In the Name of Divine Abilities, Part 29

The old Daoist smiled faintly and pointed a finger at the sky. "Your master is only one realm above you, and has only taken one step more than the countless living beings."

His tone was calm, yet it carried an indescribable detachment.

"Above Foundation Establishment lies the Golden Core true immortal."

Sunlight streamed into the empty room.

Lu Zhao opened his eyes on the hard bed, and a pair of dead fish eyes instantly overshadowed his handsome face.

By his reckoning, he had not had a proper rest since returning from the rotation, about a week ago.

Although he was long accustomed to going more than 180 hours without sleep, he was especially exhausted today, and his head was still buzzing.

The old Daoist... he should call him his teacher now. His voice was still echoing in Lu Zhao's head.

Your thoughts are a mess, your circulation of qi is clumsy, and you haven't got a single technique right. How can you expect to achieve Foundation Establishment like this!

The old Daoist had taken a ruler and struck Lu Zhao's consciousness form with it, blow after blow.

Compared to the mutual courtesy they had shown each other at first, the old Daoist had become a different person after accepting him as a disciple, changing from an aged immortal with the bearing of a sage into a strict teacher.

In the old Daoist's words, Lu Zhao was like someone who had dropped out of junior high and gone straight into the final year of high school to prepare for the college entrance exam. He would have to work a hundred times harder to make up the difference.

Although Lu Zhao could find no fault with that, he still suspected the old Daoist was using his position to settle a personal grudge. Otherwise, why use a ruler?

"Hiss!"

Lu Zhao rolled over, and intense pain shot through his back. He reached back but felt no wound or bruise.

But the memory, engraved in his very bones, was strong enough to affect his body and cause phantom pain.

After the pain passed, Lu Zhao's heart began to race as he made plans and imagined his future.

He had taken on a teacher who might have surpassed the Martial Marquis realm.

In the past, compared with the top ten geniuses in his grade, the greatest gap had not been talent or effort. Starting from a point where both sides possessed those qualities, Lu Zhao had lacked resources and a teacher.

The Imperial Capital had the best educational resources under heaven, but Lu Zhao was comparing himself with the top ten, the greatest geniuses who would wield power in the future.

A master led one through the door, but cultivation depended on the individual. Without a master, though, one might not even find the door.

The more Lu Zhao experienced, the more he appreciated the importance of a guide. What his teacher had taught him should still be in circulation, but it had been hidden by the spread of Life Development and the monopolization of knowledge.

Even his own mentor might have had only a partial understanding of it.

He still lacked resources, but he had found a good teacher, who had pointed out a path for him.

It was a great path that even the sages of old had pursued, and throughout the dynasties, only two kinds of people could attempt it.

Emperors at court and leaders of religious sects.

Only the powerful, who could command and rule over millions, were qualified to touch it.

If he succeeded in Foundation Establishment, his chance of becoming a Martial Marquis would increase by thirty percentage points. Of the graduates from the Imperial Capital and Red Water, the two great academies, each year, only 0.1% ultimately became Martial Marquises.

Out of tens of millions of examinees, only a few thousand could enter the top academies, and only one in a thousand of those few thousand could become a Martial Marquis.

But his teacher had given him at least a 30% chance.

Lu Zhao suppressed his excitement and studied the cultivation technique his teacher had passed on to him the night before.

The technique that could help him correct his past shortcomings and bring his first-stage Nature Cultivation to perfection was called the "Visualization Method."

Chapter 35: Promotion to Captain

Visualization meant using one's thoughts to simulate the five senses until one could control them at will and summon them with a thought. That was perfection.

And the five senses belonged to the domain of second-stage spiritual transcendents.

In the old Daoist's words, a consciousness form, or Outer Form, at the first stage, the five senses at the second, and an Inner Landscape at the third all came naturally. Like growing from an infant into a youth, and from a youth into an adult, it was all in accordance with nature.

What Lu Zhao needed to do was "train" and develop the five senses at the first stage. Only then could he unlock the true Inner Form, the Five Viscera Gods, at the second stage. With the Five Viscera Gods, he could construct an Inner Landscape, and only with an Inner Landscape could he forge a Spirit Platform at the third stage.

The final step was Foundation Establishment, taking the first true step beyond the ordinary.

Each step depended on the last. Miss one, and Foundation Establishment would be impossible.

But if similar methods followed a set process, and the academies did not teach them, wouldn't that mean no one could achieve Foundation Establishment?

Or had the Martial Marquises never achieved Foundation Establishment at all?

"Right now, I need to develop the five senses of my consciousness form before I can be considered to have cultivated both inner and outer aspects at the first stage."

Lu Zhao felt as if he were back in high school. With a clear path ahead, he had boundless motivation.

What people feared most was not hardship, but being unable to see a way up.

He endured the pain in his body and got up to take a life supplement from the mini fridge, only to find that he had just six bottles left.

"This month's quota won't arrive until the tenth, and even then, it'll barely last five days."

Lu Zhao felt a headache coming on.

Under ideal conditions, he consumed three bottles of life supplement a day, but his free monthly quota was only eleven bottles.

He had to pay for another thirty bottles of low-grade life supplement, at a total cost of fifteen thousand, but even that was only enough for ten days.

"Looks like I have to win the excellence award this year and get a bigger life supplement quota. I didn't dare hope for it before, but now it's time to go for it."

A trace of aggression showed in Lu Zhao's phoenix eyes.

He had not given it much thought before, but now he could not afford to "eat his fill and idle away his days."

The excellence awards were decided in early June each year, granting outstanding officers extra life supplements as a reward.

The number of awards varied by unit. Ant Ridge Border Station had only one, and Lü Jinshan would certainly not have let him have it before. Now, Lu Zhao felt he could make a bid for it.

The Federation's excellence awards were also decided by election. Extraordinary power amplified individual strength, which in turn gave rise to democracy in certain respects.

Both company-grade officers and clerks could vote, with some receiving more votes depending on their positions.

If all the junior officers voted for him, along with Old Zhang, a field-grade officer, it would be practically guaranteed.

"I'll have to get by on one bottle a day for the next few days."

Lu Zhao drank the life supplement in small sips, then sat cross-legged on the floor to practice Refining Qi into Essence.

At ten in the morning, he pricked his fingertip with a blood tester. It showed his vitality at [37].

Because he could not obtain sufficient resources, his vitality did not increase at a constant rate. It could rise by as much as 0.15 a day or as little as 0.08, averaging around three points a month.

As for the modern Life Development system, his teacher had not given him much guidance, merely telling him to cultivate as usual.

There was no fixed path for Nature Cultivation. His teacher had taught him a method called "Visualization," which used the soul to project the physical body and imitate the five senses.

The eyes saw a hundred meters without looking, the ears heard insects move without listening, the nose distinguished a hundred fragrances without smelling, the mouth knew a hundred flavors without eating, and the spirit form felt wherever thought could reach.

The eyes, nose, mouth, and ears were easy to master, but the sense of touch was a hurdle that stopped countless people.

Of these, the mouth was the easiest. One visualized everything one ate, and over time it became instinctive.

Lu Zhao visualized the life supplement, and a faint, bitter taste of Chinese medicine welled up.

It vanished in an instant, lasting only half a second, with an aftertaste lingering on different taste buds.

At eleven, Lu Zhao went out on time and headed to the cafeteria.

Carrying three kilograms of food, he looked toward the corner as usual. He had barely taken two steps-

"Brother Lu, over here!"

The noticeably warm greeting rang out, and the somewhat noisy cafeteria instantly fell silent. Many people had already been watching Lu Zhao, but now everyone looked over.

Their gazes also gathered on the person who had called out to him. It was not Zhang Like, but Liao Lang, commander of the duty company.

He was sitting in the most conspicuous spot in the cafeteria with Liang Chao, commander of the mobile company and also a lieutenant, and several other company-grade officers.

This was where the border station's officers usually gathered in a small circle by unspoken agreement.

In the border station cafeteria, everyone from the station chief down to the privates received the same treatment. But in the Federation, where Life Development was tied to rank, the officers naturally formed their own circle, and the soldiers rarely disturbed them.

Lu Zhao paused, then walked over and sat down with them.

Liao Lang beamed and introduced them. "I'm Liao Lang, commander of the duty company, and this is Liang Chao, commander of the mobile company."

Liang Chao smiled and nodded to Lu Zhao as well.

As a reinforced combined-arms battalion, Ant Ridge Border Station had around a thousand personnel under it, divided into four companies.

They were the duty, mobile, support, and logistics companies.

Lu Zhao was commander of the reinforced duty platoon and a frontline outpost commander, making him equal in rank to the two men.

"Lu Zhao."

He reached out to shake hands with them, and Liao Lang said, "Captain Zhang gave me instructions. If the reinforced platoon needs anything in the future, you can come straight to me. Platoon Commander Lu, you have priority in deploying the duty company's personnel and equipment."

Lu Zhao keenly noticed the eager looks everyone present was giving him.

It was probably not as simple as his having saved them. It was not as though he had never helped deal with enemies before.

"Certainly."

Lu Zhao gave a concise reply, then lowered his head and started eating. He ate quickly, but his movements were not crude; they had an efficiency particular to soldiers.

He was like a new recruit who had just been drilled and was still observing every last detail.

The others were not surprised. Lu Zhao had always been rather solitary.

There was one thing they were sure of, though: as a teammate, he was the strongest support they could have.

For the past two years, whenever an emergency arose, Zhang Like had called Lu Zhao in. As a result, whenever anything happened in the subordinate companies, they too called Lu Zhao through Zhang Like.

As long as they heard that Lu Zhao had arrived, they could calmly light a cigarette even when facing drug smugglers.

A small place like Ant Ridge might not produce a Great Sage Equal to Heaven, but it had Lu Zhao, an Erlang Shen, standing guard.

Five minutes later, Lu Zhao had quickly swept his plate clean. He got up and said, "I'm finished. Enjoy your meal."

Liao Lang hurriedly reminded him, "There's a victory banquet tonight. Remember to come."