Training Had Finally Taken Shape

"They still had a long way to go."

Qi Fei sighed.

"Zihong, why did you say that?"

Liu Bei looked puzzled by Qi Fei's words.

The more people there were, the easier it was to form Cloud Qi. The fewer there were, the more stringent the requirements became.

With nearly ten thousand people, even if they were all untrained commoners, they could still form a thin, scattered layer of Cloud Qi.

But if their numbers fell to two hundred, they would at least have to be veterans who had fought in one or two battles to form the kind of Cloud Qi Qi Fei had.

Now, Qi Fei had made two hundred ordinary people produce Cloud Qi in less than a day.

In Liu Bei's eyes, this was an astonishing display of ability.

After all, having Cloud Qi meant they wouldn't be slaughtered one-sidedly by the enemy. In other words, they could take the field.

"They're only a showpiece for now. They're nowhere near ready for battle."

Qi Fei replied casually.

Turning ordinary people into soldiers who could take the field in just one day, without combat and through training alone—

Even Han Xin couldn't have done it, let alone Qi Fei, who was inferior even to Huangfu Song.

The little organization these two hundred men had managed to develop would fall apart as soon as veterans charged them. The Cloud Qi above their heads, which looked quite substantial, would disappear along with it.

"Zihong, you're setting the bar too high."

Liu Bei tried to reassure him.

In the past, all the training Liu Bei had seen involved using veterans to lead newcomers, with the old soldiers guiding the recruits.

Even then, it took a month or two before they showed any real improvement.

But Qi Fei had turned laborers with no trace of training into an army in less than half a day.

Expecting them to be ready for battle on top of that was unreasonable.

"I'm not setting the bar too high. I'm just giving an objective assessment."

Qi Fei spoke as he drilled the soldiers.

Seeing this, Liu Bei was about to offer a few words of comfort, but Chen Xi pulled him away.

"Lord Xuande, let the professionals handle professional matters. Let's not get in Zihong's way."

Chen Xi pulled the others away as well.

The man was busy with serious work, and here you all were, spectators with nothing to do, chatting him up.

How was that any different from asking a primary school student to play a game while he was doing his homework?

After they left, Qi Fei continued studying military training while quietly cultivating his mental strength.

Liu Bei had worried that marching would interfere with Qi Fei's training, and had originally planned to stay in Yingchuan for a while longer.

But Qi Fei stopped him.

He wasn't someone who couldn't distinguish between what mattered most and what didn't.

Compared with developing all of Mount Tai, a mere two hundred new recruits were insignificant.

So, on the fourth day after Qi Fei joined them, Chen Xi and the others made a trip to Xu Family Village and brought Xu Chu into the group.

To be honest, watching Xu Chu and Zhang Fei collide in a clash of pure muscle made Qi Fei incredibly envious.

If he had their physical prowess, Coiling Dragon Qi Fei might be able to advance straight to a Level 9 Warrior.

Unfortunately, no matter how much he envied their physiques, he couldn't make them his own.

Qi Fei could only sigh and focus on cultivating his mental strength.

Liu Bei then reorganized the army and led everyone toward Mount Tai.

During the march, Qi Fei made a point of keeping the two hundred men together so he could continue strengthening their discipline.

On the fifth day of the march,

Qi Fei figured they were about ready, so he picked twenty Danyang Soldiers from Liu Bei's forces and added them to the group.

After two days of adjusting to one another, the two hundred men showed a completely different bearing from before.

"They can take on ordinary soldiers now."

Qi Fei said to Liu Bei.

They still couldn't beat Regular Soldiers with Talents, of course, but they could at least hold their own against ordinary conscripts.

"To have Zihong's help is truly the greatest fortune of my life."

Liu Bei spoke with great excitement.

Though he hadn't talked much with Qi Fei over the past few days, he had been watching him quietly from a distance.

The visible speed of their improvement had truly amazed him.

"I don't deserve that praise. I only know a little about training soldiers."

Qi Fei wasn't being modest.

After seeing the legions that appeared later in the novel, he genuinely didn't think there was anything to be proud of in his band of conscripts, none of whom had Talents.

"Alas... it's my own incompetence."

Liu Bei said guiltily.

Seeing how strict Qi Fei was with himself reminded him of Chen Xi, who had also been working tirelessly of late.

If Liu Bei hadn't been so lacking in connections and resources, why would two talented men have to work so hard?

"Lord Xuande, if you call yourself incompetent, aren't you saying that I, Zichuan, Second Master, Third Master, and the others are all incapable of recognizing talent?"

Qi Fei countered.

Liu Bei had one crucial problem: his humble origins had left him feeling inferior.

That was especially true now, just after the Campaign Against Dong had ended.

Look at the Eighteen Route Feudal Lords: almost all of them were provincial governors or commandery administrators.

Even Cao Cao, who had issued the call to arms, had at least been a colonel in the Central Army.

Compared to them, Liu Bei was so lowly that calling himself a nobody was an understatement. It was no wonder he felt inferior.

But this had to be corrected, no matter what.

If the ruler himself felt inferior, how could he unite his ministers?

"I didn't mean that."

Liu Bei hurriedly replied.

"Then please hold your head high."

Qi Fei said earnestly.

"Not just for your own sake, but also for all of us who believe in you."

After hearing Qi Fei's words, Liu Bei fell silent.

"That's true."

It was a long while before Qi Fei heard Liu Bei speak.

"Thank you for the reminder, Zihong."

Liu Bei bowed deeply to Qi Fei.

"It's only what I should do."

Qi Fei hurriedly helped Liu Bei back to his feet.

Honestly, this was the one thing he disliked about the times. People were always bowing to him out of nowhere.

But there was nothing to be done. The customs of the day valued rulers who treated worthy men with respect, and everyone had made a habit of it.

After showing Liu Bei what his recruits could do, Qi Fei went back to training them.

After Liu Bei had finished drinking in Qi Fei's pep talk, he was fired up and resolved to do something to help the two men who were working so hard for him.

But after trying all sorts of things, Liu Bei realized there was nothing he could do.

All he could do was follow Qi Fei's example and quietly organize his troops.

Once Liu Bei began doing that, Second Master also started studying his Legion Talent and his soldiers.

After all, there was nothing else he could do on the march besides study the Spring and Autumn Annals.

With both his elder and second brother studying the soldiers, Zhang Fei could only follow suit.

Now that Zhang Fei was working hard, Zhao Yun, being the good lad he was, had naturally started learning early on.

Some of his men had once served under Gongsun Zan's White Horse. They were the fastest in the world, making them ideal scouts.

So, after every meal, they would shoot out dozens of miles at lightning speed to walk it off.

Once they were hungry again, they would race back to camp at lightning speed for another meal.

The sight of such astonishingly fast cavalry made Second Master and Third Master's eyes glow, and they became all the more serious about training their own cavalry.

Unfortunately, no matter what they tried, they couldn't match the White Horse's speed.

All they could do was ply Zhao Yun with wine whenever they had a chance, hoping to glean a little of his experience.

Hua Xiong's reaction was, "Well, well. You're showing off your cavalry in front of our Iron Cavalry? Don't you know we're the toughest fighters around?"

Then he promptly joined in the training.

Of course, the Iron Cavalry was a peculiar kind of cavalry that treated its warhorses as equipment. Its speed was even lower than that of ordinary cavalry, so the White Horse naturally ran circles around them.

After being tricked and outmaneuvered by the White Horse several times, Hua Xiong eventually gave up on trying to compete with them.

Following Qi Fei's advice, he changed direction and focused on building muscle.

Even the newly recruited Xu Chu was put in charge of training soldiers by Qi Fei.

Twenty Huangfu Personal Guards and more than thirty newly selected muscular men were assigned to Xu Chu.

Qi Fei didn't expect Xu Chu to achieve anything in such a short time. He only wanted him to get used to the soldiers who would serve under him in the future.

And so, amid an atmosphere that could only be called bizarre, the group arrived at Mount Tai.

"Perfect. I've made it, too."

Qi Fei said, looking at the recruits before him, who had changed beyond recognition.

At this point, the two hundred and twenty men under his command had finally manifested their first Mental Talent.

The Talent increased their speed and could be used for movement or attacks.

Qi Fei tentatively named it Swiftness.

"Impressive, impressive!"

Chen Xi clapped from the sidelines.

In Liu Bei's assessment, these soldiers were already close to ordinary veterans in ability.

Qi Fei had trained them up in less than a month. His ability certainly hadn't been exaggerated.

"Not bad."

Qi Fei was satisfied with his results, but not so much that he felt proud.

Back when Huangfu Song fought battles, he had used Danyang Soldiers to lead laborers through half a month of intensive training, and that had been enough.

He had even gotten those men to understand military orders and change formations at his command.

Qi Fei, on the other hand, had trained them in the rigid style of university student military drills, using spirit to foster team spirit along the way.

In those circumstances, taking nearly a month to produce an Elite Talent was hardly anything to be proud of.

"Zihong is always so modest."

Liu Bei gazed at Qi Fei with the expression of someone watching a master at work in an internet café.

The others looked at him the same way.

After all, as far as these people, who hadn't seen much of the world, knew, a single Talent required at least several months of training and a few small-scale battles to develop.

Someone like Qi Fei was practically out of this world.

"It's nothing much. Lord Xuande, remember to teach them Command Flags and formations later. Otherwise, they won't be able to coordinate with other armies."

Qi Fei handed the soldiers back to Liu Bei and reminded him.

The men he had trained had acquired the strength, but in other respects they were so rigid that they seemed more like zombies than soldiers.

They still needed more drilling.

Of course, there was another reason he handed them over to Liu Bei.

Chen Xi had already taught Liu Bei the legendary Divine Skill of Face Recognition.

He was currently studying the skill.

Qi Fei had also handed the soldiers over to Liu Bei so he could work on that.

"Good. Leave it to me."

Liu Bei accepted Qi Fei's kindness and readily took on the responsibility.

He also hoped to do some of Qi Fei's work for him, so that Qi Fei could have a little more free time.

Unfortunately, Qi Fei didn't realize that at all.

He was still caught up in the excitement of having his theory validated, eager to keep testing the framework he had developed.

"Second Master, bring your soldiers over. I'll use this time to adjust your Talent."

Qi Fei said to Guan Yu.

"You can adjust a Talent?"

Chen Xi asked what everyone else was thinking.

"If it's within the range of basic Talents and there's only one, making adjustments isn't a problem."

Qi Fei replied.

Having already witnessed a Talent take shape with his own eyes, he could make basic adjustments among a few common Talents without much trouble.

For example, Strength Enhancement, Physical Defense, or Willpower Buff.

The others looked at Qi Fei as though he were a Great Immortal.

"This is basic. Once you've learned the ropes, you'll be able to do it, too."

Qi Fei found their stares a little unsettling.

"I've read what you wrote before, too, but I don't think I could learn to do that."

Chen Xi continued speaking on everyone's behalf.

Qi Fei hadn't tried to hide anything over the past few days. Whenever someone asked him, he answered directly.

He'd even shown them the military treatise he'd written.

The problem was, most people looked utterly bewildered after reading it.

"That thing's no use as it is. It's full of mistakes and omissions. I'll show it to you again after I've revised it."

Qi Fei waved a hand.

Now that he'd had some practical experience, he looked back and realized his original work was riddled with flaws.

If someone who truly understood military affairs read it, they'd probably laugh it off as a joke.

"Then I'll look forward to reading your masterpiece."

Chen Xi looked expectant.

What boy hadn't dreamed of becoming a great general?

Though he'd made a complete mess of reading the military treatises written by these ancients, perhaps the one written by this fellow townsman would be different.

"...All right."

Qi Fei suddenly felt a wave of pressure.

As far as he knew, Chen Xi had invested so much in his talent for governance that he'd barely developed his abilities as a commander.

If he wanted to write a military treatise that even Chen Xi could understand...

"Yunchang, let's talk about your legion instead."

Qi Fei promptly changed the subject.

"Have you given any thought to what you want for your legion?"

"None. I would be grateful for your guidance, Zihong."

Guan Yu answered earnestly.

"Hmm... In my view, General, you've made great strides along the Divine Path. How about focusing on talents of the willpower type?"

Qi Fei asked.

Guan Yu himself wasn't particularly talented in Essence or Qi, but his strength in the realm of the spirit was astonishing.

That was probably because he enjoyed studying the Spring and Autumn Annals, which exercised his mind, and because he had such exceptionally firm willpower.

In the original story, Guan Yu had also relied on the spirit to reach a realm beyond Internal Qi Separation.

His personal Blade-Schooling Guards also possessed an Idealistic Talent that extended from the domain of willpower.

That was why Qi Fei had always thought Guan Yu would be a good fit for the Fifth Generation Garrison Cavalry.

The Fifth Generation Garrison Cavalry Battalion, like the Huangfu Personal Guards, was another masterpiece Huangfu Song had created when he was short on money.

Its three talents were Willpower Enhancement, Willpower Limit Break, and Willpower Transcendence—the last of which had never fully appeared.

With no physical-type talent to shore them up and no money to buy armor, the two-talent Fifth Generation Garrison Cavalry possessed the strength of both gods and demons.

A commander lacking courage might even be killed by a one-talent force while leading them.

But with a very select few commanders, they could fight the Imperial Guard at the two-talent level and might even kill a three-talent force.

In Qi Fei's eyes, Guan Yu was one of those rare few.

His cultivation along the Divine Path was enough to support this legion and let it unleash strength beyond that of an ordinary legion.

That would also help Guan Yu avoid some of the detours he'd taken in the original story.

In the original story, Guan Yu had put the Blade-Schooling Guards through who knew how much before they finally managed to reach the three-talent level.

With the purely willpower-based Fifth Generation Garrison Cavalry, the process would probably be much simpler.