When Lan Tian set out from Lan Tian City, dawn had barely broken.
He brought no attendants. He entered the Teleportation Array through a passage beneath the City Lord's Mansion and returned to the Icefire Basin. From there, he activated the Blue Silver God Armor and flew north at full speed.
The land spread out beneath him in the morning light. Green medicine fields gave way to rolling hills, then gray-brown wasteland. The ground rose steadily northward, and the air grew noticeably colder.
After about four hours of flight, a vast military camp appeared on the horizon. Gray-white tents stretched across both sides of a valley entrance, ringed by wooden fences and barricades. Banners snapped in the wind. He could make out soldiers on patrol and figures drilling on the training ground.
He landed outside the camp and walked to the gate, where he showed the guards his imperial letter of appointment.
After checking it, a guard sent someone to escort him to the command tent.
Inside sat a burly middle-aged general with a stern face and an old scar running from his left brow to his jaw. He wore a faded dark uniform, with a broad-bladed saber at his waist.
He was reading a Military Report at his desk. Hearing footsteps, he looked up and sized Lan Tian up, then set down the report and leaned back in his chair.
"So you're the new head of the Northern Border Medical Camp appointed by His Majesty?" the general asked in a rough, steady voice. "I'm Qin Lie, commander of the northern garrison. I hear you're a Healing-type Soul Ancestor with a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, and that you only recently broke through to Soul King. I've got tens of thousands of men on this front. We get dozens of