The Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown Were an Illusion

The border post stood beneath a range of mountains. A massive concrete wall blocked the road from the mountains to the city, and a town stood beside it.

From the outside, it looked like an ancient walled city. Inside, it housed a border police force armed to the teeth.

They had everything from armored vehicles and shoulder-fired rockets to antiaircraft guns and heavy machine guns.

In wartime, it would become a fortress to hold back beast tides, giving the troops and cities behind it time to respond.

As soon as Lu Zhao entered the border post, the soldiers on duty turned to look at him, whispering, "Lu the Tiger's back from hunting again."

Hunting was Lu Zhao's privilege.

Of the eight hundred people at the border post, only Lu Zhao could guarantee, "What I see, I kill."

The others generally found traces and reported them at once, leaving helicopters to shoot the beasts from the air. Demonic beasts could be shot dead, but people were flesh and blood too, and firearms were highly inaccurate in the complex terrain of the mountains.

Most of the time, the demonic beasts hid as soon as they heard the helicopters.

Though Lu Zhao had achieved such outstanding results, no one dared come forward to compliment him.

Everyone knew he had offended an important figure and didn't want to get caught up in it.

Zhang Like dared to associate with him because Lu Zhao had saved his life. He couldn't simply stand aside as though it were none of his concern.

"Old Lu, go back and get some rest. Leave the rest to me."

Lu Zhao nodded and turned to leave. The sentries at the gate had no intention of inspecting him and waved him straight through.

When he entered the dormitory building, the elderly gatekeeper called out, "Lu Zhao, the light bulb in your room is broken. Someone won't come to fix it until tomorrow."

"Mm."

Lu Zhao acknowledged him without breaking stride. He walked to room 1011, took out his key, and pushed the door open. An empty room met his eyes.

There was a hardboard bed, a table and chair, and a small refrigerator that came up to his waist.

The only small items were a toothbrush, a ceramic cup, a towel, and an ashtray made from a drink can.

That was everything in the room.

Besides his insomnia, Lu Zhao had another quirk: his room had to be tidy.

Half an hour later, Lu Zhao came out of the bathroom and saw a missed call on his phone. The contact was [Old Tang].

Old Tang's name was Tang Fen. He had been the director in charge of Lu Zhao's upbringing and education when Lu Zhao was studying in Cangwu City, and was something of a foster parent to him.

Lu Zhao called him back, and a rough voice came through.

"Little Zhao, the foster home has money again."

"Did the government allocate funds? Or did someone make it big and come back to help out?"

"Li Dongxue. She earned merit suppressing a rebellion beyond the pass this year and became a senior colonel. A senior colonel at twenty-five! Give her a few more years and she might even make general."

Old Tang had grown long-winded with age, and whenever he had the chance, he "helped" Lu Zhao reminisce.

That had all happened more than a decade ago.

Lu Zhao had inherited his divine ability from Li Shaoqing, commander of an armored company in the South Sea Third Army and Li Dongxue's father. Inheriting a divine ability meant its previous holder had died.

Throughout history, kings, nobles, generals, ministers, and countless other illustrious figures had passed down divine abilities. In chaotic times, they were scattered across the land as rival powers fought for supremacy; in prosperous ages, a new dynasty gathered what had endured through the ages.

The Yan Federation made divine abilities the foundation of the nation. Divine abilities were divided into five-element, mental, and physical types, and ranked as minuscule, weak, moderate, potent, powerful, and great.

After a person died, their divine ability could be obtained through either weathering or cremation. Later generations could absorb it and inherit its predecessor's power, though the ability generally dropped one rank.

In theory, great divine abilities could not be acquired through inheritance.

The number of great divine abilities was fixed: thirty-six Heavenly Spirits and seventy-two Earthly Fiends.

His divine ability was called [Yi]. It was a potent mental-type divine ability, but after passing to him, it was now moderate.

"Did things not work out between you two because you revealed the divine ability you inherited?"

Old Tang was still hung up on it.

Although he disapproved of young people dating-minors were not yet mentally mature and lacked the practical ability to shoulder the responsibilities of a relationship-Lu Zhao and Li Dongxue were simply too outstanding. The former had been unusually intelligent and mature from childhood, while the latter was gifted at nearly everything.

Besides, he had seen Li Dongxue hand Lu Zhao a love letter back then.

As something of an old father to them, Tang Fen had wanted to bring them together rather than let either of them go to someone else.

In the end, one went to the imperial capital, and the other went to Chishui Military Academy in Shu. They never contacted each other again.

"No. That would be against the rules. High-risk divine abilities are state property; their origins and destinations must not be disclosed."

Lu Zhao stubbed out his cigarette and changed the subject. "How much did she give the foster home?"

"Three hundred thousand. Enough to keep us going for a while. How have things been with you lately?"

Old Tang asked how he had been, and Lu Zhao gave a perfunctory answer without thinking. "Same as before. Patrolling the mountains and hunting demonic beasts."

"I got in touch with an old friend. Why don't you go into teaching? You're a Class B mental-type transcendent and a graduate of Imperial Capital University, after all. Why put yourself through being a minor officer at a border post?"

"I just caught a fugitive. I want to try making my way in the military."

"It's no use. As long as you want a career within the system, there's no avoiding the Chen Family."

The transcendents known as Martial Marquises were all pillars of the nation. Some were senior ministers in the Hall of Martial Virtue, some governed vast territories, and some commanded armies.

The person Lu Zhao had offended was the Martial Marquis of Jiangbei, an important figure across the eastern and western regions of the South Sea.

Lu Zhao had been sent to the border post because students sponsored for training had to return to their home regions, which happened to fall entirely within the Chen Family's sphere of influence.

Otherwise, with his credentials, he should have been like Li Dongxue: either assigned to the military starting as a field officer or given a government post as the top official of a county.

Unfortunately, Lu Zhao never yielded to pressure. The harder someone pushed him, the more defiant he became.

Tang Fen had connections, but he was part of the academic world, and his influence couldn't reach the border post. The same was true of Lu Zhao's instructors at his university in the imperial capital.

Old Tang knew his student was proud to the core, so he could only sigh and say, "I'll get in touch with them again and see if I can help mediate."

"No need."

"Why are you so stubborn? Even if you won't think of yourself, shouldn't you think of your mother? Is the little you earn at the border enough to pay for her heart treatment?"

They couldn't see eye to eye, and the call ended.

Lu Zhao took a five-hundred-milliliter bottle of Lang Brand Tequ life supplement from the refrigerator.

The greater a transcendent's vitality, the harder it was to sustain their metabolism on ordinary food.

Thus, life supplements had come into being. They increased conversion rates without requiring large amounts of waste to be excreted, and were produced by the major liquor distilleries on the market today.

Lu Zhao's vitality was thirty-five points; a healthy adult's was five.

His daily metabolism was five times that of an ordinary person, and he needed ten times as many calories. If he relied on food alone, he would have to spend an hour or more eating, drinking, and excreting.

Lu Zhao drank a bottle of supplement, then went out to the exercise ground and did calisthenics to aid digestion. A few other people were working out nearby as well.

In a small place like the border post, few people persisted in developing their vitality.

Only after an hour had passed did he stop, a faint warmth rising from his skin.

"Lu Zhao."

Zhang Like waved from a distance. Lu Zhao walked over and asked, "How did it go?"

Zhang Like shook his head.

To be honest, Lu Zhao wasn't surprised. He had expected it; this wasn't the first time he had rendered meritorious service.

Four years ago, he had fought a gun battle with drug traffickers crossing the border. Three years ago, he had helped the police shoot a knife-wielding criminal who had taken a hostage. Two years ago, he had intercepted a smuggling operation, and a year ago, he had volunteered for an antidrug operation.

And yet he was still guarding the mountains at the border post.

"This is fucking bullshit!"

Lu Zhao said nothing, but Zhang Like couldn't help cursing.

"Even if you offended the king of heaven himself, they shouldn't push you around like this. Is there any law left?"

"Maybe it really was the king of heaven."

Lu Zhao took out another cigarette and offered it to Zhang Like. The two stood in the dormitory corridor at the border post, smoking and blowing clouds, as a light rain began to fall again.

Raindrops broke up the mist.

Zhang Like watched Lu Zhao squatting on the ground and puffing out smoke. His black hair fell past his ears and covered his eyes, and his jawline looked as though it had been carved with a knife.

It was a waste of his looks not to become a star.

He said, "Four years ago, an important figure in Cangwu City gave the word that you were to be nailed to the border post. Who did you offend? Give me something to go on."

"Chen Qian."

Chapter 4: The Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown Were an Illusion

In the lunar year 3234, eighteen-year-old Lu Zhao entered the imperial capital for the first time.

High school education was divided equally between vitality development and academic subjects. Divine ability development involved only exercise and digestion.

At university, exercise became a set of lethal fist techniques, followed by various methods of developing different divine abilities.

The academic subjects covered various fields of administrative management, similar to the cadre training he had attended in his previous life.

Imperial Capital University was a top institution, and also a training ground for the ruling class.

Divine abilities were divided into five major categories: physical, mental, five-element, fate, and natural.

Lu Zhao belonged to the mental category, which ranked second in prospects, only slightly behind fate.

In his first monthly exam after enrolling, Lu Zhao placed exactly two thousandth in his year, putting him near the bottom.

He wasn't discouraged. This was merely a gap created by differences in educational resources; Lu Zhao didn't think himself inferior to anyone else. He knew his own shortcomings well, and that was why he needed to work even harder at developing his vitality.

At the same time, because he couldn't afford to keep taking life supplements, Lu Zhao had to go to the cafeteria for free protein.

He slept only one hour a day, ate ten meals, and took eight shits.

Thanks to his astonishing perseverance, his ranking steadily rose by thirty places every month afterward, and by the second half of the academic year he had become a "celebrity" at the university.

Some busybody gave Lu Zhao the derogatory nickname Straight Gut. Even strangers would call it out to him as he walked down the road, followed by bursts of laughter.