Commanding Wind and Cloud
chapter-352

Chapter 352: My Pride

Qian Wushan quickened his steps walking toward the yard and then turned back to have a look at the closing door. Qian Jin? Hum, what a dumbass he was for being utilized as a spy by the Pam Family. Had he died now?

“Father…I am alive.” Staggering, Qian Jin forced a smile in front of Qian Cheng. As the convulsing of his muscles caused his wounds to ache, heaving biting pains flooded in. He was forced to take a cold chill into his chest.

“Are you happy?” Qian Cheng raised his trembling hands to hold Qian Jin’s face. “My son, you are my unparalleled pride.”

“En.” Qian Jin replied lightly, slowly bent over and then knelt down before Qian Cheng.

In the face of the imperious Qian Zhanxuan, he struggled to stand straight, regardless of the severe pain he was enduring. Even if he was dying, he was determined to finish this life courageously. However, at this moment, standing in front of his father…

Tears mixed with blood and sweat dripped down Qian Jin’s cheeks. Looking back over every single twist and turn over the past days, he felt increasingly sorry for his father who had been suffering in silence.

“Why are you weeping? Do you feel sorry for me?” Qian Cheng felt Qian Jin’s bloodstained hair with his bark-like skinny hands. “As your father, it’s my regret that I haven’t provided you with a good life like Wutian has been enjoying. How could I prevent you from chasing after your ideal life?”

A glowing light danced in Lucifer Lucy’s pretty eye. On their first encounter, she behaved nice and docile to him just because he was Qian Jin’s father, while in fact, she didn’t really look up to this weak old man. However, at this moment, she felt that he was full of intangible power. The short simple words of his were even more powerful than the grand speech of the Demon King.

“My son, I am not good at expressing myself.” Qian Cheng propped up Qian Jin from the ground and said in a low voice, “You just keep in mind that so long as you have made up your mind, you shouldn’t give up on any occasion. If you feel regretful, you will make everyone who has believed in you feel wronged, including yourself.”

“How about moving to another place for chatting?” Pam Honzi swung his head to glance at their surroundings, “Qian Jin is severely injured. We’d better find a place to treat him.”

Qian Cheng wore an awkward face. He supported Qian Jin unconditionally, but as for leaving the Qian Family? Qian Zhanxuan had said openly that he would be allowed to leave on no occasions. If he did so, the autocratic leader might kill Qian Jin, by which time even the Snake Emperor wouldn’t be of shelter to his son.

“Brother Zhanxuan.”Pam Honzi suddenly accumulated some warrior power to utter a roar, of which the sound waves were scudding in the clouds, “Can you lend us your Qian Cheng for one day?”

Qian Zhanxuan’s majestic and heavy voice came through the grand courtyards of the Qian Family, “Okay.”

Pam Honzi turned to Qian Jin smilingly and said, “Do you know why he agreed to lend your father to me?”

Qian Jin looked at Pam Honzi silently for few seconds. “Power? Influence?”

“Influence.” Pam Honzi laughed out happily as he watched Qian Cheng prop up Qian Jin while slowly stepping onto the carriage Duren Burg hired. “Power is undoubtedly important, while one’s influences are of equal significance, if not heavier than that. Power it alone is not enough. If you have accrued enough influences, you will have the opportunity of getting in touch with the royal family.”

The royal family? Lying on the soft mat, Qian Jin couldn’t help but shiver. Though not belonging to a branch of the bloodline warriors, the royal family of Zence Empire possessed an acute brain, as well as the so-called leader’s demeanor hailed by the traveling poets. It was thanks to their intermediation that the three ultimate bloodline awakening families could live in peace.

Any citizen with a bit knowledge of the history felt deeply grateful toward the Zence Empire before whose appearance, the human bloodline warrior families were constantly in heavy tension where killings occurred often.

But with the appearance of the Zence Empire the major bloodline warrior families started to treat each other with peace and solidarity, and the entire country began fighting against the foreign invaders concertedly.

“Yeah, the royal family.” Pam Honzi adjusted his posture, trying to find a better place to seat himself on the soft mat. “If you have enough power and influence, you can make contact with the royal family and further ask the emperor to make an imperial edict to set your father free.”

“The royal family…the imperial edict…” Qian Jin iterated in a low voice, “the Qian Family…influence…”

“Although seldom does the royal family get involved in the domestic affairs of the major bloodline warrior families, a…ah I mean…Qian Cheng…”Pam Honzi laughed and shrugged his shoulder, “it wouldn’t be that difficult of a matter.”

Qian Jin forced a smile on his face, knowing that this Snake Emperor was trying to refer to his father as a little groom. It was quite uneasy for Pam Honzi, the leader of one of the top ten bloodline warrior families to care for him like this. Such help was substantial for Qian Jin, though the motive was difficult to tell.

“As for the influence” Pam Honzi opened the window of the carriage to view the street. “It isn’t merely about your individual combat abilities. It involves a huge team, which might take on the look of families. For years the major family influences have been established, making it hard to take a position among them by individual efforts, unless…”

“Join the army?” Qian Jin asked in a low voice.

Pam Honzi wore a big smile on his face. The greatest advantage of talking to the smart people was being saved the trouble of having to explain everything. “Bingo. The establishing of military exploits can help. By joining the army, taking up a significant post in the troops, and building your own army, you can set up your own family, like the…”

A faint smile appeared on Fanta Kung’s face, as what Pam Honzi had pointed out was the secret of the rise of the Fanta Family. Though there were millions of people who tried to duplicate their success, few of them had ever made it.

Join the army? It was not only about individual efforts. You were required to have a good understanding of the deployment of troops, the strategies and the stratagems. You were required to turn the cruelty war into a kind and delicate arts and have the people around you take deep pride in you.

“Perhaps your wounds will slow down the improvement of your warrior power.” Pam Honzi uttered a light sigh. Qian Jin was gravely injured this time and even if he recovered, there might be some hidden internal injuries, making it difficult for him to reach Fabreidis’s level, “But it doesn’t matter because war is never an individual fight. The illustrious generals aren’t brutal butchers who only focus on their own cutting panels. Now you shall go to an advanced warrior academy to learn something about the military arts.”

Qian Jin nodded slightly. He went to the Punitive Expedition Academy for the sake of the assorted fighting techniques, the rich resources distributed to the warrior students there, as well as the chances to learn military arts. If he performed excellently in his studies, he might win the recommendation from the school.

The academism was admittedly not the strongest power in the Zence Empire, but with the relation network built among the warrior students and the instructor over the years, every student enrolled in the academies had been largely entwined by complicated networks. If he could get the recommendation from the school to join the army architecture formed by the senior students, the odds of obtaining resources and support would be unimaginably large.

“Besides…”Pam Honzi put on a typical family-leader smile, “You can get in touch with more talents of the times. You might not be able to take them in…but it works to know about them.”

Qian Jin smiled faintly. Nearly all aspiring warrior and mage apprentices in an academy insisted on carrying out their individual plans, while the remaining students would choose to become the retinue of bloodline warrior students. Such had been the reality in the Zence Empire for years.

Join the army? Qian Jin raised his head slowly and wore a bitter smile on his face. Compared with setting foot in the political circles, joining the army would fit him better. To engage in the political circles entailed the accumulation of seniority as well as support from the family. While the army would prove a comparatively fair place during wartime.

Qian Cheng stared at Qian Jin, knowing that his infantile son had become increasingly mature as time went by. And now it might be time to tell him the truth about Luna.

“Jin, do you still remember Luna?”

A shining light flashed out of Qian Jin’s eyes, as the image of the girl he met in the Ancient Desert Sea became clear in his mind. He felt a little anxious, and nodded slightly, “How could I forget my Luna? Is everything well with her?”

“She…” A melancholic look showed on Qian Cheng’s face as he uttered a sigh, “she…left…”

Left? Qian Jin felt another cold chill, as the image of the girl looming in the Ancient Desert Sea turned clearer in his mind. A bad feeling seized his heart.

“You should remember that the Hai Family acknowledged your connections with Luna in that you might awaken the Elf-king bloodline power in the future,” Qian Cheng said lightly, “but with your failure in the awakening…”

Qian Jin nodded his head silently. It was the first time for him to know the truth of life, which was, those who embraced you with a smile in the past might cut off all ties with you all of a sudden, putting on a diametrically strangely ruthless face to you.

And all that was because of his failure in the Elf-king Bloodline Warrior Awakening Ceremony. He was dropped from the stars to the earth all in a blink.

“Luna is a pretty and lovely girl.” Qian Cheng rubbed his bark-like hands, to relieve his nervousness and uneasiness, “and do you remember that you are not the only one who likes Luna? One of your rivals is called Qian Wushan…”

Qian Wushan. Qian Jin couldn’t help the trembling of his body on hearing the name of Qian Wushan, the Elf-king Bloodline Warrior of the same age as him. Though he hadn’t ever fought with Qian Wushan, he could estimate his strength from the paradigm of Qian Wutian.

Qian Wutian, who shared equivalent talent as Qian Wushan, had already condensed the Warrior-Heart. So how strong had Qian Wushan, who was two years older than Qian Wutian, become?

Though not having ever fought with Qian Wushan, Qian Jin could say by instinct that the contemptuousness of Qian Wushan wasn’t fake, but backed up by his power.

The biggest advantage of the bloodline warriors was that they were capable of lifting their strength by leaps and bounds each time he or she reached a new level of awakening, which could easily be seen from Duren Burg and Cech Flet.

As the top genius among the current generation of the Elf-king Bloodline Warriors, with the strong help in resources from the Qian Family, how strong had Qian Wushan become at this moment?