On the Martial Artists Council's assessment page, there was a bar graph marked with a graduated scale.
Chen Chuan took a look. Arrow markers stood at the 170 and 190 marks, and the segment between them was shaded with a gradient that blurred increasingly toward the top.
This meant the Council judged his baseline value to be at 170, with an upper limit no higher than 190.
He flipped through the materials; under the Council's standards, the ratings for Longevity View martial artists rarely exceeded 150.
Meanwhile, Throne martial artists usually started at 200.
Naturally, the Council's judgment was based on the information he had revealed in the past and could not truly reflect his full combat strength. The Council had clearly factored this in, which was why they had provided a floating range.
Viewed this way, the evaluation was fairly reasonable. After all, before he had clashed with the full might of a Dongxuan View martial artist, no one would be bold enough to place him on equal footing with one.
Combined with the rest of the evaluation, this scale rating made up the complete influence rating.
For renowned martial artists around the world, most nations and corporations generally referred to this system for evaluations and assessments. A few organizations had alternate criteria, of course, but on the whole, this system served as the standard.
In certain countries, influence ratings were even deeply tied to specific political activities, access to resources, and the sharing of cutting-edge intelligence.
When global incidents arose, governments and corporations tended to first seek out martial artists with sufficient influence for consultation or involvement.
Notably, the influence rating was not fixed and unchanging. Instead, it shifted dynamically depending on the specific environment and the martial artist's personal conduct. If one remained active in a given field over a prolonged period, their influence in that area would steadily grow; conversely, if their activities in a field stalled for an extended time, their influence there would diminish accordingly.
Chen Chuan keenly perceived that this influence was not merely a simple score. Beneath it lay a deeper mechanism designed to regulate and guide a martial artist's conduct, capable of imposing constraints on their actions to a certain extent.
If he could see through this, other martial artists could as well. It could only be said that because influence could bring convenience and benefits to many martial artists, they would naturally tend to accept and uphold the standard.
At this moment, Gao Ming asked, "Cousin, do you need to send a letter to the Council? They noted that if you disagree, you can provide them with supplementary information, and they'll re-evaluate and adjust it."
Chen Chuan shook his head. "No need."
He couldn't claim that no martial artist would ever leak their true data—after all, no one could say what a martial artist's bound oath might be—but he himself would never do such a thing.
Gao Ming smiled. "All right, Cousin."
He stood up to pour a cup of tea, filling Chen Chuan's cup while he was at it. Glancing out the train window at the speeding scenery, he remarked, "Speaking of which, Cousin, do you remember when we were kids? Once, we flew a kite, but the string snapped and the kite drifted far away. We couldn't find it no matter how hard we looked, and someone wondered if it might have drifted across the Outer Ocean all the way to the Federation."
Thinking back to that, Chen Chuan chuckled. "How could I forget? Several of us made that kite together. At first we couldn't find any bamboo strips, so we even chopped down a section of fence from your garden. After the kite was lost, you bawled your eyes out. I tried to comfort you, but you cried that you weren't upset about losing the kite—you were upset because with the kite gone and the fence wrecked, you were definitely going to get a beating from Uncle when you got home, and all for nothing."
Gao Ming smiled as well. He looked outside again, the scenery reflected in his eyeglass lenses. "Back then, I kept wondering what kind of sights a kite drifting across the ocean would see. I never expected to see them here myself."
Chen Chuan looked out as well, smiling. "Maybe you'll even catch sight of that kite from back then."
He picked up his cup, and Gao Ming raised his as well, clinking them together. Side by side, they gazed out at the vast, magnificent land.
***
Alantawa Center City, Chengshui Commission Company.
Supervisor Xu looked admiringly at the doll standing before him. "Captain Bloodstaff, your team completed this commission exceptionally well. The client holds you in very high regard."
The doll maintained his customary expressionless face, saying nothing. Behind him, Brother Xuan spoke up in his stead: "Supervisor Xu, cut the small talk. When will our payment and bonus be issued? That was agreed upon from the start, wasn't it?"
Supervisor Xu glanced at him, then looked back at the doll. "Since it's in the agreement, even if the client doesn't pay, our company will make up the difference. However, before that, there are a few matters we need to clarify."
He looked at the doll. "Mr. Bloodstaff, based on your performance during this period, the company feels you possess great developmental value. The upper management intends to guide you upward."
He brought out a paper document and pushed it across to Bloodstaff. "You can read this agreement carefully first."
He tapped his fingers on it. "We know you live the life of an ascetic. We believe your diligent accumulation of resources and wealth is aimed at breaking through to a higher level. But those resources aren't things you can simply buy through routine commissions; you need special channels. As long as you sign this contract, the company can provide all of it to you."
The doll had zero interest in this. He felt that as long as he had enough high-energy nutrients, his mutated tissue could grow upward on its own without needing any special cultivation resources.
If he couldn't obtain them from this company, he wouldn't hesitate to leave and look elsewhere.
Besides, he glanced at the agreement: the company required him to undergo comprehensive physical examinations and even mandated periodic extractions of a certain amount of mutated tissue and blood. He was deeply wary of and averse to this.
Having followed him for a long time, the members of his mercenary squad could read his intentions from his eyes even though he didn't speak.
One of them stepped forward. "The boss means he's not interested in this. Right, Boss?"
The doll remained silent, but his posture made his position crystal clear.
Seeing him decline, Supervisor Xu wasn't angry. He smiled and said, "Mr. Bloodstaff, you can take your time to think it over. If you have any thoughts, you're welcome to talk with me anytime. Now, back to business. We have a commission here that will be handled jointly by multiple squads. The operation is scheduled for half a month from now, so the timeline might be a bit tight. Would you be willing to accept it?"
The doll still said nothing. Beside him, a bald woman wearing a high-collared protective suit spoke up: "Give us the detailed dossier."
Supervisor Xu appreciated precisely this kind of attitude—never questioning the difficulty and jumping straight to the mission itself. He immediately had someone transmit a portion of the files to them.
The bald woman tapped her earlobe. Light flickered several times within her eyes, and she said, "Boss, files received."
The doll rose directly from his seat, turned, and walked out, followed by the crowd of his subordinates.
The Bloodstaff Mercenary Corps had expanded its scale once again, mainly because its reputation was growing by the day. Their commission completion rate had reached over ninety percent, and many of the failures had not been due to a lack of strength, but rather unforeseen accidents, which were considered acceptable circumstances.
Moreover, many had joined for the doll. Thanks to his outstanding combat abilities, he had remained undefeated to this day, and rumors spread that he would become a martial artist sooner or later. Naturally, they wanted to latch onto such a powerhouse early on.
Once they were gone, the smile on Supervisor Xu's face slowly faded.
Higher-ups had ordered him to recruit Bloodstaff and cultivate him into a martial artist for the company. He had to complete this task. If Bloodstaff had agreed just now, it would have saved him a lot of trouble. If not, he would have to resort to an alternate plan...
***
After leaving, the doll separated from his squad members.
After each mission, the squad leader would take some time to rest. He never pried into what his subordinates did. In their eyes, he was the ideal boss: strong in a fight, capable of earning them money, and entirely hands-off.
Consequently, even though he rarely spoke, the squad members respected and trusted him completely.
Driving back, the doll had an impassive face, but his mind was deliberating over how to acquire more nutrients.
His mutated tissue had grown substantially during this period, but it had now plateaued.
The reason was that entering the next stage required greater accumulation, and achieving that goal demanded higher-quality nutrients. If the company couldn't provide them, he would have to search elsewhere.
Half an hour later, he returned to his rented residence, a renovated standalone house.
Yet when he parked his car and pushed open the door, he found a burly man wearing sunglasses sitting in the living room. Standing over two meters tall with a high-bridged nose and deep-set eyes, the man wore a sleeveless vest that left his muscular arms bare.
He was sitting there gnawing on a greasy roasted leg of lamb. Seeing him enter, he wiped his mouth and said, "You're Bloodstaff. I'm an operative from the Federal Classified Operations Directorate's auxiliary unit. I've been ordered to recruit you this time; the Directorate wants you to join us."
He tapped a document on the table. "Here's an agreement. I hope you'll sign it. I advise against refusing; you should know very well the Directorate's power within the Federation."
The doll showed no reaction to the intruder breaking into his home. Instead, he walked over to the sofa opposite him, took out the packets of nutrition paste he had brought back, and ate them one by one.
The burly man looked at him with slight surprise, then chuckled and resumed gnawing on the leg of lamb. Finally, he crunched up the bone and swallowed it whole. Taking off his sunglasses, he fixed his gaze on the doll and slowly tapped the temple of the glasses against the tabletop.
Before long, the doll had consumed all the nutrition paste. By now, the burly man had grown somewhat impatient. He said, "Done eating? Then you should have thought it through. Come over and sign it without wasting any more time."
The doll remained seated, his face devoid of expression.
Seeing him not budge, the burly man grew infuriated. "Kid, looks like you don't know what's good for you. Why can't people like you just do as you're told?"
He flexed his fingers with cracking pops from his joints, slender, razor-sharp claws sprouting from his fingertips. "Looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands! Just don't expect me to hold back!" With a vicious sneer spreading across his face, his hand whipped violently forward!
Chapter 1171