Chapter 12

With a bang, the dormitory door was kicked open again, and Long Hai walked in with a frown, coldly asking, "Who's making all the noise?"

Chen Lei struggled to run towards Long Hai, like a frightened little animal.

Disgust flashed across Long Hai's face, and he lashed out with a whip, sending Chen Lei to the ground. He cursed, "Worthless!" Then he used his foot to flip Chen Lei over.

Chen Lei's clothes were already in tatters, but his head and face were relatively unharmed. However, the purple-black bruises on his throat were clearly abnormal.

Long Hai had no interest in looking further and raised his voice, shouting, "Who did this?"

Qian Ye sat up in bed and calmly said, "It was me."

Long Hai narrowed his eyes, sizing up Qian Ye for a moment, and said, "Good, kid, you've got guts! Someone! Take him out, give him ten lashes, and hang him until morning!"

Qian Ye did not resist or show fear, and he followed the guards out without a struggle.

Soon, the familiar sound of whips striking flesh echoed outside the window. Each lash stirred up dark memories in the children, and many of their faces turned unnatural.

But outside, there were only the sounds of the lashes, no sounds from Qian Ye.

No screams, no groans, not even a muffled grunt, as if the guards were only whipping a piece of wood.

Long Hai had already left, but Chen Lei suddenly collapsed on the ground, unable to stand. The lash he had just received was severe, and his injuries were compounded. He wouldn't recover in less than a month.

The other children looked at him with derision and disdain. It was now clear to everyone that the seemingly frail Qian Ye was the real tough guy. Chen Lei had wanted to establish his authority, but he had chosen the wrong target, and made a huge mistake.

"Get some sleep!" the strongest child in the class said meaningfully.

The next morning, when Qian Ye, who had been hanging all night, was finally let down, he was so weak he could barely stand. But he staggered to join the morning run. Although it took him three times as long as the other children to complete one lap, he eventually finished all the training tasks, though it took up most of the breakfast time.

By the time he went to bed that night, Qian Ye had only completed half of the day's training quota, and his performance would undoubtedly be the worst. However, the entire dormitory seemed to have suddenly forgotten this, and no one mentioned it even once.

In the past, any child who received ten lashes would have to stay in bed for the next few days, and no one would train as hard as Qian Ye. Every movement would pull at the lash marks, causing intense pain. So, in the past, children who received ten lashes would give up, not even attempting any training, let alone half of it.

As night fell, the children began to go to bed one by one.

Chen Lei suddenly knelt in front of Qian Ye, grabbing his leg and crying for mercy.

Qian Ye glanced at Chen Lei, then slowly and firmly pushed him away, climbed into his own bed, and went to sleep.

All the children were asleep, except for Chen Lei. He stood on the ground, clenching and unclenching his fists, his face full of struggle.

Qian Ye had been whipped, and Chen Lei had also been injured internally. Although it would be easiest to kill Qian Ye at this moment, Chen Lei was afraid of the punishment that would follow. However, perhaps deep down, there was another fear he was unwilling to admit: could he even defeat Qian Ye in his current state?

A week later, Qian Ye's training performance predictably fell out of the top half. But on the way to the training room, the top-ranked child in the class suddenly walked up to Qian Ye and handed him a piece of 'Zhu Yan Xue' (Crimson Blood).

"I have four pieces, but I don't really need all of them," he said.

As the top-ranked child, he had always received extra privileges.

Qian Ye looked at him in surprise, thought for a moment, and then accepted it generously. He then extended his hand and said, "I'm Qian Ye."

The boy smiled, "I'm Song Zining."

The two boys shook hands, reacquainting themselves, though they had known each other's names for a long time.

For the rest of the week, Song Zining gave Qian Ye a piece of 'Zhu Yan Xue' every day, until the weekend when Qian Ye returned to the top half of the rankings and received his own 'Zhu Yan Xue' quota.

Apart from this, Song Zining and Qian Ye had little interaction, and they hardly spoke to each other.

By the tenth month, Qian Ye had finally cultivated three rounds of Origin Force Tides and began to fully impact the node barrier. Two months earlier, Song Zining had already ignited his Origin Force Node.

Qian Ye realized that when the Origin Force Tides stacked to three rounds, the backlash was already twice as strong as the first round. Each wave of backlash caused intense pain inside his body. At this rate, by the tenth round of Origin Force Tides, the pain would be comparable to being whipped. By then, it was uncertain how many people could still hold on.

No wonder so few people could cultivate the 'Soldier Conquest Technique' to a high level. Not only did it harm the body, but the pain during cultivation was also unbearable for most people. For Qian Ye, there was an additional complication: every time the Origin Force waves crossed his chest, the old wounds would throb with pain.

By the eleventh month, Qian Ye finally broke through the barrier!

The moment the barrier shattered, his Origin Force surged into the node, and the node seemed to have a magnetic pull, drawing in the surrounding Origin Force like a whale swallowing water. The rate of Origin Force increase doubled.

When the Origin Force reached its peak, a point of light appeared deep within the node, flickering like a candle in the wind. This was the sign that the Origin Force Node had been ignited.

Qian Ye had finally entered the ranks of a Level 1 Warrior, distinguishing himself from the common people.

After the instructors confirmed that Qian Ye's Origin Force Node had been ignited, his supply of materials increased. A deep brown pill, said to be very effective in repairing internal injuries, was added to his rations. It was an auxiliary drug for cultivating the 'Soldier Conquest Technique.'

In the following month, Qian Ye followed the instructions to slow down his cultivation, controlling the flow of Origin Force Tides to repeatedly cleanse and nourish the node, refining it through repeated hammering. This made the integration of internal and external Origin Forces more natural and complete.

However, his Origin Force continued to increase rapidly, and with the increase in Origin Force, Qian Ye's physical attributes also improved significantly. Although he was still a child under ten, he could already lift a fifty-kilogram weight with one hand.

After Qian Ye, other children gradually ignited their nodes. By the end of the one-year deadline set by Zhang Jing, most of the remaining sixty-odd children in the class had ignited their Origin Force Nodes, but three had not succeeded. After the final exam, Qian Ye never saw them again.

Thus, the second year of the training camp passed unnoticed. Qian Ye's class was replenished to a hundred people.

In the third year, Qian Ye turned ten.

Starting this year, he would formally begin to impact his second Origin Force Node, the one on his chest. This node was one of the nine Origin Force Nodes and was second in importance only to the node on the forehead. In many cultivation techniques, it was called the Sea of Qi and directly determined the depth of Origin Force a person could cultivate in the future.

After completing the nurturing process of the first node, Qian Ye calmed his mind and formally began to impact the second Origin Force Node.

The surging Origin Force gradually formed waves, rushing towards the chest node. But just as the powerful Origin Force passed through the wounded area, an indescribable intense pain suddenly struck!

This pain was completely beyond human endurance! Qian Ye screamed and fell to the ground, convulsing, blood foaming at the corners of his mouth, and he quickly lost consciousness.

The guards heard the scream and immediately rushed into Qian Ye's training room. They were startled by his condition and quickly carried him away.

A short while later, in the room where they usually had biology classes, Qian Ye lay naked on a metal teaching table. The training camp had no extra medical facilities.

Only Zhang Jing and Long Hai were present, with Yin Ying waiting outside to keep others away.

In front of the teaching table, Shen Tu's movements were unhurried, as if he were giving a demonstration in class. He used various tools to make three very small holes in the scar on Qian Ye's chest.

A moment later, the old man stopped, slowly tidied up his tools, and without looking at the still unconscious Qian Ye, turned his gaze to Zhang Jing and Long Hai, "You've been his instructors for so long, you can't have missed it..."

Long Hai's face became a bit unnatural.

Zhang Jing, however, suddenly smiled seductively and said casually, "Isn't it just Origin Force theft?"

Long Hai's face turned even uglier, and Shen Tu's lips twitched. Even Zhang Jing's smile was a bit forced.

At that moment, the door to the classroom was suddenly pushed open, and a man strode in, saying, "Yes, it's Origin Force theft." Yin Ying followed behind him.

The few people turned in surprise, and their surprise grew when they saw who it was.

"Director Sun!"

The man who entered was middle-aged, slightly short, and very sturdy. He had a plain, square face with ordinary features that were hard to remember at first glance. This was Sun Ni, the director of the training camp, wearing a faded old military uniform with no rank insignia.

Sun Ni walked to Qian Ye's side, ran his hand over the scar on his chest, and a faint Origin Force glow appeared on his hand. After a moment, he withdrew his hand and sighed, "Indeed! What a pity for this child."

Zhang Jing noticed something and said sensitively, "This is someone sent by Commander Lin. Is there a problem?"

"What do you think?" Sun Ni asked coolly.

Long Hai, who had been the initial contact, spoke first, "Although he was sent by Commander Lin, there were no special instructions, not even to keep him alive. I heard he was just an orphan that Commander Lin picked up on a whim. If his background is problematic..."

Shen Tu's rough, hoarse voice became even deeper, with a sinister tone, "Those capable of doing this are only a few families, but why would they leave a live witness? It's a bit strange."

Sun Ni smiled meaningfully and said slowly, "I know this news, and so do others. In other words, those who should know already know."