At A University, Zhu Yuan answered a call. The person on the other end of the line had said something that made him chuckle quietly. “You guys will be set up as a research team when you come back. As for them, don’t let a single one of them into the team.”

Zhu Yuan laughed mockingly after hanging up. He had specially sent someone to invite guests over from the international organization and yet they were unwilling to even dispatch a single personnel to attend the conference. If that’s the case, then he had no other choice but to build up his research team with his fellow Chinese comrades.

He hoped that they wouldn’t regret their foolish decision of opting out of this golden opportunity.

Zhu Yuan: You must attend the press conference tomorrow.

For A Millenium: You scared of being along?

For A Millenium: Little baby, if you’re that scared, go to Professor Jiang. He’ll take good care of you.

Zhu Yuan: Let’s talk nicely, alright Grandma Gu? ~（＞_＜）~

Zhu Yuan: The press conference tomorrow is incredibly important. We’re talking about a new scientific breakthrough for the international medical community here. You absolutely must make an appearance there.

For A Millenium: It’s not that big of a deal. I believe in you little baby.

Zhu Yuan: Truth be told, there are a bunch of stuff I don’t understand well in the process. I was hoping that you would explain and give courage to our fellow Chinese medical personnel. They really need it.

Gu Xiqiao stared blankly into empty space after reading that line. Her finger kept sliding up and down the screen of her phone. Zhu Yuan’s words, “they really need it”, truly touched her heart.

Wasn’t this the main reason why she chose medicine? To save the lives of others?

For A Millenium: Address.

Zhu Yuan, who was still in A University, responded one second later with the location of where tomorrow’s press conference was going to be held. Fearing that Gu Xiqiao would change her mind and turn it down last minute, he switched his phone off.

Gu Xiqiao on the other hand, was still staring at her phone. He hadn’t told her what the sequence was for tomorrow’s event.

“Stop zoning out,” reminded Jiang Shuxuan while looking down at the plate of fruits that were becoming discolored due to being left out too long. He set the glass of milk he was holding down onto the table before urging her, “Eat up.”

“Oh.” Gu Xiqiao picked up the glass of milk.

Jiang Shuxuan stole a glance at her before heading upstairs. “I’m gonna go take a shower…don’t play with Haha while eating your apples alright?” Although the dog was visibly clean, its body was still a breeding ground for unknown pathogens.

Haha, who was indirectly roasted went silent.

***

In the study room upstairs, Jiang Shuxuan dialed the number whose call he rejected just now. On the other end of the line was a young man’s voice. His Chinese accent sounded weird, exposing him as a foreigner. “I heard you were planning to push the Baili family up?”

“More or less.” Jiang Shuxuan lit up a cigarette and sucked in a lungful of smoke. That thing that Gu Xiqiao gave him enabled the Baili family to do so with unrivaled speed.

After Baili Qu’s recovery from his mysterious illness, the Baili family was soon to become another family who possessed a ferocious legacy.

“They really are lucky aren’t they? I hope to see Bai Libin’s name in particular on the International Ranking List this year.” There was anticipation in that man’s voice.

“If you’ve nothing to talk about I’m gonna hang up now.” Jiang Shuxuan stubbed out his cigarette.

“Ah–wait don’t! I heard that a buttload of interesting things happened in the ancient martial arts world. I want to come back and take a look.”

Jiang Shuxuan squinted his eyes after hearing that. “Murong Feiye, don’t forget your English roots. We, the people of the ancient martial arts world will take care of our own matters.

“It’s also incredibly simple if I want to deport you back to Great Britain.”

“…Don’t get the idea that I’m scared of you. I might have lost to you 3 years ago, but I have been constantly growing my powers since then. Just you wait! When the next ranking list gets published, you’ll see my name at the very top!” Murong Feiye felt proud thinking about that. He represented the British people; he almost had his guts twisted in a knot when recalling his humiliating defeat under the hands of Jiang Shuxuan.

“I’m gonna hang up.”

“Hey-c’mon, let’s have a little conversation. I know why you hung up on me just now…”

Jiang Shuxuan hung up the phone and opened up the window. A cold breeze blew in from the outside, clearing the smell of smoke out of his room. With a flick of his fingers, the cigarette butt landed perfectly inside the bin.

***

At Tang Enterprise, Tang Qingqiu was looking down at his phone while listening to Qin Heng’s report. Sudden;y, he looked up. “Remember, the press conference is being held tomorrow. How are the preparations coming along in the media side of things?”

“Very well sir, Mr. Zhu has requested for this conference to have live coverage for the entire world to see.” Qin Heng flipped through his notepad. “Nine Heavens has already obtained the right to broadcast for tomorrow’s event.”

Tang Qingqiu raised his brow upon hearing this. “They’ve done everything, what do we do?”

Tang Qingqiu understood that while it sounded simple, it was actually pretty difficult to obtain broadcasting rights on an international level; not every country saw China eye-to-eye. Now that Nine Heavens has dealt with this sticky matter, the Tang Enterprise was left practically redundant with nothing to add to the project itself. And yet, they were still guaranteed 20% of their total profits?

“We’re responsible for security and maintaining order at the conference. Nine Heavens will not be physically attending the event.” Qin Heng and Mu Zong were jointly-responsible for hosting this event. The duo had been making their own preparations for the past few days and it was during this period that Qin Heng witnessed Nine Heavens’ true capability. For instance, their software manufacturing system has already reached the peak of what humanity was capable of currently.

There were many countries who had their own disputes with the People’s Republic of China.

Be that as it may, these countries would all treat Nine Heavens courteously despite its Chinese origin. Qin Heng was lucky enough to speak to Mu Zong personally through a video conference. He had little idea what Mu Zong talked about in their meeting but he recalled how friendly his counterpart was.

However, after observing Mu Zong’s communication with his foreign partners, Qin Heng suddenly realized that they were able to do something which Tang Enterprise could not. Still, Nine Heavens was kind enough to come up with a long-term strategy plan for their newfound ally in a surprisingly short amount of time.

“Nine Heavens isn’t going to attend the conference?” Tang Qingqiu reconsidrered his situation. “Aren’t they gonna go observe the outcome?”

Qin Heng’s mouth twitched awkwardly. “I think they’re trying to avoid unnecessary hassle.”

“…”

Tang Qingqiu slowly looked up.

“Nine Heavens is now slowly incorporating what’s left of the Bai family.” Qin Heng thought about what Mu Zong has done as of late. “Young Master, I assume that you’re aware of how large Bai Enterprise’s foundation is. Initially, I didn’t believe that Nine Heavens could swallow them whole. I thought that someone else would swoop in and take the kill. To my surprise, perhaps they are much more mysterious than I originally thought they were.”

Qin Heng emphasised on the word “mysterious”. He was curious when he started out cooperating with Nine Heavens. However, through his interactions with said firm, he made shocking discoveries almost everyday.

“Young Master, do you know who I bumped into when I visited Nine Heavens’ headquarters?”

Tang Qingqiu rose from his seat and looked inquisitively at Qin Heng. “Who?”

“Remember the top-grade finance students from A University that we tried luring over? They were there, as well as a couple other big shot financial analysts who frequently appear on the front page of finance magazines.” Qin Heng took a deep breath. “They are incredibly passionate about their work. I have never seen any firm like theirs. If you’ve the chance, I think you should defintiely check them out. Maybe you’ll derive some inspiration out of it.”

Most of the people he met at their company were all famous people in the outside world. If it weren’t for this, Qin Heng would never believe that it was possible to bring together so many bright minds under one single company.

The most important thing was that all of them appeared to be working in perfect harmony; they worked as if they could never run out of battery.

“This Nine Heavens is a terrifying force it seems.” Qin Heng added at the end.

Tang Qingqiu gestured for him to head on down. Leaning back into his chair, he slowly flipped over the document that Qin Heng handed him.

He let out a long sigh after reaching the end of the document. His curiosity about who was running Nine Heavens grew once more. It was to the point where he couldn’t contain his emotions any longer. Rubbing his phone, he pondered if it was time for him to contact the Confidential Information Bureau.

Then, someone knocked on his door.

“Come in.”

Tang Qingqiu tidied up the pile of documents.

The door was slowly pushed open before a young man popped out from behind. “Brother,” he said while flashing a smile at Tang Qingqiu.

“Qinghong? Why are you here?” Tang Qingqiu stood up, bewildered. He patted Tang Qinghong’s shoulder. “I thought you were at the training ground. I bet the next competition’s coming soon.”

He knew his brother quiet well. Back then, after receiving some unknown shock, and ever since obtaining the chance to visit the Jiang family’s legacy base, he remained at the training ground for a very long time. He would not come home for a few months at a time, which explained why Tang Qingqiu was so surprised by his sudden appearance.

Tang Qinghong sat down on the sofa. “Brother, did you know that the leader of the Baili family has finally returned?”

“Their leader?” Tang Qingqiu poured his brother a drink. “If that’s so then where’s Baili Qu? Has he returned too?”

Yup,” replied Tang Qinghong seriously.

Tea was overflowing from Tang Qinghong’s cup and he had to remind his big brother about it before that he realized it. Tang Qingqiu went silent after that. “Are… are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely, brother. Something’s changed for the Baili family. I met the patriarch today. His aura was much stabler than the previous times we met. I presume the cause of that to be his unexplained illness.” A lot has happened in the ancient martial arts world in the past two days. Even Tang Qinghong found it hard to keep up with all the changes.

First was Yin Shaoyuan’s box of magical pills, news of which had been leaked out by the Tang family. It caused a tidal wave of commotion that swept across the ancient martial arts world. Luckily, due to the deterrence that Jiang Shuxuan’s presence offered, no one dared to snatch the treasure away from Yin Shaoyuan. However, that wasn’t enough to stop them from plotting to do so.

And then, there was the abrupt return of the Baili family to the ancient martial arts world. He was able to catch of glimpse of Baili Qu from afar and the changes he went through were noticeable, even from a distance. He didn’t seem as depressed as he was previously. The aura his body emanated was also far stronger.

“Didn’t the divine doctor say that there was no cure for his disease?” Tang Qingqiu noticed the dismay in his voice when he asked that question.

“This is what I’m gonna talk about next. Brother, the divine doctor’s coming back.”

Although the ancient martial arts world remained largely unchanged on the surface, with all this happening, they all knew that the peace they enjoyed previously had now daded away. The ominous magical pills, Yin Shaoyuan’s sudden emergence and the Baili family’s return…this all pointed towards the possibility of a power reshuffle in their realm.

“I’m going back with you today.” Tang Qingqiu picked up his coat. While talking to Qin Heng over the phone, he left alongside Tang Qinghong.

Suddenly, something popped onto Tang Qingqiu’s mind. “Does Shuxuan know about Baili Qu’s return?”

“They were the ones with whom the patriarch and Baili Qu returned.” Tang Qinghong replied.

***

On the next day, at A University.

The atmoshphere at the unversity was different today. Imported luxury cars rolled in through the main gate one after the other. Apart from large men in black business suits, there were also teams of sombre-faced journalists.

“What’s up with these journalists and bodyguards? Who’s coming to our university?” Onlookers started discussing the scene amongst themselves.

“I don’t know.” The man beside him shook his head. “But the main door of the hall was sealed shut when I passed by.”

“They’re this confidential?!”

“I bet it’s some leader, or maybe it’s a formal function of sorts….”

“…”

Lin Xia, who was dressed in a formal suit stood at the entrance of the auditorium. Raising his arm, he glanced down at his wrist watch. It was already 9.45 and despite Zhu Yuan and Professor Jiang’s calls, Gu Xiqiao was nowhere to be seen.

Lin Xia couldn’t help but wonder if Gu Xiqiao had indeed forgotten about the speech she was supposed to give today.

After working at the laboratory for the past couple of days, he finally understood Professor Jiang and Zhu Yuan’s complaints. Not once did Gu Xiqiao step foot in their laboratiry to check on her own work!

The more he studied the manuscripts left behind by Gu Xiqiao, the more his fear of Gu Xiqiao grew. Despite how complete the information she provided was, Zhu Yuan was the only one who could make sense of her concepts.

He remembered this line that Zhu Yuan said to him. “You just need to understand one or two levels deeper and soon enough, you’ll achieve your own breakthrough. The information you see here has already breached the common scientific community’s level of knowledge.”

Lin Xia continued thinking about these things frantically before finally, the familiar skinny silhouette of a young girl appeared in the distance.

“My junior!”

“No reason for you to panic.” Gu Xiqiao showed him the time on her phone, indicating that she had arrived on time.

Surprisingly, he was more panicked than she was, even thought she was supposed to be the star of today’s event.

Zhu Yuan was discussing matters with Professor Jiang when he looked up to find Gu Xiqiao, who arrived at the final moment. “God! You’ve finally come!”

He passed two printed A4-sized papers to Gu Xiqiao. “This is a speech I prepared for you. I forgot to send it to you last night. There isn’t time for you to memorize it now, so you should just bring it to the podium later!”

Gu Xiqiao scanned through it before tucking it into her pocket.

“Don’t be nervous, alright?” Professor Jiang slowly instructed Gu Xiqiao. With so many cameras pointed at her face, he feared that she would suffer a nervous breakdown. “If you feel yourself panicking, just smile at us. Zhu Yuan will come to your rescue.”

“Alright.” Gu Xiqiao responded with a nod.

10am.

The stage lights of the auditorium turned on.

A sea of journalists raised their cameras, focusing on a single person standing on the stage. Many of them were clueless as to why they were here. They had only received an order to come here to A University. It was after seeing reporters from the state news network did they realize how important the even really was.

The audience looked up to find a fresh-faced young girl staring down at them.

At the International Academy of Medical Sciences.

“President, I think you should watch the live broadcast, the one we were invited by Zhu Yuan to attend.” This was a blonde hair, blue-eyed young lad.

The president of the academy was in the middle of dissecting a research report from China. His brows furrowed upon hearing the young man speak. “I believe that everyone in this room knows what cell fusion is! Big deal if a bunch of Chinamen discovered what we uncovered decades ago!”

With the exception of Zhu Yuan, a majority of doctors in China had a subpar performance. This was the truth that was acknowledged by many of this academy’s members. To prove this point, very rarely were there members from China.

This was an indisputable fact.

However, it seems that apart from Zhu Yuan, yet another medical prodigy was rising up in China.

“Find this Chinese person. Bring her here. China will overlook her significance as they had done with countless other talents like her in the past. We need people like her working in our team.” The President displayed a clear screenshot obtained from a video.

Only the person’s outline was visible. However, it was quite clear that the person was a woman, and a young one at that.

“President.” The blondie interrupted the President’s passionate speech. He slowly raised his head before staring at the President with discontent eyes. Finally, he opened his mouth, which trembled as he spoke. “The cell fusion we’re talking about in this press conference relates to cells from different hosts, different bodies. They’re claiming that all metabolic functions are normal after the fusion process. The cycle of cell aging and division is an infinite loop and most importantly, they’re saying that this process guarantees no cell rejection. President, do you know what this means?”

The President pushed him aside and ran the fastest he had ever run over to the broadcasting room.

On the screen was a young girl. She was a solid ten even by American beauty standards.

Slowly, she started speaking. “70% of all blood-related disease patients can be saved. No more would they need to wait around for a bone marrow donor. We have organized a special research team, who coincidentally, is part of the audience as doctors. We will provide them with the technology as well as the training. I hope that we can deliver hope to suffering people from all over the world.”

As her speech ended, the auditorium went dead silent. Then, seconds later, everyone stood up and started clapping.

They finally knew why they had attended this conference!

Life as they knew it was about to be re-written!

70% of all blood-related diseases could be cured? What magical number was that?

“Impossible!” screamed the president of the International Academy of Medical Sciences. “It’s impossible for there to be zero cell rejection! What does she think this is? Pediatrics?! How could one possibly violate the laws of nature?!”

The girl then calmly presented two petri dishes. The cells contained within were enlarged and projected onto the screen behind her.

“On the left is the experiment I did 1 month ago. On the right is a normal cell culture. I believe that anyone present, who has a good understanding of biology understands what is happening.” Gu Xiqiao introduced her concept to the audience calmly while obtaining cells from two different mice.

Despite there being countless cameras pointed at her, she remained calm, methodical, and meticulous as she laid out her explanation to the audience. While she explained, she did a live demonstration of this cell fusion process for the audience. “The most essential thing you have to get right is the concentration…yeah, and we’re done.”

On the projection screen, the two cells had become fused together. Three minutes later, they started splitting like a regular cell would.

Lin Xia, who had seen her do this once was in a state of disbelief upon seeing how effortless the process actually was.

They watched her go through the process from start to finish in one single session.

The president of the International Academy of Medical Sciences suddenly choked up. Stood around him were all men who were crazy about the subject of medicine. Medicine and science reigned supreme above everything else. While laymen found it hard to understand what was going on, these people knew every step she was taking.

The only thing on his mind right now was, go to China! And find that little research team!

However, this was beyond their control. There were no guarantees that they would be accepted upon landing in China. Over the phone, the Chinese had made it quite clear to them, “Because members are urgently needed to form our research team, only attendees of the conference are allowed to join. I am incredibly sorry about this.”

Upon hanging up, one of the men cursed, “I can’t believe how selfish the Chinese are acting! Aren’t they supposed to benefit the whole of mankind?! How dare they have the audacity to refuse to share their resources!

“But they’ve invited us yesterday and we turned it down ourselves. I heard that no matter what country the doctors come from, as long as you were an attendee, you’re allowed access to the research lab.” said another doctor with a regretful look on his face. “If only I knew that they were talking about this sort of cell fusion, I would’ve gone regardless of what you said!”

“These Chinese are way too cunning. They didn’t make the first move, fooling us into thinking that it was just your regular cell fusion! Cunning bastards they are!”

“I never expected another prodigy to suddenly spring up after Zhu Yuan! How terrifying can China get?!”

“I bet the medical ranking list is gonna change again!”

“They’re way too strong!”

Countless well-known medical scholars from all around the globe were flocking towards China. An ancient civilization that was once humiliated as backward and barbaric has finally resurfaced in front of everyone.

This video was broadcasted live around central squares in every nation, allowing everyone to witness this magical moment.

Many in a US airport froze in their tracks. The young girl looked up at the camera lens, at the entire world with her bright eyes. Slowly, a smile broke across her face. “And so, the history of mankind will be rewritten. I welcome everyone to our great nation, China.”

Shen Nianzhi, who was dragging her suitcase suddenly stopped and stared down at the screen in disbelief. “S-She’s really succeeded…”

“Shen Nianzhi, the teacher’s waiting for us in the lobby.” Mu Yunfan caught a glimpse of the person on her phone. His eyes remained fixed on her face for a while as a frown slowly emerged on his face. He looked away, unwilling to spare her even a single second of attention.