Chapter 552 Nightmare Army

When Eastern Europe was close to the final, the final maneuver of the two Academies of Zhongzhou State finally came to an end.

After the various maneuvers, the information about credits were handed over to the deans of the two Academies as soon as possible. The deans of the two Academies reported the credits to Kunlun City. After checking it thoroughly, Kunlun City would give a series of rewards and salaries to each power and every young student according to the credits.

Then here came the graduation ceremony.

The high-level leaders and teachers of the two Academies would spend a few months to sum up the teaching situation of this session, exchange notes, and re- state the strength grading and realize personnel transfer of each teacher. They would reward the teachers who had achieved outstanding grades in the past three years and lay out the teaching direction and the key points of the next session of the two Academies.

Then here came their annual and short vacations. After the vacation, when the new personnel of the two Academies were completely stable, the two Academies would announce the new semester’s recruitment requirements, which would be jointly published by Kunlun City and the Army Headquarters and transmitted to the whole military circle and the Special Warfare System. Any young elites who met the requirements for enrollment and intended to enter the two Academies would choose the Sky Academy or the Deep-sea Academy. Then the teachers of the two Academies would lead the teams to different places for a.s.sessment. After the a.s.sessment was over, there would be another lecture on the new session of the two Academies at the beginning of April or the end of March next year, before or after the Qingming Festival.

To some extent, the final result of the previous maneuver of the two Academies directly affected the direction chosen by the new students and the support of the military and the Special Warfare System to the two Academies.

So Zhuang Huayang was very busy.

The Sky Academy’s performance this year could be said to be really splendid. It completely left the Deep-sea Academy behind. Li Tianlan’s rise directly broke the pattern of the experts in the younger generation and even in all of Zhongzhou State.

There used to be Jiang Shangyu, Dongcheng Rus.h.i.+, and Song Ci in the Deep-sea Academy. From the beginning, the glory of the Deep-sea Academy had been far stronger than that of the Sky Academy. However, Li Tianlan had defeated the alliance of three young Chosen Ones and many elites in the final maneuver, and also had completely crushed the pride of the Deep-sea Academy.

From the beginning to the end of the maneuver, the East Emperor Palace had only partic.i.p.ated in the first-day team maneuver, and Li Tianlan was the only one who had partic.i.p.ated. However, the East Emperor Palace had acc.u.mulated more than twice as many credits as the second one, the Three Thousand World. The East Emperor Palace was the force of the Sky Academy, so it was naturally its glory.

As the headmaster of the Sky Academy, Zhuang Huayang had been continuously commended by the council, the Cabinet, the military, and Kunlun City within 24 hours after the maneuver had been over. After all, if not counting Li Tianlan, the total credits of the Sky Academy in this maneuver were already more than those of the Deep-sea Academy. With such impressive results, the council of Zhongzhou State almost all pa.s.sed the appointment of letting Zhuang Huayang continue to stay in the Sky Academy.

Of course, Zhuang Huayang knew the reason for this. From this moment on, although he was still the backbone of the Academics, from then on, half of his feet were already on the s.h.i.+p of the East Emperor Palace. On the surface, his abdication of the Sky Academy was to reward him, but there was more than one way to reward him. With his age and military rank, the high-level officials of the Army Headquarters and Kunlun City had talked to him before and had hoped that he could work in the Ministry of National Defense after this session’s work. As a Deputy Minister, he had actually been given a free position to live in retirement. Of course, the position of retirement was what everyone dreamed of, and it might not be worse than the current position now.

However, Zhuang Huayang had thought for a long time and had finally expressed the idea of continuing to s.h.i.+ne in the Sky Academy. Everyone knew that he took good care of Li Tianlan. Now, the Academy, the Giant Group, and Sigh City were intimate, and the key figures among them were Li Tianlan as well as the East Emperor Palace. It was foreseeable that as long as Li Tianlan rose all the way in the future, it was unlikely for Zhuang Huayang in this position to withdraw. Instead, he would keep in control of the Sky Academy to absorb talents for the East Emperor Palace. The academy would also intervene in the right of speech of the Special Warfare System as the status of the East Emperor Palace rose. The cooperation between the two sides was totally a win-win situation.

Zhuang Huayang might not retire until the East Emperor Palace was strong enough to decide the sensitive position of the headmaster of the Sky Academy. But at that time, Li Huacheng would be transferred from the office and abandon the Academics which belonged to the state of dormant power. Thus, he could negotiate with the powerful East Emperor Palace and find a new direction of cooperation, such as Zou Yuanshan, the Governor of Jiangzhe.

With a clear understanding of his position, Zhuang Huayang naturally understood what he should do. The moment the maneuver had ended, he had issued a notice to the East Emperor Palace, and had invited them to return to the Sky Academy to confirm the direction of future development.

This was even the most important thing for Zhuang Huayang, and it was also very important for the East Emperor Palace.

The sun was s.h.i.+ning in a s.p.a.cious office. Zhuang Huayang held a list in his hand and looked at it attentively.

Li Baitian sat opposite Zhuang Huayang, and watched him frown more tightly.

Zhuang Huayang didn’t know how long it took before he put down the list in his hand and said slowly, “Do you really want all these people?”

There were thousands of students in the two Academies. There were no more than hundreds of elites who could catch the attention of all the superpowers. The East Emperor Palace naturally didn’t have the right to be picky. As a fresh force, even with Li Tianlan in charge, the scope in which the East Emperor Palace selected talents was still very narrow. The graduation students from the two Academies this time were their biggest market.

The market was indeed very big. In the eyes of Kunlun City, there were nearly a hundred students applying to join the East Emperor Palace. In w.a.n.g Qinglei’s eyes, there were more than a hundred people on the list.

But in all of the Sky Academy, there were more than 860 students who wanted to join the East Emperor Palace and had submitted applications to the Political Department of the two Academies!

The East Emperor Palace was also generous. It just wanted to accept all of more than 800 people.

Zhuang Huayang was a little worried. He took a deep look at Li Baitian and said slowly, “Do you know what this means?”

Li Baitian nodded with a smile. When Li Tianlan was in Eastern Europe, he could represent the East Emperor Palace to make this decision. It was the result of many internal discussions and communications with others.

“More than 800 people! This is just a combat capability. The East Emperor Palace accepted them, which meant that it received their family members and even their families. There is no shortage of experts on this list, and there are also va.s.sals around them. So if we count all of them, this time the East Emperor Palace accepted at least 1,000 students. Including their families, the number of people in the scope of the East Emperor Palace will exceed 5,000!” Zhuang Huayang said in a deep voice.

Any new force needed to develop slowly. Even if they gambled, there was a limit. The behavior of the East Emperor Palace was completely crazy. Swallowing so many people in one breath would cost a lot of money, future potential, and a stable interest chain. Now, aside from potential, the East Emperor Palace had nothing at all.

“Headmaster, we have indeed considered this problem. But from the current situation, this is not a problem that can’t be solved. The new East Emperor Palace will give everyone a huge surprise.”

Li Baitian said calmly, “As for this list, only one-tenth of the people can enter the headquarters of the East Emperor Palace. The East Emperor Palace will establish a new branch in the near future. Most of the people on the list will develop in the branch.”

Zhuang Huayang stared at Li Baitian. He even thought that the young man in front of him was crazy. The East Emperor Palace had just been established and it had not yet settled down. Did it want to set up a branch?!

The corner of his mouth twitched. He wanted to say something but stopped on second thought.

“Headmaster, just say what you want to say. Although we have graduated, we will always be your students.”

Li Baitian laughed.

Zhuang Huayang snorted, stood up, and said, “That’s monkey business. The East Emperor Palace is in the limelight now. What you should do at the moment is to keep a low profile. The East Emperor Palace accepts so many talents at one time. Do you really think other forces have a good temper? Well, your foundation is not stable, and you’ve begun to set up a branch. What kind of agency is this branch? Who will be responsible for it? Do you think that your shortcomings are not enough?”

“The new branch is called the Nightmare Army. It’s probably the first level arrangement of the Strengthen Group. The East Emperor Palace is the first in this maneuver. With Tianlan’s position, we want to fight for grade A-cla.s.s authorization for the Nightmare Army,” Li Baitian said.

Zhuang Huayang took a deep breath and shook his head with a wry smile. The Nightmare Army was also the Special Warfare Battalion. The Strengthen Group would be about 3,000 people, and the Commander’s rank was at least a colonel. It was fine for this. But the most important thing was the A-cla.s.s authorization?

There were four degrees of authorization in the Special Warfare System of Zhongzhou State. B-cla.s.s authorization was average. It could be regarded as the basic level and the middle level. Most small special warfare agencies were the B-cla.s.s authorization.

The A-cla.s.s authorization was already a colossus. They had the freedom to expand in a certain province. The Special Operations Bureaus of each province were all A-cla.s.s authorization. For the current position of the East Emperor Palace, it should have the A-cla.s.s authorization. If they wanted to get the A-cla.s.s authorization, they had to have the military rank at the Peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm and higher than the Lieutenant General.

Li Tianlan was now the marshal of Zhongzhou State. After the chaos in Eastern Europe ended, even if he returned to his country and handed over his position as the commander of the Snowdance Corps, he was still a marshal. Therefore, the new East Emperor Palace would be granted S-cla.s.s authorization. It would have the same level as the Special Warfare Headquarters and the same status as a member of parliament.

Above S-cla.s.s was X-cla.s.s. In all of Zhongzhou State, only Kunlun City had an X-cla.s.s authorization, which allowed people to expand freely within the territory of Zhongzhou State.

In his current state, just one S-cla.s.s authorization could make the East Emperor Palace hard to digest. But Li Baitian actually wanted A-cla.s.s authorization?

“Not to mention whether we can win the A-cla.s.s authorization, even if we can, who in the East Emperor Palace has the qualification to be the Commander of this Nightmare Army?”

Zhuang Huayang asked seriously, “I can’t let Marshal Li do it himself, can I?”

He had the strength at the Peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm, and the Lieutenant General rank.

Li Baitian was now the second-in-command of the East Emperor Palace. But his realm still had a distance away from the Peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm, and his qualifications were far from enough to be promoted as the Lieutenant General. It was possible for the Li family, Sigh City, and the Dongcheng Clan to offer such a talent, but it was impossible to get the A-cla.s.s qualification by using these people. In all of the East Emperor Palace, only the Black Tortoise Lieutenant General Li w.a.n.gsheng was barely qualified to get this, but it was just barely. His military rank was high enough, but his strength was slightly inferior.

Moreover, he couldn’t give up the Terracotta Soldier’s position easily.

As for the other one, Dongcheng Rus.h.i.+ had enough strength, but was not as powerful as Li Tianlan’s to get a fast-track promotion.

To put it another way, even if Li w.a.n.gsheng and Dongcheng Rus.h.i.+ were to be promoted, their strength would not be enough to settle the dispute. There would be a lot of challenges against them at that time. If they failed, the entire East Emperor Palace would be affected.

“At present, we have found the candidate for the Commander of the Nightmare Army. He has confirmed that he would join the East Emperor Palace. I believe that his strength can make Zhongzhou State break a rule to promote him and fully approve of him. Besides, no one will be so boring to challenge him,” Li Baitian said seriously.

“Oh?”

Zhuang Huayang thought for a while with some doubts and asked, “Where is he?”

“At present, he’s still with Tianlan in Eastern Europe,” Li Baitian said.

Zhuang Huayang thought about the young strong man beside Li Tianlan now and asked uncertainly, “Dongcheng Rus.h.i.+?”

Li Baitian shook his head. “He is Lin Youxian, the Young Master of the Lin Clan and Xuanyuantai of Zhongzhou State. Is he qualified enough?”…