Li Kuanglan’s expression was cold. “Why can’t it be me?”

Qianye struggled to sit up, but a thin beam of frosty sword energy shot out from Li Kuanglan’s fingertips, tapping his forehead in a flash. The beam was simply too fast, and before Qianye could even react, his body was lying back on the bed.

That wisp of sword energy receded as quickly as it had arrived, a clear display of Li Kuanglan’s precise control.

Qianye couldn’t sense any injury whatsoever after being forced back down. It was only her means of pushing him down.

“Just lie there. You’ve overdrafted your power, wait until you’ve recovered unless you want to damage your foundations.” With that, Li Kuanglan stood up and said, “I’ll go find something for you to eat.”

“... Thanks.”

Qianye thought back to the battle amidst the silence following Li Kuanglan’s departure. With Heartgrave and a boost from the Wings of Inception, his Shot of Inception had erupted with earth-shattering force!

Even though the Wolf King still had a bit of Ancestral Power left, he had no choice but to escape immediately.

What he wanted, however, was to finish everything in one stroke. He was so focused on executing everything in his arsenal that he forgot to gauge Heartgrave’s consumption. He didn’t realize that his current capacity was insufficient to draw on the full power of the weapon. Additionally, the Wings of Inception would raise both firepower and consumption. The summation of the two wiped out Qianye’s origin power and blood energy stores in mere moments, sending him into a state of suspended animation. If it wasn’t for the Book of Darkness releasing its stored essence blood, there was no telling how much longer he would’ve slept.

Now that he thought about it, Qianye felt that he had been too impulsive. Heartgrave and the Wings of Inception were unable to display their maximum potential due to his limited origin power and blood energy. The combined shot was a ways off from its true maximum potential, not much more powerful than if he had fired Heartgrave on its own.

The battle back then was simply too perilous. The gap between the two parties was immense, and their so-called pincer attack served no more than to restrain the target. Once the Wolf King was allowed to retaliate, someone was bound to get injured or die. Hence, Qianye had no time to think carefully; he simply used all that was available to him since he was the only one who could gravely injure the Wolf King.

Hearing an ear-piercing alarm outside, Qianye slowly crawled out of bed and toward the window. He arrived just in time to see a stream of troops and transport vehicles driving out of the city. He could see them assembling just beyond the gates, and the soldiers on them were fully geared-up. From the looks of it, even the city guard had moved out together with Dark Flame.

Qianye had a rough guess about what was going on, but Li Kuanglan’s voice rang out behind him. “Song Seven plans to fight the Wolf King’s main force and look for an opportunity to deal a decisive blow. The first batch is already out, these are the reinforcements. Don’t worry, that lass Ji Tianqing is also with him.”

Only then did Qianye feel somewhat relieved. Under present circumstances, no one under the Wolf King’s command could handle the two-man team. The only thing they could do was make up for it with numbers, yet neither of the two feared group battles. The more chaotic the field, the more they could display their power.

Song Zining was an expert in troop strategy who would fight to the death once he had grasped the advantage, never giving the opponent a chance to turn the tides. Now that the Wolf King was gravely injured, it was the perfect moment to slaughter his armies and uproot him entirely. As for killing the Wolf King, the notion was best forgotten at this point. The werewolf had escaped even the most optimal ambush—it was no easy feat to kill a duke-level expert intent on fleeing.

That was for the Wolf King. Any ordinary human divine-champion would surely have lost his life to that shot.

Qianye knew he was inferior in terms of strategy, so he decided to not interfere with the seventh young master’s decision. Seeing as how the city guards had also mobilized, it would seem Ji Rui had decided to hit the Wolf King while he was down. He had offended him too much, anyway, and there was really no going back.

Qianye turned back and saw Li Kuanglan carrying a tray full of dishes. The food was sumptuous and abundant.

Her face was as grave and expressionless as a millennial glacier. She put the tray on the table and said, “Eat…”

At first, Qianye had thought Li Kuanglan would ask some servants to bring the food over. Who would’ve thought this young noble of the Li family would do it personally? Her slender hands were strong, her skin was near translucent, and her fingers, as white as green onion stems. They were a perfect match for the Cold Moon’s Embrace but evidently out of place holding a food tray.

“Y-You, this…”

Li Kuanglan banged hard on the table, roaring, “Eat!”

Qianye knew that she was feeling rather awkward, so he tactfully shut himself up and began eating in silence. He was indeed ravenous at this moment and in need of replenishment after being cleaned out. Half a dozen plates of food vanished in an instant, yet Qianye wasn’t even half full.

He was planning to clean up the tabletop battlefield and head to the kitchen for more, but Li Kuanglan unexpectedly stood up, saying, “I’ll go get more, you stay inside.”

She placed Cold Moon’s Embrace by the door as she left. No one was controlling the divine-weapon at this point, yet it was suffused with a flowing radiance, almost like glazed ceramic. Li Kuanglan had injected a wisp of sword energy into the weapon, setting it up to slash at whoever came close.

On one hand, it was to stop outsiders from entering, and on the other, it was to stop Qianye from leaving.

Li Kuanglan came back a while later with another tray of food. There was even more food this time, with no lack of dishes that required a bit of skill and time to prepare. It would seem she had already ordered the kitchen to prepare more since the first batch, and unwittingly revealed her thoughtfulness.

Qianye felt uncomfortable all over. Eating with his head lowered was all he could do, and that was all he did.

The food was actually quite tasty, but everything became tasteless in his mouth. No one could enjoy their food while being stared at by that divine soldier of a lady.

Finally, all the food had been swept clean, and Qianye felt greatly satisfied. He could feel his strength returning little by little.

He looked up at Li Kuanglan and said with great sincerity, “Thank you.”

For some reason, Li Kuanglan avoided his eyes and said coldly, “You’re completely powerless right now, I just didn’t want you to be slaughtered by some nameless rabble. Besides, taking care of you is more of a repayment to Zhao Jundu, you don’t need to thank me.”

“Zhao Jundu? What about?” Qianye inquired.

Li Kuanglan wasn’t willing to speak, however. “You’ll know if you go back and ask him.”

Qianye frowned. “Is it related to the promised showdown between us?”

Li Kuanglan snorted. “So what if it is, what then if it isn’t?”

This question halted Qianye’s thoughts. Li Kuanglan had made it clear that she was going to use Qianye as a grinding stone for her sword arts, yet Qianye felt nothing but gratitude because it was she who had saved him and Nighteye.

Later on, Zhao Jundu forced himself into the deal and made himself the subject of this arrangement. So, Qianye couldn’t help but feel surprised when she said that she owed Zhao Jundu a favor instead.

After some thought, Qianye said, “Doesn’t matter, I still want to thank you.”

Li Kuanglan seemed surprised at his answer. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll swindle Zhao Jundu?”

Qianye replied honestly, “Zhao Jundu isn’t so easily swindled, and you’re not such a person, either.”

Li Kuanglan’s expression at the moment was fairly interesting. “I’ll have you know that this young master isn’t a good person!”

After so much interaction, Qianye more or less understood this young noble’s temperamental character. So, he merely added a couple of words to stop her from erupting. After calming Young Noble Kuanglan’s emotions, Qianye began inquiring about why she had come to the neutral lands.

“I come when I want and will leave when I please. Who can stop me?”

Qianye didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at this nonsensical answer. He could only hold his temper and continue probing, “The Great Maelstrom should be opening soon, right? Won’t you miss the opportunity by coming to the neutral lands?”

“What’s so good about the Great Maelstrom? The things inside are only material objects, and those who rely on them will only reach divine champion at most. This sword is enough for me.”

These words left Qianye speechless. Although he wanted to remind Li Kuanglan that becoming a divine champion was already a remarkable feat, he ultimately decided against speaking out.

Li Kuanglan raised her head and glanced downward at him. “I came here to use you as a grinding stone for my sword arts, but I’ll let you off for the moment, seeing as you’re in a critical condition.”

Qianye replied, “Then I thank Young Noble Kuanglan.”

A rare shade of red appeared on Li Kuanglan’s face, forcing her to turn away.

To be entirely honest, Qianye’s shot back then was simply too powerful—receiving it head-on would be more of a suicide than training. It was just that the young noble didn’t want to admit it.

“Oh right, Qianye, I see that you don’t have any dependable people in your whatchamacallit mercenary corps. It just so happens that this young master is free, so I’ll take up a vice-commander position. What say you?”

“Young Noble Kuanglan, this… do you even know the objective of this mercenary corps?”

Li Kuanglan waved her hand. “That’s not important.”

“Young Noble, please reconsider it.” Qianye tried to dissuade.

“What, are you looking down on me? Or are you not impressed with my sword?”

Qianye laughed ruefully. A mysterious Ji Tianqing was trouble enough, now this Li Kuanglan was also jumping into the fray. Although Qianye didn’t know the latter’s origins in detail, he at least knew that she was from the Jingtang Li Family and someone closely related to Empress Li. Besides, with her strength and talents, she had to be a top character in the younger generation of the family. Add to that the complicated relationship between the Li and Zhao families, he had to tread carefully in dealing with her. It would cause great trouble if some sort of accident were to occur.

Qianye was actually quite carefree when he was alone, but there was no escaping restrictions now that he was going to build up a military power here. At the very least, he didn’t want to drag Song Zining down.

Regardless, Qianye couldn’t refuse Li Kuanglan since she had spoken up so clearly, and the girl could be considered a powerful helper, capable of fighting anyone below the Wolf King’s level.

Qianye had never expected that his entanglements in the empire would still remain after he had come to the neutral lands. More and more familiar faces were gathering here, and perhaps there would be even more in the future.

Qianye suddenly had a feeling that, with all these heroes gathering here, a great change was inevitable.