The Cloud Brawler 2 - (Pre-Honkai Star Rail, MartialArtist!SI)

For two lengthy years I have trained both in private and through the battlefield.

The first promise made by Teng Xiao was upheld through the time, one that promised me 'the means to grow only if I took them'. And I took great effort to keep up with the opportunities that granted me the chance to further develop my skills.

I would actually say that the first year showed a drastic rise in potential growth due to the fact I had more tools and attention given to my training.

I was investing a lot of time there as I trained under Teng Xiao's ruthless schedule. He was not putting me through a grinder, but he definitely saw a point in making my life a living hell for these two years. I fought, and I trained until I was ready to actually take missions for the Cloud Knights.

And most of those missions involved someone that was 'not-so favorable' to have as a partner for those missions.

"We need to ram in!" A female foxian with dull-purple hair and bright green eyes exclaimed as I was more than happily to drive around in the starskiff that we were using to get closer to the stronghold of the Abundance's Disciples.

Baiheng is quite the peppy girl to have around - she looked about three years my senior but was about a 100 years older than me, extremely rambuctious, and already infamous as the 'Starskiff Killer' due to her habit of 'ramming into' bases owned by the Abundance's slaves.

That being said, the first time I tagged along with her for a mission I genuinely thought she was merely misunderstood. But no, Baiheng's only misunderstood aspect was how little people valued her genuine madness. She wasn't just a boisterous Foxian- she was the craziest of the lot.

"Come on, Chenny! I also have found a good reason to do it so frequently!"

I rolled my eyes at her antics, knowing she had made it a personal mission to nag at me over the 'good reason' behind doing such an insane thing in missions.

"Which is?"

Baiheng beamed. "Well, you know there's a business in building Starskiff, yes?"

"I do...?"

"So, the more we destroy, the more workers get paid to make new ones. Thus, destroying Starskiffs is a good thing."

I sighed at this silly view. "Baiheng, making a Starskiff takes time, especially when it comes to regulations. Those boats are needed to send troops around- the less we have around, the higher will be the risk to not have enough to supply our troops with more resources or manpower. So no, there is not a profit from this dumbassery."

She pouted mightily at my harsh response, and I have to admit it was intensely lenient considering I had to deal with this shit for three months now. I thought this would be one of those rare missions where the 'ram the Starskiff to victory' was not followed, but-

Baiheng tripped forward and mistakenly pressed the wrong buttons to NOT ram the Starskiff forward. The vehicle picked up too much speed at once and I glared at the shrugging Foxian.

"Whoops!"

"I fucking hate you."

She shrugged again- "Whoo-"

And we crashlanded in the depths of that Abundance-controlled hellhole.

Various Mara-infected troops mustered to swarm us, but I jumped out of the vehicle to start clearing out some space for Baiheng. I was the 'tank', while she worked as the long-ranged specialist with both her healing skills and her bow.

Usually Baiheng could handle stuff on her own, and that's one of the reasons why the Cloud Knights were reluctant to join her in missions, but I also have to confess I had a genuine case of 'worry' for this dumb woman. She clearly had a lack of understanding of her life's worth if she was so willing of hurling herself into the battlefield.

I just had this feeling that she was not going to survive for long if she kept doing this sort of shit and- I guess that got my 'saving habit' to pick up on her dumb case and keep an eye on her dumbassery.

"On your left!" She warned and I nodded as I blocked an approaching Malefic Ape trying to charge at us. The beast was five times my size, but I was definitely the toughest of the two as I lifted it up, hurled it at some of the Golden Hounds approaching and then blasted them with a low-powered ki blast.

Baiheng giggled at the explosive bowling that we were both playing up, the girl having grown extremely attached to me despite how little time spent together but... I would be a liar if I said I wanted to be a close friend of hers.

Despite all I could give to Baiheng, I just couldn't appreciate beyond the work hours. She was too... much. I had friends like this in my previous life, people that were too much on the nose and that just couldn't accept 'growing up'.

Baiheng was not suicidal, this much I could tell, but I felt she was putting herself too much outward to try and keep up with appearances. Why? I can't tell. All I could find out about her was: 1) She isn't an orphan as her family were among the richest in the Foxian Community due to their flying-related history; 2) She is not loathed by anyone really as she was avoided just because she tended to be too ballsy on some details and 3) She had a terrible tendency to stuck around and latch on anyone willing to speak with her.

All of that didn't suggest trauma, loneliness, or anything that should warrant this kind of behavior. I was just so confused on what was going on and, truth be told, I saw no point in involving myself in that sort of business- I just could tell something may be going on with Baiheng, but it was also possible she just was born this way and she was as obnoxious as one could get in this flagship.

So, as this standard mission ended and we were picked up by some 'rescuing party' since we no longer had our ship to leave, I was subjected to another familiar scene I was too familiar with.

"Come on, I can assure you that you can befriend them too, Chenny~."

"I am not interested, Baiheng. I have chores and training to take care," I flatly replied. One would think this would 'hurt' someone like Baiheng, but she only pouted and huffed after this sort of exchanges came to the usual conclusion - she wanted to have me hang around her group of close friends and I didn't want to. "Plus, shouldn't you be busy writing your half of the report?"

"Nuh-huh. That's because you usually do it."

I raised an eyebrow. "And you want me to also tag along with you when you drop all that work on me?"

She offered a sheepish look and... that's where the conversation ended. She was off to check on her friends while I got back to HQ to get the standard paperwork checked out and verified.

Once a few hours of that went by, I was moving to get to Teng Xiao's office, where I found the old man grumbling over more news of a potential resurgence of the Emanator Shuhu. Shuhu was one of the longstanding leaders of the Abundance's Abominations. He was known to have pretty much triggered the most recent crises tied to the Abundance, with the Devouring Planet Rahu being and example of that.

To think that a fucking 'dead' planet was 'given life' as a celestial bodies' eater was outright scary. I thought that some shit was best kept in analog series, but an outright 'living planet' that lived by devouring other planets a-la Galactus sure left me unnerved of ever facing such a threat.

And as I sat down by the available chair in front of my mentor's desk, the old man rewarded me with a small smile.

"You have been doing well, Chen. Your progress is nothing to scoff at, and your recent growth in powers suggest you are indeed on the way to give me trouble in some spars."

"Thank you, sir."

The smile faltered as he said that. "However, I have a big favor to ask you, my apprentice. It has to do with a very difficult mission that I would wish to not have you deal with but... I have to send someone with enough strength to face it."

That's... concerning. I still nodded as I was passed the document with the mission's info.

It was irregular. The paperwork didn't list a precise 'deadline' for the mission, and the list of parameters was far too extensive for a single person. Then I also eyed the location and I felt shuddering by just studying what it was about.

"Ketu Mirage," I mumbled, my brain hurting as I knew the name. While not as famous as Rahu, Ketu Mirage was another living planet conceived by the Abundance. "Why am I going there alone?"

"We have reasons to believe that Shuhu is currently residing in that planet. If we were to send a military invasion, Shushu would depart at once and we would risk another Xianzhou Cangcheng incident."

One of the flagships that was destroyed in 'recent time'. Rahu was to blame, the planet had outright devoured the ship until it reached critical mass and exploded. One of the most famous survivors was the Luofu's Sword Champion, Jing Liu, and she was very quick to upset over the topic.

Reports of the time suggested extensive trauma for those that survived the event, a few of those even killing themselves due to the horrible experience itself.

Going to a living planet on my own meant being put on a constant risk of being hit by the Mara. The Abundance treated it as a second home after Rahu, and... and then my eyes stopped at a specific line within the 'reasoning' section behind my eligible candidacy for the mission.

"I am... supposedly resilient to the Mara?"

Teng Xiao didn't smile at this, so this wasn't a jest or something that was 'good news'. "You are not branded by the Hunt, my student."

This was a troubling proclamation. In this worlds, the so-called deity known as 'Aeons', were known to have primary civilizations that they had a mostly-complete control over in terms of alignment. For a time the former Xianzhou Alliance was for Abundance, but then it became clear the curses behind the blessings were not worth it. Thus they united under the Aeon of the Hunt, Lan, in a constant campaign of destruction against the Aeon of the Abundance, Yaoshi.

It was very rare for individuals of the Xianzhou, at least those of relevance, to not be aligned with the Hunt. I thought I was aligned to it due to my vehemence against the Abundance but... I wasn't?

"How...?"

"I had to inquire the assistance of the Master Diviner himself over this curiosity of mine about your future. I thought that you had an interesting path up ahead, but I wanted to be certain you would keep the right way. Do you want to know what he found about your future?"

I blinked, shaking my head and feeling a bit uneasy over the fact someone could just look into my future like that and-

"Nothing."

"...Nothing?"

"Nothing but... laughter."

This may not mean much to someone that had no clue of this universe's natural order, but as I had studied the basic info about Aeons under Teng Xiao, I knew what this meant.

"The Elation." I muttered and my mentor nodded.

"Aha is a Aeon of deceipt and chaos. One that is not directly at war with us, but one whose individuals that bear his power are known to also bring changes to fate itself. You are not an Emanator as your powers are not bestowed by him but-"

"You expect him to eventually approach me, maybe to shield me from Mara during the mission."

Teng Xiao nodded at my correct guess. "I wouldn't send you out there if I didn't know you can do it. This mission- we need to hit back at Shuhu before he can prepare for another invasion. We already lost a ship due to a lack of preparation- we can't keep being eluded by Shuhu: your primary goal is to exterminate him and whatever remains of him. Do you understand?"

I did, and I didn't like it. This was a suicidal mission, and one that could either make or break me. Was I scared? Yes. But I admit that... I could feel a bit excited.

Maybe training in combat had truly awakened my inner action-junkie mindset, but it sure felt odd to consider this sort of quest and... I sighed.

"I do and I accept your mission, teacher."

Teng Xiao smiled bitterly. "I will give you four days to warn those you seek to render aware of this long-termed mission. Then, you shall be off to the Xianzhou Yuque and then to Ketu Mirage."

I nodded, numbly feeling my head hurting at the fact this was going to be a rather bumpy path for a few years- or more. How long would it take to destroy Shuhu and Ketu Mirage itself? I may be strong, but the chances of this plan failing were also quite high.

Ultimately I resigned to this dreadful mission, and I was off to get ready to depart.

Unaware that this was going to be the mission that would define the rest of my existence in the Xianzhou Alliance.


AN

The 'Tutorial Arc' is thus over, and the next four-five chapter will highlight a time-skipping arc which will see this mission unfolding. Expect a lot of training and the slow phasing of basic martial arts into something more 'planet-wrecking'.