Wang Jie awoke to the piercing crashing of metal pans banging each other right outside of the tent. Groggy he reluctantly pushes the blanket off of himself and sits up. After running a hand through his short hair he shakes his head to pull himself together. The annoying banging sound quickly fading in the distance.

Looking around it was clear that it was still dark out. A very slight bit of light leaking in through the tent opening. Wang Jie leaned over the end of his bed and grabbed the pouch that had been there. Rummaging through the contents he grabbed a box of matches. Using the small amount of light as guidance, he stumbled his way to a desk and grabbed the lantern on top of it. The shiny smooth surface was icy cold as he popped open the chamber. He quickly lit a match and lit up the wick. A dim light spreading around around the tent.

A few groans came from all around, while surprisingly, that arrogant Qiang Yi was already getting dressed in his uniform. Walking over to his bed, Wang Jie first put on the coarse dark gray pants with a robe to match. On top he donned the red lined lamellar armor. It wasn’t the most comfortable fitting wear but that was to be expected.

Hearing a creak, Wang Jie turned around to see Liu Wei rolling out of bed. He stifled a chuckle and waited for the others to get done dressing up.

Together, they all went to eat breakfast. They didn’t know the time, but assumed from the whole being woken up that it was time to eat. When they showed up they realized they were among the last to get there. The skilled soldiers were had already sat down and made it halfway through their meal. Some were even finished and heading somewhere else. They were clearly experienced with the whole routine.

Getting their food they tried to follow the veteran soldiers good example and finish it quick. Everyone chowed through it, except for Che Xiao Wen who was still just poking at his food. No one really paid him any attention.

They made their way back to the tent and began cleaning it up. Liu Wei was sent to get a broom from god knows where, but even though he had it, sweeping the place seemed pretty futile. The floor was just regular cloth in the same dark green color as the tent. Even if they cleaned it, it was just going to get dirty again soon. Not that any of them would argue that to any of the commanders.

When they heard a sudden rustle at the tent flap, they all hurried to stand aside and look somewhat decent as some adjutant stepped in.

“Who’s the representative here?” His eyes gazed around at them.

“I am Sir Adjutant” Wang Jie took a slight step forwards and presented himself.

“Okay, it’s on you if there’s any problems.” The adjutant nodded and then started looking over the tent. It seemed to be more out of custom than anything really. He ran a finger over a desk and examined his finger closely.

“Alright, it looks decent. You have five minutes to report to the training ground and line up,” He turned to look at Wang Jie “Representative in front, that means you.” With a final nod and left the tent, possibly to check on some other recruits. It looked like the process was a bit of a chore to him.

The group felt relieved though, especially Wang Jie, who didn’t want to be punished for some ridiculous dirt in a tent people walked in with their boots.

Finding the training grounds was easy and they quickly lined up next to the other groups. Wang Jie stood in front, followed by Che Xiao Wen, Liu Wei, Liao Kang, Qiang Yi, Huang Bo, Huang Chao and finally Guan Yi. If not for Wang Jie standing in front, they would’ve been lined up according to height.

An unknown lieutenant stood in front of them with a few adjutants by his side, among them was Zhang Yun, the one who had showed up at Wang Jie’s doorstep. They all stood there silently while waiting for the last few recruits to trickle in.

After the last group came running and lined up, the Lieutenant stepped forward and opened his mouth. “Some of you are late” There was a clear glare in his eye as he turned to look at the last group. “In the future, don’t be.” His gaze lingered for an extra second before he turned back.

“With that out of the way, let’s get to it. Our primary force is made up of spear men, so that is what you will be training to be.” The Lieutenant looked back to his adjutants and said a few words before turning his attention back to the recruits. “We’ll be breaking into smaller groups for your training, groups 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11 are with Adjutant Zhang Yun.” The Lieutenant pointed to Zhang Yun.

“With me, hurry up now.” Adjutant Zhang Yun raised his hand and started walking towards a distant part of the training grounds.

Wang Jie’s group hurried to fall in behind him along with the other groups. They walked to the opposite side of the training grounds and Zhang Yun stepped up beside some perfectly round sticks all of them the same length.

“One group at a time, come up and get your practice sticks starting with the lowest and ending with the highest.” Zhang Yun pointed to the sticks. “Do this now.”

Wang Jie’s group was last, so they watched as the other groups went up and got their sticks, finally it was their turn and they quickly picked one out of the pile. They were all the same anyway.

Zhang Yun looked them over and seeing that everyone had a practice stick, he nodded satisfied “Okay, now everyone spread out a bit so you can all see me.” He gave them time to do so before continuing “First I will demonstrate the forms, we’ll do them together after.”

He began demonstrating the various spear forms slowly, making it easy for them all to follow along. The forms themselves were quite simple, intended to be easy for anyone to learn. To say it bluntly, they were created to be used by grunt soldiers.

The recruits weren’t thinking about that though, most of them were absorbed in the forms, doing their best to remember them. Wang Jie kept an extreme focus, committing the forms to his memory. As he watched, something in him sparked. Maybe he wouldn’t get to be a cultivator, but at least this way he could fight to take charge of his own destiny. Fight to be his own man. This might be the best opportunity to change his life that he would ever get.

Zhang Yun came to a stop and spoke “This time we will do them together, practicing each form by itself first, later we’ll focus on merging them together.”

The group started whirling their sticks around together. It didn’t take long before the sound of wood striking wood rang out as people accidentally bumped sticks with each other. To top it all off someone cried ouch and fell down on the grass. Wang Jie hadn’t seen it, but apparently the guy had managed to hit himself in the head with his stick. It was a wonder how he’d managed to accomplish that.

Zhang Yun just shook his head in disbelief, even for him it was probably a first. It took a few tries to get everyone through the first form without someone dropping their stick or hitting someone with it.

For Wang Jie it came a lot easier, sure it probably didn’t look very pretty or nimble but the spear-stick did what it was supposed to. Most of the time at least.

They continued practicing till everyone was able to perform the forms at least once. There was a quick break for lunch before they came back to the field. Filled up with new energy Wang Jie refocused himself.

“Now that you’ve learned a bit, I want to pair you off for some sparring. I’m aware you don’t know much yet, so we’ll keep it simple. I just want you to try and put some of these things into practice. Pair yourselves off now.”

Wang Jie was going to go ask someone, but Liu Wei went straight for him and asked him to practice together. He couldn’t see any problems with that, so he agreed.

Amazingly, Che Xiao Wen and Qiang Yi got paired off. Probably because one of them was too shy to ask anyone while the other was too arrogant to.

When everyone had a partner, Zhang Yun instructed them on how to fight. One would attack while the other would defend and then take turns. That way it was easier to drill some of the forms.

Despite what he looked like, Liu Wei actually had some skill, though Wang Jie managed to get the upper hand most of the time.

Wang Jie had just thwarted one of Liu Wei’s attacks when he began to whine “Damn man, it’s not fair, your arms are a hell of a lot longer.” Wang Jie gave him a smirk and was about to respond when someone cried out in pain.

Turning around he saw Che Xiao Wen hunched over and clutching his wrist. Qiang Yi stood over him and looked down with an evil grin and raised his stick to strike him again. Too distracted by his wrist, Che Xiao Wen was struck in the jaw and let out another yelp of pain as tumbled on the ground.

Wang Jie could feel his fists shaking as he prepared to go over and teach Qiang Yi a lesson. Before he could move though, he felt Liu Wei pulling on him. Right, it wasn’t his place to do so.

He calmed down and watched as Adjutant Zhang Yun went over and inquired into what had happened. Two boys who had been training beside them explained it and Zhang Yun’s face turned visibly red. He grabbed Qiang Yi and dragged him by his armor, “You all wait here!” he turned back and yelled, dragging Qiang Yi with him. Qiang Yi’s face quickly turned into shock and then terror.

Everyone watched as the instructor dragged off Qiang Yi, some of them confused because they had no idea what was going on. Someone explained it to them and most of them were visibly shocked.

Wang Jie walked over to check on Che Xiao Wen and saw that he was going to be okay. Still, it was probably quite a fright for the timid boy to be attacked by his own roommate.

When the instructor came back he didn’t say or explain much, just that Qiang Yi had been dealt with. Whatever that meant, no one was quite sure.

After dropping that bomb, they picked up right where they had left off. Of course, Che Xiao Wen was permitted to watch from the sidelines. He didn’t have a partner and his wrist was still aching.

Qiang Yi didn’t return to their tent that day, in fact, they never saw him again. The group couldn’t help but wonder what they’d done with him, but it seemed to serve as the perfect reminder for everyone to keep in line and follow orders.