"They really said that?" Le Feishan asked Wang Hao. Wang Hao had video called the General as soon as night fell. Le Feishan thought there would be some good news. He never imagined that Le Yao could see the undead and would actually eat with them!
"Absolutely." Wang Hao asked, "Do you think we should stay here?"
"Of course." Le Feishan frowned, "Go see what tricks they are going to pull. Once you find any abnormalities, tell Xu Yao that you want to bring Le Yao back to Xingdu for an examination because he is in a bad physical and mental state. If Xu Yao disagrees, let him contact me."
"What if what they are saying is true?"
"What nonsense! What do they want to eat when most of the party members are dead?" He added, "Most likely, Xu Yao is trying to set us up. You, keep your mind clear!" Le Feishan was speechless after Wang Hao's report. He had heard his superior say that Le Yao had special abilities, like some kind of power that could master the darkness. He had thought that Le Yao may have inadvertently known the secret of the heart of the sparrow since he was staying on Planet Huaxia. How could he have even thought it was something like this? You can't see the undead, you only see nonsense!
"Alright, General." Wang Hao cut off the communication and frowned.
When he came on this trip, Le Feishan hadn't told him why he had wanted to take Le Yao away, but he knew that it was definitely not because he missed his son. He knew his boss too well. He was a man who emphasized benefits. It couldn't be said that this person did not care about his child at all, but in the face of great profit, the child could sometimes be sacrificed.
What made him curious was whether Le Yao's 'special ability' had anything to do with Le Feishan sending him here.
But what special abilities did Le Yao have? He knew that before, Le Yao had the special ability to spend money and make trouble. Considering that he had been the one cleaning up Le Yao's mess several times in the past few years, he still had a headache.
Le Yao also had a headache. He suddenly remembered that he had forgotten something important.
"What is it?" asked Xu Yao. He had already talked to the cafeteria staff. Tomorrow night, they would have an army dinner party for everyone, the living and the undead. According to the banquet arrangement, they would make another 14,000 small incense sticks.
"It's clothes," Le Yao patted the two sets of military uniforms that he didn't even know when Xu Yao had custom ordered for him. "Although most people can't see the undead brothers, I think they should still wear decent clothes. They have no physical body now, and there are many who have damaged spiritual bodies. Won't they be very uncomfortable facing their former comrades-in-arms without any decent clothes?"
"It's already been done," said Xu Yao.
"Ah? Already been done?" Le Yao slightly whispered, "Did the upper levels agree?" Making uniforms for the undead army, there were at least tens of thousands of sets needed this time, which must've cost a lot of money. But after these clothes were made, they would be burned. Would the higher ups let Xu Yao spend their military expenses on such a thing?
"It was approved by Uncle Guan," Xu Yao smiled dotingly. He liked Le Yao's kindness and meticulousness very much.
"That's great. I'll try to print out all the dormitories tonight so that tomorrow night we can burn them along with their clothes," Le Yao was sitting in Xu Yao's study at the moment.
This morning, he had a meeting with Xu Yao in the Command Center, and he had come back home in the afternoon. Yan Jie and some of his staff had discussed with him the dormitories' design and configuration of the undead army and so on, and they had just left not long ago.
With Leslie's help, the dormitory was designed very fast, and Le Yao was preparing to print it out now.
They needed to print a total of 18 buildings. The buildings were blue and nine stories high, with six units in each building. Each floor held mostly four dormitories, and a few had two. The dormitory was divided into single rooms, double rooms and quadruple rooms. The single and double rooms were for the officers, and the quadruple rooms were for ordinary soldiers.
Since the dead didn't need to wash or go to the toilet, there were no toilets in any of the dormitories. In all other aspects, it was exactly the same as the actual dormitories. There were beds, wardrobes, desks, bookshelves, pillows and quilts.
Listening to the printer work, Le Yao pondered that since he would finish the infrastructure construction later, he also had to find a way to apply for some books for the dead soldiers. He suddenly asked Xu Yao, "Husband, can I ask President Liu and Doctor Zhao if they want to learn xuanshu?"
"Of course, you are already relatively familiar with the people in the chat group now. You can directly ask them," said Xu Yao.
Le Yao took quick actions, and since Xu Yao said yes, he asked in the group. He thought that he would get a slow response. He didn't expect them to reply to his message in less than thirty seconds. President Liu and Dr. Zhao strongly demanded to learn! Yan Jie also asked if he could. And the Captain of the Logistics Team, who was obsessed with xuanshu itself, also said that he wanted to try.
In the end, Le Yao counted, and there were only five of them. But it was fine.
Han Mo was not in the group at the beginning, so he was added by Le Yao. When he heard that Le Yao would accept him as a student, he was really happy. People were innately greedy. He had always wanted to see Shen Weilin again after seeing him just once. But since he knew that it was not easy to make the Tianyan talisman, he couldn't ask Le Yao for more. Now, as long as Le Yao was willing to teach him, he would devote all his fighting spirit into learning!
Quite a few people had made up their minds to learn xuanshu. When Le Yao put aside his communication device, the first small paper dormitory had been successfully printed out. Because the design had many fine and intricate details, the printer worked slowly, but tossing that matter aside, the end result was really too cute!
Xu Yao discovered that his little wife was really stingy. In order to save some resources for him, the paper dormitory had been printed very small, and could be held up with one hand. He couldn't see how this small building was cute, in reality, his little wife was the one who was really cute, causing people like him, who had gone through the killing field, to become particularly soft-hearted.
This new soft-hearted husband fortunately didn't toss around with Le Yao for the night, so Le Yao could calmly think of what he wanted to teach in his first lesson. He thought about the study materials until his eyelids felt heavy, so he closed his eyes and slept until morning.
When he woke up, the first thing he did was to run to see the printed dormitory buildings, and then write the size on them. After he finished writing the size on all of them, he took a quick bath and changed into a clean military uniform. A sense of going on a mission had sprung up!
Yan Jie was quick at handling affairs. At night, after they had agreed, he had found a suitable place to turn into a classroom and had tidied it up. The classroom was about 30 meters away from Xu Yao's office on the same floor. It was about sixty square meters. Originally, it had been used as a storeroom. Yan Jie let people clean up this storeroom and put tables and chairs, as well as a smart whiteboard in it.
After breakfast, Le Yao stood in the front of the classroom, having arrived on time. He saw five upright students, all older than himself, and felt a little nervous. However, he had always studied xuanshu well and was quite confident in his knowledge. Of course, confidence alone was not enough.
"Everyone is an acquaintance. So, I'll tell you the truth." Standing in front of the smart whiteboard, Le Yao said, "Xuanshu itself is knowledge that is very mysterious. Some people can quickly understand its profound meaning, and some people may learn it for a lifetime without having any revelations. So, I hope that before you understand xuanshu, you can ask yourself the question: 'Why do I want to learn xuanshu?' Don't rush to answer me. Let's not be too stiff, just think about it as if you're chatting with friends. Let's try to lighten up the atmosphere, don't be nervous."
"I want to learn xuanshu in order to provide more comprehensive medical treatment and assistance to patients," said President Liu.
"I'm just like the President." Dr. Zhao said, "I was one of the closest people to see Lieutenant General Tang get better, with rapid improvement, from an abnormal illness, so I'm really curious about this xuanshu, and I hope to learn it well and use it in the right place."
"I'm the Logistics Team's Captain. If I learned xuanshu, I'll be able to maintain good contact with the undead brothers in the future." He added, "I don't really understand it. I just feel this way for the time being."
"One is never too old to learn something new," replied Yan Jie.
"I…" Han Mo began hesitantly, "I want to meet someone."
"Okay, I understand everyone's thoughts." Le Yao added, "In fact, what I want to say is that you must not have evil thoughts, a negative attitude and delusions when learning xuanshu. We should learn to conform to nature and revere life. Of course, it doesn't mean that we can't fight back when we are beaten, but you must have kindness in your heart. We have entered a period of peace which is without war. I think it should not be difficult to do that."
"Can we eat meat?" Yan Jie asked, "I have read a few ancient books which stated that some people in former Huaxia believed in various religions at that time, that is to say, some which required its believers to be in awe of life, and then not to kill or eat meat. Also to quit drinking, smoking or something."
"It can be eaten," Le Yao continued, "But it is better not to eat. It's… one's own choice, not being too particular about eating and drinking. You have to only pay attention on special occasions to not kill and… well… during one special occasion, you can't have sexual intercourse." It's so embarrassing to talk about this!
"What is this special occasion?" asked President Liu.
"It is when we want to carry out spirit transcendence, or some other rituals, such as summoning souls and offering sacrifices to the Heavens."
"How long will it take us to learn how to draw the Tianyan talisman?" asked Yan Jie.
"Well, maybe you can learn it in ten days or half a month, or maybe you won't be able to learn it in a lifetime. Tonight, we will be having a dinner with the whole army, and I will let you see our undead brothers. I still have two Tianyan talismans in my hand, and I will draw three more in the afternoon so you can observe the process. Besides, what I'm going to teach in the next lesson will also be related to this symbol. As it's important, I hope everyone pays attention to it."
"There are three key points to pay attention to in today's lesson. First of all, I will tell you what are the materials needed, what the principle behind the talisman is, and how it is used so as to exert its power. Then I will talk about the eight characters of birth and the method for arranging them, because this is a basic skill in xuanshu."
At first, Yan Jie listened attentively. When he heard the words 'eight character arrangement', he immediately straightened his head and gave his full attention. The others had not come into touch with these things as deeply as he had, but they were quite curious.
As a result, when Le Yao 'drew' the eight-character layout using Leslie's virtual map projection ability, the students present were blinded.
This… is… What is this, ah!
Most of them hadn't learnt ancient Chinese characters and felt dizzy just by looking at it.
Only Han Mo, after watching Le Yao 'paint', took a picture of it, and began to ponder over it.
"Yan Jie has designed a program for intelligently measuring the eight characters of birth for us, but I have drawn this, and I hope everyone can remember it, because any situation can occur. What if we need to use the eight characters but there is no such program available at that time?" asked Le Yao. "So, take a picture first, and learn the pattern when you have time. Let us use the program for the time being, but I will still take a test on this later. Alright, let's continue to talk about the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches… "
All of the study materials were photographed and studied very carefully by the five diligent students.
Le Yao found that his students were much more reliable than he used to be, and he had been more reliable than his Master. When he was learning, his Master had given him a bunch of scriptures and runes, and told him to recite them all from memory alone. He had also said that if he could successfully recite them, he would learn how to invite the Gods. Anyway, everything would be useless if he couldn't recite them at all.
It had been a difficult task…
One day passed by quickly. As Le Yao and Xu Yao walked to the cafeteria at night, they could hear talk about the 'army dinner' all the way. A few soldiers deemed the situation a little unacceptable, and their hearts were disturbed. However, most of them still thought that if their former comrades were still around, it would be better than anything.
Only through experiencing life and death together did they comprehend what brotherhood was. Now, they felt afraid that the army dinner was just a fake ploy. because, it is a Really! Fantastical! Idea!
Le Yao speculated that it might be because these people were atheists from birth and did not believe in the existence of ghosts and gods, so they weren't frightened by the esoteric. They were unlike the humans on Earth 500 years ago, who had heard too many stories about ghosts and gods, so much so that it gave birth to a certain kind of fear from the bottom of their hearts.
But that's good, at least there's not much dissent about the dinner.
Dinner was usually held at a reasonable time, but today, for the sake of the whole army's dinner, it had been postponed quite a bit, mainly for the consideration of the undead army that had not yet arrived.
After Le Yao and Xu Yao arrived at the cafeteria, they checked on the 14,000 cones of incense that had been prepared according to the requirements, and ensured that the dinner had been made according to the standards for a feast. They brought guards and the relocation team with them to the spot they had chosen a while back to burn the dormitories and clothes.
This place was also under the jurisdiction of the Flying Wolf Division. It was about two kilometers to the west of the Command Center and away from the residential area.
"I'll be opening the sight for some of you. If it's your first time, you'll feel a little dizzy or nauseous at first, but it won't last for long, so don't worry," said Le Yao. He gave the Tianyan talismans to the Logistics Team Captain, President Liu, Doctor Zhao, Xu Yao and Han Mo. As for Yan Jie's share, his talisman was used by Xu Yao, so it was gone!
"If only the talisman could be printed…" said Yan Jie.
"The runes can be printed, but the divine power imbued in them cannot, so don't think too much." Le Yao added, "Mr Yan, you're just being delusional."
Yan Jie: "…"
Yan Jie quickly stood aside and closed his mouth, in fear that he would reach a dead-end on the metaphysical path if he said more.
Le Yao started opening the sight for Xu Yao, and then one by one, with clean and quick actions, he helped the rest of them open their sight with the Tianyan talismans, and then shook the small toothless rattle in his hand.
The wind rose high.
Seeing that the sky had turned completely dark, Le Yao drew a circle on the ground. He motioned to Xu Yao to put the small printed Dormitory No. 1 inside the circle.
Le Yao wrote in the circle: Located two kilometers to the west of the Command Center of The Flying Wolf Division; this is offered to the Underworld, to be received by the thousands of undead troops of the Flying Wolf Division.
The new students of the xuanshu class were embarrassed. They always thought that these things Le Yao did were too casual. But once Le Yao finished writing the runes and burned the small building, a building instantly appeared next to the Command Center! Right before their eyes!
This new building was much bigger than the one Le Yao had burned. It was no different from a real building, except that it looked translucent!
At this time, Le Yao put Dormitory No. 2 into another circle, and then wrote inside it: Located fifty meters north of the Dormitory No. 1 of the Dead of the Flying Wolf Division; this is offered to the Underworld, to be received by the thousands of undead troops of the Flying Wolf Division.
After he repeatedly burned 18 such buildings in the same way, the dormitory buildings were all lined up in an orderly fashion, 'built' on the open space west of the Command Center, looking just like an army barracks!
President Liu, Dr. Zhao, Captain Chen and Han Mo: "…"
"President Liu, Captain Chen, how are you feeling?" asked Xu Yao.
President Liu rubbed his face fiercely and said, "General, I may need to calm down."
Captain Chen: "…" I don't even know what to say!
The Logistics Team Captain, Chen Yingwei, should have been the one who suffered the most impacted. He had not experienced anything during the Tang Ye incident, so when he looked at the eighteen dormitory buildings that had appeared in a flash in a very illogical manner, he felt as if he was dreaming.
He gently poked Yan Jie and said, "Mr Yan, pinch me."
Yan Jie smirked and pinched him hard!
"Ah!!!" Captain Chen rubbed his arm and excitedly said, "My God, this is… really… the Madam is truly amazing!"
Le Yao had opened the door to a new world to this group of people. While they were still in awe, he said to Xu Yao, "Put all the clothes here. Burning them with fire from the incense is definitely not a good idea. You will have to use your aircraft to spray some oil to burn them."
"Alright. Leslie, get in position." Xu Yao ordered, "Follow my wife's instructions later."
"Yes, General."
More than 10,000 sets of military uniforms would occupy a significantly large area, so Le Yao had to draw a new circle around them. After he had encircled the clothes, he wrote the receivers' information, and then let Leslie control the flamethrower on the mecha to initiate the burning.
Within a short time, the ultra-high temperature flame burned the whole pile of clothes without any ashes remaining.
Captain Chen asked, "What about the clothes?" The small buildings had burned and appeared at the other side. But, where are the clothes?!
Le Yao replied, "The clothes have arrived at Fuhe Mountain. They should be able to finish wearing them in 15 minutes, right? "
"The stipulated military time for changing into uniform is 15 seconds," said Xu Yao.
Le Yao stared at Xu Yao, "Distributing the clothes will take a while, right? There are so many clothes, even though you have indicated the soldier's military code on it, it won't be that fast."
Xu Yao replied with a smile, "Alright, I'll listen to you tonight, Teacher Xiao Le."
Le Yao smacked Xu Yao's chest with his toothless rattle and said, "It's good that you understand."
Several people rushed towards the newly 'built' dormitory buildings while waiting the undead soldiers to show up. When President Liu, Doctor Zhao and the others arrived before the transparent buildings, they poked it in a funny way with their fingers. The result: their fingers went through it! Also, there were no stairs in the buildings!
Suddenly they remembered what Le Yao had said, the words 'floating up', and they felt a little frazzled.
Le Yao entered the building and entered the first room on the first floor, because he couldn't climb to the top floor. He discovered that the interior was how he had imagined it, so he exited it. Then, at the door of the first room of Dormitory No. 1, he drew a rune on the ground and recited: "Here, on this land, I call the most Spiritual of the Gods, through the Heavens and the Earth, out of the Secluded and into the Underworld, with the spirit and worship of my heart, to please hear me out. Shen Weilin, if you are listening to this prayer, come and gather quickly!"
But Shen Weilin did not appear as quickly as he had in previous summonings.
"Mr. Xiao Le, Weilin… he…" After waiting for a while, Han Mo didn't see Shen Weilin and asked in confusion: "Is this summoning spell effective immediately? Does the summoned person have to present himself or can he choose whether or not to appear?"
"He can choose. Shen Weilin hasn't come yet because there are a lot of people he is going to bring. Look over there." Le Yao raised his chin in the direction of Fuhe Mountain. Promptly, at that moment, thousands of dead soldiers appeared on the empty hillside!
"Oh my… Oh my God!" Dr. Zhao stepped back unconsciously, stunned by the scene in front of him. "It's really our comrades-in-arms!"
"Yes, yes, yes!! Deputy Shen! I see Deputy Shen and Captain Shang!" Captain Chen quickly waved his hand: "Deputy Shen! Captain Shang!"
"Captain Chen!" Shang Ting whizzed and floated over in a speedy movement, "It's been a long time. You've opened your sight?"
"Yes, yes, Mr Xiao Le helped me open it." Captain Chen looked at him up and down. At first, he was ecstatic, but his eyes gradually reddened, "Damn it, I thought I'd never see you again!"
"Hey, hey, what are you crying for?" Xu Yao's heart also felt bitter, but he didn't want everyone to feel melancholic on such a happy day, so he said, "Shen Weilin, take the soldiers to the cafeteria!"
"Yes, General!" Shen Weilin said and smiled: "Captain Chen, please be happy. Let's talk slowly later. We need to see our other comrades first."
"Good. Everyone is waiting for you." Captain Chen hurriedly wiped his teary eyes.
The living soldiers had been seated in their respective positions in the cafeteria. Each of them had a set meal in front of them, but this set meal was larger than ever before, at least twice the amount of the usual, and there was a note that said, don't open it first. Also, they each got a small incense cone, a lighter, and an empty lunch box with it.
Not understanding what this was about, a curious soldier took the incense cone, smelled it, and then whispered, "Why have we been given empty meal boxes?"
The soldier next to him replied, "Do you need to ask? It's a dinner for the whole army, and we'll be eating it with our former comrades-in-arms. Obviously, the empty boxes are for them."
The soldier who had asked the question thought this explanation was right after he pondered on it. However, he also felt that such an act would be miraculous.
How can our comrades, who are dead, eat? The same question flashed through the minds of every soldier present in the cafeteria. Suddenly, everyone felt the temperature of the cafeteria drop!
It was very hot outside so the cafeteria had been a bit warm, but now, it seemed as if the air conditioner had suddenly been turned on!
Xu Yao and Le Yao walked in from the front door, and all the soldiers stood up in unison: "Good evening, General! Good evening, Madam!"
"Good evening everyone. Sit down," said Xu Yao.
Shua~
In neat and uniform movements, everyone straightened their backs, and looked ahead.
After everyone was seated, Xu Yao said, "All the undead brothers should also sit down."
The living soldiers: "…"
Xu Yao added, "Except for the brothers who are on active duty, everyone is here now. As I said before, this is a dinner party for the whole army of the Flying Wolf Division, because we have found our comrades-in-arms and brothers after four years of separation. In the future, they will stay with us and continue to guard our land along with us, which is something we should be happy about. Now, everyone is here!"
Soldiers: "Here we are!"
Xu Yao ordered, "Put half of the food in your meal box into the empty one."
Everyone carried out this order at the same time, and this action moved Le Yao's heart the most. Even though it was obvious that they clearly didn't think that their undead brothers could eat food, they still placed a larger division of the food in their meal box into the opposite one.
Xu Yao added: "After you've done this, light the incense cone and follow Madam's words."
Le Yao opened the communication device and broadcasted into the cafeteria: "Tonight, with an incense cone and a dinner, I honour the tens of thousands of undead brothers of the Flying Wolf Division! May your soul be peaceful forever!"
As soon as his voice fell, the soldiers followed in unison: "Tonight, with an incense cone and a dinner, I honour the tens of thousands of undead brothers of the Flying Wolf Division! May your soul be peaceful forever!"
Having said that, one of the soldiers looked at the food on the opposite side to see if it would decrease…
However, it did not! What were they doing, and what would this feast end up like? What's this stuff about eating together?!
At this time, Xu Yao said, "Okay, now everyone should taste the food that you have placed into the other meal box. These brothers have shared our pains alongside us in the past. I don't think you would mind eating from the same utensils as your comrades now, right?"
Some soldiers, after they heard these words, immediately used their chopsticks to help themselves to the food on their opposite side, and wondered what their General was playing at. As a result, they were startled into silence as soon as they chewed the food!
There's no smell and taste in this food!
No taste at all!
It was obviously food that they had hand-picked by themselves, and was even from the same meal box. But the food placed before them had taste. How come the one opposite had no taste at all?!
This rice I am eating is fake, and the food I am eating is fake! It's all fake!
"Report!" Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted excitedly and stood up, "General! Are these brothers still around?"
"Yes, they are. Present in front of each of you are one or even two of the brothers who had fought alongside us," said Xu Yao.
"But we can't see them. How do we communicate with them?"
"This question…" Xu Yao turned to Le Yao and asked, "Wife, why can Ji Fengyu write with incense ash, but they can't?"
"That's because no one has taught them that method," replied Le Yao. "Brothers of the Dead, you have incense ashes in front of you. You had passed through all the material things you encountered before and you still haven't found a proper way to transmit information to your living brothers. Now, you can do that. Try blowing onto the incense ash. Remember, blow lightly. The ashes will spread out flat and you can then write on them."
The living soldiers suddenly saw a small pile of incense ashes appear in front of them, scatter into a flat layer on the surface of the table, and then different words appeared on the top of it…
–Wan Dongxiao, you have become fat!
–Tuhao, guess who am I?
–Lao Yang, ha ha ha, are you scared?!
"FML! They are really here!" The crowd didn't know who was who, but they still jumped up with excitement. Undoubtedly, this reveal resulted in a guessing game for the identity of the comrade-in-arms opposite each of them, "Hong Bing, is that you?"
–Yes.
"Ah ah ah! You're still here!"
"Brother Zhou, are you really Brother Zhou? Mother! If I had known before, I would have just given you all the meat!"
–It's alright. I'll come again tomorrow!
"Good! Whoever doesn't come will become a grandson!"
The cafeteria buzzed as busily as the market, and it became lively to the point of explosion.
However, for the first time, Xu Yao didn't stop them from making such a fuss. He pulled Le Yao away to light some incense and share a meal with the six undead youths. At the same time, Le Yao also called for Ji Fengyu and all his ghost brothers, so that they could also join the dinner party. The atmosphere that followed was extremely lively.
Not a holiday, but it is even better than a holiday!
Wang Hao and his party: "…" Damn it, I'm too shocked to even speak!
…