Thunder sounded throughout the night, waking up many people.
Right as some looked out the window, suddenly a thunder strike streaked across the dark clouds.
Like a firefly shining brightly for a night, this lightning shone brightly but for a mere second.
It travelled across the clouds and fell down, piercing an old creaky window.
Fengye, who had just opened his eyes at the loud sound, suddenly saw his vision blurring, before slowly fully disappearing…
…
Across time and space, in another world, an equally strong thunderstorm was brewing in the night.
On the ground, groups of soldiers were in a fight.
The soldiers were mostly dressed lightly, as if they had been sneaking into the mountains – those they fought were even lighter.
Some only had shreds of clothes, still had leather armour that was pierced by the gleaming blades of the soldiers.
In the centre of it all, there was a young woman –
She was thin and wore only a light armour protecting her vital points.
Yet in her hand was a large glaive!
Like a long spear, she charged frontally. At the last moment she swiped the blade of the glaive, directly cutting through one of the fighters in half!
"Stop! You imbecile! Imperial dogs, stop what you're doing!" a heavier armoured man jumped from the high wall behind the battle, a large blade in his hand.
The lady paid no heed. Taking the time of his jump into account, she quickly jumped forward, putting strength into the blade.
With a single swipe, she halved two more fighters and just as she was about to injure the third, the blade of the enemy stopped her.
Looking over, only now did she take this person serious.
As her eyes pierced his, he was suddenly shocked "Blue eyes? You-"
Before he could continue, the lady had already taken another step.
This time, her step was heavy, pushing down the earth as she raised the glaive in her hand.
Moving her glaive with a precise motion, she hooked the blade of the man.
In an instant, the man wanted to let go and leave –
But just then, she raised her glaive and flicked it over, instantly throwing the blade back at the man.
He turned in shock, his vision blocked by the incoming blade.
Quick to react, he reached out, thinking he could defend himself with the blade in hand.
Just then, his vision freed for but a second, instantly blurred once more.
At the last moment, he only saw his own head rolling down…
"Just a third-rate martial artist?" the young lady asked, looking slightly disappointed.
She looked over at the battlefield and saw that it had been mostly cleared, only a few still fighting.
Her own soldiers were exhausted and breathing heavily, trying to calm themselves down.
To her side, her right hand man was fighting another martial artist.
She thought about it and decided not to intervene, "This bandit camp will only be enough to train this batch of soldiers. For the next batch, I will have to find a different camp, or even a stronghold…"
Looking over to the 'wall'… in the darkness she thought it looked taller, but now she realised it was barely a person tall and made of wood. Her glaive could easily shred the gate and allow them to enter.
Seeing that most of her soldiers were done, she put her strength into her legs, gracefully jumping onto the wall.
From here she could already see the whole camp; no one had remained, everyone was either fighting outside or dead.
"This camp… it's not good enough to build a stronghold nor to make it into a training station."
As she was overlooking it, another person came forward.
It was a young woman with a bloody face. Her left hand man, or rather, woman.
When she saw the camp, she nodded in approval "Although as a stronghold it's bad, this position is quite suitable for land development.
Young lady, we can send the estate crafters here to clear everything up a bit. Afterward, we can say that we reclaimed wilderness and sell it to a small family.
There is a town nearby, so there should be enough buyers."
The lady nodded, "That sounds good, do it like this.
You came early, was the fight unexciting?"
"He wasn't even a third-rate martial artist, only a junior martial artist.
Without gathering internal strength, the human body is too weak and can't stand any heavy fighting at all."
"Hmm." She didn't comment further, returning to observing her soldiers.
"Write down, Lu Shang killed three bandits. I think he should be able to advance soon.
Er'ge only killed one, send him back to training and don't invite him until he has the ability to withstand Lu Shang's current prowess for a minute.
Niu Wanghe is still only at two bandits, it seems he hasn't improved much since last time.
Either you or Shihan should teach him a bit."
"Young lady, Qianwen, I'm sorry for being late."
The young lady, Guan Yuling looked over to her right hand man, Shihan, "Was he also a third-rate martial artist?
Hmm, your own training also slightly lacking. Qianwen is close to the peak of the third-rate stage, while you are still a distance away from it."
Being compared like this, Shihan suddenly felt embarrassed "I will work harder!"
Although it seemed like the difficulty between killing a junior and a third-rate martial artist wasn't the same, Yuling could see that Qianwen did her best to kill him as fast as possible, even ignoring the blood on her face.
On the other hand, Shihan seemed to take rather long during this fight.
Soon, the operation was over and all bandits were killed.
Yuling commanded "Clear the field and burn the dead. Take the injured soldiers to the back courtyard, medicine has already been prepared.
Shihan, you handle the aftermath."
After saying so, she walked down the mountain, Qianwen closely behind her.
Shihan, seeing this, had a deep look in his eyes…