When Yi Yang walked back to the Pacification Guard camp with the jade box and his newly acquired cultivation art tucked away, he smelled wine and meat from two streets away.
More than a dozen makeshift tables had been set up on the camp's drill ground, laden with wine jars and braised meat. Over thirty Pacification Guards whose injuries were not too serious had gathered there, each holding a bowl, their faces alight with the exhilaration of having survived disaster.
Seeing Yi Yang come in, Xu Min set down his wine bowl and hurried over, calling out:
"My lord! The brothers bought this wine and meat themselves. We wanted to celebrate the battle at Clearwind Ridge together."
He rubbed his hands as he spoke, sounding somewhat tentative-after all, they had arranged such a large gathering without asking permission. What if the Commander thought they were ignoring the rules?
Yi Yang swept his gaze across the drill ground.
Several wounded Pacification Guards had also been helped outside. They leaned against benches with wine bowls in hand, their bandages not yet fully removed. In one corner, wine bowls sat on several empty benches, each filled to the brim, with a stick of incense planted before it.
Those were for their fallen brothers.
Yi Yang wasted no words. He walked over and stood before the empty benches for a moment, then picked up one of the bowls and tipped his head back to drain it.
Once he drank that bowl, the atmosphere on the drill ground relaxed.
"Our lord is drinking too!"
"Fill the Commander's bowl!"
Several of the bolder Pacification Guards shouted. Yi Yang was pulled over to the main table and seated, with three bowls of wine and two plates of braised meat piled before him.
After three rounds of drinks,