The Northern Front

(Yang Bai POV)

"Captain! Reporting!"

A man dressed in a forest camouflaged battle dress appeared. He saluted as he entered the tent.

"Yes? What is it?"

"We've made contact with the natives of this world! Sir what should we do?"

"Bring me to them, I'll deal with it."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Giving another salute he exited the tent. Getting up from my portable chair and desk I pushed aside the tent flaps and saw the whole squad I commanded for this mission looking at me in admiration.

This mission was vital for the whole of Vetus Terra, not just The Middle Kingdom. As a member of The Middle Kingdom's military though, of course I want my country to become the most successful. This mission was issued by high members of the banded governments to understand if the new world was truly hostile or not.

The importance of such a mission was issued to a small number of highly skilled teams to probe forces of the new world. Ours being one out of only 3 squads sent out, luckily I knew the general who could accommodate me and help my squad and I gain one of the 3 spots.

"Everybody on me, let's move out!" I signaled everyone to gather up on me and I started following our scout who said they found the natives.

'From what those two returnees, Su Shu and Tao Mei, said when they encountered the natives they all wore medieval looking clothing which The Middle Kingdom used to wear. That wasn't the only similarity though as they spoke the same language as us and even had cultural and architectural styles of that era.'

Seeing the members of my squad looking cautiously scanning our surroundings reminded me of the time I became captain of this time team of misfits in the first place. They were the worse squad in the entire unit and sometimes didn't seem to have an ounce of disciple.

Bit by bit I started to gain their trust and eventually they seemed to be wholeheartedly loyal to me. They were all convinced by my strength, which I had gained the upper hand in through cultivation.

..

I had transmigrated over to this world somehow when the friends I believed to be my sworn brother and lover backstabbed me. He was the one who introduced me to her, but it seems they had been together all along while merely pretending to be my friends.

Just before I could get my hands on the item we had all been searching for, they both stabbed a sword through my back at the same time.

As I closed my eyes my conscience didn't fade and instead I opened my eyes once again, yet the whole world was unfamiliar to me. I was sitting down on a cushioned seat peering through a window at a city filled with structures unknown to me. All the while loud, yet dull sounds were emitting from the sides of my walls.

I stood up shocked and it was at that very moment in which I suddenly gained numerous memories. Memories which seemed to tell of only the most important parts of this, Yang Bai, person's life. He had the same name as me and even looks. I wasn't the handsomest, but I could definitely pass as above average.

I had thoughts about regaining my cultivation and this time making sure those who I kept close could actually be trusted, but that all changed once I tried to sense the Qi.

There was none. None in the air nor my body. I thought perhaps that it was hidden in special locations so I tried to find those in my free time, but I was a college student. I needed to show up to class and take tests, but I never received that knowledge.

In the end, less then 2 weeks time I destroyed the previous body's grades. In that time I met some absolutely beautiful women, but I couldn't even get near them! I tried to attract their attention several times, none of which worked. So instead I focused my attention on finding a source of Qi for 5 whole months never succeeding to find even a strand of it lingering around.

Within those months I had countless encounters with beautiful women who I wished were mine, but without the strength to required to even attempt it, I had to watch as they all passed me.

The most beautiful girl in college, a rookie hot-head cop, an upcoming movie star, a female CEO who just started out, and the daughter of one of the most influential families in the city. All of which could have so easily been mine if I had strength.

Those encounters all sprung up within the first 2 months of my search and seemed to completely disappear afterword. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th months had no such events and the amount of beautiful women I saw became more and more distant in between. By the end of the 5th month I had given up all hope of finding Qi and decided to just stay alive.

At that point I had used up all the money this person had saved and his parents stopped sending money over as well. I had to take up multiple jobs to live in these overpriced and cramped low-end apartments. The food I could buy consisted of purely ramen and rice, if I had any spare money at the time for a "luxury" food I might have bought a piece of meat or maybe gone out for fast food.

That was how I lived for the next 7 months.

That was until an earthquake happened somehow knocking me out. When I woke up I could felt something strange, yet intensely familiar. I brooded over the feeling for almost an hour before I finally remembered what the feeling was like, it was Qi!

The long lost feeling of Qi! Being a mere mortal my ability to remember was quite dampened to such a extreme degree that it too me almost and entire hour to remember. Remembering it immediately made my think back to those girls and how I would swoop in and take them under my harem.

Finally having a motive different than just surviving I was pumped and full of energy to start cultivating. Upon starting I was mortified to realize that my old methods of cultivating wouldn't work. It was an extremely slow process which took around a week so for me to get to the first level, but I was determined no mater how slow this process would take. After all, any progress was better than the no progress I had been making the last year.

I took me days before I finally figured out a method in which I could gather Qi, at least the Qi in my body as there wasn't any in my surroundings. Such an amount was pitiful, but I didn't have any other choice.

When I finally broke through to the second level a month afterword I went to the military and showed them my strength. They were clearly impressed by my strength especially since I looked so thin in comparison to the others who were around.

Although they thought highly of me, they still had to test me and so they gave me the position as this team's leader. It was a mess in the beginning and everyone had no respect for their higher ups.

But quickly I whipped them into shape and I became the only person they would take orders from. By teaching them how to cultivate I quickly began to create my own elite force, a force which quickly rose up the ranks probably because of my cultivation methods.

Eventually we made it to here, being picked as one of the 3 teams sent in from The Middle Kingdom to understand the situation.

..

Realizing how long I had been absentmindedly reminiscing I refocused on the trail our Scout had been leading us on. With a quick scan of our surroundings I delved back into my own thoughts.

'Hehe once I'm done with this place I'll come back as a hero! By then I can finally acquire that harem I've wanted for so long! Although I have no contact with them doesn't mean I don't keep any tabs on them! Well the last news I heard about them was just a week before the world changing event occurred.

That college beauty should actually be working under that female CEO coincidentally. The hot blooded cop has been promoted, but should still patrol the same area. That movie star should be pretty famous since I've seen her, but considering the loss of power I don't know her current status. The only thing I know about the daughter of that influential family is that she has been married.

Luckily she was the only one who had this status or else I would have to deal with so much more trouble in the future. Now I only have to find out a way to deal with that husband of hers! This is for her own good, surely she was only forced to marry the person because her family forced her to. There's no way the woman I saw could be married to anyone yet, she's too pure to do so, so she must have been tricked or forced into it.'

"Captain! We're here!"

Snapping me out of my thoughts I looked ahead to see small wooden village which seemed to match the description those two girls gave.

It was a small village with a sign that read: (Earthen Edges)

It was definitely the one which they spoke of, but before we could enter a group of armored men came out with two people in the lead.

One seemed middle-aged and wore scaled armor, while the other had a sizable grey beard and only wore a set of light grey robes. Both of which held swords.

Before anything the man in armor bowed to the light grey robed man.

"Elder Gong of the Grey Hound sect, We the people of Earthen Edges are sincerely sorry for having to involve you in our village's affairs."

With a casual wave of his hand Elder Gong dismissed it.

"It's no big deal. As an Elder of one of the sects from this region I naturally have to protect the people as well."

"Elder Gong you are magnanimous-"

"Hey! Are you two done?"

"Huh?"

"Since you all planned to deal with us we'll deal with you first!" Raising my rifle I shot towards a few archers on their side.

With a signal my men scattered into the trees nearby.

"Wait! You can talk?! We can discuss this! Hold on!" The man in armor tried calming down the situation to no avail.

My team began raining down lead onto their bodies. Taking down the fifth archer I noticed the robed man rushing towards my men.

'Heh this man won't even know what hit him! At least the others wore armor unlike this guy!'

Yet what I imagined was completely different to what occurred. 2 of my 4 team members spotted the man charging over and began to light him up, but bullets which came near him seemed to only crumple and fall to the ground.

Seen this take place I immediately realized how dangerous this old man was.

'He knows cultivation!? His realm seems higher than mine as well! I can't fight him, like this we have to retreat!'

"Retreat! We have to return home to tell of our findings!"

Running away I spread some bullets in hopes of distracting the man, but he continued toward my squad mate and pierced him through the chest.

'Luckily he didn't go after me!'

The next moment he slid off the sword and the old man looked me straight in the eye before throwing his sword at me.

'No no no! I can't die now! My harem is awaiting me! Shit shit, anyone else can die but me!'

The sword flew at me parallel to the ground at incredible speed. Thinking quickly I grabbed the unsuspecting squad mate next to me and used him as a shield.

Plastered on his face was a look of shock and indignation as he looked at me. Quickly dropping his body I ran after my remaining two squad members who were completely clueless about what happened behind them.

As I ran, for some reason they didn't chase us.

'I'll get them for that! I had to lose 2 of the men I trained myself, I still had uses for them! I know just how to do it too!'