239: Chapter 239 An eighteen-year-old Federal Major General! Just an extra?!

When the last Magic Spider venom sac was lifted out by the sand, the hands of Young Master Gu Lingfeng were already beginning to tremble.

Fine grains of Mystic Gold Flowing Sand leaked from between his fingers, landing on the edge of his combat boots.

The sand blanket that covered most of the sinkhole retracted, separating the Magic Spider carapaces, venom sacs, and usable limbs into three piles.

The more he calculated, the brighter his eyes became, until he finally rubbed his hands together and ran up to Su Ming, his face full of flattery.

"Brother Ming, we hit the jackpot this time! When we get back to Jiangcheng, I am treating you to a full service at Heaven on Earth!"

Heaven on Earth, indeed—they had just sent the owner to the station...

Su Ming stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the mountain of "spoils" before him. His face was expressionless, but his mental abacus was spinning so fast it was almost sparking.

He brushed off the dust that did not exist from his hands and beckoned to Night Crow, who was whispering to his father in the corner, and the two newly captured Beast Seal Envoys, who were still wearing source-suppressing handcuffs.

"Alright, wrap it up!"

"This shopping trip to Black Spider Canyon has reached Perfection!"

"I will treat everyone to a good meal when we get back to the city!"

Before his voice had fully scattered into the wind—

Above the firmament, a sonic boom so sharp it could pierce eardrums crashed down.

It was more overbearing than all the fighter jet engines combined.

Everyone looked up abruptly.

A pitch-black, sleek, flat-shaped tactical aircraft tore through the thick clouds, diving down with an utterly unreasonable posture, and hovered steadily one hundred meters directly above the sinkhole.

There was no gale, no turbulence.

The thing just hung there silently, not even the surrounding dust dared to move.

It was a tactical aircraft directly under the Federal Supreme Military Committee—"Ghost."

Someone among the subordinates of Zheng Baichuan gasped.

Was this thing only supposed to appear when a Marshal was traveling or when the highest war mobilization order was declared?

The cabin door slid open silently.

A tall, upright figure leaped down, his combat boots tapping lightly when he was half a meter from the ground to absorb the impact, landing without making a sound.

The person had a glittering Colonel Rank on his shoulder, his face cold and stern, eyes fixed straight ahead.

He did not even glance at the many generals present who held higher Ranks than him.

He walked quickly to Marshal Huo Tianxing, stood at attention, and presented a long, black-gold sealed box with both hands.

The surface of the box was engraved with the intricate emblem of the Four Sacred Beasts and the Star of the Federation.

"Marshal, your item."

The moment Marshal Huo Tianxing took the box, his entire aura changed.

The laziness was gone.

The protective streak was gone.

Standing there was the Marshal of the West, who commanded the western border of the Federation and whose word was law.

He did not even look at the box, turning his head to throw a sentence toward Zheng Baichuan. The volume was not high, but every word slammed into the ears of everyone present.

"Zheng Baichuan!"

"Present!"

"Order: All officers above the Rank of Field Officer from the Western Frontier Military Region present, form a line immediately!"

Whoosh—

Those high-ranking generals who were dealing with post-battle matters in small groups were all stunned.

But military orders were like mountains.

In less than ten seconds, a neat phalanx stood in the center of the sinkhole.

The sound of combat boots hitting the ground and the subtle friction of armor merged into one, then settled into silence.

Marshal Huo Tianxing turned around, his gaze locking onto Su Ming.

"Su Ming!"

Su Ming was stunned by this shout.

What is going on?

Holding an awards ceremony?

"In view of the fact that in this Black Spider Canyon battle, you, with the strength of one person, annihilated the Divine Court Tribunal Chief Samuel and his twelve subordinates, the Abyss Knights!"

"You killed the Ninth Rank False God of the Tongyuan Society, Zhou Kui, and captured two great Beast Seal Envoys!"

"You rescued the Deputy Commander of the Federal Shadow Legion, Ye Canglan, and cleared away a decades-old hidden danger on the western border!"

"These battle achievements, after verification, have been reported to the Federal Supreme Military Committee!"

The throat of someone bobbed in the phalanx.

The fists of Zheng Baichuan clenched unconsciously.

Is this even fighting a war?

This was one person taking down the high-level combat structure of an enemy nation.

Marshal Huo Tianxing paused for a beat, and when he spoke again, his voice dropped half a degree, but it carried even more weight.

"After joint deliberation by the Supreme Military Committee, it was unanimously decided—"

"From this day forth, your Rank is no longer Captain."

The subtle breathing in the phalanx ceased entirely.

With such war merits, a triple promotion to Colonel would not be excessive.

Giving him Senior Colonel would also be justifiable.

However, Marshal Huo Tianxing did not pause at all.

"By the joint special approval of the three active Marshals of the Federation, you are directly awarded—"

"The Rank of... Federal Major General!"

The sounds in the sinkhole vanished.

They vanished completely.

Even the humming of the fighter jet engines on standby in the distance seemed to have been cut off.

The square face of Zheng Baichuan stiffened into stone, his mouth hanging open, a "cluck" sound stuck in his throat.

Beside him, the lips of a Colonel were moving, but no sound came out.

Another Senior Colonel was pinching his own thigh.

Ye Canglan was leaning on a medical stretcher, his human pupils beneath his half-chitinous mask contracting violently, and his body tensed up so suddenly that he almost fell off the stretcher.

Night Crow held his shoulder down firmly.

Eighteen?

Major General!

Throughout the hundreds of years since the founding of the Federation, even in wartime, the youngest general was over thirty-five.

In peacetime?

Eighteen?

This is not riding a rocket.

This is being kicked directly into a warp drive.

The expressions on the faces of the officers in the phalanx visibly slid from "absurd" to another direction.

They looked at the charred ruins covering the ground, the leveled rock walls, and then at the youth standing in the middle.

Eighth Rank Tribunal Chief...

Twelve Seventh Rank Peak Knights...

One Ninth Rank...

Two Beast Seal Envoys...

Shadow Demon Spiders everywhere...

He took care of all of them by himself!

When you calculate it like that...

A Major General Rank... is it almost doing him an injustice?

If he went to an enemy country, would he not be more than qualified to be titled a Guardian General?

The thoughts within the crowd experienced a strange transformation in just a few seconds, from "absurd" to "Damn, that actually seems reasonable."

Zheng Baichuan was the first to snap back to reality.

His chest heaved violently, and his legs snapped together with a "snap," the sound piercingly loud in the deathly silence.

His right hand's five fingers were pressed together, his wrist straight.

An impeccable military salute.

Behind him, dozens of field-grade and general-grade officers were activated by the sound.

"Snap!"

The sound of legs snapping together merged into one.

Dozens of hands raised in unison, saluting the same direction.

"Greetings, Chief!"

The roar exploded from the chests of these iron-blooded soldiers, shaking the gravel until it bounced.

A group of field officers and generals with an average age of over forty were performing the highest-level military salute to an eighteen-year-old youth.

Ye Xiao was watching from the side, his mouth agape.

Young Master Gu Lingfeng muttered with his mouth open: "I used to think it was amazing that my dad became an association director at the Sixth Rank..."

Ye Xiao replied: "I used to think that making it to field officer was the Peak for me..."

The two looked at each other and spoke in unison.

"You are really fucking pathetic!!!"

Meanwhile, Su Ming stood in the center of the focus of everyone.

On the surface, he was calm and indifferent, unfazed by honor or disgrace.

In reality, the corners of his mouth were like they were holding back an AK47 about to misfire.

He was using all his strength just to keep himself from laughing out loud on the spot.

Coolness!

Must maintain the coolness!

Can not let others see that I only care about money!

What does the Major General Rank mean?

It means my salary multiplies several times over?

My resource library access level increases several Ranks!

More importantly!

Material for acting cool and slapping faces + 1!

Marshal Huo Tianxing looked at the constipated expression of Su Ming...

This kid!

This streak of being greedy for money and loving to act cool was carved from the same mold as his teacher.

He chuckled, deliberately interrupting the calculator running at high speed inside the brain of Su Ming.

"Happy already?"

Su Ming raised his eyelids.

"The military Rank is just a bonus."

The fingers of Marshal Huo Tianxing rested on the latch of that black-gold sealed box.

"The main event is still in the box!"

"Click."

The box opened slowly.

Dark golden luster spilled out through the gap.

What lay inside was not some high-Rank weapon.

It was a dark gold badge shaped like a falling star, representing the highest independent privilege of the Federal military.

It lay quietly inside!