After pausing and resuming his exercises about ten times, he finally stopped. Yang Ying came to the sidelines to watch Xingzi rest, while David continued his regenerative training.

In the great battle just a few days prior, Yang Ying had suffered greatly from his lack of understanding regarding Psionicists. The overwhelming power David displayed in the fight far surpassed Yang Ying’s impression of Master Pang Qian; and David was still a full two levels away from the Master realm!

“Who knows just how formidable Master Pang Qian truly is,” Yang Ying muttered softly to himself.

“Speaking of Master Pang Qian, he’s quite the kindhearted old soul, isn't he?” David said from the training ground, using his psychic energy to lift a fifty-kilogram barbell. He caught it, executing a set of staff forms. The ease with which he handled it made it look as if he were merely holding a slender bamboo twig; only the rushing sound of displaced air indicated the barbell's immense weight.

“You know Master Pang Qian too?” Yang Ying asked casually. He had no particular interest in this staff technique; he had already chosen swordsmanship as his primary focus. A slight familiarity with staff forms was enough to know how to counter them.

“I don’t know him personally, but I’ve seen him a few times. Never spoken a word to him, though.” David tightened his grip, bringing the whirling barbell to an abrupt halt, like an emergency brake had been slammed on.

“Then how do you know he’s a kindhearted old soul?” Yang Ying pressed on.

“Mostly from rumors circulating in the Psionic Temple. Also, the materials from the Ape Worship Cult mention it, and their accuracy is usually quite high.” David, without batting an eye, set the wooden weight down. He suddenly snapped his fingers, as if struck by a thought: “Oh right, before becoming a Master, Master Pang Qian was a teacher at the Psionic Temple’s kindergarten school. The kindergarteners are a level below apprentices—they are the unranked awakeners just starting to touch psionic energy. Forty-five years ago, after the Ape Worship Cult Leader Horace stormed the kindergarten and abducted people, the school was relocated to the Psionic Temple headquarters. Master Pang Qian felt he had failed his duty and resigned his teaching post. But even so, for forty-five years, without fail, he has dedicated himself tirelessly to helping young people improve, even after achieving the Master realm.”

“Master Pang Qian is that old?” Yang Ying was quite surprised. He remembered Master Pang Qian’s appearance clearly; he didn't look even close to forty-five, so how could he have been a kindergarten teacher forty-five years ago!

David nodded, fully aware of what Yang Ying was thinking: “Yes, Master Pang Qian is eighty-one years old this year.”

“Unexpected,” Yang Ying shook his head. “He even trained me for a while, and I couldn’t even tell his age.”

“A while? According to the Ape Worship Cult’s intelligence, although the Commander accepted training from Master Pang Qian, it was only for one month. What can one learn in a month?” David spread his hands dismissively. “Masters are transcendent beings, vastly different from ordinary people. Their lifespans can reach over two hundred years, and while alive, they maintain perpetual youth—even reversing aging is entirely possible. Even ordinary Psionicists, as long as they diligently practice the Psionic Body Sculpting Method, can delay aging.”

“That formidable? However, the Master Pang Qian I saw at the time didn't exhibit any exceptionally strong abilities—just telekinesis and swordsmanship. Seeing you use wind and illusionary arts like that was quite a surprise,” Yang Ying’s memory of David charging through the crowd that day was vivid; that battle had overturned his previous understanding of an awakened being's power.

“Mm, I think I can understand why Master Pang Qian didn't show you his full strength then,” David mused.

“Tell me.”

“At that time, you had just awakened your psionic energy, with absolutely no foundational knowledge. Showing you Master-level power would be like teaching quantum mechanics to a preschooler—it’s utterly pointless, even detrimental, like pulling seedlings to help them grow,” David stated frankly, showing no mercy.

“Teaching preschoolers quantum mechanics, pulling seedlings to help them grow?” Yang Ying sighed. Back then, his power level was negligible; perhaps there was no more fitting description.

David continued: “The Elder Council of the Psionic Temple is extremely conservative and demanding. I know the Commander saved three hundred thousand lives, but no matter how many meritorious deeds you accomplish, the Psionic Temple will never allow an outsider to complete the entire training regimen. The foundational psionic texts and swordsmanship manuals are only meant to cultivate apprentices. Cultivating to the peak will only result in a Lower-Tier Psionicist. Advancement beyond that is impossible. Master Pang Qian must have believed that since you were destined in this life to only reach the rank of Lower-Tier Psionicist, displaying Master-level power before you would only cause unnecessary agitation.”

“So that’s how it is.” Yang Ying had replayed this problem in his mind repeatedly over the past few days, and deep down, he had understood this point, but hearing David say it confirmed it for him.

“What kind of power does the Master realm possess?” Yang Ying continued his interrogation. Besides Master Pang Qian, he knew no other Masters, and only David, as an Upper-Tier Psionicist, could answer this question.

“Shaking the earth, overturning rivers and seas, unfathomable depths. According to records, when the Ape Worship Cult Leader, Master Ape-Man Horace, set fire to Paris, he first struck down the Eiffel Tower with his Light Staff, then used psionic energy to conjure raging flames to melt the tower, raising the molten iron and spraying it across Paris, causing the great fire. The one hundred thousand troops stationed in the suburbs at the time couldn't stop him. This file has been sealed to prevent public panic, and all those who knew were subjected to suggestion to forget the event, except for us in the Ape Worship Cult and the Psionic Temple, the Vatican Catholic Church also holds complete records,” David stated with the utmost seriousness.

“Melting the Eiffel Tower into molten iron?” Yang Ying didn't know what his expression looked like, but it certainly couldn't have been pleasant. He was already enemies with the Ape Worship Cult; if Horace came calling, their entire base probably wouldn't be enough to burn.

“Commander, you still have much to learn. Master Pang Qian taught you for a month, and I can only teach you for a week. The rest you must rely on yourself,” David concluded, then picked up the barbell and resumed his movements.

“I must become even stronger,” Yang Ying silently resolved. The Divine Race's Executors had no bottlenecks in advancing to the Master realm, so their cultivation speed was rapid. However, their innate psionic energy at ‘birth’ was only ten thousand; reaching the one hundred thousand mark would require at least five or six more years of arduous practice, and many things could happen in that time.

David, as the Emissary of the Ape, one of the high-ranking figures in the Ape Worship Cult, was sent to convert him, which meant he was already noted by the Cult. Currently, Yang Ying's strength was still weak, only equivalent to a Psionic Temple apprentice, so the Ape Worship Cult had no immediate use for him.

Therefore, Yang Ying could temporarily deceive David, making him believe the brainwashing was successful. But secrets cannot be kept forever; sooner or later, it would be discovered. If lucky, in five or six years; if unlucky, perhaps in one or two. Once it was revealed that David’s brainwashing technique had been broken, it would inevitably attract the attention of the Ape Worship Cult's Master-level experts, so time was critical!

Now, only he himself could accumulate strength rapidly through the propagation of the Zerg, reaching the Master realm in a short period to contend with the Masters of the Ape Worship Cult.

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