The Divine Martial Stars

Doubt and disbelief swept Lei Cang’s stare. “That’s impossible!” he protested furiously, “NEVER! If a Chosen One born from a Tree of Eternity has been here for four months as you say, then he should still be a child! There is no way he’s an adult with enough powers to withstand my attacks!”

The lieutenant of the squad lifted the visor of his helmet and revealed a thick-browed man with a wide face that struck Li Mu as a dependable and reassuring person. “Captain Lei’s right, I’m afraid,” he said, “Chosen Ones need twenty months to reach adulthood. If what you said is correct, then he should still be a four-year-old child by now.”

“I’m already an adult by the time I emerged from the fruit,” pointed out Li Mu.

“What?!” the lieutenant gasped, his face replete with shock, “How is that possible?! Are you sure?!”

“No truer words have been spoken,” said Li Mu, “These are the villagers of Oststern. They can attest to my appearance.”

He had lived long enough in Oststern to know that the military represented all the power and authority in the human domain of this dimension and with Oststern being within the commandery of Legion Kommodore, he had planned to join the military by going straight to Fliegenstern, a city a thousand miles away from Oststern. Fliegenstern is the seat of power of the local authority that governs all nearby hamlets and villages and Oststern is one of them. Li Mu wished to harness that authority and use it to help locate Wang Shiyu’s remaining soul and psyche fragments. And to achieve that, making enemies out of the military was hardly the road to tread on.

However, encountering Lei Cang again really was unexpected.

Li Mu was still very much dubious as to why people who had died on Earth could be alive here.

Something must be wrong. Lei Cang must be hiding some sort of secret, or anyone could have just killed themselves and they would arrive here.

But at the moment, Li Mu would first need to contend with Lei Cang’s undisguised animosity towards him.

But fortunately, his lieutenant seemed like a more approachable fellow.

“I shall examine the veracity of what you said, sir,” the lieutenant, a middle-aged man, responded thoughtfully, “I am Xiao Jianfei, lieutenant of Squad Thunder of the Eighteen Trailblazer Corps.”

“Nice to meet you, Lieutenant Xiao,” Li Mu saluted.

“So how did you come here?” the lieutenant asked.

Li Mu paused then he said, “Perhaps I should let Feng and the others answer your question. Maybe you can believe their words more easily.”

Xiao Jianfei peered at the scavengers still standing inside Li Mu’s defensive ward.

Feng and the others quickly gave a lengthy, albeit cluttered account of what happened.

“I shall look into this,” responded Xiao Jianfei at last. “But before the truth is fully ascertained, I would suggest that you stay in Oststern or you’ll risk being branded a fugitive by Legion Kommodore.”

“Of course,” Li Mu allowed.

“We should just put him in chains to prevent him from escaping,” growled Lei Cang sourly.

“I’d say not, Captain Lei,” Xiao Jianfei disagreed. “We have only so much time before the Deluge of Illumination strikes. We need to complete the mission without losing any more time.”

Lei Cang had not yet lost sight of the significance of this mission. Through gritted teeth, he conceded, “Very well.”

He might be Captain of Squad Thunder, but with barely enough experience of this world, the privileges and power that he now enjoyed would have not been possible without the right connections and relations. In contrast, the rest of the men respected Xiao Jianfei even more, making the native of the Battlefield and a proven veteran the real de facto leader of the squad.

Xiao Jianfei left two Trailblazers here to keep an eye on Li Mu while the others continued their search.

The latter waited quietly on the top deck.

While Feng and the others peppered him with excited questions, asking him about what he had seen at the bottom. At any rate, they were no longer frightened or despondent as before.

The military enjoyed such power and prestige in this world being the symbol of peace, hope, and stability to the common folk. The moment the scavengers saw the silver-white armor of Squad Thunder, they knew that they were saved.

Li Mu answered their queries with patience.

While he had some other things in mind.

Lei Cang had made the most erroneous miscalculation earlier by thinking that he was more powerful than Li Mu. That was what loosen his tongue so much into divulging too many facts—about how he was a member of Squad Thunder and that they were aware of the treasures of the Lunar Specter: The Map of Cosmos, the Lunar Pearl, the Blazing Pearl, and the Spectral Pearl. But what he did not know was that all four treasures have now been retrieved by Li Mu, although Xiao Jianfei and Lei Cang’s suspicion would undoubtedly fall on Li Mu’s shoulders the moment they failed to find them.

“So… Should I surrender the treasures now, or should I not?”

Li Mu wondered.

A quarter of an hour later.

The raucous peals of beasts howling furiously and the wraiths wailing frenziedly could be heard from afar.

Li Mu swiveled around to look. A bright flash of light pierced through the low light somewhere due north. As if someone had swung a humungous axe somewhere from that direction, the metallic bolt of light slashed straight for the Lunar Specter with indescribable speeds.

“That’s Team Brass!” yelped one of the Trailblazers urgently. He barked to his comrade, “Report this at once! Tell them that we have company gunning for a slice of the pie!”

“Right away!” responded the other Trailblazer who leaped down into the hole.

Li Mu was piqued with interest.

“Is this another squad from the Eighteen Trailblazer Corps?

“This is getting interesting…”

The fighting was growing increasingly closer.

The giant rusted-red color scorpion that had been watching the northside was not pleased with all by the intrusion of Squad Brass. With an enraged and shocked screech, it attacked the rapidly advancing Trailblazer squad, slowing their progress for barely a moment before Squad Brass had to jettison off three dead bodies to punch through the mob of beasts and wraiths to reach Lunar Specter.

Their captain was a lean and beautiful woman. Li Mu marveled to find a girl with a wheatish complexion under the visor of the helmet, and those sharp and piercing eyes of hers could even make men balk. She scanned Li Mu and the lone Trailblazer briefly and snorted with contempt, “We’re lagging behind. Inside there, NOW! I want the treasures found!”

All ninety-seven shiny-armored Trailblazers, each of them toting brass-colored swords rushed down through the hole like a stream of white…

In the meantime, Li Mu was only still musing in the throes of watching this spectacle when he spied more movements coming this time from the south.

That was yet another hundred-man-strong Trailblazer squad. They charged through the multitudes of beasts before the snake Beast King intercepted them where they lost eight men before they arrived.

The captain of this new squad—a tall and rangy blonde with a facetious grin—gave Li Mu a perfunctory glance before he waved. His men leaped into the hole under his lead and none of them stayed.

“That ‘the Joker’ Lin Jingxin. Gods, that’s trouble,” groaned the last Trailblazer left to watch Li Mu, rubbing a palm on his forehead as he grimaced.

Feng and the others, on the other hand, looked more reassured with the arrival of so many Trailblazer squads.

The presence of these well-trained soldiers would mean the greatest guarantee of their safety.

Li Mu patiently watched in silence.

Minutes later, the planks of the deck beneath his feet began to shake. Some sort of fighting must be going on underneath, although it clearly had not gone overboard enough to destroy the whole ship. Li Mu could only surmise that some disagreements below deck must have gone awry, escalating into a tiny and presumably restrained manner of fisticuff.

“But all four treasures are here with me and the one that the rusted sword just destroyed must be the Spectral Pearl. So what else is below for them to fight over? Those crates?”

Li Mu wondered quietly.

Another half-hour slipped by.

In the end, all three squads emerged from the hatch of the aftercastle. Men in shiny armor filed out in orderly lines, each of them carrying those crates with them, just as Li Mu expected.

A cursory glance showed that there were exactly a hundred of these crates. Forty of them had gone to Squad Thunder and the rest were evenly divided among the remaining two squads. Lei Cang and Xiao Jianfei must have come to some form of agreement with the other two captains, deciding that first come, first served.

Lei Cang marched right up to Li Mu and thrust an arm. “Hand them over,” he growled.

“What?” Li Mu yelped, feigning innocence.

“Quit pretending, Li Mu. We know that you have the four treasures of the Lunar Specter. Hand them over nicely and you’d still earn some form of credit. Otherwise, heh heh heh, we’ll just have to take it ourselves,” Lei Cang issued his threat.

“Should I do anything of the sort?” Li Mu deflected the by not denying that the treasures were with him, nor did he admit to having them as well.

The handsome blonde Lin Jingxin sauntered over. “So you’re that irregular Chosen One? Well done. According to the regulations, whoever finds the treasure first gets a share of the credit. You’re not yet even in the military and yet you’ve already got such a fat reward. Gods, I’m envious. But you’ve got to understand that it’s not safe for you to hold on to all the treasures alone. I suggest you hand them over. Share the credit and share the rewards, safeguard yourself.”

There was no threat in his voice and nor was there any hint of derision. Only reason.

Li Mu panned his gaze at Xiao Jianfei, then at the beautiful woman with a wheatish complexion.

“I’m afraid that rings true, my friend,” said Xiao Jianfei, “Your credit is certain and we will report this to our superiors. But understand that your identity currently remains a mystery and it’s better for everyone’s sakes that you hand them over first.” He looked ashamed when he finished. An honest and upright soldier who believed his creed to the letter, Xiao Jianfei felt embarrassed at being party to issuing such veiled threats.

“My name is Ye Ying, and you can trust me to vouch for your contribution to finding the treasures, but you need to hand them over. Remember: Greed is not a helpful virtue.”

All eyes were on Li Mu.

He smiled all of a sudden. “Very well then.”

He extracted first the large colorful map. “Although, I’m not sure if this is the Map of Cosmos that you’re talking about…”

The eyes of every armored Trailblazer around them lit up with excitement.

“Yes! That is it! It really is the Map of Cosmos! Gimme! Gimme!” Lei Cang exclaimed with delight.

The Map of Cosmos was the most important and most valuable treasure out of the four.

Ignoring Lei Cang, Li Mu said to the others, “So who should I hand this to, I wonder…”

That enraged Lei Cang who snarled, “What do you mean?! My squad arrived here first, so it should be mine! If only you had not…”

Lin Jingxin removed his helmet, allowing his stark white hair to spill out into the night breeze. “There’s a certain truth that that and I won’t contradict that. I’m all right with Thunder Squad getting their just desserts.”

Ye Ying hesitated for one beat, then she too answered, “So am I.”

“Hahaha! I’ve heard so much about how you two are honorable people! I see that the rumors are not overstatements! Very well then! My thanks!” roared Lei Cang with pleasure and triumph before he swiveled around to Li Mu and demanded, “Hear that, Li Mu? Now give it to me!”

“Of course, I have no qualms about giving it to Thunder Squad. But I’m more inclined to surrender the map to—” he redirected his gaze to Xiao Jianfei, much to everyone’s amazement, “—to you, Lieutenant Xiao. Here, the Map of Cosmos.”

“Huh?!” gasped a flabbergasted Xiao Jianfei.