Chapter 30: My Country I

Zhang Wei closed his eyes, casting his intent into the "Star Palace" within his brain; in the dark firmament, only a single star shone with brilliance.

The two characters for "Supernatural Ability" deeply attracted him; it seemed to be a transcendental dream that everyone once possessed, sprouting from childhood, reaching its peak in youth, and then slowly vanishing with the passage of time.

Now it seemed impossible for him to obtain the techniques taught in dreams, so the only way out was to walk the path described in the "Essentials of Celestial Phenomena"!

Zhang Wei opened the "Three Enclosures, Four Symbols, and Twenty-Eight Mansions" star chart in the book again, searching one by one among the vast, boundless stars for the one he had lit up.

His eyes shifted bit by bit across the star chart, then compared it to the pattern in his Star Palace; his eyes grew sore and strained, yet he dared not move even slightly, lest he forget where he had been looking.

Suddenly, his phone pinged, and a new message arrived on WeChat.

Zhang Wei dared not lose focus, his eyes remaining motionless; he stared for a full three hours like this, still without a solution, so he had to make a mark, get up to use the restroom, and incidentally open WeChat to take a look.

The person who had just sent the message seemed to be a recent addition; looking at the other party's profile picture, it appeared to be the Fatty from the group of seven that night.

"Hello classmate, thank you for stepping forward to save me and my little buddies that day. I'll come find you to thank you in person once my injuries heal! By the way, congratulations! Your Awakening had a very high starting point—the North Pole in the Ziwei Enclosure. I'm envious, jealous, and hateful."

Ziwei Enclosure? North Pole?

Zhang Wei couldn't spare the time to reply; he hurriedly found this text label in the star chart, and after comparing it with the "Star Palace" in his mind, he discovered that the star he had lit up was indeed the "Crown Prince" within the North Pole star vein.

This discovery made him feel terrible; I damn near stared my eyes out, and you're only telling me now...

Although he couldn't blame others for this, he was just so, so annoyed, so he replied: "Please state the factors that make you envious, jealous, and hateful, respectively."

The Fatty on the other end received the message and couldn't help but be dumbfounded: What the hell is this supposed to mean? Trying to have your cake and eat it too, are you?

Absorbed Hong Jianjun's Resentment, +223.

For the sake of the life-saving grace, he still honestly replied: "It just means the starting point is very high. You received the book 'Essentials of Celestial Phenomena', right? Three Enclosures, Four Symbols, and Twenty-Eight Mansions—from the current stage, the difference isn't big, but cultivating downwards from the Three Enclosures is far easier than cultivating upwards from the Four Symbols and Twenty-Eight Mansions. There are some things that can't be explained clearly right now, and among the Three Enclosures, the Ziwei Enclosure has the highest status."

Ziwei Enclosure, the residence of the Celestial Emperor.

This sentence had an annotation in the "Essentials of Celestial Phenomena," holding a status just like the Forbidden City. And the stars within the Ziwei Enclosure were also named after the various people and objects in the Imperial Celestial Palace.

Regarding the fact that Fatty understood the position of his first star at a glance, Zhang Wei could only sigh that family education is truly important.

The Ziwei Enclosure is a vast star field, and the North Pole does not refer to a single star, but a star vein connected by five stars; these five stars are named respectively on the star chart: Crown Prince, Emperor, Prince, Harem, and Celestial Pivot.

Ignoring these names that seem a bit strange to modern people, just looking at the fact that every star in this star vein has an independent name shows that these five stars are also relatively rare in the entire Ziwei Enclosure.

Most stars in star veins do not have individual names; from this point, one can see the importance of the five North Pole stars in the minds of the ancients.

Since he had found the right position and decided to cultivate the "Essentials of Celestial Phenomena," the massive Resentment Value, slowly approaching 180,000, finally had a use! The "Crown Prince" star was already lit, so the next target was the "Emperor"!

Zhang Wei cast his intent onto a dim star to the right of the "Crown Prince," and 10,000 Resentment Value began to be consumed rapidly in a countdown fashion; slowly, a certain star from hundreds of millions of miles above his head gradually developed a strange sense of connection with him, a wonderful rhythm of resonance and symbiosis.

As the 10,000 Resentment was completely exhausted, the "Emperor" star in the Star Palace suddenly shone brightly!

In this instant, a vast torrent poured in from the Vertical Pupil between his brows and flowed from the Vertical Pupil into his whole body; his entire body seemed to be enduring waves of icy currents, leaving Zhang Wei half-comfortable and half-painful—the feeling was hard to describe in words.

Although the scene of Starlight descending did not appear again, the Vertical Pupil in the center of his forehead was circulating extraordinary brilliance, with black and white colors intertwining into a bottomless vortex, rapidly absorbing the great power of the stars.

After a full ten minutes, this vast torrent gradually became as thin as a thread, and finally disappeared completely.

If, during his initial Awakening, Zhang Wei mostly felt his own transformation and sublimation—like a fragile, cracked glass bottle being remodeled by the shrouded Starlight into something thick and sturdy—then after lighting the second star, the most obvious feeling was the enhancement of the power within his physical body.

It is no exaggeration to say that he felt the surging of Qi and blood within his body; the blood surging in every major blood vessel and his rhythmically beating heart became more powerful and vigorous. The operation and coordination between the major organs in his body allowed him to feel the silent operation inside his body for the first time, and he had a sense of being able to intervene and influence them at any time.

His slight nearsightedness vanished, his vision in the dark was significantly improved, and his brain was exceptionally clear, as if any difficult problem could be processed at high speed.

Not knowing how much time had passed, Zhang Wei, immersed in this strange experience, finally sobered up and turned his gaze toward the third star...

Time passed unconsciously; an hour later, the remaining three stars of the North Pole star vein—Prince, Harem, and Celestial Pivot—were lit up one by one. The moment the brilliant light of the fifth star shone, the sky bridge that had been built was rapidly connected; the force fields fluctuating between the five stars seemed to vibrate slightly, and the Star Power received by the Vertical Pupil suddenly produced a subtle resonance.

"Do you wish to consume Resentment Value to deduce a Supernatural Ability?"

Zhang Wei saw this prompt and realized that things were a bit different.

What happened to the Supernatural Ability appearing on its own? You should just show it to me; why are you eyeing my Resentment Value again?

After thinking about it, Zhang Wei felt it was better to choose to deduce, lest he end up with nothing for his efforts, and there was still plenty of Resentment Value left—enough to squander for a while.

After choosing to deduce, the Resentment Value plummeted at a speed invisible to the naked eye; in just half a minute, several thousand were gone.

Two minutes later, Zhang Wei's expression began to turn ugly.

Five minutes later, Zhang Wei's expression began to turn green.

Is this robbery? Is this throwing money into the water? Neither—this is literally burning down the vault!!

180,000 Resentment used 50,000 to light five stars, and another 50,000 to deduce the Supernatural Ability; more than half of his income had shrunk just like that.

But Zhang Wei had no time to feel the heartache; a second ago he was sitting perfectly fine in his own bedroom, but now he appeared in a chaotic void, with gray, misty fog above, below, and all around, and his line of sight could only reach about ten square meters...

At the same time, a segment of indescribable law deduction entered his mind, allowing him to quickly understand what was going on.