I Cultivate in a Government Office

There was another reason the Special Security Bureau had zeroed in on the tailor shop: they had a lead even before arriving in the Lingshan New District.

It all started ten days ago. An old subordinate of the Special Security Bureau’s deputy director—a retired police captain—reported that his son, Zhuang Jian, had been acting strangely. He suspected his son might be in contact with outside Cultivators through certain channels.

This same Zhuang Jian was the Deputy Director of the Lingshan New District’s Civil Affairs Bureau. After monitoring him for several days, they discovered that he went to the Qingming Tea House for tea every afternoon without fail. Directly across the street from the teahouse was the Brocade Square tailor shop.

Just as they were designating the tailor shop as a key location, the agent watching the teahouse reported, ”Chief, Li Xiulan from the tailor shop just hung up a ’Closed’ sign. She’s quickly clearing out the counter. It doesn’t look like she’s just stepping out for a bit—she’s either leaving town or making a run for it!”

”Damn it, did we have another leak? Or did she get wind of something?” The man they called ’Chief’ frowned, his brows knitting together.

”The general store was exposed,” someone beside him chimed in. ”If she’s really connected, isn’t it normal for her to run? This just proves she’s dirty.”

”Can Captain Kong’s people tail her?”

”We’ve already contacted Captain Kong. He said he’ll immediately assign reliable people to tail her from a distance. But he warned that his team’s Cultivation levels are generally low. If they try to maintain a continuous tail, they’ll be easily spotted.”

”We don’t have time to worry about that. Just tail her and confirm her destination. We’re moving out on our end, too. Get the contingency plan ready. We can’t let this lead go cold!”

Just as they were speaking, the ground suddenly began to tremble.

”What’s happening?” someone asked nervously.

”What’s the panic? It’s just the terraforming at the port.”

It was, in fact, the port’s terraforming. If one paid close attention, they would notice the vibrations originating from deep within the earth. At first, the tremor was almost imperceptible, but it soon became distinct.

Someone subconsciously glanced out the window toward the port. Above it, a pillar of pale yellow mystic light connected heaven and earth. At the center of the light stood a Cultivator in loose, gray shortclothes, his hands constantly shifting through a series of Dharma Seals.

Then, the ocher mystic light swirling around him abruptly plunged downward, smashing into the earth like an invisible sledgehammer.

RUMBLE—

A deep thud echoed, as if the very heart of the earth had been struck. What followed was a breathtaking scene...

Within the planned port area, the gently rolling ground began to rise in its entirety, as if it were a slab of dough being kneaded by an invisible, giant hand.

This wasn’t a localized bulge, but an area several miles in radius arching upward. The immense force compressed the layers of soil, producing a grating ”CRUNCH” that set one’s teeth on edge.

Under the influence of this vast Earth Spirit power, the hard bedrock deep underground underwent a massive plastic flow and rearrangement. Haphazard rock formations were straightened and compacted. Fragile substrata were eliminated, filled in with far more solid rock.

Underground water veins were redirected and gathered, converging toward the locations of planned new riverbeds.

The uplift continued for about fifteen minutes, raising the entire area by an average of nearly thirty feet and creating a stable, elevated platform. Then, the Cultivator’s hand signs changed again...

At the platform’s edge, near the coastline, the earth began to flow outward like molten wax, forming two arms that extended gently into the sea. These would become the foundations for the future breakwaters and docks.

Meanwhile, in the center of the platform, the designated locations for storage facilities and roads began to sink and separate in an orderly fashion. The sunken areas would serve as building foundations, while the raised portions formed roadbeds. Trenches took shape naturally, and the beginnings of a drainage system emerged.

Throughout the entire process, there were no massive clouds of dust, nor any cataclysmic scenes of mountains collapsing and the earth splitting open. Every change proceeded in an orderly fashion, constrained by a steady and heavy Earth Spirit Qi.

「On the outskirts of the port, atop the viewing platform of Tingchao Pavilion.」

Yang Wenqing stood leaning against the railing, a half-full glass of fine wine in hand. His gaze seemed calm as it rested on the distant port, on the shocking, world-altering spectacle unfolding there. But deep within, a tempest was raging.

He had known, in theory, that an Entry-level Cultivator possessed the power to move mountains and fill seas, and that a Second Realm Cultivator was even more transcendent. But that had always been just a concept. To see it with his own eyes, to personally feel that magnificent power welling up from the depths of the earth to tame the very landscape—only now did he truly understand the gulf between Cultivator and mortal.

Through his Divine Sense, he perceived that the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in the area was completely imbalanced. A vast, ocean-like Earth Spirit Qi had tyrannically taken absolute dominance. Like an indisputable monarch, it ruthlessly expelled all other elemental Spiritual Qi, creating chaotic, turbulent currents.

Even from such a great distance, the oppressive feeling from this pure, immense power made Yang Wenqing shudder as if he were suffocating. It was as if he could see an invisible, towering Divine Mountain descending upon him from the highest heavens. And he, in comparison, was as minuscule as an ant, as fragile as a speck of dust.

He could almost imagine hearing the faint groan of his own bones under that formless weight. Faced with such an absolute disparity in power, a primal despair and tension born of pure instinct had crept up his spine.

But at the same time, a far more scorching, primal desire ignited in his chest like a wildfire. ’This is power. This is the true might of the Great Dao—to alter the world with a wave of a hand, to command the universe itself!’

’Compared to this, my own meager Cultivation at the Marrow Cleansing Realm is utterly insignificant. If I could wield such power... that would be the true beginning of transcending all fetters, of mastering my own fate.’

This complex swirl of despair and desire nearly drowned him.