Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 902: Contradictory Orders and the Barren Camp

"Commander." Lei Gang said while keeping his voice respectful but firm. "I must advise against this. Bringing an outsider into the middle of a training cycle disrupts many things. The recruits have already formed their hierarchies and survived the initial culling. Throwing a stranger into the mix will only cause confusion and unnecessary conflict."Tielan remained silent for a long moment. She watched a group of recruits struggling below. She knew Lei Gang was entirely correct. The logic of war dictated that late additions were a liability. But logic had completely failed her the moment she saw her son sitting in the courtyard of Gilded Fate City and begging for guidance.

She turned her head and looked at Lei Gang. Lei Gang was a seasoned warrior and a brutal taskmaster but he was also one of her most trusted friends. She knew he would defend her secrets with his life.

"The recruit is my son." Tielan stated plainly.

The words hit Lei Gang harder than a physical blow from a supreme beast. The chief instructor physically flinched. His eyes widened in shock and his massive arms dropped to his sides. He stared at the fierce commander as his mind struggled to process the revelation.

"Your son?" Lei Gang stammered. The imposing aura of the veteran warrior vanished entirely for a brief second. "You have a child?"

"I do." Tielan confirmed as her expression softened by the smallest fraction. "And he is currently feeling that he is lacking proper guidance. I am sending him here for as long as he wants to be here."

The shock faded from Lei Gang’s face and was rapidly replaced by a cold and creeping dread. He swallowed hard. Dealing with the descendants of the main clan was already a massive headache for the instructors. But dealing with the direct flesh and blood of Zhan Tielan was a terrifying prospect altogether. She was known across the cosmos for her uncompromising brutality and fierce temper.

"Commander, this is not a good idea." Lei Gang pleaded carefully as he took a slight step back. "Family and military discipline do not mix well. If he is your son, he belongs in the estates receiving personalized tutelage from the elders. Sending him into the mud with other recruits is asking for a disaster. I do not want to be the one responsible for his safety in a training environment."

Tielan narrowed her eyes and gave him a chilling glare that promised immense pain if he continued to argue.

Lei Gang snapped his mouth shut and instantly accepted his fate. He stood rigidly at attention and cursed his own luck internally. He was in deep trouble now. If the boy failed the training, the mother would be furious. If the boy succeeded but got injured along the way, the mother would still be furious.

Tielan reached into her dark armor and produced a token identical to the one she had given Li Yu. She tossed it to the instructor as Lei Gang caught it out of the air.

"You can find him using this token." Tielan instructed him. "In two weeks you will go there and bring him to the training grounds."

"Understood." Lei Gang nodded while holding the token carefully. "How should I handle his curriculum? Should I isolate him with a dedicated squad or assign him private quarters?"

"You will do no such thing." Tielan commanded sharply. "Do not give him any special treatment. He will stay where the others stay. He will receive the exact same cultivation resources based on his results as the rest of the recruits. He will train along with the others in the dirt and the blood. I am not the type of mother who spoils her child. He must earn his place and strength."

Lei Gang let out a small sigh of relief. If he was allowed to treat the boy like a normal recruit, it would make his job significantly easier. He could just throw him into the grinder and let the camp do its work.

"I will treat him exactly like the others." Lei Gang promised.

"Good." Tielan nodded firmly as she turned her gaze back to the training fields below. "However."

Lei Gang froze. He knew that word was a trap.

"If he were to get hurt, I will hurt you the exact same way." Tielan continued while her voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "If he suffers unnecessarily or lacks anything he needs to progress, you will be severely punished. Do you understand me, Lei Gang?"

The chief instructor stared at the back of her dark armor in total bewilderment. He was completely stunned by the sheer contradiction of her orders.

'What the heck is this?' Lei Gang screamed internally while his face remained a mask of stoic discipline. 'You just told me to give him no special treatment and throw him into the dirt! How am I supposed to treat him like a common recruit but also ensure he never gets hurt or lacks anything? This is an impossible task!'

He did not dare say a single word of his complaints aloud. He knew better than to argue with a mother’s logic especially when the mother in question was her.

"I understand perfectly, Commander." Lei Gang lied through his teeth as he offered a stiff nod.

"See to it that you arrange things well." Tielan added. "I will be checking on his progress personally. If I find anything not up to par, you will answer to me. Make sure there is no special treatment but ensure my boy is never treated poorly."

Lei Gang rubbed his temples and felt a massive headache forming behind his eyes. "It will be done."

"There is one final condition." Tielan said as she turned to face him again. "You are not to tell another soul who he is. More importantly, he does not know that I am his mother and you must keep it that way. If he discovers the truth through your incompetence, the consequences will be dire."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Lei Gang bowed deeply to hide his exasperation. He respected Tielan immensely and valued their long friendship, which was the only reason he was willing to shoulder this ridiculous burden.

"I will keep the secret, Commander." Lei Gang promised. "I will retrieve him in two weeks."

The two weeks passed in a blur of quiet preparation for Li Yu.

He spent his remaining time with Daiki and Sora when possible to just relax and have fun with his friends. In his time alone, he avoided the bustling merchant districts and focused entirely on resting his mind before the coming trials.

On the morning of the fourteenth day, Li Yu sat in the center of his private courtyard. The artificial twilight of The Veil filtered through the branches of the ancient cherry blossom tree.

A sudden and heavy pressure descended over the pavilion. It was not a hostile aura but it was incredibly dense and physical. It felt like a massive boulder had been dropped into the center of the serene garden.

The sliding wooden doors of the courtyard opened and Lei Gang stepped inside.

The mountain of a man ducked his head slightly to clear the doorframe. He looked around the pristine garden and then locked his gaze onto Li Yu. Lei Gang pulled the token from his pocket and held it up.

"The time is up." Lei Gang announced. "I am the chief instructor of the legion. You are coming with me. I am sure you have already been told."

Li Yu stood up and brushed the stray cherry blossom petals from his dark robes. He offered a respectful nod.

"I am ready Instructor." Li Yu replied calmly.

Lei Gang grunted in approval. He had expected the boy to be arrogant or hesitant but he seemed fairly grounded. Before Lei Gang could turn to leave, his sharp eyes narrowed. The veteran slaughterer possessed instincts honed across thousands of battlefields. He slowly turned his head toward the corners of the courtyard.

"We are not leaving yet." Lei Gang said coldly. He crossed his thick arms over his chest and let his crushing physical aura bleed into the environment. "Reveal yourselves before I drag you out by your necks."

The ambient space rippled and distorted. Fenric and Oram stepped out of the void near the cherry blossom tree. A second later, the shadows near the courtyard walls deepened and the five stealth protectors materialized. Winter, Autumn, Spring, Solstice and Summer stood in a loose formation.

Lei Gang stared at the seven figures standing in the garden and he snorted in disdain. They were skilled, possessing dense cultivation bases but to a veteran slaughterer who commanded a legion of elite warriors, they were just uninvited baggage.

"What is the meaning of this?" Lei Gang demanded while looking directly at Li Yu. "Why do you have a squad of outsiders hiding in your courtyard?"

"Those two are my guards." Li Yu pointed to Fenric and Oram. He kept his explanation vague as there was no need to go into full detail. He then looked at the five stealth experts. "I have absolutely no idea what the other five are doing here."

Winter stepped forward smoothly and offered a polite bow to Li Yu.

"We were assigned by the council to assist you." Winter lied effortlessly. "We are here to fetch things, manage your daily affairs, and ensure your surroundings remain comfortable."

Lei Gang let out a harsh scoff of disbelief.

"Do not insult my intelligence." Lei Gang growled at the Eidolon experts. "I do not need seven heavily armed outsiders loitering around my military camp. They are not coming with us."

Li Yu stepped forward and met the instructor’s gaze. He could not afford to leave the Eidolon experts behind. He currently held their Ancestor Elysia inside his soul space and he knew the Eidolon Court would panic if he disappeared into a foreign military camp without their protectors to monitor his safety.

"They are coming with me, Instructor." Li Yu stated firmly. "They are here to ensure my safety and they serve as my retainers. I will not leave them behind."

Lei Gang glared at the young man. "This is a training camp. It is an army, not a sightseeing resort where you bring an entourage of servants. They stay here."

"I really need to take them along, can you please allow it just this time?" Li Yu asked. "They will stay wherever I stay and they will not cause any trouble for you or your soldiers."

Lei Gang ground his teeth together. Any other recruit would have instantly been rejected for talking back to the chief instructor. But Lei Gang was trapped by his contradictory orders. He could not reject Li Yu and leave him behind because Tielan would punish him heavily for failing to bring her son. Starting off on the wrong foot with the fierce commander’s secret heir was a terrible move.

The chief instructor cursed his luck internally and rubbed his scarred chin. He was already developing a severe headache and the boy had not even swung a weapon yet.

"Fine." Lei Gang snapped in frustration. He pointed a massive finger at the seven Eidolon experts. "But they do not hide. I will not have invisible operatives prowling my camp. You will stay out of the shadows and move around normally like the rest of the camp personnel. I will arrange things for you."

"We understand completely." Fenric agreed from behind his black glass mask.

"Gather your things." Lei Gang grumbled as he turned his back on them. "We are leaving now."

Lei Gang raised his hands and gathered a terrifying amount of Qi. He punched the empty air with immense force. The kinetic impact shattered the spatial fabric and tore open a jagged rift.

Li Yu and his seven retainers followed the massive instructor through the violent tear in space. They traveled through the turbulent void for a brief time before emerging into the sky of the training realm.

Li Yu stepped out of the rift and immediately felt the harshness of the environment. The sky above was a muted grey, lacking any warmth. A howling wind tore across the landscape, carrying thick clouds of abrasive dust that stung his face. The world was defined by endless stretches of barren earth and towering jagged rocks that pierced the horizon. It was a dead and desolate world designed to offer no comfort.

Lei Gang led them down through the dusty air and toward a sprawling settlement in the distance.

As they descended, Li Yu took in the scale of the training camp. It was massive. High walls forged from rough dark stone surrounded rows of identical barracks and open training fields equipped with spatial arrays. The entire facility was housed and built for efficiency.

Several miles away from the walls of the camp sat a large and bustling city. The architecture was blocky and utilitarian. It was run by the Zhan Clan and their allied vassal clans to supply the military forces. It also acted as a trading hub since so many soldiers from the different clans are trained at the various training camps around it. Tielan was not the only one that had a training camp here.

They flew over the outer walls of the camp and ignored the shouts of the drilling recruits below. Lei Gang guided them toward a specific sector of the camp that was situated near the instructor quarters. They landed heavily on the packed dirt path and the abrasive wind whipped at Li Yu’s dark robes as he looked around his new temporary home.