Chapter 28: 1 Month
For the next few days, Lu Yuan cultivated in his courtyard and met with the subordinates assigned to him.
After earning some silver, Zhang Gun and Zhang He had bought cultivation supplies and broken through to the next realm. They, along with Wei Yong, were placed under Lu Yuan’s command.
Seven more Entry Level experts were also transferred to his squad.
This formed a squad comprised entirely of Entry Level experts.
Moreover, they were all equipped with Centurion Armor and received the pay and treatment of a Centurion. It was clear Zhou Hongling was giving Lu Yuan a core team; once he broke through to the Tendon Refining realm, he could use these men as the backbone to form a Hundred-Man Squad.
No one objected. They had all heard of Lu Yuan, the man who had taken down the Iron Kite. Who would dare cause trouble for someone like that? It would be suicide.
One morning, Lu Yuan led his men out of the city at the crack of dawn, having accepted several missions.
If he could complete them all, he would rake in a substantial amount of silver and military merit.
He had once seen a Heavenly and Earthly Treasure in the military depot called Dragon Scale Grass. It was supposedly the best item for Body Tempering and Spirit Cultivation, capable of helping him perfect his body’s Divine Containment and break through directly to the Bone Forging realm.
The only problem was the steep price: two thousand taels of silver, which he couldn’t afford at the moment.
So, his goal for this expedition was to claim more Northern Barbarian heads and earn more silver.
Out on the Wasteland, as spring settled in, the snow had melted and green shoots were sprouting from the earth.
The boundless plains were dotted with rolling hills.
Countless villages dotted the landscape.
As their warhorses thundered forward, they ran straight into a Northern Barbarian scout party. The enemy had about the same number of men, with what looked to be three Entry Level experts among them.
For Lu Yuan and his men, this was hardly a threat.
He simply waved his hand, ordering his men to charge.
The Military Array fell into place, instantly forming an arrowhead formation.
As they closed in on the Northern Barbarian scouts...
SWOOSH!
Lu Yuan swung his war blade, its edge covering a radius of several meters.
Several Northern Barbarian scouts who had just closed in were instantly decapitated, their heads sent flying high into the air.
The battle that followed was a one-sided slaughter.
In less time than it takes an incense stick to burn, the entire scout party was annihilated.
Blood stained the tender grass as the ownerless warhorses began to graze.
After gathering the spoils, Lu Yuan and his men set off in another direction.
For the next ten days or so, they roamed the Wasteland. Needless to say, their haul was immense.
Moreover, Lu Yuan’s own strength improved by leaps and bounds.
However, their retaliatory strikes inevitably drew the ire of the Northern Barbarians.
First, there was the death of the Iron Kite. Nothing could be done about that; he had simply been outmatched.
But now, for several days in a row, every scout party the Northern Barbarians sent out had been killed. Not a single man had returned.
They were as helpless as Icefield City had been against the Iron Kite.
Inside a Northern Barbarian command tent, the chieftain of the Manyan Tribe sat. He was a tall, imposing man, standing well over six feet, with a thick beard covering his chin.
"The Yong people are retaliating! In just over ten days, thirteen of our scout parties have been killed! What is their game? Since this war with Dayong began, my Manyan Tribe has never suffered such a great humiliation!"
The rough voice of the Manyan Tribe’s chieftain, Manyan Humei, boomed through the tent.
He slammed his palm on the table, the impact making everyone’s ears ring.
"It’s all that damn Iron Kite’s fault," a Thousand Men Commander of the Manyan Tribe growled after a large swig of wine. "He killed all those Dayong soldiers, got himself defeated, then just packed up and left, leaving us to suffer the consequences."
"That’s enough out of you," Manyan Humei snapped, glancing at the commander below him. "We’re here to discuss how to deal with this elite Dayong scout unit, not to complain. His surname is Xiao. No matter how much trouble he stirs up, there will always be someone to cover for him. Who are you to question him?"
The surname Xiao might be common in Dayong, but here in the lands of the Northern Barbarians, it represented the imperial bloodline—the most noble of all.
He continued, "Send Manyan Qihun. He’s the most outstanding warrior of our Manyan Tribe’s younger generation. Have him form a scout party of eighty men and hunt down this elite Dayong unit.
Once he finds them, I want no survivors."
"As you command!" his commanders replied in unison.
Meanwhile, on the road to the Northern Border, Zhang Zhe was complaining to the middle-aged man beside him. "I don’t know what my father was thinking, insisting I come to the Northern Border. I even had Yuan take the fall for me to avoid this place, but I still couldn’t escape this trip in the end."
The middle-aged man chuckled. "Zhe, it’s not the same. Yuan was sent here to suffer. For all we know, he might already be dead. You, on the other hand, are just here to get gilded. You have guards to protect you and subordinates to command. All you have to do is stay for a little while, kill a few Northern Barbarians, and you’ll have completed your mission.
After that, your future will be smooth sailing.
If you want to go far in the military, a career without service in the Northern Border doesn’t look good."
The middle-aged man’s name was Bai Hong, a renowned strategist from Yunzhou and a private tutor for the Zhang Family. His being dispatched to assist Zhang Zhe showed just how determined the Zhang Family was for their son to succeed on the military path.
"Teacher," Zhang Zhe said, patting the dust from his armor, "speaking of which, Yuan was your student too. If we do run into him on the Northern Border, you won’t go soft on him, will you?"
Back then, after a careful selection process, many of the Zhang Family’s disciples had studied under Bai Hong. Lu Yuan had been one of them.
Every famous teacher dreams of producing a Renowned General in their lifetime. Bai Hong, who specialized in and taught the subject of Military Arrays, was no different.
Nothing would be better than for one of his students to be ennobled as a marquis and appointed a general.
Now, Zhang Zhe was the student he favored, primarily because of his family’s backing. In Bai Hong’s eyes, even if Zhang Zhe couldn’t become a marquis, his future position in the military was guaranteed to be high.
So, he simply said with an air of indifference, "I have already removed Yuan from my register of disciples. Since he was exiled, he is no longer qualified to be my student. You can rest assured."
This gesture was also meant to show the Zhang Family that he had completely severed his ties with Lu Yuan and that he was now devoted solely to tutoring Zhang Zhe.
Hearing this, Zhang Zhe nodded in satisfaction, not pursuing the topic further.
Instead, he viciously whipped his horse. "Teacher, let’s pick up the pace! The sooner we get to Yellow Sand City and finish this mission, the sooner we can go home."
"Of course," Bai Hong replied in a gentle tone.
He spurred his horse forward as well.
Little did they know, however, that the current Lu Yuan was far from miserable in the Northern Border. In fact, he was thriving.
Not only had he established a firm foothold, but he had also come under the patronage of the Zhou Family.
He had changed his name, making a clean break with his past.
「Nearly a month later」
After a series of fierce battles outside the city walls, Lu Yuan finally led his men back to Icefield City.
Their gains from this expedition were immense.
Standing outside the Merit Tower, Lu Yuan and his men dumped a mountain of severed heads onto the ground, along with the armor and weapons they had loaded onto their warhorses.
Everyone could see that Lu Yuan had once again returned with a massive haul.
A crowd quickly gathered to watch.
The Quartermaster arrived with his men and began to take inventory of the heads and other spoils.
He paid no mind to the sticky blood that caked his hands.
It had been many years since anyone had delivered this many heads to the Merit Tower.
Lu Yuan could hardly wait. If he could exchange all this for enough military merit and silver taels, he should have everything he needed to achieve his breakthrough.