Blue Star, Qingzhou.
Rong City.
The night was already deep. Tonight, Rong City's sky was pitch-black, not even a trace of starlight visible.
The train slowly pulled into the platform. Its heavy doors opened, and traces of armored reinforcement could still vaguely be seen throughout the station.
"The train has arrived at Rong City East Station. Passengers disembarking, please exit in an orderly manner."
Li Changqing dragged his suitcase off the platform. He wore a washed long-sleeved shirt, plain cotton sweatpants, and canvas shoes. In Rongcheng's rustling night wind, the temperature was just right.
This train had arrived too late, and there were hardly any passengers. Li Changqing took the paper ticket from his pocket and quickly passed through the unattended security checkpoint.
Electronic tickets had clearly become widespread as early as the twenty-first century, yet a hundred years later, things had instead regressed.
In this age of locked-down technology, the aftereffects left behind by war had still not been resolved.
Outside the station, the mountain road was deserted. Only lonely streetlights remained, flickering in the darkness.
Li Changqing went to the ticket office and knocked on the window. "Hello, are there still any buses heading down the mountain?"
"Buses? They stopped running ages ago." The staff member shook his head.
"Then can the station provide a shuttle—" Before Li Changqing could finish, the staff member directly held out his hand.
"Do you have a Martial Artist ID?"
Li Changqing froze. Seeing his expression, the staff member immediately understood and said solemnly,
"Sorry, sir. The station only provides special pickup and drop-off services for registered Martial Artists. Sorry."
Li Changqing laughed soundlessly. He turned away from the window and found a bench in the lobby to sit on.
He then pulled out his cheap off-brand phone, entered the taxi broadcast channel, and began making calls.
"It's so late. I wonder if there are even any taxis left."
At this moment, he was incomparably envious of the ride-hailing services he had read about in textbooks, from the last century when the internet had been flourishing.
Five minutes passed. Looking at his phone, which had received no response at all, Li Changqing stopped hoping that a taxi would come to a remote place like the station.
Still unwilling to give up, he opened Chengtian Martial Arts School's official website and found the academy's reception hotline.
"Beep, beep, beep—"
More than ten seconds later, the call connected.
"Hello, I'm a Psionic Department student who graduated from Qingzhou Psionic University this year. I applied for the Martial Arts Academy assessment last week. Does the academy have any available vehicles that can come pick me up from the station?"
"Yes, I'm at Rong City East Station."
"My university evaluation?"
"...Yes, my Psionic Energy evaluation is D-Class. Yes, that's right, I didn't pass the academy assessment."
"You'll check for me? All right, all right. Sorry to trouble you."
The other party hung up. Li Changqing looked at his phone, then ultimately returned to the broadcast channel and tried his luck.
"Ah, D-Class means no human rights." Li Changqing tilted his head back and sighed.
As a student whose evaluation score was practically at the very bottom, he had not reached the academy's C-Mid threshold.
He could only settle for the next best thing and come to a private martial arts school with slightly lower requirements, hoping for a chance to become a Martial Artist.
But it seemed Chengtian Martial Arts School did not place much importance on a bottom-ranker like him.
He sat on the bench, leaning against the wall as he watched the station's electronic display.
"Beep, beep—"
Suddenly, a burst of car horns startled Li Changqing awake.
He sharply turned his head and saw black sedans one after another driving down the mountain road before stopping outside the station.
What was going on?
Li Changqing's pupils contracted. He suddenly felt that he had judged a gentleman with the heart of a petty man.
See that? That was what you called style.
But then the car doors opened. People streamed out in single file and raised a huge banner above their heads.
A Warm Welcome to Jiang He, Outstanding Graduate of Qingzhou Psionic University, Upon His Arrival in Rongcheng
The enormous banner made Li Changqing halt halfway through standing up.
Jiang He—of course he remembered that name.
They were technically students from the same department. But unlike Li Changqing's D-Class rating, Jiang He was the academy's most talented Psionic Energy prodigy this year, with a B-Mid rating.
He was a genius certain to become a Martial Artist, with an enormous chance of growing from a Martial Artist into a Psionic User within five years!
Li Changqing saw the middle-aged man leading the crowd glance at him several times. But after taking out his phone to compare something, the man no longer looked his way.
Not long after.
The doors swung open.
A handsome young man in a white T-shirt and brown sweatpants, carrying a backpack, walked quietly out of the waiting hall.
Before the young man could react, the leading middle-aged man hurried forward and clasped his hand beneath the youth's stunned gaze.
"You must be Jiang He! What a fine-looking, outstanding young man!"
As he spoke, he eagerly pulled open a car door.
"Jiang He, the hotel has already been arranged. Let's head back into the city first."
"Oh, oh." Jiang He nodded repeatedly, looking like someone who had never seen the world before.
Just as he was about to get into the sedan, his peripheral vision caught Li Changqing standing alone nearby with his suitcase.
"Classmate, couldn't get a ride?" Jiang He did not know Li Changqing.
But seeing how the other man was dressed and considering the time, he pointed toward the many sedans nearby.
"Come with us. You should have just graduated too, right?"
"So you're Jiang He's schoolmate. Then come along." Upon hearing that, the middle-aged man immediately warmly invited Li Changqing into the car.
As though he had not been the one ignoring Li Changqing earlier.
"It's too late now. I imagine you can't get a ride either. Get in."
Li Changqing naturally had no objection. Carrying his suitcase, he trotted over and nodded to Jiang He in thanks as he passed him.
"Thank you, classmate."
"You're welcome. It was nothing."
The two passed each other. Li Changqing boarded a small van meant for transporting luggage, shoulder to shoulder with piles of cargo.
He watched as the middle-aged man opened the car door and respectfully ushered Jiang He into the sedan.
The station was more than ten kilometers from the city center.
At an intersection.
Li Changqing got out with his suitcase and watched the grand convoy's retreating backs.
"Sure enough, being a Martial Artist is great."
While in the car, he had already learned the situation from the driver. His booked hotel was only two kilometers away, and he just needed to follow the road.
Li Changqing opened the concealed clasps on both sides of his suitcase, pulled out two straps, and directly carried the suitcase on his back.
Then, he began a weighted jog.
To become a Martial Artist, physical fitness was the most important thing. To go further and become a Psionic User, one needed a body capable of accommodating 100% Psionic Energy.
And the key to accommodating Psionic Energy was still physical fitness.
Li Changqing was an orphan who had grown up in a government welfare home.
Fortunately, Blue Star's population had yet to recover to its prewar level, so orphans like him could attend university with free government support.
A century ago, Blue Star had repeatedly sent telegrams into the cosmos, allowing aliens to capture the planet's coordinates. The aliens then used unknown methods to lock down its technology.
Such a despairing technological disparity left every government on Blue Star in despair.
As order collapsed, war erupted.
The planet's population plummeted. By the end of the war, the Blue Star United Government had been established, and only one-third of the planet's population remained.
But fortunately, during the war, humanity discovered an ancient Alien Ruins hidden underground.
Humanity obtained clues to Psionic Energy technology from it, and the Psionic Monsoon of Subspace also blew across this region of the universe.
From then on, humanity began a century-long Psionic Ascension.
Li Changqing took more than ten minutes to run those two kilometers, even with the not particularly heavy load on his back.
That result could barely count as that of a healthy person. It did not even reach the level of an ordinary athlete from the Old Era.
Finally, at the end of the road, an old six-story hotel came into Li Changqing's view.
He swung his arms hard to drive his legs forward, and his already light, floating body crossed the final stretch of greenway.
Physical Fitness +1 Vitality Concentration: 30%
A warm current flowed through Li Changqing's body. His sore muscles relaxed, and even his originally rapid breathing gradually steadied.
"Whew—" Li Changqing's chest swelled as he exhaled a thick breath of white mist.
His steps became steady, and the vitality throughout his body churned, somehow increasing by a little. Though it was only an insignificant amount, the sea embraced all rivers. Once his vitality overflowed to the brim, it would erupt in a heaven-shattering transformation.
"Success."
Li Changqing's eyes shone brightly.
This was the strange phenomenon he had only discovered in himself yesterday.
As long as he pushed past his limits during every workout, his physical fitness and Vitality Concentration could increase.
With his energy restored, Li Changqing felt that he could run another two kilometers.
Looking at the hotel entrance, Li Changqing's lips curled upward.
It was precisely because he had discovered this anomaly in himself yesterday that he had chosen to register for Chengtian Martial Arts School's test.
In this society where everything served Psionic Energy, becoming a Martial Artist was a necessity.
Before you continue