Chapter 558: Send Off!

Right when Ling Lan led her battle team and walked out of their mansion, they saw many people waiting outside who all wore the uniform of the 23rd Division. There were around 100 or so people and were all more or less graduates from the Central Scout Academy. Ling Lan had personally given many of them pointers in the past. Those in the mecha major had all become special-class operators, while the other cadets who were in other majors all became advanced mecha operators. The only reason they were all taken in by the 23rd Division was that they were the best of the best in their own majors.

They had followed Ling Lan and grew up with her. Now they were all signing up for the 23rd Division. There was no doubt that these people wanted to become Ling Lan’s subordinates, but that would depend on whether Ling Lan wanted to make a name for herself or not.

Seeing Ling Lan appear, those who had been talking among each other instantly stood up straight. Their eyes were shining bright and filled with a longing for the future. At the same time, their gazes couldn’t hide their admiration and respect for Ling Lan. Everyone shouted respectfully, “Boss!”

Everyone knew clearly that it was all the boss’s teachings and strictness that allowed them be able to get into a military division in their fifth year and get past the evaluations for the 23rd Division. They also knew that there were still many people who were not successful in the assessments and had no choice but to participate in the intergalactic adventure division to get more battle experience, after which they would wait until their sixth year to do one last evaluation.

If they weren’t successful after the last evaluation, they would just be like any other commoner and sign up for military service. Afterward, their starting point would be the same as those who got into a division. After completing the training for new recruits, they would acquire the rank of second lieutenant or just corporal. The rank could even be the rank of private. It was the difference between day and night.

However, all this they had in front of them, in the end, was given by this cold and seemingly heartless boss. Without their knowledge, the boss had given them a bright future.

Seeing this scene, Ling Lan was a bit surprised. “Why are you guys waiting here?” Ling Lan had told them that they could move around freely as long as they were present on the warship when it left the dock.

“If we follow Boss, we have confidence,” said one of Lingtian’s captains, smiling. In the past few years, every decision Ling Lan had made brought about countless merits. They didn’t want to be too far from the boss and miss out on exciting experiences.

Gao Jinyun also said with excitement, “Boss, no matter what, we’re following you to the end.”

Gao Jinyun’s team members all nodded in unison. These past few years, Gao Jinyun had reached the peak of special-class with the help of Ling Lan’s teachings. He only needed a catalyst to advance to ace level. Besides that, after getting approval from Ling Lan, Gao Jinyun used the same training method for this own team members. Other than the few team members whose physical constitution were terrible and had only advanced to advanced level, his other members all advanced to special-class without any issues.

Compared to the other battle teams that had two or three special-class operators, Gao Jinyun’s team’s strength was clearly greater than those other teams. In the Lingtian Mecha Clan, he was on the heels of the other battle teams of the commanders and this had turned Gao Jinyun’s situation around. In the past, his rank among the battle teams was close to the bottom.

All of this strength came from Ling Lan’s teachings. Gao Jinyun had already made a decision that he would follow Ling Lan closely. This way, they would then have a chance to climb up the ranks… In reality, Gao Jinyun was envious of Qi Long, Luo Lang and the others. They could be by Ling Lan’s side and receive pointers from her at any time. If it were possible, Gao Jinyun also wanted to be like Qi Long, Luo Lang and the others. Unfortunately, he was late by too many years… he didn’t have the relationship that the others had built with Ling Lan during their childhood.

“Follow me to the end?” Hearing this, Ling Lan frowned and her lips seemingly perked up.

“Yes, Boss,” Gao Jinyun replied with a serious tone. This was what he had wanted to say originally and now he had said it.

Ling Lan glanced at Gao Jinyun before taking back her gaze. She pulled on her sleeves and, with an indifferent expression on her face, said, “Since it’s like that, then let’s go.”

These words stunned Gao Jinyun and he instantly felt happy. He wasn’t dreaming, right… Right? Right? Right?

The captain standing beside Gao Jinyun patted his shoulder with envy. “Gao Jinyun, don’t forget to help me, your elder brother, in the future.”

“Boss really took me in as a subordinate,” Gao Jinyun said, wearing a dreamy expression. Although he had known the boss was going to take in auxiliary battle teams, he still never announced it. Could it be that he was lucky enough for his team to become the first auxiliary battle team for the boss’ battle team?

“Yes, Boss has actually taken us in as an auxiliary battle team. We must work hard.” Another captain steeled his shoulders to encourage himself.

Gao Jinyun was taken in by Ling Lan as an auxiliary battle team. The other captains didn’t become envious of him because Gao Jinyun’s battle team was ranked the strongest battle team after the commanders’ battle teams. It was also because only battle teams like Gao Jinyun’s had the qualifications to become the boss’ auxiliary battle team. They were now all wondering: if they were to also reach the power level of Gao Jinyun’s battle team, would they have a chance to become the boss’ second auxiliary battle team, or the third?

Thus, every captain from every battle team set their goal, which was to become the second auxiliary battle team after Gao Jinyun’s battle team.

Everyone moved towards the spaceport in droves. Before they reached the entrance of the 23rd Division’s warship, they saw the soldiers guarding the spaceport give them strange looks. Ling Lan thought that was it because there were so many people in their group that made the soldiers feel strange. After all, the cadets that were successful in applying to the 23rd Division this time had almost reached 200 people. It was even more than the number of cadets who were joining other divisions combined. A few days ago when Ling Lan’s mother contacted her through her father’s communicator, she had told her of this situation. She said that the commanders of the other divisions all sent messages to Ling Xiao, mocking and insulting him. They said that her father had used underhanded means to compete with them… Yes, what they considered to be underhanded means was the fact that her father was using his identity as the idol of the people. Using this attraction, he had taken in many prodigies and geniuses. It was indeed a despicable and shameless display…

Ling Lan thought for a second and felt that the words of those division commanders weren’t wrong. Her father had actually also used this type of means to take away many geniuses from other military divisions. However, Ling Lan believed that it wasn’t completely her father’s fault. The real culprit was God. Why couldn’t he have made Ling Xiao be born a bit uglier? That would have made things better.

In short, the 23rd Division was very favorable this year and acquired more than half of the geniuses from the First Men’s Military Academy. They couldn’t blame others for being green with envy.

However, Ling Lan knew that her guess was wrong as she arrived at the 23rd Division’s dock, which was entirely filled with people. They were all members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan and their juniors.

After Ling Lan took over the military academy with an iron fist, although some new cadets formed new clans here and there and hoped to recreate Ling Lan’s legend as their own, most people still joined Lingtian; especially those from the Central Scout Academy, who all joined. This made the number of members from Lingtian expand and expand again. As the seniors left one year after another, time passed until Ling Lan and the others had become fifth years, at which point Lingtian had finally become a unique super mecha clan of the First Men’s Military Academy. There wasn’t any mecha clan that could bring about trouble for Lingtian. Trouble only followed Lingtian if they wanted it to.

Ling Lan saw this scene and her expression became livid. Even Qi Long, Luo Lang and the others couldn’t help but huff. This time, it was possible that the instructors of the entire military academy were going to become the kings of shouting. It was possible that half of the military academy was completely empty. With this overwhelming scene, it was no wonder that the soldiers guarding the docks would look at them with strange expressions on their faces. Even from how Ling Lan saw it, she almost thought it was a military force attacking the spaceport.

“Boss!” Thousands of individuals shouted in unison. The echoing from their voices almost made Ling Lan’s hair strands stand up.

“Who let them call me boss in public?” Ling Lan’s had a cold expression on her face as her lips moved slightly to squeeze these words out of her throat. She was joining the military, not entering the mafia.

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Everyone around her exchanged looks, pretending they hadn’t noticed what their boss had said.

With their behavior being like this, how could Ling Lan not understand? None of them were getting away with it—everyone would get their rightful punishment. It should be known that Ling Lan was always low-key and didn’t say anything to the other clan members. If it wasn’t for these people beside her giving the orders, she believed that these clan members would definitely not have dared to call her “boss” out in public.

“Just wait. You guys are in big trouble,” Ling Lan said begrudgingly. She had wanted to leave quietly and peacefully, but she didn’t think that these guys would make it so grand and noisy. Ling Lan already felt that after she entered the division, her life would definitely not be as peaceful as her father wanted.

After hearing their boss’ words, Qi Long and the others felt their hearts freeze. They looked at each other and decided to immediately look for a scapegoat. Luo Lang spotted Ling Yi, who was standing at the very front of the crowd, and his eyes instantly gleamed.

He immediately waved to Ling Yi. “Ling Yi, come here.”

Ling Yi held in his excitement and walked over. He looked at Ling Lan, who was beside Luo Lang. He was finally standing in front of Young Master Lan. He didn’t know whether or not Young Master Lan still remembered him.

Although Ling Yi’s performance in the Lingtian Mecha Clan was exceptional, Ling Lan had still not spoken with him face to face because she had given the responsibility of managing Lingtian to Wu Jiong, Qi Long and Li Yingjie. Thus, she never meddled with rankings of members and never had face to face conversations with them neither.

Before Ling Yi could call out to his Young Master Lan, Luo Lang pulled him aside and asked him softly, “Ling Yi, what’s happening?”

Ling Yi glanced at Ling Lan, then replied quietly, “Everyone wanted to come send Boss off. This is what everyone wanted. I didn’t think it was right to stop them.”

After Ling Yi answered, Luo Lang and others looked at Ling Lan, waiting for her reaction. They hoped that their boss could sympathize with everyone’s feelings and let them off easy in the end.

Ling Lan sighed internally and suddenly took a step forward. Her clear and cold voice rang through everyone’s ears. “Everyone, thank you for coming to send us off. But as cadets of the military academy, you guys have to comply with all the rules of the military academy!”

After saying this, Ling Lan’s cold eyes glared at everyone. Everyone at the dock felt that those two eyes were looking at themselves. The blame in Ling Lan’s gaze made them hang their head in unplanned unison.

“Attention!” Ling Lan suddenly gave an order and everyone immediately stood up straight.

“To the rear!” Almost all ten thousand people turned around at the same time. The sudden order actually didn’t create any chaos. Their movements were surprisingly orderly and stunned all those watching.

“I’ll be waiting for you lot in the 23rd Division. Now, forward march!” Ling Lan ordered once again.

Everyone knew that the send-off event had ended. Their boss didn’t want them to skip class. However, the boss had also left a message for them, that he would wait for them in the 23rd Division. The boss hadn’t abandoned them. Lingtian’s members were satisfied. They left the dock in an orderly fashion and quickly disappeared.

Ling Yi didn’t want to follow them. Although he obeyed the command to turn around, he still refused to obey the second command in the end and turned around again.

“You still have something you need?” Ling Lan asked indifferently. When it came to Ling Yi, Ling Lan had a feeling of displeasure. Ling Lan remembered clearly that Ling Yi’s father, Ling Hua, had died by her hand. Although she had made a series of arrangements and made sure the possibility of exposing the truth behind that incident was zero, Ling Lan still felt that she couldn’t get past her own feelings. She couldn’t just treat it as if nothing had happened and accept Ling Yi. Thus, in the past two years, she had never given Ling Yi a chance to get close to her.

However, Ling Lan wasn’t someone that was completely hardened. When Qi Long, Wu Jiong and the others wanted to use her training method to nurture a group of strong individuals in Lingtian, she heard Ling Yi’s name in the list and just let it pass. If Ling Yi really had potential, Ling Lan didn’t mind helping him along the way.

“Young Master Lan!” Ling Yi’s lips moved a bit and finally shouted out the form of address he wanted to say all this time.

Ling Yi addressing Ling Lan like this stunned Qi Long and the others. Normally, the address of young master was used by family servants. They thought of the Ling Yi’s surname “Ling” and instantly understood. It was possible that Ling Yi was a family servant. Some families allowed servants to follow their young masters to apply for the same military academy and become the servant of the next family head. Of course, these family servants had to be capable. Academies such as the First Men’s Military Academy were impossible to get in if the individual was not capable.

Everyone quickly returned to having a calm and collected manner because they wanted to know Ling Lan’s background. They thought of Ling Xiao and could then understand why Ling Yi would be this strong.

Ling Lan looked at Ling Yi helplessly. She didn’t think that Ling Yi still didn’t have the thought of giving up on her up until now. Although Chamberlain Ling Qin had once said that Ling Yi’s dream was to return to her side and become her loyalist, before even mentioning Ling Yi’s special situation and her own situation after her father returned, regardless of whether or not she had publicly announced her gender, she knew it wasn’t possible for her to have a male as her loyalist. Even if she approved, her father would definitely not. Ever since the beginning, the female masters of the Ling family could only have female loyalists by their side. There were no exceptions.

Behind Ling Yi were his team members who had stayed behind with Ling Yi. When Rong Ziruo and Yi Tiange heard Ling Yi shout out “Young Master Lan”, they subconsciously clenched their fists and their eyes focused on Ling Lan.

After Ling Yi’s outburst, it was as though his entire body had relaxed. No matter if his Young Master Lan wanted to accept him or not, he had already shown her his thoughts. He smiled bitterly and said, “Perhaps, Young Master Lan has already forgotten who I am. Looking back, it’s been around 15 years since we last saw each other.”

Ling Lan replied indifferently, “I know. Back then, I approved of your father’s wish before he died to make you return to being a commoner. That way, you wouldn’t have any connections to the Ling family anymore.”

Hearing this, Ling Yi instantly said with concern, “You guys didn’t even ask me whether I wanted to or not? Even if I was young, I still had my right to choose.”

Ling Lan saw the determination in Ling Yi’s eyes. She thought for a moment then said, “Alright. In that case, I’ll give you the chance to choose.”

Ling Yi’s eyes widened and he laughed out loud. “Thank you, Young Master Lan.” He had known that Young Master Lan wouldn’t abandon him just like that.

“In your fifth year, if you want to follow me, then come to the 23rd Division.” Ling Lan left these words and then walked past Ling Yi towards the warship’s personnel hold.