Volume 1 – Between Daybreak and Evernight, Chapter 20: Sweeping Through
Qianye naturally won that round.
The captain acting as the judge declared Qianye’s victory, his gaze toward Qianye containing slight admiration.
Wei Potian had nearly collapsed after he finished vomiting and was carried down by his companions.
Not long after, Qianye encountered a new opponent who was a second rank Fighter. The moment he dashed up, Qianye unleashed a flurry of attacks like a storm, beating his opponent and giving him no chance to retaliate. This one seemed even weaker than Wei Potian, and Qianye kicked him out of the ring before even a minute had passed.
After that, opponents came up one after another, then went down one after another. Qianye acquired five consecutive victories in the blink of an eye.
From the reactions and whispers of the spectating examinees, he could tell that many who came to participate in the exam were considered combat experts. Another that had fought Qianye surprisingly knew a secret combat art as well.
However, the moment that this guy went up, Qianye immediately traded three punches with him and thoroughly beat his opponent’s unstoppable momentum into a turtle defense. In just a minute, this combat expert was knocked out.
If the kid hadn’t shouted the name of the secret combat art immediately after getting on stage, Qianye wouldn’t have thought he also had a secret combat art.
Yet from start to finish, Qianye wasn’t able to witness how the secret fist art called “Flowing Fire Metal Melting Myriad Break” looked.
After a few rounds, Qianye discovered that these so-called experts were unexpectedly weak to the point of being unable to withstand a single blow. In comparison, Wei Potian could be considered the strongest out of all of them, as Qianye actually had to use some strength to put him down. However, since Wei Potian had been the first in line, Qianye ended up holding back most of his power afterward. Ultimately, no lives were lost.
After fighting for five rounds, Qianye felt that he had just warmed up, his desire to fight burning in his chest. He looked at his surroundings awaiting the appearance of the next opponent.
However, in response to his waiting, what came was not an opponent, but an angry roar from the judge. “You’ve already passed! Don’t take up space, go stay on the sidelines!”
Only then did Qianye realize that he had already won five times in a row.
This exam felt like child’s play to Qianye. Compared to combat training where every strike was solid and possibly fatal, the difference was like heaven and earth.
Qianye left the arena. All of the examinees who had seen him fight held intense fear in their eyes.
Qianye’s strikes seemed ordinary at first, just fast, fierce, and accurate. The combat techniques he occasionally used were only crude moves that any close-quarters combat beginner would know. Qianye was especially talented at taking advantage of mistakes. With even the slightest of openings, he could turn that into a huge advantage and seize victory.
However, including the examiners, the expressions of the few experts in the crowd changed. They clearly understood that the combat techniques Qianye used were for killing on the battlefield!
These kinds of combat techniques had no tricks or finesse. They only sought to take the opponent’s life in the simplest and most direct manner. This kind of combat technique was so straightforward, simple, and barbaric that it was toughest to deal with.
Who was this person? Where did he come from?
Some examiners already had a few answers in mind. One of them was the Yellow Springs Training Camp. There were also several other mysterious places that were not inferior to it.
Qianye didn’t know this yet, but he had already received a new nickname among the examinees. They called him Maniac. Qianye, a youth that looked delicate to the point of being somewhat frail, would actually fight like a maniac upon stepping into the arena.
Qianye was the quickest to finish the combat exam. He needed to wait for the entire batch of examinees to finish before participating in the last exam with them as a group.
Qianye walked to the rest area beside the arena and sat down in a random place, slowly sipping from a cup of water. Not long afterward, examinees came to the rest area one by one. They all felt intense fear when they saw Qianye. All of them kept their distance from him despite not having planned it beforehand.
After a few more minutes, Wei Potian walked over and sat down beside Qianye.
“You managed to pass?” Qianye looked at him and asked, slightly curious.
Wei Potian stared at him with his eyes wide and angrily said, “What do you mean by ‘managed to’?! Do you not see who I, Wei Potian, am?! Think about the might of my Wei clan’s secret art, Thousand Mountains. How could it possibly be unable to deal with such a trivial occasion? Thousand Mountains is namely—”
One could tell that these lines had been spoken many times before as a boast, pouring out in an instant, but Wei Potian suddenly stopped speaking. His mouth was agape, his tongue was tied, and his expression froze in an unsightly manner.
In the arena, Wei Potian was recently beaten to the point of being unable to retaliate. He had even vomited on the scene. The more that he boasted about the might of Thousand Mountains, the more face he would lose.
As his complexion went pale, Wei Potian suddenly remembered the necklace and bracelet that he lost to Qianye. Just one look at this face said that his authority among his family was probably quite high.
Staring at Qianye, Wei Potian didn’t really know what to say, yet he couldn’t swallow that stuffiness in his chest either. He immediately grunted, “You aren’t that amazing! I-if…”
The rest of the sentence was supposed to be, ‘If we fought again, then so-and-so will happen.’ However, only after half of the sentence came out of his mouth did Wei Potian realize that, no matter how many times they fought, the result would probably be the same. As long as a person couldn’t suppress Qianye in terms of origin power, his combat style simply couldn’t be countered.
After choking back his words for so long, almost to the point of puking out a mouthful of blood, Wei Potian finally spat out, “God dammit!”
As for who he was cursing… only he knew.
Wei Potian went silent, but that didn’t mean that Qianye had to stay silent.
Qianye turned his head and said, “Hey, Brother Wei.”
Wei Potian instantly felt goosebumps as his entire body bolted upright, as straight as a pen. Shifting some distance sideways, he moved away from Qianye.
Predictably, Qianye asked, “Are you going to bet on the third round? I think that the belt you have on you is quite interesting.”
In that instant, Wei Potian almost felt like he wanted to die. His mouth opened, but no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t roar out that heroic and grandiose “I’m in!”
Fortunately, all of the combat exams for this group were complete. An examiner hurriedly came and ordered all the examinees to gather and head to the cultivation camp in order to carry out the last phase of the exam.
The last examination tested the richness of one’s origin power and whether or not one possessed special abilities.
The content of this exam was very simple. Examinees would cultivate inside the cultivation room for two hours and trigger their special ability as much as possible. All aspects of the performance within the cultivation period would be observed and recorded to give a comprehensive evaluation.
Qianye entered the cultivation room, took his seat, then remembered that there was a special rule in this exam. Those who had already cultivated the Combatant Formula did not need to test for special abilities and only needed to show how many cycles of origin tides they could endure.
The standard for the Empire’s regional corps enlistment was seven cycles, the standard for regular corps was ten cycles, normal special forces needed fifteen, and elite special forces required seventeen. As for the top-notch elite corps, the minimum standard for enlistment was twenty cycles!
However, these were only the basic prerequisites to join the few great special corps. Even if one could endure twenty cycles of origin tides, that didn’t mean they could immediately join these distinguished divisions. The scores of the two other subjects would also be considered, and sometimes one would even have to pass extra tests.
No one knew that, compared to ordinary people, twenty cycles of origin tides was a completely different struggle for Qianye.
But Qianye didn’t have any more time. He was already nearly seventeen—this was his only chance at joining these top-notch special corps. Calming his mind and completely relaxing his body, he finally began to gather his origin power.
The origin power in Qianye’s body slowly began to rush forth like waves. Converging into a tide, they flooded toward his right hand’s origin power node.
Wave after wave of origin power formed without stopping. Nine waves were considered a complete cycle of origin tides. When the first round of origin tides ebbed, the cultivation room’s origin power resonated and turned the cogwheel. In a dial outside of the cultivation room, the number changed from a zero to a one accordingly.
Origin tides constantly rippled as Qianye’s body shook harder and harder. His complexion was ghastly pale as cold sweat continuously flooded from all over his body. Yet his face was still calm to the point that it was hard to believe.
The number outside of the cultivation room constantly jumped upward, from seventeen, to eighteen, then nineteen.
The most crucial moment finally arrived! The twentieth cycle of origin tides was a flood that erupted into the skies, sweeping everything away! The enormous backlash made Qianye’s entirely body flush red as thin strings of blood seeped from his nostrils, eyes, and ears without stopping.
On just the seventh wave, Qianye was already unable to endure as even his internal organs were beginning to leak blood. He had never tried twenty entire cycles of origin tides before. Continuing this pattern, the origin power backlash would completely shatter his heart by the ninth wave!
“AH!!!”
When that happened, the person who passed the test would be dead. What was the point of that? Yet… to give up after coming this far…
In an instant, Qianye had a sudden epiphany and immediately guided the origin tide along a different route that would pass through the scarred area in his chest. Compared to other regions, this was still a swamp for origin power. When the violent origin tide passed through it, the impact was immediately subdued somewhat. However, the result of this was pain that was infinitely more intense than ever before.
Qianye’s vision went black, and he almost passed out!
Violently gritting his teeth, Qin Lie prepared to pass out and continued to gather the ninth wave!
A desperate roar came from the cultivation room. The counter outside shook a few times, then finally flipped from a black nineteen to reveal a scarlet twenty!
An examiner frowned slightly as he pushed open the gate to Qianye’s cultivation room, asking, “Are you okay? Still conscious?”
Leaning against the wall, Qianye no longer had the strength to stand. All of the clothes on his body were drenched, and his chest area was stained with blood It was a horrible sight.
Seeing this, the examiner’s brow furrowed even deeper. Just as he was about to mark the notebook in his hands, Qianye suddenly raised his head, and with a feeble voice, he said, “I’m fine.”
The examiner looked at Qianye suspiciously. How could such a state be considered fine? However, this wasn’t something he should care about. As long as the examinee was still conscious after completely cultivating the Combatant Formula, the score would be valid and they would pass the exam.
The examiner recorded the number twenty, then turned around and immediately left. Qianye stayed there for another ten whole minutes before barely walking out of the cultivation room.
The examinees who had finished participating in all the exams were brought back to the barracks. Injured examinees received free medical treatment. The Empire’s military also boasted great success in the medical field. As long as injuries were not too serious, everything could be healed. The damage done to Qianye’s internal organs were actually very serious, so he ended up soaking in a special bodily rejuvenation liquid, recovering nearly all of his wounds.
A special meeting was held in a conference room within the main building of the barracks as Qianye soundly slept in the rejuvenation liquid.
