Chapter 689: Adaptation Period

Xijing, Lecture Martial Hall drill ground.

Yue Fei stood upon the high platform.

Below the platform were several hundred mid- and low-ranking officers; it was so quiet that not even a crow or sparrow made a sound.

Yue Fei wore no armor, only a neat set of blue combat attire.

But his posture was deep as an abyss, lofty as a mountain; when his gaze swept over, it made everyone involuntarily straighten their spines.

What he lectured on today was not specific battle formations or tactics.

"As a commander, one must have the eye to break through a deadlock and the heart to defy orders."

Yue Fei's voice was not loud, yet it carried clearly to everyone's ears.

"The 'fate' I speak of is not the sovereign's command, nor the military order."

"It is that, in the unseen, seeking to confine all things to a fixed trajectory… the so‑called 'fixed number.'"

The officers below were somewhat bewildered, yet none dared to lose focus.

"In the past, under the False Song, when the Jin armies marched south, there was a 'fixed number' that sought to trap us and shatter the land."

"I never yielded."

"Later, at the Wind and Wave Pavilion, there was an even greater 'fixed number' that sought to lead me to my death, to achieve a tragic fame."

"Fortunately, the sovereign also did not yield."

He paused, his eyes flashing like lightning.

"Now, beyond Bei Jing, west of the light curtain, countless threads of the 'fixed number' still entwine and tug, seeking to make history play out according to its script."

"We train soldiers and forge armor here—what is it for?"

"Not only to defend the borders and pacify the people."

"But also for the day when we need to break that invisible shackle and reverse that predetermined defeat…"

"In our hands we have sufficient strength!"

"In our hearts we have the courage to defy the heavens!"

His words rang out, striking the ground with resonance.

Inside the drill ground, the heavy breathing could be clearly heard.

In the eyes of the young officers, a flame was ignited.

They perhaps did not fully grasp the deeper meaning of Commander Yue's words.

But that spirit of unwillingness to be bound, of striving against heaven's mandate, has been deeply imprinted in their hearts.

Yue Fei finished speaking and gestured for the deputy commander to continue the drill.

He himself descended from the high platform.

His steps were light and steady, landing without a sound.

He felt the surging qi and blood within him, that state of returning to peak—and even surpassing the past—filled him with a sense of power at every moment.

But he understood more clearly the significance of this reborn body.

It was not for personal martial prowess to show off.

But to bear greater responsibility and engage in a more enduring struggle.

Not far away, Lin Chong was instructing a unit of spearmen.

His movements were smooth and flowing; the spear in his hand seemed to come alive—thrust, strike, sweep, pierce—each technique precise and fierce, yet executed with the ease of handling something heavy as if it were light.

The soldiers watched, unable to look away.

Lin Chong finished the demonstration, tossed the spear back to the soldier, his face unflushed, his breath steady.

"Do you see? The release and retrieval of force lie in the unity of waist and stance, and even more in the absolute mastery of one's own strength."

"You may not be able to do that now."

But remember this feeling. Constantly temper your body, forge your will, until your body obeys your will completely, rather than being swayed by inertia, fatigue, or even… some kind of invisible 'resistance.'

His words vaguely echoed Yue Fei's earlier instruction.

At the other end of the drill ground.

Guan Sheng and Hu Yanzhuo were engaged in sparring.

Neither used real swords or spears, but wooden sticks wrapped in thick cloth.

Yet the sound of their strikes and collisions remained deep and astonishing.

Guan Sheng's force was heavy and powerful; each strike seemed to carry the might to split mountains and shatter stone.

Hu Yanzhuo, meanwhile, was nimble and changeable; his staff shadows flowed like a tide, seeking every gap.

The surrounding officers watching felt their blood boil.

Such high-level sparring is rarely seen in everyday training.

What surprised them even more was that the two generals fought so fiercely for longer than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, yet their breathing remained steady, with only a faint sweat on their foreheads.

Their stamina and endurance were unfathomable.

Yue Yun and Zhang Xian did not take part in these.

Yue Fei sent them to verify the latest deployment map and supplies reserves of Bei Jing.

The two were extremely efficient.

Their vision was keen, their thinking swift; the speed at which they processed documents and checked data was nearly double what it used to be.

Moreover, they remained focused and did not tire easily.

What the rebirth brought was not merely an improvement in bodily functions.

The Five Ministers had not all gathered together.

Each, in their familiar domain, was adapting to the new condition.

Zhang Cheng buried himself in the massive files and information.

He found that his reading, memory, and analytical speed had greatly increased; complex information that previously required repeated scrutiny could now be grasped at a glance.

Full of energy, he could work continuously for several hours without fatigue.

In this state, he was reorganizing the internal and external information network of the Bureau of Peace and Stability, optimizing the process.

Zhao Lao Nian dove into the workshop.

His sensitivity to potential-energy conducting materials also seemed to have increased.

Some subtle parameters that previously required repeated trials to master could now be estimated by feel to within about eighty or ninety percent.

He was busy debugging the stability of the "pinhole channel" and attempting to design a more efficient small potential-energy signal transmitter.

Qian Gui was in the hall of the Ministry of Revenue.

The abacus clacked loudly, and his mental calculation speed left the clerks below stunned.

He was recalculating the treasury's status after ritual consumption with extreme efficiency, and formulating a new plan for increasing revenue, cutting expenses, and stockpiling strategic materials.

Wang Ru held court in the inner palace, coordinating all parties.

Her thinking was meticulous, her insight sharper; she could easily spot minor irregularities in personnel assignments and internal administration and quickly propose solutions.

Shi Dun went to the main camp of the Imperial Guard.

He needed to display no martial skill.

He merely stood there, patrolling, occasionally offering a few remarks.

His steady, mountain-like aura, and the natural dignity exuding from his battle-tested presence, were enough to make even the most ferocious soldiers hold their breath and focus.

The newborn force was quietly integrating into every gear of the Chen Dynasty's operation.

Making it more efficient.

More resilient.

And in the distant Huai Xi.

Zhu Yue's "active experiment" entered its second stage.

After verifying the guidance mechanism's sensitive response to intent, he began testing its jamming capability.

He had Xu Da pick out more than a dozen of the most reliable, tight-lipped men.

He assigned them a strange task: to pretend to excavate a seemingly worthless pile of rubble on the west side of the camp and act excited about making a discovery.

For two consecutive days.

These men went to the "digging" site on schedule, deliberately making noise, moving stones, and even privately passing along vague rumors like "maybe we hit something hard" or "perhaps there's an ancient tomb."

On the evening of the second day.

Near the digging point, a small-scale ground collapse occurred without warning.

The collapse was not deep, but it happened to cover the area where those men mainly worked.

Fortunately, no one was injured.

Zhu Yue personally went to inspect the collapse site.

The soil was loosened, with traces of groundwater seeping out.

It looked like a natural phenomenon.

But he noticed that the edges of the collapse were unnaturally neat, and the nearby vegetation lay flattened in an unnatural manner.

It seemed as if some force had precisely shattered the underlying structure from below.

"Experiment Two Result."

He recorded it on bark.

"The mechanism will employ physical-environment intervention to obstruct or destroy 'abnormal activity' or 'variables that might deviate from the script.'"

"Intervention method: create a 'plausible' accident."

"Precision: relatively high, strongly targeted."

He closed the bark, his eyes growing colder.

This confirmed another of his guesses: that invisible "hand" not only pushes you toward the direction it wants,

but also sets up obstacles—or even directly removes—the variable when you try to go another way or act abnormally.

"A strong desire for control..."

He muttered to himself.

Meanwhile.

He had Tang He, whom he had tasked with finding someone familiar with Liao East Jurchen affairs, also begin to have leads.

An old soldier who had once traded horses in Liao East and, after the wars, drifted here, was brought before Zhu Yue.

Zhu Yue did not directly ask about the connection between the Jurchen and "Yin energy" or other anomalous forces.

Doing so would frighten the other party and seem suspicious.

He merely requested, under the pretext of understanding border conditions and guarding against horse bandits, that the man speak about the customs, combat traits, and recent movements of the various Jurchen tribes.

The old soldier found it strange that this youthful refugee leader would care about such things, but he nonetheless related what he knew in detail.

Among them, he mentioned some information that made Zhu Yue pay special attention:

"……In recent years, several major tribes around Established Prefecture have been somewhat sinister."

"……They used to be fierce, but not so united. Now they seem twisted into a single rope—fighting fearlessly and recovering from wounds astonishingly fast."

"……Some say that their tribe's shamans can summon black wind, rendering blades and spears ineffective……"

"……Their horses are also much sturdier than before; when they run, their eyes sometimes glow green, which is eerily frightening."

The old soldier's account was fragmentary, mostly hearsay.

But Zhu Yue linked these details with the keywords "Yin energy," "rapid rise," and "support of the Iron Crow Army."

Clues are being pieced together bit by bit.

The vague outline of the enemy is becoming clear.

He knows his time is short.

That invisible "hand" will not let him continue exploring like this.

The next "intervention" probably won't be as simple as a ground collapse.

He needs to be faster.

【127> He needs greater strength.

Need stronger power.

He needs…… a breakthrough to break the status quo.

He looks east again.

His gaze is deep.

Perhaps.

The key to the answer truly lies beyond the light curtain.

In those beings emitting golden tides and warning signals.

He needs to find a way.

A way to establish more direct contact with them.

At least.

More direct than the current passive reception of vague signals.