Divine Strategy Manor.
Inside the grand hall, on the steps, Jing Yuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes twitching as he looked at the information flashing on the light screen before him.
“Today there are matters, no attendance at the morning roll call, minor issues set aside, major issues burn paper.”
“That brat…!”
Beside him, Qing Yu watched with amusement as Jing Yuan rubbed his temples, feeling utterly helpless about Bai Yu's behavior.
According to tradition, Bai Yu was required to report to Divine Strategy Manor for attendance every month on the first, middle, and last ten days, with two days off each period, leaving the rest of the days for daily attendance.
In other words, it was commonly known as clocking in for work.
Considering that Bai Yu also needed to train, Jing Yuan kindly allowed him to only work half a day even during his shifts, leaving the rest of the time completely free for him to arrange as he wished.
Yet even so, Bai Yu always found excuses to slack off, and compared to Qing Que, who had to outsmart his superior Fu Xuan to find ways to take leave, Bai Yu was completely open and aboveboard, coming and going as he pleased.
“Yan Qing! Go fetch Bai Yu for me!”
The young man standing with his sword at the lower steps immediately showed a pitiful expression and pleaded, “General, you know I can’t possibly defeat my senior brother. The last time I went to catch him, I lay in bed for three days. If it weren’t for Doctor Bai Lu’s miraculous skills, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed for ten days…”
“Am I supposed to personally go catch him? He sneaks away yesterday, and today he doesn’t even bother to show up?”
Jing Yuan trembled with anger.
“Alright, General, you know that kid Bai Yu is actually very prudent in his work.”
In the end, it was still Qing Yu who spoke up, comforting him gently.
“Even if he slacks off, he must have completed all his assigned tasks before taking a break. If he’s not here today, it’s likely he finished today’s work ahead of time yesterday.”
Jing Yuan huffed with a grim face, “If it weren’t for that, I would have stripped him of his title as Major General long ago.”
Just keep being stubborn!
Qing Yu and Yan Qing rolled their eyes in unison; who in Luo Fu didn’t know that you, the General, were the one who spoiled him the most?
This person hadn’t even stepped down yet, and he had already granted Bai Yu all the powers of a general, which was the best proof.
Although Bai Yu fully deserved Jing Yuan’s trust, his frequent slacking off was truly detrimental to morale, and Jing Yuan felt he should do something about it.
“Qing Yu, what do you think if I suddenly announce that I’m unwell and plan to rest for a while, handing all the affairs over to Bai Yu?”
With one arm crossed over his chest and the other stroking his chin, Jing Yuan squinted his eyes, contemplating the feasibility of this idea.
After a moment of silence, Qing Yu’s gaze drifted, and he said in a low tone, “I think, with Bai Yu’s personality, he would definitely come to your manor every day to offer incense…”
“And that juggler! I remember her name is Geniwei’er!” Yan Qing chimed in, “Senior brother would surely bring Miss Geniwei’er over to perform in front of your manor, General!”
Jing Yuan: “……”
Damn it, just imagining a crowd performing ridiculous stunts in front of his house made Jing Yuan feel like he was about to lose it!
I’m not angry, I’m not angry, I’m not angry at all.
What can I do about the successor I chose? Just endure it!
After spending a long time with Bai Yu, Jing Yuan gradually mastered the so-called divine skill of ‘self-persuasion,’ and his expression shifted from twisted to calm, finally revealing a dignified demeanor.
Just like the Jade Emperor facing the chaos caused by the Monkey King—
“Forget it, no need to worry about him!”
In a daze, Jing Yuan seemed to speak with divine light behind him.
……cut line……
Bai Yu was certainly not slacking off.
As Qing Yu said, the reason he was so bold as to skip attendance today was that he had already completed today’s tasks yesterday, not to mention he had also finished several days’ worth of work ahead of time.
At this moment, in the courtyard of the Ting Yun Manor, where Sister Fox had spent a fortune to build a training ground, Bai Yu was wielding a long sword, creating a gust of wind.
The sword was named ‘Shen Xiao,’ measuring three feet and three inches long and one inch and five tenths wide. It appeared light as a feather but actually weighed a thousand pounds.
This was not an exaggeration; this divine weapon was forged by Master Gong Su using the remnants of the imperial bow’s light arrows and truly weighed a thousand pounds.
One ‘jun’ is thirty pounds, so a thousand ‘jun’ is thirty thousand pounds, which is fifteen tons!
To accommodate this, Master Gong Su put considerable effort into installing a ‘Quality Shielding Matrix’ within the Shen Xiao, allowing it to switch between a normal weight of seven pounds and six ounces and its full weight of fifteen tons at will.
Besides the almost outrageous full weight, Shen Xiao was also equipped with a ‘Power Acceleration System’ that could provide Bai Yu with propulsion assistance while swinging.
Of course, such auxiliary components like the Power Acceleration System were standard in the cloud cavalry’s formation knives as well.
However, Bai Yu’s Shen Xiao had almost no restrictions in this regard. According to Master Gong Su, the maximum propulsion could allow speeds close to that of the imperial bow’s light arrows, unlike the standard formation knives of the cloud cavalry, which had deliberately added restrictors considering that ordinary soldiers, even in armor (power armor), could hardly withstand excessive force.
—Although Bai Yu’s physical limits currently could not support him in utilizing the Shen Xiao’s propulsion to that extent.
While practicing regular sword swings, Bai Yu was also controlling twelve flying swords, continuously creating dazzling sword flowers around him.
However, if this level of training intensity were all there was, it wouldn’t be enough to make Bai Yu break into a sweat, soaking his clothes through.
The real intense pressure on his body came from the training ground itself.
—A full ten times the normal gravity!
This was where the endless patrols of the Ting Yun truly came into play in this training ground.
Although Bai Yu had never met Jing Liu, who could be considered his ancestral master, he remembered vividly the words spoken by Jing Liu’s master when he watched the character story after drawing her in his previous life.
“From generals to soldiers, every cloud cavalryman must start learning from drawing the sword.”
“The various weapons from the Engineering Division can indeed help you slay enemies, but those are merely weapons operating on their own. If the day comes when arrows run out, star ships crash, and golden figures stop turning, who will protect you and me? Who will protect the celestial ships?”
“Hold this sword and remember well, only when the cloud cavalry personally wields the sword in battle is it truly humanity’s fight. We prove to those inhuman monsters that we will triumph over them with our flesh and blood, our skills, and not let cleverness do the fighting for us!”
In light of this, Bai Yu never slackened in his training!
He yearned for the day when he could swing his sword and slay the stars!