Chapter 136: The flow

Gu Qing Shan bit his lip tight, then finally opened his mouth to ask again after a while: “System, just what exactly is the cause for this?”

[The System can only feel the change in space-time, but it does not know the reason behind it. The user must find that out by himself]

“I want to find it out, but you’re telling me to go to cultivation world!”

[If the user does not enter the cultivation world, the user’s time flow will experience severe unknown consequences]

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t help but shook his head, there’s no time left to even speak.

Because the System once again popped up a message.

[Please enter the cultivation world immediately, to avoid the change in space-time, final 30 seconds countdown begin!]

[30, 29, 28…]

Gu Qing Shan couldn’t do anything but turn around, patting Zhang Ying Hao and said: “I’ll leave him to you, I need to leave to do something urgent now, I’ll come back to see you guys later”

Then he nodded at Ye Fei Li, turned around and jumped away.

As he reached a street corner, Gu Qing Shan said: “Impartial Goddess”

[I’m here]

“Protect them for me”

[Very well, you can be assured sir]

A light flashed, as Gu Qing Shan disappeared from Reality.

On the other side, the basketball court.

Zhang Ying Hao shook his head, complaining: “We haven’t even finished speaking and he already left, what a worrywart”

But he resumed a smiling face and said: “Ignore him, let us go first ——brother, I’ll bring you to a good place, guaranteed to be at least the level of the kings of the past, I’m sure it’ll be unforgettable”

“I’ll be fine as long as I can rest” Ye Fei Li looked at the wounds on himself and said.

Zhang Ying Hao stepped forward, very enthusiastically: “Let us introduce ourselves, I’m the boss of the Confederate’s No.1 hitman firm, Zhang Ying Hao, to a happy partnership from now on”

He extended his hand.

Seeing his enthusiasm and his sincerity, Ye Fei Li also took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of red glowing eyes.

Very seriously, he looked at Zhang Ying Hao and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you, I’m the No.1 Man Killer Fiend in the world, Ye Fei Li”

Their eyes met.

Zhang Ying Hao opened his eyes wide, cold sweat running down his forehead.

Then everything that happened up until this point replayed in his mind.

This time, he finally understood.

As cold sweat ran down his forehead, Zhang Ying Hao couldn’t help but shiver.

He tried to retract his hand ——-then stopped.

Ye Fei Li is shaking his hand tightly to show his seriousness and respect.

Zhang Ying Hao breathed in, making a smile that’s harder to look at than a frown, saying: “Ah, brother, I have confidence that you’ll be a very good partner, definitely so”

Cultivation world.

After the semester examination, the world’s situation is boiling up.

Bai Hua Palace.

A long streak of fire flew in, hovering in front of Bai Hua Fairy.

Taking the flame talisman, Bai Hua Fairy scanned it with her inner sight.

“What a strange piece of intelligence” she said.

“What’s the matter?” Xiuxiu asked curiously.

“All the strong demons and demon beasts that used to occupied Demon Cloud River is nowhere to be seen”

“Could it be they’ve entered human territory?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“They couldn’t, we’re keeping very strict surveillance, if they ever get close, we’d definitely notice” Bai Hua Fairy said.

“After confirming many times, they seem to be going away, leaving our world” she added.

“That’s a good thing” Qin Xiao Lou smiled and said, “if they all leave, we’ve already won without needing to fight”

“But all the Beast Saints are still here, not even a single one has left” Bai Hua Fairy continued.

She contemplated for a bit, saying: “Even though we don’t know what happened, but this is the best chance for humanity”

“We originally only wanted to retaliate after the semester examination, but look like it can become a decisive all-out attack instead”

As Gu Qing Shan listened, his heart sank.

The demons are leaving ———but where?

If the corpse on the bronze pillar is telling the truth, then they are definitely looking for a softer fruit to pick.

And that means Reality.

At this point, the demons themselves still can’t go into Reality yet, but they’ve already had both the sea creatures and the Man Killer Fiends descend, what would they do next?

Reality is already very tattered, unfit to deal with a 3rd great calamity at the same time.

Damn it, I should be in Reality right now, checking exactly what happened!

Gu Qing Shan was a bit sorrowful, but he can’t help it.

Both worlds are changing too rapidly in this life that he really can’t do anything about it.

No need to talk about the changes in Reality, even the cultivation world is different.

In the past life, players can at least start with killing small and weak demon beasts, slowly gaining strength and levels, getting used to the cultivation world.

But this time, since humanity has found out the demon’s plan and Shen Wu world, on the basis that they have absolute tactical advantage, there wouldn’t be any more small-scale fights, only large, all-out operations.

And he himself will soon have to enter the fray!

This isn’t a game where you fight monsters to level up, this is actual combat that can and will cost you your life.

Facing the giant flow of war, the fate of any person is like a leaf in water, weak and fragile.

Then what… should he do?

Gu Qing Shan quickly glanced at the hourglass.

It’s still falling extremely slowly ——-ever since he went into that strange space, his time flow has been messed up to no end.

He doesn’t even know exactly when he’ll be able to go back to Reality during this trip the cultivation world.

He silently sighed.

There’s no more room for him to worry about Reality, at the moment, the thing he has to worry about most is this time’s operation.

He can only hope that nothing too major happens during the time he’s at cultivation world.

Gu Qing Shan temporarily pushed his worries down, concentrating on what’s going on in Bai Hua Palace.

Then Bai Hua Fairy swung her hand, leaving two items on the table.

They were two identification badges. One in front of Gu Qing Shan, the other in front of Qin Xiao Lou.

Gu Qing Shan’s badge is still the same gold blue color, but it wasn’t as big as the one he had when he came here.

In the middle of the badge, a dark red string carved out two large and fierce characters.

——-Xiao Qi

Gu Qing Shan stared at the Xiao Qi Chaplain badge in disbelief: “I’ve become a Xiao Qi Chaplain just like that?”

Xiao Qi Chaplain is the 3rd rank within the “6 Chaplains”, it’s quite the status.

Humanity’s military officers use a “6 Chaplains, 4 Generals, Vice and Main Deputy” ranking system.

As for Lieutenant, Captain, Major, etc. they’re considered small team’s leaders within the ranks of soldiers, not actual officers (1)

A Chaplain, from lowest to highest in order are: “Pei Rong”, “Ren Yong”, “Yu Wu”, “Xiao Qi”, “Zhen Wei” and “Zhao Wu”

This system went through many times of correction and discussion before being born, universally recognized in the entire cultivation world.

For cultivators within this system, every time they want to advance a rank, they need to have the appropriate amount of Military Merits.

And for players, that means to kill demons.

In the past life, a player needed to kill 800 demon beasts to change their status from “Soldier” to “Pei Rong Chaplain”, and from Pei Rong to Ren Yong requires killing 2000 demon beasts.

After advancing each rank, the amount required to advance again increase by at least two fold.

From a soldier to a Xiao Qi Chaplain, a player would need to kill a total of 30,800 demon beasts.

This is such a ridiculous amount that very few are able to reach, but it’s how the System worked.

If they’re not players but rather real cultivators, people of this world, someone that was a frontline soldier like Gu Qing Shan would have to make 10 small contributions, or 1 large contribution in a battle to advance to Pei Rong Chaplain.

“Pei Rong” is the lowest rank within officers, and yet Gu Qing Shan’s badge says he was already a Xiao Qi Chaplain.

He skipped 3 ranks.

“That is what you’re supposed to get, no need to be surprised” white goose said.

Bai Hua Fairy smiled, also saying: “You save two Generals, got this Saint to personally handle the matter, help with uncovering the spy in Humanity’s top brass, even discovering Shen Wu world was a part of your contributions, and you still don’t think you deserve to be a Xiao Qi?”

White goose also said: “If it weren’t for the fact that you advancing too quickly would harm your cultivation, Shifu would’ve forced the army to give you a General title as well”

“Shifu can actually do that?” Gu Qing Shan was a bit unconvinced.

Within the Human Cultivation Alliance, the thing with the most weight is Military Merit. Each time anyone advance a rank, it’s always an extremely serious and impartial matter without any space for personal feelings.

Even if he contributed greatly to humanity’s cause, going from a normal soldier straight to being a General is still very unbelievable.

White goose explained: “Currently, there are no Deputy or Vice-deputy for the alliance army”

“There’s no Deputy? Then who’s in charge now?” Xiuxiu asked.

“After Blade Emperor’s betrayal, the people’s spirits aren’t united” white goose squints his eyes, “after much discussion, the current Human Cultivator Alliance’s army has three highest leaders, the 3 Saints shall personally handle control of the army”

“As there’s no chance for any of the 3 Saints to betray humanity, this is the most assured method”

“How is it?” white goose asked with pride, “third brother, as the highest leader of the army, do you think Shifu have the ability to directly promote you to a General?”

“Yes she does” Gu Qing Shan said in cold sweat.

Bai Hua Fairy cleared her throat and said very seriously: “Qing Shan, seeing that you’re still very young, Shifu believe you still need to train and better yourself, there’s still a lot of time for you to become a General later”

“Yes” Gu Qing Shan answered.

“Be a Chaplain first, after you get used to the battlefield and know how to control the troops then we can consider it later”

“Yes”

“Not to mention, with your talents, wouldn’t contributing and ranking up a simple matter?” Bai Hua Fairy very casually said, lifting her head in pride.

“…” Gu Qing Shan didn’t answer.

No it’s not simple, even contributing requires a lot of effort and accumulation, Gu Qing Shan silently complained to himself.

He’s almost sure that he understands the Military Merit and ranking system better than Bai Hua Fairy.

Because in the past life, this is something that players have become accustomed to and knows by heart, everyone heard it so many times that they’re all familiar with it.

But Bai Hua Fairy is a Saint, a person standing at the very top of humanity’s cultivation. Everything she has to think about are major matters, so she won’t necessarily study and understand the Military system as carefully as he had to.

“Third brother is quite talented, you’re only a rank below me” Qin Xiao Lou pridefully showed off his badge.

On it was the two characters for “Zhen Wei”

Xiao Qi, Zhen Wei, Zhao Wu, these are the highest 3 tiers of the Chaplain rank.

Gu Qing Shan smiled, saying: “Seems like we brother can fight side by side on the frontline this time”

As soon as Qin Xiao Lou heard that, he quickly hid his badge, embarrassed: “About that, erm, I’m actually at the backline”

White goose scoffed, saying: “How would he know about killing and battle. He’s getting by at the backline thanks to the 6 arts”

Gu Qing Shan then remembered.

Divination, Formation, Smithing, Pills, Talisman, Food. These are the 6 things that no cultivators can not use, and Qin Xiao Lou is an expert in all of them.

Thanks to that, he basically doesn’t need to be at the frontline, being in the backline is where he shines and contributes the most to strengthen humanity’s alliance.

Gu Qing Shan very serious said: “That’s also a tough job, demons are fierce and aren’t afraid of death, if it weren’t for the 6 arts, humanity would have been defeated long ago”

The 6 arts are the crystallization of this world’s civilization. A large part of why humanity can rival demons at all is thanks to having these things.

“That’s very correct, you’re not wrong” very rarely, white goose doesn’t push Qin Xiao Lou down and agreed, praising him.

Bai Hua Fairy explained: “Bai Ying Tian is a beast, so his position is a bit hard. While Xiuxiu is still young, so she can’t go yet”

“The two of you will represent Bai Hua Sect, at the frontline, make sure to do your best and don’t soil our sect’s name”

“Yes” they both replied at the same time.

“Very good” Bai Hua Fairy smiled, “Qing Shan is already a Xiao Qi Chaplain, but he doesn’t even have a spirit beast for a mount. Xiao Lou, you bring him to choose a spirit beast to use as mount”

“Leave it to me” Qin Xiao Lou appreciated how Gu Qing Shan followed up for him just now, so he was more than happy to do so.

Bai Hua Fairy nodded, then floated away.

Note:

(1) military ranks: “lieutenant, captain, major” are not the literal translation, but there’s no real equivalent to them in English. Essentially they are a leader of a team of 10, 100 and 1000 respectively.

I feel like I need to explain the “6 Chaplains, 4 Generals, Main and Vice Deputy” system a bit clearer.

1/ The system refers only to officers in the army, soldiers aren’t included.

2/ 6 Chaplains refer to the 6 mini-ranks within the Chaplain military ranking. Same goes to 4 General

In my opinion, the system makes no sense in a real military context aside from giving a game-like feel where you can climb the ranks and eventually make it to the top. Because there would be too many officers and not enough soldiers.