Chapter 177: The Yaoqing Four Royals
At 14 years old, the grueling, dawn-to-dusk drills were your entire life. Feixiao attacked the training with a ferocity that bordered on desperate. She was the first on the gravity-sparring grounds, her battle axe a blur, and the last to leave the weapons range, her arms trembling from exhaustion. She learned the fastest because she worked the hardest, driven by a fear of the "Moon Madness" she carried within her.
You trained beside her, a strange and quiet shadow. Where Feixiao learned through brutal, relentless repetition, you learned through pure insight. The Efficient Learning talent was a cheat code. You could watch a sword master demonstrate a complex form once and replicate it perfectly. You mastered the entire standard Cloud Knight combat manual in a week, much to the disbelief of your instructors.
Jiang Li, as you'd expected, was not skilled in combat. She found her calling not on the sparring ground, but in the quiet, sterile halls of the medical bays. Her innate Abundance's Blessing manifested as a profound, intuitive talent for healing. She could soothe fevers with a touch and learned to mend wounds that baffled senior physicians.
Neergul, on the other hand, was born for the void. He was a natural in the flight simulators, his hands moving over the complex controls as if he were born with them. He could execute high-G maneuvers that made veteran pilots sick, his laughter echoing through the comms.
Your first true expedition was a "milk run," a simple patrol mission with Yueyu leading, tracking a scavenger signal near a drifting ship debris field. It was, of course, an ambush.
The Abominations of Abundance swarmed from the wreckage, grotesque amalgamations of flesh and corrupted code. Feixiao, seeing her new comrades—her new family—threatened, let out a roar. She charged at the very front, her movements clean, precise, and lethal.
But she was too aggressive. She overextended, and a massive, multi-limbed creature burst from a container, surrounding her.
"Feixiao!" Jiang Li screamed.
A red haze crept into the edges of Feixiao's vision. The fear of being overwhelmed, the terror of her "Madness," was eclipsed by a more primal rage. She didn't just fight; she slaughtered. When she regained her consciousness, she was standing in a circle of utter carnage. The ground was covered in the twitching, dissolving remains of fiends.
She was unharmed. But the other Cloud Knight soldiers in the patrol stared at her, their weapons lowered, their expressions a sickening mix of gratitude and raw terror. They looked at her not as a hero, but as if she were one of the monsters she had just slain.
"What... what are you staring at?" Feixiao's voice trembled, the bloodlust fading, leaving her feeling cold and exposed.
One soldier took an instinctive step back, his hand tightening on his weapon. "She's... one of them..." he whispered.
"Enough!" Your voice, still that of a 14-year-old, cut through the tense silence with the authority of a general. You stepped forward, placing yourself between Feixiao and the whispering soldiers.
"All of you, shut up!" you commanded, your golden eyes, enhanced by the Mystic Eyes you kept hidden, sweeping over them with a coldness that made them flinch. "She just saved your lives! She is exhausted, not a monster! Don't you dare disturb the wounded!"
You walked to Feixiao's side, ignoring the blood, and put a hand on her shoulder. "You did well. Rest."
Feixiao stared at you, stunned, before her legs finally gave out.
That evening, Yueyu looked at the three of you gathered around Feixiao's sickbay bed. "You saw what she's capable of. The Moon Madness... it is a dangerous, unpredictable power."
He looked at you, Jiang Li, and Neergul. "Are you... not afraid of her?"
"Why should we be afraid?" Jiang Li asked, puzzled as she changed the cooling cloth on Feixiao's forehead. "She's our friend. She just saved us."
"Exactly," you said, not looking up from the sword you were cleaning. "No matter what she becomes, she is our sister. We will stay with her."
"Mm! Always together!" Neergul nodded vigorously from the corner, his mouth full of a ration bar.
Yueyu looked at your unshakeable loyalty, and a deep, profound smile of relief spread across his face. "Very good."
At 15 years old, your performance on that first expedition, and your unshakeable loyalty to each other, cemented Yueyu's decision. He formally took all four of you as his personal disciples. The training became even stricter, moving from standard drills to specialized tutelage.
Feixiao's training focused on close-quarters combat, learning to channel her "Moon Madness" into a controlled, devastating battle rage rather than a blind slaughter.
Jiang Li was assigned to the chief medical officer, her hands glowing with the soft green light of Abundance's Blessing as she learned to heal not just the body, but the mind.
Neergul was given command of his own small, experimental scout skiff, becoming Yueyu's eyes in the sky.
And you... you focused on swordsmanship and tactics. Your swordsmanship became a thing of legend among the disciples, a fluid, perfect, and utterly lethal dance. But your true strength was your Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. You didn't just see the "death" of living beings; you saw the "death lines" of strategies, the "fatal flaws" in an enemy's formation, the "point of collapse" in a fortified wall.
You became the "sharpest spear" of the Qingqiu Guard, not because you were the strongest, but because you knew precisely where the enemy's heart was, and you never, ever missed.
At 16 years old, you were unleashed. The "Yaoqing Four" became a self-contained, lethally efficient combat unit.
On the breached hull of a derelict Mara-struck vessel, Abominations of Abundance swarmed from the dark, corrupted engine room.
"Feixiao, you take the front! Neergul, cover our exit!" you commanded.
"Finally!" Feixiao roared, her battle axe cleaving the first monster in two. "The rear is up to you, Orion!"
"Leave it to me!" you replied. You didn't charge. You simply moved, a white-haired phantom gliding through the chaos. The black lines of death were clear in your vision. You didn't waste energy on heavy armor or thick hides. Your dagger just... touched them.
Shing. A monster's primary limb went dead, its 'death' triggered. Shing. Another's head, which was a fatal point, was severed along a line. You were an artist of annihilation.
From above, Neergul's battle cruiser, the "Stray Cat," laid down precise, targeted fire support, his cannons vaporizing threats before they could get close.
In the rear triage set up in the airlock, Jiang Li's hands glowed with green light, stabilizing a wounded Cloud Knight, her healing power flowing endlessly.
After the battle, the four of you gathered on the wreckage, the void of space silent around you.
"We coordinated well today," you summarized, wiping your clean dagger on a rag.
"Jiang Li's healing skills have improved again," Feixiao praised, her axe resting on her shoulder.
"Neergul's support was also very timely," Jiang Li added with a smile, packing her medical kit.
From 17 to 18 years old, your legend grew. Battlefields where the "Four Royals" were present always ended in great victories. You became the Yaoqing's most reliable blade. Yueyu found he no longer needed to intervene; he just pointed you in the right direction and waited for the victory report.
At 19 years old, you were no longer just "disciples." The Cloud Knights of the Yaoqing, and even the other Xianzhou ships you supported, had given you a title. A title whispered with awe, respect, and a hint of fear.
"The Yaoqing Four Royals."
It was a name that spread like wildfire. Four children from the fallen lands, four orphans of war, had proven themselves. They had become the pride of the Yaoqing, a symbol of hope and unwavering strength.
Your relationships remained strong, forged in the crucible of war and bound by a shared past. After your latest victory, the four of you gathered on the high observation deck of your flagship, sharing a stolen bottle of Sky-Leaf wine. You drank and sang old, half-remembered songs from your long-lost homes, your voices echoing under the light of the Yaoqing's artificial stars.