Beyond the Zenith

Liu Shiheng and Yang Qingbai had been among those gone when Han Qingyu had left, so it made sense that they had returned before him as well.

The pair was still buzzing from their tests and had yet to go back to sleep. They sat near the tent entrance, chatting in low voices. When they saw Han Qingyu approach, they looked up and asked, “How’d it go, Little Qing?”

“No idea. I just walked to the end. Nobody told me anything.” Han Qingyu shrugged. “What about you two?”

“Same. No results,” Liu Shiheng said with a frown. “I did feel something toward the end, though. It probably means I can’t escape this.”

Liu Shiheng was from Harbor City; his family’s net worth sat at over a hundred million. Unfortunately, he had been forced into the Coalition after one of his hunts had crossed paths with a Sharpie, and he never wanted to risk his life on the front lines to begin with.

This was something he had been open about. With no power to resist, he could only pray that his test results came back as “ineligible” or F-rank.

“I felt it too,” Yang Qingbai said with a smile. “It felt pretty nice, actually.”

“Yeah.” Han Qingyu nodded. Finding himself with nothing more to say, he added, “Are you two staying up? Because if so, I’m going back to sleep.”

He ducked into the tent with his arms crossed, crawled into his bedding, and wrapped himself up in the thin blanket the military had provided.

This whole place was shrouded in secrecy. He had no idea where they even were. For a base this huge, with this many people, to be hidden away, the surrounding area had to be uninhabited for an enormous radius.

It was definitely somewhere up north, though. The cold was biting, and the wind was fierce. Though it was only mid-September, sleeping required both a jacket and a blanket, lest he shiver the whole night through.

Lying there, he sorted through his thoughts. His questions and doubts persistently lingered. In fact, they seemed to have increased. There was so much about himself that Han Qingyu couldn’t understand, and he lacked the experience or knowledge to figure any of it out.

The only thing that gave him a sense of security was the liquid source energy stored up inside him.

I just want to get stronger and survive. That’s all.

Many answers would likely come to light on their own. He just needed to stay alive long enough to see it happen. Frankly, though, it didn’t even matter if they never did.

As he was drifting off, he felt a hand patting him gently through the blanket.

Han Qingyu opened his eyes and turned his head.

Liu Shiheng was crouched beside him. “Little Qing. Look after me out there if you can. If you ever get a chance to go outside or have a home visit, I’ll have someone send money to your family. Hundreds of thousands, or millions, whatever you need.”

There was no trace of flaunting wealth nor the sense that he was trying to buy a bodyguard. This was probably just the logic he’d grown up with.

What you lack, I have. What I lack, you have. It’s a fair trade.

Han Qingyu thought about it, laughed silently, then reached out from under the blanket and patted Liu Shiheng on the shoulder. “Where my family’s from, you don’t need millions to get by. Go to sleep.”

Liu Shiheng felt strangely at ease after hearing this.

***

Elsewhere, Li Wangqiang waited in a sheltered spot out of the wind for the regiment lead advisor. When he finally saw the other approaching, Li Wangqiang quickly stuffed the cigarette he’d been about to light back in the pack and hurried forward.

“Well? Did you find her?”

“Yes. I told her the situation. Senior Sister said her shift change is coming up, and she’ll ask around if she gets the chance.”

“Good, good. So...” Li Wangqiang trailed off, the question implied in his tone.

“She said to wait around back,” the regiment lead advisor muttered, looking a touch embarrassed as he led the way. “The test results would’ve come through official channels eventually anyway. It’s the only reason she agreed. This is still technically bending their rules, though.”

“Right, right. Thank her for me... Eh, by the way, why’s your senior being so nice?”

“She’s a nice person.”

“Really?” Li Wangqiang’s eyes rolled upward as he mulled that over. “You say you haven’t seen each other in years, yet a few words from you is enough to convince her to help. And you’re getting all flustered about it too. Did you two use to have a thing?”

The regiment lead advisor was speechless. A thing? What had once been a tender memory was now a thing?

“You could always pick it back up,” Li Wangqiang suggested.

“Would you watch your mouth, Old Li?” the regiment lead advisor snapped.

Li Wangqiang chuckled, then grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, sorry... You know me. I’m uncultured. I apologize. I’m just nervous, okay? I can’t control my tongue when I’m nervous.”

The regiment lead advisor did not deign to reply, silently leading him around to the back of a building.

“Where are we?” Li Wangqiang leaned against a wall beneath a barred window and sniffed the air. Something smelled off.

“The lavatory,” the regiment lead advisor said flatly.

“Men’s or women’s?”

The regiment lead advisor clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “Obviously the women’s.”

“Oh.” Li Wangqiang tilted his head back to think, then abruptly crouched down. “What if some A-rank woman in there sees us and thinks we’re up to something, comes out and guts us...”

“Shh.” The regiment lead advisor crouched too.

After a while, footsteps approached.

There were apparently others inside, so the senior didn’t speak directly. She coughed twice to signal them, then wrote something down and slipped her hand through the window bars.

She could only share information that would eventually be made public, so there was only a single letter on the paper: A.

Li Wangqiang stood first and froze for a second when he saw it.

Then, after swatting the woman’s hand back through the bars with a smack, he turned and walked away, face blank.

He walked fast, reaching for a cigarette with shaking hands. The cigarette slipped from his fingers, but he didn’t pick it up.

Pulling out another, he jammed it between his trembling lips, but couldn’t strike a flame on his lighter.

He drew the cigarette from his mouth and crushed it in his palm.

Li Wangqiang’s hasty actions meant the regiment lead advisor hadn’t seen the result. He’d barely managed an apologetic wave to his senior sister before chasing after him.

“Old Li, Old Li, what’s the matter with you? Old Li!” the regiment lead advisor called out, running after the speed-walking Li Wangqiang and grabbing his sleeve. “What is it? Calm down. Old Li.”

Li Wangqiang tugged once and when he couldn’t break free, dropped into a squat right there.

“Old Li. Old Li...”

“Good Lord.” Li Wangqiang slowly raised his head. “I can’t calm down.”

“Then what... Oh, forget it.”

“Not even in my wildest dreams would I have dared to hope. He’s an A.”

“What?”

“He’s an A-ranker.”

The regiment lead advisor broke into near hysterical laughter. “Really?!”

“Really.”

They stood up, grinning like fools, and started shoving each other around like children, punching and pushing each other as if purely to get the excess energy out.

S-rank was too far-fetched to even consider. For base-level officers like Li Wangqiang and his staff, A-rank was the ceiling of what they knew and dared to wish for. B-rank, if properly developed, would also work.

Both B-rankers and A-rankers had the potential to become top-tier combatants. The Ninth Army’s ten strongest individual fighters included seven A-rankers and three B-rankers.

This wasn’t because A-rankers and B-rankers were equal in talent. Life simply introduced too many variables, such as growth paths, early deaths, injuries, and a whole string of other complications that affected each person’s potential.

On that front, the 425th had been unlucky in every possible way for years.

Then this year, out of nowhere, they had landed an A-ranker. More than that, the A-ranker was Han Qingyu, the same person they believed was most likely to become a top-tier combatant and one day carry the 425th on his shoulders.

On the walk back to camp, Li Wangqiang suddenly said, “That was close.”

“What do you mean?” The regiment lead advisor glanced at him with concern.

“Three years ago, an A+ came out of Chen Mazi’s batch. The division they were under, the 402nd, snatched him away. He died later.” Li Wangqiang’s gaze was steady.

“But... This is an A-ranker, though. The higher-ups won’t come for him... would they?”

“I don’t know, but there’s no precedent for it. If anyone tries, I’ll fight them to the death.”

“Right. Still, there are things the higher-ups have to consider. A-rank or B-rank, they’re still similarly fragile at the start.” The regiment lead advisor paused, about to comment on how they had to be tested in live combat to grow, but Li Wangqiang cut him off with a hand on his shoulder.

“Exactly. You remind me... He’s still very fragile right now.”

“Yes.”

“So let’s get on the same page.”

“About what?”

“Right now, he’s the 425th’s baby boy, but later, he’ll be our daddy.”

“Get out of here.” The regiment lead advisor couldn’t stomach that metaphor. “Have some self-respect, Old Li.”

“I don’t need it,” Li Wangqiang said.

Crude as the metaphor was, the pair did ultimately get their act together and agree on a clear course of action. The bottom line was that they couldn’t let the kid sense how eager, worried, or hopeful they felt inside, at least not too obviously.

Li Wangqiang stopped outside the tent, dying to go in and check on his A-rank child.

Is he asleep? Is he sleeping well? What if he’s kicked off the covers? Li Wangqiang shook himself out of it. No, I can’t.

***

Inside the source energy field tunnel, a crushing loneliness engulfed Wen Jifei.

He saw a vision of his father walking beside his stepmother, holding the hand of his little half-sister, then his mother with her new husband, his little half-brother in her arms.

Both parents wore doting smiles as they coaxed the little ones, “Quick, greet your big brother.”

Neither child really knew him, but they were both exceptionally polite.

“Big Brother.”

“Big Brother.”

“Hi,” he replied.

His mother held the little boy close, nuzzling his head. “What a good boy.”

His father scooped up the little girl. “Oh, my little princess.”

“They really are sweet,” Wen Jifei said.

The scene shifted. He seemed to be back in his school-day weekends.

Oil, salt, and water in a pot. Once it started boiling, he grabbed a handful of noodles and tossed them in. When they were done, he fished them out, sat down at the table, and ate.

This cycle seemed to be endlessly repeating.

Then, one night, he got sick with a high fever and stomach pain. He dragged himself out of bed, boiled water, and found medicine.

He thought he was going to die that night...

In the next scene, Han Qingyu straddled a bicycle and asked him, “Want to come hang out at my place this weekend?”

“Sure,” he said.

At that moment, Wen Jifei felt genuinely happy.

The bicycle was rolling along a mountain road when the scene suddenly changed. Little Qing fighting against the school bullies on his own—Wait, not bullies. Little Qing was fighting two Sharpies with a blade. He was incredible, but they were still Sharpies.

I should help.

He was about to rush in when Han Qingyu turned back amid the chaos and shouted, “Stay back! Get out of here!”

“I—”

“Run! Go back!”

The crushing loneliness washed over him again.

Wen Jifei struggled and fought against it. He could feel the source energy and knew what it meant. It didn’t matter that the guide had said that trying harder wouldn’t change anything. He fought with everything he had, desperately trying to take in as much as he could.