章 13: Tutelage
It was about 4 a.m on a rainy night. Fang Li was a newly appointed guard on an outpost in District 12. He was about 20 years of age with short black hair and a sturdy build. It was his duty to be on guard that night.
It was quite chilly outside so he was standing near a heat-stone on top of the watchtower. His job was to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary and sound the alarm in case of an emergency, such as a barrier lighting up.
"Damn it, why is it my turn again? This hazing bullshit is getting real old, real fast," he mumbled rubbing his hands together in the cold of the night.
Suddenly, he heard a noise outside the camp. Taken aback he jumped up and started looking around. No matter how many complaints these soldiers had, when it came to doing their jobs they never relaxed.
He saw a hunched figure slowly moving towards the camp. It passed through the detection mines without triggering them, and the first thing that came to Fang Li's mind was that it was a demon. And not just a normal one, but such a powerful one that it could even bypass the mines they had placed outside.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Looked towards the figure again and it was still moving without a care in the world, just a few dozen meters away from the camp. So Fang Li finally made up his mind and sounded the alarm.
*EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
It was like a scene from a war movie.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!!" an extremely loud voice shouted and the two dozen soldiers that were asleep sprang up and into action.
"Everyone take positions!" ordered Sgt. Wei, getting on top of the wall to see what was in front.
Everyone was extremely nervous, if something got this close to the camp without sounding a single alarm, then it was probably powerful enough to kill everyone there. Yet not a single person of the 24 people present in the camp even thought about running.
There was a residential area not too far behind them. If they ran away, hundreds would die.
The soldiers took up their spears and bows and got up on the wall, looking at the lanky figure outside.
"Stop! This is Fortuna City of the Mei Kingdom! No matter who you are, do not throw away your life needlessly. You have no chance of making it out of here alive if you hurt a single civilian!" Sgt. Wei barked from the top of the wall menacingly.
Just as they were getting ready to release their arrows, a weak voice came from the figure.
"Um, is this the outpost number 36? I got a little lost and have been trying to find outpost 36 for a few hours now," the figure said.
"Who are you? What's your name? Why are you looking for outpost 36?" the Sgt asked after a few seconds, thinking this to be a ploy from the enemy. But then again, if the figure was powerful enough to bypass the warning systems of the camp, why would it need to lie?
"My name is Hao Xuan, some soldiers came to find me yesterday at my home but I was away," he replied weakly.
And then the Sgt suddenly remembered about the unusual order he got from the main army.
He jumped down from the several meter tall walls, solidly landing on the ground.
"Come here," he said gesturing towards Hao Xuan.
Hao Xuan complied and went up to him, the Sgt took a look at his face and suddenly his expression turned even worse.
"Attention!" he shouted and all the soldiers stood up straight.
He turned around, "Everyone get down here and form a line," he shouted.
"Fang Li, step forward!" he said again.
Taken by surprise, Fang Li came up to the front of the line.
"Everyone, take turns and beat this fuckers ass until even his own mother can't recognize him," the Sgt gave the order.
"Wha- wait wait, Sgt what did I do?" he asked horrified. If these guys got their hands on him, he won't be able to walk for days.
"Shut the hell up! You absolute god damn moron! The reason the alarm didn't sound was because he is no threat at all. A calf could kill this kid," the Sgt shouted back, now even angrier than before.
Hao Xuan was completely speechless at this point. He didn't know if he should be glad that the situation got resolved or offended that a newborn calf is considered more of a threat than him.
The Sgt led Hao Xuan inside the camp, but he could still hear the screams from outside.
"NO, Please not there, it's already so swollen, have mercy you assholes!" Fang Li screamed, trying to protect his vital and private parts.
***
Sgt. Wei was a large bald headed man, with a massive hammer on his back. His face turned a little red whenever he got angry, just like it had a few mins ago.
He brought Hao Xuan to the kitchen and told him to sit as he put a kettle on the stove.
After a couple of minutes he came back with two cups of tea and gave one to Hao Xuan.
"Seems like you made quite an impression on someone kid, what's your story?" he asked as he sat down and looked towards Hao Xuan.
Hao Xuan was about 6 feet tall with a pasty complexion. His was quite good looking but his green eyes always caught everyone's attention. He had a thin figure, and when compared to people like Maaz and the Sgt, he looked like an emancipated teen.
So Hao Xuan told him everything that happened in the last two days as there was no reason to hide it.
After listening to his story, the Sgt's opinion of the scrawny little kid changed. Even he would never think of going up against an Alces alone like that.
"Alright, even though you're weak as shit right now, we can work on that. Your character ain't bad. You wanna become stronger? Stay here and I'll train you as much as possible," he replied after a few moments.
Hao Xuan was caught by surprise. Was this why they came? To recruit him? That made the whole thing much easier then.
"Yes, I want to get stronger. Please guide me," Hao Xuan said giving a bow.
"Mhmm," Sgt. Wei nodded in response.
"Alright, there is an extra room to the left, take that. It's still a bit early so try to get some sleep, we'll start tomorrow at 8 a.m sharp," he said leaving the area.
Hao Xuan got settled in, this was going to be his home for a little while. A loud metal clacking noise woke him up when it was time for breakfast.
He got to meet the rest of the soldiers, and to his surprise, a quarter of them were women. Because of cultivation, the difference between each gender was reduced quite a bit. Women were in the military and actually made a big part of it. They fought and cultivated, and some of the most powerful figures in this world were from the fairer sex.
After that, he was led to a small open training field at the back of the camp, where Sgt Wei was waiting for him.
"Alright, let's get started. So what's your cultivation manual?" he asked while sitting down in the middle of the ground.
"Glaive cultivation Manual," Hao Xuan replied.
"Glaive? How did you get the Glaive Manual? It's not even available to the general public, even for military officers it's not easy to get your hands on one," he asked extremely surprised.
"I don't know, it was just there when I was selecting the manuals," Hao Xuan replied casually. Was it really that great?
"Hmm, well no matter. I know a bit about it, but not too much. What do you know about glaives in general?" Sgt Wei asked with a questioning gaze.
"Just what I have read from the manual itself, that it requires high speed, strength and endurance and a lot of work."
"Hmm, alright. Well, when you talk about glaives, especially in the cultivation world, there are a LOT of variations in the weapon itself. For example, naginata, guandao and Pudao, Sovnya and Palma are some of the most popular types of glaives. They each have their own slight differences and it depends on the user's ability and taste what they want to go with. Also, each cultivator usually makes some alterations to make it more 'personal'."
"But the reason why glaives have such a high difficulty is because their characteristics are a mix of many different weapons. A glaive has the range and penetrating power of a spear, the nimbleness and flexibility of swords, the severing power of a saber, and the absolute crushing force of blunt weapons like hammers and clubs."
"That's why for many it's easier to focus on one weapon and then take on some supplementary skills or spells to compliment your weapon," Sgt Wei finished.
Hao Xuan thought about the first paragraph in the Cultivation Manual and now it made more sense. With a weapon of such absolute power, if it could be mastered to the peak by someone, they might really be able to slay gods and demons.
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