Monarch of Evernight - Chapter 856

Chapter 8-856: Volume 8 - Chapter 856: Dark Flame Reborn

By the time the first light of dawn washed over Southern Blue, the flames therein had more or less begun to die down . Leaders of mercenary corps big and small were gathered in the Frost Wolf Corps’ base, most of them with swollen faces or even carried in .

There were quite a few people around, but the place was permeated by utter silence . Everyone wore frightened expressions, not daring to even breathe loudly or glance at the demon lady .

Ji Tianqing was instructing a couple of corps commanders to set up a stage, and Frost Wolf was also among them . Before last night, he was a fairly well-respected character in Southern Blue, but now, the dejected man had no choice but to carry logs about and perform manual labor .

With so many champion-level experts working, a simple stage was very soon completed . Ji Tianqing instructed the men to place on the stage a large chair that had been carried over from somewhere else . She then waved at Qianye, saying, “Come up!”

Qianye ascended the platform with a wooden expression and was duly pressed into the seat by Ji Tianqing, facing the crowd of mercenaries .

The latter took a step back to stand behind Qianye . “From today on, our mercenary corps… what should we call it?”

“Tianqing,” Song Zining replied expressionlessly .

“No! It has to be Song Seven, of course!”

“Bah! I don’t want such a ragged mercenary corps named after me!”

“You have no choice!”

“This corps is Qianye’s, why must it be named after me?”

Ji Tianqing slapped her forehead . “Oh right, let’s call it the Qianye Mercenary Corps, then!”

“No . ” Qianye could bear it no longer .

After a brief period of quarreling, they finally decided to reforge the Dark Flame Mercenary Corps in the neutral lands . Hence, the name became “Dark Flame” .

Ji Tianqing raised her voice . “From today on, you are a part of Dark Flame Mercenary Corps . I’ll give you half a day’s time to settle private businesses . You will all report-in tonight, whoever fails to show up will be responsible for their own fate . I’ve already shown you enough examples anyway . ”

All the mercenary heads agreed . Who would dare otherwise?

Greatly satisfied, Ji Tianqing slapped the back of the chair, saying, “This Qianye is your commander from now on . ”

She then pointed at herself . “I’m his aide-de-camp, remember?”

The crowd bowed at the same time . “Yes, Sire Aide-de-camp!”

This lineup and vocality sounded more like Qianye was Ji Tianqing’s aide instead . Beside them, the seventh young master could no longer sit still . He took a step forward and said in a clear voice, “This young master is Song Zining, and I will be your military strategist from now on . ”

The people below glanced at one another, but no one had heard of such a character . Where had this Song Zining popped up from?

A complacent Ji Tianqing roared, “All dismissed, get back to work . Assemble at 1800 sharp!”

“Yes! Sire Aide-de-Camp!”

The entire courtyard was emptied in a flash, leaving only Frost Wolf and a number of his high-ranking officials . Qianye remained seated on the platform like a statue, gazing blankly at the empty courtyard .

There wasn’t anything for him to do from the beginning to the end . He had no other use except for holding the title of commander . All those mercenary leaders barely spared him a glance—almost as though this corps commander was nonexistent .

Actually, there were quite a few mercenaries who knew Qianye and his accomplishments . It was just that the mercenaries here were fairly low in status, and even in Frost Wolf, only a couple of them had taken part in the Black Grove battle . They had only heard but never seen Qianye’s power . Ji Tianqing, on the other hand, had beaten them up violently, sending half a dozen men flying with every slap . Hence, comparatively, they were much more apprehensive of the girl .

Next up was the repair and renovation of the courtyard . With the Frost Wolf experts working as manual laborers, the construction work progressed at a quick pace . Qianye stayed behind to oversee the project while Song Zining went to reserve an entire nearby hotel as their temporary residence . Ji Tianqing ran about here and there, looking for mercenaries who were inwardly dissatisfied, slacking off, or disobedient .

Just like that, evening arrived in the blink of an eye, and the mercenary leaders began filing into the Frost Wolf base one after the other . Quite surprisingly, there were only two of them missing .

These leaders had brought their staff list, property deeds, and armaments inventory—their entire fortune more or less . This was more of a robbery than incorporation, but losing their possessions was much better than losing their lives . Ji Tianqing had already taught them this logic last night .

The young miss performed a roll-call and organized them into groups . She split them into several groups and ranks, differentiating them by the number of troops they could command .

Her seemingly careless classification was actually quite clever . The strong and obedient were assigned to the highest rank, followed by the weaker obedient ones, and then the strong but somewhat disobedient . The weak and disobedient people were inserted into the lowest-tier, only slightly superior to ordinary mercenaries .

The last group was naturally dissatisfied, but no one dared to speak up after Ji Tianqing killed the lead dissenter with a single slap . They finally understood that Ji Tianqing was simply waiting for them to jump out and give her an excuse for murder .

The clamor lasted until midnight before the fledgling Dark Flame began to take shape . The framework was organized by the high-ranking officers—they would decide how to disassemble, reorganize, and garrison the soldiers . What finally appeared before Qianye was a massive entity with over four thousand soldiers and ten champions . In terms of fighting-power, however, it was still far from the Dark Flame of the past .

With so many complex matters to handle, any other person would’ve taken half a month to complete this process . In Ji Tianqing’s hands, though, all matters big and small flowed smoothly like spring water . She wasn’t just bragging—perhaps not many people in the empire could outperform her as an aide-de-camp .

On one hand, Ji Tianqing was rather talented in this regard, while on the other, she had full control . Everyone had been beaten into submission, so whatever she had decided on would be carried out without a second word .

From the beginning to the end, Qianye only needed to stay on the sidelines and didn’t even get the chance to talk . He sat like that all night, feeling quite bored .

With all the plans settled, Ji Tianqing sent the men back to collect and take inventory of their resources . This process would take several days at the very least .

Now that they were finally given a break, some of the commanders contacted the city lord via certain channels, hoping that he would be able to give them justice . These people, regardless of the size of their mercenary corps, had once enjoyed some level of status and were bosses inside their own gates . How could they endure someone ruling over them?

But Ji Rui simply refused to come out and see anyone . He ignored and forgot about whatever happened outside of the manor gates .

In this manner, everyone came to understand Ji Rui’s intentions—he couldn’t afford to offend these three people .

In the blink of an eye, all these leaders felt their sky turn dark .

Some were dissatisfied after losing their greatest backing that was Ji Rui . They gathered their most powerful men, trusted aides, and valuable assets before creeping out of Southern Blue in the depths of the night . Most of them, however, understood their own abilities and knew that they couldn’t survive outside of Southern Blue . So, they decided to swallow their voices and accept their incorporation into Dark Flame, recognizing the fact that they had to call someone else master from now on .

Regarding the mercenary corps who wanted to leave the city, Ji Tianqing didn’t make things difficult for them . These people wouldn’t be loyal if they stayed behind, anyway, so it was best to let them go .

Song Zining and Ji Tianqing weren’t idle during this period . They proceeded to negotiate with one merchant after the other, discussing new deals for the corps . The biggest source of income for the mercenary corps in Southern Blue was protecting these merchants . Maintaining order in the city was their basic job, while the stronger ones would be dispatched to escort the trade caravans along the way . The strongest soldiers would accept combat missions like ambushing rival merchant caravans .

Presently, Dark Flame had rounded up all the mercenary corps in Southern Blue and became a giant tyrant that even Ji Rui couldn’t contend with . Hence, it was only natural that all negotiations would begin anew .

All the merchants were quite worried at first because this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened . After gaining a monopoly over the market, mercenary corps would usually raise their prices several times or even engage in robbery themselves . Such an action would only net them a single fortune since merchants would avoid such places after suffering a loss . Without their main source of income, these mercenary corps would eventually have to disband .

There had been too many such examples . Even though such mercenary corps would disperse with the wind, the merchants were the ones to suffer most from their initial misdeeds . Hence, these managers all felt worried and restless .

They nonetheless found—to their great astonishment—that Dark Flame operated differently from the other mercenary corps in the neutral lands . Song Zining didn’t exploit the merchants with unreasonable price increases . On the contrary, he lowered the prices on an assortment of services and combined certain fees together . In summary, the capital these merchants had to fork out was decreased by a fair bit .

Most of the managers were surprised, but no one was going to stand up and object to such a good deal . Additionally, many of them began considering increased investments in the city once the situation had stabilized .

Next up, Song Zining proposed another plan . Companies setting up weaponry workshops as well as those trading in rare-materials and high-end airship parts would receive a fifty percent discount . He was even willing to inject a twenty percent investment capital once these factories had been constructed .

Managers of large merchant companies began inquiring about the details in excitement . Smaller companies were lacking in ability, but they more or less knew some channels for airship parts . As such, they also paid great attention to the “high-end airship parts” category .

A well-prepared Song Zining immediately distributed the relevant documents .

After looking through the papers, most people revealed expressions of disappointment, but there were a few of them who looked rather thoughtful . Song Zining’s standards were indeed quite high, requiring the equipment to be at the level of a second-grade reserve warship or higher .

Such an airship level was rare in the neutral lands, but it wasn’t impossible if they could find a channel to and from the empire or Evernight .

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