Chapter 153: The Fashionably Late Officer

"Hey, hey! What do you mean by that, Bai Feiyu? Is that the kind of look you give us the moment you see us arrive?"

"The instructor gave us orders, and if we have any questions, we're supposed to ask you. You're one of the premier disciples of the Return to Ruin Sect, after all. The least you could do is brief us."

"What kind of attitude is this from your Return to Ruin Sect? Is this how you treat a war? While fighting is raging furiously outside, the lot of you are just bathing and taking it easy here."

Many disciples of the Golden Light Sect grew indignant.

Though they were no match for Bai Feiyu, they at least knew the purpose of their mission this time.

The attitude of these Return to Ruin Sect members genuinely angered them. After all, they hadn't come here to enjoy themselves.

"Heh!" Bai Feiyu smiled faintly, then replied, "Considering that you are also here to fight a war, I won't hold personal grievances against you right now."

"As for the current situation, the instructor told us to wait here—to wait for a unified assembly, training, and division into formations."

"And then... and then the instructor simply left. We've been stuck here ever since. Forget about fighting a war; even getting a meal has been a problem. The mess hall isn't feeding us at all."

"Of course, we've also cleaned up all the sanitation around here. Every chore that could possibly be done has been done."

"Right now, there really is nothing for us to do. So you can't blame us either; we're simply following orders."

Bai Feiyu wore a lazy expression. Upon hearing his explanation, the disciples of the Golden Light Sect were utterly astonished, and one of them immediately blurted out:

"Can't you just go and attack the enemy? Doing nothing at all here, what kind of behavior is that?"

Bai Feiyu looked at the fellow as if gazing at an idiot and said:

"I am not in charge of this war right now, so I have no authority to command anyone else."

"If we blindly throw ourselves into the battle, honestly, what difference would it make? Are you certain we wouldn't just create chaos?"

"We came here to obey orders, absolutely not to show off our individual capabilities."

The disciples of the Golden Light Sect were left speechless by Bai Feiyu's reprimand. Meanwhile, Gu Tianxun and the others were fetching water nearby, and hearing Bai Feiyu's words, Gu Tianxun's expression darkened somewhat.

As for the people from the Golden Light Sect, their hearts felt even more stifled and disgruntled.

After all, they had good intentions, yet they never expected to be lectured by this guy. This was simply too infuriating!

Even though Bai Feiyu spoke the truth, there was still a sense of resentment deep within them.

"Hey, since you're already here, you'd better hurry up and set up your tents, then wash up."

"After all, once the war truly breaks out, you probably won't have any chance to bathe at all. So if you can wash up now, you might as well do it."

"This is well-intended advice. Since there's nothing else to do right now, you might as well just take a break."

Bai Feiyu reminded them once more.

"Alright, I've told you everything I can. How you decide to handle it is up to you."

"Right now, bathing is the only way to pass the time. By the way, we were the ones who cleaned that small stream, so don't make it dirty. We need the water from that stream for more than just bathing; we use it for cooking and everything else."

With that, Bai Feiyu strolled back toward his tent, humming a little tune along the way.

The disciples of the Golden Light Sect looked at one another in dismay. In the end, they had no choice but to follow Bai Feiyu's advice and quietly begin bathing.

Many fine young men of the Golden Light Sect could not help sighing.

The life they had imagined beforehand was not like this at all. They hadn't expected the actual battlefield to differ so much from their expectations.

After bathing, the members of the two sects began to rest. Aside from eating and drinking, there was practically no work to be done.

Everyone had spent the past few days in quite a leisurely manner.

Over on her side, Yue Linglong orderly led the Golden Light Sect disciples in imitating how the Return to Ruin Sect cooked their meals, as they naturally had no desire to share a pot with them.

Given how close the two sects' camps were, coupled with the incident involving Bai Feiyu, the two factions were now practically in complete opposition.

The atmosphere between the two sects was currently as tense as fire and water.

Had this not been a battlefield, the disciples of both sects would undoubtedly have broken out into a full-scale war upon running into each other.

After lingering around for two or three days, the tardy instructor finally appeared. Upon showing up, he looked over the disciples, nodded, and said:

"Hmm! Not bad. You all are turning out much better than I anticipated."

"I hope you can continue to meet my expectations during the upcoming training."

Hearing the instructor's praise, many of the disciples felt a tinge of shame. To be frank, the majority of the labor here had been performed by Bai Feiyu and the first batch of disciples to arrive.

Without Bai Feiyu, most of them probably wouldn't even have thought of doing those things.

It could be said that the credit belonged entirely and solely to Bai Feiyu.

Soon, all the disciples gathered together and followed the instructor toward a dilapidated little plaza nearby.

Here, they would undergo some basic training before heading out to the battlefield.

The training items were simple, focusing primarily on arranging tactical formations, maintaining order, and other such matters. They didn't train on how to fight—after all, these disciples already knew how—but rather on the precautions to take once on the battlefield.

In reality, the reason the instructor had left them idling for so long was to test whether these disciples would act rashly and rush onto the battlefield on their own accord.

He wanted to see if they would take the initiative to clean up the surrounding camp area.

Only by observing these things could their true mental state be revealed, and the instructor had specific arrangements in mind for them.

Most of these proud talents were meant to specialize in carrying out assassination missions on the battlefield, so the instructor ended up explaining a great deal of crucial knowledge.

During the course of their training, the external battle largely came to an end. This time, the intrusion by the forces of the Zhou State into the border fortress had been successfully beaten back.

The returning soldiers injected a lively atmosphere back into the military camp, and Bai Feiyu and his companions finally found themselves with some actual work to do.

Their primary duty was to attend to the wounded.

Of course, alongside caring for the wounded, they were assigned a few other tasks, chief among them being standing guard.

This was to prevent any sudden enemy raids.

Such missions were of paramount importance; if the sentries failed to detect an approaching enemy in time, it could easily plunge the entire military operation into a passive and dangerous position.

That very night, Bai Feiyu and Yang Fan were assigned to stand guard atop the wall of the border fortress.

Beneath the distant plains of the border, the ground was stained with blood. With the moon hanging high, a chilling terror began to shroud the entire night.

Bai Feiyu and Yang Fan stood there, exchanged a mutual sigh, and then decided to sit down.

Guarding the post only required getting up to check the surroundings from time to time. There was no need to stare fixedly at the battlefield every single second, and the rules weren't so rigid that they had to remain completely motionless.

To be honest, given the current atmosphere, Bai Feiyu genuinely wished he could pull out a few dishes and a flask of fine wine to share a drink with Yang Fan...