Clouds Above Clouds

"...For a thousand years past, the immortal sects have looked down from on high, like vermin sucking the marrow from the bones of our ancestors generation after generation. They have let natural disasters and human calamities, monster rampages and bandit plagues torment the people of Great Yan. "...For this day, far too many of our comrades have fallen on the road behind us. Now, the rebels have written their blasphemous call to arms beneath our feet, presumptuously drawing open the curtain on our Great Yan Dynasty's civil war." "...The time of many among our brothers in arms will be frozen on this day, but the Young Master and the Chancellor have already paved the road to victory in blood for us at the Tianyuan Mountain Range." "...We are the Black Scale Heavy Army, the Chancellor's blade." "...After today, the immortal sects will feel the terror of our forefathers." "...After today, the immortal sects will no longer sit high above, towering in the clouds." "...After today, the immortal sects will be cast into history by our own hands." "...Today, let us stain our sword souls with the blood of rebels!" "..." "..." "..." Intermittent voices echoed by his ears. Jolting awake from a nightmare, Zhou Ping instinctively gripped the spirit blade in his arms, scanning his surroundings with vigilance. This was a room resembling a secret chamber. Cast from bronze and iron, it shuddered as turbulent high-altitude air currents seeped inside like the shrieks of fierce ghosts. Dense formation arrays were carved into the interior walls, their faint luminescence allowing one to hazily make out the scene within. Vague, shifting silhouettes made the cavernous space feel cramped, while the faint glow of the formation lines reflected a deep, chilly glint off their armor and weapons. Only that calm voice reverberated down the passageway inside the cabin. The moment he clearly recognized his environment, Zhou Ping rubbed his slightly groggy head and discovered that the cloth tunic beneath his heavy iron armor was once again soaked through with sweat. "Awake?" A deep voice came from his side. Zhou Ping jerked his head around to find an armored, burly man wiping a spirit blade in the dim light, not even looking at him. "The hour hasn't arrived yet. You can rest a bit longer." "Squad Leader..." Zhou Ping murmured and sat up. He placed a hand over his chest as if trying to press down the lingering panic from his nightmare, but the dread of impending battle still made his body tremble along with the massive cabin. As if sensing his unease, the man in the shadows casually tossed a cloth pouch in front of him, speaking evenly, "Take a deep breath. Fear is normal. Everyone is like this before battle. If you truly can't calm your mind, maintain your spirit saber to distract yourself." "..." Zhou Ping reached into the pouch, pulling out a bottle of blade oil and a whetstone. After a moment's hesitation, watching the other man's whetting motions, he asked in a low voice, "Squad Leader, are you afraid too?" "Heh." Hearing that, the middle-aged man in the shadows chuckled. Raising the spirit blade level with his eyes, he looked at his own gaze reflected on the blade's surface and asked bluntly in return, "What, does that surprise you?" Recalling the fearless silhouette of the man's back in past battles, Zhou Ping said somewhat sheepishly in a low voice, "You don't look like that kind of person, Squad Leader." "I'm sorry if I shattered some of your illusions, but at this very moment, I am indeed afraid." Sheathing his wiped spirit blade, the man said softly, "There's no shame in it. Fear is human instinct. How to face it is our duty as soldiers." Zhou Ping fell silent for a moment before answering solemnly, "Yes, Squad Leader." The middle-aged man waved his hand slightly from the shadows. "No need to be so stiff. As I recall, you just graduated from the Wuxuan Courtyard at the start of this year?" Not knowing what the man was getting at, Zhou Ping still nodded. "Yes. I arrived at the garrison town on the third day of the new year." "Meaning you enlisted less than half a year ago, yet you were transferred into our Tianwu Army." The middle-aged man's voice carried an admiring sigh. "Truly impressive... Back in my day, it took me ten years to reach this point." Hearing this, Zhou Ping scratched the back of his head with slight embarrassment. Just as he was about to say something, the middle-aged man raised a hand to cut him off. "The Black Scale Army never cares for humility. With our heads tucked into our waistbands, leave behind the courtesies of literati and scholars. If you're a genius, there's no need to belittle yourself. If you manage to survive this time, are you due for another promotion?" "Uh... yes. I have enough military merits." Zhou Ping answered, but the middle-aged man's next words froze him in place. "But I don't think you'll survive." "...?" Zhou Ping paused midway through wiping the spirit blade. The middle-aged man leaned slowly back against the chair behind him, eyeing the youth. "I've served in the army for over twenty years. On the battlefield, the ones who die the fastest aren't those with low cultivation, nor are they the reckless and brave. It's green recruits like you who just walked out of the Wuxuan Courtyard." Suppressing the urge to retort, Zhou Ping asked in a low voice, "Why?" "Because their loyalty to the Chancellor is a bit too excessive." "..." Zhou Ping flared with anger, his fingers instinctively tightening around the spirit blade he was tending. The middle-aged man continued to gaze sideways at the youth with an unchanged, calm expression. After locking eyes for several breaths, Zhou Ping took a deep breath and said in a grave voice, "Squad Leader, I respect you, so I hope you will not utter such treasonous words again." The middle-aged man didn't mind at all, continuing calmly, "I provoked you into such a state with a single remark. If you don't die, who will?" Zhou Ping exhaled in relief. "So you were just testing me, Squad Leader." Yet the middle-aged man shook his head. "No, not a test—a piece of advice. If you want to survive, you'd best take your loyalty to the Chancellor and the Young Master and—" Halfway through the sentence, Zhou Ping sheathed his spirit blade and prepared to stand up. Seeing this, the middle-aged man had no choice but to shift his approach. "Hear me out before making up your mind. It won't hurt, will it, kid?" "..." Zhou Ping went silent for a moment and said in a low voice, "Squad Leader, you are already suspected of demoralizing the troops. I hope you have a reasonable explanation." The middle-aged man smiled softly, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes. Once upon a time, he had been just as hot-blooded as this boy. Loyal, fearless, fierce. "You don't need to doubt my loyalty. I've been in the Black Scale Army for over twenty years. Counting my time in the Tian'an Martial Hall and the Wuxuan Courtyard, I've spent the better part of my life living for the Chancellor." The middle-aged man slowly opened his eyes and murmured softly, "The reason I'm willing to say this to you is precisely because of that burning loyalty you bear for the Chancellor. His vision requires geniuses like you to build it. He needs you to keep living and play a greater role, rather than throwing your life away in the coming war over this very loyalty. "Kid, combat readiness can be cultivated, and experience can be trained, but a battle mindset can only be tempered through slaughter after slaughter. Just like every other fool fresh out of the Wuxuan Courtyard, in the three months you've been under my command, you've been desperate to prove something on the battlefield. "Prove that you feel no fear, prove your loyalty, prove that you can serve the Chancellor. But do you know? Over these three months, you've fallen into mortal peril no fewer than ten times." Zhou Ping's eyes flickered, but in the end, he met the man's cloudy gaze and said, "Yet I survived. I survived wars like the one in the Northern Border relying on my own talent." "You certainly learn fast, tossing humility aside so quickly." The middle-aged man found it amusing, teasing, "But kid, do you really think what came before counted as war?" "Why wouldn't it?" "That was called slaughter." "..." After a long silence, Zhou Ping insisted, "While at the Wuxuan Courtyard, I accompanied the instructors to Beifeng City. Back then, the Barbarians hadn't had their spine shattered by the Young Master; they were still at their zenith." The middle-aged man merely smiled without answering. He envied the youth's naive audacity, but until one experienced true war firsthand, no amount of explanation would suffice. With a soft sigh, he said slowly, "Kid, exterminating the Barbarians doesn't count as true war either..." Zhou Ping frowned. "If a clash between two million-strong armies doesn't count as war, then what does?" A complex look crossed the middle-aged man's eyes. After a moment of silence, he shook his head. "If you insist on your view, I can't persuade you. But there are things I must tell you, whether out of responsibility to myself, to you as a junior, or to the Chancellor. "Travelogues, history books, opera plays, and even official gazettes love to sing praises of our loyalty as soldiers, glorifying the iron-blooded renown bought with our lives. But we are living flesh and blood, not the machines painted by those literati's brushes. You don't need to choose such extreme means to prove your loyalty." With those words, silence descended. Just as Zhou Ping was about to say something more, heavy footsteps echoed from the corridor outside the cabin. *Clang.* *Clang.* *Clang.* Iron boots struck the floor, the sound echoing closer from afar. Several burly men entirely clad in heavy iron armor patrolled through the passageway. One led the way while four followed, their hands resting on their scabbards. The passageway was not very long, roughly thirty-odd zhang. Three iron doors were set along each side, each fitted with an observation window to look inside, which also allowed those within to clearly see anyone walking in the corridor. As the heavily armored men approached, the formation arrays on the cabin's inner walls began to flicker and charge. The luminescence dispelled the gloom inside. A deep voice resounded in every corner of the cabin, waking the armored soldiers who were still asleep and making those wiping their spirit blades pause and look up. It was a brief, callous eight-word command: "All forces, attention! Prepare for drop!" Following the command, powered by the formation arrays, gears hidden beneath the iron plating began to turn. The heavy churn of machinery broke the silence of the cabin. *Rumble—* Amidst the trembling of the cabin, an iron door revealing light slowly opened up ten thousand meters in the sky. A turbulent, bone-chilling gale rushed in alongside the illumination, but to everyone's surprise, the sunlight was not dazzling. A red sun was rising in the distant east, but the sky was no longer azure, instead showing an intensely splendid blue-black hue. Looking down, sea-like clouds tumbled and surged like white snow. Their current position was extraordinarily high. So high that even the cloud layer appeared as distant as the earth itself. Zhou Ping was stunned by this breathtaking sight. Yet when the metal hatch opened completely and his line of sight leveled with the horizon at this altitude, he beheld a terrifying scene. That was power belonging to humanity. Gigantic, ferocious airborne transport beasts burst into view. One, A hundred, A thousand... Continuous and unending as mountains filling the seas, they soared across the firmament. Their massive wingspans blotted out the sun, casting down a shadow over the boundless sea of clouds—a shadow born of clouds above clouds! Right at that moment, The garrison commander's roaring bellow exploded in everyone's ears: "Don't fucking daydream on me! This isn't a goddamn drill! We're already right over the heads of those sect rebels! Instead of spacing out, remember the fruits of this past month's training! Remember every single word in the Black Scale Manual! "We're fifteen thousand zhang up! If you make a single fucking mistake, you either splat into meat paste or get chopped to pieces by Sect Alliance rebels the second you land! "The brothers of the Second Division breached the enemy city two quarters of an hour ago! Circulate your techniques, form up briefly, and leap into the assault with me to reinforce our comrades!" "..." *Thump-thump.* *Thump-thump.* Fierce heartbeats sounded in every person's ears. Nervous? Of course they were nervous. They were not high-ranking retained elders capable of soaring through the skies and tunneling through the earth. Fifteen thousand zhang was a number that made anyone tremble just hearing it, not to mention the largest prefecture city occupied by the Sect Alliance down below. Yet as the most elite garrison division of the Black Scale Army, the rustle of metal soon drowned out those violent heartbeats. The high-altitude light reflected cold glints in their eyes. Straightening their armor and weapons, they awaited the garrison commander's single order. In silence, Zhou Ping and his surrounding comrades put on their helmets together and donned their armored iron faceguards. The icy touch of the metal pressed firmly against his skin, offering a rare sense of security. *Tap.* Suddenly, a gentle pat on his shoulder made him instantly alert. He turned to find the middle-aged man standing half behind him, an armored gauntlet resting on his shoulder. The man said softly, "Didn't you ask me earlier what counts as true war?" Zhou Ping looked back. "Uh, yes." "..." The middle-aged man's lips parted, seemingly saying something, but this time Zhou Ping couldn't hear his words. Because— "JUMP WITH ME!" *BOOM——!* The garrison commander's roar drowned out the middle-aged man's murmur. No— It was not the garrison commander's roar that drowned out the squad leader's voice, but another sound—the sound of destruction. Time seemed to freeze; the world fell silent. Turbulent wind whipped past his ears through the gaps in his armor, turning into shrill, ghostly shrieks. Zhou Ping had no idea what had just happened, but the connection of the military array technique allowed him to confirm that the transport beast they were riding had been attacked, and he had been flung directly out of the cabin! Falling. Plummeting at terrifying speed. The intense shock plunged him into dizziness, and his rapid spinning during the descent made it impossible to tell up from down. But after merely an instant, the circulating military array technique forcefully yanked his dazed mind back to clarity. The Black Scale Third Division's rapid drop had begun. Following the command, countless soldiers leaped from the heights of tens of thousands of zhang, diving down toward the rising sun on the horizon. The high-speed descent soon created air currents breaking through the sound barrier around them. Behind their armored faceguards were pairs of eyes woven with dread and excitement. Yet none of this concerned Zhou Ping at the moment. He was still tumbling and spinning in the air. With no foothold in the high sky, he could only adjust his diving posture bit by bit. Fortunately, their altitude was high enough to give him time to stabilize his body against the inertia of the shock. The moment he fully steadied himself, Zhou Ping finally saw the culprit that had blown him out of the cabin—a streak of light that cut across the firmament! It blossomed amidst the black cloud of colossal birds, extending its radiance in all directions, dazzling and splendid, before annihilating everything within it! A celestial phenomenon weapon of the Sect Alliance. Counting the Second Division's surprise raid, less than two quarters of an hour had passed. Judging by past wars... the enemy should still be in chaos... Why did their counterattack come so quickly? Even as these thoughts crossed his mind, Zhou Ping soon had no leisure to think further. For the shrieks of massive birds were already rising from below! Innumerable sect transport beasts and monster birds, accompanied by countless fireballs and beams of light, pierced through the dense cloud layer from the ground, shooting up toward the clouds above clouds bearing the Black Scale soldiers! The sky was ignited in an instant! Before even touching the ground, the Second Division's battle had already begun! It was also at this moment that Zhou Ping understood why the squad leader had said the war against the Barbarians was unworthy of the name, and why he called this past year's campaign a mere slaughter... Sect Alliance monster birds bursting through the clouds charged madly at them. The elite soldiers of the Second Division still in midair had no means of resisting these gigantic sky beasts. Yet right at their moment of despair— *ROAR——!* Monster birds belonging to the Prime Minister's Manor surged past them first, slamming with iron blood and valor into the oncoming shadows of death! His formidable training allowed Zhou Ping to entrust his back entirely to his comrades during the descent. Adjusting his posture, he prepared to meet the battle array down below. Ten thousand zhang. Seven thousand zhang. Four thousand zhang. Entering the cloud layer. And then, Through the iron faceguard, Zhou Ping clearly saw the battlefield beneath the clouds. It was a broken, colossal city bordering the sea. Built along the coast, it stretched toward the horizon. Its towering walls and orderly, bustling districts bore witness to its former prosperity, but now that prosperity was entirely ablaze. The heavy cloud layer left the world below dim and desolate, yet it was illuminated by an endless sea of fire. Thick smoke billowed upward, the towering walls were corroded by acid, the earth boiled, the ocean burned, and war cries and explosions shook heaven and earth! In the low sky near the ground, the city's defensive formations were on the verge of collapse, yet countless combat birds still circled above them—some belonging to the Black Scale Army, others to the Sect Alliance. Blasts of acid and fireballs spewed from their hideous maws as they wheeled in frantic dogfights, tearing into one another before plunging dead to the ground. With every passing moment, buildings collapsed; every second, birds tumbled from above the clouds. Formidable array beams shot through the clouds from all across the city into the sky, only to be locked onto and obliterated an instant later by supreme power descending from the heavens. Shockwaves from explosions rippled from all directions, sending fireclouds and black smoke rolling into the sky! Chaos, weeping, and death wove a requiem known as war across this land called Jiangnan! *Hum——* The counter-thrust currents of their Cloud-Drifting Boots surged. Zhou Ping and a host of leaping comrades landed precisely at their designated positions. Just as they were about to regroup and advance, they suddenly noticed an unusual armored figure standing atop a nearby high slope. It was a scholar without a helmet, clad in the black armor of a supreme commander. He looked down upon this vast ocean of fire, the flames illuminating his profile. His delicate, refined features seemed entirely out of place amidst the surrounding devastation. In the silence, Yuan Hao glanced at them, wordlessly raised a hand to don the iron faceguard representing a supreme commander, slowly drew the spirit saber at his waist, and walked indifferently toward the burning metropolis. Watching his receding figure, The words his squad leader had failed to finish before his death echoed in Zhou Ping's ears. They were— [Welcome to hell, kid.]