The follow-up investigation progressed swiftly. Since the Blazing Flame Grand Venerable’s secret scheme against Chu Xiang had been exposed, the Merchant Alliance found itself in the wrong and was forced to make numerous concessions. As a result, the Chu Family received extensive compensation for their losses.
Even so, the old family patriarch, Chu Zhongtian, remained deeply dissatisfied and caused an uproar at the Merchant Alliance headquarters. In the end, even the military of the Xiao Kuang Star Region had to intervene to mediate the situation.
As part of the resolution, twenty young talents from the new generation of the Chu Family were granted positions in the military operations department of the Xiao Kuang military district, receiving rather favorable posts.
Among them was a young man named Chu Yili. He was assigned to the combat forces on one of the frontline planets, Planet Nock. Planet Nock was a land of sweeping sandstorms and an extremely harsh natural environment. The planet had never hosted life since its formation. Only cosmic lifeforms could survive there.
Due to the presence of a natural spatial anchor point located ten thousand kilometers northwest of the planet, Nock held immense strategic value. It was a battleground constantly contested by the Reaper faction and the human race of the galaxy.
Ever since the Xiao Kuang Legion had been stationed in the region, Planet Nock and its surrounding space had witnessed hundreds of thousands of battles. The number of lives lost in this sector had exceeded ten billion.
At present, the humans still held the upper hand around Planet Nock. The Xiao Kuang Legion’s second main combat division, the Xiao Shi Battle Division, was hailed as the iron-blooded soul of defense. They had held the line at Planet Nock for one hundred and fifty-six years, forging an unbreakable front with blood and bone. The rıghtful source is 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⚫𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⚫𝔫𝔢𝔱
However, Planet Nock had not been at peace lately. Reaper spies, along with agents from Eden, had become increasingly active. It was a sign that a major war was brewing. Chu Yili was brought to the Canglan Mountain defense line and temporarily assigned to the reserve unit of the rapid response team, Meteor.
The Meteor Team was ranked among the top ten rapid response units within the entire Xiao Shi Battle Division. It had a full strength of one hundred members, ten of whom were non-combat personnel. The average cultivation level of the combatants was the Three Origin Realm.
Among them, the three deputy captains and the combat commissar were all at the Five Dragons Realm. The team captain had reached the Six Gods Realm. The reserve unit consisted of fifty people. They were mostly young individuals with decent strength but little to no battlefield experience. Whenever a full member was injured or lost, a replacement would be selected from the reserves.
“Haha, the new guy, huh? You don’t look all that sturdy. What realm are you in?” The reserve unit’s captain, Liu Fang, was a burly woman built like a mother bear. Her muscles bulged all over, making the leather armor on her body stretch like a mountain range. She gave Chu Yili a firm slap on the shoulder.
Then her face betrayed a flicker of surprise. Her palm had gone slightly numb from the impact. Liu Fang herself was at the peak of the Four Extremes Realm. She had expected a fresh recruit in the reserve unit to be, at best, in the Three Origin Realm, someone who would need years of training before meeting the standard of an official team member. But unexpectedly, this young newcomer’s strength was clearly above that.
“He’s actually at the Four Extremes Realm?”
“A member of the Chu Family?”
After glancing through Chu Yili’s profile, Liu Fang’s expression shifted to one of sudden realization and understanding. Chu Zhongtian had once served on Planet Nock and held a command in the Xiao Shi Battle Division. He was a highly respected figure. After his retirement, many younger members of the Chu Family had come to serve here, and their performance had always been commendable.
As a result, after learning about Chu Yili’s background, Liu Fang regarded him with newfound respect. Once accommodations were assigned, Chu Yili was immediately appointed as a squad leader. Five soldiers, each with distinct specialties, were placed under his command. There was a mechanic, a planter, a beast master, a medic, and a frontline combatant.
This structure was nearly identical to the composition of combat teams back on Earth’s university campuses. It was clear that the curricula established on Earth had not been designed arbitrarily. They had been carefully planned by those in power.
Unfortunately, Chongque City had failed to fulfill the function it was meant to for a long time, causing significant disruptions in the evolutionary progress of Earth-origin cultivators. This had led to chaos and fragmentation in their development systems.
In the days that followed, Liu Fang kept a particularly close eye on the new recruit named Chu Yili. She wasn’t surprised to find that his performance far surpassed the standard of the reserve unit, so much so that even official team members might not have done better than him.
Eventually, the Meteor Team suffered heavy casualties in a brutal ambush. They lost more than twenty-one members. So, Liu Fang, Chu Yili, and eighteen other reserve troops were urgently promoted to the official unit.
Three days later, they were thrown into live combat. Under the leadership of Deputy Captain Chang Zitong, a squad of twelve members from the Meteor Team’s First Division engaged in battle on the plains northwest of Canglan Mountain against more than one hundred thousand Nueqi.
They annihilated the entire enemy force. The Nueqi were mid-tier beasts belonging to the Reaper faction. They were a descendant species spawned by the so-called Mother of All Beasts. They were a feral lineage known for their overwhelming combat instincts, yet were utterly lacking in intelligence. They were savage beasts in the truest sense.
Their appearance was grotesque. They were four-legged and round-bodied with long tails, black scales, enormous jaws, and rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Chu Yili distinguished himself during the battle. He displayed extraordinary combat prowess, rescuing teammates multiple times and personally slaying over forty thousand Nueqi.
In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded a commendation and promoted to squad captain. In less than three months following that battle, Chu Yili continued to rack up astounding military feats on the front lines, earning rapid promotions multiple times.
Finally, after six months, the Battle Hero Chu Yili succeeded Cheng Gua, who had died in combat, as the second deputy captain of the Meteor Team, becoming the youngest deputy captain in the team’s history.
The position of deputy captain held immense authority within a rapid response unit, and was second only to the team captain and the combat commissar. It came with a relatively autonomous status and allowed the holder to lead independent operations and missions.
Chu Yili’s first assignment after taking office was a deployment to the stargate base in the outer space region of Planet Nock. This base was the most active hub for Reaper spies and Eden operatives.
According to the military’s latest intelligence, the first and second leaders of Eden’s Xiao Kuang Star Region division had secretly entered the stargate base with the intention to meet with a major figure from an alien Reaper species.
Chu Yili’s squad had been assigned to the stargate base specifically to prepare for and counter this meeting. There, he encountered an old acquaintance.
“H-Hall Master?” Huang Dinggou froze the moment he saw Chu Yili.
“Woof woof!” Black Emperor wagged its tail at Chu Yili, showing great affection.
Chu Yili smiled and said, “I didn’t expect to meet again so soon... This time, it looks like we’re comrades-in-arms?”
“Hall Master, what exactly are you planning?” asked Huang Dinggou, utterly stunned. He hadn’t expected to run into Li Xiaofei here.