Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The recruitment of generals was held the same day. After leaving the tea house, Jiang Chen went to the place where one could enroll.
It was located in the city center in a spacious square.
Countless soldiers were standing at the edges of the square, keeping bystanders outside. Some people from the Infinite Sword School were deploying something in the square in the meantime.
They had been working since the morning and were already close to finishing everything.
When the elders of the Infinite Sword School appeared, the people who had been waiting there since the morning seethed with excitement.
They laid their eyes on armored soldiers surrounded by the elders.
They saw the unique totem of the Flying Dragon Dynasty on their chests, a holy dragon making threatening gestures, flying through clouds and fog.
“The Flying Dragon Dynasty will recruit five generals to fight against the rebel army. Any candidate should have the ambition to aim for outstanding military exploits and extraordinary achievements.
“General candidates will serve the Flying Dragon Dynasty. The great benefits you’ll receive are beyond doubt, and you’ll achieve Venerable as quickly as possible.”
The speaker of the dynasty spoke in a direct, rather than roundabout, way. He told these things to the crowd bluntly.
Then an elder of the Infinite Sword School came forward. He said, “The five general candidates will be decided in a fair and just manner. Everyone in the city today will have a chance.
“Anyone interested, please enter the square.”
As he spoke, the soldiers stepped back from the left and right sides to make way.
The crowd hesitated for a short while, then some youngsters entered the square. Soon, more and more people entered. There were almost 1,000 people present.
Jiang Chen was among them, too.
He found the way people were standing in the square interesting. No matter whether they knew each other or not, they stood with people who had the same color fight loops.
Those with the golden ones stood in the front, while those with the white ones stood at the rear.
People like him, who didn’t have any fight loops, of course stood at the edges.
Thanks to his height, he only had to raise his head to see the talented guys with golden loops standing in the center of the square.
There were six of them, each with a golden fight loop on their right sleeve.
Jiang Chen knew there were, at most, nine loops for each color. However, as far as he could recall, he had never seen anyone with two golden fight loops.
Maybe those fight loops aren’t only used to classify Reaching Heaven States, so one golden loop is already the limit for them?
It was quite possible. Those with golden loops that he had seen had all reached the limit of the Reaching Heaven State, close to Venerable.
He suddenly recognized Peng Ying’s sister, Peng Lan, among those six people.
It wasn’t that he knew her, but brothers and sisters usually looked alike, not to mention that 80% of Peng Ying’s features were similar to Peng Lan’s.
Fortunately, Peng Ying wasn’t ugly, so this Peng Lan, one of the Double Heroines, was kind of pretty.
However, she didn’t seem to be in a good mood. She was frowning, because she had learned that her brother had been driven out of the Sword Master City. She had turned to the elders of the school to resolve the problem.
Peng Ying was in the square, too, standing in the crowd with the silver fight loops. He was looking around for Jiang Chen so that he could tell his sister where the latter was.
Across the square, an elder of the Infinite Sword School was asking for instructions from a soldier from the Flying Dragon Dynasty.
“General Mu, shall we start?”
This General Mu was in a high position. All of the other armored soldiers seemed to be under his command.
He glanced at the crowd in the square, furrowing his black brows.
“They’re still kids.”
The majestic-looking general was more sensible than people originally thought.
These people in the square might have killed before or experienced life-or-death fights, but it was a different thing to fight in a war.
Soldiers were different from martial arts practitioners.
However, he couldn’t say no to his superiors’ orders, so he had to declare the start of the competition in a cold tone.
“Let’s start.”
In an instant, the cubic machines in the square started to function. They were wooden cubes, each about as tall as a person. It was impossible to see what was inside of them, but people could sense energy surging in them. The machines soon started to boom.
“Take it easy. This is just a way to test your abilities. Sit down. If you can hold on for 15 minutes, you’ll be qualified for the first round,” said an elder from the Infinite Sword School.
His words soothed the people in the square. They sat down, looking forward to the results.
Before the start, no one knew how they would elect generals, especially those below the level of silver fight loops.
If everything was decided by strength, the five places were even too few for the six people with golden fight loops.
But judging from the current situation, the other people also had a chance.
“Is it a psychedelic formation?”
In contrast with the others’ relaxation, Jiang Chen was nervous. He kept staring at the wooden boxes.
Psychedelic formations were the trickiest among all kinds of formations. Once trapped in them, the first problem that arose wouldn’t be how to crack them, but how to recover oneself to a status in which it would be possible for one to crack them.
It was like one had to write a book while they were feeling dizzy and their eyes were blurred.
If he had to take the test alone, he wouldn’t even do it, since it would mean he would allow others to decide whether he lived or died.
But with so many people there, he didn’t have to worry about that.
By then, the energies emitted by the wooden boxes were growing stronger and stronger. In the end, dazzling lights soared.
The bystanders outside the square retreated immediately. When they were farther away, they found the square surrounded by 12 red light pillars.
The youngsters on the square couldn’t help but close their eyes. They seemed to have fallen asleep, but they actually hadn’t.
Aaah!
Gut-wrenching screams came from the crowd all of a sudden.
It didn’t matter what fight loops they had on their sleeves. It wasn’t just pain. It was mental torture. Other people didn’t even have the nerve to think about what they were going through.
“I can’t take it. I can’t take it anymore!” a genius with silver fight loops shouted. Then he stood up to run out of the square quickly. He disappeared in the crowd before anyone could seize the chance to ask him anything.
“Alas.”
General Mu shook his head. The psychedelic formation had just started to function, and he already couldn’t take it anymore. When he went onto the battlefield, he would wet his pants due to fear.
“General Mu, many people here are nobodies. The disciples of the Infinite Sword School are doing well,” the elder of the Infinite Sword School said. He hoped the school wouldn’t leave a bad impression on the Flying Dragon Dynasty due to random outsiders.
“Let’s see. Elder Li, isn’t it? The best disciples of the Infinite Sword School are all here?” asked General Mu.
Elder Li responded deliberately. He said with a smile, “Whether someone is good depends on the standard applied. If the Flying Dragon Dynasty didn’t require that the candidates were below Venerable, we would have sent better disciples here. But among those below Venerable, our Peng Lan, she’s the best.”
“She?”
General Mu hesitated. He didn’t think battlefields were for women.
“Yep. Peng Lan will make herself one of the five candidates. I’m sure about that,” Elder Li said confidently.
