Chapter 34: Spiritual Penetration
“A-Level?”
Han Su was stunned upon hearing the answer. “What did I even do to get an A-Level?”
If he thought about it, the last time he heard the Encrypted Text, his reaction was indeed quite intense—it had thrown him back ten years. But in the eyes of others, hadn't he just taken a nap?
Hadn't Secretary Cui Qiao even said he was rather slow? Then what was this A-Level evaluation supposed to mean?
Just as he was thinking about it, the instructor had already arranged for the trainees to enter the room where he had previously listened to the mysterious language.
The only change inside was that where there had once been only a single chair, there was now a full circle of them, arranged back to back.
The trainees entered one after another and sat down in sequence.
Once the door was shut, even the instructor stepped a bit further from the doorway.
Then, the room began playing the same Whisper of the Ruins he had once heard. Outside the room stood a group of fully armed security personnel, a team of doctors in white coats, and rescue personnel in protective suits—all waiting silently.
Quietly, quietly, after a long wait, a sudden alarm sounded.
The room opened a narrow gap, and the protective personnel immediately rushed in and carried out a pale-faced female trainee.
Her nostrils were bleeding, her eyes were bloodshot as though filled with blood. As she was dragged out, she murmured, “I... I heard it.”
“They... they said this is only the beginning... only the beginning...”
“……”
Watching the female trainee being taken away, the door closed again. It seemed the broadcast of the Whisper of the Ruins was still ongoing.
After a few more minutes, suddenly the alarm sounded once again, this time accompanied by flashing lights.
Medical personnel quickly entered.
This time, a male was carried out. His entire body was convulsing, the veins on his neck writhing like serpents.
Even the medical staff couldn't restrain him as he struggled desperately, shouting:
“Bronze Men, Bronze Men!”
“The Bronze Era will surely descend upon the metropolis!”
“The god of the Bronze Worshippers has already opened his eyes within the abyss...”
“……”
Han Su stood off to the side watching. In a glance, he saw that this person’s eyes actually shimmered with an inhuman, eerie metallic sheen.
At the same time, the scar on the back of Han Su’s hand began to throb with pain for no reason, as if responding to something.
By his ears, he seemed to hear a faint mechanical whirring, though it felt more like an auditory hallucination, subtly permeating his ears. When he tried to focus on it, he could no longer discern it clearly.
“……”
That seemingly insane trainee was eventually subdued by the protective personnel. Only after they forcibly injected him with a sedative were they able to carry him away. No one knew where he was taken.
As his figure disappeared, the pain in Han Su’s hand also gradually faded.
Yet a wave of cold fear crept into Han Su’s heart.
What was this so-called Bronze Era? And that sheen in his eyes... was that something a normal human should have?
And why had his own scar suddenly started hurting?
A deep sense of unease stirred within him, but he could only endure it silently, standing obediently to the side.
After that, several more people were carried out in succession.
One was convulsing on the ground with rolled-back eyes, and another had suddenly strangled himself until his eyes rolled back as well.
They were all experiencing abnormalities, though none of them spoke.
The instructor looked at them with a hint of pity. His usual lazy demeanor now seemed to carry some reluctance.
Seeing the opportunity, Han Su slowly approached the instructor and asked in a low voice, “I listened to that sound before and didn’t feel anything. Why are they reacting like this?”
“You felt nothing and still got an A-Level?”
The instructor gave him a glance, shook his head, and said, “Well, I guess that’s actually a good thing. With this thing, not understanding or hearing it is better.”
“So, what exactly is it?”
Han Su asked, and seeing that the instructor looked like he didn’t want to bother with him, he quickly added, “I asked Uncle Zhang about it at the time, and he said I should ask the instructor during training.”
“Uncle Zhang…”
The instructor paused for a moment, then lowered his voice. “Director Zhang?”
Han Su: “Yes!”
“No wonder!”
The instructor patted Han Su on the shoulder and gave him a knowing look. With a quiet laugh, he said, “Well, for the sake of the new leadership, I suppose telling you a little won’t hurt.”
“What you all heard is, in fact, a kind of language. Just… not a language of our era.”
“Letting you hear it was to test your Spiritual Sensitivity and intuition. This was, in fact, to see what kind of potential you possess……”
“……”
“Mysterious Power Training?”
“Correct!”
The instructor laughed and said, “It’s a method of directly using the spirit to confront supernatural monstrosities. It’s also a real weapon.”
“When facing monstrosities like the Ghost Freight Truck, conventional weapons in the real world struggle to be effective. So sometimes, we need to use some surreal powers to fight those maddening things.”
“And to master such surreal power, you first need to break a certain theory.”
“The spirit can influence reality, but it is not allowed to directly enter reality.”
“……”
What the instructor said caused Han Su’s spirit to jolt.
Back when he had tried to force his spiritual power through his right eye, he had vaguely sensed this sentence. But it wasn’t told to him by anyone—it felt more like, at the moment he touched a certain boundary, a reminder from deep within his genes.
Now, hearing someone say this out loud in the real world gave him a peculiar sense of wonder.
The instructor’s gaze turned slightly distant as he said with some emotion, “The spirit is actually an abstract term. It includes a person’s consciousness, thought, and awareness.”
“Humans use their spirit to drive their bodies, use their thoughts to create, to research, and through various behaviors to change the world.”
“This is what it means for the spirit to influence the real world.”
“But if the spirit crosses the body and directly enters reality, it becomes an extremely terrifying act.”
“Mysterious Power Training within the Disaster Management Bureau is conducted using special methods, coordinated with the listening of these ancient Encrypted Texts, to allow resonance between the person and certain forces within the shadows—ultimately breaking the limits and enabling a controlled penetration of spiritual power into the real world.”
Han Su’s heart stirred. “Penetration?”
“Yes.”
The instructor extended his palm and gently clenched it. “This is a power that should not belong to reality. Naturally, it is a power that ordinary people cannot imagine. You could think of it as:”
“Surreal Application Force.”
“All our surreal powers—whether spells, innate abilities, or certain items—must be realized based on this foundation.”
“……”
‘It matches…’
Han Su felt a sudden clarity in his heart.
So, the powers in his right eye and left hand were both kinds of Mysterious Power. But this Mysterious Power had to be realized through spiritual penetration into reality?
Then why did the power in his right eye require penetration, while his left hand seemed to activate without it?
This question flickered past—there would be time to understand later.
For now, he seized the opportunity and asked again, “Then the sound that was just played—why could some trainees understand it, while others couldn’t?”
“That’s the difference in levels of Spiritual Sensitivity.”
The instructor rubbed the stubble on his chin and said, “The gifted ones are those born with extremely high Spiritual Sensitivity, who achieve spiritual penetration naturally.”
As he spoke, he glanced at the silent girl in the black hood leaning against the wall and added:
“But such people are very rare. The Disaster Management Bureau can’t find many, so most of the operatives and Investigators still need Mysterious Power Training—in other words, they need to undergo postnatal methods to enable ordinary people to achieve spiritual penetration safely.”
“Therefore, assessing the potential of these ordinary people to achieve spiritual penetration is crucial.”
“Those who just now could hear specific words from the Encrypted Text belong to the group with extremely high Spiritual Sensitivity. These people are easily polluted, but they are also more likely to obtain ‘innate abilities’ through Mysterious Power Training.”
“And some among them can even hear ‘spells’ from these Encrypted Texts.”
“……”
Han Su was shocked. “Spells?”
“Yes.”
At this point, the instructor seemed a little thrilled, sighing, “Mysterious Power, hidden in the world’s shadows—ordinary people cannot perceive it. Only those languages excavated from the ruins of the Reconstruction Era can activate it.”
“These spells are languages that can directly trigger Mysterious Power.”
“When someone who has achieved spiritual penetration recites a spell, they can directly drive this Mysterious Power.”
“Of course, Encrypted Texts are not the same as spells.”
“There are many Encrypted Texts which, although excavated languages, don’t contain directed Mysterious Power. Such spells are empty.”
“……”
Languages that could drive Mysterious Power… ruins from before the Reconstruction Era…
The more Han Su learned, the more it felt as if a vast and unknown world was slowly unfolding before his eyes…
“What kind of language is it to be this miraculous?”
The instructor couldn’t help but glance at Han Su, thinking—even if you have connections, asking this many questions is a bit much…
It was then that the silent girl in the black hood suddenly spoke in a gentle voice, “Some speculate it’s a language once used by gods who existed in the world.”
Han Su’s gaze sharpened slightly. “Gods?”
The girl in the black hood gave a slight nod and softly said, “The language of the gods is a higher-level language. Conceptually, it encompasses all languages—whether ours or the languages of the Western Continent, they are all sub-branches of the gods’ language.”
“And thus, also inherit their authority.”
“Humans, based on spiritually penetrated powers, use Encrypted Texts, spells, bloodlines, contracts, or items as mediums to wield powers once only accessible to gods.”
“This is humanity’s imitation of the gods—and also humanity’s innate ability.”
“……”
“Innate ability…”
Han Su fell into thought and glanced at her.