Chapter 1185: Work and Cultivation

Everything in Southern Blue was normal in the period that Qianye had gone to join the void-continent war. The various workshops maintained their usual work rhythm, and some even expanded. The airship equipment produced from this system could be sold anywhere even if the Empire didn't buy them up. Moreover, they could sell as many as they could produce.

Having moved out in full force, those of Dark Flame that remained were members tasked with ensuring smooth logistics. They weren't idle during this period, either. They had been allocating supplies production, as well as procuring various equipment. A number of warehouses were now stacked full of equipment and components. Two facilities dedicated to manufacturing footsoldier gear were also nearing completion.

The new research department was newly formed, but they had already seen breakthroughs in certain topics and would start producing results soon. Moreover, they were launching over a hundred projects at the same time. This research department didn't just pop out of nowhere; its backbone staff were transferred over from Ningyuan Heavy Industries.

Song Zining had moved almost the entirety of his business to the neutral lands and placed the highest priority on the operations here. Research was no exception. After arriving here, the research center's projects increased sharply, mainly on how to adapt Imperial weaponry to the environment in the neutral lands.

The various continents of the Evernight world possessed different geography, weather, and origin power environments. Harsh places like the neutral lands could be found everywhere. Hence, adaptability was an extremely important sector for both military and airship armaments.

At this point, an attendant entered and placed a new stack of documents on Qianye's desk. "The statistics of the families of the fallen have been organized, please take a look."

Qianye opened the document and looked through it carefully.

Dark Flame had lost forty thousand mercenaries this time, most of them external mercenaries they had recruited later on. Information regarding their residences and families hadn't been documented yet, but the families of the old dark flame members alone reached four hundred thousand.

Dark Flame possessed its own base as well as the foundations of the merged Ningyuan Heavy Industries. Their stability was much greater than the other mercenary corps, so most of their soldiers were able to support more family members. Among their families, there were almost thirty thousand boys and girls who were above ten years old, and over half of them possessed origin power.

At this ratio, their cultivation standards were even higher than on the Qin continent. This was brought about by the special environment of the neutral lands. Of course, these benefits also came with their own downsides. Such rapid growth brought about by survival instincts made for unstable foundations. That was why no one from the neutral lands had ever achieved the heavenly monarch realm. Their so-called geniuses would usually exhaust their potential at the divine champion realm and make no more progress.

These boys and girls with origin power cultivation would make for qualified soldiers if they were given weapons. They could even become low-ranking officers. There was a qualitative difference between soldiers who could fire origin bullets and those who could only use gunpowder weapons.

After discounting the old, there were close to fifty thousand women in their prime age. When required, they were also a qualified fighting force.

The Empire's standard compensation was ten times the yearly salary. This meant that no matter how much a soldier could earn per year, the Empire would pay ten times that amount. The Imperial army's pay was already fairly generous, so the compensation couldn't be considered low.

Dark Flame had contributed greatly to the battle of Whitetown and fought an extremely bitter battle. Hence, the Empire decided to pay compensation based on their standard salary. Even a third of that amount was double that of mercenary-standards in the neutral lands.

Dark Flame had received around four million gold coins in compensation. Two-thirds of that was just short of three million. This was a massive sum of money for Dark Flame, enough to buy two cruisers or enough equipment to outfit three complete army divisions.

Dark Flame had less than two thousand combat personnel left, so recruitment was imperative. Qianye wasn't too worried about manpower, though, because the surviving veterans had grown much stronger. With them as the backbone, it would be easy to build up a new squad very soon.

Song Zining had brought an entire group of instructors when Dark Flame was preparing for the fight around the Great Maelstrom door, and these people were still in the corps. Add to that the ample equipment in-store, they would be able to quickly set up three divisions. Although these units might not be completely up to Imperial standards, a quick fighting force could still be produced.

How to reform Dark Flame was a test for Qianye.

Qianye whipped out some pen and paper. He then started drawing draft after draft, but he wasn't satisfied with any of the plans. There was still no conclusion until the moon was high up in the sky.

Finally, he threw down his pen and arrived before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the sleeping Southern Blue. This kind of job used to be Song Zining's duty, but there was no telling when he would be back. Qianye, on the other hand, couldn't keep relying on him for everything.

Watching the city under the night sky—especially the large, empty headquarters—Qianye gradually calmed down and began thinking about how to set out with the plan.

At first, Dark Flame in the neutral lands was put together merely to defend Southern Blue. Song Zining arrived later on and began expanding its forces to support Qianye's dream of reaching the Sacred Mountain.

That was how Dark Flame's objective went from defense to expansion and expeditions. After some thought and integrating the experience from the Battle of Whitetown, Qianye felt that he needed a unit that could coordinate with him.

The current Qianye was an unstoppable force for ordinary opponents. In a similar fashion, ordinary squads weren't good enough to coordinate with him. At the very least, he needed a unit on the level of Red Scorpion, people who could keep up with his rhythm.

Going forward, the Evernight Council's Black Sun sword-bearers were the final version of this elite unit.

After some contemplation, Qianye gave up on the idea of distributing equipment equally among three divisions. Finally, he decided to recruit fifty thousand people and outfit them according to the neutral lands' first-rate standards. Even then, the cost of outfitting fifty thousand men was only equal to a single Imperial main-army division. With the remaining money, Qianye planned to purchase supplies according to Red Scorpion standards and arm a group of elites to the teeth.

According to that standard, a budget sufficient to equip two main-army divisions would only be able to equip two thousand men. However, these two thousand men would be far more useful than two divisions.

Only such a squad could keep up with Qianye.

After reaching a decision, everything else moved along much faster. Qianye didn't sleep that night as he mapped out a complete plan.

Qianye pressed the bell on his desk and summoned the manager Song Zining had left behind. This manager was in charge of purchasing equipment from the Empire. His face twitched briefly when he saw Qianye's plan, but he carefully hid his emotions and withdrew.

Qianye's purchase plan wasn't easy to fulfill as there were quite a few strictly-limited military supplies. But since Qianye had suggested the need, he—as a subordinate—had to find a way to make it happen. Song Zining was now in the Empire, so they could use his connections for things that were too difficult.

The next few days saw Dark Flame recruiting for new soldiers once more.

News always traveled fast here. In just a couple of days, the results of the void-continent war had spread across the neutral lands. The dark races in every area became much more subdued, while the human powers took this opportunity to expand.

The mercenaries, especially those independent ones, saw this as an opportunity. Utilizing different channels, they all swarmed toward the Eastern Sea and Southern Blue, waiting for the recruitment.

A mercenary corps like Dark Flame that could join wars, and even play an integral role in it, had long since exceeded the scope of traditional mercenary corps. Many people felt that they shouldn't be described merely as a mercenary corps. In factional wars, the role of mercenaries had always been to serve as cannon fodder, to fill in the gaps, and to perform the most dangerous missions.

The human race's victory on the void continent and Dark Flame's bitter fight at Whitetown caused the mercenary corps' fame to explode. They were slowly gaining fame as the number one major mercenary corps in the neutral lands. At the same time, Dark Flame's stability and good pay left most small mercenary groups in the dust, so much so that even those highly skilled independent mercenaries were moved.

After hearing about the corps' losses at Whitetown, the mercenaries smelled an opportunity instead of feeling afraid. Everyone was planning to try their luck in finding a place in Dark Flame.

Over the course of a few days, Qianye reorganized the surviving champions from the war, forming five regular divisions and one fledgling elite unit with them as the backbone. Then, he began the first round of recruitments from among the families of the deceased.

The recruitment was met with unprecedented success. Most boys and girls with origin power cultivation, as well as ladies of age, were all willing to join. This provided Qianye with thirty thousand qualified troops. Compared to the mercenaries who had come to apply for a position, the fighting power of these women and children were rather limited. However, their backgrounds were clean, and their advantage in loyalty was incomparable.

As for the unending stream of mercenaries who had come to apply, they were divided and assigned into various units after a strict screening process. After a round of drill training, they would become barely usable.

A complete training period would require one month at the very least, and it would take even longer for the equipment from the Empire to arrive. Although Dark Flame already had an established process for training and organization, important issues still required Qianye's attention. He soon realized that simply approving documents was taking him entire days unknowingly.

Things couldn't keep going this way, or he wouldn't even have a guaranteed time for cultivation. Zhang Boqian's notes on the Profound Combatant Formula were still in Andruil's Space. The art was even more profound now, and Qianye needed time to slowly comprehend it. But first, he needed to make sure that he had the necessary time to cultivate.

On the other hand, his blood energy was still in an imbalanced state compared to his origin power cultivation. That was still the case even though Zhang Boqian had used a peerless ability to bring him down to the glorious marquis realm.

Delegation of authority was the best way to do this. The members Song Zining had left behind were trustworthy, and they could solve most minor problems on their own.

This matter was easy to say, but Qianye was met with a different headache when the time actually came. The system had been more or less perfected since Song Zining was here. There were clear rules detailing the matters each rank could make decisions about.

But that only applied to daily workflow. Currently, Qianye was expanding, and the issues that had come before him were important cases with lasting effects. This was especially true for Dark Flame's core fighting strength and development. They weren't things ordinary subordinates could decide on. If he were to give people free reign on such important things, the entire Dark Flame would surely go out of control.

After several days of sorting out policies, procedures, and rules, Qianye found that there really was nothing that could be changed. Only at this point did he realize how extraordinary Song Zining really was. This seventh young master was buried behind stacks of documents every day, so it was truly a wonder how he managed to cultivate so quickly.