Chen Liyun

Just as Director Chen brushed past Lin Shan, he suddenly froze, then whipped his head around to look at him.

"Are you... Pioneer Lin?"

"It really is you, Pioneer Lin! I wonder if you still remember me. During the migration, I was at the very front of the procession, standing right beside you," Director Chen said excitedly.

"You're... the Pseudo-Transcendent who stood beside me?" Lin Shan asked, looking at the young man before him with some uncertainty.

"If there weren't any other Pseudo-Transcendents beside you, then that was definitely me."

Lin Shan smiled. "I didn't expect you to be a director already." Then he asked, "What's your name?"

Director Chen solemnly gave a military salute. "My name is Chen Liyun. I'm currently director of the Military Department's Exploration Division, responsible for the Human Race's exploration of the Ash Fog World."

This time, it was Lin Shan's turn to be surprised.

"You're Chen Liyun? I saw your name in the Clan Artifact earlier."

First, he had earned the most merit in the war between the Human Race and the Cat Clan. After the migration, he had led several expeditions into the ash fog, and on multiple occasions, his squads of Pseudo-Transcendents had successfully hunted transcendent Fallen. Their flesh and blood had added dozens of Pseudo-Transcendents to the clan, earning him a place in the Clan Artifact's records.

When Lin Shan had browsed the Clan Artifact earlier, he had paid particular attention to the newly added names. He had never expected to meet the man in person so soon after reading about him.

Lin Shan began to understand a little of how those people felt when they met him. There was something dreamlike about seeing a figure from a book appear in reality.

Chen Liyun said modestly, "It's really nothing. Whether we were fighting the Cat Clan or hunting Fallen, the credit belonged to our whole squad."

Lin Shan smiled without speaking. Modest people did not necessarily succeed, but successful people were invariably modest, even if that modesty was feigned.

Then he recalled their earlier conversation and casually asked, "How do you find your way back after entering the ash fog?"

Chen Liyun replied:

"We owe that to a technique recorded in the Cat Clan's documents-the Spirit Marker. Before heading out, we can leave a Spirit Marker in the Clan Territory. As long as we have enough spirituality, its range is theoretically infinite. The ash fog only makes people lose their sense of direction. With a fixed target, we won't go astray."

"How do you make a Spirit Marker?" Lin Shan asked.

"It's very simple," Chen Liyun said with a smile. "It's just a way of using spirituality. I'll demonstrate it for you."

As he spoke, he waved a hand through empty space. Nothing changed visibly, but in Lin Shan's perception, an extremely faint node of spirituality appeared before him, with a barely perceptible thread of spirituality connecting it to Chen Liyun.

"I'm deliberately showing it to you, so you should be able to sense it. Normally, no one but the person who made a Spirit Marker can perceive it."

Lin Shan nodded. The method was simple enough for him to learn after seeing it once. Spirituality was one with its owner; this method involved separating a portion of it, then using that faint connection to locate it.

There was a drawback as well. To keep that spirituality connected to its owner, it had to remain in the world at all times, placing an additional burden on their spirituality.

However, since the thread was so faint and extraordinarily thin, creating a single Spirit Marker did not consume very much. The farther the thread stretched, the greater the cost became.

"Oh, right," Chen Liyun suddenly said. "Pioneer Lin, could you help persuade General Zhao...? If it came from you..."

Lin Shan frowned slightly. "General Zhao? You mean Zhao Xiao An?"

Chen Liyun gave a bitter smile. "Who else could it be?"

"There's no need to persuade her," Lin Shan said calmly. "If she wants to go, let her go."

"But..." Chen Liyun wanted to say more, but Lin Shan cut him off.

"Even you can go as a Pseudo-Transcendent. She's already a Transcendent, so why can't she?"

"You may have misunderstood what it means to be a Pioneer. Pioneers aren't people to be kept under protection. Taking the lead on the front line in everything is what a Pioneer should do."

"All right." Chen Liyun nodded helplessly. He had been considering the bigger picture and did not want a Pioneer to take risks. Seeing that further words would be useless, he dropped the subject.

From his expression, Lin Shan knew what he was thinking. There were surely many others among the Human Race who thought as Chen Liyun did.

He had never expected that, now the Human Race was flourishing with each passing day, the Pioneers who had once always stood on the front line would be protected as some sort of symbol.

"Stay safe, and don't go too far," Lin Shan reminded him at last.

He did not intend to head out anytime soon. Even though he could easily capture certain Fallen to add more Pseudo-Transcendents to the clan, he had no intention of doing so. Growth always came with sacrifice, and those who survived would become new pillars of support.

"Oh, right." As though something had occurred to him, Lin Shan suddenly asked, "You have a life physique, don't you?"

"Yes." Chen Liyun nodded. It had already become common knowledge among Pseudo-Transcendents that transcendent constitutions were divided into life physiques and fallen physiques.

"Come with me for a moment," Lin Shan said.

"Wait here for me. I'll be back shortly," Chen Liyun told the people accompanying him.

They went all the way up to the third floor and returned to Lin Shan's room.

By then, the room had been fully furnished, with every piece of furniture it needed.

Lin Shan rummaged through his bag and tipped all the medicinal herbs onto the floor.

From a small compartment at the very bottom, he took out two little cloth bundles.

Seeing those familiar bundles, Lin Shan's face filled with reminiscence.

They held the leftover materials from when he had prepared Potions for the seven of them. There were still a little over ten grams of Specter Thread Fish spirit ash and more than thirty grams of powdered Ashatu's Horn-enough for one person.

He had not found a suitable recipient before, so he had simply kept them stored away.

He took two sheets from the stack of paper on the desk and poured out ten grams of Specter Thread Fish spirit ash and ten grams of black powder onto them respectively. After folding them into packets, he dipped the writing brush beside him in ink and wrote the numbers 50 and 80 on them.

Once he was finished, he handed both paper packets to Chen Liyun and said:

"50 and 80 stand for fifty milliliters and eighty milliliters of pure water respectively. Mix those amounts with the powders inside, and they'll undergo a qualitative transformation into the supplementary components of a Sequence Potion. The main ingredient is the Purple Soul Flower. You should know where it is. If you make it back alive this time, go there and advance."

After a moment's thought, he added:

"The Purple Soul Flower is somewhat unusual. Don't bring it out. Complete your advancement wherever you pick it. That flowering grove is very safe."

"These... these are ingredients for a Sequence Potion!"

By then, Chen Liyun's hands were trembling as he held the two paper packets. This was a path to transcendence, yet Lin Shan had handed it to him so casually.

Lin Shan smiled. "If there's nothing else, you can go."

Chen Liyun opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but he did not know how to express himself. He could only give Lin Shan a military salute with determination in his eyes. "Yes, sir. I won't let you down!"

After Chen Liyun left, Lin Shan went to the second floor to meet some familiar old friends: Zhang Zhonghua, the current minister of the Military Department; Jin Tianzong, minister of the Works Department; Si Zhennan, minister of the Agriculture Department; and Yan Ruxin, minister of the Household Department.

Four of the seven ministers were Pioneers, and two of those Pioneers were still only Pseudo-Transcendents. Though the other Pioneers also held positions, they were merely nominal appointments. Not everyone liked power.

Lin Shan also briefly became acquainted with the other three ministers. They had all previously belonged to the Military Department, and once their abilities earned the others' recognition, they had been appointed directly. Every transfer of power took place within a small circle.