When Minghe learned that Wuchang had once lost his memory, he put away his mocking expression and said seriously, "I imagine you're clear enough on how martial artists are graded — starting at first-dan martial artist and going all the way up to seventh-dan, each dan above the last. Legend has it that above the peak there are even eighth- and ninth-dan masters, but no one has ever laid eyes on one."
"As for these Outliers we keep talking about — that's actually not a term from the martial artist system at all. It belongs to the mage system..."
In Minghe's telling, the power system of this future universe finally showed its true face. So it turned out that when humanity discovered primal energy and began to study it, the door to the Great Cosmos Era had already opened.
The importance of primal energy was not only reflected in the use of folded-space engines, nor limited to primal minerals like rainbow crystal, liquid mithril, and folded obsidian. In truth, primal energy was bound up with every single person.
The simplest proof: this universe does have the profession of mage, and the basis of a mage's casting is primal energy — what they call mana.
"The mage ranking system starts with Outlier: Outlier, Battlefield Cheat, Caster, Mentor, Archmage, Star. From low to high, clear and precise. As for the realms above Caster, there's no need for you to know about those now — they're far too distant. Right now I'll mainly explain Outliers and Battlefield Cheats to you."
"An Outlier, as the name says, is someone who stands out sharply from ordinary people. They can sense the existence of primal energy and use it by accident — like that punch you threw just now. You probably don't even know what happened, but there was fire-element power clinging to that fist of yours. Those flames on my shoulder came from exactly that."
"Outliers can't cast on their own. They can only draw on a small amount of elemental power in a fight — a wisp of fiery vortex might swirl out as they punch, a trace of freezing poison mist might cling to a blade. Low-level Outliers can't control elemental power at all, but high-level Outliers can already use it with ease inside their moves."
Here Minghe paused. "You sensed fire element without meaning to and used that power. If you can find a good master, there's a chance you'll learn the trick of wielding it flexibly and become a high-level Outlier. Don't look at me. I may be a high-level Outlier, but I have no idea how to teach you."
"As for Battlefield Cheats! The difference between them and Outliers is that they can already cast on their own, instead of having to fuse spell and martial art together the way Outliers do. These people generally know a few simple energy-explosion spells — Fireball, Flame Burst, Lightning Bolt, and so on. But remember, for a Battlefield Cheat, casting is only a supplement to the martial arts. What actually wins their fights is still their own fighting skill."
Minghe really was a good teacher. From his mouth the rankings of martial artist and mage came apart as cleanly as a butcher disjointing an ox; a course that took most people three days he laid out clearly in a little over an hour. And Wuchang gained one important piece of intelligence: on Huang'e, the strongest were martial artists, and as for Outliers, there was not a single one.
After an hour or so of playing teacher, Minghe checked his watch and stood. "I have to go. I've been delayed far too long. One last line, free of charge: for the next two months, try not to go back to Huang'e City. Don't ask me why." With that, Minghe turned and left.
"When will we see each other again?" Wuchang stood up and called after him.
"No rush. I'll come find you — after all, I still owe you money, don't I?" Minghe walked away without looking back.
Watching Minghe's departing back, Wuchang felt a rush of mixed emotions, because he had seen so many familiar things in the man, and scene after scene of his own former life as a bandit came surging back into his mind.
"What kind of man is Dao Zhi of the Fallen Star, really? A fellow who dares take the name of the bandits' own ancestor, and who can unify every pirate in the universe and lay down laws for them — a man like that, I have to meet him someday."
Everyone heard Wuchang talking to himself, but they all took it as a joke. Dao Zhi was already a figure of legend; given his influence across the universe, the emperor of the Horsehead Star Ring himself wasn't fit to carry his shoes. And here was Wuchang, a lowly smuggled miner, wanting to meet the legendary Dao Zhi? Pure fantasy.
"Keep your feet on the ground and don't reach too high. Our heads are still hanging from our belts right now, so don't go brooding over useless nonsense like that." Lane was putting on his master act again.
Wild Bull, whose spirits were much better now, came over too, gazing at Wuchang with a face full of worship. "Boss, you're my idol. So what do we do now? You give the word."
Clearly Wuchang's identity as an Outlier had cowed everyone present; control of the whole squad had now passed entirely into his hands, and even Boss Pan had not one word of complaint.
Wuchang thought it over carefully. "First we heal up. Three days from now, I have a plan..."
Things had been a little quiet lately in Coyote Seven's A332 mining district. Large numbers of miners had been forced down the shafts by Seven, and they ate, drank, and relieved themselves all inside the mine tunnels. The miners were seething, but no one dared resist — the bodies of miners shot three days ago were still hanging at the mine entrance, and the confinement bracelets on everyone's wrists still blinked in their steady rhythm.
Crystal mining was always a game of luck. The crystal lay buried in pitch-black volcanic rock, and nobody knew how far a seam ran. Even if they got lucky and found high-grade crystal, they still might not be able to cut it out — even Wuchang couldn't guarantee a hundred percent success, so these ordinary people had even less chance.
Seven full days passed, and the longest crystal Coyote Seven had to show was only four centimeters long. As for the low-grade one- and two-centimeter pieces, they had filled a whole crate with those.
"You pack of trash, you free-loading pigs! If they haven't dug anything out in another month, I'll stuff every last one of them down the mine shaft..."
These days all sorts of cursing drifted out of Coyote Seven's office. The rage in him made everyone's blood run cold; even Poison Wasp Adu, a born sadist, didn't dare come near him casually.
"Honey, stop yelling — I've got good news for you." Blood Rose came bursting into the room in her usual whirlwind way, cutting off Seven's cursing.
"What good news could you possibly have? At best you dug a few more gold coins out of that dump of Eileen's, right?"
"Oh, you're so annoying! Listen — the crystal you want is on Wuchang. I hear it's fifteen centimeters long."
"What!" Seven jumped right up. "What did you say? Fifteen centimeters? Where did you get that?"
Blood Rose offered it up as if presenting a treasure. "Who else but my good subordinate Sister Jing? She posed as that little dog A Yun's mother, and she pulled out plenty of good intel that way — even the safe in the wall cavity, the little dog was the one who told her..."
"Fuck, cut the crap. I'm asking about the crystal." Seven's nose was almost bent crooked with rage.
"I know, I know, don't rush me. Yesterday A Yun stole quite a few gold coins, and Sister Jing was in a good mood, so she gave A Yun a bit of a nicer face — she even cooked him a good meal..."
"Oh, for fuck's sake, I'm begging you, get to the point and cut the bullshit, will you?"
"Fine, fine, I'm getting there. Yesterday A Yun got all moved and started chatting with his fake mom, and he let slip that Wuchang has a fifteen-centimeter rainbow crystal on him, hidden in his miner's vest..."
"Adu... Adu... get your ass out here!" Seven left the nagging Blood Rose behind and set out south with his men.
Seven's reasoning was sound: the cannibal tribes in the south had already been swept clean by Ye Tian and his people, so now was the safest possible moment to go. If Wuchang was dead, that saved everyone the trouble; if he wasn't, Seven wouldn't mind a little hunting game. Still, Seven had a strong premonition — a man who could be called Ghost Wuchang was not going to be that easy to kill.
"Damn it, roll out my private land vehicle, fill the energy cells to the brim, and bring the man-portable radar..."
"You useless lot, don't just grab assault rifles — bring pistols and grenades too. Careful, Ghost Wuchang might get in close and brawl with you..."
"Adu, sort out the men guarding the mine. Once we leave, those miners absolutely cannot be allowed to slack off. If anyone makes trouble, kill a few of them..."
In the confusion, Seven scraped together a hundred-odd thugs on the spot, crammed them into more than thirty civilian land vehicles, and pushed south through the wind and snow toward the Pillar Forest. To be honest, Seven had his doubts about A Yun's information too, but there was no room for hesitation now — Mine Supervisor Roda was hounding him three times a day, until he was going out of his mind.
A Yun's tip was his last lifeline now; useful or not, he'd try it first.
Just as Seven and his men vanished into the black snow, in a dark corner of the mining district a small figure was peering this way and that — a closer look showed it was the little thief A Yun.
"Brother Wuchang, the place up ahead is the Ration Center where Blood Rose and her people are based. Are you really going in?" A Yun asked cautiously.
The man in the shadows was Wuchang. After three days of rest in the Pillar Forest, he had secretly slipped back into the abandoned mining district and, before doing anything else, made contact with A Yun. A sneak attack demanded accurate intelligence, and A Yun was a fine intelligence man.
Wuchang rubbed his head. "Don't worry. Seven has pulled his elite fighters out; I can handle the scraps he left behind. I can't kill Seven outright right now, but we can at least collect a little interest first."
A short while later, the airtight door of the A332 Ration Center opened, and in came a filthy big man wrapped in a cloak of the kind commonly seen on Huang'e to keep off the black snow, his whole face hidden inside it.
"What would you like to drink?" the kind-hearted waiter behind the bar asked. He did not recognize Wuchang's face — in fact, very few people were familiar with what Wuchang looked like. He had shown his face once at the B1314 mine pit, but the ones who saw it were a bunch of miners and a few thugs, and today all of those people were down in the pitch-black tunnels. In the entire Ration Center there was not one soul who knew Wuchang.
That was something to thank the little spy A Yun for. If the kid hadn't scouted the way ahead, Wuchang really wouldn't have dared swagger in here.
"Give me a beer," Wuchang said casually to the waiter. In no time he had downed half the glass, and then Wuchang suddenly asked the waiter in a very sleazy tone,
"Hey, buddy, are there any women here?" And he gave him a look that said you know what I mean.
The waiter had felt something was off about Wuchang from the start; after that line, he relaxed. So the fellow was just a lecher after all.
"Don't you worry, how could a Ration Center run by Blood Rose not have women? Wait here and I'll call one over for you." Before long the waiter came back leading a heavily made-up woman.
Wuchang was truly speechless. Once again he was disappointed in the standard of women on Huang'e. A pig-faced woman like that was probably good for nothing except warding off evil spirits.
But today Wuchang only wanted this woman as cover. As soon as he saw her coming, he switched to a lecherous face, went up, put an arm around her shoulders, and said.
"Not bad, she'll do. Open me a room in the back, the most comfortable one you've got." As he spoke, a gold coin leaped and danced into the waiter's palm.