Around the World

At the Four Seasons Hotel on Park Lane in London, United Kingdom, Lu Zhiyu sat at the hotel bar in a custom-made suit. It had been tailored by a master bespoke tailor on Savile Row, and he had only just received it a few days ago. That spared him from looking like he was covered head to toe in designer brands and being mistaken for a nouveau riche back in Russia!

On his wrist was a Breguet Classique Complications 5377. It had cost Lu Zhiyu 150,000 euros, nearly a million yuan. He couldn't tell what made it worth that much, but it was expensive, so what could he do? He wanted to know what it felt like to spend money like water!

Over the past twenty-odd days, Lu Zhiyu had traveled all the way around the world. London was his first stop. When he was little and studying English, his mother had given him Harry Potter as his first book. It had sparked a keen interest in Britain, so he toured the English and Scottish locations featured in the books.

Next, he went to Seattle to enjoy its enchanting nights and sunrise over the harbor, as well as the fantastical Space Needle. In Las Vegas, he went on a wild gambling spree. He lost ten million dollars in one fell swoop, then turned around and won it all back, making another ten million on top of that. Every gambler there was left gaping!

Then he headed to Kyoto in Neon, where he saw all kinds of temples and the world-famous geisha. In the Maldives, he swam, enjoyed spa treatments and afternoon tea, went night diving, played with dolphins, and danced with the locals at a beach banquet!

In East Africa, he took a hot-air balloon ride and watched the sunrise over the Serengeti. In Marrakesh, the capital of an ancient empire, he experienced the blend of modern and ancient architecture. Finally, in St. Petersburg, Russia, he visited the Hermitage Museum and Catherine Palace, soaking up the country's distinctive architecture and artistic atmosphere!

Lu Zhiyu had had the time of his life on this trip. He'd spared no expense: first-class flights, five-star hotels, the most expensive liquor and food, generous tips, and luxury cars wherever he went. He'd taken beautiful models out to sea on a yacht to party, raced through the streets in luxury cars with beautiful women, and lived a life of wine and song, day and night!

Lu Zhiyu had gotten a taste of how the rich lived, enjoying everything he could think of. He'd made all the dreams he'd been too poor to pursue come true, and let go of all his old caution. It was as if he'd taken on a new name and identity, completely breaking free of his former restraint.

With his long hair and delicate features, it had been hard to tell whether Lu Zhiyu was a man or a woman, so he'd had it shaved into a sharp-looking crew cut. Even so, people still mistook him for a woman all the time. For instance, as he sat in the bar now, a great many men were eyeing him, which really annoyed him.

"Hey, Anthony, you're back!"

Someone tapped Lu Zhiyu on the shoulder. He turned around at once and saw a foreign woman with black hair sit down beside him. Then she said to the middle-aged bartender, "Yil, a whiskey, please!"

The middle-aged bartender shrugged. "Sure thing, boss!"

Lu Zhiyu glanced at the woman. "Zoe, you found me as soon as I got back. And my name isn't Anthony. I haven't accepted the name you gave me yet!"

The woman's name was Zoe Sharp, and she was the hotel's general manager. Just hearing her surname was enough to make people's imaginations run wild. Lu Zhiyu wouldn't dare get involved with a woman of such impressive connections, but ever since he'd checked into the hotel, she'd been pestering him nonstop!

Zoe smiled at Lu Zhiyu. "Why not? Your Chinese name is such a mouthful. It's Mu... Tao?"

Lu Zhiyu raised an eyebrow. "It's Mu Tao. Fine, you can call me Anthony. Though I can't help feeling like it's the name of some great wizard!"

Zoe asked Lu Zhiyu, "How long are you planning to stay this time?"

Lu Zhiyu thought for a moment. "Hmm? I'm planning to buy a house in London and settle here for a while. Do you have any recommendations? Somewhere quiet and spacious!"

Zoe said excitedly, "You're planning to settle in London? That's wonderful! I told you this was the best place!"

Lu Zhiyu laughed. "I just feel like it's somewhere a wizard would live!"

Lu Zhiyu chatted with Zoe for a while, then returned to his room. Lately, his mental power had been growing restless again, as though it had reached another critical point. When he'd first awakened his mental power and reached a level of seven, it had undergone a qualitative change. After that, he'd been able to project his mental power outward.

Counting the time Lu Zhiyu had spent in the Space Castle, several years had passed. At last, his mental power had reached a level of one hundred and twenty-seven. When he'd first learned to project it, he could only push a plastic cup. Later, he'd been able to lift light objects like books and kettles. Now he could even raise the solid-wood round table in his room. When he spread out his mental power, it could cover a radius of over a hundred meters instead of wandering around within a single meter of him.

Lu Zhiyu sat cross-legged on the bed and wrapped his mental power around himself. He watched as his whole body slowly rose and floated in midair. Opening his eyes, he looked at himself. "Now I can fly too!"

Lu Zhiyu made a few laps around the room, then shook his head. "No good. I'm too slow. Running would be faster!"

Lu Zhiyu landed on the bed. Over the past few days, he'd felt that his mental power was reaching a bottleneck. What was more, his mental power and brain had gradually begun to resonate with each other. This strange phenomenon had caught his attention. He had a feeling that reaching this stage would bring about something unusual.

Lu Zhiyu had gradually developed many uses and little tricks for wielding his mental power, but it was still nowhere near the extraordinary power he'd imagined. He was eager to find out what a further breakthrough would bring!

Lu Zhiyu closed his eyes. His mental power immediately passed through the Hourglass inside his head, opened a dimensional rift, and entered the zero-dimensional world to meditate. He had developed a tried-and-tested meditation method of his own, one that could stabilize his mental structure in the zero-dimensional space and draw out Source Substance to strengthen his mental power as much as possible. That was how he'd reached a level of one hundred and twenty-seven in just a few years.