I'm sorry...I'm-m...forgive me...please....

Xing Kai jumped up.

It was completely quiet, everybody in the barrack was asleep.

Stupid dreams

Xing Kai slammed his forehead three times, and then got up out off his damp sheets. His black shirt, gifted by the two elder sisters, was clinging to his skin and gave off an unpleasant stink. Faint moonlight shone through the barrack windows along the opposite side, and Xing Kai chuckled in his gravely throat. After absorbing so many dead beast's Heart's blood, a few hours back, he had corrected a few imbalance in his tissue's nurturing.

Although there was still a difference between the strength of his tissues, due to some of them receiving the nurturing of Human refined Heart's blood, while the other tissues only benefited from dead beast's refined Heart's blood, the gap was now smaller.

Even his throat had shifted from a totally useless state, to now an incredibly gravelly tone. It was a small change, hard to perceive, but indeed it had improved.

Xing Kai pulled the door open, and left the barrack. With the moon so close to setting, Xing Kai felt it was better to just have an earlier morning, rather than lay around in bed. He washed himself and replaced his smelly bed sheets with a new set.

I need to get used to this...the pressure will only increase over the next few weeks

Xing Kai felt tired mentally. He had only slept a couple of hours after he was forced to leave by the elite militiamen, so his mental faculties were strained. The refined Heart's blood did not work on strengthening the mind, so Xing Kai could only rely on rest and peace.

By the time Xing Kai had finished setting his bed, the so called guards woke up from their drunken slumber. Xing Kai walked through the camp, feeling disdain for the men. They were lazy and endangered everyone's lives with their irresponsibility.

Xing Kai, did however, recall that he refused to call for help when he was alone at the forest wall, facing it's horrid hallucination effects. Although that too was irresponsible, it was for an entirely different reason to the lazy men, and he couldn't help feeling annoyed at the men.

He arrived at the eating hall and was amused to find another hefty meal on his plate. There were no queues as most of the camp were sleeping or just waking up, so Xing Kai was given a hefty portion of meat and vegetables for breakfast. Perhaps it was because he looked miserable, or perhaps because the cooks were generous to the first served, but Xing Kai ate greedily and gratefully, whatever the reason.

His mood lifted slightly with the meal, and the weight on his mind eased up. He felt more clear minded, and he returned to his barrack to put on his recruit clothing. By now even his fellow recruits were waking up.

Hmmm...the first scheduled training session is today...I think I'll squeeze in a quick run to cool my head though

Xing Kai belted on his cleaned sword, and left the barrack in a flash, before the other recruits even noticed. By now the sun had already begun its rise, and the camp brightened.

Xing Kai found a quiet spot on the training grounds and began running in large circles. It was at a very relaxed pace, with no strength being exerted at all. Running like this, Xing Kai felt his mind clearing little by little. He chanted under his breath for the whole hour he ran.

He later returned to his barrack and was then led out of the barrack with the other recruits, by an officer, to begin training. The session was quite intense for the recruits and many feigned exhaustion and stopped over the course of the hour.

This of course was not what Xing Kai did. Each hour was important to Xing Kai, as each hour was an hour of training that brought him closer to revenge and increased his strength. So to increase the burden, Xing Kai lifted one of the grey stones about half his own size, and ran around the track.

One should now that the density of these rocks were not normal. Even the small, dog sized rock weighed 200kg,while the one Xing Kai carried was over 900kg. With this weight on his back, and it's irregular shape to grip, Xing Kai ran for an hour, leaving all the other recruits in the dust.

The greater the burden, the faster Xing Kai experienced that remarkable cool sensation. He found that it was coming from the very tissues that were the most strengthened. A black residue would be secreted, which flowed through his Loumai, allowing it to be transported around Xing Kai's body through his blood.

His connective tissues, his tendons, his muscles all benefited from the black residue, and it helped correct the imbalance in strength that was created when Xing Kai absorbed the mercenary's Heart's blood. This didn't decrease the strength of the nurtured tissues, so Xing Kai believed that it couldn't be old refined Heart's blood. Somehow his refined flesh was producing it's own strengthening substance, to support the weaker flesh.

The new batch of recruits also had sessions with instructors to teach them more about the militia. During these sessions, important information related to the town's demands, the supply and the enemy town's was delivered.

Xing Kai found these sessions to be incredibly valuable, even more so than the training sessions, since guarding the forest wall at night, increased his strength far more. Whether it was related to history, geography or even economy Xing Kai absorbed it all.

Naturally he attempted to ask questions, but absolutely everyone rejected to read out what he wrote on the scraps of parchment, and even the instructors just ignored him. For the first few days, the recruits and the instructors thought he was being a trouble maker, and an arrogant brat, but news had been leaked that Xing Kai was repeatedly guarding the forest wall at night, and the instructors could ignore him no longer.

The forest wall was a place all militiamen feared, so naturally Xing Kai was given the due respect for guarding it.

But still nobody wanted to read what he wrote. They were all fearful he would end up saying something heretical somehow, even about the metal crisis in the town!

One of the things Xing Kai learned that was particularly interesting, was the relationship between the towns. Since the Piercing Clouds country was so large, it had divided itself into 3 provinces. The rulers of the provinces were powerful allies of the Piercing Clouds Royalty, who had then built the legendary cities that everyone worshipped, to administer the laws of the country.

But the provinces themselves were mostly empty and overrun by wild beasts and dense forestry. Even the cities couldn't manage all of it, and they only focused on areas they were interested in.

The areas they weren't interested in, the wild uninhabited lands, was where the towns were located. Even Nalan town's 80,000 homes was considered a meaningless speck to the cities. The error in rounding the population of any city in the province, was already 1000 times greater than the population of this town!

Thus, this supposedly uninhabited land was ruled by the townships alone.

This was a dangerous arrangement for the poor villages and towns, as they would be hunted by everybody, and as soon as a town was considered powerful, a city would come along and pressure them with monumental taxes!

This was the struggle of the towns and villages.

The Nalan town was considered decent among the towns, and had rival towns which they feuded with greatly. The Nalan family wanted desperately to raise the town into a force that the city would recognise, as even with monumental taxes imposed, the town would enjoy the protection from the city, and possibly the family could even move to the city as nobles!

This was also the dream of the town's people. Security was everything for the weak.

The instructors also taught the battle codes and tactics that the militia implemented, and during one of the sessions the instructor even told them about the strength of the nearby towns. According to intelligence, there's only a few thousand Blood condensing Stage men, while the number of Soul condensing Stage experts...numbered fewer than 30.

This was across ten towns, with a net population of over a million, yet under 0.1% actually managed to complete the first layer.

Of the 0.1%, under 0.5% actually reached Soul condensing...

The one month of basic recruit training passed quickly and with little difference over the weeks.

......

"Next recruit"

An officer stood with a list in hand, calling out for the next recruit to take the test. The recruits were grouped together according to their barracks, with Xing Kai standing in the 8th group beside his fellow recruits.

At the stone platform to the side, there were several men standing and watching. They were the captains of the militia, and were here to collect the new members assigned to their companies. The National Military Shuzu, General Shen Han was also there, standing at the front, overseeing the recruit's performance.

No wonder this town's militia isn't one of the stronger ones

Xing Kai was standing near the back of the recruits, by the same stone stands he sat on a month ago. The area beside it had been cleared for the final test of the recruits, and would end their recruit training.

From this day forth, they would be fully recognised militiamen in the town's eyes, and they could enjoy all the benefits that came with such a status.

The test itself was basic. Since nobody had had ever completed the first layer, and reached early Blood condensing Stage in the first year of entry, the standards of the test were set a little above the average man's strength.

This was what introduced the laziness in the Nalan militia, in Xing Kai's opinion. The recruits barely had to train, and the test was very easy. After passing, there is far less formal training. Barely an hour a week was actually done, unless a man wanted to begin officer training.

Xing Kai himself had created a new precedence, by joining the officer training so soon. After 3 days of joining the militia, seeing his performance and knowing the fact that he could survive at the forest wall at night, he was given officer training.

Even training among the early Blood condensing Stage militiamen was not enough. After a week, he actually began training with the officers themselves.

Everybody thought he was insane, and had already broken through to middle Blood condensing Stage somehow.

If the test was made harder and the training longer and stricter, fewer people would be dying and the mission success rate would be much higher

Being amongst the officers for a month, Xing Kai had a far better understanding of the town.

Oh well...at least I can now join the mission task forces, and really boost my training and cultivation

This was Xing Kai's month long goal.

Over the last month, although he could continue stealing Heart's blood and refining it, he found that he couldn't absorb the criminal's Heart's blood if they had already died. Xing Kai had to kill the person himself, if he wanted the person's Heart's blood, and he wasn't allowed to kill the criminals himself.

Another issue was that, as the imbalance between his tissues decreased, the demand for Heart's blood was becoming greater. On the first night, the effect was good since the quantity was large. But every single night afterwards, Xing Kai found the effects were getting weaker.

The Heart's blood was still being absorbed successfully, and refined excellently, but the muscles demand was getting very large. Only by increasing the number of beasts Xing Kai killed with his own hands, did his body continue it's growth at all.

By now, after a month of training at the forest wall, he could kill a dozen beasts. This was a significant portion of the beasts that typically assailed the wall, but no attacks were made by people, and the frequency of attacks was quite low, with only one big attack every 3 nights.

This was why the forest wall was no longer that effective at supplying his cultivation resources anymore, after a mere few weeks. It could be said that in fact, only 3 attacks actually were beneficial to Xing Kai, as the third big attack's effects were already quite small, and Xing Kai was killing many beasts by that point already!

After the third big attack, Xing Kai did kill more beasts, but he was limited by how fast the other guards killed the beasts. The demand for blood was exceeding the beast's abilities to provide.

Xing Kai now needed human Heart's blood to cultivate efficiently, and the only way to get that...was through attacking other towns.

If I'm lucky I should be able to join a raiding squad

Xing Kai stepped forward, through the gap the recruits made for him, and stood at the starting line of the assessment course.

Everyone felt it was stupid that he was made to do the test, when he was already stronger than most of the officers. Nevertheless Xing Kai casually hopped, sprinted, jumped and climbed his way through the course with elegance and ease.

"Not even I could have completed the course so easily"

The officer recording the recruit's times for completing the course, muttered under his breath, with disbelief. He was pretty hard working militiamen, and trained with Xing Kai once, before he had become so strong. It left him feeling old, to see Xing Kai develop so much.

Xing Kai then walked over to the group of recruits who had successfully completed the test. They would later be separated under the 12 Captains of the militia and become part of their company.

By mid afternoon everyone had completed the test and were lined up before the grey, fierce eyed man. All 12 of his Captains stood behind him.

7 of those men, Xing Kai recognised in an instant.

"It is good to see so many of you passing the test, and joining the noble militia to protect our homes"

General Shen Han's booming voice carried far into the camp, and pierced every ear.

"You will be, as of today, real militiamen. You will be taking part in vital operations to defend our homes, and also guarding the walls against our enemies...but first you must be placed under the 12 Captains, and their companies. From there you will be placed into squads as your Captain sees fit."

The fierce grey eyes of Shen Han looked over at one of the men who carried a long scroll, on the stone platform. The man gulped and opened it.

"The following militiamen will join the company lead by..."

Xing Kai waited as the names were called out and the fresh, new militiamen walked to stand under their new Captains, by the stone platform.

Of course, some Captains were more popular than others, as they undertook fewer dangerous missions, while other Captains, like the 7 men Xing Kai recognised, were notorious and feared.

Stupid idiots...they don't even realize that everyone could be forced into an intense battle to protect the town at any time, yet they still want to join the inexperienced and less skilled Captains. Truly many of these men just came here to enjoy the status and the benefits, rather than actually working to defend the weak town's people

Xing Kai watched as the crowd filtered and shrunk as men were assigned to their new Captains. Eventually only Xing Kai and two other men remained, and the scroll was closed.

"As for recruit Chong and recruit Jung, you are both to be given squad leader positions, due to your performance in the test. You will both be joining Captain Nalan Jin's company and lead a squad of 15 militiamen each, as he has lost a great deal of his men in an unfortunate accident, so he needs new leaders."

Xing Kai watched as the two men excitedly joined Captain Nalan Jin, who had a satisfied and lazy smile on his face. This was the man who had accidently saved Xing Kai's life, by stumbling into the rogue mercenaries. Xing Kai had learnt a lot about him over the month...and felt contempt for the man.

"Recruit Kai...will be promoted to an officer. Officer Kai, given your condition you were not given a senior officer's title, and leadership of a 50 man half-company. Should your speech improve then you be given the position stated. But for now...you may choose which company you want to join"

Everybody gasped as they heard these things. Remarkably Xing Kai would have formed the 13th company in only a month of joining the militia, while only being apparently 13 years old! Only his famous inability to speak stopped him.

"Officer Kai, I would like to offer you to join MY company...we would greatly appreciate someone of your ability...and you would enjoy some lovely...rewards...for joining MY Nalan company"

Captain Nalan Jin stepped forward on the stone platform, wearing his silk clothing, and gem encrusted sword. He was the image of corruption and the face of the many issues in the militia.

"Damn lucky brat"

"He's definitely got it easy now"

"No way can he refuse Captain Nalan Jin. The kid has to accept the Nalan family's orders if he wants to stay in this town...particularly he has to agree to Nalan Jin's commands...he is way to vicious if you don't"

The new militiamen muttered and whispered amongst themselves, filling the air with soft, hissing noises. Xing Kai looked at Captain Nalan Jin's handsome powdered face, and his ornate sword and tailored clothing. He had heard plenty and seen even more, that the man was crooked, and he abused his powers openly. He was an awful leader in battle, and an expert in telling snake whispers behind people's backs.

His whole company was full of arrogant bullies who supressed the town's people.

Scum...as if I would ever bow my head to you

Xing Kai's face visibly became cold and to the delight of a some of the Captains, Xing Kai snorted and turned his face away.

"He dares not to give face to a Nalan clan's son?"

"He is far too cocky"

The new militiamen who joined Nalan Jin's company all sneered, and many other militiamen sneered at him as well. Their cold mocking gazes and self righteous sneers, added to the contempt Xing Kai felt for the crooked and vile Captain Nalan Jin.

Xing Kai was actually glad that he didn't have to lead anybody, as he didn't really care much for others. He merely wanted to use the militia to improve his cultivation, not build a city with them. He strode forward ignoring the burning gazes of rage from Nalan Jin, and stood before one of the 7 men he recognised.

These infamous 7 Captains, were precisely the 7 forest wall night guards.

The company that Xing Kai joined specifically, was Captain Hong's, the same burly and brash man who led the forest wall night guards.

"Welcome brat. I'll leave you under officer Jie's squad, so go meet him at my quarters as soon as you can"

Captain Hong smiled faintly at Xing Kai and Xing Kai did the same strange grunt that was his chuckle, in return. The other night guard Captains also smiled at Xing Kai, and they gave him winks or a thumbs up for his insult to Nalan Jin.

The 7 elite militiamen being Captains, was no surprise to Xing Kai. However, since there were only 12 Captains in the militia, it conflicted with the impression that Xing Kai had, that the militia was lazy and arrogant. If 7 of the 12 Captains were so great, then how could the militia be in such poor shape?

But this was because of a simple point. Captain Hong's company actually had the fewest men, but they were the most powerful and fearsome, so he was still considered a company leader. The other 6 Captains also lead very powerful companies, but they were all very small also. This was because only men who wanted to become powerful, or gain the legendary recommendation letter and become a city cultivator, joined these companies. They were not lazy or undisciplined.

On the other hand, Captain Nalan Jin's company comprised of over 800 men alone. Him and his 4 other fellow Captains, represented almost all of the around 5000 strong Nalan militia. Naturally with so many men, and his status as both a Captain and a son of Nalan, his company acted like they owned the whole town. They only worked as town guards and peacekeepers, so they spent most of their time wandering around the town, harassing as they pleased.

This distribution was forced upon General Shen Han, as the militiamen simply would work well under the 7 harsh Captains, and the 7 Captains wouldn't even take such militiamen even if they were forced to. That being the case, the Shen Han allocated troops in such a way...the militia would collapse if it was any other way.

"Now with all things concluded, you may return with your Captain, and he'll arrange the necessary things for you"

General Shen Han didn't say much else, and simply left the platform, with the 7 elite Captains following him. As he left, he glanced at Xing Kai and seemed almost to smirk, but the expression disappeared so fast that Xing Kai doubted he even saw it.

Officer Jie...he leads the raid missions often!

Xing Kai held back his excitement and left the area calmly with the few other recruits who joined the 7 Captain's companies. Xing Kai gave them a friendly nod in their direction and then left them behind.

He returned to his barrack and collected his few possessions, including his barely touched money from within the bed frame.

He left the barrack without a second look back at the building or the people he lived with for the month. All of them had joined for the status of a militiamen, so Xing Kai was uninterested in them. He could vaguely recall one of them had introduced himself, but Xing Kai had long forgotten his name.

Xing Kai jogged through the camp and headed towards the quarters of Captain Hong, which was obviously placed by the forest wall. He ran across a few militiamen and officers that he had trained with for a time, and they respectfully greeted him.

Although Xing Kai wasn't arrogant, he was still young, and the sight of grown men nodding respectfully towards him, made him feel very satisfied inside. Yet again, there was tangible proof for Xing Kai, that strength meant one could live a better life. Receiving respect from people you hardly knew, was a special kind of pleasure that few could enjoy in life.

Yet Xing Kai knew well enough that this kind of pleasure was wrong, and based on a foul type of greed. It would do harm to become obsessed with it, so Xing Kai made an effort to subdue the satisfaction he felt.

Plus, this respect would be stripped from him should a more powerful person appear, this Xing Kai was certain of, so he was doubly cautious not to become influenced by his pride.

Officer Jie is strong too...already at peak Blood condensing Stage, at the age of 37! He might be able to reach Soul condensing Stage before his good years pass by...

Xing Kai had trained during the last week with officer Jie, and was barely keeping up with him. Officer Jie had a lot of battle experience and a powerful cultivation, as Xing Kai discovered during a spar. Xing Kai had lasted only a few moves, before he was disarmed of his sword.

A large stone building faced Xing Kai when he arrived at Captain Hong's quarters. It also served as the mission and intelligence centre for the militia. With a loud knock, Xing Kai announced his entry. Normally militiamen announced their arrival with a loud call, but Xing Kai introduced knocking to the camp, by accident.

"Officer Kai, you're here? Come in"

A deep voice welcomed Xing Kai through the heavy oak doors. When Xing Kai entered he saw a tall, well-built man with black steel armour and a broad sword on his back. He was looking over a large table covered in maps and sheets of information.

"Put your things in barrack 2, you'll be staying there from now on. As for why your here...join me at sundown precisely, at the forest wall 31st opening. There will be thirty men lead by me, of which 13 will be at or above middle Blood condensing Stage, including you and I..."

The man turned to Xing Kai and looked him dead on in the eyes, with surprising force.

"This is an important mission, as you can tell. If we lose men, we will be losing a significant portion of the entire militia's strength, understand? No mistakes can be allowed"

This is a huge raid! How can so many of the elite militiamen be dispatched like this? What kind of mission is this?

Xing Kai nodded solemnly. He understood, that with such valuable men being sent, if just a single one dies, it affects the power dynamic between the towns. A single peak Blood condensing Stage expert dying, would encourage a flurry of attacks to rain down on the town, which would chip away at it's resources and reserves.

Of course, the town wouldn't collapse if a peak or even several late Stage experts were to die, but the town would have to dig deeply into it's reserves, to defend against the tide of opportunistic attackers.

After discussing a few more details about his pay rise, his training schedule and his duties, he left the stone building. No details about the mission were discussed, as they were strictly kept secret and none of the other 29 men knew anything either; only the 7 Captains and the general knew about the details!

Xing Kai knew this part of the camp well, so he quickly found the washers and gave up his old recruit clothing and received his new green officer's clothing, with the black strips sewed in.

Quickly afterwards, Xing Kai went to the weapons store and returned his old sword. He had taken immaculate care of it, and the sword returned the favour almost as if it contained an old soul that desperately wanted to be loved and used for battle. With his black strips, Xing Kai took a new sword that was actually forged in the town, using the few metals the town could mine from the surroundings.

He then found his new barrack and took the same corner bed that he did in the old barrack. He kept the money and his odd few possessions, comprising of his maintenance gear and his gift clothes, out in the open. He trusted these men, and so openly stored his belongings, as a show of faith. He was gladdened to see that many of the other beds in the barrack where also covered in coins and odd items, completely unhidden from the others.

This is how a militia should be...if you are going to fight and trust each other to protect your back, you should also trust them not to covet your belongings

By the time the sun was setting, this part of the camp was already on guard and only conversations related to cultivation or the cities could be heard. Xing Kai walked through the camp to the forest wall like always, not giving any indication that an important operation would be occurring tonight.

At precisely sundown and no earlier, Xing Kai arrived at the 31st hole in the forest wall. There was a particularly tall section of walls in this part of the maze, and the forest edge was closer than anywhere else along the wall.

The 30 men arrived in the space of 10 heart beats, and without another word, all of them rushed out of the hole and straight into the foreboding forest.

1 month has passed since I stood up there trapped in hallucinations...now I am already entering the forest, joining in critical missions...

Grinning with his handsome young face, he entered with a group of powerful, large bodied adults, as not an inferior, but as a valued asset.