In the Name of Divine Abilities: Part 12

Lu Zhao shook his head slightly. "Forgive me, but I can't agree."

The old Daoist showed no surprise or anger. With a kindly expression, he said, "There's no need to rush, layman. People always have different ideas at different ages."

"Perhaps after some time, you'll see things differently. Those who cultivate the Dao in pursuit of longevity ultimately walk alone. Even I cannot make that decision for you."

With that, he reached into his sleeve as he had before and produced an old book with a dark blue cover. Its title was written in two small-seal characters.

It was called Spirit Refining.

Lu Zhao asked, "Does this cultivation technique require a Fate Bone?"

"Having one would naturally make it twice as effective with half the effort, but you can manage without one," the old Daoist replied. "You already have a good foundation, layman. That Fate Bone isn't essential."

Lu Zhao immediately said, "I'd like to give it to you, Daoist priest. How can I bring it here?"

The old Daoist had first said it was beneficial to the spirit, then said it wasn't essential. Did that mean it might be useful to him too?

If so, Lu Zhao should offer it of his own accord.

It would let him repay the old Daoist's kindness and help maintain a good relationship. At the same time, retrieving the Fate Bone would keep it from falling into civilian hands, so it naturally wouldn't threaten social stability.

It was practically getting two meals out of one fish.

"Good."

The old Daoist gave him an appreciative look. "This object is of little use to me, but it can add something to Primordial Unity."

The joy on his face was unmistakable.

Lu Zhao was beginning to get a sense of the old Daoist's peculiar habits.

He was a riddler who liked making others guess.

May 28.

Lu Zhao woke at five in the morning. When he opened his eyes, the sky was still gray, and he had two new sets of memories in his head.

One concerned Spirit Refining; the other was a formula for sending the Fate Bone into Primordial Unity, though it could only transfer the Fate Bone.

Bringing objects into the mental world was also unheard of. In the old Daoist's words, "The Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend are the Dao fruits of heaven and earth. The immaterial and the material can be interchanged, allowing them to enter Primordial Unity."

Otherwise, Lu Zhao would have liked to bring the old Daoist some modern specialties to broaden the "ancestor's" horizons.

"Let's try it first."

Lu Zhao eagerly sat cross-legged. As with Refining Essence into Qi, he grasped Spirit Refining as soon as he tried it.

Though the old Daoist hadn't said so outright, Lu Zhao had reason to suspect it was an enlightenment transmission. Otherwise, something so simple would surely have been passed down.

After he sat with his eyes closed for three quarters of an hour, the distracting thoughts in his mind gradually subsided.

A lake appeared. Yesterday's anger and resentment, today's plans, and tomorrow's hopes surfaced one after another, distracting thoughts leaping at him like fish.

He swallowed the distracting thoughts. The intense pain was like swallowing needles, and sweat broke out on his forehead. But with every "needle" he swallowed, his mental power grew more condensed.

Spirit Refining carried fire, and practicing it felt like being burned.

Lu Zhao opened his eyes, having exhausted most of his mental power. A wisp of white light flashed in his eyes, and a white worm appeared, wandering through the empty air.

It was invisible to the naked eye and could only be detected through mental power.

A faint memory surfaced in his mind, telling Lu Zhao what the little white worm did.

Mental attack!

His divine ability had originally possessed only two functions: telekinesis and detection. Now it had gained a direct means of attack.

Chapter 14: Searching the Mountain

"My divine ability has gained a tangible means of attack?"

Lu Zhao's hand trembled slightly despite himself. He lit a cigarette to steady his nerves, doing his best to calm down.

The deeper he delved, the more incredible he found the old Daoist.

As the old Daoist had said, Lu Zhao was not ignorant. On the contrary, he had received the best education of the current age and had once been groomed as a member of the Federation's core leadership.

He knew very well that the essence of divine abilities lay in their traits. The same divine ability had different traits in different people's hands.

Even when their general direction was the same, the actual effects could be worlds apart.

For example, Lu Zhao's Fate Bone had come from Li Shaoqing, whose mental detection had eventually reached the point where he could form a three-dimensional image spanning more than ten thousand meters in his mind.

Lu Zhao himself could only perform rough mental detection, forming outlines in his mind at most. Yet he could also exercise telekinesis with millimeter-level precision and use firearms to exert an overwhelming deterrent against individual soldiers.

But the old Daoist's technique could actively alter traits and add new ones.

It had actually given Lu Zhao's outwardly developed mental power a mental attack unique to inward development. It was rather like cultivating both inwardly and outwardly.

It also overturned Divine Ability Trait Theory.

This was definitely not something an "ancient method" could explain. The old Daoist had to be hiding other secrets.

Lu Zhao suppressed his growing suspicions.

At least for now, the old Daoist had shown him kindness, and everyone had their own privacy.

After finishing his Spirit Refining practice, Lu Zhao drank two bottles of Banlang Special Qu and began his daily practice of Refining Essence into Qi.

[Vitality: 35.7]

Knock, knock, knock!

Liu Qiang's voice came from outside the door.

"Brother Lu, emergency assembly. We've got a mountain search. Everyone has to go."

At noon, the sun blazed overhead.

The border station dispatched more than a hundred officers to search Ant Ridge.

Everyone was sweating under the sun, while tents had been set up at the foot of the mountain for the special task force to stay in.

The group grumbled, and Liu Qiang even joked, "Not one of those people down there has a better education than Brother Lu."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Lu Zhao was among them. He was used to the wind and sun, and with his high degree of vitality development, he hardly felt it. Zhang Like, however, had it rough. As the brigade captain, he had to set an example and lead the team.

But he was used to being a minor leader, and suddenly doing hard labor left him gasping for breath.

Lu Zhao found the right moment and, without anyone noticing, dug up the Fate Bone and silently recited the formula.

The Fate Bone vanished on the spot, just like a spatial ability Lu Zhao had once seen a teacher demonstrate when he was in school.

The principle behind it was beyond Lu Zhao's understanding.

The divine abilities in this world came in all kinds of strange forms, and great divine abilities all had the power to overturn heaven and earth. Lu Zhao had yet to see a great divine ability with his own eyes, so how could he understand an immortal who had lived for five hundred years?

I wonder if I'll ever possess the mighty power to move mountains and fill seas.

Lu Zhao's thoughts began to reach further, no longer confined to finding a way out of his predicament.

Escaping the Chen family's influence was only a matter of time, but how he would proceed afterward required careful consideration.

Even if he joined the military, there were different regions, units, and functions.

"Old Lu."

Zhang Like approached and lowered his voice. "Have you found it?"

Lu Zhao shook his head. The thing had already been sent to Primordial Unity; there was no way anyone could find the Fate Bone.

"It doesn't matter if we don't find it. We won't be the ones getting chewed out anyway. It's just that the brothers will have a hard few days."

Zhang Like took out a map marked with the fugitive's escape route and the area that needed to be searched.

Lu Zhao glanced at it and saw that the back of the mountain had been completely overlooked. "Aren't we searching the back of the mountain?"

Zhang Like explained, "If the fugitive has already reached the back of the mountain, he won't double back. Besides, we don't have enough people to expand the search any further."

"We could use this chance to sweep the back of the mountain," Lu Zhao suggested. "Especially the places away from the route to the outpost. We haven't swept them in three years."

There was a vast stretch of unknown territory between Ant Ridge's outer area and the outpost.

There were no mountain trails and no patrols. As long as the demonic beasts didn't come charging out, they left them alone.

Lu Zhao saw this as a hidden danger. Leaving aside how many demonic beasts might be there, what if someone set up a smuggling route right under their noses?

The Miye Three Rivers region had long been a major threat to the South Sea, and it was also the most immediate danger facing Lu Zhao and the others.

He had exchanged fire with desperadoes from Miye Three Rivers more than once.

"No money, and no people."

Zhang Like spread his hands. "We're just a battalion-level unit. Holding this stretch of Ant Ridge is enough."

"True."

Lu Zhao felt quite helpless.

A simple "no money" was enough to shut him down. He couldn't get anything done.

His own abilities were important, but without the right environment and platform, it was hard to accomplish anything. At the Ant Ridge border station, even vitality supplements sometimes weren't issued on time.

At the same time, there were plenty of regions where social stability was in greater danger than here.

After a full day with nothing to show for it, the group came down the mountain, only to be cursed out by a furious Lü Jinshan.

This time, the louder he shouted, the more Lu Zhao wanted to laugh.

He was getting desperate.

May 29: searched the mountain.

May 30: searched the mountain.

May 31, Dragon Boat Festival: searched the mountain.

After three fruitless days in a row, the special task force lost patience and pulled out early.