Chapter 169: What Is Your True Identity?
Waiting for Yeop Hyeon upon his return to Gaeyang Fortress was a field of strewn corpses and a small river formed from their blood.
Like all wars, this one had been just as brutal and horrific.
Mu Yun Qi, who had come out to greet him, pointed to a pile of bodies.
"These are from the Canglan Academy students. Eleven of them died."
Eleven students?!
Standing before the students' corpses, Yeop Hyeon was speechless for a long while.
Finally, he managed to speak.
"Take them all and lay them to rest in the Heroes' Garden. Hold a memorial rite for them every year, and provide lifelong support to their families so they never want for anything. Yun Qi, I want you to handle this."
Mu Yun Qi nodded.
"I'll take care of it, don't worry."
Yeop Hyeon clasped his hands in salute toward the bodies.
"Thank you for everything. I'll live honoring the fact that you were Canglan Academy students!"
Mu Yun Qi's eyes grew misty watching this.
No one in the world truly wanted to die, but war offered no such mercy.
Yeop Hyeon lightly patted Mu Yun Qi's shoulder before moving on. Ahead of him gathered a herd of horses—the Black Flame Horses ridden by the Black Flame Cavalry. Scattered on the ground were over a hundred Black Flame Cavalry corpses. These horses hadn't fled; they had stayed loyally by their masters' sides.
Yeop Hyeon's gaze shifted to the cavalrymen's remains.
More than a hundred sets of top-grade equipment lay intact.
Beyond their skill, the reason the Black Flame Cavalry had been so formidable was this supreme gear.
It was equipment so expensive that even plundering the entire national treasury of Jiang Kingdom couldn't buy it.
As Yeop Hyeon collected the gear, he seriously considered forming the strongest cavalry unit in Canglan Academy.
One even stronger than the Black Flame Cavalry.
Just then, a group of soldiers appeared in the distance.
It was Gang Gu.
She raced up to Yeop Hyeon, dismounted swiftly, and approached him.
"We took out three thousand Cho Kingdom cavalry."
Yeop Hyeon wiped the blood from her face with his hand.
"You did well. We won."
"We won!"
At that moment, countless Jiang Kingdom soldiers erupted in cheers.
"Jiang Kingdom is victorious!"
The surviving Canglan Academy students raised their hands and shouted as well. This war would undoubtedly become the nourishment for their future growth.
Half a shichen later, the soldiers had gathered all the bodies before the ruined Gaeyang Fortress.
Even just collecting Jiang Kingdom soldiers' corpses numbered over twenty thousand.
Among them were intact bodies, half-severed ones, young soldiers, old soldiers—every variety imaginable.
Yeop Hyeon stood before the corpses. The atmosphere in the field grew solemn.
"Pay your respects!"
At Yeop Hyeon's command, every soldier knelt and bowed toward the dead.
These soldiers who had died for their nation deserved the honors from the survivors.
Yeop Hyeon turned around to face the soldiers.
"Remember this: You have a duty to spread the word to all the people of Jiang Kingdom that heroes who fell defending our land are buried here!"
He pointed to the corpses and shouted,
"Each and every one of them is a national hero of Jiang Kingdom!"
His words brought tears to the soldiers' eyes.
Until now, soldiers' lives had been mere expendables. The Qingcang Realm was a world ruled by strength. When a Cangmu Academy student passed by, everyone looked up in awe.
But scarcely anyone noticed common foot soldiers like them.
Yet Yeop Hyeon mourned and respected their deaths.
The mere fact that someone cared moved the soldiers to tears.
Gang Gu gazed at Yeop Hyeon with eyes full of complicated emotions.
Yeop Hyeon's heart wasn't at ease either. He had grown up at the very bottom. When he went to battle for his clan, who in the Ye family had ever worried about his life?
No one.
They had cared only for profits and results, not his survival.
But those profits came at the cost of sacrifices like these.
People like that deserved respect above all.
At that moment, Yeop Hyeon turned to Gang Gu.
"Select seventy soldiers. We need to form a cavalry unit!"
After clashing with Cangmu Academy and the shadow realm's Dao Soldiers, Yeop Hyeon had begun thinking of creating Dao Soldiers for Canglan Academy too. Facing the Black Flame Cavalry had solidified that resolve.
He needed powerful Dao Soldiers to protect Canglan Academy.
He already had the equipment, horses, and even some funds—albeit limited. What he lacked were martial artists to become those Dao Soldiers.
Yeop Hyeon decided to recruit from Jiang Kingdom's army. With their battle experience, proper martial arts training would turn them into elite warriors worth a hundred men each.
"Got it. I'll pick them out!"
Gang Gu nodded eagerly.
Right then, Gu Jiu appeared in her wheelchair, unfurling a map and pointing to a spot.
"The lord has already rushed here to rescue Great General Im So. Cho Kingdom suffered a crushing defeat, and Wol Kingdom has already withdrawn its forces. With the Daeun Empire's Black Flame Cavalry annihilated, they won't march again for a while. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our Jiang Kingdom!"
"You mean strike Wol Kingdom and Cho Kingdom?"
Gu Jiu smiled at Gang Gu's question.
"Exactly, Princess. If we don't seize it now, the chance may never come again!"
Gang Gu shook her head.
"We won, but we took heavy losses too. If we start another war..."
She glanced back at the soldiers. Most were wounded, over half with severe injuries.
"I understand Your Highness's concerns. It would take just one person to crush them!"
One person?
Gang Gu blinked in confusion, then looked at Yeop Hyeon.
Gu Jiu looked at Gang Gu too.
"News that National Scholar Yeop slew Imok—a Myriad Laws Realm expert or higher—will spread across all of Qingzhou soon. No more Myriad Laws Realm or stronger warriors will dare step forward recklessly. Roasting those two kingdoms alive would be child's play for National Scholar Yeop."
Yeop Hyeon shook his head.
"Even so, I can't destroy two kingdoms alone!"
Gu Jiu smiled silently.
Yeop Hyeon replied,
"If that's National Scholar Gu's will, then let's give it a try."
Yeop Hyeon called over Ji An Zhi and the other two nearby.
"I have other business, so look after the academy for a while, you three."
Mu Yun Qi grimaced.
"Yeop Sword Lord, the war just ended—let me rest a bit!"
Yeop Hyeon stepped closer.
"Then you wanna go make some money? Who's gonna feed those dozens of students?"
Mu Yun Qi's face fell as he backed away.
"Fine, safe travels—pretend you didn't hear that!"
Yeop Hyeon kicked his butt.
"Then scram back to the academy!"
Mu Yun Qi chuckled and bolted.
Ji An Zhi approached the grumbling Yeop Hyeon.
"Be careful."
She turned, then came back and pressed a lunchbox into his hand before heading after Mu Yun Qi.
Yeop Hyeon watched her with touched eyes, then checked inside.
Dumplings, steamed buns, chicken legs!
The box brimmed with food—an absurd amount: a hundred dumplings, a hundred buns, even a thousand chicken legs.
As Yeop Hyeon stood dumbfounded, Bai Ze walked up and clapped his shoulder.
"Come back soon."
With that short phrase, Bai Ze followed Ji An Zhi.
"Dean Yeop, take care!"
The Canglan Academy students saluted and departed.
But one remained: Yeop Hyeong of the Ye family.
She approached with her head down, then mustered courage to look up.
"I... I killed forty-one enemies. Most in Canglan Academy!"
Yeop Hyeong clasped her hands, eyes full of expectation.
Yeop Hyeon smiled lightly.
"Impressive."
He held out a top-grade spirit dagger.
"Your reward!"
Yeop Hyeong froze, unsure.
"Don't want it?"
She snatched it eagerly. The finely crafted dagger suited her perfectly.
Yeop Hyeong stroked it joyfully.
"Train hard when you get back. Only the strong survive."
She nodded vigorously, whispering like a mosquito,
"When no one's around... can I call you oppa?"
Yeop Hyeon paused, then smiled warmly.
"Go ahead."
Stunned by his hearty approval, Yeop Hyeong stared, then hugged him tightly.
"Oppa..."
Seeing her teary eyes, Yeop Hyeon wore a complex expression.
The Ye family was already a faint memory to him. Still, he couldn't help pitying her.
Moments later, Yeop Hyeong left for Canglan Academy.
Yeop Hyeon bid Gang Gu farewell and departed Gaeyang Fortress without lingering.
Gang Gu watched his receding figure endlessly.
Gu Jiu beside her said, gazing at him,
"Isn't he splendid?"
Gang Gu turned to Gu Jiu, who smiled lightly.
"At this growth rate, he'll reach Jungto Sinju within a year easily. Can Your Highness catch up?"
"National Scholar Gu, what are you implying?"
"Your Highness is wise—you already know."
Gang Gu said nothing.
Gu Jiu pulled out a thick black book.
"It's called the Soldier Codex. Master its seventy-two strategies, and you'll grasp battlefield flows at a glance, deploying tactics as needed. The soldier arts also hold supreme techniques like the Soldier Arts and countless martial skills."
Gu Jiu met Gang Gu's eyes squarely.
"Become a true soldier artist, Princess, and I'll be your Dao Protector."
Dao Protector?
Gang Gu's brow twitched.
"Soldier arts?"
Gu Jiu smiled.
"Yes. Join us, and you'll summon Dao Soldiers, Immortal Soldiers, even legendary Soul Soldiers. Perhaps even beyond..."
Gang Gu leaned close.
"Just what is your true identity?"
Gu Jiu caressed her legs.
"Merely a cripple. Follow me for now."
With that, she wheeled away.
Gang Gu followed silently.