Mercenary Rules

"Not bad pay!"

The Bearded Commander personally took Gu Xiechen through all the procedures required to join the mercenary group. Gu Xiechen also received his official codename in the Hell Angels Mercenary Group—Evil Dragon.

Gu Xiechen surveyed his assigned quarters with satisfaction. The bedroom was over thirty square meters and fully furnished; outside it was a small sitting room, and there was even a little bar in one corner. What delighted Gu Xiechen even more was that the bar held over a hundred bottles of various fine wines. Every bottle was top-shelf, and all of it was free.

While Gu Xiechen underwent his physical examination at the medical center, his custom-made uniform had already been placed in the bedroom wardrobe. Behind the wardrobe was a hidden cabinet piled full of weapons of every kind. From large-caliber pistols to assault rifles, from delicate serpentine daggers to heavy two-handed swords, the weapons in that cabinet were enough to arm an enhanced squad.

After fiddling with the manual the Bearded Commander had stuffed into his hands for a while, Gu Xiechen completed the residence authorization process. From that moment on, only Gu Xiechen could enter these quarters, and only he could use everything inside, including the weapons in the hidden cabinet. Should an outsider intrude, the entire base's defense system would be triggered at once.

He threaded his Mercenary Card onto an alloy chain and hung it around his neck. Rubbing his empty stomach, Gu Xiechen followed the directions from the personal assistant computer issued on his wrist toward the dining hall.

The Mercenary Card was an access card issued internally by the Hell Angels Mercenary Group and could only be used by its owner. It recorded some of the mercenary's personal information and also served as a savings card valid throughout the Earth Federation. All a mercenary's income would be directly deposited into this card. As an Innate-level fighter, Gu Xiechen had received a generous signing bonus upon joining the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. One hundred thousand Federal Currency was sitting obediently in the account at that very moment.

The dining hall covered a vast area, enough to accommodate four or five thousand people eating at once. When Gu Xiechen entered, it was lunchtime, and the enormous hall was filled with ferocious-looking burly men. They excitedly waved their knives and forks as they greedily devoured the food before them. But the instant Gu Xiechen stepped through the entrance, the previously boisterous dining hall fell deathly silent. Everyone turned to stare at him with sinister eyes. Amid a clatter of metal, many hulking men set down their knives and forks and rose from their seats.

The atmosphere in the dining hall was strange, but Gu Xiechen paid it no mind and walked straight to the far end. He casually greeted the bald giant standing behind the counter with a large ladle in hand.

"What's good? Get me a serving!"

Gu Xiechen gave the bald giant what he considered a friendly smile.

The bald giant stirred the large platter of fried pork chops before him with his ladle and shook his head hard at Gu Xiechen. "There's no food prepared for you. Second Lieutenant Rookie!"

A landslide of laughter erupted through the dining hall. Countless men slapped the metal tables before them, producing ear-piercing clangs. A huge Black man with a black eyepatch over his right eye waved his enormous fist and roared at Gu Xiechen, "Rookie! This isn't a place for pretty boys like you. Crawl out obediently!"

Gu Xiechen grabbed a metal tray in front of him and flung it backward.

The huge Black man, who had been wildly shouting and waving his fist, was sent flying by the casually thrown tray. His once-prominent nose was smashed flat into his face, and two streams of blood sprayed more than two meters into the air as his body hurtled backward. The dining hall erupted into chaos, and seven or eight mercenaries behind him were knocked to the ground with him. The hidden force attached to the tray was like a mountain collapse, leaving the joints throughout their bodies numb and weak. The pile of large men struggled on the floor for a long while without being able to move, until their companions finally came to their senses and helped them up.

The dining hall fell silent again. None of the mercenaries had poor judgment. Gu Xiechen's casual strike was enough to make them understand that this "pretty boy" was not someone ordinary mercenaries like them could provoke.

The bald giant holding the ladle changed expression. Gu Xiechen picked up a pork chop, took a bite, and chewed slowly before asking vaguely, "Who's in charge here?"

A loud, clear voice came from the crowd. "I am! I'm in charge here!"

The crowd parted to either side, and a handsome young man in a white coarse-cloth robe walked out at an unhurried pace. He stood before Gu Xiechen with his hands behind his back and said calmly, "This is the exclusive dining hall of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group's Third Regiment. I'm the commander of the Third Regiment, so I'm in charge here!"

Gu Xiechen looked at that familiar face and smiled. "Mahā?"

The young man shook his head and said slowly, "I'm not Mahā. I'm his brother, Prajñā."

"Mahā? Prajñā?" Gu Xiechen smiled brightly. "Twin brothers?"

Prajñā nodded. "Yes!"

The Bearded Commander had just shown Gu Xiechen around this Hell Angels Mercenary Group base buried deep beneath the Arctic ice cap and had given him a rough introduction to the group's seventeen main regiments. Each main regiment had a standard force of around five thousand men, and every regiment commander was a fighter who had broken through to the Innate level. Furthermore, the identities and backgrounds of the commanders varied greatly, and many possessed strange powers that ordinary people could hardly comprehend.

"You injured my younger brother, Mahā. If you had injured Mahā at the peak of his strength, I wouldn't trouble you." Prajñā, nearly two heads taller than Gu Xiechen, looked down at him and said calmly, "But two months ago, Mahā exhausted all of his Zen power in order to help me break through the Life Wheel of the Thirteen Chakras."

Looking up at Prajñā, Gu Xiechen gave a bitter smile. "But what does that have to do with me? You were the ones practicing and breaking through. I wasn't the one who made him exhaust his strength!"

Prajñā smiled. From his ankles to his neck, his body twisted like a giant python turning over, and an aura that calmed the mind suddenly spread from within him. A fierce wind rushed head-on, and Gu Xiechen's body jerked backward. He instinctively tensed every muscle in his body and barely managed to steady himself.

Prajñā smiled. "Little rookie, I'll teach you the most basic rule of mercenaries: the bigger fist is the boss. If I knock you down, then if I say you're wrong, you're wrong!"

Without giving Gu Xiechen a chance to answer, Prajñā's hands shot out from behind his back like agile snakes. His thumbs hooked together, the tips of his middle fingers met, and his other fingers bloomed outward like a lotus. He shouted deeply, "White Lion Lotus Seal, bind!"

With Prajñā's shout, a mysterious force imprisoned the space around Gu Xiechen. It was as if a mountain had been placed upon him. Caught off guard, Gu Xiechen was unable to move for the moment. Prajñā's so-called White Lion Lotus Seal pressed lightly against Gu Xiechen's chest, but a thunderous boom erupted from his chest. A fierce, rigid force like a vajra pestle slammed into Gu Xiechen's body, sending his lean frame flying backward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

With a muffled bang, Gu Xiechen was plastered against the dining hall wall in the shape of a spread-eagled man. A human-shaped dent three inches deep appeared in the alloy-plated wall. Gu Xiechen opened his mouth, feeling sweetness rise in his chest. A burst of heat surged upward without warning, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Fuck!" A vicious aura surged from Gu Xiechen's mind. The muscles in his back suddenly contracted, and his indestructible qi erupted. A crater over a meter deep exploded in the dining hall wall, and Gu Xiechen shot through the air toward Prajñā, who had not moved from his original spot. His heart rate soared to three hundred beats per minute, and streams of powerful energy beyond his control erupted wildly. Gu Xiechen's originally lean body suddenly swelled by a full size.

Prajñā narrowed his eyes and smiled. His brilliant golden hair danced without wind. The fingers of his left hand rippled like water, while his right hand clenched into a fist and thrust forward through those fingers. He shouted coldly, "Lotus Vase Seal, break!" The air before his fist suddenly churned chaotically, followed by a sharp explosive crack. A hazy, milky-white vajra pestle roughly a foot long shot from his fist, blasting toward Gu Xiechen amid expanding rings of pale-white ripples.

Gu Xiechen clawed downward from afar, and dozens of white streams of qi rained through the air, weaving into a great net before the tiny vajra pestle.

The claw-force qi collided fiercely with the vajra pestle formed from unknown energy. Gu Xiechen's heart thudded violently several times, and he spat out another mouthful of blood.

Prajñā, who had always seemed serene and smiled as though untouched by worldly dust, underwent a drastic change in expression. He felt an irresistible, terrifying pressure crash down upon him from above. Streams of incomparably sharp qi coiled around his body as though they were about to tear him to pieces. Prajñā gave a muffled grunt, and with a crisp tearing sound, the coarse white robe on his body was shredded into scraps by the invisible claw-force. Naked, Prajñā staggered backward rapidly. With every step he took, his foot sank three inches into the alloy-plated floor.

The claw-force and vajra pestle vanished after colliding. Gu Xiechen, thrown seven or eight meters into the air by the recoil, slammed both feet viciously against the dining hall ceiling. Powerful force exploded from his toes, reducing his combat boots to powder. His figure abruptly vanished from the mercenaries' sight. Accelerating beyond what the naked eye could track, Gu Xiechen raised his right elbow and smashed down through the air toward Prajñā's crown.

Prajñā, whose footing had been thrown into disarray as he staggered backward, instinctively sensed deadly danger descending. He abruptly looked up, and two flashes of blue light flickered through his dark eyes. A rushing wind rose as the surrounding air rapidly gathered, and three layers of milky-white air barriers, each over a foot thick, suddenly appeared between Prajñā and Gu Xiechen.

His right elbow came down with all the force of his body, shattering all three air barriers with one blow.

It was as though three thermobaric bombs had exploded within the dining hall. When the three highly compressed air barriers shattered, massive shockwaves surged violently in every direction. Hundreds of mercenaries screamed and clutched their ears, sent flying by the blast like scraps of paper in a gale. Countless sturdy bodies spun through the air, along with soup and sauces from thousands of trays, steaks, pork chops, chicken legs, lamb legs, knives, forks, and all manner of other objects. The dining hall instantly descended into utter chaos.

Gu Xiechen's right elbow came crashing down with a terrifying roar, about to strike Prajñā squarely atop the head.

Prajñā's long arms rose in time. The blue light in his eyes condensed into two faintly spinning Buddhist swastika seals, and a layer of dim blue light as thick as a finger covered his body. A furious roar from Prajñā's lungs shook the thousands of mercenaries in the dining hall into clutching their ears and collapsing to the ground in agony.

"Immovable Wisdom King Seal!" Prajñā roared. Small vortex-shaped blue halos appeared at his wrists, elbows, and shoulders as Gu Xiechen's right elbow slammed fiercely into his hands.

Two equally formidable forces collided at high speed. With an explosive boom, Gu Xiechen's training uniform followed Prajñā's white robe into countless drifting scraps.

Gu Xiechen was hurled more than ten meters into the air and sent flying backward over a hundred meters in disarray. Another stream of blood sprayed from his mouth.

Hot blood flowed from all seven of Prajñā's openings at once. He barely held up his hands, while the blue halos at his wrists, elbows, and shoulders had already dimmed. The dining hall's alloy floor looked as though it had been torn apart by a pack of wolves, with panels curling upward everywhere. The thick ice beneath the alloy plates had cracked into countless palm-wide fissures.

Gu Xiechen twisted his body in midair, barely avoiding the embarrassing fate of landing headfirst. He staggered two steps forward after landing, then looked at the bleeding Prajñā with a strange grin. "You're hurt worse than I am!"

Prajñā said nothing for a long while. The dark-blue swastika seals in his eyes spun chaotically, and only after quite some time did the nearly collapsing symbols barely stabilize and slowly retreat into the depths of his eyes.

With a dry laugh, Prajñā spat out a large mouthful of bloody foam. He wiped his chin and smiled bitterly. "Your cultivation is clearly lower than mine. Why am I hurt worse than you?"

Gu Xiechen did not answer Prajñā's question. Instead, he asked, "So now, whose fist is bigger?"

Prajñā shook his head and pointed at Gu Xiechen with a smile. "Your fist is bigger, so you're right. Mahā deserved the beating!"

After coughing several times, Prajñā blinked craftily and slowly straightened his back. He extended his right hand toward Gu Xiechen. "Mercenary rules: if you can't beat someone, then it's best to make him your teammate. A powerful teammate can only benefit the entire team!"

Spitting out another thick mouthful of bloody foam, Prajñā said frankly, "Meeting is fate. You chose our Third Regiment's dining hall to eat in, which proves you have fate with our Third Regiment! You've only joined the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. Uncle Beard hasn't assigned you anywhere yet, has he? Welcome to the Third Regiment!"

Gu Xiechen looked at Prajñā. Prajñā's gaze was clear and held not the slightest impurity.

Mahā entered through the dining hall entrance amid the chaos and shouted, "Pretty boy, you beat the hell out of me. Joining my big brother's regiment can count as compensation, how about it?"

To make his words more convincing, Mahā vigorously waved his right arm, which was wrapped tightly in bandages. Mahā's enthusiasm burned like fire, yet it too contained not the slightest impurity.

The two brothers were a perfect match. The elder brother was tranquil and clear like a spring, while the younger was aggressive like raging fire.

"Sure! I'll join the Third Regiment!" Gu Xiechen extended his hand toward Prajñā. "But what about my pay?"

Prajñā's blood-covered hand clasped Gu Xiechen's. Panting, he smiled and said, "The pay is generous, but we won't let you lead anyone. You're very strong, but I truly must say that you're a rookie. That's another mercenary rule: never let a newcomer serve as captain, or people will die very quickly."

As they spoke and laughed, a light screen lit up above the dining hall. The Bearded Commander roared from within it, "Prajñā, you troublemaking bastard, get over here! We've got a job!"

Prajñā's expression suddenly changed, and he turned and ran out of the dining hall.

Mahā grabbed Gu Xiechen's hand before he could withdraw it and smiled. "There's one more rule. We're mercenaries who make a living by risking our lives, so whenever there's a job, we have to move fast. Otherwise, someone else will snatch it away!"

Gu Xiechen gave Mahā's arm a hard slap. Mahā laughed loudly and slapped him back several times in friendly return.

The mercenaries caught up in the disaster shook their heads and climbed up from the floor. Though they had suffered badly, their gazes toward Gu Xiechen were now filled with respect.

The most fundamental rule of the mercenary world—only those with strength could survive.

That was also the rule of this world.