From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 38 Martial Selection Division

As they approached the border of Zhenbeicheng, they finally encountered living people on the road.

First came several messengers on fast horses, carrying military command tubes on their backs, galloping past on the official road.

Then came the mule carts carrying grain, lined up in a long row.

The border soldiers escorting the wagon were all covered in dust and dirt, and the holes in their armor hadn't been patched.

Walk another ten miles or so.

The city walls of Zhenbei City rise above the horizon.

The city wall was indeed high, even higher than the Qingzhou city wall. The surface of the wall was pitted and uneven, with marks from stones being thrown everywhere.

The wall was covered with rusty barbed wire, some with dried bits of meat still hanging from them.

The water in the moat was brown, and a layer of black ash floated on the surface.

A long queue formed at the city gate, with several checkpoints blocking the road.

The soldiers guarding the city examined each person's travel permit one by one, and even pried open the soles of their shoes to check for any hidden compartments.

Lin Yan and Ye Qingxue stood in line for half an hour before it was their turn.

"Road permit".

Lin Yan handed over the fake road sign.

The city guards rummaged through the bundle, then stared at him for a couple more times before their gaze fell on the hilt of the barbarian sword peeking out from the bundle on Lin Yan's back.

"Where did this savage sword come from?"

"Found it at Qipanling."

The officers glanced at Lin Yan again, shoved the pass back to him, and gestured with their chins to let him pass.

The two entered the city gate and were greeted by a straight street wide enough for four carriages to run side by side. The street was lined with shops made of earth and stone, with crossbows mounted on the rooftops and sandbags and barricades piled up at the corners.

The pedestrians on the street were hurrying by, mostly soldiers in uniform, but also some civilians and martial artists.

Ye Qingxue led Lin Yan into a side alley, and at the end there was an old door with all the paint peeling off.

"The military government office is on the back street. We'll go there tomorrow morning."

She pushed open the door, revealing a small courtyard with three rooms and some medicinal herbs drying in the yard.

"This is where my sect is staying. You can rest here for the night, and I'll take you there tomorrow morning."

The next morning, the two arrived at the military government office.

The military government office was not a single office, but a large compound enclosed by high walls. The walls were high and thick, with arrow towers at all four corners, and two rows of fully armed border soldiers stood at the entrance.

Ye Qingxue walked to the gate and took out a token from her pocket.

The gatekeeper took it, glanced at it, and then slapped his knees together, exclaiming, "Captain Ye!"

"Open the door."

The heavy iron gate was pushed open by the two doors.

Lin Yan followed her through three security gates and walked for a while before stopping in front of a door with an old plaque that read "Military Selection Division".

"arrive."

Ye Qingxue pushed open the creaking wooden door, revealing a large hall about twenty paces square inside the Martial Selection Office.

The plaque with the four characters "武备于国" (military preparedness for the country) hangs in the center.

Beneath the plaque was a stone table about half a person's height, behind which sat a person.

The man was wearing a faded gray-blue official robe, with a thin, long face, almost no flesh on his skin, and eyes so deep they could hold a copper coin. He was Gao Wenjing, the chief clerk of the Military Selection Department.

Seven or eight candidates stood in front of the desk, all dressed in short-sleeved shirts with their backs ramrod straight.

These candidates were all from respectable martial arts schools or retired military personnel and were law-abiding citizens.

Lin Yan walked in, and the examinees turned their heads to look at him. First, they glanced at the hundred-refined steel knife at his waist, then at his coarse cloth short jacket, and finally their eyes settled on the old scars exposed on his collar.

Someone snorted.

Lin Yan ignored them.

"Transfer of residence?"

Gao Wenjing flipped through the fish-scale book in his hand without looking up.

Lin Yan took out his travel permit and household registration document from his pocket and handed them over, "Black Wind Ridge, Lin Yan, Bone Collector".

Gao Wenjing put down his pen and glanced at him.

His gaze was like that of someone looking at pork on a chopping board, looking from face to toe and back again. Then he took the two documents, opened them, and compared them page by page with the fish-scale register.

"Lin Yan..." He frowned as he read, "The stamp on your travel permit is wrong. The household registration office's seal was changed last month. This is still the old one."

Lin Yan's heart tightened, but he showed no fear on his face and said, "I didn't know the official seal had been changed. This travel permit was indeed issued by the Household Registration Office."

Gao Wenjing snorted and tossed the travel permit back:

"If you flaunt Lao Yin's travel permit again, you will be punished for forging an official seal."

He snapped the fish-scale register shut, placing it along with Lin Yan's lowly status document on the corner of the table, then leaned back in his chair.

The law-abiding examinees exchanged glances, their lips curling into slight smiles.

"First-grade Body Tempering Realm".

Gao Wenjing tapped the inkstone with his pen. "Tell me, who your teacher is."

"I have no formal teacher; I've just sparred a few times with some friends."

"A friendly spar?"

Gao Wenjing's lips curled down as if he'd swallowed a fly. "So what are you testing today? Knife skills? Hand-to-hand combat? Or—the skill of chopping vegetables?"

A young man in a gray-blue short-sleeved shirt glanced sideways at Lin Yan and whispered to the person next to him, "A nobody dares to come to the Martial Selection Division? Doesn't he know this is for respectable people?"

The man next to him replied, "They finally managed to save up two taels of silver hoping to turn their lives around. They should be allowed to spend it, shouldn't they?"

Several candidates chuckled in hushed tones.

Gao Wenjing glanced at Lin Yan's expression and slowly wrote a few strokes on the booklet.

He put down his pen. "Go stand over there and take the basic test first."

First stage: Bone examination

Lin Yan stood on the polished bluestone slab in the center of the hall. A burly examiner walked up to him. This man was half a head taller than the average person, and his hands were wide and thick.

The examiner paced around Lin Yan, then reached out and grabbed his right arm, squeezing it inwards. He ran his fingers down from the shoulder to the wrist, then moved on to the other arm, counting off as he went.

"Broad shoulders and long arms, not bad."

After touching Lin Yan's arm, the examiner squatted down and pressed Lin Yan's knee, touching from the top of his thigh all the way to his ankle.

When the examiner touched the left calf, his hand stopped.

"These legs are a bit short." The examiner pointed to the middle of Lin Yan's shinbone. "An old injury, a fracture that wasn't set properly and healed on its own."

Kao Wen-ching put down his pen. "Will it affect my ability to exert force?"

The examiner pressed down again, pinching Lin Yan's ankle and making him lift his leg, bend his knee, and push off the ground, repeating this several times.

"Your strength is fine, but this leg is less than an inch shorter than your right." The examiner stood up. "I'm afraid that if you're running a long distance, it might cause problems over time."

Gao Wenjing wrote a line in the booklet, paused, and then added two more words: "Useful".

The examiner continued to touch her lower body, and suddenly made an "hmm" sound.

"What's wrong?"

The examiner didn't answer, but touched Lin Yan's right arm again, from the shoulder all the way to the fingertips, and suddenly stood up and slapped Lin Yan on the lower back.

The slap landed with a muffled thud. Lin Yan felt a force penetrate his flesh and strike his lumbar spine. The stone slab beneath his feet trembled slightly, but he remained completely still.

The examiner narrowed his eyes slightly. "How did this kid's bones get so tough? The density is much higher than that of an ordinary first-grade martial artist. A palm strike to him feels like striking a block of iron."

He stepped back and exchanged a glance with Gao Wenjing, who then wrote a few more words on the booklet without any expression.