Tempest of the Battlefield

Two days later, all the students had returned to Ayrlarng. All the faces of the S club lit up with joy as they were eager to share their experience with everyone else. Apache had not responded as he had already been officially admitted to the military due to his exceptional performance. Martyrus let Apache go without any hesitation or remorse; he knew that military, instead of the academy, was where Apache belonged. Plus. It was a teacher\'s duty to help the students to get on their true stage.

Everyone was happy for Apache, and his success had helped the S club extend its influence. By word of mouth, many A and B class students learned about the S club and knew that its leader was the incredible fighter that defeated Capth, so they handed in their application without a second thought.

"Sh*t!... Is this for real?" Hu Yangxuan asked incredulously, mouth wide open.

The news about Wang Tong\'s injury had caught everyone by surprise.

"Don\'t you worry about me. The doctor said that there are still hope for recharging it. Plus, fighting is not the only way of participating in a war. I can still do the logistical work."

"Balls! Hu Yangxuan, your family, is rich. Why don\'t you find him a better doctor?" Karl shouted.

Wang Tong shook his head and said, "That was not the problem. I had depleted my soul energy, and it\'s all up to me to gain it back. Anyhow, thanks for your concern. Haha, stop pulling that sullen face!"

"Yea, Wang Tong, make sure you let us know what you need, ok?"

"Don\'t worry about it, Boss. Based on your palm lines, I can tell you are destined to become an Einherjar. Maybe this injury was just a blessing in disguise! " Karl announced gleefully.

"Ha-ha, I hope you are right!" Wang Tong laughed. The company of his friends had already made Wang Tong forget about the frustration of not being able to use any of his soul energy.

Everyone wanted to help, but were not sure how, so they all offered their moral support.

In the night, when Wang Tong laid on his bed, he studied his sea of consciousness carefully and found it was still dry as a desert. He missed Mr. Wannabe\'s scathing advice, but even his most trusted advisor could not answer his call.

Wang Tong grimaced. He wondered what would be the point of living if he didn\'t have any soul energy to use.

Could he really be a logistical worker? No.

Wang Tong tried a dozen more failed attempts to summon his soul energy, and eventually gave up.

In her dorm, Zhou Sisi buried her head in a pile of books relating to the treatment of soul energy depletion. She found out that depletion happened more often then she had thought. However, so far there was no viable treatment for it. In some of the cases, the soldier regained his soul energy over time, but the new soul energy was only a fraction of what it used to be. Only in a few very rare cases would the soldier regain the soul energy to its former strength, but records related to those cases all referred elusively to certain "matching force" or "the right moment" as the main contributor to the full recovery. The real meaning of these ambiguous terms escaped Zhou Sisi.

She also discovered some alternative methods, such as the method of Golden Needle, where a professional energy acupuncture would stimulate the soldier\'s dantian with a Golden Needle.

However, not only was it incredibly hard to find a professional energy acupuncture therapist who knew how to wield the "Golden Needles.", but the healing process was also very long as it would take up to decades.

Cao Yi and the Zhang brothers were also busy in finding a treatment for Wang Tong. They had hacked into high clearance documents hoping to find an answer there. All the while, they felt indignant for Wang Tong as fate had played this cruel joke on him.

Life went on, and the world wouldn\'t slow down for one person. So, in a few weeks, the students had accepted the reality, and so did Wang Tong towards their pitiful look.

Wang Tong focused his attention on recovering as well as learning to fly the spaceship, one skill that did not require soul energy. Although Wang Tong had lost all of his soul energy, he was more determined than ever to become a soldier.

He didn\'t care about what other people might think of him, but focused solely on doing a great job in what he wanted to do.

His friends had given him much support. Hu Yang even broke his routine of sleeping that he had so religiously kept for the sake of a younger-looking skin, and joined Wang Tong in his morning exercises.

Wang Tong was moved by his friends\' whole-hearted support, so he worked even harder, afraid of letting his friends down.

Half a month later, on a starry night, Wang Tong walked out of the library quietly. He had been spent much time in the library, researching techniques of fleet combat. Although his micro control was gone with the same wind that blew away his soul energy, he still held a solid understanding of the macro management of the space battle. After much research, he registered that the Soring Heaven and the Art of the Iron Wall could be refined further.

He hoped that if he could do well in fleet control, he might have a chance of becoming a first mate on a fleet without any soul energy. While Wang Tong was engrossed in his thoughts, someone stopped him cold. Even without soul energy, Wang Tong could tell that this person was a powerful fighter.

"This way, Wang Tong." The man in black said.

Wang Tong recognized that voice right away, "You are from House of Li."

"Our lady sent us." The man in black said placidly.

"I have nothing to say to her."

"Wang Tong, I might have to fight you into submission before, but now... you better do as I say."

"Over my dead body!"

"You got a quite an attitude, don\'t you? Lad, I like that. But you know our lady\'s temperament., I would be worried about your friends\' lives if I were you. "

The man in black softened his voice. He was just doing his job. As a matter of fact, he liked this kid based on what he had heard about him. He conceded that Wang Tong was extremely unlucky to have offended Li Ruoer when she was at the critical point of breaching into her next level of cultivation. As the agitated soul energy rattled Li Ruoer\'s sanity, no one knew what the next crazy action she took would be. This was supposed to be a normal process in cultivating the Tactics of the Enchantress, and this man was hired by the House of Li to look after Li Ruoer when she was at her craziest, and also the most vulnerable.

Wang Tong nodded as he registered that he had no other options.

The man in black led him to a five-star hotel in downtown Shang Jin, where Li Ruoer had rented out the entire floor to ensure secrecy.

Li Ruoer was in a sleeveless tank top and jean shorts, revealing a pair of beautiful long legs. She waited impatiently for Wang Tong as she planned out her revenge.

It had been a while since they last met at the Aurora City, but it still seemed too short to Wang Tong.

Li Ruoer\'s face lit up at the sight of Wang Tong, but her smile quickly faded as she was disappointed by that arrogant and defiant look on Wang Tong\'s face.

"Wang Tong, long time no see. You barely changed at all!"

"What do you want?" Wang Tong grunted indifferently. He no longer cared about their petty feud as he just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

Li Ruoer couldn\'t stand his indifferent tone and anger sprout out inside of her. The flame twisted her lips into a contorted laugh. "Who do you think you ARE? You are nothing without your abilities."

"Perhaps, but I did kick you’re a*s pretty good, and I will do it again if I could." Wang Tong rolled his eyes as he spoke.

Wang Tong\'s words added more fuel to the flame in Li Ruoer\'s eyes, and made it burned brighter. She wanted to enrage Wang Tong, but it had appeared that it was her rage that had gone out of control. She squeezed her hands, trying to rein in her anger as she wondered what had supported Wang Tong\'s pomposity even after losing his soul energy.

She applauded methodically, and then stood up in front of Wang Tong, "What a hero! Alright then, tough guy, let me tell you why you are here. I had invited you to watch a show with me."

Li Ruoer knew that physical pain would have little to no effect on crippling Wang Tong\'s will. To succeed, she needed something more personal.

Li Ruoer waved her hand as a projection appeared on the wall. The initially blurry image gave an impression of someone sitting on a chair, but as the picture took a few seconds to become clearer, Wang Tong\'s heart sank after seeing that the person was Zhou Sisi, and her hands were tied to the chair.

"This girl must be obsessed with you! She was researching ways of healing you in the library, but unfortunately for her, she forgot about the danger on the streets."

"You are crazy!" Wang Tong bawled out.

General Li Feng was wise to not leave the Tactics of Blade to his sick and morally degenerate b*stards.