Young people are completely unaware, nor would they ever realize, just how much of a shock it would bring to the jianghu if the Wolf Army were to disband now.

In the blink of an eye, three hours had passed, and the young man awoke from his meditation.

This tent was reserved exclusively for the young man; without his permission, no one was allowed to enter. So up until now, no one had disturbed him. The brothers in the camp all knew that unless it was something major, they must never bother Boss.

The young man stepped out and ran into a few patrolling soldiers. The soldiers all greeted him, and he politely returned the gesture.

After the soldiers left, he couldn’t help but let out a few wry laughs.

“What a hassle. Clearly, everyone is older than me, yet they all call me Boss.”

Out of habit, he walked to the mess hall. When a few cooks saw him coming, they hurried to bring him a dinner and greeted him warmly.

“I bet even if Samuel Wright were here, he wouldn’t get this kind of treatment,” he thought with a smile. “But then again, Samuel Wright would never come here.”

Watching the busy cooks, he couldn’t help but think, “If anyone saw what the Wolf Army is like inside, they’d probably be so shocked their jaws would drop.”

A few cooks with friendly faces, bustling about—who would have thought that each of these men had at least a hundred and eighty, if not two hundred, lives on their hands.

After dinner, the young man tidied up his uniform, strapped on his saber, and headed toward the camp gate.

Judging by his attire, he was just an ordinary soldier. Outfits like his were everywhere in the camp. But wherever he passed, every agile figure, no matter what they were doing, would stop, stand at attention, and salute. Every face was filled with respect and awe.

When he reached the camp gate, the soldiers on guard smiled at him. He asked the leading Little Captain, “Whose turn is it today?”

Little Captain quickly replied, “It’s my turn today, Boss.”

“All right, you go get some rest!” the young man said to him.

Little Captain grinned and said, “Thank you, Boss.”

He waved his hand and took the spot where Little Captain had been standing.

Over the years, the soldiers of the Wolf Army had grown used to the fact that, rain or shine, Boss would always take over a brother’s guard duty at the camp gate every day, never missing a day.

Once Boss took his post at the gate, standing in a standard guard’s stance, his thoughts gradually drifted back to the past.

The young man’s name was David Harris.

David Harris’s father was a well-known doctor, kind-hearted and highly skilled. But that wasn’t what made him famous. His reputation came from his notorious bad temper—he never cared whether his patients were nobles or peasants; he treated everyone equally. This earned him the unanimous support of his patients, most of whom were commoners.

But it was this very principle that led to David Harris’s family’s misfortune.

That year, there happened to be a severe drought, and David Harris’s hometown suffered unprecedented dryness. The number of starving people and the sick kept rising. David Harris’s family did good deeds, and since both parents knew some medicine, the whole family went out to treat the sick.

With the heat and drought, many people suffered from heatstroke. The family was constantly busy.

At that time, the county magistrate’s son also suffered from heatstroke. The magistrate sent his personal guards to summon David Harris’s father, but David Harris’s father wouldn’t play along. Besides, there were too many people in urgent need of help, so he sent the guards back.

It was also the magistrate’s fault—his son wasn’t seriously ill; as long as he rested at home and drank plenty of water (even during the drought, the magistrate’s family never lacked water), there would have been no problem. But he insisted on dragging his son to David Harris’s house for treatment. The magistrate’s son was frail to begin with, and after the ordeal of traveling while suffering from heatstroke, he fainted on the way. By the time they reached David Harris’s house, he was already gone.

The magistrate flew into a rage, blaming David Harris’s father for not saving his son, and took out his anger on the entire David Harris family.

So the magistrate personally led men to arrest the whole David Harris family. Using the excuse that David Harris’s father had treated bandits among his patients, he charged the family with colluding with criminals. Especially David Harris’s parents, who were tortured severely and, due to their injuries, died tragically in prison.

Before she died, his mother said to David Harris, “Child, from now on, you’ll have to rely on yourself.”

At fifteen, after his parents’ deaths, David Harris was sent to the border and forced to join the Wolf Army.

Originally, the magistrate intended to have David Harris secretly executed, but the magistrate’s wife was even more vicious. She came up with a plan to exile David Harris to the frontier and have him join the Wolf Army, known as the “Death Camp.”

The magistrate’s wife had some connections—she was the niece of the Minister of War in the capital—so she used her influence to instruct the border commander to never allow David Harris to be promoted, and to make sure he was sent into battle every time, until he died.

The border commander wasn’t about to offend his superiors over a convict, and the general had always despised the convict camps.

So, David Harris became a Wolf Army foot soldier who could never hope for promotion.

David Harris let out a long sigh, pushed aside his troubling thoughts, and began today’s breathing exercises.