Flame Mercenaries

From the rags of Wake City to the strongest in the continent!

The **Flame Mercenaries** is the largest organization led by Jian Chen in the Tian Yuan Continent. Among the common people, it's a little known fact that he isn't actually the founder of the group, but the second generation leader.

In the past, the group was composed of a few low-level mercenaries led by Kendall. After they were decimated by a Golden Fur Tiger King, the only surviving member was Jian Chen. In order to continue Kendall's legacy, Jian Chen founded his Flame Mercenaries which would later grow into its current status.

## Background

The Flame Mercenaries were a mercenary group established in Wake City. The brothers within the group were made of steel and cared for the bonds of friendship over the metal of money.

This group was only a small sized group ranked as class D, which didn’t restrict the actions of anyone like they did in the larger groups.

Their goal was killing Magical Beasts in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts for earning money and monster cores that sell for a high price while helping them cultivate their Saint Force.

After expanding their forces and using the territory of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom, they had become a pivotal figure in the world of mercenaries.

With Jian Chen at its lead, the Flame Mercenaries became the number one mercenary group in the world.

## Factions

* Blue Wind Kingdom
	+ Wake City
		- Loyal Spirit Mercenaries
		- Hot Blooded Mercenaries
		- Golden Dragon Mercenaries
		- Char Mercenaries
		- Mercenaries of Slaughter
		- Zephyr Mercenaries
		- Kai Clan
		- ~~Dohre Clan~~
	+ Cloud Capital
		- Carnage Mercenaries
		- Bloodthorn Mercenaries
		- Bloodrose Mercenaries

* Heavenly Eagle Kingdom
	+ Bloodmoon Mercenaries

## **First Generation**

* Kendall (Captain)
* Hu Po
* Zhou Da Kai
* Zhou Xiao Kai
* Yun Xuan
* Xiao Dao
* Chang Ning Feng
* Kabolds
* Deere

## **Second Generation**

After destroying the Tianxiong Clan, the Kai Clan, Dohre Clan, and the five mercenary groups had chosen to submit to Jian Chen. From then on, their groups formed a unified mercenary group. At the same time, the Flame Mercenaries were now 600 members strong. Aside from Jian Chen, there were seven Great Saint Masters and six Saint Masters. Although this number wasn’t big, they could already be considered the strongest power in Wake City.

These are the members of the second generation:

* Jian Chen (Captain)
* Ming Dong (Vice-Captain)
* Hudolf (Loyal Spirit Mercenaries, Captain)
* Seth**†** (Hot Blooded Mercenaries, Captain)
* Duo Kang**†** (Golden Dragon Mercenaries, Captain)
* Charcas (Char Mercenaries)
* Mo Tian (Mercenaries of Slaughter, Captain)
* Qingfeng (Zephyr Mercenaries, Captain)
* Kai Er (Kai Clan, Patriarch)
* Weiss**†** (Dohre Clan, Patriarch)
* Xiong Tai
* Zhan Tian
* Mu Chi
* Shan Xiong
* Jasmine
* Ha Ni
* Lie Dao
* Laz

## **Third Generation**

The Flame Mercenaries had taken over the entire Heavenly Eagle Kingdom at this time, and had been stationed within the castle of the Bloodmoon Mercenaries. When the seven leaders heard that it was Jian Chen himself who led the group, they had immediately announced their own desires to join the Flame Mercenaries.

And now with the inclusion of those seven, the Flame Mercenaries had exploded once more in strength. The entirety of the land that had been the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom was fully engulfed by Jian Chen, and the amount of experts within the land had been plentiful. Aside from Jian Chen, there were nearly a dozen other Heaven Saint Masters included amongst the mercenaries, making the Flame Mercenaries a household name within the surrounding hundred thousand kilometers.

### **After the War**

The Flame Mercenaries had already developed to a point where it had several million internal members and several tens of million external members. They had become a superpower that had branches littered across the continent, even extending into the sea realm, Wasteland Continent, and Beast God Continent. As the four races became united and abandoned their old territorial mindset, the Flame Mercenaries were no longer composed of just humans. There were members of the Hundred Races, Sea race, and magical beasts as well.

## **Divine Flame Guardians**

A group that possessed extremely terrifying strength in the Flame Mercenaries that Jian Chen personally cultivated.

The Divine Guards of the Flame did not have many members, only a measly several dozen, but even the weakest ones among them were Saint Emperors that formed half of the Divine Guards of the Flame. The other half were all Origin realm experts who had surpassed Saint Emperor. A small handful of them had even reached Reciprocity.

They had not left with Shangguan Aojian. Instead, they stuck to their duty, protecting the Flame Mercenaries diligently. They were the most loyal guards of the Flame Mercenaries. The Flame Empire possessed five Origin realm experts and their strongest expert had even surpassed Receival and reached Returnance.

## Plot

### **Wake City**

In Wake City, Jian Chen was approached by Kendall, the founder and then-leader of the Flame Mercenaries. Kendall was impressed by Jian Chen's talent, and eventually convinced him to join the mercenary group on the condition that Jian Chen would not be restricted and he would not have to obey anyone.

When Jian Chen went on his first hunting expedition in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, he first hid his fighting prowess, but as he became closer to the rest of the group, he eventually showed his prowess, making him the target of admiration from all the other members.

After hunting for a while, the group ran into a Class 5 Golden Fur Tiger King cub. Thinking that they would be able to sell it for a large amount of money, the mercenaries decided to try to find a way to bring the cub back to Wake City. Before they could do that, though, they were interrupted by the Zhou Mercenaries. The following battle caught the attention of the Class 5 Golden Fur Tiger King mother. The Zhou Mercenaries swiftly retreated, but seeing that they would not be able to escape in time, the Flame Mercenaries put their lives down to stall for time while Jian Chen ran away.

After that, Jian Chen sought revenge and destroyed the Zhou Mercenaries and the Zhou clan by himself before also eliminating the Tianxiong clan in Wake City. Then, he even fought with a Class 5 Magical Beast with his skill.

### **Merging Mercenary Groups *(Chapters 228-233)***

"There’s a total of 121 men with us here. The Hot Blooded Mercenaries have 32 men, the Gold Dragon Mercenaries have 25, the Charcas Mercenaries has 17, the Mercenaries of Slaughter have 28, and the Zephyr Mercenaries have 19 men."

### **Defiance Mercenaries & City Lord**

In the two years that Jian Chen left for Mercenary City, Duo Kang, Seth, and Weiss came across an accident that marked their eternal departure. From the seven leaders of the Flame Mercenaries, only four remain. This occurred due to the presence of the Tiger Cub's discovery during a tentative period of internal strife from the Flame Mercenaries and the alliance of the stronger families and mercenaries within the city. It was retrieved by the group, but the cub was stolen at night by a secret assailant. Duo Kang gave chase, but he ended up being beheaded.

After that, their forces were weakened against the might of the alliance. Now stuck at a deadlock, that very same coallition began to fight one another. They tried to take advantage of the chaos to subdue the rest of the straggling factions, but what they didn’t expect was that another party would come in like the storm and beat them to it.

After they deteriorated, the Defiance Mercenaries tried to absorb them within their ranks. As such, the One Armed Warrior decided to poison all of them. In exchange for the antidote, they needed to join him. Soon, more and more mercenaries decided to live and serve the Defiance Mercenaries rather than die. In the end, only sixty or so men were left from the original hundred plus men.

However, Jian Chen fortunately made it on time to save his group from disbandment.

### **Direction of Development**

Ming Dong was assigned as the vice-captain of the group,  while Dugu Feng acquired the position of an Elder.  Yun Zheng and Senior An became the law keepers.

### **300 years later**

The Flame Mercenaries that had gradually changed after the departure of Shangguan Aojian and the other experts.

The Flame Mercenaries had become the greatest organisation on the Tian Yuan Continent a long time ago, and Flame City that served as the headquarters had become the greatest city in the world. Their reputation was so great that no person or organisation in the world could shake them or replace them.

Throughout these years, the Flame Mercenaries had remained under Jian Chen’s younger sister, Bi Lian, the entire time. It had already been several centuries since she became the captain of the Flame Mercenaries. The Flame Mercenaries were completely under her control, which turned her into the person that bore the greatest authority in the world.

During the three centuries following Jian Chen’s departure, Bi Lian had managed the Flame Mercenaries well. They had been flourishing and developing the entire time, making great contributions to maintaining the peace on the Tian Yuan Continent and the stability of the world. The Flame Mercenaries and Shangguang Aojian could be regarded as the lower and upper authorities, watching over organisations and experts of different levels.

### **Birth of the Flame Empire**

Due to Karlow's interventions, the Flame Mercenaries became corrupted after Bi Lian became enamored by him. Through the planning and scheming of the advisor, the Flame Mercenaries officially abandoned their name as a group of mercenaries under Bi Lian’s lead, founding a country, the Flame Empire.

By now, the Flame Empire had become the only empire on the Tian Yuan Continent. The powerful kingdoms beneath the empires were either annexed or destroyed. In the end, only the Qinhuang Kingdom maintained their independence. As for the smaller kingdoms, only the Gesun Kingdom remained.

The situation on the Tian Yuan Continent had been completely rewritten by the Flame Empire.

## Insignia

* It is revealed in the manhua, the comics adaptation of the novel, that the Flame Mercenaries' symbol appeared to be a fire bird/phoenix that formed in a pattern of a circle.
* The outer layer was white which descended into deeper shades of orange.
* It is presumed that this symbol would be used as the permanent symbol of the Flame Mercenaries.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 580
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 582
3. ↑ Chapter 232: Unsatisfied? Then Challenge Me!
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 545: The Direction of Development
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 546: Increase of Strength
6. ↑ Chapter 3105: The Flame Empire