Chapter 82: Ambition and Patience (Part 1)

  "You've only guessed half of it, but you haven't guessed the other half." King Kuo, sitting on the main seat and smiling at his grandchildren, suddenly said to Liu Yu.

  "Huh? Guess half right?" The old man's words made Liu Yu slightly stunned, secretly thinking about what he had guessed wrong.

  "After our surprise attack on Sas Province last year, there were indeed some unfavorable rumors about the Fifth Prince Hadrian within the Empire of Vanoa, especially among several princes who were competing with him for the position of Crown Prince. However, as winter approached, Emperor Leo Peping ignored the domestic gossip and announced that he would appoint the Fifth Prince Hadrian as the Crown Prince of the Empire, and notified the entire continent."

  To be fair, this kid Hadrian is indeed a talent. The information we've gathered shows that after the defeat of Sas Province, many high-ranking officials in the Fano Empire immediately suggested sending the Imperial Guard to attack us, but Hadrian openly opposed their proposal.

  Later, some intelligence reports from the Spirit Empire to the Kingdom also proved that the Imperial Guard of Farnod was indeed not suitable for war in a short period of time. This Hadrian lost face and was ridiculed, but still put national affairs first, this wisdom and calmness is what many people don't have." King Kero said indifferently to Liu Yu.

  "Then, Grandfather, by next year when the Farnold Empire's Imperial Guard has finished reorganizing, they should come to attack us, right?" From the old man's words, Liu Yu clearly heard that this prince of the Farnold Empire, Hadrian Peping, was quite extraordinary. However, in his heart, he was most concerned about Farnold's future counterattack.

  As the mainland's first empire to suffer such a great defeat, even if only for the sake of the empire's face, it would send troops to launch a retaliatory counterattack against the Beastman Kingdom, and it is very likely that the powerful Imperial Guard would be deployed. Liu Yu, who had only heard about this army known as the strongest on the mainland through rumors and hearsay, naturally worried about how the weak Beastman Kingdom could cope with this powerful army's revenge offensive.

  "Uh, the situation within Farnod Empire is not very clear to us, and we can't estimate whether they will attack or not. And last time when we attacked Sas Province, we got a lot of food, next year even if it's a famine year, our kingdom still has capital to slowly deal with them." Galen walked to the map on the wall of the study room in big strides, looking at the border of the kingdom with a serious and steady expression.

  "Then father..."

  Then Liu Yu and his two grandfathers chatted about the war between the Beastman Kingdom and the Fandor Empire, and Liu Yu took the opportunity to ask for advice on military strategy. King Kero and Gaia were both famous generals of the Beastman Kingdom, and their decades of battle experience made even casual conversations extremely valuable to Liu Yu.

  ....................

  Late at night, Liu Yu slowly walked out of King Kero's study. He didn't immediately return to his own bedroom, but instead wandered aimlessly within the Earthfire Fortress.

  At some point, snowflakes began to float in the sky again. The pitch-black night naturally made people feel a sense of loneliness. Liu Yu liked this feeling of solitude, as if he were a homeless soul wandering aimlessly, extremely free and unrestrained.

  "Are you very annoyed?" Unbeknownst to him, Liu Yu had walked onto the eastern city wall of the Earth Fire Fortress, and as he gazed out at the east which he had looked towards countless times since arriving in this world, a voice suddenly sounded from behind him.

  "Hmm, Grandpa..." Liu Yu suddenly turned his head to find that Croak had appeared behind him at some unknown time. The old man wore a gray long gown and had a warm smile on his face, with both hands clasped behind his back as he looked at him with affection, just like an ordinary family's kindly old grandfather.

  "Heh heh, come sit down and talk." Without waiting for Liu Yu to say anything, King Kuo waved his hand to signal Liu Yu to follow him. Liu Yu couldn't refuse his grandfather's request, so the old man and young boy walked along the city wall to the defensive tower built in the middle of the eastern city wall.

  The layout of the castle is similar to that of ancient Chinese cities. The entire castle is close to a square with four corner towers and one middle tower on each side, all of which are engraved with high-level earth-based defensive magic arrays. Since the castle is already in the rear of the Beastman Kingdom, there are generally no patrol guards on the city walls, only regular maintenance personnel are sent.

  "Sit down." With a wave of his hand in front of the stairs at the forefront of the defensive tower, the thick snow on several levels of the stairs was blown away by a gentle breeze.

  "This, Grandpa, it's very cold on the ground. Let's go back to the study and chat instead." Liu Yu estimated that the temperature around the Fire Fortress was probably below minus ten degrees Celsius at this time. Wouldn't sitting on the ground in this weather be uncomfortable?

  He was young and robust, which was not a problem. However, King Kroe, although powerful, was already eighty years old, and Liu Yu still had some concerns about his elderly self.

  "Is it cold? Sit down and try." King Kuo smiled slightly and pulled Liu Yu to sit on the steps.

  "Ah... good... yeah!..." Seeing the old man's confident smile, Liu Yu had no choice but to sit down on the steps with him. As soon as he sat down, his face revealed an incredulous expression. He clearly felt a warm and gentle heat emanating from the ground, which was continuous and soothing, like taking a warm bath. In just a few breaths, Liu Yu felt the chill in his body dissipate, replaced by a warm and cozy feeling that was extremely comfortable.

  He hastily glanced at the stairs under his feet and found a faint golden glow, apparently King Krow had infused the ground with aura.

  "You've underestimated your grandfather's strength." The over eighty-year-old King Koro said with a proud smile.

  "Hehe, Grandpa was right, I overthought it." Liu Yu knew that infusing internal energy into a specific object had conditional restrictions.

  It's as if the Golden Marrow Sword itself was made from the bones of magical beasts and several precious minerals, plus the magic arrays carved by the Mongolian tribe's top-notch mages. Not only can it easily imbue the sword with aura, but also increase the power of the aura's effect. Apart from that, like Liu Yu, these mid-to-low level beast warriors can imbue their aura into ordinary iron weapons, although the power of such a crude imbuing is much smaller.

  Now, Ke Luo Wang can easily infuse his aura into the stone and make Liu Yu feel so comfortable. The intensity of his aura is perfectly controlled, and he still appears to be carefree as if nothing had happened. Liu Yu understands that this level of power is absolutely beyond his own understanding.

  "Tell me, what's troubling you?" King Kuo asked with a benevolent smile, the affection between people of different generations always felt very intimate.

  "It's actually nothing to be annoyed about, just a bit of a bottleneck in my cultivation, I'll break through soon." The old man's demeanor made Liu Yu feel very at ease, and the two of them seemed like old friends as they chatted, their mood quite good. He said this with his hands behind him, leaning against the stairs.

  "I can feel that your spiritual power is already quite strong, and it should be enough to break through the late stage of magic guide. The quality of your spiritual power is very good, and with the help of the treasure of inheritance, how could you get stuck at this point?" Liu Yu's tone was somewhat uncertain when he said "it won't take long to break through", and Croak King lightly tapped his legs as he asked in a relaxed manner.

  "I, ... Grandson is also very strange, it should be easy to break through, but who knows, repeatedly failed." The old man asked Liu Yu, and he didn't plan to cover up anything, fortunately, he said out the doubts in his heart.

  "It's easy! You're wrong, kid. In this world, anything that's important to you is never easy. I heard your father tell me that last time you killed a Lieutenant Colonel Fanord and got merits enough to be a team guard?" From King Kuo's words, it can be seen that he is very familiar with Liu Yu's current situation.

  "Ah, yes, this spring is indeed the time for officer rotation." Liu Yu replied somewhat gloomily. His cultivation had been slow to break through, and he estimated that whether it was Huo Wei or Tuan Wei, he didn't have much hope.

  "You want to break through to the late stage of magic knight and then become a sixth-order great magic knight, so you can directly become a fire guard or a group guard. Unfortunately, your mental state is unstable, and you've failed to break through continuously, not to mention that your mood has become increasingly irritable." As for the system and conventions in the Beastman Kingdom's army, Cro King naturally knew them extremely well, so he quickly guessed the reason for Liu Yu's irritability.

  "Alas, I also know that I was too impatient and my unstable mood made what should have been an easy task increasingly difficult." Liu Yu had reflected on this many times and clearly understood where he went wrong.

  "In a few more days you'll be eighteen, right?" Seeing Liu Yu accurately point out his own problem, Kuroba put away his smile and after a moment of silence suddenly asked an unrelated question.

  "Yes, it's just a few more days. I didn't think you'd remember." The old man, who was busy with countless matters, actually remembered his birthday, which made Liu Yu feel unexpectedly surprised.

  "Haha, how could I forget? Your grandmother had just passed away a year before you were born. I was in a bad mood at the time, but after you were born, I was really happy. Among your four grandfathers, I was the last to have children and grandchildren, but fortunately, both you and your father are satisfactory. As for that little Philip, he'll probably give your father more headaches in the future." King Kero patted Liu Yu's head with great affection.

  "But what I want to say is not this. You're only 18 years old, and at your age, I didn't even have a second-class military merit, let alone being a team guard or fire guard. I had to wait until after my military service was over before I could accumulate merits and be promoted to fire guard. As for your father, although he was stronger than me, it wasn't until his third year of military service that he became a fire guard, and in terms of military merit, he's not as good as you either."

  At that time, I fought bravely on the battlefield, but unfortunately, I didn't kill many enemies, so...". Originally intended to comfort Liu Yu, King Kuo inadvertently mentioned his youthful experiences and quickly showed a hint of excitement in his eyes, as if he had many fond memories back then.