he seemed capable of controlling every segment of his finger bones, every strand of his hand muscles. Unfortunately, however, his proficiency with the input method limited his speed.
Perhaps after a period of high-speed training, he might even break through the barrier of three hundred words per minute.
Bai Mo thus huddled in a corner, oblivious to others, tinkering with his laptop. People passed by him, but seeing him so earnestly writing, no one bothered to disturb him. Of course, more likely, they thought he looked like a bookworm, completely unsociable.
As the clock neared ten, more and more people arrived at the building in twos and threes.
Wherever there are people, there is natural conflict, let alone a group of individuals whose fists had grown larger.
Although everyone refrained from full-blown brawls out of respect for the gathering at the Dao Academy headquarters, verbal disputes and sparring were certainly unavoidable. The staff present evidently couldn't be bothered with such messy affairs; as long as no one fought or damaged anything, they pretended it hadn't happened.
There was even a fellow who had named himself "Bai Xiao Sheng," earnestly introducing some powerful contestants.
Bai Mo sat in a corner, typing away on his laptop, while Bai Xiao Sheng happened to be standing right next to him, prattling on, giving others the feeling of listening to a traditional storyteller.
A crowd of onlookers gathered around. Of course, only a portion truly wanted to hear Bai Xiao Sheng's stories; the others were curious to see if he would get beaten for badmouthing people like that.
"...And now, let us speak of Yun Jie, 'Black Illusion,' one of the top ten masters of the Dao Academy. This man possesses a pair of phoenix eyes, stands eight feet tall, and is a handsome man adept at mental illusion techniques."
"According to those who have fought him, as soon as you meet his gaze, and your mind is captured by his mental ability, your senses begin to blur. Eventually, you fall into a silent world of darkness, at which point the battle should be over. This is how he earned the title 'Black Illusion.'"
"There are also rumors that this man has fought dozens of people in the Dao Academy over the past month, without exception. It was merely a question of how long they could last," Bai Xiao Sheng narrated in a semi-classical, semi-vernacular storyteller's tone.
"Then according to you, wouldn't it be enough just not to look into his eyes? Are all those who lost to him useless trash, unable to win without looking at his eyes?" Someone immediately found fault.
"If merely avoiding his gaze could solve it, how would so many people have fallen short?"
"This 'Black Illusion' Yun Jie's skin can instantly transform specific structures anywhere during combat, revealing strange patterns with similar illusionary effects. Unless one fights completely without using their eyes, even if you don't look at his eyes, you still have to watch your opponent's fists when defending, and naturally, you'll fall into his trap," Bai Xiao Sheng explained.
"In that case, he truly is a formidable opponent," many thought below. "If one doesn't use their eyes, then unless they possess quite unique abilities that offer better perceptual tools than eyes, or the legendary 'beast's intuition,' then the only option is to launch an area-of-effect attack from the start to clear the field."
Bai Mo, on the side, nimbly typed with both hands while listening to Bai Xiao Sheng tell his stories, forming a stark contrast with the pensive, silent people around him.
"Kid, aren't you worried at all about encountering such a hard-to-deal-with ability?" a middle-aged uncle asked Bai Mo, who practically had "I don't care" written on his face.
"Um... I'm staff. No matter how strong he is, he can't control us, right?" Bai Mo suddenly found himself unsure how to answer, so he simply told a lie, then continued to transfer the Spirit Hub structures he had recorded onto his laptop.
"No wonder he's so calm... So what are you busy with?" The middle-aged man's tone immediately changed after hearing Bai Mo claim to be staff.
"I'm recording everyone's situation," Bai Mo replied with a double-entendre truth, then continued to work with his head down.
Upon hearing their conversation, those around them, driven by their natural aversion to anyone who keeps records of others, scattered and moved away from Bai Mo. Even Bai Xiao Sheng, who had been talking the most animatedly, walked further away to continue, and a section around Bai Mo immediately cleared.
"What I said counts as the truth, right? And it doesn't affect my recording no matter where you go..."
Bai Mo continued typing at lightning speed. Because of the perceived effect of his self-proclaimed "secret agent" status, no one else came forward to disturb him. Even if someone wanted to approach, others would quietly warn them, and happy to not be disturbed, he was too lazy to explain himself, for after all, it was his own lie.
"Please quiet down, everyone. Good morning. It is exactly 10 AM. First, a slight digression. Originally, the higher-ups intended for the twenty individuals—the captains and vice-captains of the ten squads—to directly attend the conference."
"However, considering the controversy caused by Spirit Stones earlier, the final conclusion reached by various governments was that disputes that can be resolved without war should be handled peacefully as much as possible. It's not worth going to war over small Spirit Stone volcanoes. Therefore, we will instead resolve some relatively minor disputes through battles between Ability User representatives, reserving irreconcilable issues for separate discussion," the host announced loudly.
"Thus, the combat power requirements for this delegation's expedition will be very high, as they represent the powerhouses of our Huaxia. In view of this, we have reorganized a selection process purely based on combat power, which is today's selection."
"There will also be heavy rewards. At the conference, those who defeat their opponents and win Spirit Stone volcanoes for Huaxia will own 5% of the Spirit Stone's total reserves. These will be developed by the state, without the rights holder needing to invest a single cent. All of you are elites selected from two million Ability Users among the populace. We hope you will promote the prestige of our Huaxia!"