Yun Qiang launched himself in a relentless series of attacks against the mannequin in front of him, each one of his moves carried with it the frustration he had bottled up in the last two weeks of constant marching.
He made a side sweep towards the mannequin with the intent of hitting the head; his grip slipped making him hit the heavy pole that held the mannequin in place. When his attack connected with the pole the momentum he had accumulated with his movements instantly stopped sending a small brass plaque in the air.
He stopped. After a few hours of non stop training his hands had become sweaty making it difficult for him to keep a good grip on his spear. He slowly walked towards the plaque and picked it up. It was small and fitted in his hands perfectly, the words "Yun Qiang 15th Legion" were cleanly engraved on it.
He sighed, while slowly running his fingers over the engraving. Two weeks had passed since the declaration of war. His team, like many others, had been assigned to the 15th Legion under the command of Company Lord Tang.
He dried his hands with a piece of cloth and continued with his training. After spending two weeks marching without stopping his body felt restless and his mind craved the exhaustion and calm that training brought him.
It's a shame nobody trains with me...
He briefly gazed around the empty ground while absent-mindedly attacking the mannequin vitals. The encampment he was staying now had a bigger and more furnished training ground than the one at the Shard, however it seemed it was rarely used by anyone.
In the three times he came here to train Yun Qiang had always found it empty with the exception of the occasional servant or soldier that was in charge of cleaning the place.
It seems they prefer to spend their time drinking and playing cards all day.
After this thought passed his mind, he felt he was being too harsh to his companions. It was normal for soldiers to enjoy their lives when they had to face the horrors of war, if it wasn't for his restless mind he would have joined them too.
He attacked again, this time faking a lunge before taking a step back and charging forwards with a wide swipe. Moves like these were a bit too flashy for Yun Qiang taste, but he remembered his counterpart used them a lot when fighting in a team, since it was a good way to disengage and punish overextended enemies.
A low whistle followed by a friendly voice reached Yun Qiang.
"Good move"
Yun Qiang turned around, finding the owner of the voice. The speaker was a man in his thirties, he was accompanied by two younger individuals and wore the same set of clothes as Yun Qiang, the only difference being in the color of their undergarment that was blue, instead of the gray Yun Qiang wore. This meant the group wasn't from the Shard but was from another fortress.
Yun Qiang paused recalling that the fifteenth legion was formed by 30 teams from two different locations, the Shard and ....
"You are from the Pendenniss regiment right?"
The man smiled
"Yes, yes Pendenniss Port" The man's accent was odd, constantly stretching the "s" sound like a serpent "We are missing a man for our spare wanna join us?"
Yun Qiang was about to say yes when a sudden thought crossed his mind making him change response.
"Port city? There's a sea in the south?"
When Yun Qiang saw the strange gazes of the group he instantly regretted asking about the sea.
The truth was that Yun Qiang lacked knowledge about the geography of the continent, the only thing he knew was the general position of the Major nations and their most powerful families but he didn't know the distribution of mountains, seas and rivers of the continent.
The man cleared his throat before speaking again with his snake like accent.
"I see, our little friend hasn't traveled a lot" he patted Yun Qiang in the back "Don't worry, it's normal not to know stuff like this if you don't travel much.
You see the entire continent is surrounded by a large ocean that is divided into four seas, called by their cardinal directions. The entire southern part of our kingdom is formed by a long coastline that covers a quarter of the Southern sea.
However the southern sea is almost completely devoid of Qi and is lacking in the wind department so boats can't sail there. That is why Pendennis exists. It is a transit city. Because of how the rivers in our kingdom flow, the ships that want to avoid the Southern Sea have to either pass through Pendennis or go north cross the border with the Crow empire and continue from there"
He paused before adding with pride
"It's a very important location, for the commerce of the Rose Kingdom, even the Crow empire considers it an important location."
Yun Qiang put his hand behind his head, he was happy the man had given him face and explained something so basic to him.
"Thank you for the explanation, I haven't traveled a lot in my life. Anyway, I'm okay with sparing even though I don't have much experience"
The man laughed,
"Don't worry friend almost everyone in this camp is a newbie fresh out of recruitment, just look at this place, it's completely empty, if this legion was made out of veterans you would see everyone constantly training and meditating, not playing cards and drinking their few contribution points away"
Yun Qiang felt a little uncomfortable, the man's idea of a veteran legion seemed a little too ideal, he didn't believe every veteran spend most of their time training, but the man had a point, a regular force would use the training ground more often.
"Anyway I'm Taon, and these two are Zin and Yong they are also fresh out of recruitment so you will find yourself comfortable with their level of skill."
Yun Qiang smiled then picked up a training spear from a nearby rack, he was ready to spar.
- Liang Family mansion - Rose Kingdom
Yun Nian hesitantly knocked on the door. The door looked sober, almost humble in the luxurious Liang mansion, however Yun Nian knocked on it with the utmost care; this door led to the personal office of Liang Wei, the person Yun Nian respected the most, even putting him above his master.
Obviously, he was grateful to his master for taking him under his wing, letting him take the Liang surname and start his cultivation journey, but the respect he had for Liang Wei was something different. While the respect he had for his master came from gratefulness, making him something akin to a second father, the respect he had for Liang Wei was that of a legend. The man was only in his mid-twenties but was hailed as one of the best array masters of the continent, and was also set up to inherit one of the biggest families in the Rose Kingdom. Besides this, the man had a cultivation level close to his master, being only one realm away from him.
Seeing that nobody answered his knocks, Yun Nian breathed a sigh of relief. Since the young master didn't answer the door, he had an excuse to idle in front of it and wait for his master to come back. In fact, Yun Nian would have never dared to disturb Liang Wei by himself, and he had asked his master to accompany him; however, the old man had left him alone with the excuse of dealing with some urgent matters.
He silently cursed his master. Since his arrival in the Liang family, his master had always pushed him to join social gatherings and change his way of talking and acting. According to him, he had to learn how a true member of the Liang family behaved. This had led to various situations where his master would accompany him to some meetings or gatherings with other cultivators only to leave him alone mid-event.
He did it again.....
Suddenly, a gentle voice, accompanied by the door opening, interrupted his thoughts.
"Liang Nian, come in."
Yun Nian hesitantly walked through the door while doing his best to suppress his anxiety. He instantly bowed down.
"I greet the young master!"
He felt a soft force pushing up, signaling him to stop bowing.
"You shouldn't instantly bow down when you see others, it gives them a sense of weakness."
"Ah, I'm sorry."
He was about to bow again when he was stopped by the same force as before.
"Don't bow again, there is no need." They locked eyes; Liang Wei was smiling at him, his delicate features being accentuated by the light coming from the window.
Yun Nian noticed he was staring at the young master and instantly shifted his gaze to the view outside. He tried his best to put into words his request.
"Uhm, well, I... uhm..."
Liang Wei interrupted him mid-sentence.
"I know why you are here. It's because of your little sister, right?"
Yun Nian stopped gazing at the sky outside and looked at Liang Wei in shock.
"Don't look at me like that, it's normal that you want your family to join you here." Liang Wei paused briefly. "Unfortunately, our men didn't arrive in time, and she has already joined another sect. But I can assure you it's a good one, a sect that is even more respected than the Skyward Pavilion."
Liang Wei walked beside him, then continued, "Follow me, someone is waiting for you."
Yun Nian felt some regret that his sister couldn't join the Skyward pavilion, but he quickly suppresed it. What mattered now was that he could finally see his sister again.
As he followed Liang Wei, his heart started beating faster, while his mind rapidly created a long list of questions and stories that he wanted to tell his sister. He wanted to tell her how it felt to have finally become a cultivator, how he had met his master; in short, he wanted to tell her everything that had happened to him in the last year.
Right, I should also ask her how Mum and Dad are doing. if they need money I can send it to them or I can just send them a letter and ask them if they want to come here and live with me. Or...
However, when he saw his sister, Yun Nian instantly forgot everything he had thought about and ran toward her to give her a hug, his sister doing the same. A little less than nine months had passed since he had seen Yun Mei; however, he felt as if he hadn't seen her in years.
The sound of someone clearing his throat reached him. He looked up, only to notice that Yun Mei didn't come here alone but that a barefooted cultivator wearing an orange robe had accompanied her. The man didn't wear the symbol of the Liang family, and he seemed extremely out of place in the waiting room.
He is probably Mei's new master...
Just as Yun Nian was about to bow and greet the man, Liang Wei stepped in and greeted the unknown cultivator.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Fazen from the Swords of Heaven."
Liang Wei bowed respectfully, then continued the introduction while elegantly waving his hand toward Yun Nian.
"This is Liang Nian, a new member of my family. He has a ninth-level spiritual root; I have high hopes for him."
These words were meant both as a way to present Fazen to Yun Nian while also letting Fazen know that Yun Nian was an important member of the family. It wasn't uncommon for some organizations to poach talent from each other with the excuse of blood ties; showing to Fazen that Yun Nian had already taken the Liang surname meant that this wasn't possible anymore and Fazen couldn't poach Nian from them.
Fazen shook his head. Even if he had some thought about poaching the Yun brothers from the Liang family, Liang Wei had already stopped him.
"At last, the Yun family is really blessed, two of their offspring have ninth-level spiritual roots. I wonder if Yun Qiang also has this kind of root? My master wants to take Mei into his family, but I feel bad dividing a happy family."
Fazen left the rest of the phrase hanging in the air. In truth, he wanted to know about Yun Qiang's details without committing to a direct invite to the Swords of Heaven. If Yun Qiang was already under the Liang family's protection or had a low-level spiritual root, he wouldn't bother, and would just make up a random excuse to Mei so she wouldn't look for her other brother in the future.
Yun Mei looked at Yun Nian with curiosity; his body had stiffened while his face had darkened when Yun Qiang was mentioned.
Yun Nian took a step towards Fazen; he was looking at the ground as if he was really ashamed of what he was about to say.
"I'm sorry, sir, but my brother has assaulted an alchemist while trying to steal pills from them," he paused briefly. "Right now, he is serving in the Border Guard as a punishment. His spirit—"
Yun Mei interrupted him.
"No! It can't be! Qiang would never do something like this! It must be a misunderstanding of some kind!"
Fazen shook his head. Mei was still young; it was normal for her to act like this and uphold her brother.
However, even if he looked concerned outwardly, inwardly he was actually smiling. This was definitely a good opportunity to cut connections with one of her brothers.
Just by looking at the punishment, Fazen could already tell that Yun Qiang wasn't someone with good talent, so he could just push Mei toward abandoning her brother. He didn't want Yun Qiang to reappear in the future and beg Mei for money and resources. He didn't want others to leech off his new junior.
"I'm sorry, Mei, but sometimes people aren't what we think they are," Fazen's voice was kind and understanding.
Mei insisted,
"No, the alchemist is lying! Qiang wouldn't do something like that!"
Yun Nian looked her in the eyes; he knew how serious of a crime Qiang had committed. Yun Qiang had assaulted Wuji, even threatening to kill him just to steal some Qi Gathering Pills. He spoke using a serious voice similar to the one their father used when scolding them.
"Mei. This is the truth. Qiang has committed a serious crime. That alchemist is Wuji, you know him, he is an honest guy. He wouldn't lie. Besides this, he and Qiang were good friends; why would he lie?"
Hearing this, Mei fell silent. She knew Wuji since she was little. As the assistant of the village doctor, Wuji had cured her when she was sick. Knowing this, she couldn't refuse the accusation anymore and had to accept that her brother was a criminal and had assaulted one of his friends for resources.
Her rage quickly disappeared, becoming sadness; tears started staining the floor while Yun Nian tried to console her. However, even if her brother was a criminal, she still held feeling for him and wanted to make sure he was safe. She didn't want him to die on the battlefield.
"Is he safe? The kingdom is at war now..."
Yun Nian wanted to respond, but he didn't know what to tell her. He had accepted Yun Qiang's imprisonment quickly, and he had never bothered to look up any information about Yun Qiang's deployment or team. Luckily, Liang Wei answered in his stead.
"You don't have to worry. Yun Qiang is in a safe location right now and won't see much action during this war."
Hearing this, Mei started to slowly calm down, while Yun Nian's respect for Liang Wei grew by a tier. Even when his brother was accused of a serious crime, he had thought about their connection and put him in a safe spot on the border.
Liang Wei's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Well, fellow Daoist Fazen, we should leave them alone for a while; they probably have a lot to tell each other. Why don't we get some tea together?"
Fazen slightly bowed.
"I would be honored. I enjoy the rose tea of this kingdom quite a lot."
The duo then left Yun Nian and Yun Mei alone. Yun Nian pushed the fate of Yun Qiang to the back of his head and smiled again. He could finally spend some time with his sister.
-- Later the same day --
Liang Wei gazed outside the window as he usually did when thinking about important matters. His conversation with Fazen had been very interesting, and even if his guest wouldn't admit it he knew the real reason behind "The swords of Heaven" sudden appearance in the Rose Kingdom.
There was no way Fazen had traveled all the way from the Crow Empire just to send some messages and spend time with some "Old friends" and casually happened to run into Mei. People from the Swords of Heaven had a natural disdain for mortals someone like him wouldn't stop to test the talent of some random mortal for fun.
They probably deduced that Yun Mei wil bring large amounts of good fortune to their sect.
Liang Wei sighed. Even if the methods of predicting the future and deducing fortune that the Swords of Heaven possessed were quite vague, he envied them. The hardest part of creating a strategy wasn't the execution but deciding what to do and when to do it. Even if predictions weren't exactly famous for their precision, he could still use them to make the right decisions when he had multiple options, or at least use them as a vague guide towards his objectives.
Predicting the future, or even just perceiving the flow of fate, were abilities that he longed for, now more than ever considering what he was planning to do in this war.
Liang Wei shook his head, while pushing these thoughts aside; techniques related to fate and predicting the future were either lost to time or heavily guarded. There was no way he could get his hands on them. Now he had to focus on the war while pushing forward his other plans; the enemies had already moved and he had to react.
He was about to turn around when Yun Nian caught his eyes. Right now the guy was walking side by side with a servant while carrying a chest filled with food and vegetables, he was probably helping her. If someone ignored the luxurious clothing he was wearing they would easily mistake him for another servant in charge of stocking food and cleaning the mansion.
Liang Wei shifted his gaze away from the window.
Too innocent.
Yun Nian seemed blissfully unaware of his important status in the family and even after receiving some lessons about etiquette he still had trouble fitting in with the rest of the family's cultivators. Yun Nian seemed uncomfortable when talking to them and only looked at ease when he was speaking with his master or the various servants around the mansion.
Liang Wei pushed away these thoughts and sat on his chair determined on studying the enemies' movements and adapt his plan accordingly. However when he summoned his Go board to simulate the battles that would take place close to the Shard he couldn't help but murmur.
"Really too innocent."
On the Go board, the white and black pieces were lined up, forming a long and complicated pattern that mirrored the Legion's placement along the border. In this sea of troops, seven red pieces stood out among their peers. Liang Wei knew what the color meant. Every plan demanded a sacrifice.