Chapter 17

However, where did the skirt come from? Qianye tried hard to think about this difficult question. He shook his head vigorously, and the girls beside him swayed into his field of vision, and he suddenly realized where the skirts came from.

Is this what it feels like to be drunk? It seems quite nice! As Qianye thought, he became increasingly excited.

Song Zining and the two young men kept talking, occasionally turning to ask him a few questions. However, Qianye's consciousness was very hazy, and he could hardly hear clearly. Or perhaps he heard clearly but couldn't understand the meaning.

However, Qianye understood the general idea. These three big-headed flies, buzzing incessantly, were saying, drink, drink more, keep drinking! Another meaning was that Qianye was already drunk, and if he admitted it, he could change into a skirt and dance, and then he wouldn't have to drink anymore.

Song Zining gave Qianye a mischievous smile, grabbed a girl, and started to unbutton her skirt. The girl giggled, didn't dodge, and instead swayed her hips, letting the skirt slide down bit by bit.

But Qianye didn't feel drunk at all.

"Of course I can still drink! Cheers!" Qianye boasted, raised his glass high, and drank it in one go, followed by another.

Since he challenged them, Song Zining and the two young men naturally wouldn't back down and drank just as fast.

Qianye looked up at the night sky, feeling that the moon was moving particularly fast tonight. How could it have moved from the left to the right side of the sky so quickly?

The night seemed very quiet, as it should be.

In this quiet night, Qianye couldn't help but yawn and felt a bit sleepy. He thought about it, then lay down. After lying down, Qianye rested his head on something very soft, which felt very comfortable.

But the next moment, Qianye suddenly sat up, breaking out in a cold sweat!

This night shouldn't be quiet! A moment ago, a group of people were still drinking and making noise, how could it suddenly become so quiet?!

Qianye looked around and was stunned to see Song Zining and the young men and women sprawled all over the ground, snoring loudly, clearly dead asleep.

Qianye was stunned for a long time before he realized that they were all drunk.

This drinking session, Qianye alone had taken down three formidable opponents. After breaking out in a cold sweat, he became completely sober.

But being sober too early wasn't a good thing either. Looking at the mess, Qianye's head started to hurt, not knowing how to deal with the aftermath. Dragging these dozen or so dead pigs back wasn't an easy task.

At this moment, a soft voice came from behind Qianye: "It seems quite lively here!"

As soon as he heard the voice, Qianye instinctively jumped up, stood straight, and loudly said, "Instructor Zhang, good!"

Zhang Jing walked out from the woods, looked at the empty bottles scattered on the ground, then stared at Qianye with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. "Did you do all this?"

"This, no," Qianye didn't know how to answer. At this moment, he suddenly felt the atmosphere was a bit strange. Zhang Jing's eyes seemed particularly bright, and the air seemed to have a strange and dangerous flavor.

Zhang Jing looked Qianye up and down several times, then suddenly sighed, the bright light in her eyes fading.

She waved her hand, somewhat dejectedly, and said, "You go back first, you don't need to worry about this. Report to Instructor Shadow early tomorrow morning. He will give you a week of individual guidance as a reward for your exam."

Qianye was both surprised and delighted. Shadow was not only an expert in firearms but also a master of sniping. Being individually guided by him for a week was of immeasurable value.

Back in the dormitory, the aftereffects of the alcohol in Qianye's stomach soon made him fall asleep.

The next morning, Qianye was woken up by the noise on the playground. He didn't understand why, so he went out to look and was stunned to see Song Zining and the other two young men tied to pillars, completely naked, each with three whip marks on their bodies.

These three were all top ten in the mid-year exams, said to come from noble families. Now, not only were they beaten, but they were also stripped and tied to the pillars for public display! For most children from poor families, this was no small news. It wasn't often that they had the chance to see the bare bottoms of these powerful guys!

Another shocking piece of news was the reason for Song Zining's and the others' humiliation.

It was said that Song Zining had a drinking contest last night, three against one, but was still taken down. This scene was seen by the passing Zhang Jing, who thought these three guys had completely disgraced her. Not only did she give each of them three whips, but she also had them stripped and displayed for a day.

This incident was just a small episode in the training camp. But from then on, Song Zining refused to drink with Qianye anymore, and at the mention of alcohol, he would keep his distance from Qianye.

This actually made Qianye quite regretful. He genuinely enjoyed the feeling of being slightly tipsy that night. But without Song Zining, the penniless Qianye couldn't afford to drink, even the cheapest kind.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

Song Zining ignited his second Origin Force node and directly participated in the final graduation exam, then successfully passed the exam and left the Netherworld Training Camp forever.

At that time, Qianye was in the training room battling the Origin Force tide. When he heard the news after class, he also received a wooden box from Zhang Jing, containing four neatly arranged 'Zhu Yan Xue' (Crimson Blood).

A year earlier, Xu Lang had already graduated.

Qianye was still struggling to break through the barrier of the Qi Sea node. He could already endure twelve Origin Force tides, but this progress was only considered average or slightly below average among the children in the training camp.

After several rounds of elimination, the remaining children were all excellent in both talent and temperament. Most children could trigger more than fifteen Origin Force tides, but the more tides overlapped, the more intense the pain. Therefore, only a few could withstand fifteen rounds of Origin Force tides.

The more Origin Force tides overlapped, the stronger the impact, and the more Origin Force was drawn from the surroundings, but the corresponding pain and damage to the body would also increase, and at a geometric rate.

After the initial stages of the 'Soldier's Conquest' cultivation technique, it was a test of the cultivator's willpower and physical strength, both of which were essential.

Therefore, in the Imperial Army, there was a tradition of judging heroes by how many rounds of Origin Force tides they could withstand. Generally, seven or eight rounds were considered cowards, ten or more were acceptable, and if one could withstand fifteen or sixteen rounds, they could boast a bit. If one could withstand over twenty rounds, they could walk around the army with their chest out.

Song Zining was said to be able to withstand seventeen Origin Force tides when he graduated, and now several people in the class had reached the level of withstanding fifteen Origin Force tides, not far from igniting their second Origin Force node. Among the top ten students in the overall ranking, Qianye had the lowest number of Origin Force tides he could withstand.

However, no one knew how much pain Qianye endured when he triggered the Origin Force tides. The pain from twelve Origin Force tides for Qianye was equivalent to the nineteenth round for ordinary cultivators!

Another half a year passed, and nine more children in the class graduated.

Qianye's cultivation progress was still extremely slow. It was only at this point that he could barely withstand fifteen Origin Force tides, but igniting the second node was still a long way off.

The class was replenished with new students, more than half of whom were younger than Qianye. When Qianye first entered the training camp, he was the youngest in the class, but now he was one of the older ones.

The new students added to the class generally had the ability to withstand fifteen Origin Force tides, starting at the same level as Qianye. However, almost everyone's progress was much faster than Qianye's, as he needed to accumulate three times the Origin Force to achieve the same results.

The later the cultivation progressed, the slower Qianye's progress became. Qianye found that not only did he have to endure extra pain from the Origin Force tides, but due to old injuries, the barrier of the Qi Sea node was much stronger than others.

Three times the Origin Force, the impact of fifteen Origin Force tides, if placed on others, would be enough to shake the node barrier to the point of collapse, but for Qianye, the surging Origin Force tide was like hitting a mountain, and the barrier didn't budge at all!

In this situation, even Zhang Jing was at a loss, and could only let Qianye slowly accumulate Origin Force, and when the time was right, the node would naturally ignite.

Thus, when Qianye could finally withstand seventeen Origin Force tides, the node barrier showed the first signs of loosening. By this time, Qianye was already fifteen years old, one of the oldest in the class.

This class was already the highest-level training class, and the new students added were all first-class soldiers capable of withstanding fifteen Origin Force tides. They would generally ignite their nodes within a few months, then stabilize for a while, and after their strength stabilized, they would take the graduation exam.

The graduation exam of the Netherworld Training Camp has always had only one content: to hunt a Crystal Lizard in the canyon behind the mountain. These creatures, over ten meters long, have the strength equivalent to a second-class soldier when they reach adulthood.

Although the students who survived to the end in the Netherworld Training Camp were all one in a hundred geniuses who had survived the most brutal training, hunting a Crystal Lizard with just a dagger was still quite difficult. It was said that the mortality rate in the graduation exam was around 15%.

It was said that any student who reached the final exam stage in the training camp could serve as a company commander in the Imperial Regular Army, which shows how shocking the 15% casualty rate in the graduation exam was.

However, Qianye couldn't even ignite his second node, and even if his combat skills were sufficient, he didn't have the qualifications to take the graduation exam. In the Netherworld Training Camp, rules were rules and would not be changed for any reason.

However, Qianye wasn't completely without gains during this time. In any course unrelated to Origin Force cultivation, he scored full marks.

But Origin Force was the foundation of everything. Without Origin Force, all achievements were hollow.

In the blink of an eye, Qianye was about to turn sixteen. On the eve of his sixteenth birthday, Qianye didn't sleep, but left the dormitory alone, chose a quiet place, and sat under the moonlight.

"Already sixteen," Qianye thought silently. He remembered the encounter in the garbage dump that changed his fate.

Qianye actually didn't know his birthday, and even his age was measured by Gu Tuohai using a secret method. So Lin Xitang set the day he picked up Qianye from the garbage dump as Qianye's birthday.

To this day, Qianye still vividly remembered that warm and solid hand. His world was originally filled with darkness and cold, and that hand brought the first ray of sunlight to this world.

At that time, Qianye was like a newly hatched chick, quietly regarding Lin Xitang as his father. But he never expressed this small sentiment.

Qianye sat silently, gathered his thoughts, and began to cultivate. On this special night, he was prepared to risk everything to try to withstand the eighteenth Origin Force tide. If successful, igniting the node would be just around the corner. But if he failed, Qianye would be severely injured by the backlash, suffering irreparable damage, and might even explode and die.

Qianye had stayed at the second Origin Force node for too long, so long that he had to make a last-ditch effort.

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