At the heart of the city, on the top floor of the Central Building.
This was the office of Wang Haichao, one of Chenxi City's three wealthiest individuals.
His corpulent body sank into the chair, his usually amiable face now exuding an inexplicable aura.
On the desk, a withered hand was hidden amongst the documents.
It occasionally twitched slightly.
"Still no luck, huh...?"
Wang Haichao's brows furrowed slightly.
There was still not much information regarding the base in the city's outskirts.
"Worldly wealth, in the end, still cannot reach the true core," Xuan Hao pushed away the mouse and leaned back in his chair.
To access real information, he had to possess a Martial Artist.
And it had to be an influential Martial Artist.
Suddenly, a faint, ethereal sense of emptiness traveled up the nerves of this obese body.
Xuan Hao pressed the intercom button.
Half a minute later, the crisp sound of high heels tapping on the floor echoed.
The door was pushed open, and a secretary with a fiery figure, dressed in a tight-fitting skirt suit, entered respectfully: "Mr. Wang."
"Get me something to eat."
An unfamiliar voice came from Wang Haichao's mouth.
The female secretary nodded and turned to leave.
Half an hour later, the office desk was filled with food.
Arm-length lobsters, caviar, and beef sizzling on charcoal.
Xuan Hao picked up a piece of tuna and put it into his mouth, but unfortunately, his hunger was not alleviated.
"As expected...." Xuan Hao understood.
The food he consumed was no longer the same as what ordinary people ate.
The "Spirit" he had been absorbing while trapped in the spatial rift was his true sustenance.
"Mr. Wang," the beautiful secretary cautiously reminded, "It's past midnight. Aren't you going to rest?"
"You can go home now."
Xuan Hao didn't even lift an eyelid.
The female secretary hesitated, then bowed and said, "I'll be in the lounge next door. Please call me if you need anything."
She turned and left, closing the glass door behind her.
After a moment of thought, Xuan Hao opened his Mental Energy Domain.
Buzz!
An invisible, intangible, yet clearly existing "field," with the withered hand on the desk as its origin, suddenly spread out like ripples!
It was imperceptible to the naked eye but could be sensed by the mind.
The entire Central Building, and even the commercial pedestrian street connected below, trembled and distorted imperceptibly!
However, the real space was unaffected.
It was as if a massive, hazy projection was superimposed on the foundation!
Reality remained reality.
But within this Mental Energy Domain, constructed by Mental Energy, the bustling commercial street completely transformed.
The lights still flickered but were covered by a layer of greyish-white mist.
The streets were deserted.
Even more astonishing was Xuan Hao himself!
A colossal, suffocating shadow, almost as tall as the building's roof, stood erect in the projection of his Mental Energy Domain.
Its outline was extremely blurry, as if made of smoke.
Only a vague, three-headed, six-armed posture, twisted and ancient, could be discerned.
Turbulent grey mist swirled and danced around this giant shadow, like some terrifying entity from myth and legend, descending upon the mortal world.
"Is it because of the body?"
Xuan Hao looked at his Primordial Spirit, which was flickering and extremely unstable.
But he was immediately drawn to something else.
Above the extremely vast, mist-shrouded street, some faint specks of light floated.
They resembled dust, or weak fireflies.
They had no physical form; they were pure, unowned, scattered remnants of Mental Energy.
This was precisely the "Spirit" that Xuan Hao relied on for survival in the spatial rift.
"Indeed, this is the food."
Xuan Hao's colossal Mental Projection, its blurry head, opened a massive mouth.
"Whoosh!"
A terrifying suction enveloped the sky above this street.
All the "Spirits," as if caught in an invisible, giant vortex, were sucked into Xuan Hao's mouth.
A sense of satisfaction arose.
But it was immediately drowned by a deeper hunger.
"Too little...." Xuan Hao murmured, "If my Mental Energy Domain could cover the entire city, I wouldn't have to worry about food, and my Primordial Spirit could solidify further."
Just then, a tender child's voice pierced the silence of the grey mist:
"Mon... Monster!"
Xuan Hao followed the sound. At the edge of his Mental Energy Domain, behind a window in a high-rise residential building, a seven or eight-year-old boy's face was deathly pale with fright.
"Mental activity?"
Combining this with his experience of being trapped in the spatial rift, he roughly understood the situation.
This was human mental activity!
Things like thinking and fantasizing were all mental activities.
These activities produced Mental Energy.
And Xuan Hao fed on this kind of energy.
Although he could devour human Souls and minds, this was akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
After all, as long as humans were alive, they could generate Mental Energy.
If not for the limitations of lifespan, humans would almost be perpetual motion machines for producing Mental Energy.
"Monster, you say?"
Almost simultaneously, a clear voice sounded from below.
In the deserted commercial street, a slender figure entered this Domain; it was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl.
She wore an ancient, moon-white long dress and carried an antique longsword on her back, like a Jianghu heroine.
"Good Mental Energy."
Xuan Hao scrutinized the girl in ancient attire.
The girl was like an ant, yet her Mental Energy was far stronger than that of ordinary people.
Her ancient long dress was a complete materialization of her mental fantasies.
In other words, the girl was lost in thought.
But because her Mental Energy was powerful, and because Xuan Hao's Mental Energy Domain descended, her fantasies were materialized.
"Outer God.... Are you the Outer God of legend?!"
Qiao Ling'er forcibly suppressed the urge to turn and run, forcing herself to question.
But Xuan Hao's vast, blurry Primordial Spirit merely glanced at her, causing the girl's body to tremble violently, on the verge of collapsing!
"Zheng!" Qiao Ling'er pointed her sword at the massive shadow.
"Outer God, today I...."
"...will eliminate evil for the world!"
Her voice became sharp with fear, yet carried a bizarre stubbornness.
Xuan Hao's cold voice, like muffled thunder, rumbled through the mist-shrouded space:
"You're not even a Martial Artist, yet you wish to eliminate me?"
"You.... How do you know I'm not a Martial Artist?"
Qiao Ling'er was visibly stunned, a flush of embarrassment quickly crossing her face.
As she spoke, her body became transparent again.
Engaging in a few sentences with Xuan Hao was already the limit of the girl's Mental Energy.
"Do you wish to become a Martial Artist?"
A magnificent voice boomed deep within Qiao Ling'er's consciousness.
She suddenly looked up, disbelieving.
"You can make me a Martial Artist? Don't try to trick me; you Outer Gods definitely have ill intentions!"
Qiao Ling'er refused verbally, but her heart wavered.
Becoming a Martial Artist was a long-sought Opportunity.
"I was right, wasn't I?"
Qiao Ling'er showed a triumphant expression.
But the look on her face instantly froze.
An irresistible, vast will, like a tsunami, crashed over her, and her condensed Mental Energy instantly shattered.
At the same time, in the real world.
In the apartment complex, the starlight outside the window was dim.
"Hmph!"
On her comfortable pink bed, Qiao Ling'er suddenly opened her eyes and sat up with a jolt.
Sweat instantly soaked her stray hairs and the back of her pajamas.
She gazed blankly at her familiar bedroom, her chest heaving violently, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst from her ribcage.
"I actually fell asleep...."
Qiao Ling'er murmured to herself.
"Wait, Outer God!"
She instantly recalled the mountain-like, three-headed, six-armed giant shadow.
And those "giant eyes" hidden in the grey mist, devoid of any emotion.
This was definitely not an ordinary nightmare.
In an instant, cold sweat trickled down her temples.
"The academy classes taught that Outer Gods themselves are distorted; merely looking at Them can lead to Mental Energy contamination, let alone seeing an Outer God...."
A bone-chilling coldness rushed from her tailbone to the top of her head.
"It's over, it's over...."
Qiao Ling'er rolled out of bed and rushed into the washroom, repeatedly checking her eyes, skin, and expression in the mirror.
"Will I grow tentacles?"
"Or will my head suddenly explode? No! Tomorrow I need to go to the academy for a full purification check. Help me!"