Chapter 45
"Not good."
Even though the person in front of him was the General of the Azure City Xianzhou, Tomomu Kanzaki still didn't give him a good look, glancing at him impolitely.
"Don't be like that. No matter what, I was a graduate of Qingyun back then."
Teng Xiao was all smiles, his tone carrying a hint of familiarity.
"When I was a child and broke my leg, you were the one who personally took me to the medical clinic, Sir."
"So this is how you repay me, by having new recruits seek training from a civilian worker?"
"Don't be angry, Sir."
"It's better to call me by my name. You are now the General of Azure City, and I am just an ordinary academy teacher. Etiquette must not be disordered."
Tomomu Kanzaki emphasized the words "ordinary" and "academy teacher."
"One thing at a time. You call me General, I call you Sir. There's no conflict."
Teng Xiao's smile remained unchanged, as if he hadn't heard the barbs in Tomomu Kanzaki's words, nor did he care about the obvious distance.
"General, has anyone ever told you that you're bad at feigning ignorance?"
"Precisely! When I was still in my mother's womb, a fortune teller pointed at my mother's belly and said, 'This child's biggest flaw in the future will be his inability to feign ignorance!'"
Teng Xiao rubbed his hands, revealing a sincere expression of seeking advice.
"Do you think I can still change, Sir?"
"If you could change, others would be even more troubled."
In fact, Tomomu Kanzaki was troubled enough already.
As the saying goes, it's not thieves you fear, but being targeted by them.
While this saying might not be entirely appropriate for Teng Xiao, the principle holds true.
He was indeed being targeted.
This year, Teng Xiao had sent more than ten letters, averaging one a month.
Now it was even more outrageous — a tentative "act first, report later" approach.
"Give up, General. I have lost the will to continue fighting and have no intention of returning to the Cloud Knights." Tomomu Kanzaki remained unmoved.
The atmosphere in the tea pavilion suddenly became silent.
Staring intently at Tomomu Kanzaki's emotionless face, Teng Xiao put away his playful expression and spoke in a deep voice.
"At least give me a reason, Tomomu Kanzaki. The retirement reason you gave back then doesn't convince me."
Lost the will to continue fighting?
What a joke!
One of the Tomomu family's ancestors was also one of the first Generals to become a Lord of the Hunt Envoy.
Although his tenure was less than three hundred years, he was still an important historical figure recorded in the Xianzhou Annals.
Not only was he the first Azure City Emanator, but the heroic deeds of another Cloud Knight Vanguard are still widely recounted stories on the Azure City Xianzhou, with many derivative literary works and adaptations.
In such a family, serving in the military for generations, no one had ever disgraced the family name.
By Tomomu Kanzaki's generation, he was even more courageous than the entire army.
Hundreds of years ago, during the Second Abundance Plague War, he alone, with a single sword, staunchly guarded the entrance to a refuge grotto-heaven in Yueque.
Not only did he save hundreds of millions of lives, just like his ancestors, but he also surpassed his ancestors' achievements, truly being "the student surpasses the master."
When the war ended and the battlefield was being cleared, anyone who saw Tomomu Kanzaki's appearance at the time would have been utterly shocked.
He had lost his right arm, holding a broken sword in his left hand, standing silently before the entrance to the grotto-heaven.
Countless corpses of abominations of the Abundance had all become a "temporary high wall" blocking the entrance.
One man guarding the pass, ten thousand cannot open it.
At that time, Tomomu Kanzaki was not even fifty years old.
The pervasive aura of killing intent, coupled with the backdrop of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, made even his comrades feel a chilling awe.
Everyone in the Cloud Knights believed that he was very likely to become the youngest Sword Champion, or even General, in Azure City's history.
No one doubted Tomomu Kanzaki's future.
Such a heroic figure, retiring on the grounds of losing the will to fight, and subsequently transitioning to a civilian role as a teacher, unfamiliar with war.
Who would believe there were no hidden circumstances?
The previous General of Azure City speculated that Tomomu Kanzaki's retirement might be related to his family members who died in battle.
But it was merely speculation.
Teng Xiao felt this reason was untenable; no matter how he looked at it, Tomomu Kanzaki was not someone who feared death.
It was impossible for him to fear the battlefield just because he witnessed his relatives die in battle.
"Tomomu Kanzaki, say something. Don't be silent." Recalling this, Teng Xiao couldn't help but urge.
"What's your reason?"
"What reason? The reason for me to return to the army? Azure City doesn't cease to function without me." Tomomu Kanzaki said calmly.
This time it was Teng Xiao's turn to be silent. He frowned for a moment, then, with an extremely solemn tone, handed over a confidential document.
"This is the reason."
"…The divination results from the Xianzhou Yuque?"
Tomomu Kanzaki received the confidential document, and his usually expressionless face gradually showed solemnity.
The content wasn't long, just a line of classical text in the Yuque style.
Translated into modern vernacular, the gist was: within the next three years, the Azure City Xianzhou might encounter a disaster no less severe than the Second Abundance Plague War.
"What's Yuque's opinion, and what did the Marshal say?" Tomomu Kanzaki asked.
"Yuque proposed that Azure City enter the highest level of combat readiness, and the Marshal approved." Teng Xiao frowned his thick, dark brows, his voice low.
"Now you understand why I've repeatedly asked you to return, right?"
"In less than two years, I'll be six hundred years old, already a hundred years past the Cloud Knights' regular retirement age. No matter how formidable I was in the past, that's all in the past."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a giant sword tore through the air with a sonic boom, fiercely slashing toward Tomomu Kanzaki.
If it landed squarely, Tomomu Kanzaki would be split in two.
But he hadn't moved a single step, his expression as calm as ever, as if he hadn't seen the sharp blade before him.
The sharp clang ceased abruptly.
The sword, imbued with murderous intent, hung just a hair's breadth above Tomomu Kanzaki's head.
"In the entire Cloud Knights camp, the number of people who can stand unflinchingly like this is less than a handful." Teng Xiao grinned.
"Could it be that I just didn't react in time, and my legs have already turned to jelly from fright?"
"If your legs turn to jelly and you wet your pants from fright, then I'll drink it."
Seeing Teng Xiao's determined look, as if he wouldn't give up until he got an answer, Tomomu Kanzaki finally sighed softly.
"Teng Xiao, the probability of retired Cloud Knights falling into mara-infection is much higher than for ordinary people. This has been a consensus since the Era of Three Calamities."
Seeing that Tomomu Kanzaki no longer called him "General" in a distant, formal manner, Teng Xiao put away his giant sword and listened intently, nodding for him to continue.
"When the Second Abundance Plague War ended, my mother showed early signs of mara-infection."
"What?!"
Teng Xiao's expression changed dramatically.
He quickly recalled the information about Tomomu Kanzaki's family.
In that calamity, his father and eldest sister died in battle, at the ages of 474 and 85 respectively. His mother was critically wounded and near death, but was saved in time and survived, at the age of 397.
That is to say… Qiu Zhiyan is 995 years old this year.
For ordinary people, after seven hundred years of age, the probability of falling into mara-infection increases year by year.
A retired Cloud Knight who can live to nearly a thousand years old is perhaps one in a hundred thousand.
But that's not the point. The point is, after showing early signs of mara-infection, it didn't manifest for several centuries?
Connecting this to Tomomu Kanzaki's retirement reason, a terrifyingly absurd guess quietly surfaced in Teng Xiao's mind.
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