Chapter 583: Reunion
Translator: TYZ Editor: X, TYZ
The Surveillance Division camp.
Xiao Shan was packing his luggage. Suddenly, someone knocked on his door. Without turning around, he answered, "Come in."
It was Xiao Lin. He looked at Xiao Shan with a complicated expression on his face.
The two of them were extremely familiar with each other. Xiao Shan knew it was Xiao Lin without even turning around. He continued to pack his luggage and asked, "Are you here to send me off?"
With a heavy heart, Xiao Lin replied, "You’re going to the front line soon, so how could I not send you off?"
After fastening the last rope of his luggage, Xiao Shan turned around and replied plainly, "I am merely going to the front line. It’s not like we are never going to see each other again."
Xiao Lin did not reply to Xiao Shan. It was ominous to talk about death when one was packing his or her luggage. He changed the topic and said, "Sir will not be coming to send you off. He said that since all of you have decided to go the front line, fight with all your might and don’t be cowards."
Xiao Shan had already expected that the Division Leader wouldn’t personally send him off. He replied calmly, "Of course we won’t. Tell him that I’m really sorry for implicating him this time around."
The more Xiao Shan appeared calm, the more uneasy Xiao Lin felt. He very much missed the time spent in the Old Territory. Even though they led an arduous life back then, they were like a big family without any barriers between each other.
The current Surveillance Division had become divided. The harmonious and united atmosphere no longer existed.
"How many people are going with you?" Xiao Lin asked.
"352," Xiao Shan replied with an exact number.
Xiao Lin remained speechless. The Surveillance Division had a total of 1,500 troops. Now they were only left with 1148 soldier. Nearly one-third of them chose to follow Xiao Shan to the front line.
They were utterly disappointed in Nian Tingfeng.
Xiao Lin had a lot of words to say, but the moment they reached his mouth, they simply became just one sentence, "Make sure they survive."
When Xiao Shan heard this sentence, the calm look on his face disappeared and was replaced by a solemn look.
"I will try my best. You should know that I am not really good in war-related matters, so I can’t promise you that."
"No one can make any promises now." Xiao Lin shook his head.
"Everyone is well aware of the situation. All of them just want to die at the right place. The best elite unit in the world shouldn’t die at home," Xiao Shan replied.
Xiao Lin felt extremely ashamed. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Xiao Shan patted his shoulder.
"I’m leaving now."
…..
The war banner of the Spear of Heavy Cloud Division became the most eye-catching symbol for the combat divisions that had retreated from the front line. Fearing that they would be plundered by the Lightning Razor, all of them carried the war banner of the Spear of Heavy Cloud in every city they traveled through.
The Spear of Heavy Cloud’s war banner became the war banner that everyone was most familiar with.
After entering the Wilderness, the number of combat divisions had been declining. There was no other singular combat division that had its war banner appear in so many cities, and this phenomena was discussed many people.
After receiving Iron Lady’s letter, Ai Hui immediately knew her intentions.
He no longer cared about the combat divisions that he encountered along the way and headed for the defensive line at the Windy Pearl Bridge at full speed.
The size of the Fish Bone was too large, so its flying speed wasn’t that fast. Besides this, Ai Hui also had to do something with the abundance of resources they now had.
The Fish Bone bustled with activity.
Under Lou Lan’s leadership, countless blacksmiths were forging the bases for pagoda cannons, refining snow lava, and making various mechanical components. These components would be used to modify and improve the Fish Bone.
Back in the day, when Ai Hui and Lou Lan were constructing the Fish Bone, they lacked manpower and had to deploy the children living in the Central Pine Valley. Now that they had enough manpower and resources, they could fulfill Ai Hui’s original design for the Fish Bone, which had been previously uncompleted.
The current Fish Bone was an ugly and simple prototype. Other than flying and some defensive capabilities, it had no other functions.
These mechanical components would allow the Fish Bone to become more powerful and exquisite.
…..
Nowadays, Ke Ning was extremely busy. After joining the Spear of Heavy Cloud, he had been tasked with an important responsibility. Shi Xueman felt that he was a talent and let him travel around as a new recruit to contact those elementalists who wanted to seek revenge.
Ke Ning was originally a division leader. After his combat division was decimated, he wasn’t willing to return and pledged to seek revenge. His background and experience allowed him to bond with the other survivors who wanted to seek revenge as well.
He had contacted a batch of survivors to settle the preparations for the establishment of the Pagoda Cannon Alliance.
Shi Xueman had explicitly told Ke Ning that the Spear of Heavy Cloud had completed its recruiting process and that the newly established Pagoda Cannon Alliance would be entirely led by Ai Hui. Ke Ning’s mission was to pave the way first.
However, Ke Ning felt this was the most troublesome issue.
Ke Ning believed that if Shi Xueman had been the one who established the Pagoda Cannon Alliance, the survivors would not hesitate to join. However, when they heard that Ai Hui was the founder, they became hesitant.
Nowadays, Ai Hui was an absolutely infamous individual. "The Lightning Razor" was his new nickname.
It was hard to get people to believe in someone who was plundering innocent people at such a critical moment.
Ke Ning had put in a lot of effort, but the outcome was still undesirable. Those survivors begged him to ask Division Leader Shi for a favor and to let them join the Spear of Heavy Cloud Division.
Ke Ning had mentioned this issue to Division Leader Shi a few times, but was mercilessly rejected by her every time.
He had long heard that Division Leader Shi and Ai Hui were lovers. Now, he was 100 percent certain that this was definitely not a rumor. The thing that stunned him the most was that Division Leader Shi transferred him to the Pagoda Cannon Alliance just so that he could focus on the preparations for the establishment of the Pagoda Cannon Alliance.
This implied that, from now on, Ke Ning no longer belonged to the Spear of Heavy Cloud, but rather, to the currently empty Pagoda Cannon Alliance!
Ke Ning felt like he had been struck by a lightning bolt.
He finally recovered after being depressed for a few days.
However, this blow had helped him a lot with his task. Those people who begged Ke Ning felt guilty over his transfer to the Pagoda Cannon Alliance and decided to join the alliance. Some people felt that Ke Ning was a loyal and trustworthy individual, so they felt that following Ke Ning to fight against the blood elementalists wasn’t a bad idea after all.
Unknowingly, the Pagoda Cannon Alliance that Ke Ning was preparing had grown to around 800 people. Right now, they were waiting for the arrival of Ai Hui, but generally speaking, none of them felt excited.
Suddenly, someone rushed into the room and yelled, "He has arrived, he has arrived! The Lightning Razor is here!"
Everyone, who had been resting, rushed out of the room. No matter what, Ai Hui was directly linked to their future. With regards to Ai Hui’s leadership, some were indifferent, some were unhappy, and some were hopeful. However, no matter what attitudes they had, they could not ignore Ai Hui’s existence.
As the colossal Fish Bone gradually approached, an absolute silence descended upon the entire encampment.
Everyone’s mouths fell open as they stared at the sky with blank looks on their faces.
Everyone was used to seeing the God-subduing Peaks. After all, the Spear of Heavy Cloud’s camp wasn’t far away, and they could see the two God-subduing Peaks every day. However, when an enormous mountain that was a few times bigger than a God-subduing Peak approached them, they were awed by its repressing aura.
Every combat division that stood in the path of the Lightning Razor had had all their resources and manpower seized. As such, there had already been many discussions on the oversized God-subduing Peak analog. The blueprints for the God-subduing Peaks were the Elders Guild’s absolutely classified information. Given the relationship between Skyheart City and the Central Pine Valley, the former would definitely not give these blueprints to to the latter.
Looking at the Fish Bone, one could tell that Ai Hui had a deep understanding of elemental traces. One could also tell that the Central Pine Valley’s wealth was far greater than what everyone had expected. The cost of building a God-subduing Peak was huge. Since it was larger than a God-subduing Peak, the cost of building the Fish Bone was definitely sky-high
After a while, surprised gasps broke out in the encampment.
"It’s really huge!"
"So this is the Fish Bone? I heard the Central Pine Valley is part of it as well!"
"It is a colossus!"
The doubt in everyone’s eyes had disappeared. The Fish Bone, which was even larger than a God-subduing Peak, was a stark symbol of strength. No one who saw it doubted the destructive power that it possessed. Being the person who had designed and built it, Ai Hui’s image in everyone’s heart had improved significantly.
Ke Ning’s eyes lit up. How many pagoda cannons could be deployed on such a gigantic mountain!
When he thought of equipping the Fish Bone with numerous pagoda cannons and transforming it into a pagoda cannon porcupine, his blood raced through his veins.
Things that were massive in size would always give people a sense of power and security. When Ke Ning saw such a gigantic entity hovering above his head, he felt much more at ease.
Shi Xueman and the rest had already reached the Fish Bone.
They examined it and clicked their tongues in wonder. Every now and then, they would touch it to get a feel for it. Previously, when they heard that Ai Hui was heading to the front line, they were worried about what was going to happen to the Central Pine Valley. They had not expected for him to bring the entire Central Pine Valley and Blackfish Mouth Volcano over.
Everyone tacitly left Ai Hui and Shi Xueman alone.
Both of them sat on a huge boulder at the peak of Blackfish Mouth Volcano as they looked at the soaring wind canopy of the distant Windy Pearl Bridge. This sight was extremely spectacular.
"Your injury hasn’t healed yet?" Shi Xueman glanced at Ai Hui and asked.
"I have no solutions for the time being." Ai Hui glanced back at Shi Xueman. He had an unusually sharp perception, furrowed his eyebrows, grasped Shi Xueman’s hand, and asked, "Are you injured?"
Shi Xueman was slightly panicked when Ai Hui held her hand. She tried to force herself to stay calm.
Humph, what was there to be panicked about?
She quickly regained her composure and felt a warmth coming from the bandages that covered the hand which was holding her palm.
Ai Hui nodded his head and said, "Oh, you can’t get rid of the impurities that were caused by forcibly absorbing natural elemental energies into your body. This is indeed troublesome."
"I already have a solution. It’s effective, but it will take some time," Shi Xueman replied.
"Let me see if there are any better solutions." Ai Hui then changed the topic, "You have done a great job with the last few battles, especially the one against the Ardent Flower Blood Division. That one is a classic."
"Really? It is difficult to hear praise from your mouth."
"Of course. If you had fought even better, I would not have to come."
"Haha, it’s not good for the debtor to sleep while the creditor is busting her ass off."
"The debtor is always the boss, and a boss gets sleepy easily."
"When are you paying back the money?"
"Wow, the texture of your hand is quite good."
"Why are you still holding my hand?"
"I am checking your injury."
"Have you finished checking?"
"We have to be prudent with injuries. Come, let me see your other hand."