No One Under Heaven launched its first military operation—Black-on-Black.
This operation was, frankly, pretty tough. Maggie Monroe tagged along to observe for a whole day and came away convinced of its necessity. Like we said before, folks in the martial world are great at solo duels, but when it comes to group military action, they're seriously lacking. Over the past month, we've focused on this kind of training, but honestly, no one in Spirit Eagle Palace knows how to fight a war, so most of us are still just winging it.
This Black-on-Black expedition was also a field exercise, and it really opened Wu Zhengfeng’s eyes. Nothing beats live combat for teaching and testing—from scouting and counter-scouting, to marching and logistics, every little thing gets put to the test. Take logistics, for example: back in the day, when we sent palace maids down the mountain, a few coins solved everything, and one or two maids could handle food and drink no problem. But now, with over a hundred people trekking into the wild, suddenly eating, drinking, and... everything else becomes the top priority.
That’s when the Peach Blossom Chief showed off some serious wilderness survival skills, keeping everything running like clockwork. What made Maggie Monroe feel embarrassed was that even the lowly Lady Simone turned out to be pretty good at handling logistics. Out of curiosity, Jill Young asked and found out Lady Simone used to be the pampered type who never touched housework, but one trip to the South Wasteland taught her the value of rice, oil, and salt.
So yeah, hard times make tough people.
Most of the horses were used to haul supplies. These nags were slow, couldn’t carry much, and some even had a nasty habit of biting—basically, we had to treat them like donkeys. On the first day, between cooking, setting up camp, keeping out the wind and bugs, and standing night watch, we ended up with a bunch of ridiculous mishaps. Wu Zhengfeng just smirked, realizing this whole field exercise was mostly to help her grow.
After being a top-tier fighter for so long, you forget how regular folks live. Even if you’re at the top and don’t have to eat and drink with the crew, you should at least understand how they survive.
"Hey..." Wu Zhengfeng watched Jill Young expertly grab a snake and give a full-on tutorial on skinning and grilling it, and couldn’t help but ask, "How do you know all this? You’re pretty much a pro when it comes to food, huh?"
"This is nothing! Back home, we’ve got a real legend—Bear Grylls. That guy eats literally anything. I’ve tried a lot of weird stuff, but I gotta admit—" Jill Young tossed a handful of twigs onto the fire. The flames lit up her face, making her look oddly mischievous. "That dude? He’ll eat anything raw! Spiders, grasshoppers, dung beetles—whatever he catches, he chomps down, wings and legs sticking out of his mouth! Crunch, crunch, and when he bites into a worm, it explodes with dark goo! Man, you gotta respect that. Hey, what’s up? You look kinda green—morning sickness?"
"Morning sickness, my foot!" Maggie Monroe was completely thrown off. "You did that on purpose! You’re just trying to gross me out! That’s so mean!"