61 The Lieutenants Rankings

After a few days of good rest Yun finally began to meet her new martial forces and leaders. She spent a short time with each of her lieutenants alone before she had a mass meeting, gathering them together to discuss her plans for this Centennial conflict.

To her right was Long Wuying, one of the other finalists from the tournament, who had also raised his cultivation base rapidly upon return, but nowhere near as fast as Yun had. He was now at the Eighth rank of Neidan Forging, nearing the breakthrough to the ninth. By the time the conflict started he would be preparing himself for the breakthrough into Body Tempering.

In the Lieutenant seats across the table were the four best fighters from the internal tournament, Gao Mao, Liu Hao, Wu Bao, and Huo Xue. They were each in the later stages of Body Tempering, and each had been in the sect for near a dozen years at the least. These four looked annoyed to be under someone like Long Wuying, who hadn't even reached the peak of Neidan Forging, but they also could tell from the age of these two Generals that they had high potential.

With looks of disdain they paid minor attention to the two Generals as they began to speak.

"Wuying and I have already spoken about this, but now it's time to share the information with all of you so that you can begin to form your units and designate team captains to lead them. We will be intruding to the south into the lands of the Volvaka with some squads, assaulting two of the youngest Hives on the Cradle. These two hives are weak enough for us to harm, but nowhere near weak enough to eliminate. Let's focus on the former."

Yun looked over to Long Wuying, giving him the floor to speak next.

"As you all know we've been assigned these positions by the Sect based on our performance in the inter-sect tournament. Yun placed third, while I placed fifth. Yun is now close to her first year after her decade celebration. That means she's one of the youngest cultivators in the sect, and she's also the most accomplished by being at the first stage of Body Tempering. I'd advise any of you who hold her in disdain to reform your thoughts immediately, this little girl is a monster among those in this room. I doubt any of you could defeat her."

"Continuing on, our goal will be to engage and eliminate all scouting parties and small group maneuvers of the Volvaka, the Iron Warriors will be handling any large scale movements. To that goal the Sect has given us access to a number of Spatial Storage artifacts, and each high ranking member of this force will receive one. None of you have achieved Direct Disciple status yet, as such Yun is the only one who will not be receiving a storage artifact from the Sect today. Before anyone leaves here they need to retrieve the three artifacts assigned to them. One for yourself, two to distribute to your most trusted subordinates who will be leading other squads.

"Remember, these are treasures of the Sect that are normally only available to Direct Disciples and some very exceptional Core Disciples. Take good care of them!"

Yun stood up at this point, looking directly at the first Lieutenant, Gao Mao.

"Stand up Mao. You still hold disdain for me? Let me show you why you're subordinate to this Yun."

Stepping to the center of the large meeting room with but a few sweeping steps of the Chromatic Aurora Steps, Yun took up a position fifty meters from Gao Mao's seat, arms crossed over her chest and waiting.

"Why should I listen to a tiny child like you? With my superior cultivation I'll just demolish you and take the position from you." Snarled Gao Mao,standing and grasping his long pike from the weapons rack. This was a 4 meter pike made out of special materials, giving it incredible strength with a small amount of flexibility.

Before the fight had even begun a dome of heat distortion had appeared around Yun, crackling with electric activity. At this time she had kept the dome's size down to a few meters, making all the activity directly around her body. Within this dome two energy weapons began to form as well, but she still hadn't taken out her spear.

"Draw your weapon child, and I'll show you who's stronger!" snarled Gao Mao.

"You're going to have to put some effort in to make that happen, Maomao."

Gao Mao was infuriated at this point, raging, "Don't you dare call me such a humiliating name! Die little cub!"

He charged forth and slashed out with his long pike towards Yun's head.

"You have so little manners, Maomao, let me teach you some." Yun sidestepped his attack at this moment before grasping the shaft of his pike and halting his swing directly. Her physical strength was even greater than his by a large margin!

"You. . . !" He couldn't even put together a sentence through his anger. He twisted his pike and used all his strength to attempt to stab it into her side, but he couldn't even move it forwards an inch in her iron grip.

Yun suddenly twisted the pike out of his hands before using the blunt end to smash into his stomach, nearly winding him, before dropping it on the ground.

"You are welcome to try again, next time this Yun won't even move a muscle, Maomao."

Again he stood and gathered his weapon before preparing himself to attack.