Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees

The Barracks were quiet, broken only by the occasional fluctuations of fire-element energy and faint sounds produced by Lin Xin as he refined pills. Everyone else was immersed in meditation.

At Demon Expelling Pass, they could face the demon army at any moment. Everyone understood the importance of increasing their strength. Pressure brought motivation, and pressure better stimulated one's potential. The entire Soldier Grade One Demon Hunt Squad was steadily improving under this pressure. What surprised Long Haochen somewhat was that the side effects of the Spirit Burst Pill lasted only around six hours for him before the feeling of weakness gradually faded, rather than the twelve hours Lin Xin had mentioned. This was probably related to his constitution.

The peace of cultivation lasted until the afternoon. After another equally hearty lunch, everyone cultivated separately for less than an hour before someone knocked on the Barracks door, delivering an order directly from the Demon Expelling Pass military headquarters.

A short while later, Long Haochen led the members of Soldier Grade One Demon Hunt Squad to meet the other nine newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads.

Why had all the newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads here for training been gathered together? It was not just Long Haochen who was puzzled. All sixty young powerhouses from the Six Great Temples present had similar thoughts. After all, they had only entered the Infantry Battalion a day ago. Could the arrangements have changed already?

In fact, they had indeed changed. This change had mainly arisen for two reasons. The first was the performance of these ten newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads in yesterday's battle atop the walls. Newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads had never before come to Demon Expelling Pass for training; this was a first. Therefore, from Sheng Lingxin on down, the commanders at Demon Expelling Pass had not known how best to arrange them. They had decided to send them first to the harshest Infantry Battalion for tempering, to temper away their sharp edges.

Yet the result had greatly shocked the officers and soldiers of Demon Expelling Pass. When the ten Infantry Battalions assigned to the newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads defended the city yesterday, the combat power they displayed vastly exceeded the commanders' estimates. Losses in those Infantry Battalions were less than a fifth of normal. One had to know that each Infantry Battalion had only gained six extra people!

It was no wonder the commanders of Demon Expelling Pass were astonished. The overall strength of this generation's newly promoted Demon Hunt Squad members truly was the strongest in nearly a century. To say nothing else, Yang Wenzhao, Long Haochen, Cai'er, Duan Yi, Huang Yi, and the others would all have been certain champions in previous years. The Knight Temple alone had produced five Fifth Rank Knights in this generation!

The other reason was Long Haochen. Though Long Haochen had concealed the truth for Sheng Lingxin, his performance on the battlefield had been seen by every knight of the Radiant Angels Knight Order and every assassin of the Dark Night Assassins. Now, the commander of the Radiant Angels Knight Order had spent an entire day pestering the general temporarily replacing Sheng Lingxin as Military Chief, demanding that Long Haochen—or preferably Long Haochen's entire team—be transferred to the Radiant Angels Knight Order.

If not for Haoyue's several Eyes of Truth last night, perhaps not even half of the Radiant Angels Knight Order would have returned. In the military, what mattered most was not individual strength, but how much one person could help their unit on the battlefield. No matter how strong you were or how many enemies you killed, if all your companions died in the end, you still were not an outstanding soldier.

After Sheng Lingxin erupted last night, using the Rejuvenation Spiritual Stove with the resolve to die and slaughtering large numbers of powerful enemies, Long Haochen had been the one to turn around and flee with him. He had forcibly snatched Sheng Lingxin's life back from before the Three Great Demon Gods.

Everything had happened too quickly at the time, and after they returned, the presence of Saint Moon had kept the commanders from saying much. But once they had time to think it over, Long Haochen could be said to have rendered two great services.

Long Haochen was the champion of this generation's newly promoted Demon Hunt Squad individual competition, naturally making him the representative figure of this year's newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads. His outstanding performance had also earned all Demon Hunt Squad members the genuine attention of Demon Expelling Pass's military.

Keeping these elites in the Infantry Battalion would be a complete waste of talent. That was why the arrangements had changed: they were to be assigned new missions.

As the captain of Soldier Grade One Demon Hunt Squad, when Long Haochen arrived with his team, everyone's gazes naturally fell upon him.

Yang Wenzhao's gaze immediately landed on Chen Yinger, but Chen Yinger had her arm wrapped around Wang Yuanyuan's and did not even spare him a glance.

"Brother Yang, hello." Long Haochen took the initiative to greet Yang Wenzhao. Although they were fierce competitors, they were also both outstanding figures among the Knight Temple's younger generation. Their competition was a healthy one.

Yang Wenzhao smiled faintly. "Brother Long, how were your gains yesterday?"

He was naturally asking about Merit Points. Long Haochen smiled. "Not bad."

As he spoke, he greeted the other newly promoted Demon Hunt Squad captains in turn. Among the ten newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads, only Squads Two, Three, and Four truly had the qualifications to compete with them for first place in the team competition. The remaining six Demon Hunt Squads were also outstanding, but there was still a considerable gap between them and the top four.

The tall Duan Yi was the most steady-going of them all. After greeting Long Haochen, he said nothing more. The captain of Soldier Grade Demon Hunt Squad Number Four was that Fifth Rank priest. Though he was not familiar with Long Haochen, Li Xin was! She had already come over and begun chatting with Long Haochen about yesterday's battle.

Clearly, Long Haochen's team had not been the only ones to perform well in yesterday's city defense battle. Newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads Two, Three, and Four had likewise displayed astonishing strength. Their overall killing power even showed signs of surpassing Long Haochen's group. After all, the mage and summoner on Long Haochen's side did not fulfill their original roles, so their overall destructive power was not necessarily the strongest among all the newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads.

Just then, several Demon Expelling Pass officers approached together with the ten leaders. The Demon Hunt Squad members immediately quieted down and returned to their respective teams.

The leading officer was someone Long Haochen had seen yesterday, though he did not know the man's name. Gao Yingjie walked alongside him as they came before the ten Demon Hunt Squads.

"Greetings, everyone. I am Gu Jin, a staff general under the Holy Commander.

"First, on behalf of the Demon Expelling Pass military headquarters, I offer my heartfelt thanks for your outstanding performance in yesterday's city defense battle. The soldiers of Demon Expelling Pass will forever remember everything you have done for us."

Listening to General Gu Jin, excitement could not help appearing in the eyes of the young Demon Hunt Squad members. For young elites under twenty-five like them, gaining recognition from the military was extremely important. It concerned their evaluation in this trial, as well as the Merit Point rewards each team would ultimately receive.

Merit Points were truly too important to Demon Hunt Squads. With enough Merit Points, they could learn stronger Secret Skills and exchange them for superior equipment. Naturally, they could then accept more difficult missions with greater Merit Point rewards and continuously improve themselves. There were some gaps between the Demon Hunt Squads now, but who could say what things would be like a few years later? Throughout history, many famous and powerful Demon Hunt Squads had been obscure when first established.

Gu Jin said, "In view of your formidable strength and outstanding performance, Demon Expelling Pass military headquarters has decided to assign you several military missions starting now."

As he spoke, a soldier behind him raised a military map...

As evening drew near, the demon offensive was far weaker than yesterday's. Basically, no powerful demon units participated in the siege; only cannon fodder charged forward. Though they could still inflict some losses on Demon Expelling Pass, they were far from capable of shaking its foundations.

Under the cover of the pitch-black night, the gates of Demon Expelling Pass quietly opened a crack. One shadow after another then crouched low and slipped lightly through the gap, moving along the base of the city walls and silently departing under cover of darkness. There were fewer than a hundred people in all. When the gates quietly closed again, it was as though nothing had happened.

They were naturally the ten newly promoted Demon Hunt Squads that had received a mission from the Demon Expelling Pass military. Long Haochen, captain of Soldier Grade One Demon Hunt Squad, served as the temporary captain of this unit formed by young elites of the Six Great Temples, while Yang Wenzhao and Duan Yi served as vice-captains, responsible for commanding everyone.

Their mission was not complicated: attack the demon supply lines. According to reports from the scouts, a demon grain transport convoy would deliver supplies to the Demon Camp at dawn tomorrow. Their task was to disrupt this demon resupply operation and destroy the materials on the spot.

Outside Demon Expelling Pass, the terrain consisted mainly of plains and hills. Hiding a small team of only sixty-one people would not be difficult. It was precisely because the terrain was so open that the demon army could not completely seal off the area before Demon Expelling Pass. Thus, while the mission appeared dangerous, it was not particularly difficult. After all, Demon Expelling Pass rarely sent troops out to attack demon grain convoys. This time, they would be catching the enemy by surprise.

Using the cover of night, the sixty-one people silently advanced along one side of Demon Expelling Pass. They continued until they reached the foot of the Demon Subduing Mountain Range, then circled out from the northern side, moving quietly while watching the Demon Camp from afar.

Everyone had changed into black night clothes and traveled light. Even the mages were not slow with the aid of Levitation Spells. The summoners and priests also received Levitation Spell assistance from the mages, minimizing their expenditure as much as possible.

In just over half an hour, they bypassed the twenty-li continuous encampments of the main demon army. After circling another ten li away, and after the priests' Eyes of Truth and the mages' Eyes of Exploration repeatedly confirmed that there were no demon scouts nearby, the knights summoned their mounts, while the summoners each summoned magical beasts. The sixty-one-person team then accelerated at full speed toward the far rear of the Demon Camp.

Long Haochen and his Soldier Grade One Demon Hunt Squad companions were at the very front. Long Haochen, Cai'er, Chen Yinger, and Lin Xin were all riding Haoyue's back. There was no helping it—Chen Yinger, as a summoner, was unreliable and could not summon a suitable mount. Still, Haoyue was over four meters long, so the four of them did not feel crowded at all.