South of Ganzi Mountain, north of Luandu County, Flying Horse Camp stood with its back to the mountains and facing the water, not far below the Dragon Locking Branch Institute.
Two gray-white tents had been set up before the camp gates. Several hundred recruits stood in two lines outside, waiting for their identities to be registered and verified.
Inside the tent on the left, Xie Ji sat upright behind a long desk.
Holding the Spirit Searching Disk, he waved it before the brown-clad middle-aged man in his thirties standing in the center of the tent. He then lowered his head and carefully studied the palm-sized emerald disk.
Seeing nothing unusual on the Spirit Searching Disk, he looked toward the Flying Horse Camp clerk beside him.
"This man is fine. Let him through."
The clerk in leather armor nodded, asked and recorded some information about the man's family background, then had a soldier nearby lead him out of the tent.
Through the lifted tent flap, Xie Ji looked at the long queue outside and could not help frowning slightly.
With the ground frozen and the weather bitterly cold, verifying recruits in this drafty tent was truly unpleasant.
Yet he had still volunteered to come here, because an even greater trouble was hidden in the branch institute up on the mountain.
He lowered his head and idly turned the Spirit Searching Disk over in his hands as countless thoughts churned through his mind.
Just who is that person impersonating Zhong Han? His methods are truly remarkable. He actually made me use the surrounding Seven Emotions to strengthen the Upper Fetus Spirit God.
But such benefits clearly do not come without a price. My life and death have likely already fallen under his control.
I can't afford to provoke him. I really can't.