Under immense public pressure, police forces across various countries began to fully dedicate themselves to finding the missing Ability Users, incidentally bringing down many human trafficking and smuggling organizations as well.
On the other hand, every day during this period, the world's Spirit Rivers continued to "baptize" hundreds of thousands of Ability Users, rapidly expanding their ranks.
However, this massive quantity couldn't compensate for the hollow quality. Aside from a very small number of abilities like teleportation, curses, or invisibility, which provided considerable combat power from the moment they manifested, most newly awakened Ability Users possessed nothing more than parlor tricks.
The tiny flames emitted by fire-element Ability Users were weaker than a cooking stove, while the output of electric abilities was roughly equivalent to a dry cell battery. Ice-element abilities, however, proved quite convenient for making ice cream.
Everyone had only acquired their abilities a few days prior, with no time to familiarize themselves, let alone discover methods for enhancement. Money and power remained the universal truths.
The concept of respecting the strong could only be established if the strong were truly strong... If a powerful individual could only defeat three or four ordinary people, then there was nothing special about being strong.
Starting from the day Bai Mo returned to the hotel, another full week passed before the Spirit Rivers, which had flowed ceaselessly, gradually thinned, eventually becoming no different from small streams. Anyone could easily walk to their source, but by then, the Spirit Rivers could no longer induce abilities in ordinary people.
Over the course of that week and more, over 1 billion people had queued up and entered various Spirit Rivers for "trials"—a truly astonishing number.
Among those billion individuals, twelve million Ability Users emerged, including nearly 1 million active military personnel dispatched by governments worldwide. The Huaxia Federation finally gave the unknown gas its official name: Spirit Qi, and this event became known as the Spirit River Autumn.
Bai Mo, who had awakened a week prior, had spent the last few days staying in the hotel and browsing the internet to avoid trouble, as many factions had increased their investigative personnel in Hawaii following the appearance of high-tier Ability Users there.
Through various media, he carefully paid attention to news about Ability Users worldwide, as well as insightful discussions on forums concerning them. Concurrently, he began testing his own new abilities one by one.
After testing, his divine sense now had a perception radius of nearly four hundred meters; beyond that, it became quite blurry. The precision of his perception hadn't changed much from before, still allowing him to roughly sense the internal operations of cells.
The effective range of his psychic power was roughly twenty meters. Within that twenty-meter radius, the closer he was to himself, the greater the quantity and precision of the psychic power he could control.
At twenty meters, he could probably only lift an egg, but within two meters of his body, he could carry a two-ton compact car.
Precision was similar: within two meters, he could control a pen with his psychic power to write, but beyond ten meters, he could basically only retrieve the pen and throw it back.
Next, Bai Mo began to inwardly examine his own body.
Under the perception of his divine sense, he discovered that after a full day's cleansing by the high-concentration spirit tide, his energy-absorbing skin had evolved again. It had merged and integrated with his digestive system, becoming the sole system for energy intake—processing it into Spirit Energy.
Now, after he ingested anything, the energy-absorbing system would immediately extract all useful substances from it at the fastest possible speed.
The effects of a full day of spirit tide body refinement extended beyond this: his heart had almost completely undergone Spirit Energy transformation—under his divine sense, it had become a sphere of light, serving as the energy-absorbing system's Spirit Energy storage center. Simultaneously, like a miniature sun, it radiated Spirit Energy to every corner of his body, and the blood vessels originally connected to his heart had consequently begun the process of Spirit Energy transformation.
After staying holed up in the hotel until the Spirit River became a spirit stream, Bai Mo began packing his bags, preparing to return home.
"Young man, we meet again." In the first-class lounge, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.
"Hello." Seeing the old man, young man, and two bodyguards appear in the first-class lounge, Bai Mo casually greeted them.
"Interested in joining us?" The old man, without any polite preamble, suddenly extended his invitation directly.
Bai Mo suddenly found himself at a loss for words, facing such an invitation from a stranger, even if the old man appeared to have a significant background.
"Oh, by the way, I am Hua Taishan."
"Bai Mo."
"There's still some time before boarding. How about we have a spar?"
He looked at the other man with a bewildered expression. Someone he had just met less than an hour ago suddenly wanted to fight him—it felt wrong no matter how he looked at it. If this wasn't already the first-class lounge, Bai Mo would have been tempted to call security.
Meeting such a wealthy and influential old man who immediately wanted to fight left him feeling helpless. Regardless, his current identity was that of an ordinary student... countless news reports had taught him to cherish life and stay away from old people staging fake accidents, especially those who brought bodyguards to forcibly do so.
"What exactly is going on?"
"..." Although Bai Mo possessed considerable strength, he truly had no interest in unprovoked fights. He wasn't a martial fanatic who loved combat; he was more like an ascetic focused on his own self-improvement.
Hua Taishan seemed not to consider the other party's opinion. After delivering his polite notification, he immediately launched an attack right there in the lounge.
The first-class cabin for this flight happened to have only their two groups, which made him even more unrestrained.
"I really don't know how to fight..." Realizing the old man was serious, Bai Mo immediately put on an innocent act, completely devoid of the grim intensity he had shown during their first encounter a few days prior.
Bai Mo truly didn't want to get entangled with this wealthy, powerful, and eccentric old man. He clearly understood that his current brute strength was enough to smash a wall with his bare hands; if he accidentally hit the other party, it would likely invite endless trouble.
"How did your injuries recover so quickly?" Hua Taishan recalled seeing Bai Mo covered in wounds just a few days ago, completely different from the agile, dodging figure before him now.
"I don't know," Bai Mo prevaricated.
"A fast recovery speed is even better, then." Realizing this, Hua Taishan's resolve to bring Bai Mo over to his side only strengthened.
Without waiting for Bai Mo's agreement, he directly launched his attack!
As a martial fanatic obsessed with martial arts, Hua Taishan never cared about the challenged party's thoughts; as long as he felt the thrill of the hunt, he would immediately engage in a fight.
Throughout his life, hardly anyone had ever dared to disrespect him. Many martial artists in the industry even secretly hoped they, too, would get a chance to be provoked by him.
This was because those who cleaned up after him were incredibly generous, offering ten or even a hundred times the compensation even for injuries sustained. To put it bluntly, all they really had to do was play along with this old man, indulging his theatrics.
He had plenty of money and a deep background as a "royal relative"; playing like this was purely for the sake of doing whatever he pleased.
...
Hua Taishan's boxing and footwork were seasoned and ruthless, and he had the advantage of initiating the attack, naturally pressing Bai Mo from the very start.
As for Bai Mo, whose last fight since childhood was in sixth grade, merely fending off these tricky attacks already pushed him to his limits, even with his physical superiority.
Of course, the more crucial reason was his concern about the endless troubles that would arise if he accidentally injured the other party, which was why he remained entirely on the defensive, without initiating any attacks.
"Pretending to have an unstable stance, floaty footwork, and improper force application—do you think that can fool me?!" The more Hua Taishan fought, the more he felt annoyed. The young man in front of him wasn't putting much effort into his act, feigning complete ignorance of how to fight, yet he managed to evade most of the attacks purely through his physical agility.
"Clang!"
Unable to dodge in time, Bai Mo instinctively threw out his right fist to protect himself. Because he used sheer, unreserved force, there was no holding back in that punch.
The fist, carrying a massive amount of kinetic energy, even stirred up a gust of wind mid-air.
By the time Hua Taishan realized something was wrong, the heavy punch was less than thirty centimeters away from him. He only had time to block with both arms. The instant fist and forearm collided, an eerily metallic clanging sound echoed through the area, like striking a brass gong.
The piercing sound instantly filled the entire lounge. Staff members, who had originally intended to feign ignorance, were forced to step forward, but eventually gave up under the bodyguards' persuasion.
The power contained within the fist was truly terrifying, immediately triggering Hua Taishan's innate ability gained from the Spirit River—body metallization. Only with his metalized arms was he barely able to block it.
"Pure strength, then?" After receiving that punch, Hua Taishan felt his hands trembling slightly and no longer had any desire to continue fighting.
He finally understood that the young man before him truly lacked any technique, possessing only pure strength and speed. He was grappling with a wild bull!
"A thousand techniques, ten thousand forms, can they withstand a single punch?" A thought suddenly flashed through Hua Taishan's mind. "No wonder, even with such injuries back then, he could still give me an extreme sense of danger."
"My apologies, I didn't mean to." Bai Mo immediately reacted, realizing he had almost accidentally killed the old man and brought immense trouble upon himself. Fortunately, the other party had also gained power from the Spirit River and blocked the strike with his metalized hands.
Both sides fell silent.
...
"I'm looking to establish a symposium for researching spirit qi-enhanced bodies. Interested?" After his probing, Hua Taishan extended an olive branch to Bai Mo.
The two bodyguards behind him remained silent, but Bai Mo could tell from their eager gazes that refusal was not a good option.
"Alright." Such an elaborate display just to lure a student like himself, who had little value, seemed unrealistic. Entering the first-class lounge required tickets, and the four of them alone would cost tens of thousands. So, despite their recent acquaintance, he still accepted the business card offered to him.
On the other hand, Bai Mo also keenly sensed that this world had undergone a complete transformation. As an ordinary person, he might be able to achieve great things in this new era, but the prerequisite for everything was a large sum of money.
No matter the era, only with money and resources could one stay ahead. Whether it was scientific research or other explorations, none could proceed without funding. Through this old man, whose identity was clearly not simple, he estimated he could complete his primitive accumulation of capital much faster.
"The Huaxia Federation's number two seems to be surnamed Hua. Is there some connection here?" Bai Mo suddenly thought of this.
Although he didn't pay much attention to the news, he still had an impression of the names of the highest-ranking officials.
"Vice-President of the Huaxia National Martial Arts Association, Hua Taishan..."