Chapter 118: Going to War

[Volume 3 - The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace]

Although Zhongying Town wasn't very large, but this was a key point of the border defences. Hence, the defensive emplacements of the place were remarkably complete, and it would normally have a garrison standing guard made of the expeditionary army on the order of thousands. The 131st reinforced company as well as several companies in reserve from other designations were also based here, training, supplying, and organizing their troops, ready to move off at a moment's notice.

Ji Yuanjia accompanied Qianye into the army camp, and once he was done with the take over procedures, he left on the airship.

Even the 131st reinforced company had its own independent camp, and at this point every soldier from the company was gathered in the parade square, being inspected by the company commander, Captain Bao Zhengcheng, who was accompanying Qianye in the inspection.

Within the seventeenth corps, the reinforced company was equivalent to the special forces within the units, and both their military strength and equipment were overwhelmingly above those of a normal unit, and they were often rebellious.

What Qianye looked at now was such a unit. One hundred fifty men stood crookedly, not a single one of them ramrod straight. A few of the more talented officers were even sending unfriendly gazes towards Qianye, openly and brazenly evaluating from head to toe.

Had Qianye been escorted over by Ji Yuanjia, and been directly greeted by him before he left, they might not have been so quick to challenge him. Ji Yuanjia had originally risen from the seventeenth corps as an infantry officer, and attained his stripes by accumulating military merits, and his name carried more weight than Miss Qiqi's among these soldiers.

While standing to one side was Bao Zhengcheng smiling innocently, as if nothing had been seen. He was round but heavy-set, and he towered over Qianye by nearly a full head, and at first glance he resembled a standing grizzly bear. A normal reinforced company was usually headed by a rank three Fighter, but the rank four Bao Zhengcheng had committed a crime, and was hence punished to become the company commander of this reinforced company.

Faced with this similar-looking initial inspection, Qianye suddenly had a nostalgic feeling. It was only that at that time, he was still a rookie, and at most he could only observe the Black Scorpion veterans being rowdy from the sides.

Qianye smiled, and his obsidian-like eyes shined. "Captain Bao, your men are really quite an interesting bunch!"

Bao Zhengcheng opened his mouth wide, as he clasped his hands together, laughing. "They're but rabble that only know how to wage war, and nothing else!"

"I would think that merely being able to fight wouldn't be enough, given that the first law of the Empire's military is being able to follow orders."

"The commander's order, they'll definitely follow for sure." Bao Zhengcheng immediately patted his chest reassuringly.

Qianye waved his hand. "Very well, dismiss them."

Not a single man moved, and some of the warriors were even shocked back into their normal military postures. When they heard those words about the Empire's military law, they had already begun to rub their hands together in glee, ready to let this new officer in front of them understand what they understood by military law, but instead, he had just so weakly ended it. Was this maiden-looking little kid really so soft?

Qianye's gaze swept across Bao Zhengcheng's muscular body, and suddenly asked, "Before you all assembled, you were doing physical training, no?"

"Yes."

"Then how about the two of us do a demonstration for them?"

Bao Zhengcheng started, and going with the flow, smiled. "Sure! It's rare to see Sir willing to demonstrate."

The basic training for power was to wrestle, and among the officers, they obviously wouldn't get down and dirty wrestling one another heavily, and the traditional way was with an arm wrestle.

As the men moved the limestone stage over, Bao Zhengcheng's men snuck over to him. "Head, are you really going to contest him..." The man made a hand sign towards Qianye. "This time around, there isn't even anyone willing to open bets for it."

Evidently, the warriors had all piled up in the front to watch the match, no longer raucous and rowdy like during their normal matches.

Bao Zhengcheng chided them. "The new officer's watching, all of you straighten up!" Then he watched as Qianye curiously observed the various training equipment laid out upon the training grounds, and his face darkened.

Qianye's military uniform wasn't made to standard measures, but was instead handmade by Qiqi, even as she forced him into it, and it was especially form-fitting. Actually, Qianye wasn't too short, and had tall proportions and broad shoulders, but his waist was thinner, and it was obvious that he was slightly slender. Looking at Qianye's small frame, Bao Zhengcheng's heart was a little glum, and he could only be happy that the opponent hadn't asked to body-wrestle him, because if he lost, he'd have lost all of his dignity.

The stage was quickly prepared, and Qianye along with Bao Zhengcheng each took a side, and as the two's hands met, some of the surrounding soldiers were already unable to contain their smiles, and some of the non-commissioned officers were already starting to make funny faces at Bao Zhengcheng.

Compared to Bao Zhengcheng's bear-like arms, Qianye's arm wasn't even half as thick, and it could be called slender. The result of this evident contest of strength had never been in doubt to the soldiers, and instead the topic of the talk had changed to whether Qianye's little arm would be twisted off, or to topics about whether they were being too hard on him, etc.

A single copper coin was tossed into the air, and as it landed with a clear ting, Qianye and Bao Zhengcheng began to put their backs into it.

"Hey, hey, hey!!" Bao Zhengcheng roared thrice, and released his power thrice.

But beyond anyone's expectations, Qianye's arm was seemingly made of steel, not budging an inch. Bao Zhengcheng's face had already flushed fully red, and he took a deep breath. And then, with a roar like a wild animal, his muscles bulged, and the tendons popped, his arm thickening, evidently putting out his maximum power!

This sort of force, even if applied to a solid steel beam, would have bent it in half!

But Qianye's arm still remained completely stationary!

Bao Zhengcheng knew in his heart that things were going south, and suddenly, from the hand came an enormously huge and unstoppable force, that immediately crumbled his defenses, and slammed his arm viciously onto the limestone stage with a single swing!

And this evidently wasn't over. With a boom, the remaining force that hadn't dissipated, slammed directly into the stage itself, and the meter thick limestone slab was actually smashed into a pile of rubble. Bao Zhengcheng's body had lost its balance, and he toppled over, falling heavily onto his back, his limbs pointing up towards the sky.

Qianye gave a slight smile as he pulled up Bao Zhengcheng. "Sorry about that."

Bao Zhengcheng looked at Qianye as if he was looking at a monster a few times. "What power!"

The two of them were both rank four Fighters, but Qianye had used his origin power to compete against his pure power, and not only had he completely won, but he had also proven his point—that he wasn't some pansy sent over by some large family to gain military achievements, and that his power was absolutely capable of shouldering his rank as a commissioned officer.

In the Empire's army, especially for those on the front line, the strong were to be revered!

Bao Zhengcheng turned around to yell at all of the soldiers that were standing there mutely. "All of you, fall in, at attention! Take a good look at your new senior officer!"

Watching the soldiers standing erect in front of him, Qianye knew that he had already taken the first step to being accepted by this rowdy bunch of soldiers. As to being the commanding officer, that had to be gained through achievement.

Two days later, Qianye immediately had the entire company move out, to sortie into the border and engage in field battle. Within two weeks, Qianye's unit had run into the patrol units of the dark races three times, and each time, they had wiped them out.

In every battle, the strongest warriors of the patrol teams had been personally hunted and killed by Qianye himself.

It was at this point that the soldiers realized that their new officer was in fact an ultra-long-ranged sniper. Hence, some of the more hard-headed non-commissioned officers' attitudes softened towards him, and no matter what they thought of this officer that'd been parachuted in, a sniper was a supernatural existence within any army group.

Along their route, Qianye let the units that had battled thrice rest, while he brought the rest of them along personally to survey the area, and discovered a team of vampires that had been sent to investigate the missing patrol teams.

Up until now, all of the encounters had been commanded by both he and Bao Zhengcheng, and Qianye was simply cooperating with this unfamiliar group. This time around, it was his first solo command, and since the vampires' investigative team would definitely have laid down traps and ambushes, he immediately took out one of the Blood Esquires, and then led his men to take down another, wiping out this investigative team that had thrice the power of a normal patrol team.

At this point, Qianye knew that it was time to throw in the towel, and hence he had the company move back to base first, while he alone prepared an ambush, biding his time.

One full day and night later, Qianye had indeed managed to encounter the reinforcement force from the dark races.

This was a team with an extraordinary amount of power, made up of a full team of fifty warriors, and even the worst of them was rank two! Leading this bunch was an rank eight Blood Knight, and he was accompanied by a full complement of six Blood Esquires.

This squad of full warriors' power had already far exceeded that of the 131st, and if Qianye hadn't let them retreat early, it would have been very possible that they would have gotten caught from behind. A normal soldier's speed and endurance, was no match for that of a rank two Fighter.

This team was entirely made of vampires, and all of them were wearing black-and-red capes, quietly advancing. Although they looked as if they weren't moving much, their speed had already far exceeded the full run of a normal person.

As they passed by a withered tree, the Blood Knight in the front suddenly stopped, and then signalled to the rest. The whole troop immediately stopped.

This Blood Knight lifted his mask, revealing a stern, but weathered face with silver hair. He walked to the tree, and sniffed strongly. Suddenly raising his head, he looked towards one of the branches that was stained with a little bit of blood. Although the blood had long since dried, but it still retained its brilliant crimson shade, evidently highly suspicious.

That was the blood essence of an upper class vampire!

The Knight's face churned a little, and his eyes lit with a deep anger. He suddenly turned around, and shouted at the vampire warriors behind him. "Pick up the pace! We'll chase them down, and kill off all of those brazen humans!"

Even as his shout was still echoing, the Knight suddenly felt a sharp tug in his chest, and at the feeling of danger, he lunged forward.

A whistling origin bullet missed his vital organs, and struck him in his leg. The enormous momentum of the bullet caused him to roll several times before he fell to the floor.

Without waiting for orders, three of the Blood Esquires rushed over, and immediately began to shield him, while the other three ran towards the fleeing silhouette in the distance at full speed. Damned human snipers! The dark races hated to see these soldiers the most on the battlefield.

The Knight struggled to his feet, and then furiously roared. "Chase him! I want him alive!"

But he suddenly felt a dizziness, and nearly fainted over. This Blood Knight was seriously shocked, and he hurriedly looked towards his wounds, discovering that the injury was rapidly decaying and decomposing at an alarming rate. There was also some strange force constantly attempting to invade his body.

The Knight at this point was shocked beyond measure, and he furiously circulated his blood energy, forcibly suppressing the strange force that was destroying the parts of him around the wound, and trying to infiltrate deeper, but in the blink of an eye, the wound on his leg had already reached so far that his bone was exposed.

"Back to the blood pool, hurry!" The Knight was panicked with both shock and anger as he called out orders to his men.

In the distance, the heart of Qianye, who was on the run, was full of regrets.