After securing his job, Lin Rui spent the next few days staying at home, behaving himself.
He was very curious about the secrets his family was hiding, and was eager to help Xue Dajiang complete her obsession in exchange for more abilities, but Lin Rui valued his life even more.
Curiosity killed the cat, as the saying goes, but a cat supposedly has nine lives. With his meager strength, he couldn't afford to take risks.
Aside from his daily stance training exercises, Lin Rui spent the remainder of his time shut in his room, furiously studying the Tianji Star language.
Even his meals were delivered directly to his room by his sister.
Lin Xi found his behavior quite puzzling. Why was he constantly chattering away in the Tianji Star language inside his room? And why did his tones sound so strange?
After all, ever since his first year at Alien Body College, Lin Rui's grades in the Tianji Star language had been A+.
Lin Rui had his excuse ready, claiming that he needed to learn the dialect of Wang City in the Tianji Star region, which had significant differences from the official language of Tianji Star. He had to strengthen his studies before his descent.
According to what he knew, besides the official language, there were indeed thousands of dialects within Tianji Star, just like the ancient China of the Earth Federation, some of which were so different from the official language that they were like completely different tongues.
With a dawning understanding, Lin Xi left and went to the backyard to practice her martial arts.
On the afternoon of Friday, Lin Xi had already gone to the affiliated hospital to have artificial Dantians and meridians implanted.
For the next two days, Lin Xi was extremely excited. Not only did she buy an expensive captain-level dummy, but she also commandeered the practice field in the backyard, which used to be Lin Rui's exclusive training area. She would head to the backyard early in the morning to train, hitting the dummy with a 'thumping' sound.
This brings us to Lin Xi's martial arts talent.
Lin Rui had gone to check on her once during a break, intending to give some pointers on her martial arts practice, but after just a half moment, he felt discouraged and returned to his room to continue his arduous study of the Tianji Star language.
Lin Rui felt that Lin Xi's martial arts talent was truly exceptional, at least as high as the clouds in the sky.
In Lin Rui's recorded video library, there were almost no clips of Lin Xi practicing martial arts, but her skills in the Red Thunder Palm and Red Thunder Saber had already reached a proficient level, and her mastery of the thunder and fire stance was nearing true understanding.
Lin Xi likely practiced by mimicking videos of Xue Dajiang from before. She was only an audient before, yet now, she had thoroughly grasped the essence.
Lin Rui thought that the siblings were completely misguided in their efforts—it should be him who was fully supporting his sister.
If Lin Xi had had her Dantians and meridians implanted three years ago and started martial cultivation, she might have already reached the stature of the first of the ten prodigies by now.
With Lin Xi's martial arts talent and her delicate, sweet, and pure beauty, she could have become a highly paid influencer star. Why should they have had to live in such straits as they had before?
What concerned Lin Rui more was his sister's cooking skills.
Lin Rui was now almost certain that the changes in his sister's cooking were related to her mood.
The food that Lin Xi cooked in the two days before and after the implantation of her Dantians and meridians was especially delicious, supremely so.
However, by the third day, the quality of Lin Xi's cooking had returned to its original state.
Not that it tasted bad, but it was unvarying, lacking surprise and anticipation.
Lin Rui suspected that his all-nighters practicing Tianji Star language conversations had disturbed his sister's sleep, and that he had upset her.
Soon it was Monday morning, and with great reluctance, Lin Rui closed the Tianji Star language tutorial on his personal terminal, lamenting how swiftly time flew by!
The intense last-minute cramming over the past three days indeed paid off.
Especially for the dialect of Wang City, Lin Rui took an oblique approach, focusing on the language of that region, and he had learned to understand some of the frequently used expressions in everyday life.
But if it came to more complicated conversations, Lin Rui was out of his depth.
He had no more time to study because his alien body had already developed. Any further delay would cause him to miss the optimal period for identity integration and replacement.
When Lin Rui tidied himself up and walked out of his room, he saw that the dining table had not only breakfast laid out but also two gift boxes.
"What's this?" Lin Rui picked up a gift box to examine it.
"It's some pastries I made myself as a thoughtful gift for Professor Sima and your tutor."
Lin Xi, with her hair in a ponytail and wearing an apron, exuded the aura of a virtuous wife and good mother, "Before the descent of your alien body today, you have to report to Professor Han, right? You're going to be under his supervision for eight years starting today. You can't show up empty-handed on your first day, and there's also Professor Sima. Your future Martial Cultivator equipment might have to be made in his lab."
Lin Xi was very satisfied with the job Lin Rui had found a few days ago.
Even if Lin Rui didn't make a name for himself in the martial arts league in a few years, he could still earn a doctoral degree in literature history, as well as bachelor's degrees in alien body and Martial Cultivator equipment, which promised a limitless future.
As for Si Malin, Lin Xi had already looked into his background. He was a big name in the Martial Cultivator equipment field, achieving great accomplishments in Martial Cultivator surgery and equipment development. Although Lin Xi was on good terms with Lu Qing, and Lu Qing had encouraged the Lin siblings to have their Martial Cultivator surgeries done at her place, Lin Xi understood the vast difference between the two.
But Lin Rui thought back to Professor Han's cold gaze and demeanor a few days ago.
Lin Rui surmised that Lin Xi's good intentions were mostly going to be wasted.
Yet, he still picked up the two gift boxes and hurried out the door.
It was when Lin Rui met up with Wang Sen at the school's front gate after taking the urban rail train that his complexion suddenly changed, and he turned his head in astonishment towards the direction of the attached hospital's experimental building.
Lin Rui felt that inside the experimental building, something was calling out to him—as if it were another body of his own.
Besides that, Lin Rui also felt a great increase in his spiritual power; he could now even sense changes within two meters around him—included the crowd walking nearby, the tiny organisms attached to them, and the movement of the dust in the wind.
And the closer the distance, the clearer Lin Rui's perception of things became.
The problem was that the ability to project spiritual power outward and sense it was an ability of Martial Cultivators at the rank of captain, which required a spiritual power value of at least 500!
Lin Rui's body was constantly generating a static electric field, and even the sunlight shining upon him was unnaturally distorted and bending.
With just a thought, Lin Rui could generate tiny thunder serpents around his body, and with a clench of his hand, he could condense a ball of white flame.
Luckily, Lin Rui had already mastered the Grandmaster-level Concealing Breath Skill; otherwise, the network signal within one meter of himself would be disturbed, and even some electronic devices would malfunction.
And these abnormalities had already started when he was about ten kilometers from the school on the train.
After he stepped out of the station, these anomalies became even more pronounced.
Lin Rui, filled with uncertainty, looked at Wang Sen who had just met up with him, "Wang Sen, can you sense your alien body right now?"
Lin Rui suspected that the thing calling to him was his alien body.
Simply because Lin Rui's alien body was being cultivated right there in the experimental building of the attached hospital.
Wang Sen, upon hearing this, looked blank and clueless, "No? Brother Rui, can you really sense your alien body from so far away?"
According to the knowledge they had learned, this was an ability of high-ranking alien body practitioners, or those who had achieved unity of spirit and flesh with their alien bodies and could sense them from a distance.
Lin Rui frowned slightly and shook his head.
At that moment, he received a message from Si Malin.
Divine Doctor Si Malin (Si Malin): Lin Rui, have you arrived at school? Have you felt anything unusual?
Lin Rui was slightly startled and immediately replied to the message.
Gu Ying Tiandao (Lin Rui): Wang Sen and I are at the school gate. Professor, is there something wrong with my alien body?
Divine Doctor Si Malin (Si Malin): There has been a little mishap, but it's a good thing for you. You'll understand the specifics when you come over, Lin Rui. Come straight to the experimental building later. I've spoken to the security department, and they've granted you access.
Lin Rui was about to respond when he suddenly frowned and looked behind him.
Just then, Lin Rui felt as if a distant thought was pressing down upon him from afar, peering into him.
The feeling was vague and ephemeral, especially since it disappeared when he looked back.
Lin Rui did not know whether it was an illusion or not, so he scanned the area behind him and found nothing. He then shook his head and continued towards the experimental building of the attached hospital.
Meanwhile, not far behind Lin Rui at the corner of the street, a middle-aged man with a Caucasian face and sparse hair, appearing to be in his forties, emerged from around the corner.
He watched Lin Rui's retreating figure with a troubled and uncertain look.
Was it just a coincidence, or was this fellow acutely aware of his presence?
The Caucasian middle-aged man then looked towards the attached hospital's experimental building, his expression showing some helplessness.
He had come on a mission to seek out Lin Rui's soul and search for certain information in his memories.
However, Lin Rui never gave him a proper chance to act.
Seeking the soul required a safe and stable environment, but in recent days, Lin Rui was either at school or holed up at home, and unfortunately, the nearby police and security presence had increased due to a terrible incident in that civil servant residential area.
Lin Rui's alien body was about to form, and he would begin his descent on Tianji Star with their Martial Arts Society.
This was even more troublesome; Mingde University already had a very secure defense system, and the security in that Martial Arts Society was even more outrageous.
The Caucasian middle-aged man had explored the Martial Arts Society the day before and couldn't understand why a university society would have eight 5th-order combat robots?
It caused the middle-aged Caucasian man an immense headache.
Now, he could only wait for Lin Rui's soul to return from Tianji Star, but it was uncertain when it would happen. His superiors had become impatient with increasing pressure over the past few days.