Zhu Yan wanted to visit her maiden family, and Wei Mao had no objections, but asking him to take Lu Bei along to the military camp was completely out of the question.
The military camp was a heavily guarded area where unauthorized personnel were strictly forbidden.
As the County Lieutenant of Dasheng Pass, Wei Mao was in charge of all military affairs, and he felt he should all the more lead by example so that his subordinates wouldn't blindly copy him and ruin the discipline within the ranks.
Therefore, this wasn't a matter of whether it was feasible or not; it was a matter of principle.
Then he was broken.
Wei Mao had led troops to suppress a rebellion, but when the two armies clashed, he proved no match for the Zhu Clan's female general, and his forces collapsed like a landslide.
He was utterly defeated, beyond any hope of a comeback.
A defeated general had no right to speak of valor, and matters of principle were principles no longer.
The next day, when Wei Mao left the house, he took Lu Bei's household registration papers, intending to issue him a temporary pass so that an outsider entering and leaving the military camp would at least slightly conform to the rules.
As for Lu Bei's household registration papers, he hadn't had any before. Zhu Yan had arranged them for him in a swift and decisive manner, registering him directly under the Sanqing Peak of Nine Bamboo Mountain and sparing him a pile of troublesome procedures.
Upon learning that Zhu Yan was returning to her maiden family and that he himself would have to spend half a month in the military camp, Lu Bei readily agreed. After grinding experience points for a full month, he indeed needed a change of environment to rest properly.
Unlike playing video games in his past life, where alchemy had an auto-mode and could be run while idling, everything now was done entirely by hand—there was simply no comparison.
Whenever he thought of this, Lu Bei couldn't help but sigh at how lifelike it all was. If not for the system panel occasionally reminding him with its information, he would have genuinely thought he had transmigrated into a real world brimming with spiritual energy.
During the afternoon roll call, Lu Bei, who had aggressively farmed ten thousand experience points, found Lin Bohai and asked for a half-month leave.
"What's this? Are you feeling unwell, or are you just tired and need some rest?" Hearing this, Lin Bohai immediately began asking after his well-being with warm concern.
"I am indeed a bit tired, and since my older female cousin is going back to her maiden family for a while, I decided to take a break along with her."
"Do you have anywhere to go for these half a month? Would you like me to have a few of my nephews accompany you around Dasheng Pass?"
Lin Bohai joked, "You know the Cloud-Water Tower, right? You young people can have a lot of fun together. As for an old man like me, I'm getting on in years and can only dream about such things now!"
"Hahahaha..." x2
Lu Bei smiled nostalgically; the familiar dialogue reminded him of his office days in the past, when there would always be one or two days a month when they would make plans to go out and raise some hell after getting off work.
"Then it's settled?"
"No."
Lu Bei shook his head, rescuing his upright persona at the very last second, and politely declined, "My older female cousin is afraid I'll learn bad habits, so she asked my brother-in-law to keep me under strict control. I'll be staying in the military camp for the next half month, and I'm afraid even stepping outside will be difficult."
"Is that so..."
Lin Bohai frankly expressed his regret, made plans with Lu Bei to hang out another day, and after tallying today's harvest from the alchemy room, he transmitted Lu Bei's eastward news at top speed.
Something had happened!
A huge disaster had struck!
The secret agents sent from above were currently carrying out their cleanup operations; not only had they issued an ultimatum, but they had also contacted the garrison forces at Dasheng Pass—this was clearly a move to round everyone up in one fell swoop.
Lin Bohai was panicked out of his mind. After sending out the message, he smacked his own right hand several times until the back of his hand turned red.
"Serves you right for being so useless! Serves you right for failing to hold back! How could I..."
"How could I just not keep you under control!"
***
Wei Mao did things with brisk and decisive action, leaving no loose ends. Once the pass was ready, he sent his personal guards that very evening to escort Lu Bei to the military camp.
As the administrative seat and primary county of Dongqi Commandery, Dasheng Pass was governed on the administrative side by the commandery governor, assisted by a commandery lieutenant who was in charge of the commandery's military affairs—which naturally included Dasheng Pass.
In addition, there was a commandery inspector specifically responsible for overseeing the administrative affairs of the commandery governor and others.
In other words, Wei Mao had quite a few superiors above him, and compared to the county lieutenants of other counties, he lacked freedom when it came to command and dispatch.
Fortunately, the commandery lieutenant was in charge of all military affairs across the entire commandery and was busy with official business, thus delegating the authority over the military camp and garrison inspections right here at Dasheng Pass.
The commandery lieutenant was magnanimous, but Wei Mao couldn't just take it all for granted. He had always treated the military camp as his second home, and unless ordered by the commandery lieutenant, he never carried out his garrison inspection duties.
He looked very sensible and seemed like prime official material.
To get back to the point, two personal guards led Lu Bei to the eastern county military camp.
Passing by the parade ground, Lu Bei saw soldiers training late into the night. Hundreds of men were bare-chested and arranged neatly in square formations, beginning to spar in pairs at the sound of a gong, only to feel a wave of philosoph—no, a wave of fierce, rugged energy rushing straight at him.
Punches landed solidly on flesh, packed with raw power.
It was a real fight.
Whenever a soldier was defeated, he would be dragged off the field, given a Qi-Nurturing Pill and a Blood-Replenishing Pill, and then sent back into the fray, repeating the cycle until he was utterly exhausted.
"No wonder the alchemy room has to deliver medicinal pills to the military camp every day—the consumption rate is truly extraordinary. That being said, there is also a quota for 'Hemostatic Pills' every day. Surely they aren't using real weapons in the camp, are they?"
Doubt lingered in Lu Bei's mind as he was led by a personal guard to Wei Mao's quarters within the military camp.
The good news was that as the boss of the military camp, Wei Mao enjoyed the luxury of a private single room; the bad news was that Wei Mao himself was nowhere to be found, seemingly intending to leave Lu Bei stranded and unattended for half a month.
Bai Jin had never mentioned Lu Bei's cultivation aptitude to Zhu Yan, only saying that the Feathering Sect was undergoing renovations and couldn't even find a place to stay, making daily life inconvenient, and asking Zhu Yan to take care of him for a period of time.
Apart from repeating strict warnings that "the outside world is dangerous, don't let your junior brother go out or he'll pick up bad habits," nothing else was mentioned.
Over at the alchemy room, Lin Bohai had a guilty conscience and didn't dare mention Lu Bei in front of Zhu Yan.
Therefore, Zhu Yan was completely unaware of Lu Bei's innate talent, simply assuming that Bai Jin had returned to the Lingxiao Sword Sect to resolve lingering historical issues and had left Lu Bei at her home out of sheer trust.
Since Zhu Yan didn't know, Wei Mao knew even less. He simply dumped Lu Bei in his quarters—as long as he didn't cause trouble or go missing, he could do whatever he wanted.
Free-range style.
Not seeing Wei Mao, Lu Bei assumed he wore his armor at all times and was a strict, self-disciplined officer; to spur himself on, he practiced the Slaying Demon Scripture for ten minutes.
[Slaying Demon Scripture Lv1 (12/5000)]
His cultivation had advanced greatly, furiously growing by two experience points.
Lu Bei nodded inwardly. Data didn't lie; he had farmed experience like crazy through alchemy for a full month, and even though his mental exhaustion was severe, he hadn't let go of cultivating the Slaying Demon Scripture mental method. His tenacity of character was truly worthy of admiration.
When a night passed and Lu Bei still hadn't seen Wei Mao, he thought nothing of it and expressed his respect for the man's military professionalism.
When a day passed and Lu Bei still hadn't seen Wei Mao, he was quite surprised and once again expressed his respect.
When three days passed and Lu Bei still hadn't seen Wei Mao, he was struck with utter dismay. Something was wrong—Senior Brother Wei was taking advantage of Senior Sister Zhu visiting her maiden family to sneak around with someone outside.
Pushing open the door, Lu Bei saw the personal guard standing like a javelin right outside the entrance, and felt a severe headache coming on.
Over the past three days, he had finished reading all the military strategy books in the room and had even spent 50 skill points to learn a set of basic military array saber techniques, raising it to level 5 as an offensive skill.
[Array-Slaying Saber Technique Lv5 (10/12000)]
[A saber technique popular in the armies of Wu Zhou, derived from the summarization of basic saber techniques by officers and soldiers. It is suitable for battlefield combat, with power bonuses for multi-person cooperation.]
[Grants +10% base attack, +2% critical hit chance.]
Because learning the "Array-Slaying Saber Technique" had a strength requirement of 5 points, Lu Bei had consumed 3 free attribute points, completely bidding farewell to his former stat of 233333.
What a bizarre set of base attributes—it was practically a joke.
With experience dumped into it, the Array-Slaying Saber Technique rose to level 5: Free Attribute Points +4, Strength +8, Speed +4, Skill Points...
Attributes: Strength 13, Speed 7, Spirit 10, Stamina 12, Charm 3, Luck 3.
With a reserve of experience, Lu Bei's previously somewhat feeble strength and speed attributes immediately looked much better, and his base attack power had also grown to 130 points of damage.
To give a vivid example, he could now kill himself with a single saber strike.
Outside the door, the personal guard stared fixedly at Lu Bei with dead eyes, wordlessly pointing at the room to tell him to behave himself.
Lu Bei rolled his eyes. Had he known that coming to the military camp was tantamount to being locked up in solitary confinement, he would have stayed in the alchemy room to farm experience, or at worst followed Zhu Yan to her maiden family to witness the other young misses and brides of the Zhu family.
By bloodline, all of them were princesses.
"Little brother, I'm General Wei's relative, not a criminal. It's not too much to go out for a walk, is it?"
"It's not too much, but the general gave word that he'd feel much more at ease if you stayed inside the room."
"Understood. So I actually *can* go out."
Lu Bei let out a long sigh and asked with boredom, "Then tell me, where can I stroll around? The parade ground or the storage area?"
"The storage area is a forbidden zone. Aside from the furnace room where weapons and armor are repaired, you can't go anywhere else."
"The furnace room it is then." Lu Bei shrugged, making up his mind to secretly find a corner and scale the wall at the first available opportunity.
"What are you going to the furnace room for? You don't even know how to forge iron."
"I'll learn by watching."
"What a braggart. If you've got the chops, forge two steel sabers for me to see." The personal guard saw right through the lie.
Lu Bei: "..."
Not replying wasn't because he couldn't win the argument; given his aptitude, with books on forging and blacksmithing, he could pick it up on the spot and use fine steel sabers to shut the guard's mouth. He kept his mouth shut because of a system prompt—a very important piece of information.
[You have received the quest [Forge Hundred-Refined Saber]]
[Quest Description: As per title]
[Quest Reward: 500 experience]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes] [No]
Recovering his wits, Lu Bei vaguely saw a huge exclamation mark hovering above the personal guard's head. At this moment, the other man's unremarkable face appeared incomparably handsome.
This was the first quest Lu Bei had ever received, and its significance was monumental.
He could! Take! Quests!
Thrilled! Trembling!
Lu Bei raised his hands to press down on the personal guard's shoulders, unable to suppress the overwhelming joy in his heart, and called out the man's name with a sense of heartfelt gratitude: "Thank you, NPC!"
"..."
*(Note: There was a data omission in yesterday's personal attribute panel; it has been corrected.)*