The Chinese Empire.

Four powerful evolved people kept order in the Chinese Empire together: the Emperor for the Ages Luo Shouhai, the Shoulder-to-Shoulder King Zhang Qi, the Grand Preceptor Tian Ziwen and the Divine Martial Grand General Wu Jun.

From what he had gathered, Shen Cong knew that Luo Shouhai, Zhang Qi and Tian Ziwen were all iron people with luxurious battle-trucks. Wu Jun was a jin person. But the people he had forced to trade information were vague about the four leaders' exact grades. They didn't really know, because the rank system here was crude.

It wasn't based on Talent. Instead, it was a messy ladder that tied military posts to fighting strength—Marshal, Senior General, General, Lieutenant General, Major General, Brigadier General and Private. The seven ranks stood for both strength and position.

Luo Shouhai was the only Marshal, and he ruled as emperor. Zhang Qi, Tian Ziwen and Wu Jun were all Senior Generals, each guarding a region. A General led thirty thousand people, a Lieutenant General ten thousand, a Major General three thousand and a Brigadier General a thousand. Evolved people who could only lead ordinary people were all ranked Private.

As systems went, this one was fairly complete.

But its flaws were just as obvious. There was a world of difference between evolved people and ordinary people. Evolved people got all the benefits—even a Private could marry five or six wives.

Then again, Luo Shouhai and the others only had to keep the evolved people loyal. Whether ordinary people lived or died was no concern of theirs.

Ordinary people could only survive in this dangerous new world under the protection of evolved people. Faced with a choice between life and death, almost no one dared to choose death. The bold ones, the ones who wouldn't accept it, had mostly died—died in this grim world.

"I need to find out how strong Luo Shouhai and the others really are... According to these survivors, lava monsters crawled out of the ground in the Chinese Empire's territory a little over three months ago. There were three of them, probably…