Li Guanyi said, "I have treated you with sincerity, General. You’re not someone like that."
Yuwen Tianxian was silent and sighed:
"I can’t teach you much, and moreover, if you aspire to rule the world, you must surpass me."
"My command ability is only capable of leading an army of merely twenty thousand men, to partake in battles of the hundred thousand scale."
Li Guanyi’s forehead twitched.
At this moment, Li Guanyi suddenly realized that what Yuwen Tianxian was truly skilled at, might not be the conflicts at the level of a few thousand men, but rather the warfare involving tens of thousands in large troop formations, warfare of multiple arms working in concert, its characteristic seeming to be that the more men under his command and the richer the variety of arms, the stronger the coordination.
Yuwen Tianxian probably had not expected that he would be capsized in the gutter.
Like a fierce tiger, captured by an underage Li Nu’er.
An army of twenty thousand men!
Li Guanyi, with the command ability for a few thousand, was stunned.
Yuwen Tianxian kept silent and said, "But if your aim is farther away, you’ll have to surpass me, to command armies at the level of a hundred thousand, only then can you step into this chaotic world. And if—"
He looked at Li Guanyi, having been on the road together for over sixty days, Yuwen Tianxian still made a clearly presumptuous remark: "The world is unsettled, and the heroes are not yet dead!"
"Chen Country, like a giant, will definitely have a fierce backlash before death."
"I think the battle that will decide the fate and direction of the world will surely be a grand battle in which both sides command [millions of] warriors. My command ability will only play a supporting role on such a battlefield."
"Such a battle will inevitably become the most magnificent battle in all of history, celebrated by people for countless years to come, and the generals and heroes involved will surely be etched into the annals of history."
"Li Guanyi, if you wish to set foot on such a battlefield."
"You must strive to learn."
Li Guanyi was overjoyed.
He spread his arms wide, hugged the expressionless famous general tightly, and laughed: "Hahaha, so you’re saying, General, you’ve agreed to teach me!!"
Yuwen Tianxian placed a hand on Li Guanyi’s face.
He pushed the pest away from him a little harder, saying, "I am but a defeated general, doing what I must to preserve my life; don’t come near me, for one day on the battlefield, you and I are destined to meet."
"The thing I need to do..."
He looked at the young face before him and said:
"Curious to see how far your ideas can go."
He used a trick to flip Li Guanyi head over heels, then turned and left, reaching the entrance of the simple tent. He turned back to look at the joyous young commander sitting there, and said, "I need you to promise me something."
Li Guanyi immediately said, "Speak."
Yuwen Tianxian said, "If one day we meet on the battlefield..."
The famous general looked down and whispered:
He lifted the tent flap and strode out.
The news of Li Guanyi and others crushing the Yin Yang Reincarnation Sect hadn’t fully spread yet, but under the operations of Pang Shuiyun, this young man began to be known as a new famous general, his reputation gradually rising in the world.
Though it was but a minor repute.
At this time, back in the Central State Academy, a great Confucian of Confucianism, who rarely returned to this place, was personally received by Gongyang Su Wang. It was Mr. Wang Tong, whom Li Guanyi had met in Guan Yi City and who had taught him the Skill of Ten Thousand Enemies.
Mr. Wang Tong hurried to the Academy with only three disciples in tow.
From the Qinghe Fang family, Fang Ziqiao.
From the Capital’s Du Family, Du Keming.
From Quyang, Wei Xuancheng.
He let his three disciples visit friends within the Academy, while Mr. Wang Tong and Gongyang Su Wang went in together.
Gongyang Su Wang was a stately old man. He looked at the young but physically feeble Confucian junior and could only sigh. When Wang Tong discussed the matters of Chen Country’s grand ceremony, the old man burst into a series of hearty laughs from time to time: "Oh? There’s also a Qilin?"
After Wang Tong described the Qilin’s combat power, a distant voice came through:
"Hmm? Combat power like that?"
Mr. Wang Tong turned to look, and there lay the gigantic Exotic Beast with dark golden Scale Armor giving a sense of heavy solidity, its hair already turning white, its left horn broken with a sharp fracture. It was the aging Qilin from the Academy.
Gongyang Su Wang handed over a fruit.
The Old Qilin didn’t want it, pointing instead to the sugar over there.
Gongyang Su Wang laughed wryly, stuffed a whole jar of the Academy’s new honey sweets into the Qilin’s mouth, and Wang Tong answered, "According to the records, It was hatched by Duke Chen in his old age, almost five hundred years ago."
The Old Qilin said, "Five hundred years, yet unable to reveal the true visage of Qilin Fire."
"Has this Qilin been lying down all its five hundred years?"
It showed an angry expression on its face and said to Gongyang Su Wang, "The Master said: ’The uncut jade does not become a useful object; also said: ’Those who are born knowing are the highest. Those who learn through study are the next. Those who are dim-witted and yet strive to learn are another level still. Those who are dim-witted and do not learn are the lowest among the people.’"
"This one, since the matter of Li Wanli more than a decade ago, must have known that his strength was insufficient."
"Ten years of humiliation, honing his spirit, ten years of breaking through adversity, I thought he might be warned."
"Thereafter striving, honing his own strength."
"Yet still, he remains as ever, like a sluggish horse! Beaten with a whip, he doesn’t even know to race forward, squandering all his strength, how weak he is!"