From the experience points alone, Wu Youren had reaped a massive harvest.
As for the rest, so long as the instructor kept his word, he would at least receive some mission rewards.
His nearly exhausted reserve of silver dollars would see a sizable replenishment.
Even so, he didn't dare let his guard down. The roaring fire could be seen from several hilltops away—who knew what kind of horrors it might attract?
By the time the sky began to gray at dawn, an off-road vehicle came speeding from the direction of Suotu.
The vehicle didn't stop at all; its occupants merely asked over the intercom channel who was in the area.
Wu Youren didn't answer. The instructor had already emphasized that they weren't to make outside contact.
The vehicle made no further attempts. Seeing no response after several calls, it simply bumped and jostled its way through.
The road had already been pitted and rutted, and following the midnight battle, massive rockslides had rendered it nearly impassable.
Yet the off-road vehicle possessed formidable performance, feeling almost like an all-terrain vehicle, and forced its way across.
Whether any wounded inside could withstand such jostling, however, was anyone's guess.
When broad daylight arrived, Keli finally emerged. "Cynthia, you and young Wu go down to the road and clear away the rubble."
Such a chore was necessary, bearing little relation to personal standing or demeanor.
The critical point was that if left unattended, the main route to Suotu would be cut off.
Even so, Wu Youren mostly suspected that Instructor Keli just didn't want the two of them taking part in the search for Guizu relics.
Two hours later, the two of them had mostly cleared the rocks from the road.
As for the finer gravel and earth, there was nothing they could do; that truly wasn't something that could be settled in a day or two.
Even if Xiao He with his excavator showed up, he would probably have to take a detour.
Wu Youren didn't fret over it, treating the job as done, and returned to rest.
When he woke again, it was already afternoon, and the sky had begun to turn overcast once more.
Keli and Qigeli had also just halted their search. Having found nothing more, they relayed their report to the Martial Academy.
Cynthia was on lookout duty. Seeing Wu Youren emerge, she waved at him. "Come, have a taste of this freshly roasted azure armadillo meat."
Back at the academy, this was indisputably blood food, and because of its delicious taste, it commanded a hefty price.
Here in the wilderness, however, having hunted it down meant they could eat all they wanted.
They still had eight days left on their watch; even if they wanted to haul it back, doing so wouldn't be easy.
Wu Youren naturally didn't hold back, putting away a good seven or eight jin of azure armadillo meat in a single meal.
He lay comfortably on the dry straw, too lazy to even twitch, when a massive convoy entered from outside the mountains.
There were over twenty off-road vehicles alone, along with a dozen motorcycles and four tracked armored vehicles.
Keli went down to parley, confirming that the arriving force was a mixed unit.
It comprised instructors from the Martial Academy as well as military elites, bound for the outskirts of Suotu to set up a forward encampment.
They even invited Keli to join them, as the situation was growing increasingly tense and the unit sorely lacked seasoned hands.
Keli declined, stating that he had yet to complete his Martial Academy mission.
Even the three apprentice knights saw clearly that this was merely an excuse; following a main force would strip the instructor of all autonomy.
Had this occurred inside the academy, refusing such an assignment would have been difficult.
With an active assignment already in hand, however, declining was all too easy.
More crucially, Keli's current focus lay on Guizu relics. Marching alongside a large force, when would he ever get to call the shots?
Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost—wasn't that just human nature?
Not long after that convoy passed, two motorcycles and three off-road vehicles approached, one of which towed a massive trailer bed.
The group stated their identity outright: they were from the military's Logistics Directorate, sent to verify the supply status of certain materials.
Anything touched by the word "military" was best not provoked.
Keli stated plainly, "You may simply pass through; there's no need to inform us."
Yet the other party replied that they hoped someone familiar with the terrain could guide them—preferably an instructor—and promised a handsome reward!
Hearing this, Keli instantly grew conflicted. The situation within the Great Liang military was far from simple.
Most academy instructors looking to secure their ultimate future pinned their hopes on the military.
Yet the military was also a real pitfall. In recent years, without any decent wars to fight, people spent all their energy on factional infighting.
To make matters worse, factions abounded inside the military: the nobility faction, the regional faction, the imperial faction, the academy faction, the capital faction...
When Great Liang was expanding outward, factional friction could be suppressed—whatever anyone needed could simply be seized from outside.
The moment external wars ceased, however, the struggle over internal interests instantly turned cutthroat.
Keli didn't want to wade into such murky waters. Red Pine had sent out so many instructors over the years; how many of them had been hung out to dry?
Yet the military's logistics department... that was a lucrative post.
Setting aside potentially criminal dealings, the old saying that a cook never starves in a famine was enough to illustrate the perks.
Given the nature of logistics, the odds of entering combat were also lower, offering far greater safety.
If Keli could lend a hand now, it would at least establish a connection with the logistics division.
Whether he could enter that system in the future remained uncertain, but either way, a favor was a favor, wasn't it?
After some thought, he decided to get involved, though without going through the academy's assignment system—strictly lending his personal assistance.
Filing an assignment request with Red Pine required navigating procedures, wasting time and effort, and even if approved, it might not be assigned to him.
After all, he already had an active duty, so it was far more likely someone else would snag this plum assignment.
Even if he managed to land it himself, the credit for the help would go to the academy, leaving him with little personal goodwill to cash in.
In the end, Keli said, "I can accompany you for a run, just as a friendly favor."
Yet he wasn't particularly familiar with Suotu, and over these past few days, he had seen far too many wounded and dead.
With lingering apprehension in his mind, he approached the Jin youth to sound him out. "How about you come along with me?"
*Are you kidding me?* Wu Youren was naturally reluctant. Not only was it risky, it wouldn't count as an academy mission!
Whatever favor was earned would belong entirely to the instructor—what did that have to do with him?
He yearned for experience points, but he wasn't about to act overly eager. In all things, going too far was just as bad as falling short.
Hesitating visibly, he asked, "Then we leave the mountain pass to the two of them?"
Keli choked on his words. Although Red Pine gave him leeway in carrying out the assignment, the mission itself was mandatory!
Even if he disregarded the two students' safety, failing to suspend the academy assignment meant he would bear full responsibility if anything went wrong.
Above all, those two students were far less capable than Wu Youren!
Yet he still didn't want to pass up the chance to curry favor with the military. In the end, he could only sigh softly. "Then Qigeli, come with me."
He had to bring someone along; if anything happened, at least there would be someone to help contact the outside.
As for the advice he had given Cynthia earlier about keeping her distance from the Jin youth, he couldn't be bothered with it now.
Watching the two depart, Wu Youren and the female warrior looked at each other.
After more than a minute, Cynthia said, "Go rest first. I'll keep watch."
Toward evening, she prepared more azure armadillo meat, and the two enjoyed another hearty meal.
Fully rested, Wu Youren decided to take the first half of the night and wake her to switch off for the second half.
Deep into the night, after checking all the traps, he grabbed a small spade and headed to the spot where the azure armadillos had appeared.
During the day, Keli and Qigeli had already searched this area thoroughly and dug around extensively.
They had only stopped once they reached the burrows the armadillos had tunneled through—even if a Guizu relic had dropped, it wouldn't be far from the scene.
Yet Wu Youren sensed something; there had to be something good inside the passage.
Wielding the spade, he began digging quietly.
The armadillos' burrow was merely loose earth that facilitated their passage, not an actual hollow tunnel.
During the day, Keli had dug five or six meters in, but finding it unpromising and filthy, he gave up.
Wu Youren, on the other hand, couldn't care less. So long as it helped him advance, what did a little dirt matter?
He had dug forward less than five meters when his hands met empty air—a hollow cavity had opened inside the mountain!
Whether naturally formed or not, several large boulders and smaller rocks propped up a pocket of space inside the mountain.
Resembling a cave dwelling, the stones held the space remarkably sturdy purely through mutual compression.
Wu Youren couldn't help marveling: *Less than five meters. Over just that tiny distance, Instructor Keli let it slip through his fingers!*
*This thing was fated for me!* Probing with his senses, he walked over to the largest boulder, produced a glow stick, and snapped it to illuminate the area.
On the rock was a round protrusion. He touched it with the back of his hand; it felt icy cold.
Yet every cell in his body erupted in spontaneous jubilation, and the biguijue at his waist grew scorching hot.
This sensation was far more intense than when he had faced that small iron scrap before.
Perhaps it was because the iron scrap had been in Instructor Keli's hand back then, where the greater sensing distance had muted the effect.
One thing was certain, however: the experience points this thing offered would definitely not be inferior to that iron scrap!
*What is this?* The glow stick shed only faint light, but Wu Youren didn't want to go back for a flashlight.
He drew a dagger, intending to chip away the rock around the button.
The dagger's quality was quite ordinary, so he channeled some internal breath—what this world called battle qi—to protect the blade.
To his disappointment, the rock before him was extraordinarily hard. After scraping at it several times, the small dagger failed to chip away even a speck of debris.
Applying a bit more force, he heard a crisp ting—the dagger snapped!
Now this was... a bit depressing. Wu Youren twitched his lips in annoyance.
On second thought, given that even azure armadillos with their rock-hard scales couldn't breach this stone, such an outcome wasn't entirely unexpected.
What should he do then? Pondering for a moment, he steeled his resolve, unfastened the biguijue from his waist, gripped it in his hand, and pressed it against the round button.
In an instant, the biguijue's temperature spiked, though thankfully it remained within what his palm could endure.
The instant the jade pendant touched the protrusion, his body went rigid. A bizarre, piercing cold surged from the pendant into his palm and rushed through his entire body!
The sensation was completely paradoxical: the biguijue was scorching hot, easily fifty or sixty degrees Celsius, yet what flooded his entire body was an eerie, bone-deep cold!
It was as bizarre as bizarre could be.
Chapter 54