Chapter 230 - 92: Fiery Martial Soul

Words : 1583 Updated : Sep 25th, 2025

Qi left just as he happened to encounter Zhan Li. Even though the other person was the Vice Hall Director, Qi did not bother to greet him, nor did he glance sideways, and just left directly. In fact, apart from the companions of Magic Potion Group Thirteen and his mentor Mei Li, Qi never really looked people in the eyes, which could possibly be related to him being an orphan since childhood and not being very close to people. "Is that kid your companion? I remember he’s from the Royal Magic Academy too, right? He seems to have a rather sinister look," Zhan Li took a few more glances at Qi, feeling a chill down his spine even just encountering this youth. That feeling was as if one were being stared at by an extremely powerful demon beast. For someone to give Zhan Li, a Martial Artist, such a feeling was rare, so Zhan Li had quite an impression of Qi. "He is my companion, Vice Hall Master Qi, speaking ill behind someone’s back isn’t a good habit," Yun Sheng was not pleased to hear someone else speaking about his friend. "Forget I said anything, Divine Doctor Yun, the inventory in the Medicine Hall has been completed. Here are some account books, please tally them up first," Zhan Li also knew about Yun Sheng’s temper. He had learned from Yun Canglang that Yun Sheng was indeed the daughter of Yun Canghai. It must be said that this girl’s temperament is a typical Yun Family temperament: once she has made up her mind about people or matters, not even ten horse-drawn carriages could pull her back. "Additionally, here are two Sect Tokens. One is to thank you for becoming an elder of our Pavilion, and the other is a token of gratitude for curing Cang Lang’s illness," Zhan Li is someone who keeps his promises. He had promised Yun Sheng a Sect Token, and the second token was an extra gift from him. "I will accept the first Sect Token, but I cannot take the second one. Uncle Yun is my family, and treating him is my duty," Yun Sheng declined Zhan Li’s kind gesture. Uncle Yun is a good friend of Zhan Li, but also a close relative to her. If her father knew that she accepted rewards for treating her own Uncle Yun, he would probably be so angry that he would get up from his sickbed. Zhan Li couldn’t help smiling. The more he knew Yun Sheng, the more he liked her. Sometimes she would be petty, not letting go of even a small advantage, but at other times, she was incredibly generous. But that was also Yun Sheng’s greatest charm, such a person easily attracted a group of close friends. After pondering for a while, Yun Sheng spoke: "But if Vice Director Zhan insists on repaying me, how about doing me a favor instead? I may not be able to be in the Medicine Hall all the time in the upcoming period. You must have heard about the situation with the Yun Family Army. I am also a Hunter Soldier myself, so after sorting things out in the Medicine Hall, I’d like to help Uncle Yun reorganize the Yun Family Army." Zhan Li came today, partly for the matters concerning the Yun Family Army. Zhan Li was aware of the Yun Family Army’s situation. But he had not brought it up earlier due to the issue of Yun Canglang’s illness. "That’s fine. After what Cang Lang and I went through in the last battle, we’ve both lost all hope in the court and it’s impossible for us to stay in the military any longer," Zhan Li pondered for a moment. Unexpectedly, he was not against the idea of transforming the Yun Family Army into a Hunting Corps. Zhan Li himself came from humble origins. After becoming the Vice Hall Director of the Wuxuan Wujigu, he had some interactions with Hunter Soldiers. If it wasn’t for Yun Bahe persuading him back then, his most likely path would also have been to become a Hunter Soldier. Listening to Zhan Li’s tone, Yun Sheng also sensed something was amiss. She had heard that in his early years Zhan Li was a fierce general of Great Zhou and that he and Yun Canghai were once called Great Zhou’s Double Heroes. Both of them were Martial Artists, and by the time they were under thirty years old, they had both already broken through to become Marquis. Such two outstanding individuals, yet in one battle, one retired and one was left disabled. However, in public, Zhan Li never mentioned that defeat of the past, what exactly had happened. "Vice Hall Director, I have always wanted to ask, why did my uncle fail that year? I keep wondering, how was his hand injured?" Seeing Zhan Li lost in thought, Yun Sheng seized the opportunity to ask. "Your uncle... alas, he was deceived by a woman. I do not know the details of what occurred, but I am aware that at the time, our side was caught between the pincer attack of the Hou Qin and Tang Yuan’s allied forces. Breaking through was imperative," said Zhan Li with an excited expression. As the long-serving Vice Hall Director of Wuxuan Wuji Hall, he had cultivated a calm demeanor, yet at this moment, he couldn’t help but be filled with righteous indignation, his words laden with resentment. That year, the Great Zhou fought a battle with the allied forces of Tang and Qin at the Southern Border of Great Zhou. Yun Canglang and Zhan Li led the troops out to battle. The two of them worked together, invincible like a crushing force, killing countless enemy soldiers along the way. Who would have known that Hou Qin, underhanded as they were, would poison the water supply during one night alongside the marching troops. The Great Zhou Army was poisoned, and seeing this, Yun Canglang commanded a force of soldiers to break through with determination. At the time, according to the military map, both Yun Canglang and Zhan Li believed that the breakthrough point to the north had fewer garrison troops and would be safer for a breakout. However, just when the Yun Family Army’s officers and soldiers had successfully broken through, they suddenly heard that the allied forces of Tang and Qin had advanced northward, slaughtering the cities along the border of Great Zhou. The moment Yun Canglang heard this, despite knowing there might be ambush forces lying in wait, he still decided to lead a thousand troops to the border cities to relieve the siege, disregarding Zhan Li’s efforts to persuade him otherwise. Yun Canglang was determined to proceed. Yun Canglang was a cool-headed person, always meticulous in his military campaigns, yet that one time, he seemed to lose his usual demeanor. "What’s even more detestable is that, when we received the desperate call for help from the Yun Family Army trapped in the South and sent it to the court, Marquis Wei Yuan from the court did not mobilize his troops, letting your uncle and the Yun Family Army bleed for three days and nights in the Southern lands. When your grandfather received the news and sent reinforcements, the Yun Family Army was almost annihilated," Zhan Li said, his eyes brimming with tears by this point. After Yun Bahe arrived, a sixty-year-old man alone, wielding a giant axe, he plunged into the Southern city, breaking through the encirclements, and killed more than a thousand of Tang and Qin’s allied forces. That Southern city, at the time, was a scene of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, littered with dead bodies. When the Martial Saint made his move, even the allied forces of Tang and Qin withheld their advance. When Yun Bahe, carrying the disabled Yun Canglang who had his right arm chopped off and left hand crippled, made it out, Zhan Li and the old troops, thousands of grown men, wept bitterly with wetted clothes. "My uncle was a true man," even though many years had passed, Yun Sheng, hearing Zhan Li recount the past, still felt his blood boiling with fervor. Yun Canglang may have been rash, but he embodied the Yun Family Army’s spirit well—to be soldiers not for personal gains, but for the people. Otherwise, what kind of soldiers would they be? After that, Zhan Li and several other soldiers of the Great Zhou, deeply disillusioned with the Great Zhou Dynasty’s military department, chose early retirement and left the camp. When Yun Bahe learned that Zhan Li wanted to leave the camp, he went to persuade him. Knowing in his heart that Zhan Li had no more will to fight for the country, he finally advised Zhan Li, "Your military heart may be dead, but your Martial Soul persists. The Great Zhou camp may be inadequate, but the thousands upon thousands of Martial Artists of Great Zhou stand tall. The future of Great Zhou lies not in the camp, but in these countless Martial Artists." After receiving the advice, Zhan Li was recommended to join the Wuji Pavilion and became the Vice Hall Director of Wu Xuan’s Pavilion. As for Yun Canglang, after that battle, left with a broken body and spirit, crippled by the post-traumatic stress disorder of war, he secluded himself in the Yun Residence, until Yun Sheng appeared, and only then did the situation start to see a change.

Chapter 230 - 92: Fiery Martial Soul

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