Old Guo set the three-foot-wide bamboo steamer stack down on the stone table inside VIP Room #1 and lifted the woven bamboo lid with a dramatic flourish.
WHOOOOSH!
A cloud of fragrant white steam billowed out, filling the bathhouse with the irresistible smell of slow-braised desert lamb, sweet roasted pork fat, chopped green scallions, and a pinch of glittering Snow-Crystal Salt.
Sitting neatly inside the bamboo trays were twenty massive steamed buns, each one the size of a grown man’s two fists put together! The fluffy white dough had been kneaded with Sweet-Spring Spirit Water and Meat-Belly Giant Potato flour, puffed up so soft and bouncy that rich, golden-red meat juice was glistening right through the pleated tops of the buns.
“Eat up while they’re piping hot, General Tie!” Old Guo beamed, his fat cheeks glowing red from the kitchen fire as he handed Tie Zhan a pair of long bamboo chopsticks—and then thought better of it and simply pushed the whole top steamer tray straight into the general’s hands. “Young Master told me that when a man rebuilds his bone marrow, his belly turns into a black hole! Don’t bother with manners, there’s another basket steaming on the stove!”
General Tie Zhan didn’t need a second invitation.
For six months in the Iron-Sand City dungeon and Boss Ma’s prison cart, he had been fed sour moldy bran mixed with sand once a day. Now, his newly reconnected leg meridians and Rank 3 Grandmaster blood were screaming for meat and grain!
Tie Zhan grabbed two giant buns—one in his left hand, one in his right—and buried his face in the fluffy white dough.
CHOMP!
With a single bite, half of a fist-sized bun vanished into his mouth. Hot, savory pork-and-lamb soup burst across his tongue, mixed with the crunch of fresh green onions and the rich sweetness of Meat-Potato dough.
The moment he swallowed the first mouthful, it didn’t just sit in his stomach—the pure food energy produced by the fused ingredients turned directly into a warm river of blood-Qi that rushed down into his newly healed legs, filling the hollow emptiness in his marrow!
Tie Zhan’s eyes widened. He didn’t say a word. His two huge hands moved like afterimages.
One bun. Two buns. Five buns. Ten buns!
Old Wei stood by the door with his arms crossed, watching in awe as the six-foot-six general inhaled steamed buns faster than a starving wolf pack. Whenever Tie Zhan’s throat got dry after six buns, he picked up the five-gallon wooden bucket of hot lamb-bone soup with one hand, tipped it to his lips, and gulped down half a gallon of broth before going right back to the steamer trays!
In less than three minutes, all twenty giant meat buns had disappeared into Tie Zhan’s stomach, and the five-gallon soup bucket was licked so clean you could see your reflection in the wooden bottom.
BUUUURP!
Tie Zhan let out a long, thunderous belch that smelled of scallions and roasted lamb. Simultaneously, a wave of crimson steam rose from the top of his head as his depleted Rank 3 Internal Qi refilled to 100% capacity, humming inside his dantian like a heavy war drum!
Tie Zhan slowly set the empty bamboo tray back onto the table.
He looked at his own rough hands, still shiny with meat grease. Then he looked down at the clean dark-blue martial uniform and heavy leather boots that Hong Ling had left folded on the bench for him. Finally, he looked up at the nineteen-year-old young lord standing calmly in front of him with a warm smile.
Without a word, Tie Zhan pulled on the clean blue martial trousers and tunic, stepped off the bench, and dropped straight to both knees on the hard salt-stone floor in front of Pei Xuan.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
He knocked his forehead against the stone tiles three times with such force that each kowtow sounded like an iron sledgehammer striking an anvil.
“General Tie, get up!” Pei Xuan stepped forward to lift him by the shoulders, but Tie Zhan rooted himself to the floor with his Rank 3 Internal Qi, refusing to budge until he spoke.
Hot tears streamed down the scarred veteran’s face, mixing with the water still dripping from his short gray hair.
“My Lord!” Tie Zhan’s voice boomed through the bathhouse, thick with raw emotion. “I, Tie Zhan, joined the Great Yan border army at fourteen! I fought sixty-eight battles, killed three Barbarian Thousand-Man Commanders with my own hands, and lost four brothers to northern arrows! Yet when I begged the court for my soldiers’ winter grain, the Emperor ignored me, the War Ministry framed me, and that dog Boss Ma sold my life at your gate for two bags of salt!”
Tie Zhan lifted his tear-streaked face, his tiger-like eyes blazing with fierce devotion.
“To the Empire, Tie Zhan’s life was worth two bags of salt! To you, My Lord—you cut off my slave chains, wasted priceless heavenly treasures to rebuild my shattered legs, and fed me twenty meat buns with your own hands! From this breath until my bones turn to desert dust, Tie Zhan’s life belongs to Dry-Well Town! Whoever dares to point a finger at My Lord—be he a bandit king, a border marquis, or an Immortal in the clouds—Tie Zhan will chop off his head and use his skull for a chamber pot!”
Right above Tie Zhan’s head, the golden Loyalty bar gave a violent tremble and slammed all the way to the right edge of the gauge!
DING! DING! DING!
A shower of blinding golden fireworks exploded across Pei Xuan’s RTS screen.
Ten thousand Loyalty Points in one shot, plus a thousand points every single midnight! Pei Xuan grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. That 2,000 LP medicinal bath had just paid for itself five times over in ten minutes, and he had gained a genuine Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster to lead his army!
“Good! With General Tie in Dry-Well Town, I can sleep soundly with both eyes closed!” Pei Xuan grasped Tie Zhan’s thick forearms and pulled the big general to his feet. “From today on, you are the Chief Commander of the Dry-Well Town Defense Force. Old Wei commands my personal guard, Batu commands the Wolf-Rider Scouts, and Captain Hu commands the Salt Mine Garrison—all three report to you for daily military drills! Oh, and Old Guo—”
Pei Xuan turned to the fat cook by the door. “Put it in the town lawbook: Commander Tie gets unlimited Lamb-Pork Steamed Buns at every meal, plus a midnight snack basket delivered to his barracks every night!”
“Hahaha! Consider it done, Young Master!” Old Guo slapped his belly and laughed. “Having a general who appreciates my buns is better than ten gold medals!”
Tie Zhan wiped his eyes with the back of his big hand, his stomach already giving a happy rumble at the words unlimited steamed buns. He buckled on the new leather belt, strode out of the bathhouse behind Pei Xuan, and took a deep breath of the cool oasis air.
“My Lord,” Tie Zhan said, his battle aura rising as he rolled his broad shoulders, “let me go inspect our soldiers at the Martial Yard right now! Even if we only have a few hundred skinny farmers with wooden spears, give me ten days and I’ll drill them until they can hold off a thousand cavalry!”
Pei Xuan and Old Wei exchanged an amused look.
“A few hundred skinny farmers?” Old Wei chuckled, gesturing down the wide stone avenue toward the Lv.2 Town Martial Yard on the east side of town. “General Tie, you might want to prepare yourself. Our Dry-Well Town ‘farmers’ are a little different from the ones you saw in the northern counties.”
Five minutes later, Tie Zhan walked through the archway of the East Martial Yard—and stopped dead in his tracks.
The training ground covered ten full acres of packed red-iron sand.
In the center square, five hundred town guards wearing matching gray-and-black padded armor were practicing the [Iron-Anvil Body Art] in neat rows of fifty. Each man wasn’t holding a wooden spear—each man was carrying a three-hundred-pound Cool-Breeze Stone Pillar across his shoulders while doing deep horse-stance squats!
“ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!”
At the front of the formation stood former mercenary leader Captain Hu, who had come back from the salt mine on the morning Scorpion Bus to lead the noon drill. Captain Hu was shirtless, showing off a chest that gleamed like dark bronze, and every time the five hundred men stomped their boots down on the sand together—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ten-acre yard shook like an earthquake! Worse yet, out of those five hundred guards, over eighty of them had the unmistakable iron-bone hum of Rank 2 Early Martial fighters, and the other four hundred and twenty were all solid Rank 1 Peak Martial warriors with skin as tough as boiled bullhide!
Over in the left corner of the yard, sixty nomad hunters led by Batu were practicing mounted archery while riding giant gray Desert Sand-Wolves, shooting iron-tipped arrows through swinging copper coins at full gallop.
And over in the right corner—which made Tie Zhan rub his eyes three times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming—a white-haired old granny (Grandma Zhang) was leading two hundred village women from the Kitchen & Logistics Corps. Grandma Zhang was holding a hundred-pound stone roller in one hand and a rolling pin in the other, yelling:
“Put your hips into it, girls! If you can’t crack a bandit’s collarbone with one swing of your rolling pin, how are you going to knead the Golden-Potato dough fast enough for dinner?!”
Tie Zhan stood frozen by the gate, his jaw hanging open.
“Five... five hundred heavy infantry, all practicing a flawless Body-Tempering martial art without a single trace of internal meridian strain?!” Tie Zhan pointed a shaking finger at the squatting guards. “Eighty Rank 2 Iron-Bone elites?! Wolf-riding cavalry?! And why is that seventy-year-old grandmother lifting a hundred-pound stone roller with one hand?!”
Hearing the booming voice at the gate, Captain Hu yelled “HALT!” and jogged over, wiping his sweat with a towel. When Captain Hu saw Tie Zhan’s towering six-foot-six frame and felt the terrifying, mountain-like pressure of Rank 3 Internal Qi radiating off the big man, Captain Hu’s eyes went wide and he immediately snapped to attention.
“Captain Hu of the First Garrison Squad greets the Senior Grandmaster!” Captain Hu saluted smartly.
“Captain Hu, Batu, everyone—gather round!” Pei Xuan stepped onto the raised stone command platform at the front of the yard, his voice carrying clearly across all ten acres. “Allow me to introduce Dry-Well Town’s new Chief Military Commander, General Tie Zhan—formerly Deputy General of the Northern Iron-Wall Army, and a Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster! From today forward, Commander Tie is in full command of all military training, wall defense, and field battles!”
A collective gasp rippled through the five hundred guards and sixty wolf-riders.
“General Tie Zhan?! The ‘Iron-Head Tiger’ of Broken-Wolf Valley?!” Captain Hu’s eyes lit up like lanterns. Having worked as a border mercenary for ten years, Captain Hu had grown up hearing legends of how Tie Zhan once held a fortress gate alone with a broken spear against three hundred barbarian riders! “Wait—didn’t the rumors say General Tie’s legs were crippled in Iron-Sand City?!”
Instead of answering with words, Tie Zhan grinned, walked over to the weapon rack beside the platform, and picked up a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound solid black-iron training halberd that usually took two Rank 2 guards to carry.
Tie Zhan spun the heavy iron halberd in one hand as if it were a bamboo broomstick. Then he took one step forward and channeled a stream of Rank 3 Internal Qi down his newly healed legs and into the halberd blade!
SHING—ROOOAAAR!
A dazzling three-foot-long crescent of silver-white Internal Qi Blade-Light shot off the edge of the halberd, flying twenty feet across the empty sand pit and slamming into a four-foot-thick granite target boulder at the edge of the yard!
CRACK—BOOOOOM!
Before the eyes of all five hundred guards, the solid granite boulder split cleanly down the middle from top to bottom, its two halves falling apart with a thunderous crash to reveal a cross-section as smooth as a bronze mirror!
“Internal Qi Outward Release! A real Rank 3 Martial Grandmaster!”
“Long live Lord Pei! Long live Commander Tie!”
Five hundred guards and sixty wolf-riders raised their fists and roared at the top of their lungs, their morale and excitement shooting through the roof!
Tie Zhan planted the butt of the heavy iron halberd into the sand with a loud clang and swept his gaze over the cheering warriors.
“You men have strong bones and good food in your bellies, thanks to our Lord!” Tie Zhan bellowed, his voice shaking the dust off the yard wall. “Wait until I teach you the Northern Iron-Wall Battle Formation! In seven days, if any three of you can’t lock shields and stop a charging warhorse cold, I’ll make you run twenty laps around the salt mine carrying Old Yellow the camel on your backs! Now—LINE UP BY SQUADS!”
“YES, COMMANDER!”
Watching Tie Zhan dive straight into drilling the troops with the energy of a tiger let out of a cage, Pei Xuan smiled and checked his system clock.
General Tie was settled. Now, how was his other new recruit—Abacus Su—doing over at the Town Hall with Hong Ling’s messy ledgers?
When Pei Xuan walked back toward the center of town ten minutes later, he heard loud shouting and the frantic clack-clack-clack of golden abacus beads coming from the Town Square!