Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Monkey King placed the cattails against the wall and frowned. “Mother said that it was the Vassal Lord’s Red Eagle Guards, but I have no idea why they would come to such an isolated place like ours.”
The Qingze Prefecture was huge. Although it was thousands of miles away from the city, it was still one of the empire’s top twenty most prosperous manors. Linjiang County wasn’t a remote area, but Qingze Prefecture did not have a king. Therefore, Vassal Lord’s Red Eagle Guards shouldn’t be coming here.
Although Anping Town was close to the north-southern waterway, the Yan family’s village was still two to three miles away from the pier. It was strange that they would come all the way here.
Yan Qixun had a bad feeling about this. No wonder her mother was worried. Gongyu Mingxi had told Gongyu Hao to pick Yan Qixun up quickly. Although Yan Qixun was curious, she wasn’t afraid. As for Brother Monkey, he could easily defeat the heavenly soldiers and their generals. He had no reason to be frightened of Vassal Lord’s guards.
Gongyu Mingxi was relieved when she saw that her daughter had returned safely. Yan Qixun was curious about the Red Eagle Guards. For as long as she could remember, she had never heard of the Red Eagle Guards. Although she engaged in scientific research in her past life, she was also a soldier. Naturally, she would be interested in the Red Eagle Guards. They seem to have ignited her passion for martial arts.
Gongyu Mingxi had a solemn expression on her face. “In the past, I did not tell you much about the outside world because of how young you were. But now, I believe I can finally tell you about it. Each Vassal Lord has two thousand personal guards. The Green Wolf Guards protect the Prince among the Vassal Lords, while the Red Eagle Guards protect the King.”
“Regardless of whether it was the Green Wolf Guards or the Red Eagle Guards, they are different from regular armies. They were elite soldiers and true warriors. Their strength is second only to the Emperor’s guards, the Green Dragon Guards. However, the Qingze Prefecture does not have a Vassal Lord, so the Red Eagle Guards shouldn’t be here. I think that the Red Eagle Guards that we saw today should be the King’s guards from Shengzhou Prefecture, which is about three hundred miles away.”
“The personal guards from the vassal states are not allowed to leave their states so easily. They had appeared across the prefecture means that there might be trouble. In any case, we should stay at home for the next few days. If you come across the Red Eagle Guards again in the future, I want you to avoid them.”
Brother Monkey understood the principle of respecting imperial power, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he was afraid.
“I don’t care if it’s the Green Wolf Guards or the Red Eagle Guards. If they dare to lay even a finger on my sisters, I will beat them all into a bloody pulp.”
Yan Qixun was speechless. Not only was Brother Monkey kind and humble, but he was also brave and courageous.
“Mother, what is the difference between a true warrior and an ordinary soldier?” Yan Qixun asked.
Although she had lived in this world for eight years, she was still just a little girl from the countryside, so her knowledge of this world was minimal. When Gongyu Mingxi heard her second son mention the matter of cultivation, she wanted to say something, but she refrained.
Gongyu Mingxi glared at her daughter, and she then explained to her, “These past two days, my mind kept going back and forth between my past life and my current life, and I forgot to tell you about the current world in detail. I shall tell you what I know.”
“Although I grew up in the City of Shengjing, I don’t know much about warriors. I’ve only heard that they are cultivation practitioners, different from mere mortals. It’s just as Gongyu Hao said before. Cultivation also requires aptitude. But I was the only daughter of the Imperial Physician that worked in the Imperial Hospital, so I’m not entirely sure about the details.”
“It was said that the warriors were divided into different ranks. They were divided into classes, first-class, second-class, and third-class warriors. These were the lower class warriors, and above them were middle-class warriors. They were split into Martial Masters, Grandmasters and Great-grandmasters, and even higher-class cultivation practitioners. But I heard that there were existences that Martial Honors and Martial Saints had been surpassed in ancient times. I don’t know about their specific ranks.
“For example, the Red Eagle Guards can only be warriors for the first-class or second-class ranks, their leader can only be a warrior for the third-class rank, and isn’t allowed to exceed the third-class rank.”
“The highest rank of the Green Wolf Guards can only be warriors of the third-class rank, and their leader wasn’t allowed to exceed the Martial Master rank. The highest ranks are the Emperor’s Green Dragon Guards, and the lowest rank are warriors of the third-class rank.”
“The Red Eagle Guards and the Green Wolf Guards are both private guards, but they are also a part of the army. The Green Dragon Guards are different. They are the Emperor’s personal guards who command all armies, but they are not private guards. I’m not sure how many of them are mid to high-level cultivators.”
Yan Qixun would never have thought she was a part of an ancient feudal society. She was just here to farm and build buildings, but as it turns out, she was in a world of martial arts. It’s almost like she was now in a video game. Did she need to gain experience to level up?
Fortunately, she has Brother Monkey by her side, as though he was a cheat code. She didn’t have to worry too much. If she was ever in any danger, she didn’t need to care if it was a life or death situation. If the situation weren’t in her favor, she would just let Brother Monkey deal with it.
She was still curious, so she asked, “Mother, why haven’t we heard of these cultivator armies before?”
Gongyu Mingxi laughed and shook her head. “Although a talented cultivator was one in a thousand, the Empire is strong and prosperous. There are billions of people here. Therefore, there are several talented cultivators.”
“However, the poor are rich in literature and martial arts. But the warriors are talented. That’s why they had the title of martial. Cultivation wasn’t something an ordinary family could afford. To learn about cultivation, one had to have resources. That being the case, the empire controls the number of cultivators.”
“So, even if the Empire is strong and prosperous, it will not be able to withstand the cultivation of the entire population. The cultivation of the entire population is not conducive to the empire’s laws. Therefore, the selection of cultivators was mostly among the aristocratic families. There were students from two different academies who were also chosen. I also heard that there are two factions in the Empire that can cultivate.”
“So, the commoners won’t have the opportunity to cultivate?” Yan Qixun asked. This was a monopoly of knowledge. No wonder she had never heard of this.”
Gongyu Mingxi shook her head. “There are some commoners that are allowed to cultivate. The academy has commoners as students, and the factions will choose commoners with talent.”
But that’s still like a drop of water in a bucket. Whether or not a commoner was chosen would depend on luck and talent.
However, in Yan Qixun’s opinion, this way of selecting commoners was just an excuse to make up for the lack of talented candidates from wealthy families. The Empire had been established for hundreds of years, and there were many imperial clans and aristocratic families. There were also group officials under the aristocratic families.
When it came to the warriors and cultivators, their common interests would naturally be diluted to benefit the rules. Although only a few knew about the cultivators, even fewer spoke about them.
This was also why their parents hadn’t mentioned the existence of the warriors to their children even though they were born into an official family in the city.
Yan Qixun had previously thought that this was a powerful empire similar to the Tang Empire. However, she did not expect billions of people to populate this country. Billions of people had also populated the country that she was from in her past life, and there were about seven billion people on the entire planet.
The current empire was vast, with billions of mouths to feed. The warriors weren’t the main concern to Yan Qixun. However, Brother Monkey had said that they could cultivate as well. Although it was not on the same level as the warriors, it did not bother Yan Qixun. Brother Monkey’s cultivation method that he used in the immortal world was not as good compared to the current world.
Instead, Yan Qixun’s main concern was how big the empire was and how big this planet was.
“Mother, how big is the empire anyway?”