News from the City of Iniquity was normally kept under wraps from regular officers and soldiers back home, but Azure had its own presence over there and naturally followed up on developments.
The incident report presented by the secretary lay open on the desktop.
Chen Buer finished reading it and paced back and forth behind his desk several times. He came to a halt, reached out, unscrewed a bottle of ink, poured it into an inkstone, and picked up a large calligraphy brush, gripping it in a fist.
He dipped it in ink, and with a swift shhhk, drew a heavy stroke across the report.
He completely blacked out the lines detailing Han Qingyu privately pocketing the captured source energy blocks.
"Legion Commander..." The secretary smiled helplessly, feeling a little uneasy. "Is that... appropriate?"
"What's not appropriate? Don't those folks on the Council always say behind my back that I'm just an old peasant with a foul temper, telling me to cultivate my character and temper my nature? So what's wrong with me cultivating my mind and practicing calligraphy?"
As he spoke, he continued tracing horizontal and vertical strokes on a sheet of paper beside it.
Finishing, he tossed the brush back onto the inkstone.
He switched to a fountain pen to sign his name.
Setting down the pen, he swung both arms in wide circles as he strode toward the office door, calling out, "Summon a few people who can fight to the sparring grounds. This old man is in high spirits today; I need to stretch my muscles."
"Uh... yes, sir." The secretary was attentive and well-accustomed to his ways. After acknowledging the order, he poked his head over to glance at the paper and discovered that a single character had indeed been brushed upon it:
[DO IT]
'The Legion Commander is envious of that kid.'
The secretary knew of Chen Buer's past—of those years when he alone guarded the grasslands with an open-top military jeep and a two-handed long blade. Those were the days the Legion Commander loved and missed the most.
So that bloody battle, where one man stood in death's domain and walked out of the valley with dual blades... as the secretary pictured the scene in his mind's eye, he wondered: even if the Legion Commander didn't say it aloud, wasn't his blood boiling deep down?
"Stop staring and get moving," Chen Buer said, standing in the doorway. "Strategic defense doctrine, absolute fairness doctrine, a two-year probationary period... Since we can't give them much meat to eat, we have to let those with the ability hunt on their own and find meat for themselves."
The secretary turned back. "Yes, sir."
"Don't forget, our ultimate enemy is the Great Spikes. Maybe blue-tinted, maybe Red Shoulders, maybe... something even stronger."
As Chen Buer spoke, a word surfaced in his mind: Miwang.
The Great Spike God of War.
As the only person in Azure who had personally slain a Red Shoulder, no one could imagine how terrifying that existence was better than Chen Buer.
What was more, above Red Shoulder and below Miwang, there were very likely two other ranks: Daie (Senior Warrior) and Puda'er (Super Warrior).
This was a deduction suppressed by the Global Azure Alliance, because for the vast majority of people, such a speculation was pure despair.
Yet Chen Buer, standing as one of those at the peak of individual martial might, was slightly different. Even while weighed down by the burden, he still harbored hope.
In the decades since the Red Shoulder appeared, the limits of human martial prowess had continued to expand.
Take himself, for instance: nearly everyone assumed he had grown weaker than when he unleashed that single strike years ago, seeing as he appeared so aged. But in truth, he had not. He knew precisely what remained in that final strike of his—to use it on another Red Shoulder would be a waste.
Puda'er? Miwang? Where in the sea of stars are you now?
This old man has a blade waiting for you.
***
"Where is the place a hero in Azure should go most? The medical station."
"Where do most officers and soldiers find their wives? The medical station,"
Wen Jifei said in a low voice.
He was seated nearby, keeping watch over Han Qingyu and He Tangtang in case their life-or-death condition took a sudden turn.
Han Qingyu was in genuine agony, struggling to breathe. He was brooding over that metal block currently winging its way to Switzerland. Giving it away had been the right thing to do, but the heartache was all too real.
"Isn't it the equipment grounds?" He Tangtang asked back in a whisper, picking up on Wen Jifei's words.
"Nope. There are too many trivial, nitpicky chores at the equipment grounds. The girls who work there easily turn into nagging busybodies. Plus, proportionately, there are way too many wolves eyeing them... Overall, I think the medical station is better."
If the people at the combat training base heard this, who knew how many girls' hearts would be broken.
He Tangtang nodded. "Oh."
"Of course, that's just speaking generally. Individual cases are hard to pigeonhole." Wen Jifei paused, then looked at Han Qingyu with a sly grin. "So, do you have a thing for Little Caixin? You into mixed-race girls? Why else would you give her the metal block?"
"Hm? That was what she was owed. This opportunity belonged to her people in the first place, and the winning squad was submitted under Caixin's foreign name, Adjani or whatever... And here's how I see it," Han Qingyu explained earnestly. "We need to use this chance to establish our squad's reputation—that we get things done and play fair. That way, if similar gigs come up in the future, people will come looking for us."
Wen Jifei: "You... you really think like that? Fine, you really do. Damn you. Caixin hugged you for nothing."
As they talked, the small specialized medical aircraft descended and touched down.
In the southern borderlands of Huaxia, at Medical Station 209, a thick circle of doctors and nurses stood waiting around the apron.
"Hurry, hurry, stretchers!"
"Quick, quick..."
With such a welcoming party, even the stretcher-bearers were female nurses. Tsk, tsk—they had probably already heard about that battle in the canyon.
Seeing Han Qingyu and He Tangtang cradled delicately in gentle, fragrant arms and carefully lifted onto stretchers, Wen Jifei immediately went limp all over on the spot.
Only Shen Yixiu and Wu Xu walked off the plane on their own.
In the treatment room.
Han Qingyu had already been undressed, wearing nothing but a pair of military shorts, though he was heavily wrapped in bandages.
A female doctor of about thirty, dressed in immaculate white with her hair pinned up behind her head, possessed a gentle demeanor and warm, tender hands. She said, "The emergency treatment over in Nepal was too rough. I need to tend to your wounds again and re-bandage everything... Um, do you need anesthesia?"
Han Qingyu shook his head. "No."
It wasn't to show off his bravery; rather, he dared not let himself enter an anesthetized state.
"None of the people who came from there accepted anesthesia," a young nurse poked her head in and whispered in the doctor's ear.
The female doctor considered it. "That makes sense. Anyone who just escaped such a perilous environment, breaking through a siege of a hundred men, would inevitably feel uneasy."
Her expression softened with sympathy as she spoke.
Turning back, she said kindly and gently, "No anesthesia then. If it hurts too much while I clean the wounds, just squeeze my hand."
Han Qingyu nodded.
Yet throughout the entire process that followed, he never grabbed it once.
Scrapes and scratches aside, there were nineteen wounds that required dressing alone, and the bloody hole in his right chest had nearly pierced his internal organs. Watching that numb, impassive face lying on the bed, the doctors and nurses worked in silence, their motions swift and skilled, yet their hearts pounded wildly.
"All done." Finally, the female doctor's hand brushed across Han Qingyu's chest. "Um, fortunately, although your muscles don't look particularly bulky, they're... very resilient. Otherwise, these wounds..."
Han Qingyu nodded. "Thank you."
"Mhm. Get some good rest. If anything comes up, have the nurse call me."
"Okay. Thank you."
"No need to be so polite."
The female doctor walked out.
After a short while, a young nurse came in.
"Time for medicine. Mm, shall I feed you? Come, let me help you sit up a bit. It's okay, just lean against me. Don't worry, I'm plenty strong."
"Thank you."
After another while, another one came in.
"A few tests to run."
And after another while...
Chapter 149