Chapter 8: An Unexpected Discovery

Because of this, the ghost didn’t realize that Mu Yin could see her and continued following the soul path her family had lit for her, going back to enjoy her final meal.

It was then that Mu Yin truly experienced what it meant for the world to change overnight. Seeing a ghost no longer counted as something strange; if you didn’t see a few ghosts at night, that was the oddity. Yet, what shocked her even more was discovering that her school’s music teacher was actually a demon. Though only a minor spirit with abilities equivalent to a level-three psychic, it was still a demon.

However, the music teacher was always mild-tempered and gentle, with no trace of murderous aura—clearly a proper cultivator. But why would a demon appear in this remote little town?

In fact, there was no need to find it odd. Blue Star was once the center of the universe, with countless dimensional gates connecting myriad worlds. Later, after the source power was sealed, the gates were gradually closed, but various races still maintained outposts near the remaining gates. Once she discovered a dimensional gate, it was no longer surprising to encounter a spirit.

At first, Mu Yin didn’t realize this, but it became clear during her later cultivation. This made her a bit anxious, wondering if she herself had been discovered.

After several visits, her worries eased, as she hadn’t sensed any other beings or people's presence here. Most likely, the previous upheaval on Blue Star had caused a rupture in succession.

That upheaval had indeed been bizarre—suddenly there was a call to destroy the old and attack superstition, along with the suppression of talent. At first, Mu Yin didn't know these historical details, but for certain reasons, she had read some middle school history books in advance and learned about that misguided Cultural Revolution.

It was as if someone intentionally wanted to ruin a country. Humanity has thousands of years of history; it’s impossible not to distinguish real progress, not to mention foreign examples. Yet, the leadership at the time seemed blinded, stubbornly charging in the wrong direction for a full decade.

Destroying the old, suppressing talent—all signs pointed to a deliberate plan. The more Mu Yin thought about it, the more she suspected alien intervention. In her memory, aliens didn’t appear on Blue Star until 2006, but what if that information was wrong?

Perhaps they had infiltrated Blue Star much earlier, limiting China’s development and sowing discord on the international stage. Maybe even World War II was their doing. What was their purpose? Besides Europe, China was also a main battlefield, and that catastrophe lasted nearly two centuries, only beginning to recover in recent decades.

Mu Yin recalled that the path to the earth’s core lay beneath Shennongjia, which led her to suspect that suppressing China’s national destiny was necessary to open the passage to the core, and that the seal was finally broken in 2006 to extract the planet’s source energy.

Thinking along these lines, everything seemed more logical, but it also made Mu Yin more vigilant. If this were true, it meant that aliens had already invaded their planet.

With that in mind, Mu Yin was even more determined to find a chance to get out. Eventually, she found one: the preliminary round of an international children’s painting competition.

Children aged eight to twelve could participate; entry was as simple as mailing a painting to Haicheng before May 1st, with no restrictions on subject matter.

Mu Yin immediately took out her drawing paper and pencils and began to paint. Before the apocalypse, she’d had no talent for art, but after awakening her powers, she found she didn’t need to limit herself to drawing. However, during a particularly hungry period, she’d once managed to conjure a cake out of a drawing, and from then on, she began learning to paint.

Using a drawing to channel her powers was much more effective than creating things from thin air. Over seven or eight years in the apocalypse, she had transformed from a girl who could only draw cartoons into a master artist. Though not yet a grandmaster, perhaps due to her powers, her paintings were always full of vitality and spirit.

This time, having been reborn, her skills hadn’t yet returned to her previous level. After all, her hand was still unpracticed, and she needed to retrain herself. Still, she felt she was good enough for a children’s competition.

After some thought, she drew a sketch of a kitten pouncing on a butterfly. It wasn’t hyperrealistic, but it radiated liveliness—the cat and butterfly seemed almost alive.

Then she used her carefully saved pocket money to mail the drawing, and all she could do was wait for a response.

Even Mu Yin grew impatient during the wait. That weekend, instead of going off to train, she joined her brother in picking tea.

“Well, if it isn’t our busy Mu Yin! How come you have time today?” Lily greeted her with a sarcastic tone.

“Yeah, the sun must be rising in the west,” Bailing added. The three of them had been the best of friends in the village since childhood, but Mu Yin had suddenly drifted away from them. It was natural for the other two to feel a little resentful.

She blinked and explained, “Honestly, I didn’t mean to. I accidentally became someone’s apprentice, and my master insists I can’t slack off until I’ve learned his skills.”

There was a reason she suddenly brought this up. First, she’d discovered that there were spirits in this world, right in their midst. Though this one seemed benign, where there was good, there could also be evil. If, as she suspected, aliens had already infiltrated Blue Star, she needed to look out for the people close to her.

After all, physical cultivation would become essential for everyone in the future. Teaching it to others didn’t matter, especially since she possessed the Creation Body-Tempering Technique. Giving away the basic form cost her nothing. Besides, she wasn’t selfish—within her means, she was happy to benefit everyone.

So she had no intention of keeping the basic body cultivation secret.

“You’ve watched too much TV,” Bailing’s older sister, Baidie, couldn’t help but tease.

“And you’ve started self-inserting into the story,” echoed Qiuping, a village girl the same age as Baidie. The others all laughed, thinking Mu Yin’s excuse was terrible.

“Laugh all you want. Let me show you and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.” Mu Yin had expected this reaction and didn’t argue. Glancing around, she noted they were on a tea mountain, the fields terraced like steps.

Though body cultivation focused on strengthening the body, once practiced, it not only increased strength and speed, but also made one’s movements lighter. She leapt down to a lower terrace and walked to the edge.

The others didn’t pay much attention—a terrace was only about a meter high. They’d jumped from three meters before, as long as there was a pile of sand or straw below.