Wanna Be Friends?

During the first half of the year, Heian Ciemnosc began preparations for the new recruitment of soldier units. The Blauw Empire lacked military strength. It had maintained a foothold during the First and second leaders' rule, but the Wrath Nihility Academy's actions seriously diminished and dwindled their force. In a way, only because of this and because the Blackotia Kingdom was the Academy's house, they had to help one of their tenants have benefits after suffering because of them.

By the end of the 6th month, the rumors of the Blauw Empire preparing to get new, fresh blood of soldier units into their ranks spread throughout their walls and territory. It wasn’t possible to hide something like this, but it was possible to keep it quiet for the time being. Thus, despite the top organizations never forgetting to keep an eye on the Empire, they couldn’t deal with Heian Ciemnosc’s methods and not only received no inside information, they also lost people…

While the Feathered Valley Pavilion’s members did get a hold of this news around the 5th month, when things were getting already friendly for both sides’ workers and protecting teams, they didn’t do anything with such information. Firstly, they weren’t like the other top organizations and as one of the 2 strongest. They didn’t have to act like a puppy with a bone or toy, nor act subservient to anyone, not even the other mighty top organization.

They also weren’t in an alliance where they had to share anything for the sake of a common enemy. In fact, since the overlord war, their little get-together to suppress the Azure Dragon’s descendants left them slightly injured and lacking some resources. Nobody wanted to take the lead and rush their troops into the meat grinder. They definitely didn’t want to now. If anything, they hoped the Blauw Empire was tricking the Pavilion before betraying it and attacking from all sides. The top organizations would gloat at such misfortune, and it wasn’t new in old history anyway. It wouldn’t be a surprise, but it was a surprise that the Pavilion let the Empire in.

Nevertheless, whenever Heian Ciemnosc went to their individual territory and taught dozens of hundreds of old farts with a lifespan halfway gone through for even a hundred thousand years or more, he simply answered their little questions with simple answers. The Blauw Empire needed to refill its vacant spots and was doing what it needed to ensure its territory’s safety. Besides, as the Academy’s voice, it was his role to amend what the Academy had done in collateral damage.

After that, no more questions were asked. Heian Ciemnosc continued teaching these people every early morning and left them exercises to do while checking on their progress with a visual he saw through his Universal Conveyance, like a homely teacher giving class to a bunch of students through a webcam for civilians. And finally, in the middle of the 6th month, the Blauw Empire issued notices everywhere around their territory.

From fishing boats, vacation parties, old and young doing their stuff at sea to the streets, businesses, tall buildings, parks, and entertaining sectors… the Blauw Empire spoke to its people. Imperial Guards rushed everywhere, using their feet or sailing with wooden boats, all just to inform the citizens and cultivators of the requisites to join the Blauw Empire’s army, that simple. It was different for cultivators and citizens.

For citizens, as long as one is a 15-year-old, they can enlist in the training boots, where everyone who spends enough time training will join the Empire’s army. This naturally elated everyone, no matter how insecure they could be. Those whose age was from 18 to 30 years old, at the very least, might directly join the army while training. This meant their bodies and minds could be exhausted until they were officially citizen soldier units of the Empire.

However, that only made the civilians, and some already with their citizenship, feel even prouder that only capable ordinary folk could join their Empire’s military life. Anyone could enter, male or female, from any Race, including Perkanai, with guaranteed improvements to the rarest Races. The Empire wasn’t just built from the Azure Dragon’s descendants. Their hierarchy is composed of them by a large margin, but not entirely.

When the Empire was founded, it was still substantially large despite a third of their numbers leaving them behind. However, as time passed and the First Emperor gained enough dignity and respect for the Blauw Empire in general, many people from any Race without a home or place to stay flocked towards it despite the unmistakable danger the Empire found itself in. Slowly, those people integrated into the Empire, and in under 400,000 years, many Second Step Dantreulity realm cultivators popped out.

The Empire might have no clue towards military technology and little to no experience in battle. They also only used their soldier units’ hearts to fight and resist the enemy, never letting them come close without paying a price. Of course, this led to many broken, cut-off families from their ordinary lives and daily activities. Some families didn’t even have any birthdays to celebrate after a few weeks since the second war started.

Even if the Blauw Empire lacked everything, it could never lack its heart and passion for its history, even the recent Periods and its upcoming first Age. But it was different for cultivators. That was because, from the moment the Blauw Empire opened its arms again to public recruitment, so to speak, it also changed its most important policies to rejuvenate its Empire with strength.

Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t planning to follow the same path as any other organization from the typical path, such as Sect, Academies, Grottoes, Schools, etc. He wanted the Blauw Empire to adopt a much more fiery and direct method to strengthen itself. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t have to worry about its infrastructure when it has been top-notch in its current situation for Periods of time. What’s more, it had a capable leader who only needed a little push to be able to do both.

Like this, the Blauw Empire, with the Empress’s consent, would start using its military as the only way to join the Empire and cultivate under its protection, wing, and roof. One had to join the army if they wanted to experience what others in Sects, Factions, Pavilions, and so on experienced. They would receive cultivation resources and monthly payments and even gain status within the Empire’s Cities, such as a few percentages off their purchases at any store.

This was just the beginning, and Heian Ciemnosc didn’t want to saturate their minds, so he only started with the most necessary but basic benefits. Of course, one had to have enough cultivation talent to join the army. And that was a minimum requirement. If they had just a bit of talent for a Craftsmaking profession, they would be given extra classes about their respective profession, free of charge, until a certain level.

If they showed exemplary Spirit Sense or Soul talent, they would be given slightly more monthly payment, and their access to cultivation resources would be broader from the get-go, unlike others who’d to wait before gaining something. Mainly because of their low cultivation base, but also because they might have no talent whatsoever, and giving them a chance to waste their time in what they were useless at would be catastrophic.

As long as one had minimum cultivation talent to the Blauw Empire’s new standards, they would join the army, no matter their age or status. As long as they are the Empire’s people. From then on, depending on their cultivation base, they might be sent into missions. However, all of that relied on the future, and if there was no need to, Heian Ciemnosc would preferably train these soldier units like rats until they became vehement monsters.

Still, no matter how advanced the Blauw Empire could be, even if at the Academy’s level, it could not detect cultivation, Spirit Sense, Soul, and Craftsmaking potential and talent like Heian Ciemnosc. Only if they had nature reading could they find a way to distinguish those useless people for cultivation from the hidden gems. That hidden potential and locked talent might be precisely what the Empire needs the most, and their only way to find out who was worthy enough was Heian Ciemnosc.

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t have to sit somewhere, hidden from the world or in plain sight, and scan everyone until he found someone extremely talented or mark those whose capabilities were hidden unbeknownst to everybody. He had already made a clean circuit around every island City and the Small City island by the time the 5th month had come and delivered Empress Shun documents about the people he found.

Hell, Heian Ciemnosc found many good ones from the Palace, especially the maids. Empress Shuna confronted him about this before the 6th month, claiming he might be biased towards his bedwarmers. However, Heian Ciemnosc had to give each maid a short guidance lesson before their Empress to show her how wrong and evil her thoughts on his innocent self had been.

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It wasn’t really her fault, though. She had thought Heian Ciemnosc was proper and understanding when he arrived at the Empire, but the more she heard about him from the Palace maids, the more she started to believe he was a young man filled with debauchery. Yet, this incident made her see another part of Heian Ciemnosc, the Wrath Nihility Academy’s little black monster. He treated sexual intercourse as slightly more enjoyable dual cultivation, aiding himself and his partners in bed, even when he wasn’t in plain coitus with those around him.

With time, as she sent a few Imperial Guards to check on the most talented individuals the assigned supervisor remarked on the documents, Empress Shuna came to know Heian Ciemnosc’s usefulness. For once, she had thoughts of keeping the kid to herself. She had to find a way to chain him to the Empire. At least until it was in a good foothold, so it could defend against the top organizations and other Regions’ vassal organizations looking forward to migrating here.

However, as the second half of the year went by, those thoughts disappeared and were replaced by the embarrassment of having someone of such high caliber support her Empire without resting. It was like a Fifth Step expert coming down to help a random passerby build a First Step organization, only for the organization to become mediocre a few years after the expert left. She felt too embarrassed about her Empire’s situation, but Heian Ciemnosc was still vehemently needed so it could prosper in this critical moment.

Heian Ciemnosc’s training regimen for the citizens was to remind them of the difference between cultivators and ordinary folk. They would be daily punched in the gut, safely, no matter their genre, age, or status. Once they joined their army, that would never matter. Only regulations and one’s superior were all that had any sense for their military lives. Of course, they weren’t royal guards, so their military life would only be part of their nature.

As their day commenced and they ate a minimum-maximum breakfast without any taste to fill them with energy, they would start by being instructed verbally before the physical torment would follow. Like this, 3 days every week in a row, they would suffer mentally and physically. The rest of the week would be their study days, where they’d take class and have to participate at least once per week in a class, and they had to be correct.

Heian Ciemnosc had prepared the citizen drill instructors and teachers beforehand, giving them homework and disciplining them before going to someone’s bedroom to guide Little Ish on her cultivation path or giving the Empress another lesson about the Soul-exalting Old World parchment. After 5-6 months of preparation, those citizen instructors and teachers were ready to show what their step-father Heian Ciemnosc scarred them with.

When the Empire’s civilians and citizens joined the 3 days’ torment, they were surprised, shocked, and extremely exhausted when they could finally rest. They couldn’t even think while having multiple things striking their body and mentality during the training regimen. Even then, when they arrived at their classroom, with thousands of citizens and civilians sitting around, and each seat section had a screen and a speaker close enough and of great quality for their hearing, they were further shocked.

The amount of information they believed they could hold was from regular to good, with some special ones having it worse. However, by the end of their class, it was like the study demon entered their brains and taken over their comprehension capabilities. The citizen instructors and teachers didn’t even seem to try hard enough, but they had a clear mind and a numb body as they walked from one class to another, orderly and neatly.

Suddenly, the citizens started having many different emotions surging in their bodies as their minds raced with thoughts and ideas. As if they were all turned into dogs, they couldn’t express this sentiment until the beginning of their 2nd week, when they started receiving the tormenting 3 days like champs, waiting for the honeymoon phase to kick in after they passed through them.

As for cultivators, they had it even more astonishing. But that was to be expected. After all, only the pure energy in the world and the Elements can be considered magic, godly, and above anything else, even firearms and ordinary citizen arsenal. They were taught how to cultivate and had to do it on their seats. They were in the open space of one of the training grounds where Servants and Imperial Attendants would work hard to become Imperial Guards.

Now, it was the army’s recruits’ classrooms and training spaces. The Servants and Imperial Attendants that joined the army could re-learn from the beginning with the new recruits, but most were unwilling as they believed to know what the recruits were learning. Unfortunately for the former, it took them 3 months to realize how wrong they were, as a new recruit defeated a Servant like it was nothing. And if that wasn’t enough, on the same day, later on, a new recruit defeated an Imperial Attendant without too much trouble.

Back to the beginning of the year’s second half, the ordinary folk quit being energy-less as, one by one, managing to form the first strand of Power Energy in their bodies. It wasn’t fast. Some took up to 3 weeks to do it, gaining some contempt from their peers. However, it was precisely one of those late bloomers who defeated an Imperial Attendant… That lesson served for both new recruits and old Servants and Imperial Attendants.

The Imperial Teacher in charge of them was handpicked by Heian Ciemnosc’s meticulous analysis and was new. With the new policies, any new recruit and person from the hierarchy could see the enlisted Imperial Teacher. They could identify anyone as long as they remembered someone’s face with their Spirit Sense connecting with the boards in the corridors. Thus, anyone from the Empire’s army or hierarchy who was recently promoted and who was new as hell. Because of this, despite remaining hopeful and humble, the new recruits couldn’t help feeling somewhat insecure about them teaching them cultivation.

After the first month, those thoughts were erased, and as the new batch of new recruits was accepted into the Empire’s training regimen, for both cultivators and citizens, the first batch of recruits started behaving like little children in a kindergarten but enjoying their time inside and not wanting to come out. When the second generation was implemented, although they didn’t spend too much time near them, for they were too busy, they did advise the new recruits somewhat.

Similarly, little by little, the new Imperial Teachers gained confidence as they saw the changes in their pupils with Heian Ciemnosc’s methods and little tricks. They became more comfortable teaching the first few generations of the Blauw Empire’s reformed army. After the first month, when the second batch of new recruits flocked to their spots, and they saw tens of thousands of new faces daily, the new Imperial Teachers had an easier time getting to guiding these little rats into cultivation. Unbeknownst to them, their seniors, superiors, Imperial Teachers, and some Princes and Princesses started hearing about the results they showed.

When the third batch of new recruits came out with equally great results as previous ones, the old Imperial Teachers felt threatened. They even doubted they were on par with the new Imperial Teacher’s methods. Thus, they shamelessly implored Heian Ciemnosc to give them ample help to do the Empire no embarrassing outcome. They had put so many flowery words that even Heian Ciemnosc was speechless.

However, Heian Ciemnosc was too busy to train another bunch of fellows, and more so when they were so stubborn despite him requesting their presence as he taught the rest… twice. One refusal was enough for him to not care, but for the beauty of Empress Shuna’s sake and his little apprentice’s favorability… he asked twice. Of course, the second time was without the intention to help, even if they did come, but that wasn’t necessary in the end.

In the end, the old Imperial Teachers were put to learn in the new ones’ free time. They had to pay for their classes, too. However, the old Imperial Teachers didn’t have time to waste since it would be until the following year before they started guiding the recruits. If they weren’t ready by then… oof. Thus, with their moneybags, full and cozy with Neutral Stones. They paid for each class for several months. Only then did they feel they were walking on the right path.

While the new Imperial Teachers weren’t Heian Ciemnosc and hadn’t achieved his expertise in what he had taught them, the old ones were experienced enough to devise what the new Imperial Teachers lacked to instruct well enough on their own. It wasn’t like Heian Ciemnosc had a secret cheat that only he could perfectly teach everyone. It was just that the new ones needed some more time before gaining enough expertise.

But that was fine. By then, Heian Ciemnosc wouldn’t have to waste his time anymore, and he could focus on the little royal princess, the Blauw Empire, and its magnificent Empress. From then on, the Blauw Empire would have Imperial Teachers instruct newer Imperial Teachers, but this was only the beginning of Heian Ciemnosc’s entire reform to the Empire, a project Empress Shuna felt strangely excited about.

Now, more than ever, it felt like her words were true. Her father had prepared this Empire to prosper at its due time. However, with what Heian Ciemnosc was doing, they might… one day… really… explore the world to search for others. It suddenly no longer seemed like a motivational speech… but their future!

Batch after batch of new recruits, from cultivators and citizens, under the Empress’s disbelief from herself, let alone the rest of the Empire’s hierarchy, the army grew at an insane speed… And what’s best of it… it wasn’t a reckless growth. It was fast, sure, but more than that, it was nimble, efficient… and powerful.

… Yet, as the year ended and Heian Ciemnosc had just given Little Ish her first study lesson of the new year, and several days after she had broken into the Ashes Soul realm. He was convoked to the Empress’s throne for a private meeting. This time, it wasn’t about how to proceed on another weekly matter… but something they had both been waiting for a few months now.

…