The Mountain Demon looked down at the air pirate leader, whose life or death was uncertain, and with a touch of skepticism, asked,


    "How much time has passed, and how have you be so strong?"


    "This air pirate''s individualbat rating has already reached level 5 or above... Level 5, do you know what that means? Even within the Inner Ring, that would mark him as someone well-known. He could easily serve as a mid-rank captain within White Crow."


    "And you have killed him just like that..."


    "Xue Jing, you couldn''t be hiding something from me, like some kind of daily check-in upgrade system, could you?"


    Xue Jing, unfazed, just waved his hand nonchntly and said,


    "What are you thinking? You''ve been reading too many novels. There''s no such thing as a system or a panel in reality. I was simply chosen by a Heretic God out of the blue, bing what they call a ''Divine Chosen''."


    The Mountain Demon scratched his head, "I''ve heard of the Divine Chosen... But is it really that exaggerated?"


    "That''s how the Divine Chosen is," Xue Jing affirmed.


    Captain Void de, listening to the conversation, secretly thought, "No wonder that Wu Family young mistress treats him so specially... Is it because of a sense of kinship with someone of the same kind?"


    "How should we deal with this guy?" said the Mountain Demon, gesturing toward the prostrate air pirate leader.


    "But first... is he dead or not?"


    Xue Jing lifted his foot and flipped the prone air pirate leader over to face up, "I didn''t hold back, but I could feel he wasn''t dead after delivering the final blow."


    "But now..."


    He frowned as he took a look at the now motionless air pirate leader.


    Void de crouched down, extended her hand, and checked the air pirate leader''s body.


    "He''s dead... Other than the knife wound on his neck, there''s basically no damage to his body surface... This is the B5-level Protective Membrane, his muscles are of the R9 gold grade, with slight damage near the chest..."


    She examined and exined at the same time.


    "... The most severe damage is to his internal organs, almost as if they''ve been through a meat grinder, but next to his heart, he had imnted a ''Supreme Efficient Repair Device'' that triggers when his heart stops. These injuries shouldn''t be fatal."


    She calmly inserted her hand into the air pirate leader''s chest wound, fumbled around for a while, and amid the squelching sounds of coagted blood and flesh, she pulled out an oval-shaped ck stick with many broken circuits.


    "The repair device hasn''t activated. Was it destroyed, or did he manually cut off the activation mechanism of the repair device?"


    The Mountain Demon, somewhat impatient, spoke up, "Let''s not worry about the cause of death right now, just check if his ISE can still be used. It''s at least a B3-level Alien Imnt that can''t be bought anywhere—it''s a rare item!"


    Void de turned the air pirate leader''s corpse over as she slowly said, "Even if it''s not broken, it''s mostly unusable by others. B-level or higher Alien Imnts are typically custom made for a person. These things already put immense strain on the body, and if thepatibility isn''t high enough, the rejection reaction will be severe.


    As soon as it''s installed, the Mutation Rate will shoot through the roof."


    The corpse was turned, revealing a purple diamond-shaped crystal on the spine at the waist on its back.


    The Mountain Demon''s eyebrows lifted, "It looks like it''s unbroken... Xue Jing, this is your spoil of war, how do you want to handle it?"


    After pondering briefly, Xue Jing shook his head, "I don''t know, got any suggestions?"


    The Mountain Demon looked to Void de, "Captain, can ''ck Nest'' modify this thing so that it bes a general-type ISEpatible with most people?"


    Void de responded evenly, "ck Nest already has too many things to study. Even though they consume arge amount of funding from the institution each year, they''re still short on funds. If you go to them for help, they will charge an exorbitant fee."


    The Mountain Demon scratched his head, "What do we do with this thing then? Sell it on the ck market?"


    Void de said, "This guy''s body is full of precious Alien Imnts, quite valuable, but all are custom-made. Others can''t use them; the only option is to dismantle them and sell the raw materials."


    Xue Jing gestured dismissively, "Then please handle it for me, Captain Void de."


    Void de nodded and said, "Then I''ll help you list it on the ck market through my channels, and I''ll take a cut of themission."


    Xue Jing smiled and agreed, "That''s only fair."


    "By the way, why are there air pirates in the Outer Ring?" The Mountain Demon wondered aloud.


    Clearly, no one present could answer this question.


    "I''ll investigate itter," Void de said as she tapped a few times on her silver-white bracelet, which emitted a ring of light and scanned the air pirate leader from head to toe.


    "Dragon Core Machines aren''t something just anyone can deal with. If these air pirates had the guts to attack a Dragon Core Machine directly, they''re either greenhorns who don''t know anything or they have some backing power behind them."


    "... Judging by this body full of Alien Imnts, it doesn''t seem like something a greenhorn could afford."


    ...


    The jet, spray-painted ck, sped through the sky, flying northward as the daylight gradually dimmed.


    In the cockpit, Xue Jingy back in a seat, one hand propping up the back of his head, and he opened the panel.


    [...Fitness Experience Points +1524]


    [...Pleasure, Health Cultivation Experience Value +1862]


    [...Running Experience Value +1337]


    [...Aiming Experience Value +1321]


    [...Fighting Experience Points +1262]


    [...Hidden Dragon Energy Experience Points +1028]


    [...Visualization True Experience Value +668]


    [...Weapon Strike Experience Points +1560]


    [...Acting Experience Points +669]


    [...Aiming upgraded to Lv8 (223/6000)]


    [...Fighting upgraded to Lv8 (141/6000)]


    [...Acting upgraded to Lv4 (52/1200)]


    It was, without a doubt, a sizable haul.


    Fighting a life-and-death battle against a powerful adversary and emerging victorious, although most of the time he was using Shadow me, had earned him a considerable batch of valuable regr skill experience.


    "Health Cultivation really racks up the points, huh? Guess I should keep cranking up the Gundam, it''s truly satisfying," thought Xue Jing, and then he closed his eyes and introspected, feeling the changes that were happening within himself.


    Fighting had finally risen to Lv8, and as before, what strengthened was the ''foundation'' of his body.


    His bones had be harder, his bone marrow''s blood-forming abilities more impressive; the structure of his muscles and veins had been altered, now stronger and more powerful with heightened flexibility. Even the instincts deep within his genes had be more acute...everything about him was now better suited for battle.


    He opened his eyes and turned to look out the side window.


    Under the dimming sky where the sunlight was about to vanish, visibility was much lower than during the day, but when he looked down through the window, the powerful vision granted by Lv8 Aiming immediately pierced through the shroud of mist, breaking free of the dusk''s constraints, and brought the scenery below the ten thousand meters into view.


    Grasnd, streams, a drinking hare, and in the brush, a fox with a predatory gaze.


    His pupils turned into a soft silver-white, and Moonlight sh descended out of nowhere, cutting off a tuft of weeds in front of the hare, startling it into fleeing in leaps and bounds.


    The fox hiding in the brush was a bit confused, not understanding how it had been discovered.


    But seeing the hare gone, it had no choice but to chalk it up to bad luck, shook its body, and moved on from the spot.


    ...


    The time came to nine o''clock at night.


    "Look, down there that''s Border City No. 328," said Captain Void de to Xue Jing, gesturing for him to look down through the side window.


    With a speed of over a thousand kilometers per hour and after more than four hours of flight, they had almost crossed the entire Fifth Urban Circle, traveling from the far south to the far north.


    Xue Jing looked downward; beneath the pitch-ck night, a deste and dpidated city was faintly visible, with only a few lights shining, too dark to discern any specifics.


    "Once we leave this Border City, further out lies the domain no longer belonging to humans—the ''Evil Land''."


    "We''ll arrive at the ''Roaring Waterfall'' in about half an hour. I hope you, the ''Divine Chosen,'' can make it in. If not..."


    Void de sighed with a hint of a headache.


    ...