The small peak stood less than three hundred meters high, composed mostly of rocky cliffs—more fittingly called a stone crag. Major Qing struck, cleaving the mountain in a single blow. The blade never touched it, but wind and rain turned to steel; the blade fell, the mountain shattered, and a fissure tore through stone nearly all the way to its base.
Immediately, the mountain split in two, listing slightly amid a heavy, grinding roar.
Between the severed halves emerged a gorge sliced clean by the blade.
A torrent of rolling rock and soil plunged down, partially filling the chasm in an instant.
Rumble!
A massive eruption of pulverized earth and dust billowed upward, rising like a mushroom cloud.
Then came a sharp whoosh—a surge of source energy resonated as if trapped within a sealed chamber, carrying an overwhelming force of restraint.
Suddenly, as though a giant fan were sweeping down from above, the mushroom cloud was struck like a swat from a colossal palm. With a hollow whoom, the dust was slapped completely back into the earth.
Vision cleared once more.
Peace returned between the mountain and fields.
Dust returned to dust,
Earth returned to earth.
As for the man... the two weapons Major Qing had drawn were already back in their sheaths. His iconic full gear was in pristine order. Standing before the mountain... he slowly turned around.
"What on earth did I just do?!" With his mind consumed by the mountain split in two, Han Qingyu stood in a daze, numbly thinking to himself.
He had known he wasn't completely ruined, that he could still put up a fight. He just hadn't expected to be this terrifying, this capable in battle. Could this even be called "putting up a fight"?
Should I go back, find Tangtang, and beat him up to test it?
Would he accidentally drain me dry into a corpse?!
Experiencing such immense power for the first time, Han Qingyu was thoroughly shaken by his own capabilities. He was locked entirely in his own thoughts, having no room to consider anything else.
Yet in the eyes of everyone near and far, his gaze and expression right now appeared numb, calm, and tinged with an almost imperceptible sorrow.
After that overwhelming strike, his entire presence radiated an aura familiar from days gone by: keep away.
Everything was just right.
So, this was...
"Major Qing!"
It was unmistakably him.
"He's back. No, he never left. He was here all along."
"Thinking about it now, all those rumors that he was dead or crippled, all those doubts and despair—what an utter insult to Major Qing."
From cleaving the mountain to turning back in silence, the two scenes unfolded before the eyes of the nearby Azure soldiers. While relief and joy were certainly there, watching it all brought a wave of excitement and reassurance that soon settled into quiet composure.
They were, after all, disciplined soldiers.
As for the onlookers watching from a distance, several cheers erupted in waves, though they were quickly hushed by those beside them. This was no place for celebration.
In the crowd settling back into quiet, a rather scrawny figure suddenly darted forward... only to be seized by the collar from behind.
"Weiyu, what are you doing now?"
The brat had already caused trouble once. His elder sister, Zhang Youqing, knew what kind of occasion this was. Fearing he would stir up another incident, she questioned him sternly while tightening her grip.
Zhang Weiyu stared into the distance and struggled a few times... without success.
He had always been on the scrawnier side and had never been a match for his sister. Raised under her strict thumb and beaten by her since childhood, he had tried rebelling before, but had never won.
"I've gotta find those reporters, Sis! Look, they're right over there!" Zhang Weiyu plowed forward like an ox pulling a plow. "I'm gonna make them swallow every single word they said earlier! Fuck their—"
"Shut up! As if you could..." Such crude language wasn't something a girl could comfortably repeat. Frowning in irritation, Zhang Youqing yanked him back. "Stay put and behave yourself! Don't forget, we came to see off Commander Zhang. If you want to see Major Qing, then look with your own eyes, or I won't let you chase after him ever again. This is a rare chance."
She raised her brows to gesture toward him.
In the distance, Han Qingyu looked up. The torrential rain was still pouring down, water streaming across his cheeks...
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... Across from him, mud and water splashed into the air.
Twenty-two figures in the pallbearing escort burst forth with erupting source energy, flashing past both sides of Han Qingyu.
Reaching the foot of the mountain without slowing, they sprang onto the stone and dashed straight up.
All twenty-two were elite combatants of the Fourth Army itself.
The mountain had already been cleaved by Major Qing. High upon the cut exposed vast expanses of smooth, solid rock cliff. The Fourth Army's combat force ascended to hack, cleave, and chisel into the stone, intending to carve eleven burial niches into the cliff face...
To lay their fallen comrades and heroes to rest upon the high precipice.
And seal the openings with gravestones.
Throughout the entire process, no words or commands were spoken during the military funeral. There was only an aged voice, humming low amid the wind and rain:
"I hold a blade, cast off my old robes to join the ranks,
Strike the oars midstream, and uphold the boundless commonwealth..."
The humming pierced through the wind and veil of rain.
Then, the voices of Azure soldiers across the entire grounds rose together.
"Through past and present, men count in millions upon millions, yet how many are true heroes?
Skulls crushed in yellow dust, deeds carved across the firmament,
From death until now, their blood runs hot and red."
"I have a red tassel, that can bind the gray dragon..."
From above came the sound of battleblades chiseling into stone, beating in a unique rhythm that answered the song. By now, some finally began to weep, but their sobs were swallowed by the singing, their tears washing away in the rain.
Han Qingyu found that he seemed to know this song. He didn't remember the lyrics, but the rhythm was familiar.
Afraid of being overwhelmed by emotion, he hummed a few bars, closed his mouth, and silently began walking back, preparing to return to the formation.
Beside the burial grounds stood a newly built, makeshift house. Four veterans, all appearing to be past forty-five, walked over from beside it.
The veteran in the lead limped on one leg, dragging a trail through the muddy ground. With reddened eyes, he approached and held a black umbrella over Han Qingyu's head.
"Thank you, Major Qing, for seeing our Commander Zhang off on his final journey." The limping veteran looked up toward the high mountain as he spoke, then drew his gaze back to Han Qingyu. "By the way, those rumors... I never believed a single word."
Han Qingyu: "..." He remained silent.
"Major Qing probably doesn't remember me, does he?" The veteran fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, peeled off the outer plastic wrapper, flicked one out, and offered it to Han Qingyu. "When you first met our commander, I was there too, right by his side the whole time... I used to be his orderly."
"Oh, I remember." Han Qingyu reached out and took the cigarette. Of course he didn't remember meeting the veteran, but having heard about that past encounter from Wen Jifei and the others, he grasped the situation instantly.
"Yeah. Because I met you back then, I thought, a man like you couldn't possibly die so easily." The veteran muttered as he bowed his head to light the cigarette. He struck the lighter several times, but the flame was blown out by the wind each time.
He turned his back, cupping his hand to block the wind, but gusts blew in from every direction, and the rain slanted against them...
Suddenly, the wind around them ceased.
The veteran paused in surprise, then quickly recovered. He lit the cigarette, cupped the flame, and handed it over, smiling at Han Qingyu. "It must be nice being an expert. You can light a cigarette anywhere."
Han Qingyu smiled as well and lit his cigarette from the flame. To be honest, he had no idea how he had blocked the wind either; with just a stray thought, a surge of source energy had welled up, and the wind simply stopped.
"Are you..."
"Discharged." The veteran turned and gestured toward the other three.
Only then did Han Qingyu notice that the other three veterans were like him, all bearing disabilities. One of them was even completely blind.
Noticing his gaze, the veteran gave a wry smile, free of self-pity.
"We were defending Shenghai, you see. The few of us were useless—got injured early on and were sent down... In the end, we couldn't, we just couldn't board the Great Spike mother ship with the commander and the boys. Instead, we survived."
When he said "survived," there was no trace of relief, only regret in his eyes.
"Crippled. The army asked if we wanted to go back to the local districts or stay at a logistics base. We talked it over, and didn't it work out just right? Here with the commander and the brothers, they were still short a few grave keepers."
Han Qingyu understood.
Lately, he had overheard bits and pieces about Azure's policies. Disabled veterans like them would receive generous benefits whether they returned to civilian life or stayed at an Azure logistics base. Yet by their own choice, they had chosen to come here to watch over the graves of their commander and brothers.
Han Qingyu tried to empathize with that emotion, to grasp it. "Then your..."
In truth, what Han Qingyu wanted to ask was about their families... but he stopped short.
"We still train. Made a fuss with the higher-ups a few times to get gear and blades, plus an allowance of a few source energy blocks each month. We figured we ought to keep practicing. Crippled or not, we refuse to accept it. We all think that maybe one day, we'll be able to swing our blades again." The veteran misunderstood his question, straightening his posture as he spoke.
Han Qingyu nodded slowly.
How he wished he could pull out a few source energy blocks and give them away.
But he couldn't.
Over the past two days, Wen Jifei and the Little Prince had repeatedly warned him: whatever else he did was fine, but he must never give away anything, especially source energy blocks or metal blocks.
The moment he was willing to part with a source energy block... the whole world would know he was an impostor.
Chapter 746