One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.8 Zhen BuFeng

In an uneventful morning , inside the Ji residence's training room, Zhen BuFeng was sparring with Ji SongLi. Being almost three years older than the Ji family heir, Zhen BuFeng was already adept in his clan's spear arts. He mastered the primary moves merely days after his seventh birthday, and he was currently close to breaking through his bottleneck in mastering the fourth move of Zhen's Gale Wolf spear core arts.

Although he was still far from being called a master, in the whole Zhang empire, Zhen BuFeng was at the top of the list of the Empire's martial artists of his generation. If he was second, no one would dare claim to be the first.

At thirteen years old and sparring one-on-one, he could defeat an opponent several years older than himself.

However at the moment he was not very impressed with the younger boy he was sparring with.

Years ago before Zhen BuFeng was even born, Emperor Zhang, being of military background himself, added a decree not long after he ascended the throne. The decree declared that the direct heirs of the two military seal holders must be able to master at least the primary moves of both sword and spear arts.

Ji lineage always churned out sword masters, the Zhen clan always had spear masters. Although at more complicated expert levels, both arts would contradict each other, the primary moves could strengthen the foundation of both practitioners. Emperor Zhang recognized this, having trained both arts himself. The Emperor ended up more adept in using sword, but he still commanded his two generals to apply this rule to their respective heir.

Not only that, all the royal princes of the imperial family must also, at a period of time, undergo military training under direct supervision of the two generals. Before they came of age and received their own estates at sixteen years old, they had to participate in at least two military expeditions. If they were to fail in this requirement, all their imperial privileges would be taken away. Despite being princes, they could only be second rank officials at most.

"It was not to only strengthen the body, but the mind,'" the Emperor once famously quoted. He was not the type to spoil his sons who were considered born with golden spoons in their mouths.

Looking at it from another point of view, it was the princes' chance to get acquainted closely with the two strongest military forces of the empire. The Emperor gave each and every one of them fair opportunity to not only train themselves, but to possibly gain the Generals' or their heirs' support. Despite all the gold and glitters, the Imperial family members were probably the noblest personages who could not sleep peacefully at nights . There would always be parties who observed from afar or close, and any show of weakness might bring them trouble or even death. Strength and force were necessary for safety.

Crown Prince Zhang KongJing, currently fifteen years of age, had satisfied all the necessary requirements and was just being idle when he accompanied his third younger brother to visit Ji residence. He could have joined a couple more expeditions before his sixteenth birthday, but Zhang KongJing decided to start learning politics, attending court more often than what would normally be required of him at this stage. He deemed it was more necessary to have brain than brawn, which was not an entirely unreasonable approach.

Second Prince Zhang JunLi was born in the same year as Zhen BuFeng. He had finished his first military expedition last summer. In fact. Zhen BuFeng had accompanied him along, to the Eastern desert to curb minor insurgences by small tribes residing there. General Zhen and the Wolf Army was so far quite impressed with Zhang JunLi. Despite being only on his first formal military outing, he contributed to the Wolf army's victory. The most troublesome revolting tribe was subdued relatively quickly because of his insight in recognizing the desolate terrain landscape and the tribe's core hiding spot. Personality wise, Zhang JunLi was also one resembling the Emperor the most. If he could help it, the young prince would want to continue to belong in the military.