I Am Extraordinary Alone
Chapter 401 - 399 Fengrao’s Autumn

Chapter 401: Chapter 399 Fengrao’s Autumn

October 12, 2112.

Yin Country, field camp.

In the practice field that had been carved out of the mountains, green tents and a low, dark-grey command post lay dormant.

The intense heat had just passed, the hard days were finally over, and the autumn breeze brought a refreshing coolness that made the usually grueling training a bit more bearable.

A massive fist brutally hit Wang Ye in the abdomen, his saliva swirling inside his cheeks.

He reached out to block his opponent’s sweeping hand, then swung a left hook that caught his opponent in the face, followed by a trip that sent his adversary tumbling into the mud.

"Ouch!! Fuck!"

Covered in mud from his fall, Li Suyuan laughed heartily as his fellow soldiers around him started to root for them.

"Awesome!! Let’s go another round!"

"Go away!" Li Suyuan, touching his cheek, burst into an easygoing smile.

Wang Ye stood in front of him, reaching out to pull him up with one hand.

"You’re pretty good. I heard you were shoehorned in here and looked down on you a bit, but I guess I underestimated you. Heh heh~" Li Suyuan stroked his buzz cut, chuckling.

Li Suyuan and Wang Ye were the same age, only 17 this year, but Li Suyuan had already been a soldier for two years. When he was 15, his parents decided his education was going nowhere, so they pulled him out of school, fiddled with his age, and sent him off to the military.

Wang Ye, however, had been handpicked by people from Venerable Xu’s entourage after that terrorist attack and had been shoved into the army system. Now, after more than a year of training at this field camp, his demeanor had undergone a significant change.

"You’re no slouch yourself, being able to laugh after taking a punch from me." Wang Ye smiled.

The two became friends through their sparring. Their hand-to-hand combat training ended there, and just then, the sound of a whistle cut through the air as a squad of female soldiers passed by the muddy pit.

"Hey hey hey!! The ladies are here!"

More than 40 young guys all moved around the mud pit to the edge of the muddied track to watch from above.

"Are those Rocket Army or Electronic Warfare troops?" Wang Ye asked.

"Electronic Warfare, I think. Look how smart they look. Back in my hometown, I can’t see such beautiful girls." Li Suyuan said with a grin.

"Hometown? Where are you from?" Wang Ye probed further.

"Deer City. You?" Li Suyuan replied.

"Fengrao City," Wang Ye said.

"Wow! You’re not one of those Yin people who joined the army just to gain some glitter, are you??" Li Suyuan teased.

"My family runs a street stall," Wang Ye chuckled.

He remembered how his mother had called him these past few days, joyous to know that he’d avoided punishment and even joined the military.

He’d sent all the wages he’d earned over the year directly to his mother. The military provided food and accommodations, and since he didn’t smoke or drink, he didn’t spend much money.

That was good, that was very good.

The young men just watched; military discipline had to be maintained, and no one dared to raise their voices. They waited for the troop to pass by at a distance before reluctantly returning to the edge of the mud pit, where their squad leader also started shouting, "Enough looking! Get your arms swinging and keep fighting!"

And those female soldiers, in truth, had also been sneaking glances below, with the corners of their eyes during all that just now. Girls at the tender age of 16 or 17, their hearts blossoming with youth, looked down at the young men below, bare-chested, their firm bodies covered in mud and sweat, struggling to suppress their inner turmoil.

"Wang Mingxue~ did you fancy any of them?" The female soldier to Wang Mingxue’s left whispered teasingly.

She smiled and said, "I wasn’t paying attention."

"Ha! You’re just being shy!" the female soldier nudged her playfully.

"I really didn’t see, you guys sandwiched me in the middle, and I couldn’t leap up to get a better look, could I?" Wang Mingxue laughed.

"Those brats could never be worthy of our Miss Wang," another female soldier said with a mocking smile.

Her grandfather was a commander who had been led by Venerable Xu decades ago, with an extraordinary position in the military.

Wild by nature, Wang Mingxue did not want to join the cultural troupe, did not want to work in a civil post, and instead wanted to shoulder a gun and charge like the boys.

But her grandfather and the whole family could not bear to let this maiden wade into the slog of carrying a gun, so they pulled some strings and placed her in Commander Lu’s military district to receive technical soldier training, giving her some preferential treatment.

A few female soldiers who loved to gossip always mocked Wang Mingxue with their cold words, yet she herself had never used her connections to lighten her training burdens.

Wang Mingxue raised an eyebrow and laughed, "That’s right, I only date guys who can beat me."

With that said, the sarcastic female soldier had nothing more to add.

Wang Mingxue’s combat training and physical fitness test scores were the best in the entire female soldiers’ company. Despite her pretty face, no one dared to call her a porcelain doll.

She could really punch you to death.

"Stop the squabbling, we’re all beautiful comrades~," another female soldier tried to mediate.

"Enough with the arguments!! Shut up and march!!!" the squad leader yelled.

The female soldiers quieted down again and continued their walk along the dirt path toward the information center, passing a concrete paved road where a black sedan stopped in front of the sentry booth.

The car window rolled down to reveal Venerable Xu.

The sentry saluted, and Venerable Xu handed over his credentials. After they were verified, he gestured for the car to be allowed through.

Aside from Venerable Xu, the director of the National Security Bureau was also seated in the car.

"Which company is that kid in? What kind of soldier?" Venerable Xu asked.

"Fourth Company, field medical soldier," the director answered.

Venerable Xu thought for a moment and said, "I’ve seen his file, he’s quite handy. Being a medical soldier is good; strong self-preservation skills, and if necessary, he could serve as an emergency assault team member."

The car turned onto a dirt road and drove downward, passing a muddy field where over 40 young men were grappling.

"There, that one there," the director pointed.

Looking through the car window, Venerable Xu saw a robust youth flipping two people to the ground, then reaching out to help them up.

He said nothing, gesturing for the driver to speed up. His visit to the military district today was not to see Wang Ye but to find Commander Lu.

The car quickly entered the headquarters, and Venerable Xu and Commander Lu sat down in the third-floor reception room. Once alone, the two started chatting over cups of tea.

"Things have been quite troublesome lately, old Lu," Venerable Xu said with a worried look.

"It’s rare to see you so anxious, brother. Is everything still well with the capital and the Emperor?" Commander Lu inquired.

"The pace of reform needs to slow down; it won’t do unless we completely resolve the worries within our faction. Venerable Qin’s roots are surely deeper than we anticipated," Venerable Xu shook his head.

"It’s easy to deal with what’s public, but hard to guard against what’s hidden. Given the current situation, even Boss Qin wouldn’t dare to make a rash move; it’ll probably take a while to get a hold of him," Commander Lu added.

After a sip of tea, Venerable Xu continued, "The team you sent out last time to coordinate with the United Council should be back, right?"

"Yes, all three companies have returned. They carried out a special military operation in Heisai State with no casualties," Commander Lu reported.

"Mostly it was Wei Tianyang who handled many of the issues," Venerable Xu remarked.

"Brother, you surely didn’t come to drink my tea. You must have caught wind of something and want me to deal with it, right? I just so happen to have some available troops here that could use some real-world training," Commander Lu said.

"It’s about the Lingxian Sect," Venerable Xu responded with a smile.

"Aren’t they all dead?" asked Commander Lu.

"The ones in heaven are dead, but not those on earth. There’s still a small armed force hidden inside the country. I suspect Venerable Qin has been funding them. The south... it’s quite dangerous," Venerable Xu expressed with concern.