Chapter 174: Emergency

Over the next two days, Lin Xiao stayed put at the military base.

In the mornings, he let the recruits train on their own. Of course, the training methods now were entirely different from before; Lin Xiao wanted to squeeze every last drop of potential out of everyone.

The reason he didn't supervise them closely was because he had his own matters to attend to.

Since he had already given his word to Wei Xuan, he naturally needed to help everyone improve their culinary skills as much as possible.

Fortunately, the cooks here were not as hopeless as Si She. Although they still couldn't become master chefs like him, their cooking had improved. At least over the past few days, the feedback from the squad had been quite positive.

Lin Xiao also used the morning hours to prepare all the meals for the first platoon of the recruit company.

His main goal was to let Wei Xuan understand his standards, as he couldn't stay here forever.

The meals for the first platoon afterward would still be their own responsibility.

And it wouldn't be much of an issue; as long as they used level-five spirit beast meat, even boiling it plain would keep the first platoon busy for a while.

He simply wanted these guys to eat a little better while he was still around.

After all, they were his soldiers.

The afternoons and evenings were dedicated to other training modules.

Lin Xiao had already discovered that those who managed to enter the special spirit-martial forces were far from stupid.

They absorbed everything he taught extremely quickly.

Yet the same problem remained: Lin Xiao did not plan to stay here indefinitely, and once he left, the training still had to follow the design he had established.

To make it easier to slack off later, Lin Xiao intentionally spent some time compiling the curriculum for the upcoming lessons directly into a syllabus.

This wasn't particularly difficult for him; he simply needed to take his previous training methods and simplify them slightly.

After finishing the class that night, Lin Xiao chased off Chu Xing and the others, who were already completely exhausted.

Only after Chu Xing and his group had left did Lin Xiao cast a resentful glance at Zi Shu and the others.

These fellows had recently developed a severe addiction to auditing his classes; no matter what topic he lectured on, they would tag along.

They even held little notebooks, taking down notes with an almost comical level of seriousness.

"Big Brother Zi Shu, when are we heading to the mystic realm? We've already been resting for three whole days!"

Lin Xiao finally voiced the question he had been yearning to ask. He certainly hadn't forgotten his original intention of becoming a mercenary.

He had been planning to push for a B-rank mercenary rating during this month of military training.

Out of the one million contribution points needed, he had only completed about a fifth so far.

Now, with the textbook he had created, even if he wasn't around, Chu Xing could independently train the first platoon. He couldn't afford to idle away here any longer.

Zi Shu felt a bit embarrassed under Lin Xiao's questioning.

Normally, after returning from a mystic realm, they would rest for at most two days before setting out on missions again.

Weren't the lectures Lin Xiao delivered simply too captivating?

Consequently, they had completely lost track of time.

Now that he thought about it, it was indeed time to head out for missions.

However, before discussing that, there was still one matter that needed to be resolved.

"Hai Zhu, how many times do I have to tell you? In the future, everyone should address each other by their code names directly. Don't add 'Big Brother' or things like that; it makes us look more professional."

Lin Xiao couldn't be bothered to expose Zi Shu's flimsy excuse.

Naturally, he knew why Zi Shu said that; it didn't take a genius to guess that he must have been called in for a talk by He Yun.

Though he didn't know what He Yun had said to Zi Shu, the results were at least quite obvious from the current situation.

Whenever Lin Xiao habitually slipped up and called him "Big Brother Zi Shu," it would cause Zi Shu's entire body to shudder.

Then Zi Shu would hurriedly correct Lin Xiao's form of address.

"Understood, understood. So when are we actually going to do missions?"

"Take a rest tonight, and we'll depart tomorrow at noon!"

Receiving Zi Shu's affirmative reply, Lin Xiao finally let out a sigh of relief. He could finally continue undertaking missions.

This time, he needed to accept a larger number of tasks.

Lin Xiao had previously discovered that quite a few low-level spirit beasts lived within the mystic realms. Before, due to time constraints and other factors, Lin Xiao hadn't bothered to kill those low-level creatures.

Upon careful reflection, eliminating those low-level spirit beasts could also fulfill several low-level quests.

It was just that the contribution points gained from those tasks were pitifully few.

Yet Lin Xiao now felt the pressing urgency of time; small quests like those still needed to be accepted.

Though the points were few, they accumulated quickly. With enough volume, a substantial amount of points could still be amassed.

Another reason driving Lin Xiao's sense of urgency was that during his recent trips to the level-five mystic realm, he noticed each expedition took at least three to four days.

Earlier, he had foolishly imagined that after school started, he could utilize Saturdays and Sundays to go out and complete missions, but now that seemed entirely unrealistic.

He couldn't constantly ask the school for leave; doing so would likely get him expelled in no time.

Therefore, before the school term began, he needed to elevate his mercenary rank to B-rank as much as possible.

Even if he couldn't reach B-rank, he couldn't afford to fall too far short.

"Okay then, everyone, the lecture is over. Why are you all still lingering here? Do you intend to sleep with me?"

Seeing Lin Xiao issue an eviction notice, Zi Shu and the others hurriedly offered their farewells and departed.

It was all Lin Xiao's fault for knowing too many fascinating things; they had been completely entranced by his lectures.

Fortunately, once they entered the mystic realm, they would still be teamed up with Lin Xiao.

Any questions they had could still be posed directly to him.

Wonderful! It was truly a case of being close to the water to get the moonlight first.

Lin Xiao was still unaware of what Zi Shu and the others were plotting. If he knew, he would undoubtedly have wanted to beat them up.

Even a donkey from a production brigade wouldn't be worked this hard!

Watching everyone leave, Lin Xiao also prepared to rest.

He needed to preserve his energy today to prepare for tomorrow's expedition into the mystic realm.

…………

Lin Xiao originally thought he would sleep soundly until dawn, but before he had rested for long, he was jolted awake by a rapid and urgent knocking on his door.

Confused, this was the first time such a thing had happened since his arrival at the military base.

He immediately scrambled out of bed, pulled open the door, and found Zi Shu standing outside.

"Zi Shu, what time is it? Don't you people let anyone rest?"

"There's an emergency situation, and it's quite tricky. The commander didn't give the specifics, so I'm not entirely clear either. The commander's intention is for you to come and help us brainstorm."

"I understand. Let's get over there right away!"

Lin Xiao caught on immediately. It was He Yun who had sent Zi Shu to fetch him. From the looks of it, the matter might genuinely not be so simple.

Lin Xiao threw on his clothes and set off with Zi Shu.

Before long, he came face to face with He Yun.

He Yun's expression was grim. Aside from He Yun, there were over twenty other people present in the room.

Apart from the members of the War Wolf Mercenary Group, Lin Xiao didn't recognize anyone else.

However, from these individuals, he could sense formidable auras.

Judging by their ages, these people were somewhat older than Zi Shu and the others. If he wasn't mistaken, they were likely the true core elites of the special spirit-martial forces.

For so many elites to be gathered here, the matter at hand could not possibly be small.