Qiao Mingxuan listened to Xiao Ke and then laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Seriously? I've done my homework on you. You're just some unlucky grunt who got mistaken for a deserter and stumbled into the Killer Whale Battalion. A nobody. You got your Decurion stripes because you were the first fool to raise your hand when Qin Bing needed bodies for Ginkgo Town. Then you lucked into a Centurion rank. But the truth is, you've never had a day of proper training. You're a fraud."
Xiao Ke cut him off before he could finish. "I'm a commissioned soldier of the Empire now. And a Centurion. I have the papers to prove it, signed by Commander Qin Bing and Army Lord Bai Longyin themselves."
"And what good are papers?" Qiao Mingxuan sneered. "They don't change the fact that you're an amateur. I bet you just learned basic combat forms last week, didn't you? Your origin power might be unlocked, but I hear your own men, Duan Canglong and Luo Hou, have already hit Level 2 War Soldier. Meanwhile, you're still stuck at Level 1, a total rookie." He sized Xiao Ke up. "Heh. The only thing you have going for you is your freakish strength. I figured that much out the last time we clashed. But muscle is just muscle. It's finite. Origin power is limitless. Your strength caps out around a Level 4 War General. Against me, a Level 5, you're already dead."
Xiao Ke realized Qiao Mingxuan was still judging him based on their last encounter, ten days ago. A slow smile spread across his face. "Is that right? Well, let's put it to the test. Just think, if a Level 5 like you gets killed by a Level 1 like me, who's going to believe it? I probably won't even have to explain myself. No one would ever suspect me. You'd be doing me a favor."
Qiao Mingxuan's eyes went cold. "Still talking tough when you're about to die? Fine. Come get it."
He lunged, his war saber held in one hand, its tip low. The blade shimmered with a liquid, silvery light—the telltale sign of infused origin power. A Level 5 wasn't strong enough to manifest a pure energy blade, but channeling power into steel gave it a lethal glow and a cutting edge that far surpassed ordinary weapons.
Xiao Ke, however, had spent countless hours training directly with Commander Qin Bing. Qiao Mingxuan might be a Level 5, but he was nothing compared to her. After facing Qin Bing's relentless assault day after day, Qiao Mingxuan's attack felt almost manageable. All Xiao Ke had to do was account for the raw power gap.
Swoosh!
Qiao Mingxuan's saber sliced through the air, a streak of cold fury aimed at Xiao Ke's neck.
Xiao Ke met it head-on, his own blade, the Fierce General, rising in a brutal, unhesitating arc.
Both blades moved like lightning. But one glowed with ethereal power, while the other was plain, unadorned steel.
A smirk touched Qiao Mingxuan's lips. Brute force could never stand against the original power of a Level 5 War General. He was certain his blade would not only shatter Xiao Ke's weapon but cleave the man himself in two.
CLANG!
The impact was deafening, a high-pitched thunderclap that seemed to shatter the air itself.
But it wasn't Xiao Ke's blade that broke. The force that surged from the Fierce General was so immense, so utterly unexpected, that it sent a shockwave up Qiao Mingxuan's arm. His grip went numb. His own saber was thrown back violently, the flat of the blade smashing into his face. He felt the sickening crunch of his nose breaking as blood exploded across his vision.
They broke apart, staggering back from the blow.
Qiao Mingxuan swiped at the blood streaming from his face, his expression a mask of fury and disbelief. He couldn't process it. He'd used seventy percent of his strength—more than enough, he'd thought, to end this instantly. Instead, he hadn't just failed to gain an advantage; he'd been completely overpowered.
He thanked his lucky stars the saber was single-edged. If it had been a double-bladed sword, that recoil would have split his skull wide open.
"Impossible," he stammered, staring at Xiao Ke. "How can a human be that strong?!"
He couldn't reconcile the sheer power of the blow with Xiao Ke's lean frame. If he weren't so clearly a man of the East, Qiao Mingxuan would have sworn he was facing one of the werewolves from the Western territories.
In truth, Xiao Ke's arm screamed in protest, a pins-and-needles agony as if it had been zapped by a powerful electric current.
But he had won the first exchange. He'd drawn first blood. He knew Qiao Mingxuan had been holding back, but injuring him this early sent a surge of confidence through him.
"You can die choking on your own ignorance," Xiao Ke said, his voice cold. "I'm about to rewrite the rules of combat. Power isn't just about origin force. Raw strength has a voice, too."
"You think muscle can beat my 2,000 Kahers of origin power? Keep dreaming. Now die!"
With a roar, Qiao Mingxuan charged again, and the clearing erupted in a storm of steel. They moved in a blur, both using the brutal, efficient assault techniques of the military, where every strike was a killing blow. One wrong move, one split second of hesitation, meant death.
This time, neither man held anything back. Qiao Mingxuan's glowing saber clashed again and again with Xiao Ke's unadorned blade, each impact creating a small, thunderous explosion.
When it came to technique, Xiao Ke, tutored by Qin Bing herself, was his equal. When it came to power, Xiao Ke's 1,500 jin of striking force was only slightly less than Qiao Mingxuan's 2,000-Kaher origin power.
But Qiao Mingxuan had already paid the price for his arrogance, and he was injured.
Worse, his weapon was a standard-issue military saber. It was no match for the masterwork blade in Xiao Ke's hands. The combined factors leveled the playing field, and they were locked in a desperate, evenly matched struggle.
As the fight dragged on, the high-intensity impacts began to take their toll. The weakness of Qiao Mingxuan's blade started to show. Invisible to the naked eye, a network of microscopic, spiderweb cracks was spreading across the steel.
CLANG!
Their weapons met in another vicious collision. Suddenly, Qiao Mingxuan's saber gave out. Like shattering glass, a thousand hairline fractures appeared at once, and the next moment, the blade exploded into a glittering cloud of metal shards.
Xiao Ke saw his chance. He didn't hesitate. As his opponent's weapon disintegrated, he spun, putting his entire body into a final, lightning-fast strike. Qiao Mingxuan, defenseless and stunned, had no time to react. The Fierce General sliced clean through his neck.
His head flew into the air as Xiao Ke kicked the headless corpse away.
Staring down at Qiao Mingxuan's head on the ground, Xiao Ke spat. "Bastard. You stole my credit, hurt my men, and got my brothers killed. Look at you now."
The silence after the fight was broken by a soft, shuffling sound. A lone walking corpse, drawn by the scent of fresh blood, shambled into the clearing.
Xiao Ke raised his blade to cut it down, but then he glanced at Qiao Mingxuan's body. An idea formed. He lowered his weapon and backed away slowly.
The walker's hunger for flesh was stronger than its drive to kill the living. It ignored Xiao Ke completely and fell upon Qiao Mingxuan's corpse, tearing into it with mindless ferocity.
Xiao Ke turned and walked away. Letting the dead clean up the dead was the perfect solution.
It had been a fair duel, so technically, he couldn't be held responsible. But Qin Bing had warned him that Qiao Mingxuan was the illegitimate son of someone powerful. It was better if no one knew he was involved. This way, there would be no questions, and no one would come looking for revenge.
By dusk, he was back at the rendezvous point. Soldiers from the Killer Whale and White Shark battalions were trickling in. The Yinma Plains were now swarming with mop-up crews—young nobles, bounty hunters, and small Imperial army units like theirs—all hunting the last scattered remnants of the zombie horde. The crisis was over. Now there were more hunters than prey.
New orders came down from command: Qin Bing was to lead her forces back to the Black Shark headquarters.
Her unit hadn't been on the front lines, but they'd still paid a price. The Killer Whale Battalion had lost dozens of men, leaving them with just over a hundred. But they were no longer green recruits. The battlefield had forged them into veterans, hard and sharp. The White Shark Battalion had fared much worse. Qiao Mingxuan's reckless ambition to rack up kills had led them into one dangerous situation after another, and their numbers had been cut in half, with fewer than fifty soldiers remaining.
It was time to leave. But there was a problem: Qiao Mingxuan hadn't reported in.
If it were anyone else, Qin Bing wouldn't have thought twice. She would have moved out on schedule. But Qiao Mingxuan was different. Rumor had it he was the bastard son of Qiao Zhennan, the commander of the legendary Phoenix Legion.
The Phoenix and Black Shark Legions had been the two main forces in this campaign, with Army Lord Bai Longyin in supreme command and Qiao Zhennan as his deputy. Both men had earned massive prestige from the victory.
The last thing Qin Bing wanted was to anger Qiao Zhennan over something like this. When they got back to base, what was she supposed to say if he asked about his son? "Sorry, sir, he missed checkout, so we left him."?
Gritting her teeth, she announced a one-day delay. They would leave in the morning.
That night, she called Xiao Ke to her command tent. She'd been reviewing the combat logs. Both centurions had performed exceptionally well, but Xiao Ke's record was staggering: one Level-6 Frieza-class zombie and over two hundred lesser kills. That was better than most front-line centurions.
"Qiao Mingxuan has connections," she said with a faint smile. "His spot at the Glory Military Academy is practically guaranteed. But with a record like yours, I'd say you have a very strong chance of getting in, too. For commoners or those from the lower houses, it's the best path to advancement."
She paused, her expression turning serious. "But it's not just about the training you receive there. Graduating from the Glory Academy means you belong to the Emperor. You're his man. The top graduates from every class are granted a personal audience and become what they call a 'Son of Heaven's student.' With the Emperor himself as your patron, your future is limitless. You understand?"
Xiao Ke nodded slowly. "A direct line to His Majesty… that changes everything."
"It's a double-edged sword," she warned. "Once you enter the Academy, you're on the Emperor's side of the board. The Cabinet, all the old ministers and their factions, will see you as a threat. They'll oppose you, try to undermine you at every turn."
"Why?" Xiao Ke asked, surprised.
Qin Bing glanced around the tent to make sure they were alone before lowering her voice. "Because right now, the Cabinet runs the Empire. The new Emperor is young. He's just a figurehead with no real power."
Xiao Ke remembered hearing whispers about it. The last emperor had become obsessed with finding an elixir for immortality, ignoring his duties for decades. In that time, the Cabinet had consolidated all the power. Then the old emperor, after failing to find his elixir, dropped dead without a male heir. The Cabinet had simply picked a prince they thought they could control and put him on the throne.
It made sense now. The noble houses and powerful clans wanted nothing to do with the Glory Academy. It meant tying your fate to a powerless Emperor and making an enemy of the entire ruling establishment.
Still, for a nobody Centurion like him, these were high-level problems. The old men in the Cabinet wouldn't even notice him, let alone try to crush him. For him, the Academy was nothing but an opportunity.
Qin Bing continued, explaining the complex politics between the Imperial family and the Cabinet. She was giving him the knowledge he would need to survive. She knew how dangerous the capital could be for an outsider, and she didn't want him walking into a trap, blind.
She was so certain he had a chance to go not just because of his combat record, but because of Jiang Ning. She had a strong suspicion that the man they'd befriended was none other than the new Emperor himself. If he remembered the bond they'd forged in battle, he would surely find a way to bring Xiao Ke to Kirin City.
As she spoke, she noticed Xiao Ke seemed distracted, his mind elsewhere. She'd never seen him like this. Then, a sudden, chilling thought connected the dots: their duel, Qiao Mingxuan's disappearance...
Her face paled. "Xiao Ke," she said, her voice barely a whisper, "you're hiding something. Qiao Mingxuan is still missing. Does this have something to do with you?"
Qin Bing had guided him, trained him, and given him a future. She was his mentor, and he couldn't lie to her. "We had our duel," he admitted, his voice flat. "I killed him."
Her eyes went wide. "You what?"
He told her everything. She listened in stunned silence, unable to believe he could defeat a Level 5 War General. She'd known Xiao Ke was strong, but she never imagined raw power could overcome origin force. She figured it must have been his superior blade and Qiao Mingxuan's own arrogance that sealed his fate. But looking at the grim certainty in Xiao Ke's eyes, she knew it was true.
Fear for him replaced her shock. "His father is Qiao Zhennan," she said urgently. "If he finds out you killed his son, he won't care if it was a fair duel or not. He will have your head. No one can ever know about this. As far as anyone is concerned, Qiao Mingxuan was killed in action. By zombies. Understood?"
"Yes, Commander!"
Xiao Ke had known Qiao Mingxuan's father was important, but hearing the name Qiao Zhennan—the Lord of the Phoenix Legion—sent a cold dread through him.
…
Miles away, in the Imperial Palace of Kirin City, the young emperor Jiang Ning spoke to his most trusted aide. "Eunuch Li, add another name to the Glory Academy roster."
"Whose name, Your Majesty?" the old eunuch asked with a bow.
"Centurion Xiao Ke, of the Black Shark Legion," Jiang Ning said with a smile. "We ate together, we fought together. I promised him we would write a legendary story of a ruler and his general. A ruler must keep his word."
Eunuch Li smiled back. "A fine choice, Your Majesty. With the right guidance, he could one day become a great commander and serve you well."
Jiang Ning chuckled softly. "I've opened the door for him. How far he walks through it is up to him."
…
Back at the Black Shark headquarters, Bai Longyin and Qiao Zhennan were sharing a drink.
"A great victory," Bai Longyin said, raising his cup. "I'll be staying here to fortify the southern border, but you, my friend, have to return to the capital to report to His Majesty and the Cabinet. When do you plan to leave?"
Qiao Zhennan laughed. "No rush, no rush. I've taken a liking to you, Bai. Besides, the official reports have already been sent. My trip is just a formality. I think I'll stay here for another couple of days before heading back. There's no harm in a little delay."
Bai Longyin smiled knowingly. He'd heard the rumors that Qiao Zhennan's illegitimate son was serving in the region. The man probably wanted to see his boy before returning to court. He didn't press the issue. "Excellent. Stay as long as you like. We can celebrate our victory properly before you go."