Firmament Sword

Fifty li was a trivial distance for the vast majority of people present. Any one of them could handle a long-distance forced march of several hundred li without issue, so they wouldn’t normally care about such a short distance.

However, this was all under the premise of using True Essence. If they weren’t allowed to use True Essence, forget fifty li... even twenty li would be enough to leave a huge pile of them collapsed on the ground, unable to get up!

This was especially true for those with high talent. The better their talent, the less they typically focused on physical training.

The reason was simple: Martial Artists could use the True Essence circulating within their bodies for Washing Marrow and Peeling Fur, improving their physical constitution. The stronger the Martial Artist, the stronger their body.

Under these circumstances, how many people would be willing to train their bodies using the most primitive methods?

That was why these talented individuals felt that Instructor Zhou truly lived up to his name as the Devil Instructor. He was simply insane!

If this had been before, someone would have definitely protested loudly, accusing the instructor of inhuman abuse and deliberate torture.

But after Instructor Zhou had made an example of them, almost everyone understood one thing: going against this devil was not a good idea.

Xu Luo’s face was also a little pale. Although his constitution had been changed, he had never undergone such high-intensity training. Running fifty li at a fast pace without True Essence... Xu Luo had no confidence he could make it to the end.

As he was thinking this, Xu Luo suddenly raised his arm. ”Reporting, Instructor!”

The eagle-like gaze of the Black Armored Knight on horseback shot toward Xu Luo, but he didn’t fly into a rage as the others had imagined. Instead, he said flatly, ”Speak.”

”The instructor said we are not allowed to use True Essence. Does that mean we can’t use footwork techniques either?” Xu Luo asked, his voice raised.

Many who had held a sliver of hope immediately sighed in disappointment.

”What’s he talking about... How can you use footwork techniques without True Essence?”

”I thought he was going to say something amazing... but it was just that!”

”Isn’t that the Civil Servant... ahem, isn’t that Xu Luo? Why is he here?”

”The National Guardian General’s Mansion has produced Military Generals for generations. Although this Xu Luo was a bit lacking, I heard some Spirit Medicine changed his constitution. He’s supposedly become a pretty strong Martial Artist now!”

”Sigh, what’s the use of footwork techniques without True Essence?”

Discussions broke out among the crowd. Only a few people had a thoughtful look in their eyes.

Instructor Zhou narrowed his eyes slightly, sizing up Xu Luo for a long moment before nodding with a faint, unreadable smile. ”As long as you don’t use True Essence, you can even crawl if you want!”

A wave of laughter spread through the crowd. Many of them thought Xu Luo had asked a stupid question. Xu Luo himself, however, nodded seriously and said no more.

”Anyone else have questions?” Instructor Zhou asked nonchalantly from his horse, ignoring the students’ reactions. ’Father told me to keep an eye on this kid,’ he thought. ’I originally thought he wanted me to show favoritism, but it seems he really does have a few tricks up his sleeve.’

’What other questions could there be if we can’t use True Essence? The worst that can happen is falling behind...’

This was what almost all the students were thinking, so the entire area fell silent.

Who would have thought that upon seeing everyone’s lack of response, Instructor Zhou would say with a cold smile, ”Well then, begin! And let me give you one more kind reminder. At your top speed, given the time of day, you should reach the campsite before dark. Then, you’ll need to find your own food! If you fall behind... and it’s dark by the time you arrive, don’t blame me if you can’t find anything to eat...”

”What? We don’t even have cooks?”

”What is this crap... We’re students of the True Martial Academy! We’ll be officers when we join the army! How can you treat us like this?”

”We even have to find our own food... This... isn’t this just messing with us?”

”The place fifty li from here is a barren wilderness. What is there to eat?”

”The instructor is clearly trying to kill us!”

Many of the students who had already resigned themselves to their fate completely broke down after hearing the Devil Instructor’s words.

They... were a group of heaven’s chosen!

They... were mostly the children of officials!

They were born with golden spoons in their mouths and had lived their entire lives in a halo of honor.

They were a generation envied by all...

But what awaited them now was training so harsh it bordered on cruel!

Running fifty li without True Essence was already near the limit of human endurance, yet after reaching the destination, they still had to find their own food...

How was this still training? This was clearly a death sentence!

Faced with the students’ emotional outburst, a cold sneer appeared on the corner of Instructor Zhou’s mouth. He remained completely unmoved, sitting on his horse as steady as a mountain.

At that moment, an adjutant beside Instructor Zhou roared, ”All of you, shut the hell up!”

”You bunch of weak, useless things! Not letting you use True Essence is for your own good! Have you weaklings ever seen the cruelty of a battlefield? When your True Essence is depleted, do you think someone is going to kindly hand you a Spirit Stone? What do you do when you have no True Essence? Wait to die?”

”Making you find your own food is to train your survival instincts in the wild! What isn’t there to eat in the wild? We didn’t say you couldn’t use your True Essence to hunt, did we? There are birds and beasts in the mountains, turtles and fish in the rivers, and all sorts of edible wild vegetables everywhere!”

”If you were trapped in the barren wilderness, your supply lines cut, with no provisions at all, are you pampered young masters who are used to being spoon-fed just going to fucking starve to death?”

”Look at your weak, pathetic faces! I look down on you from the bottom of my heart! You’re the type of trash who would starve to death with a pancake hanging around your neck! Do you only know how to bite what’s in front of you, and not how to turn it to bite the back?”

”You think Instructor Zhou is harsh, even cruel, so unreasonable to train you with something close to torture on your very first day in the army. But do you have any idea what Instructor Zhou has been through? Behind his back, you call him Devil Zhou, Demon Zhou, the Devil Instructor...”

”But this ’devil’ you speak of once led one hundred and thirty of his comrades while surrounded by the enemy for eighty-seven days, with no food and no medicine... Instructor Zhou, relying on his formidable wilderness survival skills, brought every single one of his comrades back alive and successfully completed the mission!”

”Where do you think Instructor Zhou’s powerful survival skills came from? Was he fucking born with them? And you don’t need to wonder—Instructor Zhou is the son of Dean Zhou, the very man who once led a forced march of thousands of li that even the enemy Emperor had to admit he admired!”

”Now do you understand, you dregs? You don’t! You don’t know anything! All you do every day is think you’re high and mighty, admiring yourselves with your necks held high like white swans! You think you’ll just be officers the moment you enter the army. Fuck... do you dregs even know how many heads a regular Soldier has to chop off, how many military honors he must earn, to be promoted to Private First Class?”

”A bunch of self-righteous trash! You don’t want to train? Having regrets? Then get the hell out! Now, I’ll count to three. Anyone who doesn’t want to follow the training, get out of the formation immediately! The army’s gates will be forever closed to you!”

”Go back to being your rich young masters, your top students! One! Two... Three!”

This adjutant was silent at first, but once he opened his mouth, it was a torrential downpour of words that gave the disgruntled students a vicious tongue-lashing.

But the group of students below all stood their ground, not a single one moving an inch.

Leave? What a joke! They might be unhappy with Instructor Zhou, but they weren’t stupid!

Anyone who dared to leave today would be nailed to the pillar of shame for the rest of their lives!

Deserters!

Deserters who became cowards in the face of training!

That one word was enough to destroy the bright future of any top student!

So, despite their dissatisfaction, they wouldn’t take a single step back, even if someone were whipping them.

”Good, still no one’s leaving, huh? Then you’d better fucking remember this: the complaining ends here! If I hear one more person complain or question anything, I’ll kick you out myself! At that point, you’ll get out whether you want to or not!”

The adjutant’s voice was cold and severe, but it softened slightly at the end. ”You may hate us now, but one day, you will understand just how important today’s lesson is for your entire lives. At that time, you will be grateful, and you will be ashamed! You will be ashamed of all the silent curses you’ve leveled against us in your hearts today!”

With that, the adjutant raised his hand. ”Move out!” Then, he glanced casually in Xu Luo’s direction and mumbled to Instructor Zhou beside him, ”Boss, this kid is pretty smart. To think he’d know to use this method to hone his footwork...”

Instructor Zhou, still on his horse, nodded slightly but said nothing. A flash of worry crossed his eyes. ’Father pushed this group of pampered young masters onto me... If they really get to a battlefield... how many of them will come back alive? If I don’t use harsh methods... it won’t work!’

After that tongue-lashing, the atmosphere of the entire group had quietly changed.

They were all youths of seventeen or eighteen, and they all had a bright, passionate side. Who didn’t want to achieve greatness? Who didn’t want their name to go down in history?

It’s just a little hardship, right?

’Fuck it... I can take it!’

’If others can take it, why can’t I?’

The first fifty-man squad, led by a Soldier, began to run forward with steady steps.

Then the second... the third... the fourth...

Xu Luo and his friends kept their heads down, silently running with the rhythm of the crowd. Xu Luo didn’t use his Shaking Light Step right from the start.

A minority within the group hadn’t opened their mouths from the very beginning, nor did they show any signs of dissatisfaction. These were the smart ones.

They knew very well that anger, grumbling, and complaining... these negative emotions would only drain their stamina faster!

Fifty li, running to the campsite, and then having to find food... Even a regular Soldier would be too exhausted to get up.

The spring sun wasn’t scorching, but with the continuous running, sweat rapidly drained everyone’s stamina. The sound of panting began to rise from the crowd.

”How far have we run?” Little Fatty Liu Feng wiped the sweat from his forehead and quietly asked Xu Luo, who was beside him.

”Probably... more than ten li,” Xu Luo replied. His forehead was also covered in sweat, and he felt his stamina being severely depleted.

”Damn it, a few dozen li used to be nothing. Running like this without True Essence is really killing me!” Xu Jie grumbled, his gaze firm and his pace steady. ”Now I’m actually a little envious of those Soldiers who have average strength but are well-trained!”

Following Xu Jie’s words, the gazes of the group fell upon the Soldier leading the squad.