The Northern Frontier Army’s soldiers were dressed rather differently from what Mo Xi had imagined. After all, the only historical costume dramas Officer Mo had ever watched were CCTV’s serious historical productions. He had caught a few glimpses of xianxia dramas while changing channels, but he had never had any interest in them.
However, Chonghua was established as a cultivation empire, so its soldiers naturally wouldn’t dress like Qin or Han dynasty troops. Instead, their attire incorporated certain characteristics of cultivators.
Gu Mang’s notification voice explained, 【Those wearing indigo light armor trimmed in silver specialize in offensive techniques. Those dressed in dark blue celestial robes are barrier masters. The ones in flowing white robes are healers, responsible for treating the wounded.】
“Got it.”
Gu Mang’s notification voice continued, 【We’re still at the beginning of the story. The Northern Frontier Army, led by Mo Xi, has arrived at the border to establish its camp and prepare for war with the Liao Kingdom.】
“What kind of country is the Liao Kingdom?”
Gu Mang’s notification voice replied, 【Unlike Chonghua, which practices orthodox cultivation, the Liao Kingdom is a nation that cultivates through dark magic. It’s Chonghua’s sworn enemy, and it’s also the country Gu Mang defects to after fleeing Chonghua.】
If Chonghua represented normal society, then the Liao Kingdom’s role in the story must have been derived from the criminal underworld Gu Mang had become involved with.
Mo Xi asked with an almost self-tormenting sneer, “Is that so? Then does the Liao Kingdom traffic drugs?”
Gu Mang’s notification voice fell silent. Apparently, it had no idea what drug trafficking was.
Since they were going to war, the military camp would naturally contain more offensive cultivators than any other kind. Mo Xi made his way through a sea of indigo uniforms, occasionally overhearing snippets of conversation.
“I heard Lord Xihe volunteered to lead this campaign specifically so he could capture the traitorous general Gu Mang with his own hands.”
“Huh? Does that mean the enemy’s commander this time is…”
“Probably Gu Mang.”
According to the setting, the Northern Frontier Army was Marshal Mo’s army. It was extremely disciplined and possessed formidable combat strength. Yet as Mo Xi made his rounds, he discovered that although the soldiers remained solemn and reserved in public, almost every one of them began discussing the matter as soon as they were out of sight of their patrols.
What was peculiar was that when many of them spoke of the traitorous general Gu Mang, their faces did not display the deep-seated hatred one might expect. Instead, they wore expressions of subtle, unfathomable complexity.
Such details naturally escaped neither Officer Mo’s notice nor his keen eyes. Mo Xi furrowed his sword-like brows.
“Did the Northern Frontier Army have any connection to Gu Mang in the story?”
Gu Mang’s notification voice replied, 【Yes.】
“What connection?”
【It’s a long story. The Northern Frontier Army used to be called the Turtle Army.】
“…What kind of joke are you trying to pull?”
The setting book answered solemnly:
【Important reminder: It’s perfectly normal for the Northern Frontier Army’s soldiers to feel conflicted. The novel states that this army was originally the once-invincible Gu Family Army. A large proportion of its soldiers had fought side by side with Gu Mang, risking their lives together. Their feelings toward him are extremely complicated. There’s no doubt that they remain loyal and dutiful soldiers, but long ago, they also sincerely revered their commander, Gu Mang—even though the military designation he came up with for them was “the Turtle Army.”】
Mo Xi: “………………”
The setting book wasn’t joking. It was completely serious.
The Forbidden Book had once included a detailed account of the origins of Gu Mang and the Turtle Army. In essence, Gu Mang had founded the army himself. He was the Northern Frontier Army’s real father, while Mo Xi was the stepfather who took over after Gu Mang defected.
Before their stepfather Mo Xi assumed command, the army’s military records had looked something like this:
Turtle Army soldier Liu Dazhuang.
Turtle Army squad leader Zhang Dayan.
…
And so on.
At the very top was “Gu Mang, Commander of the Turtle Army.”
Logically speaking, no one should have wanted to join a unit with such an awful name. But that wasn’t what had happened. According to the novel, Gu Mang had been one of Chonghua’s most prestigious commanders. People said he was a monster born from the flames of war, someone who had known how to fight from the moment he came into the world. War was his stage, and he was the star who claimed every prize upon it.
Back then, the recruiters had used slogans like these:
“Join the Turtle Army! The Turtle Army has never tasted defeat!”
“Join Marshal Gu! Marshal Gu treats every soldier in the Turtle Army like a brother!”
“Enlist with the Turtles today, rise in rank and make a fortune tomorrow!”
They weren’t wrong. The novel stated that Gu Mang really had been the commander who cherished his soldiers most in those days. Among all of Chonghua’s generals, he alone made the effort to remember every comrade’s birthday. Whenever the fighting stopped, he would lead entire battalions of cultivators into nearby villages and towns to drink and make merry.
Sometimes, the local residents were cunning and demanded exorbitant prices from the soldiers. Marshal Gu never got angry. Instead, he would cheerfully slap every last coin and piece of silk he owned onto the counter, buying wine and meat for his men.
In the end, he would even call out with a broad grin, “Eat your fill! Drink your fill! Come on, stuff yourselves! Every one of you is precious to me, my beloved treasure! If our military pay runs short, I’ll trade something else to get you what you need!”
Marshal Gu always kept his word. He had traded sable fur for wine and spiritual jade for meat. He had done all of it. On one occasion, he even stripped off his military robe and tossed it onto the tavern counter to exchange for some Daughter Red wine.
The soldiers had laughed and egged him on. “Marshal Gu, we want beef too! Is there anything else you can take off?”
Gu Mang, now wearing nothing but a snowy white undergarment, had grinned. “All right. Just you wait.”
“No way! Marshal Gu, you’re not seriously going to pawn your underwear too, are you?”
“That wouldn’t fetch much money…”
Gu Mang hadn’t intended to pawn his underwear. However, he really had run out of possessions to trade. Under the astonished and amused gazes of everyone around him, he bit his lip, suddenly leaned over, and planted a kiss on the cheek of the pretty widow who was laughing uproariously as she sold the wine.
The soldiers fell silent. The pretty widow froze, too, the ladle in her hand dripping wine drop by drop. After a moment, she finally came to her senses and began chasing Gu Mang around with the ladle raised over her head.
“You shameless rascal! How dare you take liberties with me!”
Laughter erupted all around them.
Amid the laughter and jeers, Gu Mang was chased around the room by the widow, running for his life and begging for mercy.
“I mean it! I mean it! You’re beautiful! You’re beautiful!”
“I know I’m beautiful! And you’re a handsome little devil yourself! But you’ve got absolutely no shame! What’s the matter with you? Couldn’t you sneak over here alone at night and kiss me then? Why’d you have to do it in front of all these people? You lecher!”
Even while causing enough chaos to turn the place upside down, the shameless lecher didn’t forget to shout, “Exactly, exactly! I’ll come see you tomorrow night! I can stay tonight too, if you like. Just give us another two pounds of beef, please, miss. I’m begging you!”
“Pah! Ever since you set up camp here, you’ve asked me to put beef on credit three times already! This is the fourth! Every time, you promise to take me out tomorrow night. Do you think I’m a fool?” the widow yelled, pounding her little fist against a wooden board until it cracked with a loud splintering sound.
The rowdy soldiers nearly collapsed with laughter. Still, after all the teasing and commotion, Gu Mang managed to use his handsome face and his promise to take the widow out “tomorrow night” to wheedle another two pounds of braised beef out of her for his brothers.
“Marshal Gu, you really know how to sweet-talk people…”
“Of course!” Gu Mang declared smugly. “I’ve strolled through a thousand flowers, and my reputation as a rake is known throughout the land.”
With a commander like that, it was no wonder one young man had once declared boldly, “I don’t care if they call themselves the Turtle Army or the Damn-Turtles Army! If Marshal Gu’s leading them, I’m enlisting!”
Not only had Gu Mang personally come up with the military designation “Turtle Army,” he had even taken it upon himself to design their banners. The distinctive green flags had been cut into the shape of turtles, complete with shells, heads, and little tails so lifelike they seemed ready to wiggle.
He had even enchanted the banners with a spell that made the turtle bellow every time the incense burned down by one stick:
“Turtles, turtles, bold and dashing! Their mighty spirit pierces the rainbow! Their awe-inspiring power shakes the world!”
As a direct result, during the years Gu Mang served as commander, the countries opposed to Chonghua had trembled at the mere sight of a turtle. And the scene their enemy cultivators dreaded most was probably this:
A little turtle banner rising above a battlefield shrouded in smoke. Marshal Gu riding out on horseback and solemnly introducing himself.
“I am Gu Mang, commander of the Turtle Army. I look forward to seeing what you can do.”
Losing to this carefree young cultivator was already humiliating enough. But the real disgrace came when they had to return home and report to their sovereign through tears and snot.
“Waaah! Your subordinate is utterly incompetent! I was unable to defeat the Turtle Army!”
It was a nightmare.
From this description alone, it wasn’t hard to see that the real-life Gu Mang, though more restrained by nature, was still a diamond-grade boy who absolutely adored writing Gary Stu novels. He had simply gone from being a seven-foot-tall heartthrob with an impossibly magnetic presence to a heartthrob of normal height.
Either way, he still gave himself all the cheat codes and piled every good quality onto his own character. He was shameless beyond belief.
What? You think that’s bad enough? How naive. Surely you don’t think he’d stop there? Ba Niao still had more to brag about.
The Forbidden Book stated that, to Chonghua’s soldiers, Gu Mang was unruly and reckless, but undeniably charismatic. He won battle after battle, and they all believed he was kind, brave, cheerful, and strong-willed—a man destined to become the unshakable pillar of Chonghua, second to none.
Look at that! Wasn’t it exactly the same as the old description of the seven-foot-tall heartthrob with rainbow-colored eyes, a smile that could topple kingdoms, a punch powerful enough to blow up the Earth, and every female lead falling in love with him?
And that still wasn’t the most outrageous part. To prove how beloved Marshal Gu was, Ba Niao was even willing to sacrifice the aesthetic sensibilities of Chonghua’s entire population.
The novel described how, in those days, Gu Mang had so many admirers that some people even took his twisted theory that “a humble name helps a child survive” as gospel. As a result, many children born during that period were unfortunately given lowly names by their parents. For a while, the trend looked something like this:
Chu Genzhuang.
Xue Tiezhu.
Jiang Dantong.
And so, when Mo Xi later took over the Turtle Army, the very first thing he did was rename the ridiculous unit.
He absolutely would not allow the military records to list him as “Mo Xi, Commander of the Turtle Army.”
Absolutely not!
—In this regard, Officer Mo felt that Gu Mang had at least shown some respect for his aesthetic sensibilities. If he had to accept the bizarre fact that he had transmigrated into another world, so be it. But if he had transmigrated as “Mo Xi, Commander of the Turtle Army,” he might have seriously considered leaving the world to destroy itself.
And so, the Turtle Army was renamed the Northern Frontier Army and placed under Mo Xi’s command. That irreverent black joke, born amid blood and smoke, came to an abrupt end, just like Gu Mang’s glorious reputation.
Those little turtles that had once hollered and roared, “Turtles, turtles, bold and dashing!” were like an absurd mirage, a ridiculous joke reflected in flowers on water. From then on, they would never again appear on the vast battlefield.
Everything became solemn once more. There would be no flowers, no sweetness, no one making an effort to remember even the most insignificant name. No one would lead the soldiers into boisterous revelry, trading a piece of fine jade for a few jars of cheap wine.
War returned to its absolute, merciless brutality.
The bitter winter settled in for the long haul.
Perhaps that was precisely why, although most members of the Northern Frontier Army now hated Gu Mang to the core, their emotions when speaking of him differed from those of ordinary civilians.
This was especially true of the old soldiers who had once marched into battle alongside Marshal Gu as members of the Turtle Army. Whenever they spoke his name, a trace of bewilderment would inevitably flicker in their eyes.
Only then did Officer Mo understand.
He watched the soldiers sitting around the campfire, chatting and resting, listening to their murmured conversations before the battle.
“Are we really going to face Marshal Gu in this battle…?”
“Shh! Keep your voice down! You actually called him Marshal Gu? He’s a traitor! Do you have a death wish?”
The old soldier gave a startled “Ah!” as he came back to himself. Realizing what he had almost said, the last traces of drunkenness vanished from his eyes. He couldn’t help shuddering.
The soldier beside him continued to warn him, “We serve under Lord Xihe now. Gu Mang is the person Lord Xihe hates most, and you know what his temper is like. If he hears you saying that, neither of us will get away with it tonight!”
Mo Xi thought to himself, So my temper in this novel is really that bad?
The old soldier sighed. “Yes, yes, you’re right. Look at me. I always lose my head when I drink…”
The soldiers gathered around the fire fell silent. They stared blankly at the flames, each harboring his own thoughts.
Only after a long time did someone finally let out a quiet breath and murmur, “But to tell the truth, the reason I enlisted back then was Gu Mang. If I hadn’t admired him, I never would have chosen this path.”
“Me too. I even drank around a campfire with Gu Mang once. He didn’t put on airs at all. Back then… back then, I watched him smile, and I thought that if I could die for him someday, at least my death would mean something. Who would’ve thought we’d end up…” His voice gradually faded. “End up following Marshal Mo to take Gu Mang’s head.”
“The Turtle Army is actually going to fight its own father.”
A bitter laugh.
“…But we can’t call ourselves the Turtle Army anymore. We’re the Northern Frontier Army now. We serve under Marshal Mo. If we have to fight Gu Mang, then that’s his fate—and ours.”
The borderlands lay silent beneath the night sky. The campfire crackled, sending up a burst of golden sparks more dazzling than the stars.
The slightly drunk old soldier lay back on the ground, resting his arms beneath his head. He gazed up at the countless stars, the brilliant Ziwei star shining overhead. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he muttered something only he could hear.
“I’m genuinely afraid of seeing him on the battlefield. Marshal Mo may be formidable, but Gu Mang…”
Gu Mang was a genius of war, their former commander. No one knew that better than the veterans of the Northern Frontier Army.
They believed this was destined to be a bloody battle, with the outcome impossible to predict.
But Mo Xi, who had read the outline, didn’t share their opinion. After all, his little police sweetheart’s outline had stated the following:
“After Gu Mang defects, he leads the enemy’s army against Chonghua. However, one miscalculation turns him into a prisoner, and he ends up universally despised.”
So Mo Xi figured the next part of the plot should be Gu Mang’s defeat, followed by his capture.
Excellent.
His palms were practically tingling, his blood surging with excitement.
He had always wanted to deal with Gu Mang himself once the man fell into captivity. In the real world, he had never gotten that chance. He had to restrain himself, remain calm, consider too many things, and endure too many constraints. As a police officer, he couldn’t simply grab Gu Mang by the collar and ask him, word by word, with every ounce of hatred he had buried in his heart:
So this is what it’s come to. Are you satisfied now?
But here, at least, he could hear the same man’s answer. He could interrogate him, hate him, act on impulse. He could let blade scrape against blade, let blood stain blood.
At the thought, he even began to hope that all of this was real. His longing grew so intense that his heart raced and his fingertips turned cold.
He had never realized just how desperately he wanted to see Gu Mang again.