Flowers Bloom from Battlefield

Jun Hua put her sword down. In this fight, she didn't need to exert much energy, but she had managed to push Fan Ying back. She usually executes her fighting style as efficient as possible though it was proven difficult against a stronger opponent like Soujin. For people like Fan Ying, it didn't require her much energy to spend.

"Thank you General Jun for your pointers," Fan Ying clearly felt the chill when the sword was pointed straight to his neck by a mere centimeter. Since he didn't feel any killing intent from Jun Hua, he knew that she was not taking seriously their fight just now. Yet, that simple exchanging of blows had shown him the gap between a general and an ordinary soldier like himself. One should not underestimate Jun Hua's age. She might be young, but she was undoubtedly talented and strong.

Jun Hua smiled, "Like I said, don't say that I bullied you."

Fan Lanying stared dumbfounded. Their sparring didn't last more than a minute but it was enough to defeat her brother. All along, she thought that her brother was strong, but it turned out that there were a lot of people much stronger than him. The boy in front of her was one of them.

Jun Hua turned to look at Fan Lanying. "If you can defeat your brother, you can come to me for sparring."

Fan Lanying nodded. She could not even defeat her brother and given that Fan Ying was going to the battlefield again, the difference in their skills would widen again. Fan Lanying had never been to a battlefield, but she knew that she might not fare well there.

Fan Ying calmed himself down. "Thank you very much Young General Jun. I will be in your care."

Jun Hua nodded. "Continue practicing. There will come a time when you can achieve big. You're quite talented."

Hearing such a praise from Jun Hua meant that Fan Ying was indeed good. But he didn't let it go to his head as he bowed solemnly.

"Jun Hua, let's go."

"Yes brother," 'Jun Hua' answered before she turned to her friend. "See you on the test."

"Yes, learn well so that you can pass the test," Fan Lanying waved as the two of them disappeared from their sight. She then turned to her brother. "I thought you told me that your skill is on par with father."

Fan Ying laughed awkwardly. Their father was also a general and his skills should be on par with Jun Min but with his defeat against Jun Min, Fan Yin could not brag anymore. He looked at the wooden sword before him and vowed to continue practicing even harder.

Jun Hua got into the carriage and sat down with ease.

"That Fan Ying is fairly decent, but he's too cautious. Tell Yabei to increase his training. I want him to have better fighting skills."

"Yes Miss."

Jun Hua leaned back on her chair. Oh right, she still needed to meet with Soujin today.

After arriving back to Jun family residence, she had her lunch before going to the training hall. Soujin was there as usual, but Yan and Ming Hui hadn't arrived yet.

Soujin looked at Jun Hua and said, "You still came back? I thought you will only return when you can beat me."

"Then I will beat you today," Jun Hua answered.

Before long, the sounds of metal clashing could be heard inside the training hall. The two of them used real swords, but they weren't afraid since both of them could easily control their body and they knew that the other party might get hurt if they didn't stop. After almost half an hour of fighting, finally Jun Hua could not keep up because her energy had been drained fully.

"Your skill is improving," Soujin said. "Before, you cannot even last a few minutes."

"That was already a long time ago," Jun Hua countered.

"Both of you should stop fighting." Yan said with solemn face, "With your skills, now I can't even escape from you."

Ming Hui laughed. They had just arrived and Yan was already spouting such a remark. It was not like the two of them always bullied her brother. Well, most of the time they did.

"If you want to, I will accompany you," Jun Hua laughed.

"No thank you."

Soujin took a chair and sat down. The other three followed suit. They have become friends for quite some time and gotten used with teasing and bantering with each other. Ming Hui's health had long improved and she always tagged along with Yan every week to this place. Although she didn't do anything much other than talking, she would always come here.

"How's your city's development coming along?" Jun Hua asked.

"It's good. I already gained full control and some of the people who support me reside in that area," Yan said happily. "There will be more people coming so maybe I will need more land."

"The emperor won't agree."

"He will, later on," Yan said with confidence.

Jun Hua laughed. "Of course he will. This country will need a lot of money and the best source of money is Young Noble Han."

"You still owe me Yan," Soujin added.

Yan's face darkened. "I don't owe you anything! I am already allowing you to eat in the restaurant."

"That is not enough though."

Looking at the two honorable people in this kingdom acting like rogues, Jun Hua laughed. By her side, Ming Hui also laughed because the banter between Soujin and Yan never ended.

"How could this two become study partners? All they do is fight," Jun Hua said.

"Oh, them," Ming Hui smiled. "When they were young, they met each other by chance and Soujin uttered an intelligible remark to Third Brother. I don't remember what it was, but it caused both of them to fight. In the end, their parents forced them to become study partner in order to ease their relationship."

Jun Hua laughed. That kind of first meeting would surely be imprinted in their mind deeply. With Soujin's harsh mouth, there was no way the hooligan Yan could stand it. But really, the mouths of these two were capable to get people on their nerve.

"Now that they have grown up, that habit hadn't disappeared yet?" Jun Hua felt amused.

"It seems so."

Just like that, the day passed as they joked around and laughed.