Chapter 4:

Chapter 4:

Creak~, the Sound of the door opening creaked loudly indicating the need of oiling but that could wait, as Yue Fei was opening the door slowly he walked into a classroom sized room with a handful of several individuals in the room seated around a massive rectangle table at the center of the room.

"Hope I'm not too late to the party here."

"Ah Yue Fei just on time come-come we saved you a seat."

A middle age elderly man said while gesturing to Yue Fei sitting at the front of the table with a large window screen behind him revealing the unfamiliar dark night sky of an unfamiliar world.

"I shall do that." Yue Fei said without a care as he walked towards the empty seat at the table in front of him.

On that table in front of the elderly man's own table were a couple of other young men all in the same uniform as Yue Fei around his age, several faces among them he recognized, there at the seat next to the one that Yue Fei assumed to be his was the man who was sent this late of the day

Kim-sing seated down on his chair with his arms folded in front of his chest before in medical ward which was dark that it didn't fully allow one to see his features but he was a man with light skin and is slightly below average height, with a lean and toned build.

Proof of his costly victory and due to half of his face still covered up by the bandage on his left side it was impossible for Yue Fei to see his expression.

Another young man with slightly darker skin and is slightly above average height, with a muscular toned build sat across from him this individual also was bandaged up.

Yue Fei recognized him to be Yue Yang though they share the same surname they are by no means relatives though a lot still makes that assumption however that was not what caught his attention for there was another face within the room a face that he didn't recognized.

His delicate face showed no trace of masculinity, with his hair that flows down to his shoulder blades, while his eyes are larger and shinier than that of a man. The innocently bewitching gaze from his eyes, framed by long eyelashes gave him a more feminine feel to him than masculine allowing people to easily mistake him for a girl if it was not for the obvious Adams apple at his throat.

Moving his sights away from that person he can see most if not all faculty staff that are still on campus but the one that caught his eye was the young man that was closest to the elderly man who greeted him when he walked into the room. Seated next to the elderly man was another young man of similar age as the rest young men in the room.

Another young man with a much lighter skin tone than the rest of the people present whiter than what can be considered normal, almost deadly pale white and is slightly below average height, with a smaller body structure build than anyone else.

He was so terribly thin for a man that it looked like if the wind would carry him away if were to blow over him. He had a gentle warm welcoming smile on his faces that could ease anyone who would look upon it, at least for the most part Yue Fei on the other hand didn't like that poker face of a smile plastered on the young man's features in front of him. Though it may seem welcoming he could sense the feeling that he was being evaluated and he could also vaguely sense darkness lurking behind that simile needless to say he didn't like that not one bit at all.

Still he ignored his gut feeling and gave a slight smile in return and nodded his head slightly in that person's direction before seating down on the vacant seat at the table.

"Now everyone is here let us proceed." The middle age elderly man said sitting in his comfy couch seat.

"I'll get straight to the point the reason why everyone currently present in this room was called for so late into the evening is of course concerning about the situation at hand."

"I'm not going to bother saying the obvious of what we all already know so far and I highly doubt that anyone would know anymore than the person next to them."

The middle age elderly man said look at each personal in the room meeting their eyes Yue Fei included of course and held his gaze he did before it was broken off.

"So I call you all tonight to propose a suggestion that we need to sent out an exploration party."

What meet the man's word were slight gasp of shock and soon out came burst of all sorts of different cries echoed in the room steady getting louder and more intense, through it all Yue Fei was calm had his eye on the thin man though not enough for it to be noticeable. He still had that same simile plastered on his poker face seemingly uninterested in the show acting out in front of him.

"So what you are saying is that your great idea is to send someone out there?" Yue Yang said while pointing outwards towards the wilderness beyond under the dark sky.

"To some land that we know close to nothing about in our condition are you joking?" Kim-sing finished what Yue Yang words as with a slight hint of rage building up in his eyes.

Sending an exploration team out would be suicide, they were not expert travelers nor do they even have the gear to survive out there, no one in their right minds would agree to that but still the point of needing to know what's out there was also something that they know as well but the question now was who in their right minds would take the risk.

"That is why I called all of you here this evening." The elderly man unfazed by the glares and commotion gestured to Yue Yang, Kim-sing and Yue Fei and several other boys in the room.

"You all clearly have shown that you all have the capabilities to fend for yourselves from your heroic displays today so I called you here to request this of you all as you are the most qualified to undergo this quest."

At that response everyone other than the old man and the thin looking male student was up in an uproar there were those that opposed this choice and those that just seemed uninterested in the situation like the two voices of the opposed filled the room drowning out the surrounding sounds.

But there was one that stood out from the sea of voices.

"Principle Xie Tu I too understand the importance of this but to send anyone out there is no different than telling them to die and you want to send children out there as a reasonably adult I'm afraid I can't really agree with this."

One of the male staff probably one of the office workers said out loud others within the room also raised their voice of objection seeing the chaos unfolded in front of him and Yue Fei couldn't help but give out a slight sigh.

"I'll go if no one else will." Yue Fei said while raising his hand up as all eyes turned their attention to him.

"There is no point bickering among ourselves about who should go or not we are here in this unknown world whether we like it or not, we can just hole up in the school and starve to death or if another one of those creatures comes and raid us and this time there may be more of them."

Yue Fei calmly said drawing everyone's attention no one spoke a word to interrupt him as he continued.

"Ha~, look yes it will be dangerous if we are to chose this course of action but its certainty a whole lot better than just sitting around on our asses here doing nothing and pray to whatever in the universe here that something will save us. Personally I prefer to take fate into my own hands."

Silence filled the room shortly after Yue Fei finished speaking before it was broken by another voices.

"I agree with Yue Fei here it's better than not taking any action at all I refuse to die without a fight I too will also join on the expedition Yue Fei will not be alone." Another male student who was standing up near the wall raised his hand up.

"Nip Fung (Whispering Wind) are you serious you -"

"I've made my decision Mi Liu you won't change my mind what say you?" Nip Fung looked to the male student next to him who was speaking to him.

"Ha~, fine if you're going then I will too Lee Shin what about you old buddy."

"Hah, you seriously got to ask I nearly thought for a second that you weren't going to invite me."

The boy named Lee Shin said a smile on his face.

"We shall also undertake this quest."

Kim-sing and Yue Yang said in unison slightly nodding their heads towards Yue Fei whom nodded back to the two Yue Fei honestly wasn't expecting this two to also agree but he wasn't complaining soon more of the boys that were called into the room sound out their agreements and pledge to the cause.

"Then I shall also – " the male staff member who voiced his objections earlier but was suddenly cut off by Principle Xie Tu who raised is palm up to stop him.

"That will not be necessary as much as it pains me to send this kids out into the unknown unprepared and without guidance as it is I can't risk losing a staff member Mr. Shu the rest of the student left behind needs your guidance still this is a quest they will have to undertake by themselves."

Mr. Shu stared back at Principle Xie Tu before he could get another word out Yue Fei's voice cut through the air.

"The Principle is right we will be fine on our own there will be no need for you to come along teacher Shu you are still need here there is still thousands of students here and you are need to guide them don't worry we'll be fine."

Mr. Shu looked at Yue Fei and the rest of the boys who all nodded in agreement before looking back towards the Principle before breathing deeply and exhaling it out slowly.

"Very well I understand if that is your wish I will honor it but please promise me that should it be too dangerous for you boys out there forget the journey and just focus on getting back here alive."

"No need to promise on that if that is the only other path that we can take here."

After a while longer the talks were settled and everyone left the room leaving only Principle Xie Tu and the thin looking young man in the room.

" Ha~, well my boy Xie Nu that turned out somewhat better than how we imagined it to go." Principle Xie Tu addressed the young man next to him.

"Indeed grandfather still I can't believe that those rabble blindly agreed without any hesitation especially that Kim-Sing or Yue Yang I guess they weren't as smart as you thought they were despite their scores on the exams."

"Doesn't matter one bit to me I just need those little punks to bring back something good since that's all that they will be good for though it was fortunate that I didn't have to waste any more breath on them with a heartwarming convincing speech to motivate them."

"Of course grandpa it is as you say." The boy Xie Nu replied while thinking to himself in the back of his mind.

"Still that Yue Fei it seemed he noticed something yet why did he volunteer for it first he will be tricky in the future."

"Alright it's getting late Xie Nu go get some sleep we have a lot of work ahead of us tomorrow."

"Ok grandpa." Xie Nu's grandpa voice broke him out of his thoughts as he deicide to worry about it another time as he slowly help Principle Xie Tu up to his feet as the two slowly made their way for the door.

Days have gone on by since that "conference" the students and staff members have somewhat adapted to their new lives. It was announced that they were recruiting for more members to join in on the exploration team but sadly there wasn't that many that came forward to take part.

There were still several attacks from the surrounding wild life made up of creatures that seemed to resemble creatures like a tiger or a boar that was repelled by the male students that formed a school defense force due these attacks with Yue Fei, and the rest leading the charge at the front during the attacks resulting in their now ever-growing popularity among the school body that they were not aware of.

Thankfully there haven't been any more deaths just light injuries from these attacks and with each attack that was successfully fended off Yue Fei and the others were learning from this and was able to command the other student into an effective fighting force without even realizing it.

Soon days have passed and the day for the exploration team's departure came as Yue Fei along with the rest of the exploration team was at the front gates with most of the student body and staff members there with them to see them off as they doubled checked their gear before setting off.

There were about twenty male students that were on the exploration team including Yue Fei they were all carrying heavily stuffed backpacks on their backs for those that finished checking their gear others were had their gear laid out in front of them on the ground, Yue Fei being one of those few.

"Yue Fei hey Yue Fei." A voice came from the crowd as the figure could be seen moving among the sea of people standing in front of Yue Fei and the exploration team.

"Hou An? Hou An is that you?!" Yue Fei recognized that voice stopped what he was doing and searching for the owner of that voice.

"Hey there you are…..oh excuse me... thanks.... could you move your fat ass thank you."

After a few tight squeezes through the crowd Hou An's figure appeared in front of the crowd carrying several objects in his hands along with another figure a girl emerged from the crowd in her hands she carried a metal bat in her hand and a back hung over her shoulders, Yue Fei knew this girl.

"Yang? Yang Yuhuan what are you doing here." Yue Fei went up to her she walked towards him as well.

"What kind of question is that? Of course I came to go with you on this quest." The girl answered in a manner to the question as if stating the obvious.

"No you will not you should be here - ."

"Say what you want Yue Fei but I'm coming along whether you like it or not besides you remember what we sworn together on that don't you?" Yue Fei at this statement froze as Yang Yuhuan then walked past him joining the other boys in the exploration team with several clearly shocked at this turn of events other seemly welcomed her.

Yue Fei couldn't help but shake his head slightly because of this before a voice came behind him.

"When did you get so chummy with that girl huh was it from that time ha~, nice to see that you ran to a girl that you barely known than your long time bro huh."

"Hey Hou An how nice of you to finally show yourself after how long now? You okay buddy catch your breath." Yue Fei ran up to help his friend up to his feet.

"Ha, ha~ finally here damn it, it was hard enough not getting the memo of the day that you were leaving and then I had to cross through this damn sea of people in my path I'm good."

Hou An wheezed out from between breaths as he slowly straighten out his back.

"I came bearing you gifts you weren't thinking about just heading out there without any proper gear now did you no need to thank me."

Hou An smugly said looking very proud of himself.

"Gifts?"

"Yeah my own specialties here this is the first one here, here take it."

Huo An pulled a meter and a half long object from the bag he was holding and held it up to Yue Fei it appeared to be it appeared to be a Dao blade of the Song Dynasty by its design along with some modern designs to the mix but Yue Fei took the weapon by its sheath and turned around towards Yang Yuhuan's direction.

"Hey Yang!" Yue Fei tossed the sword over to her as she turned her to him resulting in Yang Yuhuan panic slightly as she hastily caught the weapon that was tossed over to her with her last free hand.

"Ditch the bat and use that instead."

Yang Yuhuan surprised for a moment before she collected herself saying a word of thanks to Yue Fei but he wasn't even facing her anymore so she just snorted slightly in frustration before directing her attention to the sword that she just received drawing the blade out to examine it.

The blade's design followed the original single edged design being moderately curved and single edged, from a quick glance it appears a few inches of the back edge near the tip was sharpened as well. The surface of the blade was filled with complicated circuitry that latticed its blade. The Hilt curved in the opposite direction as the blade and seems to be like those of Jian sword.

"Alright then, here this is for you." Hou An just shrugged at Yue Fei's action before he reached for the bag hang off the strap on his back and took out a Object covered with a piece of cloth.

"What is it?" Yue Fei asked curiously seeing the object that Hou An just took out.

"Open it and see for yourself." He simply replied handing it over to Yue Fei somewhat urging him to open it up.

Confused but also curious what the item was Yue Fei slowly unwrapped the cloth revealing a highly ornate short Jian sword seemingly from the Han Dynasty with a double diamond grip wrapping from a high grade hand-woven, naturally dyed silk cord as far as I can tell.

The sheath seemed to have been carved from fine wood with some ornate designs of bronzes of mixed Asian culture design but it feels heavy than normal probably because the sword it still in the sheath.

Drawing the sword out form its sheath the blade's length was roughly 60–68 cm the entire sword's length was about 75–85 cm (30–33 in) long the surface was littered with impossibly complicated circuitry that latticed its blade, a silver coloration that blended so fine with the surface of the blade's wave like texture so hallowed that it was almost blue.

Like the Song Dao blade that Yue Fei gave Yang Yuhuan it was inarguably beautiful in a sense, but at the same time it was, perhaps rather plain but that suit it just fine for what it is, a weapon to wield, a tool for shedding blood not an ornament to be admired.

"Oh and check this out I made a couple of twits here and there here is the first one."

Hou An reached for one of the bronze crave piece near the hilt of the sheath sliding it down revealing a wet-stone underneath.

"Oh."

"Yep I added this so you can perform basic maintenance out there in the field when you need to but hey that's not the best feature that I have installed in this bad boy here see this switch here."

Hou An pointed towards the button or switch near the hand guard that Yue Fei finally noticed.

Without Hou An saying another word Yue Fei pressed it, the weapon began to buzz, sparked and then finally thrummed as the blade's edge glowed slightly ember-hot as if ignited the solid blade itself seemed to vibrate intensely once the switch was hit in.

"What the-, is-is this a high-frequency blade did you installed an ultrasonic generator?"

"Yep!" Hou An responded holding his chest out seemingly very proud of himself.

"Where-where the hell did you even find one in our school I know Sun Tech University is a tech school but the ones we have are - no wait, you took one the school's generators and converted into a miniature version!"

Ultrasonic generators, a compact revolutionary device that creates a high-frequency vibration that spreads across the cutting blade of various bladed weapons and tools. Originally used in construction as a cutting tool then of course like any technology it was weaponzied to increase a blade's or a knife's cutting edge so in weapons, the generator increased the blade's lethality.

"Yep~! And I added a special feature into the scabbard that stores and contains the energy built up by the generator like a recycle machine and turns the blade off when you sheath it and turns it back on when you unsheathe it so you don't have to continually have to turn it on and off by its switch when sheathing or unsheathing it and it won't destroy the sheath."

"Why you might ask, because the inside of the scabbard is actually metal container that's while it's so heavy cause only the outer surface is wood it also has a spare generator within for additional power storage for the purpose that I just exampled to you. The one you gave to what was her name again….Yang was it….. yeah whatever that sword also has the same feature as this one though it does not have a wet stone but a concealed sharpening rod located near the throat of the scabbard."

Hou An said as he went on about explaining about his creation before being cut off by Yue Fei.

"How the hell did you even do that or better yet where did you learn to do that does the school board even know about this."

Yue Fei baffled by this turn of events quickly sheaths the blade back into its sheath while looking around noticing the eyes that were looking their way now.

"That is a trade secret and to answer the second question no but now they do."

Hou An said with a cheerfully expression like a child who was excited to show off to his parents what he made for a science experiment clearly not bothered by the eyes looking their way.

Eyes filled with jealously at the sword that Hou An present to Yue Fei with many of the exploration team eyeing the blade handing off his hip some of those eyes even trailed off to the sword in Yang Yuhuan's hand.

"I can see now why I haven't seen you in the last few days' cause you were busy working on this."

"Well do you like it?"

"Of course I like it, I mean you spent quite a great deal of effort into making it for me I just can't wait to test this baby out in the field."

"Good to know but make sure you take good care of it and don't get over confident just because you have a badass sword now ok."

"I know that without you even telling me what are you my mother all of a sudden."

The two laughed together for a time before they stopped in unison.

"Really watch yourself out there come back in one piece ok?"

"I know."

With the last bits of farewell said and done it was time for them to leave and thus the exploration team set off from the school grounds heading into the horizon beyond their safe haven and into the unknown

With their hearts firm, minds clear of doubt and their shoulder sharpened carrying with the hopes of everyone that they left behind they walked without looking back () individuals set out but only one looks back.