Chapter 92: The Presence of the Magistrate’s Office

Two days later, Wei Cheng successfully advanced his Spirit Swallow profession to the sixth cycle, at a speed so outrageous it was almost criminal.

Naturally, the stock of osmanthus wine he had prepared was also exhausted without a trace.

He was very satisfied.

Even if this mixed-path sixth-cycle Spirit Swallow of his was far inferior to gifted talents like Qi Mei, and even not as good as a poor student sparrow like Xu Shan, it was more than enough for running away.

In the Mountain-Moving profession, who could run faster and more nimbly than him?

Anyone?

At this point, he had already begun to practice rapidly switching between two forms of internal energy in combat, searching for the critical point where the two could connect without a seam.

It was just a little difficult. No matter how hard he tried, after stopping one form of internal energy, he had to wait one second before he could switch to the other.

Fortunately, in most situations, that amount of time was enough.

Besides that, for the sake of maximum secrecy, Wei Cheng had specially commissioned a set of clothes and a mask. He would not need them in the real trial instance, but on Earth, they might come in handy.

And just as he was preparing to make a major breakthrough in comprehending the second level of the Spirit Swallow mental art,

Liu Sui successfully advanced to the sixth cycle of Violet Glow.

Then, on the very same day, Xu Shan successfully advanced to the seventh cycle of Spirit Swallow.

By then, the fighting strength of Wei Cheng’s little team had finally become passable.

Yes, merely passable. If thrown into the poisonous zone of the sixth pass, at best they could probably last until the fifth day.

Even among all the trialists, it was hard to say whether they could squeeze into the first tier.

And as soon as Xu Shan and Liu Sui finished cultivating, their phones began blowing up with calls and messages, their affairs so busy that even Wei Cheng was left speechless.

Of course, perhaps that was what normal looked like. He, a shut-in, had been back for several days, and apart from Xu Shan, only his cheap cousin Xu Wangwang had called him once.

As for his company, colleagues, classmates, and the like, it was as though they simply did not exist.

Wei Cheng did not care. Let them be busy; he stayed in the guest room and pondered the second level of the Spirit Swallow mental art.

This level was somewhat difficult to comprehend, after all, it was not his main profession, and he had not poured into it the enormous effort and time he had devoted to the Mountain-Moving mental art.

Fortunately, his spiritual power was strong enough, and he had at least grasped the basic Spirit Swallow visualization diagram. In the end, after spending an entire day, he finally managed, with some stumbling, to master the second level of the Spirit Swallow mental art.

And once he did, the difference was immediate. Wei Cheng could casually refine and elevate his Spirit Swallow internal energy, and the quality would rise by a full half. The sixth-cycle Spirit Swallow internal energy was ultimately refined down to only the equivalent of two cycles.

Even so, Wei Cheng felt that he was already not much worse than Xu Shan.

A pity, though: the external technique paired with the Spirit Swallow mental art, Cloud-Stepping Soar, he too had only obtained the second level of. Without that, he could not continue improving.

On the morning of the fifth day after his return, Wei Cheng finally stepped out of his room. Soon after, Liu Sui, Xu Shan, Cheng An, Yu Liang, and Mei Renli all came hurrying over, looking as though the world had already ended and Old Wei had finally emerged from seclusion to restore justice.

“What happened? You all look so worried. Don’t tell me the world really has descended into chaos?” Wei Cheng asked half-jokingly.

Liu Sui gave a wry smile. “Not quite chaos yet, but it probably won’t be long. Over the past two days, P City has had power outages seven or eight times on and off. It’s even affected ordinary people. Everyone’s inexplicably panicking, stockpiling supplies, and all kinds of rumors are flying around.”

“Of course, that doesn’t really affect much, because trialists already make up half the population. Everyone’s rolling up their sleeves, ready to make a big move.”

“Wait, half?”

Wei Cheng was startled. P City was not some top-tier metropolis, nor even a first-tier one, much less a provincial capital. It was barely second-tier, with a population of roughly five million. If half of them were trialists, that would be more than two million people.

No wonder this batch of newcomers was so fierce; even the proprietress of a restaurant could be a third-cycle Mountain-Mover.

“Old Wei, the authorities have now set up a civilian trialists’ association, something a bit like a bounty hunters’ or mercenaries’ organization. They’re requiring all trialists in P City to register. Of course, there aren’t many restrictions, and there certainly won’t be any persecution. The association has only three principles.”

“First: no interfering with ordinary people’s lives, no using force to oppress or threaten ordinary people.”

“Second: no fighting or killing among trialists.”

“Third: protect the peace and stability of P City. Zero tolerance for infiltrating demonic beings. Anyone who kills demonic beings or their dependents will receive substantial rewards.”

“Right now the authorities have opened more than a dozen registration websites, and all the apps we use every day can be used for registration. There are also more than a hundred offline registration points. In just three days, the number of registrants has already exceeded one million. Considering that there are still some trialists who won’t register, and excluding children under seventeen, saying ‘half’ is actually only a conservative estimate.”

“But according to the information I’ve obtained, among this more than one million trialists in P City, the number of veteran trialists from the previous round is less than one hundred thousand.”

“In other words, a very large proportion of the ordinary people who still qualify to enter the dream trial were eliminated in the first four passes.”

“To use an inappropriate analogy, the war potential of our P City really isn’t left with much. In the future there will indeed be new people entering the ranks of trialists, but that number will only keep shrinking.”

“So what you mean is, in the future we’ll be entering an era of city-state independence? Especially once we can bring cultivation supplies from the real trial instances back to Earth, that basically means a major transfer of the means of production.”

Wei Cheng was beginning to understand Xu Shan’s meaning.

But Liu Sui then said, “On Earth, at least in our country, entering an era of city-state independence may be difficult, and it isn’t all that important either. But Old Wei, have you considered this: as we gradually clear one pass after another in the future, and the degree of reality keeps accumulating, might we be able to establish a second homeland in those trial instances? In other words, when a pass ends, we could choose to return to Earth, or choose to stay there.”

“Once that becomes possible, what does city-state independence amount to? That would become a grand era of territorial expansion.”

“So?”

“In one word: talent. Trialist talent. We need to form a larger team, a larger trialist force, even a trialist legion.”

Hearing this, Wei Cheng looked at Liu Sui, then at Xu Shan. “So what exactly are you trying to say?”

“Er, haha, Old Wei, as expected, your eyes are as sharp as a torch. Here’s the thing: Zhou Wu took his core team, more than seventy people in all, to F City in the southwest province and secured a trialist legion slot. Meanwhile, our district still has more than three hundred veteran trialists. After passing the sixth trial, their strength has all improved tremendously. I think we can take over and bring them together under one banner.”

Liu Sui said excitedly.

“You’re sure you can unite them?” Wei Cheng gave Liu Sui a skeptical look. Even if you’re already a sixth-cycle Violet Glow practitioner and strong, that would still be hard, wouldn’t it?

“Of course I can’t. That’s why we were thinking we’d have Old Wei do it. With your prestige, Old Wei, plus your ninth-cycle Mountain-Moving strength, you could absolutely raise a hand and get a response from all directions.”

“Hold on, hold on. Isn’t there some misunderstanding here?”

Wei Cheng laughed. Liu Sui really had never been beaten down by society. The way he put it made it sound as though Wei Cheng were in the ancient town of Dazexiang, transformed into Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, ready to rise in revolt at any moment.

“Let me be clear: I’m not a ninth-cycle Mountain-Mover. I’ve been killing myself cultivating in seclusion these past few days, and I’ve only just broken through to the eighth cycle. Are you sure an eighth-cycle Mountain-Mover can unite that crowd?”

Wei Cheng bared his teeth, looking sincerely friendly and harmless.