Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach, Chapter 31: Sharing the Burden
At this time, Song Hu knocked and entered the room with a thick stack of documents in his arms. All of them were reports related to the takeover and reorganization of the Blackflow defensive region.
Presently, Dark Flame had already taken control of the entire warzone in name, and the reorganization of the seventh division was coming to a conclusion. Dark Flame was originally a force of less than four thousand men, but now that it had suddenly expanded to over ten thousand, there were countless details among the men which required mediation and wearing-in.
In order to gain strict control over this newborn force, Qianye and Song Hu temporarily had no intention to spread their forces throughout the domain. After accepting the surrender of the various towns, he followed the former procedure by stationing a small unit there to maintain basic defensive operations.
Dark Flame’s most important mission was to ensure the absolute control of Blackflow City along with its two conventional military bases, Cloud Sail City and Four Rivers Military Base.
According to Song Hu, the entire process of taking control was especially rapid and smooth. As for the bloody methods behind this so-called smooth, he only played them down and moved on to other topics.
Qianye didn’t pay too much attention to such details and was going over the armament list in his hands.
The seventh division’s properties were even more abundant than he had imagined. They possessed a fair number of heavy trucks, ten-odd heavy cannons, and the same number of armored combat vehicles. Such a scale of weaponry had far surpassed the standard of a dispatch division in charge of a third-rate war zone.
It went without saying that these armaments didn’t come from Wu Zhengnan but were procured after Wei Bainian took office. It was precisely because of this that no suspicion was roused among the seventh division officers when Wei Bainian, upon his resignation, ordered them sealed and placed in storage, only to be used after the new division commander had taken inventory.
And after being sealed and stored, it would take technicians the greater half of a day to bring them out. Qianye couldn’t help but sigh emotionally—no wonder he felt that Cloud Sail City and Four River Military Base were especially weak in firepower when he attacked them. It turned out that there was such a reason behind this.
Only someone like Wei Bainian was a general truly capable of leading troops. With just a small instruction, he had greatly reduced the fighting power of two military bases that had been operating for many years.
And now, all these weapons were left behind to Qianye’s benefit. Strictly in terms of weaponry and troops, Dark Flame’s current strength was already catching up to the imperial regular army divisions.
Qianye passed through a relatively peaceful and uninteresting period. The days were filled with handling military affairs and cultivation.
On the expeditionary army’s side, both the headquarters and the neighboring divisions showed no signs of movement. However, Song Zining sent him a letter saying he had heard that Dong Qifeng had gone back to the upper continent to assemble his family’s private army. It seemed a battle was unavoidable. Song Zining warned Qianye repeatedly that he must pay attention to his own safety as well as that of Dark Flame’s core members. One had to know that the most effective method to win a civil conflict was to target the leader.
Originally, Qianye had wanted to head over to the surrounding dark race territories to take a look at the situation, however, he naturally couldn’t leave the city under such circumstances. In the current Dark Flame, he was the only one who had the power to contend against a champion. That Dong Qifeng had gone back to muster his family’s forces and might even pull out a couple more champions. As such, Qianye, Song Hu, Duan Hao, and the others had to rearrange the city’s defenses and bolster their defensive capacity on a large scale.
Several more days passed by in the end, and, instead of Song Zining, it was Wei Potian who had arrived first.
Qianye had just concluded his cultivation and walked out of the room when Lil’ Seven approached to help him change into a new set of clothes. At the same time, she said, “Marquis Bowang’s heir of the Far East Wei Clan has come to visit you. He has been waiting outside for some time now.”
Qianye was immediately astonished. He hadn’t imagined that Wei Potian would arrive so fast even if he really did have the intention to come to Evernight Continent. He had just examined the expeditionary army’s latest bulletin and understood that the war in Far East Province was still ongoing and had transformed into a war of attrition. Why had Wei Potian suddenly run over to Evernight Continent while the flames of war were still burning?
Qianye immediately changed his clothes and headed toward the parlor in a hurry.
Before the french window was a man with broad shoulders and a slim waist standing with his back toward the door. He was gazing at the city outside the window as dusk slowly crept over it. His simple standing posture possessed the imposing grandeur of a mountain.
A wisp of blue flashed past Qianye’s eyes. With his True Sight, he could very clearly see nine dazzling origin nodes flickering on the man’s body. There was a faintly visible stream of energy circulating between them. It was actually the sign of an impending breakthrough.
During the period of his absence, Wei Potian had already stepped into the ninth rank, and his cultivation was already quite close to that of a champion.
Wei Potian turned around after hearing the door being opened and glanced at Qianye with shining eyes. Then he suddenly walked over with large strides and gave Qianye a big bear hug.
This heavy hug was as fierce as that of a literal bear and almost broke Qianye into two. However, Wei Potian soon realized something wasn’t quite right. It felt as though he had hugged a solid pillar made of superalloy—he couldn’t move Qianye even slightly no matter how much strength he exerted.
The embrace lasted quite some time. Only after discovering something wrong with Lil’ Seven’s expression and seeing her little mouth hang open so wide that it could fit a goose egg did the two separate. Neither Wei Potian nor Qianye showed any signs of having activated their origin power. Naturally, Lil’ Seven couldn’t see that they were, in truth, competing in pure strength.
Qianye smiled and said, “So fast! You’re already rank nine.”
Wei Potian laughed loudly and replied with a bitter expression, “But aren’t you also rank nine? Dammit! I thought I could totally suppress you!”
Wei Potian’s talents have always been outstanding, and the clan had provided him with as much resources as he required. He had progressed rapidly during the past year and surprised the entire upper class of the empire. Additionally, Wei Potian’s awakened abilities were extremely powerful and allowed him to fight to his heart’s content on the battlefield.
It was common knowledge that the more intense the battles, the easier it was to break through. As such, it was publicly accepted that the Wei clan heir’s future was full of promise.
But Wei Potian and Qianye had always advanced shoulder to shoulder since their reunion back then. Every time he met Qianye after a period of satisfaction, he would feel as if a bucket of cold water had been splashed into his face and have no choice but to sober up.
Qianye’s eyes turned blue once again. He observed carefully for a while and then said with a frown, “Potian, your foundation seems to be lacking in purity. Have you been advancing too fast? With your talents, the champion rank is only the beginning of a long future path. There’s no need to rush with breaking through.”
Qianye had discovered that there were already signs of qi aggregation in Wei Potian’s nine origin nodes, and the latter seemed to have no intention to suppress his level. According to Wei Potian’s advancement speed for the past year, a breakthrough was imminent.
But Wei Potian didn’t seem to mind at all. He patted Qianye’s shoulder and laughed loudly, “That’s good enough. I’ll breakthrough when it’s time to breakthrough. What’s the use of pondering over so many details? In any case, this daddy here is a man destined to become a marshal. There’s no need to be overly careful with cultivation!”
Qianye gave Wei Potian’s words some thought and had to admit that it might be reasonable in its own way.
High-grade secret arts focused more on talents and comprehension as they progressed, and everyone’s path above the level of champion was different. Wei Potian had been charging around violently all these years and had nurtured a second-to-none momentum. Especially since the cultivation of his Thousand Mountains and Sky Shattering Bright Fist was dependent on his momentum. Perhaps he might be able to forge a path of his own by advancing all the way without grinding for origin power purity.
Qianye was hesitating whether or not he should tell Wei Potian about how he had seen signs of origin power flow within his body. In the end, Wei Potian waved his hands and said in a carefree manner, “Enough with the nonsense. Let’s fight first! Qianye, you’re becoming more and more long-winded now. You’re almost starting to sound like that sissy Song Seven. I’ve said this before, but that gigolo isn’t a good person.”
At the mention of Song Seven, Wei Potian began to unleash a torrent of unpleasant words. Additionally, there were many irrelevant comparisons and groundless accusations within them.
Qianye’s ears were buzzing from the noise, and it took a fair amount of effort to resist the urge to beat this man to the ground. He waved his hand toward Lil’ Seven and instructed her to open the fighting room.
He immediately took his stance after entering the ring and said with a laugh, “Qianye, I’ve been killing on the battlefield for such a long time and it so happens that I’ve gained some insight recently. Come, come, come! I’ll let you know today what it means to be unmoving as a mountain!”
Wei Potian released a loud shout. His momentum immediately surged to the skies, and the deep yellow radiance emerging around his body was so dense that it was almost tangible. Images of numerous mountain peaks actually emerged behind his back.
Qianye had long since learned from Wei Bainian that Wei Potian had already broken through to the seventh realm of the Thousand Mountains, and now, he was personally witnessing the group of mountains materialize. Although merely an illusion, they possessed the imposing aura of a majestic mountain range. He couldn’t help but sigh in admiration at Wei Potian’s comprehension.
Just by the realm of his Thousand Mountains, ordinary champions could forget about breaking through his defenses.
Wei Potian let out another resounding shout akin to spring thunder and pressed toward Qianye step by step, each as heavy as a mountain.
Qianye shot him a glance. He then quietly removed East Peak and placed it conveniently against the wall. The entire fighting room actually shook slightly as the sword touched the ground.
Wei Potian was momentarily astonished, and a familiar sense of diffidence arose in his heart. He wanted to forfeit the match immediately, but Qianye had already circulated his energy and struck out directly with a forward stride.
The momentum of Qianye’s fist was fairly slow and resembled a person practicing the basic form of a jab. However, there seemed to be genuine and strenuous effort involved in his movements as if he were pushing against ten thousand tons of seawater.
By the time his fist was midway, a faintly discernible rumble of thunder began to emerge in the room and soon erupted into a thunderous echo of crashing tides.
One fist to move the wind and thunder!
The intuition Wei Potian had honed through countless life and death battles was screaming madly. He let out an odd cry and wanted to run away, but the space around him had suddenly turned incomparably dense and sticky. A powerful force actually pushed Wei Potian forward to meet Qianye’s fist head on.
Left with no other choice, he braced himself and received the incoming fist with crossed arms.
Only a sudden clap of thunder was heard before Wei Potian was blasted onto the floor, smashing a human-shaped hole therein. The brightness of the yellow origin power radiance around his body was fluctuating rapidly, while the illusory mountain peaks became distorted and finally vanished.
After their reunion, the illustrious Thousand Mountains which had allowed Wei Potian to move unhindered throughout the battlefield had once again been smashed apart by Qianye’s fist.
Wei Potian’s momentum was too strong when he charged over—it was as if a sky-piercing mountain peak was pressing forward directly. As a result, Qianye had subconsciously attacked with full force. Not only had he used forty tides of the Combatant Formula, but also invoked a wisp of worldly origin power from his surroundings.
Qianye soon regained his senses and hurriedly went over to help Wei Potian up. But by the time he arrived, the latter had already clambered up with a grimace and was crying out in pain after some movement.
“Goddammit, what a heavy blow! Ouch!!! Don’t touch me!” Wei Potian howled as he slapped Qianye’s hand away and struggled to stand up. There seemed to be some lingering fear in his mind as he gazed at Qianye with a begrudged expression.
Qianye was somewhat worried after seeing that gaze. He scanned Wei Potian’s body with True Sight and felt secretly relieved after finding no broken bones. He casually picked up East Peak which he had left leaning against the wall and was just about to say something. However, Wei Potian spoke first.
“Wait! Let me see that sword,” shouted Wei Potian.
Qianye found it odd but nonetheless passed East Peak to Wei Potian.
After the blade changed hands, Wei Potian immediately let out an odd cry. His whole body slightly sunk down and almost collapsed to the floor. His Thousand Mountains had just been broken and he was quite weak at the moment. He would have been pressed down by East Peak if not for his firm horse stance.
Qianye hurriedly snatched the sword back and helped Wei Potian stand firm.
The latter wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and said, “Could you have been planning to hack me with that sword?”
Qianye replied calmly, “Yeah, it’s called East Peak. Since you claim yourself to be as unmoving as the mountains, I had indeed wanted to try it out.”
“You’re inhuman!” Wei Potian said while clenching his teeth.
Despite his momentary weakness, he had still gotten a good idea of the blade’s weight. If Qianye’s fist just now had been replaced by a slash of this sword, he would’ve been left with a dozen or so fractures at least. He would’ve been bed-ridden for several days even with his superior gift in regeneration.
However, Qianye’s smile was just as clear and brilliant. “I think so too.”
Wei Potian suddenly broke into a laughter accompanied by a wisp of craftiness contrary to his originally outspoken manner. “Qianye, now that we’ve already finished sparring with each other, I’ve recently run into some problems, you see. Since we’re brothers, you naturally have to help me bear this burden.”
