Chapter 20: Suddenly Turned Around
The Exemplary Wind Society’s activities were not mandatory, but members were rarely absent. No one would miss out a chance to get some pointers from their seniors. Unlike the Masters of the Induction Ground, the seniors of the Exemplary Wind Society were mostly all veterans stationed at the very front lines. Perhaps they were not experts in theory, but they had plenty of combat experience. What they imparted were all a few very practical techniques.
Being dispatched from the front lines to then be in charge of the Exemplary Wind Society, was a hot cushy job. The work was relaxing, they received doubled the salary, the food was good, and they did not need to face the cold to guard against any surprise attacks from savage beasts within the night. Drinking hot tea in a warm room was just too pleasurable!
Due how much it was sought after, every city’s resident staff members were swapped every year.
Li Wei and Zhou Xiaoxi had just recently been sent to Interpine City to take charge of the Exemplary Wind Society. Li Wei came from the Army Division while Zhou Xiaoxi came from the North Sea Division. The two division’s relationships were considered not bad, so there weren’t any grudges or anything. The two quickly got familiar with each other, regardless of what happens, the two would have to hang out together often in this following year.
“What a peaceful place, huh.” Zhou Xiaxi surveyed the surroundings and couldn’t help but lament: “Time has truly gone by so quick. In the blink of an eye, fifteen years have already pa.s.sed. I really wish I could return back to fifteen years ago, being young is still the best.”
After Li Wei heard that, he laughed: “Then get ahold of that girl you didn’t succeed in chasing after that year?”
Zhou Xiaoxi rolled his eyes: “Am I really such a superficial person?”
Not even waiting for Li Wei to speak, his mouth sunk as he answered in dead earnest: “Yep.”
Li Wei couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Zhou Xiaoxi suddenly asked: “If you were to return to the past, to the Induction Ground, what would be the thing you want to do the most?”
“Sleep!” Li Wei answered without hesitation.
“Sleep?” Zhou Xiaoxi was a bit taken aback.
“That’s right!” Li Wei affirmed. He imitated Zhou Xiaoxi’s previous tone of voice: “I’ll tell this to myself: Li Wei ah, fifteen years later, you’ll always be sleep deprived. You must immediately seize any chance to sleep a little more. There are no inns past this village!”
Zhou Xiaoxi laughed heartily. He asked with a bit of curiosity: “Do you have more night activities?”
“Yeah.” Li Wei said helplessly: “I really was unlucky now that I’m mention it, just as I graduated from the Induction Ground to the front lines, the savage beasts’ activities grew increasingly more frequent as the days went by. The first two years were a bit better, but they ran rampant nearly every night to cause a commotion in the last few years.”
Zhou Xiaoxi’s expression changed to become serious. In the last few years, the situation at the front lines of every region were more tense than usual. Savage Beasts had become exceptionally restless, which was unsettling. They had been in the battlefront for a long period of time and deeply sensed this.
But once they arrived at the back lines, they simply did not feel the least bit nervous. The tension in the front lines did not influence the uninhibited lifestyle at the back lines in the slightest.
Li Wei sensed that the atmosphere had become heavy, and laughed: “What the heck are we blindly worrying about? We still have tons of people above us, let’s properly enjoy our beautiful one year of time. Go make up for all the sleep that you’ve missed!”
“True, it’s none of our business!” An evil grin spread across Zhou Xiaoxi’s face: “I’ll have to properly train this batch of rookies! When I think about back to the Induction Ground, how I was tormented so hard by those old Exemplary Wind Society b.a.s.t.a.r.ds that I wished I was dead, I’m suddenly br.i.m.m.i.n.g with energy.”
Thinking about how miserable he was back then, Li Wei nodded deeply: “On this part, we must not lose to our seniors back then! Look, this fellow that just came in, his complexion doesn’t look that great, he seems to be sick? How could this be? Five Way Heaven’s future are all on their bodies. With such delicate shoulders, how could they bear the Five Way Heaven’s future?”
“You’re speaking the words in my heart!” Zhou Xiaoxi said with great approval. The smile on his face became even more sinister. The gaze he used to look at that delicate student seemed as if a big bad wolf was looking at a snow white, soft and tender fragrant little rabbit.
Duanmu Huanghun’s complexion was quite bad. He was extremely uncomfortable, his vision blurred, his limbs felt weak, and he felt cold all over. If today wasn’t the first Exemplary Wind Society a.s.sembly, he wouldn’t have come.
He had stood guard at the city gates for an entire three days and three nights without paying attention to the coldness of the night and caught a cold.
d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
The moment he thought about that d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Duanmu Huanghun burned with fury and couldn’t help but cough fiercely. Just you wait, you’ll end up in my hands one day and I, Duanmu Huanghun will never let you off!”
“Student Duanmu, are you sick? It’s not serious, is it?”
A concerned greeting interrupted Duanmu Huanghun’s train of thought. He lifted his pale face. He didn’t recognize the man in front of him, but there was an emblem hanging from his chest which told him of the other party’s ident.i.ty. He quickly replied: “I thank senior for his concern. It’s only a little cold, nothing too serious.”
“That’s what I thought too.” Zhou Xiaoxi grinned, exposing his canines: “Student Duanmu is reputed to be this year’s most outstanding genius, how could he be knocked down by a mere cold? Come, come, take a look at the training program I’ve prepared for you! As a genius, your training program naturally needs to be a genius’s training program. Since it’s nothing too serious, then we’ll start now. If we waste any more time, then we won’t be in time for night training.”
Duanmu Huanghun looked at the senior with a glazed gaze, thinking that he had heard wrongly.
Night training? Bringing a student with a cold for night training?
His pale, enchantingly handsome face was filled with amazement. Beneath the dashing, tall and erect bridge of his nose, quietly trickled two streams of water dragons.
Right when Duanmu Huanghun sniffled and shivered in the cold wind, Ai Hui’s expression was incomparably content in Vanguard Training Hall’s piping hot bath house with all his tiredness swept away.
So comfortable!
Training halls typically had specialized bathing spots prepared for cultivators that were used to help cultivators recover from their fatigue after training. Back when he was in the Sword Cultivating Training Hall, he improvised by using an iron plated bucket. In the three years within the Savage Territories, forget about taking a warm bath, even taking a cold water bath was an extremely luxurious thing.
When dawn broke, he had to set off again.
One day of rest had allowed his tense muscles to loosen by a lot. Loulan suggested that he’d best have an Elemental Bone Strengthening Soup or something like that to repair any invisible injuries to his muscles and bones, then offered to help boil the soup. Ai Hui asked about the production costs, and it needed at least forty thousand.
After he had finished asking Loulan, Ai Hui, whose flesh was hurting too greatly, decided to take it when he came back next week.
Seriously too expensive!
He had went to the smithy within the city to custom order a few things and used quite a sum of money. The iron chain he had bought previously also costed a pretty sum. If it weren’t for the twenty thousand he raked in from the swollen amateur guy, he couldn’t even gather forty thousand.
The sky gradually brightened, and Ai Hui had also come out from the bath house completely full of energy, feeling as his body was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with an endless amount of power.
After he finished tidying up the training hall, he took the rations and water with him, properly closed the door, and set off for the smithy in the city to receive the thing he ordered to have custom made.
Duanmu Huanghun tightly wrapped himself in his clothes as he shivered and trembled uncontrollably. Both his legs had gone soft, swaying and tottering as he entered the city. That nightmare of an evening, he didn’t know how he had endured through it. Last night, he had been in the wild and breathed in a night’s full of cold wind. His cold had become even more severe. He was now even more cold, hungry, and tired.
His gaze grew slack, his breathing was faint, as if he was a walking corpse.
His last thread of reason told him that the most important thing he had to do was to first find a doctor.
His gaze involuntarily swept over to the smithy on the street, and he just happened to see a certain person lift the gra.s.s curtain and enter the shop.
He searched far and wide, yet when he suddenly turned around, that person was actually in the smithy!
His gaze suddenly fixed, and all of his anger loudly ignited. What cold, what doctor? Everything had been tossed to the back of his mind. Finally caught you, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! He didn’t know from where he found some strength, as he took large strides, rushing toward the smithy.
When he rushed at the shop’s entrance and saw Ai Hui’s back figure through the gra.s.s curtain, Duanmu Huanghun’s mind only had one thought. Let’s see where you think you can run to!
Holding onto an endless fury, he suddenly used his hand to reach out to grab at the other party’s shoulder!