Draped in the Yellow Robe

Hu Mang naturally had no idea that someone had set their sights on his home.

After sorting out his thoughts, he left the Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower and registered at the front desk for a physical examination.

But he was pretty sly about it. He only had his lower Dantian examined, excluding even an acupoint examination, not to mention his middle and upper Dantians.

The results were unexpected, yet made sense.

Name: Hu Mang

Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Early Stage

Divine Sense strength: Foundation Establishment Late Stage (unconfirmed)

Lower Dantian Spiritual Qi storage capacity: 126,000 Spiritual Qi units (standard amount: 100,000) (standard level: Foundation Establishment Early Stage)

Spiritual Qi output from the four limbs: 2,000 Spiritual Qi/second (standard output: 1,000 Spiritual Qi/second)

Peak output from the four limbs: 3,000 (standard output: 2,000)

Spiritual Qi absorption rate: 1,400 Spiritual Qi/second (standard absorption: 1,000)

Spiritual power circulation speed: one complete cycle per half hour (lower Dantian)

Maximum spell output: 25,000

Divine Sense coverage radius: 300 meters

"Your body's pretty damn tough. Did you have it modified in private?"

When he went to collect his results, he happened to see another bald powerhouse from the meridian internal medicine department, Doctor Zhou, who worked in the same department as Doctor Sun.

Doctor Zhou glanced at the sheet and said in astonishment,

"Divine Sense at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage? Is the detector malfunctioning?"

"Maybe," Hu Mang said vaguely.

"Let me take a look."

Hu Mang flicked his wrist, and the examination sheet slipped past the other man's hand and landed smoothly in his bag. He gave two awkward chuckles.

"Doctor Sun said I'm his exclusive patient now, and he's the only one who can see my physical examination records. Sorry, Doctor Zhou."

Doctor Zhou was taken aback, then realization dawned.

"So you're the 'Hidden Claw Acupoint' guy? I was wondering why old Sun was so enthusiastic. He called to bother me first thing this morning and insisted I get you the key. I thought you were a relative of his, but it turns out you're the second author on his paper. That brat really stepped in dog shit. He got a paper into a good journal, so he won't have to worry about that stuff for years."

"Why didn't you just come to me in the first place? How did you end up letting that brat get the advantage? My bedside manner is much better than his," Doctor Zhou complained.

"Then keep working hard. Once you become a specialist, pull some strings for me and I'll book a specialist appointment with you," Hu Mang joked.

"Hey, kid, I'm still a hundred and eight thousand miles from becoming a specialist, but old Sun's a lot closer now."

Seeing that he couldn't look at the records, Doctor Zhou dropped the matter. After all, they'd kept things well under wraps; no one else had found out until the journal was published. Looking at this "rare specimen's records" now would bring him nothing but heartache and regret.

So he waved and prepared to go back to work.

But he soon thought of something else and turned around. "You've recovered your Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Aside from still being in the Qi Refining Realm, all of Hu Mang's examination results met the standards for the Foundation Establishment Realm.

"Then you need to register again. After all, you recovered your 'Foundation Establishment cultivation' at our Hundred Herbs Spirit Hall. You'll also have to take a written exam."

"What exam?" Hu Mang was taken aback.

"An exam. You didn't think your Foundation Establishment qualification certificate would just issue itself once your cultivation reached the right level, did you? How could it be issued without an exam?"

"You need an exam for Foundation Establishment?" Hu Mang asked, puzzled. "Why wasn't there one before?"

"How long ago was that 'before' of yours? It's simple. They just test you on Heavenly Gate history, cultivation basics and things like that. It's just a formality. Go straight to the front desk and find a medical attendant. She'll arrange an exam time for you."

With that, Doctor Hu waved and went straight back to work.

"Foundation Establishment... qualification certificate."

Hu Mang muttered to himself.

"You need a qualification certificate for Foundation Establishment? Unbelievable!"

With no other choice, Hu Mang went back to line up at the hospital counter. While he was at it, he photographed his records and sent them to Doctor Sun.

As for physical experiments and the like...

You've got to be kidding. My body's all better now, so what use are you to me? I charge a lot for selling my flesh, all right?

"Huh? You didn't have a Foundation Establishment qualification certificate before? Never got one?"

The medical attendant at the computer across the counter spoke without looking up.

"No, but I have a civil engineering practitioner's certificate and a first-class spiritual construction engineer's certificate."

"You've never taken the exam before?"

The medical attendant looked up, took in his smooth, fair skin and his already decent-looking features, and paused.

"When did you reach Foundation Establishment?"

"In my freshman year, I think. It's been almost ten years now. I only came back from overseas a dozen or so days ago," Hu Mang answered honestly.

"Oh, then you wouldn't have one. The system only went online five years ago, but everyone has to get one from now on. Whatever job you take, whichever sect you go on duty at, you need this thing."

After checking his looks, the medical attendant's attitude improved considerably.

"Oh, I see."

"And you recultivated too. Does that make this a first registration or a second one? Sister Qian-"

The medical attendant soon summoned an older, middle-aged medical attendant. After the two of them busied themselves for a while, they completed the registration.

"I've booked your exam. Just go there tomorrow. It won't be too difficult. It's just that cases like yours, where someone recultivated, are very rare, so we can't arrange for you to take the written exam with cultivators your own age. Anyway, you'll see when you get there."

Hu Mang was taken aback. After noting down the time and place of tomorrow's exam, he nodded and left.

He wanted to ask a couple more questions, but his Spirit Pivot No. 1 rang.

"...Do you even consider me your brother? You've been back this long and you haven't even contacted me. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to ascend to heaven?! Do you know how much I've missed you these past few days, second brother~?"

"...Don't be so sappy. You'll make me puke." Hu Mang was speechless for a moment, then added,

"Where are you now? On duty at some private sect in Demon Metropolis?"

"No, second brother. I went back to my hometown, Great Prosperity City, to deliver takeout."

"?"

"When I was little, a fortune-teller said I was destined to be draped in a yellow robe, with the bearing of the supreme ruler of the nine and five. That fortune-teller was fucking spot-on. Sure enough, I'm draped in yellow and working nine to five, delivering takeout from nine in the morning to five in the evening."

"...I think I've heard you can get more orders delivering at night. Why don't you earn a little more?"

"At night? I ran into a ghost delivering in broad daylight, and you want me to go at night? Second brother, are you trying to get me killed?"

Chen Xiaosan changed the subject.

"Second brother, what are you planning to do now that you're back? Going back to hauling bricks at a construction site?"

"No plans for that at the moment. I reckon I'll be staying at home for a while."

"One of us delivers takeout, another's a shut-in, and I hear old fifth's having a bit of trouble hanging on too. He's getting ready to grab his bucket and run."

Chen Xiaosan sighed.

"I always thought the Immortal Ladder Project went up, but I overlooked one thing: you can fucking climb down a ladder too!"

"..."

Hu Mang was amused. His mouth twitched into a grin several times before he managed to squeeze out two words.

"Good point!"

"But our Boss Gu must be doing great. Back then, he was the badass who suppressed Pine Mountain's nineteen rebel forces with a single sword. He was ridiculously fierce."

"That's true."

Hu Mang nodded.

Back then, when the geniuses selected from all over the country had gathered to compete for places in the Immortal Ladder Project, none of them had been willing to admit anyone else was better.

Their dorm had been especially hardheaded: the four heavenly kings of biology, chemistry, environmental science and materials science, plus Hu Mang, the Hercules of civil engineering.

Without a fight, there was no settling who ranked above whom.

Their rankings from first to fifth had nothing to do with age or grades; they were purely a ranking of combat strength.

And if he, Hu Mang, had had to settle for second place, one could imagine how strong the one in first place had been.

During the seven days and seven nights they had blockaded Pine Mountain Academy, he and Boss Gu had been the main fighters.

With aptitude that started at innate level and terrifying swordsmanship to boot, he was the reason Hu Mang believed the "Xie Xianyu" Mama Hu spoke of was so formidable: he had truly seen Heavenly Gate's version of "Xie Xianyu."

But his surname wasn't Xie, it was Gu. He was Gu Yunshu, respectfully known as the Sword God during his time at Pine Mountain Academy.

"Remember to get online tonight. Our 'Heavenly Court Delegation' hasn't chatted in ages."

The four heavenly kings, plus the Giant Spirit God—that was about the level of force the Heavenly Court usually sent out on an armed suppression mission.

After hanging up, Hu Mang returned to the Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower. After all, with Doctor Sun not back yet, he had such an excellent cultivation environment all to himself.

He also tried cultivating the methods from the Azure Mysterious Realm, such as the Profound Yin Body Refining Technique, which he had already mastered to a certain degree.

Hu Mang soon reached a conclusion.

Cultivating the Profound Yin Body Refining Technique and gathering Profound Yin Black Sha on Earth Star was a hundred times harder than in the Azure Mysterious Realm.

And that was in a "high-grade Spiritual Qi environment."

If he tried it in his own cultivation room, he might not even be able to gather any Profound Yin Black Sha.

Hu Mang discovered that his one-track mind was blocked at both ends.

The ancient methods of the five dynasties were difficult to cultivate because Spiritual Qi was too thin.

But the ancient methods of the Azure Mysterious Realm were difficult to cultivate because their requirements for the Spiritual Qi environment were too high.

"My bargain father probably hasn't replied all this time for the same reason."

Hu Mang muttered to himself.

He had been busy with quite a few things that morning, making more than a dozen phone calls alone. So after grabbing a bowl of noodles outside, he went home, climbed into bed and slept soundly. He slept straight through to after six, with the setting sun outside his window.

"Holy crap, how am I sleeping so much now? Back in Demon-Subduing City, I might not have rested this long in an entire day. Is this revenge sleep?"

Hu Mang rubbed his forehead and drained the water on his bedside table in one gulp.

Once his mind had cleared a little, he began going over what he still hadn't done.

"I don't think I've bought those things yet!"

Hu Mang quickly thought of something. He pulled out his Spirit Pivot No. 1, searched a shopping site and ordered an industrial-grade Divine Sense detector, an industrial-grade Law Power detector and an industrial-grade Spiritual Qi detector—he didn't know which battle had affected his previous one, but it had stopped working properly.

He also ordered a household Foundation Establishment device.

He had graduated from the academy almost five years ago. He couldn't keep freeloading off its free Foundation Establishment devices.

After buying everything, Hu Mang casually opened a takeout app, intending to order something to eat-

"Your balance is insufficient."

Fuck, he was out of money!