When Long Yi and Beitang Yu came out from the big military tent, it was already approaching noon. Both of them had been rolling about the bed for the entire morning. Currently, the soldiers of the Unparalleled Battalion that had went out to train had already returned. They were gathered together right now, as they prepared their midday meal.
After **, Beitang Yu looked even more beautiful and alluring. Her beautiful face was no longer ice-cold like before, and she emitted the aura of a sweet and charming young wife.
“My husband, it’s all your fault. I can’t even stand up properly now…” Beitang Yu grumbled.
“Why are you putting the blame on me? I wonder who was it that asked for more.” Long Yi said with a smile, and his big hand patted Beitang Yu’s buttocks.
Beitang Yu blushed and rolled her eyes as she said in a low voice, “Who asked you to seduce me? If I don’t blame you, then who should I blame?”
Long Yi was dumbfounded, but he held the waist of Beitang Yu and laughed heartily. This girl was truly ingenious, and Long Yi loved it.
“General.” Suddenly, a pleasantly surprised rough voice sounded from behind the two of them. Long Yi easily guessed who it was, it was Tyrant Bear.
Long Yi released Beitang Yu’s waist before giving Tyrant Bear a light punch on the chest. He said: “Tyrant Bear, are you doing fine? I heard that you were the one who killed the most enemies among the entire battalion.”
Tyrant Bear laughed and said, “Haha. This old bear only knows how to kill. It is much easier compared to coming up with stratagems.”
Long Yi laughed and decided not to comment about Tyrant Bear’s statement. Long Yi knew that Tyrant Bear was in no way considered fearless. Tyrant Bear was actually an astute man. He knew that Beitang Yu was more remarkable than him in commanding the Unparalleled Battalion, as such, he delegated his authority to Beitang Yu and focused on fighting the enemies.
“Tyrant Bear, throughout the war, how many men did the Unparalleled Battalion lose?” Long Yi asked.
“Till date, we, the Unparalleled Battalion, went through several campaigns. We were involved in both big campaigns, and small ones. A total of 1,568 soldiers died and there were 610 of them severely injured.” When talking about the casualties, Tyrant Bear had a heavy tone when he spoke about the casualties. All of them were elites of the elites.
“Are the works of reparations and compensation to their bereaved families carried out well?” Long Yi asked. The number of dead and severely injured added up to more than 2,000 people. The Unparalleled Battalion only had 20,000 people to begin with, 2,000 people were too many for the battalion to lose.
“Replying to General, everything has been handled appropriately. The ashes and names of the dead soldiers have already been collected. The seriously injured soldiers are already sent back to empire to recuperate. Pensions for the disabled and for the family of the deceased were three times more than the other legion’s soldiers.” Tyrant Bear answered.
“Very good, you are doing great. Notify all the officers and men to gather after the midday meal. I want to commemorate the fallen soldiers. I want to let everyone know that the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives are the heroes of our Unparalleled Battalion. Our Unparalleled Battalion will forever remember them. I, Ximen Yu, will also remember them forever.” Long Yi’s expression was solemn as he said these words. Long Yi never said that the soldiers died for the empire, instead, he said that they have sacrificed their lives for the Unparalleled Battalion. In his eyes, the Unparalleled Battalion was never fighting for the Violent Dragon Empire in the first place. The soldiers in the Unparalleled Battalion were only loyal to him, Long Yi, alone.
“Yes, General.” Tyrant Bear performed a military salute and left to notify his subordinates.
After Tyrant Bear left, the curtains of a military tent not far away from Beitang Yu’s opened. Barbarian Bull, Nalan Ruyue, and Wushuang, walked out of the tent towards Long Yi. Long Yi had long since instructed Nangong Nu to call them over to the Unparalleled Battalion.
Nalan Ruyue carefully sized up Beitang Yu who was standing beside Long Yi and secretly gasped in admiration. Sure enough, not a single woman around her husband was ordinary.
“My husband, where did you go without waking me up? When I woke up, I didn’t see you beside me. I was worried to death.” Nalan Ruyue grumbled in a flirty manner.
When she woke up from her sleep, she realized that both Long Yi and Wushuang had disappeared. She was left alone in the carriage, along with Barbarian Bull in the other carriage. She was initially confused and immediately began to panic. Fortunately, she saw a squad of Unparalleled Battalion soldiers standing neatly outside the carriage the moment she exited it. After hearing their explanation, she managed to calm down.
“Haha, I saw that you were sleeping so soundly, I couldn’t bear to wake you up.” Long Yi smiled and pinched Nalan Ruyue’s nose as he said.
“Hm. I’ll forgive you this time. However, if you are going to leave me and go somewhere else in the future, you will have to let me know. Otherwise, I’ll be extremely worried, do you understand?” Nalan Ruyue slapped away Long Yi’s hand and snorted.
“Got it. In the future, I will definitely take you along with me. Okay, now, the three of you should familiarize yourselves with each other. You are close sisters from now on.” Long Yi smiled as he said.
All three of them were intelligent women. They already knew that it was impossible to monopolize Long Yi. Since that was the case, it was naturally for the best if they could get along well. They might as well cultivate their feelings for each other and serve Long Yi well together.
As a matter of fact, Wushuang, Nalan Ruyue, and Beitang Yu, all of them were women with a cold temperament. Normally, they would need a period of time before they could get used to each other. However, to Long Yi’s surprise, it was as though the three women had a tacit agreement among themselves. In less than half an hour, they were able to get along with each other as if they had already been sisters for years. At the very least, that was what it seemed to outsiders.
After eating their midday meal, snowflakes were still fluttering in the sky. The whistling northern wind rolled up the snowflakes covering the entire sky, and when this northern wind battered against Long Yi and the rest, they were able to feel a chilling pain on their skin.
On the open and spacious snowlands, soldiers of the Unparalleled Battalion stood neatly in rows, waiting for Long Yi to address them. In this snowstorm, the soldiers stood completely motionless. Before long, their bodies were covered with a layer of snow, making them look like an army of snowmen. If not for their bloodshot eyes, Long Yi would have mistaken then for snowmen instead of his soldiers.
Finally, Long Yi who wore a suit of armor walked on an erected wooden platform. Tyrant Bear and Beitang Yu followed behind him.
The soldiers below were looking at Long Yi with a fanatical gaze. Their gaze followed the tall and sturdy figure of Long Yi as he walked up the platform step by step. He was their role model, and he was their pillar of mental support.
Long Yi looked solemn. His black eyes glanced at the soldiers of the Unparalleled Battalion that were standing firm in this snowstorm and he said slowly in a low and deep voice, “You all are heroes. It’s your valor and vigor that made it possible for the Unparalleled Battalion to achieve its current fame. It’s because of all of you that the mighty name of our Unparalleled Battalion is spread across the entire Blue Waves Continent. It is also because of all of you that the enemies lose their will to fight as soon as they hear of our name.”
“Unparalleled, Unparalleled, Unparalleled under the heaven……” All the soldier simultaneously shouted the slogan of the Unparalleled Battalion. Their majestic voice surpassed the whistling sound of snowstorm, and reverberated throughout this valley for a long time.
Raising his hand, Long Yi gave a signal and the voice of the soldiers ceased abruptly.
“Behind me is the ashes of 1,568 brothers. All of them were your comrade-in-arms. They sacrificed themselves for the sake of us, and the Unparalleled Battalion. We cannot forget them, we cannot forget that they were comrade-in-arms that fought side by side with us in the past. Today, let us commemorate their departed soul. They didn’t sacrifice themselves in vain. We will slaughter the army of the Proud Moon Empire and bury them together with our brothers.” After his speech, Long Yi stepped aside and a mountain of urns filled with ashes became visible. Every single urn had a name carved on it.
“Slaughter the Proud Moon Empire, Slaughter the Proud Moon Empire……” All the soldiers of Unparalleled Battalion shouted till they were hoarse. Due to Long Yi’s speech, the blood in their body was boiling. They were dying to slaughter the soldiers of the Proud Moon Empire. They hated that they couldn’t rush towards the Yatesianna defense line to kill their enemies this very moment.
“Their long swords at their belts, clasping their Qin bows. Head sundered from their bodies but their hearts could not be vanquished. They were both brave and noble. Strong to the last second, they cannot be dishonored. They might have lost their bodies, but their souls are still living. Heroes among the shades, their valiant souls will be.” [1] Long Yi said in a bleak voice. He nevertheless recited a section of his previous world’s poem written by an ancient poet for the commemoration of the officers and soldiers who fell in battle. It was named, ‘Hymn to the Fallen’.
*********
On the western border of the Nalan Empire, over one hundred thousand border guards were stationed all year round in order to prevent the beast-men armies from invading the continent.
Currently, night had already fallen and there was a fine drizzle across the lands. Several teams of Nalan Empire’s soldiers that were responsible for patrolling the border had neglected their duties and were hiding in caves to hide from the rain. They started fires and were warming themselves up beside it while chatting and laughing. They exchanged stories and dirty jokes between each other.
It had already been many years since the beast-men clans appeared. As a result, the soldiers of the Nalan Empire patrolling the border were extremely lax in military discipline. They slacked during their everyday training, both commanders and soldiers alike. They gave up improving themselves and they would visit a brothel located in a strategic town located not far away from their camp to enjoy themselves. They would expand their excess energy every night in the brothel, and carry out their duties sloppily during the day.
“Old Six, wasn’t the skill of those big sisters last time top-notch? I was in the room next door, and I heard that you didn’t last even two minutes, hahaha.” In a small cave, a short soldier wearing armor of the Nalan Empire’s army laughed and teased his comrade-in-arms. After hearing what he said, all the other soldiers looked contemptuously at Old Six.
This soldier called Old Six was so angry that his face became red before he counterattacked, “Gouzi, you are worse than me. Once, I head Xiao Hong saying that each time you went there, you’ll take medicine beforehand. If you didn’t take the medicine, your little brother wouldn’t be able to stand even if she sucked herself dead.”
“What nonsense are you talking about……” Gouzi immediately stood up as if he wanted to fight.
“Both of you are getting too noisy. Get the hell out and do some patrolling before coming back.” A soldier with a mark of a team captain roared loudly.
The two of them immediately settled down and only the whisper of Old Six could be heard, “How do you want us to patrol in this terrible weather? Beast-man clans… Those b*stards wouldn’t dare to invade our Nalan Empire. Just my fart alone can frighten them so much that they would piss in their pants.”
Gouzi looked outside the cave and said, “Do you really think the beast-men would carry out a sneak attack tonight?”
“Sneak attack my fart. Our Nalan Empire’s frontier force has already been changed dozens of times. Other than seeing a few rats, not even the shadow of the beast-men could be seen.” That team captain said.
“Yes, yes, even if they had the guts of a hundred man each, they will not dare……” Yet another soldier spoke. However, his voice ceased abruptly before he managed to finish speaking. Under the illumination of the flickering fire on the cave wall, he saw several tall shadows.
“Lizi, are you suffering from malaria, why are trembling like this?” The team captain laughed.
“Beast… beast-men came.” Lizi stuttered as his trembling hands reached towards the signal flare on his body. However, he realized that they wouldn’t be able to send the signal flare out as they were inside a cave.
“Don’t crack a joke, beast-men… eh……” The other four soldiers thought that Lizi was screwing about with them. However, when they turned around, they saw several tall lion-men standing at the entrance of the cave with a hideous grin on their faces. The next thing they knew, their vision went black.
In the cave, the bonfire was still burning. However, the five soldiers that used to be talking around the fire were now lying on the ground, motionless. Their heads were split open as if it was smashed watermelon. White and red brain matter flowed across the floor and they would never be able to get up again.
[1] copied the translation of David Hawkes (And I edited it the best I could to make it flow smoothly)
