Free Web NovelChapter 72: Chapter 72: Observatory
"Your first time here?"
Beside him, Shen Ye glanced over, a hint of surprise in his eyes.
Fang Xing nodded.
"Yes, it’s my first time in the Prefecture City."
It couldn’t be helped. This world was simply too dangerous.
Without a certain level of strength, he didn’t dare wander around aimlessly.
Besides, he spent most of his days focused on his Cultivation and rarely went out for leisure.
Shen Ye smiled. "Well, you’ll have plenty of opportunities from now on. Let’s go, we’ll enter the city first."
Fang Xing followed behind, and the two of them, on horseback, quickly entered Jiang Prefecture City.
The streets were wide enough for seven or eight horse-drawn carriages to travel side-by-side. Tall buildings rose in the distance, and the streets bustled with people. For a moment, Fang Xing almost felt the illusion of coming home.
The prosperity of the Prefecture City was in no way inferior to the cities of his past life.
The only difference was the lack of modern amenities like traffic lights and electricity.
’I wonder how prosperous Jade Capital City is...’ Fang Xing mused to himself.
If the Prefecture City was already this bustling, he could only imagine the splendor of the Great Jing’s Imperial City—the so-called number one city in the realm, the Celestial White Jade Capital.
’I really need to broaden my horizons,’ Fang Xing thought.
Even now, his understanding of this world was just the tip of the iceberg.
The world of the Extraordinary Martial Dao was far more profound than he had ever imagined.
After riding to a dedicated stable, Fang Xing followed Shen Ye on foot. They crossed several streets, and after about an hour, they arrived at the Northern City Area of the Prefecture City.
Unlike the other bustling districts, this area was quiet and permeated with a grim, solemn aura.
Fang Xing looked ahead.
A thirty-foot-high wall of bluestone came into view.
It stood like a city within a city, so vast that he couldn’t see its full extent at a glance.
It covered an area of over ten thousand mu.
The bluestone wall was even taller than the city walls of Qingshan County, making it a veritable fortress in its own right.
This was the Jiang Prefecture Observatory!
They arrived before the great gates of the Observatory, which were vermilion and wide open.
Looking up, the large characters for "Observatory" on the plaque above the gate were striking.
The Observatory was spread throughout the prefectures of Great Jing, with a branch in every prefecture.
As for the Observatory’s headquarters, it was located in Jade Capital City.
Following Shen Ye through the Observatory’s gates, Fang Xing saw a vast compound divided into multiple areas.
Over the past few days, Shen Ye had explained the specific structure of the Observatory to him.
The Observatory was divided into several tiers.
The most basic level was the Recorded Captains, of which there were over ten thousand.
Even the weakest of the Recorded Captains had a Dark Force Cultivation.
This was the minimum requirement to enter the Observatory.
Above the Recorded Captains were the Official Captains, all of whom were Neutralizing Force Martial Artists.
There was no shortage of those at the Peak of Neutralizing Force, with their numbers totaling in the thousands.
Above the Captains were the Commanders.
This rank was already considered part of the leadership.
The requirements to become a Commander, aside from merit, hinged on one crucial point: overwhelming strength!
Only those in the True Qi Realm could serve as a Commander.
An Observatory Commander was equivalent to a Sixth Grade official rank.
Above the Commanders were the Marshals.
These were all existences who had surpassed the True Qi Realm.
And above the Marshals were the Grand Marshals.
The highest rank was that of Commissioner.
Beings whose Martial Dao was Heaven-Reaching!
And there was one such Commissioner in every prefecture!
This alone was enough to show just how terrifying the Observatory’s foundation was.
To say that the number one sect in Great Jing was the Court was no exaggeration at all!
Geniuses could be found everywhere.
In the Observatory, however, being a genius was just the bare minimum!
Heroes across the land were as numerous as fish in a river, but here, any random person was one of those exceptional fish.
This was a gathering place for geniuses!
No matter how proud or arrogant a genius you were, you had to learn to behave here.
If you were a dragon, you had to coil; if you were a tiger, you had to crouch.
The Observatory had never lacked its own crouching tigers and hidden dragons.
Here, ninety percent of the members were geniuses who had leaped over the Dragon Gate.
The code in the Observatory was to be low-key in person but high-profile in your actions!
Outside, you could act without restraint. As long as you were on a mission for the Observatory, if anything went wrong, the Observatory would have your back.
This was true even if you clashed with Martial Dao Sects.
Shen Ye had shared an example: once, a Captain from the Observatory was on a mission when he encountered a prodigy from a Martial Dao Sect and was killed.
Afterward, the Observatory was enraged. It dispatched its experts and annihilated that Martial Dao Sect within a single day.
It didn’t matter what kind of backing you had.
Outside, the Observatory bows to no one. That is the first rule.
If trouble arises, the Observatory will handle it.
The power the Observatory wields today was forged in slaughter.
The Martial Dao Sects may be powerful and rule their own territories, but even they had to bow their heads to the Observatory.
The Observatory’s experts were in no way inferior to those of the Martial Dao Upper Sects.
In fact, in a one-on-one comparison, even a Martial Dao Upper Sect couldn’t defeat the Observatory.
One Commissioner per prefecture.
Each with a Heaven-Reaching Level of Martial Dao Cultivation!
Great Jing has thirteen provinces, and each province contains over a dozen prefectures. This depth of power was not something a single sect or region could hope to challenge.
If one prefecture couldn’t handle a threat, it had the support of the other Observatory branches.
This was a force that not even the Martial Dao Upper Sects would dare to provoke lightly.
It was only because these were chaotic times that the Observatory focused its main strength on foreign enemies and on Demons and Monsters.
If not for the scourge of foreign enemies and of Demons and Monsters, these Martial Dao Sects wouldn’t dare act so presumptuously, even if they were ten times bolder.
To rule the world, one must have strength. That was an undeniable truth.
...
They continued deeper into the compound, and soon, Fang Xing arrived at the area under Shen Ye’s jurisdiction.
"Commander Shen."
"Greetings, Commander!"
"Mm."
Along the way, many people they passed greeted Shen Ye.
Having broken through to the True Qi Realm, Shen Ye had become a new Commander, with a ten-man Captain squad under his command.
These ten Captains were all at the Peak of Neutralizing Force.
It was a powerful lineup.
When on a mission, each Captain could choose to bring along a few Recorded Captains as support.
Of course, they could also complete missions alone or team up with other Captains.
These choices were all voluntary.
No one was forced.
All that mattered was completing the mission.
Every Commander had certain quotas to meet.
They were evaluated on a quarterly basis.
The higher their evaluation score, the more Cultivation resources the Commander would receive.
Within the Observatory, the true currency wasn’t gold or silver, but Merit.
With enough Merit, you could exchange it for any Cultivation resource you wanted.
Things like Cultivation Techniques, Divine Weapons, Treasure Medicines, and Elixirs.
All of these had to be earned through one’s own efforts.
After showing Fang Xing around, Shen Ye selected a private courtyard residence for him.
"This will be your residence. It’s more convenient to live here. Of course, you can live outside if you wish, but it would be more troublesome."
Shen Ye said, looking at Fang Xing.
Fang Xing glanced around the courtyard; it was much larger than his previous home.
Listening to Shen Ye, Fang Xing looked at him and asked, "Sir, didn’t you say all the Captains live in a shared courtyard? Are there private ones too?"
Shen Ye chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. "The Captains do indeed share a courtyard. However, I didn’t bring you here to be a Captain for me."
"My Vice Commander position is vacant. I recommended you for the role to the Marshal. With your strength, while it might be a bit of a stretch, you’re more than qualified."
"There aren’t that many other True Qi Realm Martial Artists available, and only some of the top-tier Commander squads have a True Qi Realm expert serving as Vice Commander." freeweɓnøvel.com
"Vice Commander..."
Hearing Shen Ye’s words, Fang Xing’s heart couldn’t help but tremble.
He had assumed he would be an Official Captain, but he never expected Shen Ye to promote him straight to Vice Commander in one step.
According to the normal hierarchy, only True Qi Realm Martial Artists were qualified to hold leadership positions.
Of course, just as Shen Ye said, if none were available, they had no choice but to appoint some powerful Peak Neutralizing Force Martial Artists instead.
A Vice Commander in the True Qi Realm was considered a feature of a top-tier Commander squad.
A Vice Commander at the Peak of Neutralizing Force could only be considered standard-issue.
