[Authority Level: Advanced Player] [Physical Fitness: 8221 (397)] [Skills: Talent Sequence 272: Super Memory (B-level), Basic Firearms Mastery (Soul Part), Talent Sequence 144: Miracle Scholar (B-level, not usable)] [Mechanical Modification: None] [Martial Arts: Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation (B-level)] [Character Skills: Talent Sequence 96: Judge (C-level)] The promotion in Martial Arts had no longer been a ’smooth’ gradual increase as before, but there had been a ’leap’ in physical fitness to some extent. Before his promotion in Martial Arts, his original physical fitness was only over 6000, but after, it had surged to over 8000, an increase of nearly 2000, almost matching the physical fitness increase of a normal non-combat B-level Transcendent during their promotion. However, this ’leap’ in physical fitness in Martial Arts was not like the power brought by Secret Medicine in Talent Sequences, merging with the body. Instead, after promotion, the whole body was in an abnormally ’thirsty’ state and could rapidly absorb ’energy’ from the surrounding environment, transforming it into his own strength. In fact, due to the energy exhaustion and scarcity in the Main World, even though He Ao had broken through to B-level in Martial Arts, he theoretically should not have been able to absorb much energy and was always in a ’hungry’ state, but he just happened to have a Blood-Moistening Jade Pendant that could supply energy. After consuming more than a tenth of the energy from the jade pendant, he ’satiated’ his body and completely completed his martial arts promotion, increasing nearly 2000 in physical fitness. Of course, after entering B-level in Martial Arts, the bigger ’change’ was not in physical fitness. He Ao raised his hand, and at his fingertips, an invisible force slowly gathered and then detached from his fingers, hovering in mid-air. After the breakthrough in Martial Arts, Divine Sense could leave the body. Previously, He Ao needed to touch with his hands to penetrate his Divine Sense into other people or objects. Now, he could remotely insert his Divine Sense into objects and lives to examine the energy structure inside them. He Ao could even remotely control weapons with his Divine Sense, truly achieving ’object manipulation,’ allowing the weapons to move with his thoughts. The Martial Arts Elder he had encountered in the Relic of the Bygone Days had controlled weapons remotely . He Ao watched the Divine Sense in the air, touched it again with his hand, and retracted it back into his body. However, whether it was remote Divine Sense penetration or Divine Sense object manipulation, the energy consume was particularly high, increasing exponentially with the level of the object and the distance, nearly doubling and increasing tenfold. Yet the difficulty of Divine Sense leaving the body seemed to also be region-dependent, for instance, the energy consumed in the Main World for Divine Sense leaving the body seemed to be more than half less than in the Copy World. Moreover, right after his recent promotion, he seemed to have temporarily gained a sort of ’full map view,’ where his Divine Sense could cross thousands of miles nearly without loss, as if merging with the entire heaven and earth, with the changing seas and mulberry fields entering his sight. It was during that time, using a leaf, he had incidentally helped Zhang Ansha deal with a C-level bandit. However, that experience had been rather brief, lasting only a moment, and after the energy in his body stabilized, the connection with heaven and earth was completely severed. Although in theory he could still achieve that extent, the consume of Divine Sense would be somewhat astonishing, at least the thirty-some channels of Divine Sense refined after his current promotion couldn’t sustain it. He Ao’s gaze fell on the ’Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation’ on his personal attribute panel. Both C-level and B-level in Martial Arts were called Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation; C-level began to have Divine Sense, B-level started with Divine Sense being able to leave the body. What then, about A-level? After Qi Refinement and Spirit Transformation, what is it? If Qi is ’energy,’ a synonym for the energy within the body and the energy of heaven and earth, then what about ’Spirit’? Does Spirit truly just refer to ’Divine Sense’? He Ao drew back from his complicated thoughts and glanced at the bottom-most part of his personal attribute panel. Lin En’s physical fitness was only a little over 300, which even among C-levels seemed a bit too weak. Lin En was too old when he was promoted, and during the process, his body encountered errors, leaving behind hidden injuries, which would not be healed in the ’first night treatment.’ However, from what He Ao remembered, this was the situation for the vast majority of Transcendents—good physical condition and strong will exceeding the requirements of the perfect promotion ritual were truly rare in this world. He Ao raised his head, looking at the raindrops fluttering past the window. The night truly fell silent. At that moment, the wristband placed on the bedside table gently vibrated. He Ao reached out, picked up the wristband, and looked at the message on it. It was information just sent to him by his chief of staff, including inquiries about his health condition from various "sectors" of Yilan City. He Ao paid special attention to the situation within the City Cabinet. The Yilan City Cabinet had a total of 21 departments, among which 7 were the most important and held the most power, namely Finance, City Defense, Justice, Internal Affairs, Commerce and Enterprises, Industry and Mining, Housing and Urban Construction. The Federation didn’t have agriculture but only a "food industry," so most city agriculture was managed by the industrial departments. Among these seven main departments, City Defense was led by the commanders of the South and North Cities as deputy ministers, appointed by the Mayor, and the current Minister of City Defense was North City Commander Scott. Finance, Justice, Internal Affairs, and Commerce, and Enterprises were held by Lin En’s party loyalists, while Industry and Mining and Housing and Urban Construction were divided among other allies. Of course, there were other departments, such as the Ministry of Women, Children, and Health that Lin En had once headed. These departments didn’t hold as much power as the first seven, but they were still members of the Cabinet. At this moment, the majority of the Cabinet members had called to inquire about He Ao’s condition, and a few who were better informed had already fled in hovercrafts upon receiving the news of the assassination through the Mayor’s Guard before He Ao returned to the Mayor’s Mansion. They probably hadn’t yet received the news of He Ao’s safe return, so they hadn’t called. They might even still be up in the sky. [Has the Minister of Internal Affairs fled?] As He Ao looked through the data, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he sent a message to his chief of staff. The chief of staff quickly replied, [he got the news of your assassination and the possible coup by General Corvey from the Mayor’s Guard, and fled with his family in a private hovercraft overnight. It seems he was prepared, as he was the fastest to flee among all the Cabinet ministers.] Seeing this response, He Ao fell silent for a moment. This Minister of Internal Affairs was the most eloquent speaker among Lin En’s subordinates and was the one referred to by General Corvey of South City, always out giving speeches, claiming to kick these ’conservatives’ out of the City Defense Army. Without his fueling the fire, the internal dissent toward Lin En in South City wouldn’t be so significant. Lin En had reminded him several times to be cautious with his words, yet he, in turn, challenged Lin En, questioning whether he had forgotten the ideals of reform, or if he had compromised with the conservatives. He even mocked Lin En for being weak and swore to live and die with the reform cause. After a brief silence, He Ao replied, [Prepare an order for the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs to act as the Minister of Internal Affairs.] The chief of staff quickly responded. Apart from the Minister of Internal Affairs, three other ministers from the remaining twenty departments had fled. Fortunately, in the seven main departments, no one else had fled. These ministers presumably fled mainly due to the potential incoming ’coup.’ Regardless of whether they genuinely wished for ’Lin En’ to live or die, those Cabinet ministers who remained all called to offer their greetings. North City Commander Scott even specifically inquired whether additional protection forces were needed. He Ao instructed his chief of staff to reply no protection was needed, then exited the chat interface. He opened the messaging interface, where all were greetings to the ’Mayor,’ mostly from ’friends’ located in Yilan City, some with notes, some without, not knowing from where they had obtained Lin En’s private number. Regardless of whether a note was included, most messages were formatted as letters, with the sender’s name signed at the end, allowing He Ao to know who had sent these messages. He Ao quickly scanned these messages when, accompanied by a soft sound, a new message arrived on his wristband. The message didn’t come from any unfamiliar contact but from a not-so-close ’friend,’ the Mayor of Dawn City, Christos. Lin En and Christos had a history of acquaintance; just recently, Lin En had visited Dawn City and, through this connection, had even gotten Christos to help him contact the head office of the Federation Tax Bureau. Currently, both were on the same side and considered each other ’friends,’ although they rarely spoke, merely exchanging words occasionally. Now, a message that Christos had sent was brief, containing just a simple line, "The mercenary corps of the Yiwis Space System just passed through the wilderness near Dawn City and headed southwest." Yilan City was located southwest of Dawn City, the largest city to its south. He Ao paused for a moment before quickly replying with a message, "Received, thanks." It seemed that the person on the other side hadn’t expected He Ao to be online at this time and quickly replied, "Be careful." Christos’s intelligence system was quite robust; he must have already received the news of Lin En’s assassination. He Ao replied, took a deep breath, put down the hand ring he had been holding, and once again turned to look at the raindrops outside the window. The rain under the night sky continued to fall. The pitter-patter sound of rain drummed against the tin canopy of the balcony as a young woman, wrapped in her thin quilt, curled up in the corner of the bed, fiddling with her hand ring, its faint glow illuminating her fair cheeks. Quiet breathing sounds came from beside her. It was a lovely young woman with bronzed short hair and cheeky cheeks who had kicked away her thin quilt. The chest hidden beneath a thin nightgown rose and fell slowly with her breath. The woman playing with the hand ring glanced at her roommate’s sleeping posture, then lifted her head to look at the old, somewhat leaky balcony, reached out her hand, lifted the kicked-away quilt, and covered her roommate with it. The lovely girl smacked her lips, seemingly chewing on soft cake in her dream. She opened her bleary eyes, looked vaguely at the young woman in the darkness, and asked in a half-asleep, half-awake voice, "Ini, you’re still up so late?" "Can’t sleep, still have some things to do," Ini lay in bed, smiled, "Liz, you go ahead and sleep." "Oh, get some rest soon." Liz reached out, tucked the quilt under her armpit, turned over, back facing Ini, and fell asleep again. Ini put down the hand ring, lifted her head, and stared at the slightly moldy ceiling wallpaper, slightly lost in thought. The rain drizzled, echoing through her mind. Internship was about to end, and if she couldn’t go permanent, where would she find work? Just finding this job, which paid over a hundred per week, had cost her a great deal of effort. If she lost this job, what about the rent, what about meals? Would she have to max out her credit card again? She already owed so much on credit cards; if she maxed them out again and couldn’t pay them back, she’d have to use Liz’s card machine to pay off debts. Ask for money from home? But her parents were also out of money, her grandfather’s pension wasn’t much, her grandmother had no pension, and her grandparents were also getting on in years. Maybe set up a tent outside? But big companies required a fixed address; they wouldn’t hire a homeless vagrant. Without a permanent address, finding work would be even harder. And living on the street might even attract gang members’ harassment, not finding a clean water source could lead to illness, and going to the hospital would make it further unaffordable. Where could she find some big news? Countless thoughts circled in her mind; finally, she sighed heavily, brushing aside the incessant influx of messages, and lifted the hand ring once more. The entertainment gossip videos on the hand ring weren’t as engaging as before. She exited the video app, sighing lightly at the array of entertainment apps. Subconsciously, she reached out, opening the forum software she frequently visited. Instantly, a string of message notifications popped up on her hand ring. She widened her eyes slightly, a bit bewildered as she opened the message notification backend. ’7453’ people liked your post, you have ’176’ comments. She opened the notification interface, scrolled down to the very bottom, starting from the first reply that filled her screen, "Holy shit, so dapper, you took an incredible photo, OP." "That old man exudes a strong man’s aura." "What’s with that big bunch of buildings? Some travel spot?" "Is that the White Jasmine Palace of Yilan City’s Mayor’s Mansion? Who’s that old man, the Mayor of Yilan City?" "No, why does your city’s mayor look different from ours???" "Such a dapper old man, I love it!!!" "OP, your photo skills are way better than others, is this a raw output or edited?" Seeing this comment, Ini immediately opened the reply, quickly typing, ’Raw output straight from the camera.’ Then she continued scrolling down. "I want to ask about the camera model." "I want to ask the brand of the old man’s suit." "I want to know if the old man has a girlfriend." "I want to know if the old man has a boyfriend." She replied to the one asking about the camera model and continued scrolling up; after reaching the most recent few messages, one comment caught her eye. It was from a forum user with a default gray avatar and gibberish letters as a nickname, ’I’ve just seen those mechas; so those belong to the mayor.’ Ini quickly clicked on this message, which was a reply to the ’Mayor of Yilan City’s post,’ just replied not long ago, with no one else having responded to it yet. In that instant, Ini clicked onto the user’s avatar, initiating a private chat, ’Hello, may I ask where did you see the mayor’s mechas?’ After a brief wait, the other side replied, ’In the Nevus District, but there also seemed to be a plane painted almost like a police car, is there something?’ Police Hover Warplane The name flashed through Ini’s mind; the mayor had descended from that warplane. She bolted up from the bed, getting up while replying, ’I’m a journalist, may I interview you?’ ’Journalist? Will it be on TV?’ The other side sent back a puzzled inquiry. ’Not TV, a magazine, but similar.’ Ini carefully got up from the bed, slipping into her coat. The other side hesitated for a moment, then sent a message, ’Then come over, here at Yellow Leaf Pine Street,’