Lin Zhiyan

Third, the elites participated in government on the people's behalf. These people earned salaries of over ten thousand; could they drink from the same well as peddlers and laborers?

These questions often pointed to the fundamental contradictions in society under the new system Lu Zhao had described, and none of them could be discussed openly.

Lu Zhao realized that the old Daoist was not entirely detached from worldly affairs. He knew a great deal about matters of state and could see through to their essence beyond the limits of his era.

Unable to give a definite answer, he could only say, "At least compared with before, the current machinery of government is more advanced."

The old Daoist did not argue.

After pondering for a moment, he abruptly moved away from education and elections. "How much grain does the Divine Land produce per mu now?"

Scholars did not till the land. How much grain would it take to feed so many people while they studied?

In that instant, the old Daoist seemed to grasp the essence of the matter.

The court's rules did not matter. What mattered was where the money came from.

Lu Zhao had been born into farming families in both his lives. He answered without hesitation, "In unhusked rice, a well-tended mountain terrace would yield seven or eight hundred jin per mu. Connected paddies on level ground yield at least nine hundred jin per mu."

"By the old Ming measure, a good mu of farmland would yield a little over ten shi. Mountain terraces do worse, but they still yield... around six and a half shi."

He was sincerely glad he was a mental-type transcendent. Otherwise, he would have forgotten everything his history teacher had taught him long ago.

Then Lu Zhao realized something, too.

The old Daoist had understood the essence of the change in social systems.

Democracy was not created by shouting slogans, nor was civilization produced through discipline. Without advances in productivity and changes in the mode of production, the Yan Federation would be no different from Great Ming.

The Daoist priest was by no means a man detached from worldly affairs.

The old Daoist fell silent again. The new things Lu Zhao had described demanded his constant thought.

After a long while, he let out a deep breath.

"If things are truly as you say, layman, then in the Yan Federation today, everyone truly is like a dragon."

He no longer dwelled on "rule without a monarch" and returned to his detached composure. Sweeping his sleeve, he cleared a clean spot for Lu Zhao, and a meditation cushion appeared out of thin air.

"The past is nothing but smoke and clouds now. Come and sit, layman. I shall tell you about the wonders of qi cultivation."

"The key to qi cultivation is first to distinguish between the acquired and the innate. Breathing through the mouth and nose guides acquired qi; it is a step toward cultivating the true through the false. Nurturing innate true breath through fetal breathing in the lower abdomen is true cultivation."

"You are gifted and quick-witted, layman. You learned to use acquired qi as soon as it was explained to you, but you must still work on innate qi."

The cushion was slightly warm as the old man and the young man sat facing each other.

The old Daoist did not recite scriptures or speak of mysteries, but of the fundamental principles of heaven and earth.

Lu Zhao sat with his back straight, his mind relaxing a little. It was as though he were back at university, in a mental studies class with fewer than ten students, listening to an old professor analyze the field.

The setting was different, but the quiet devotion to learning was much the same.

There was no need to think of the frustrations of the frontier or the smoke of battle with bandits. He only had to focus on learning.

Although Lu Zhao had not succeeded in formally taking a master, theirs had become a master-disciple relationship in all but name.

The next morning, May 26, the South Sea West Circuit was hit by heavy rain once again.

Lu Zhao gulped down a life supplement and recorded the effects of Refining Essence into Qi.

"After repeated attempts yesterday, continuing to circulate qi after converting 0.1 life made my whole body ache. In scientific terms, it was overdevelopment; the body couldn't take it. All prodigies on record controlled the pace of their development."

Ideally, he needed three bottles of life supplement a day to maintain a daily increase of 0.1 vitality.

But life supplements were controlled by the state. Ordinary people needed proof of eligibility to buy limited quantities, and the price was high. Lang Brand, which Lu Zhao often drank, was one example: a five-hundred-milliliter bottle of Lang Brand Tequ contained ten thousand kilocalories and cost a thousand yuan.

After the economic downturn following the Great Cataclysm, the Federation's current per capita income was 2,800 yuan.

Official institutions had purchasing privileges that allowed them to lower the price within their allotted quotas to 50 percent of the market price, or even less.

The discounted quantity available to a person was directly tied to their rank and service record.

Lu Zhao calculated his own quota.

His lieutenant's rank entitled him to a basic monthly allowance of five doses, with one more for serving in a hardship frontier region, three for his second-class merit, and two for his two third-class merits.

He received eleven doses of life supplement per month and had a quota of thirty bottles at 50 percent of the market price.

His monthly salary and various allowances came to 25,000 yuan. Spending 15,000 would let him buy his full quota.

What put even more pressure on him was that his family needed money for daily expenses, his mother's long-term chronic illness required continued spending on treatment, and his niece was in the prime period for developing her life potential and needed substantial resources... There was not much money they could spare specifically to buy him supplements.

Life detection: [35.6]

The small increase reassured Lu Zhao a little. As long as he improved his Life Development, the problems would be solved eventually.

He sent Zhang Like a message on his phone and borrowed another ten thousand yuan to tide him over.

More debt made little difference when he already owed so much. He would repay him generously someday.

Chapter 9: Lin Zhiyan

Lu Zhao checked the time. It was 9:10. Hearing a commotion outside, he quickly washed up and left the dormitory.

The dormitory corridor was packed with people, many leaning over the railing to look down.

When they saw Lu Zhao approach, his colleagues made an opening for him so he could see outside.

Five identical ink-black bulletproof SUVs were parked on the open ground in front of the camp gates.

Thirteen people in standard black duty uniforms stood at attention beside the vehicles, looking sharp and capable. Their leader was a woman with ear-length hair, who was speaking with Lü Jinshan.

All the border station's leaders, senior and junior, including Zhang Like, were present.

The barely perceptible, deliberate dip of Lü Jinshan's shoulders as he shook her hand silently proclaimed just how important she was.

The special task force got here quickly. Looks like that bandit was carrying something extraordinary.

The realization came to Lu Zhao as he scanned the crowd and silently extended a slender tendril of mental energy.

He was looking for someone of his own kind below.

His gaze soon settled on the short-haired woman. At the same time, she abruptly stopped talking and looked up without warning, scanning the noisy crowd.

Her cold gaze swept quickly over every window in the dormitory building from which someone might be watching, and every moving figure.

She looked over them again and again, but her eyes never truly met Lu Zhao's.

In the mental domain, she was much weaker than Lu Zhao, and she did not look much older than him. Yet now Lü Jinshan was welcoming her with a broad smile.

Lu Zhao wondered: if not for Chen Qian, would Lü Jinshan be bowing his head to him today?

His former classmates had already become pillars of the Federation, and a few had become local officials.

The most successful one has already fallen from power, while I'm still patrolling the mountains at a border station.

The next moment, the short-haired woman saw him.

Not too bad, Lu Zhao thought.

He then turned and left. He still had flood-control work to do.

"Team Leader Lin, is something wrong?"

Lin Zhiyan shook her head slightly, a flicker of wariness and confusion in her eyes. She could hardly answer Lü Jinshan's question.

She could hardly say, "There's a very good-looking colleague at your station who looks a lot like one of my senior schoolmates."

Office 402.

The old room was packed with all sorts of things. Four old desks were squeezed close together, and the edges and corners of the thick glass sheets covering them had long since lost their shine.

An Ant Ridge map lay beneath the glass, its edges yellowed and curled.

The slogan on the wall, "A soldier's mission: dedicate your life to the Federation," had faded somewhat.

If Lu Zhao had not covered it with transparent tape, it would probably have fallen off long ago.

The border station dated back to the beginning of the century. It had been lucky enough to escape destruction during the Great Cataclysm, but it was very old now.

The four desks belonged to Lu Zhao, Liu Qiang, Zhang Zhenghong, and Zhang Yanfeng.

Zhang Zhenghong, a lieutenant, was a veteran of the border station. Zhang Yanfeng was a top graduate of a first-rate university. Either of them might take Lu Zhao's place.

At the moment, two colleagues who should have left to patrol the mountains long ago were still sitting leisurely in their chairs.

If they even slacked off on duties like these, Lu Zhao found it hard to believe they could handle their responsibilities.

It was just as well they were not his soldiers, or he would have made them run ten kilometers long ago.

Standing in the doorway, Lu Zhao knocked twice on the door. "It's about time to patrol the mountains. Why are you two still slacking off?"

Forty-year-old Zhang Zhenghong shaved as he explained, "The mountain paths are easier to travel once the fog has cleared."

Mountain patrols were routine assignments, especially in the relatively safe "outer" areas. Many people were in the habit of making a token circuit at the foot of the mountain or along the road before turning back.

Only Lu Zhao stubbornly covered every planned route, patrolling his territory like a tiger.

Zhang Zhenghong was ready in no time. "Let's go, top student," he called out. "Time to patrol the mountains for Lu the Tiger."

Zhang Yanfeng sat at his desk, listening to music on an MP3 player. He was clearly immersed in his own world until Zhang Zhenghong's shout brought him back to his senses.

"Stop listening. Keep playing around and Lu the Tiger will make you pay for it."

Before leaving, Zhang Zhenghong made sure to say, "Platoon Leader Lu, remember to come support us right away if there's a demonic beast."

Lu Zhao did not look up. His eyes remained fixed on the old computer screen, and he gave only a slight nod in response.

He was using the computer to search for information. The Federation's technological level was comparable to the late 1990s and early twentieth century, though some technologies could match those across the ocean.

Computers had only just begun to catch on. The internet was still rudimentary, and getting online required a dial-up connection.

Notably, the first internet system established had been the Federation government's database. Through his computer, he could browse the government's internal website.

Information about Jiajing, about Shao Yuanjie, and about immortal cultivation.

The three were directly connected.

[Jiajing was the eleventh emperor of the Ming dynasty, Emperor Shizong of Ming, Zhu Houcong. Beginning in the fifth year of Jiajing, he set up altars in the palace to perform Daoist fasting rites and ceremonies, and gave himself the Daoist title "Supreme Great Luo Heavenly Immortal, Purple Ultimate, Sacred Wisdom of Longevity, Luminous Manifestation, Unifier of Primordial Verification and Response, Great Perfected One of the Jade Void in Supreme Command of the Five Thunders, Emperor of Ten Thousand Longevities of the Xuandu Realm..."]