To Meet Your Autumn

Huaxia's invincible legion commander liked to keep his war saber in a drawer. No one knew how he had developed this habit in his earlier years, but it persisted, and whenever word reached the ranks of the military and the common folk, it always gave off the heroic swagger of: *After I finish this drink, I'm gonna go chop something up.* A swagger both plain and potent, much like his usual peasant-farmer affability—yet the moment he armed himself, man and saber commanded heaven and earth. Thus, over the years, the desks Azure logistics crafted for him—regardless of height or purpose—were never small, and every single one featured a single wide drawer across the entire table. "Since when did they get so generous all of a sudden?" The old man squinted at the figures on the official document. After counting the zeroes, he muttered to himself. As he slipped the document into the drawer, the Red-Slaying Saber rattled and rolled against the wooden boards inside. Among Azure generals, word of mouth had always maintained that the commander of Huaxia had a terrible temper, yet few knew that his Red-Slaying Saber actually possessed an even worse one. This saber had once fought alongside him to sever the very first red-shoulder ever seen by mankind; it had traveled with its master beyond the sky to clash with a blade that spanned thousands of li; it had perched atop a high-rise, bringing down over a dozen Great Spike crafts in a single strike; and it had ventured forth alone to bear down upon the podium of the Azure Council. Although by modern material standards the blade itself was not of peak quality, the man who wielded it had nurtured it into something unmatched. For nearly forty years, the man wielding this saber had stood alone at the summit, looking out upon the world, and perched behind his shoulder, the blade had looked down upon the world for forty years just the same. "What the hell are you rattling about? With a skirmish like this, it isn't time for the two of us to go yet." The old man spoke to the saber, then shut the drawer in annoyance before turning aside and barking, "Seems like those brats committed a pretty high percentage of troops this time!" Xu Xiaohong did not rush to answer. He concentrated first on pouring the boiled water into a thermos flask. Perhaps due to old age, his hands trembled slightly these days, making it far from easy to avoid spilling a single drop. Only after pouring the water did the chief of staff turn around, bending down to extinguish the stove fire as he spoke: "It's a good thing. It shows that boy has moved on from petty scheming and bean-counting to developing the command methods and strategic mindset needed to lead an army." The "boy" Chief of Staff Xu referred to was not Han Qingyu, but Wen Jifei. Wen Jifei had always been the one handling all the grueling, brain-racking affairs of Stream Vanguard. As for Han Qingyu, being generally lazy and unsuited for such things, he focused solely on serving as the sect-guarding signboard. Lately, this signboard—which had once towered into the clouds—had suddenly tilted a little. It was precisely under such circumstances that Stream Vanguard had unexpectedly turned aggressive, committing as much as seventy percent of their forces to the Lost Continent Expedition. This was certainly not their usual style; in the past, they had always been stingy. This decision caught many off guard and gave the world a pleasant surprise. "Don't forget that at their core, their men have always been a pack of violent bandits. These people may possess loyalty and courage, but the innate ferocity and ingrained wicked habits inside them cannot be undone overnight. If they are left idle for too long without fighting and conquering, that ferocity and malicious streak will spawn trouble elsewhere. Especially now that Han Qingyu has lost his memories and his intangible restraint over them has waned, this problem will only grow worse." Raising a finger, Xu Xiaohong said, "That is his first consideration." Since there was a first, there had to be a second. Chen Buer raised two fingers, looking as though he were flashing a peace sign, gesturing for the chief of staff to continue. Xu Xiaohong strolled over to retrieve the tea tin, tapping some leaves into a cup. "The second is simple: resources. A massive demand for resources. Outside Antarctica, nearly a year has passed without a single Great Spike craft landing anywhere in the world, and the Third Fixed Exploration Site is no different. They have always supplied rations to cultivate elite soldiers, so their consumption is naturally enormous..." "But I heard they just recently blackmailed Voyage out of their ancestral fortune, and I suspect they were behind the looting of several global underground black markets before that." Chen Buer rubbed his hands unconsciously as he spoke. Robbery... if not for his position, he'd be itching to do it too. "Even that isn't enough. Eating away at one's reserves with no end in sight requires a mountain high enough to endure. Under the current situation, they know full well they can't perpetually demand resources from Azure—whether source energy, devices, bullets, or airships. Besides, with the perpetual appetite of those scoundrels, there's no telling if they aren't itching to get their hands on a mothership or two to play with." "They definitely are." Chen Buer knew the temperament of that bunch; they surely would, because if he were in their shoes, he would want to as well. "Then that settles it. Right now, Antarctica is like the very last field of wheat left to harvest in the entire source energy world, perhaps even the final resupply before the final battle and the darkest era arrive. So no matter how dangerous it is, every faction will certainly go, and they are no exception." The tea was steeped, several curled dark-green leaves slowly unfurling on the surface of the water. Xu Xiaohong continued, "Then, building upon that, as for the third consideration, I suspect they might want to expand their army." "They think ten thousand men is too few?" The tone of Chen Buer's voice sounded as if the several hundred thousand men under his own Sole Witness Legion were a paltry sum. Perhaps this old scoundrel lacked any concept of numbers. Too lazy to bicker with him, Xu Xiaohong played along: "Yes. Not only do they consider it too few, but also too weak. As the base of source energy armed power across the world expands rapidly and the average degree of fusion increases substantially, the ten thousand men currently in their hands will be utterly insignificant in the future." Having said this, the chief of staff's brows furrowed slightly. Although in the current global situation, Azure wielded absolute dominance due to prior victories and expansions, and various factions had temporarily gone dormant, the future was another matter... Once the true invasion began and large-scale descents occurred, the world would inevitably plunge into unprecedented chaos. And what if, at that time, Chen Buer died? If a vacuum opened in military dominance, and no one was left to provide absolute deterrence and faith to rally behind... Then the world would not merely see all sorts of sinister deviants and old and new powers madly surfacing; even the various field armies of the Azure Alliance would very likely enter a state of fighting their own separate battles in all but name. This was a situation with at least a thirty-percent chance of occurring in the future. Right now, perhaps a very few individuals could already foresee it, yet none would speak it aloud. That Wen Jifei could see this step in advance somewhat exceeded Xu Xiaohong's expectations. Wen Jifei was already setting to work preparing Stream Vanguard to survive, stay alive, and grow stronger. Stream Vanguard needed such foresight to prepare for a rainy day, especially now that Han Qingyu had lost his memories, with no telling when—or if—he would ever recover. "Fine, so complicated! If you hadn't told me, I would've thought they sent so many people just to make it easier to protect that amnesiac bastard." Chen Buer thought to himself: *Mental labor like this really isn't for me after all.* "Actually, that's not wrong either. You can look at it that way," Xu Xiaohong said with a turn of his head and a slight smile. "Because at the end of the day, his greatest motive for doing all this is still to protect that boy in the future." ... At the Third Fixed Exploration Site, although Stream Vanguard was participating in the Lost Continent Expedition, they would not rendezvous with Azure for departure, nor would they necessarily act in unison upon reaching Antarctica. The deployment agreement stated clearly that their actions carried only an obligation to cooperate, rather than making them an operational unit bound to obey every command. "In any case, I only have this one thing to say: while we'll bear the fighting and life-and-death together, when it comes to the loot, we'd best not wait until others get their hands on it before asking for a cut. Understood? Best if we get our hands on a mothership or two to play with this time." The words had been stated plainly enough. Having finished, the Little Prince, who was directly in charge of this matter, turned his head and scanned the seated regimental commanders. To this, the scoundrels who originated from violent banditry in the chief of staff's words naturally showed nothing but excitement and fervor, offering their fullest support. "Well then," the agenda essentially finished, the Little Prince turned to Han Qingyu. "Qingzi, is there anything else you want to say?" "I... do." Han Qingyu thought for a moment and said, "Just one thing. With so many of us going this time, when it's time to run, who's going to make the call?" In the past, whether Stream Vanguard advanced or withdrew on the battlefield was naturally decided by Han Qingyu, but under his current condition, he clearly couldn't make that call. Hearing him speak so candidly, everyone present froze for a moment before bursting into laughter one after another. They thought to themselves: *Han Qingyu is still Han Qingyu after all... Even if he lost his memories, many things still haven't changed.* "Don't worry, Plague Chicken and I will keep an eye on that," the Little Prince replied with a wry smile. This duty could only fall upon him and Wen Jifei now. After all, the two of them had once been experts at fleeing the battlefield. If you swapped them out for Wu Xu, Wu Xu probably never even possessed the thought of "it's time to run." "Anything else? Nothing... Then we're good." Wen Jifei smiled and dismissed the regimental commanders. Once only the core team remained in the conference room, Wen Jifei's expression darkened slightly as he sat back down. "I just received news that not long ago, Zhe Qiuhong provided Azure with a follow-up research report on the Yanxiu, including conjectures on the burial sites of the remains," Wen Jifei said. "So the reason Azure deployed their super combat power in full force for this expedition likely has another very important motivation: they have determined that the remains are very probably in Antarctica." "Really?" He Tangtang, who often forgot that he wasn't actually a Yanxiu, grew instantly excited. "The likelihood is very high," Wen Jifei said. Given that Snow Lotus's former headquarters was in Antarctica, that Daie had first appeared in Antarctica, and that the final stronghold where the Great Spikes retreated on this planet was also Antarctica... the site of the remains pointed straight to Antarctica. And once those missing remains were uncovered, the current high-end combat power baseline of this world would immediately rise substantially. "At that time, let alone supers, even that Beyond-Canopy level newly defined by the City of Sin will definitely no longer stop at two and a half; newcomers will surely step into it," Wen Jifei said. "So we have to dip our toes in that as well, or our combat power level will quickly get left behind. Besides, I suspect that in our Stream Vanguard, Qingzi and Xu'er might not be the only two Yanxiu..." "Report!" Just as he was speaking, a soldier shouted from a distance outside the door. "Enter!" He Tangtang responded. "Reporting: Azure officials delivering rations have just arrived, and a large crowd of reporters came with them." Entering the room, the soldier reported, "They said they've come to cover Stream Vanguard's deployment ceremony..." "Deployment ceremony? Do we even have one of those?" He Tangtang turned and asked. "We don't." Wen Jifei stood up with a wry smile. "It's fine. You guys chat; I'll go take a look." It was about a five-minute walk from the conference room to the outside. At the three-minute mark, Wen Jifei spotted the ranks of Azure officials in front and the massive stockpiles of expedition supplies in the distance. At three and a half minutes, he saw the dense crowd of hundreds of reporters with an array of cameras, lenses, and recording equipment bristling like spears and cannons. Then, when he reached the fourth minute, only one person remained in his eyes. A female reporter dressed in Azure administrative uniform, her hair tied in a ponytail, microphone in hand. Amid the crowd, the female reporter was looking at him too, carrying a touch of excitement and a hint of smug pride. Yao Yue had actually passed both assessments to become a war correspondent, and had even come out here to ambush Plague Chicken with a surprise visit. Back when she had mentioned this idea over the phone, Wen Jifei had mocked her for not even being able to beat a cockroach—how in middle school she had tried to swat a cockroach in her dorm and ended up bumping a lump onto her own head... This was the first major assignment of Yao Yue's career as an Azure reporter: covering Stream Vanguard, an expedition about to set out into the autumn, and Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei.