Chapter 19

The airship began to noticeably descend at dawn. The destination was almost reached.

A ray of morning light shone on Qianye's face. He had actually been awake for a while, and he quietly jumped out of the cockpit, walking to the porthole to look outside.

Before him was a tilted landscape, with a steel city that seemed to be about to tip over, submerging the horizon. The most prominent in his field of vision was a towering structure located in the city center, entirely silver and dazzling, resembling a thousand-foot peak, with white steam spouting from its top like clouds. The base of the tower was incredibly wide, covering three to four city blocks.

This was the first time Qianye saw the heart of a human city, the Eternal Tower. Built with the cheapest black stone and the cheapest steel, it was a miracle-like structure that operated day and night, supplying energy for the entire city.

The cargo airship slowly passed over the southwestern part of the city, and the number of airships in the airspace ahead gradually increased, with various designs. Among them were several light boats with intricate and elaborate carvings on their bows.

Indeed, there were too many airships applying to dock, and they had to queue up. The cargo ship began to circle in the sky. From the curses and complaints of the pilot, Qianye learned that, besides public passenger airships and cargo ships, there were many private airships today, with family crests on their bows, each symbolizing immense power and wealth.

Xiangyang was one of the permanent recruitment sites for the Imperial Military. Every year at this time, tens of thousands of young people would flood in from all directions. This year, there were even more people, including many noble offspring, because the recruitment list included two giants: the Fallen Angel and the Red Scorpion.

The Great Qin Empire placed great importance on military achievements. Even for the aristocratic families, military service was a shortcut for their offspring to gain merit. Entering a special corps was almost synonymous with a meteoric rise.

The Fallen Angel and the Red Scorpion were always among the top five in the empire's over a hundred special corps. Their recruitment had alarmed many aristocratic families, who were willing to send their best offspring from far away to participate in the assessment.

The airship Qianye was on, being part of the military, secured a relatively front position for docking. He only felt the grandeur of the recruitment day after landing.

The airship base, which should have been just one of the transportation hubs, was already crowded with people of all kinds in the morning, most of them young people around twenty, full of confidence, vitality, and hope. Outside the base, various land vehicles had already formed long queues.

Shi Yan started the heavy-duty truck, which was still a large vehicle among many others, and roared out of the military channel. Xiangyang was the third-ranked military-industrial city in the entire empire, with half of the city's districts under military control. Both the ground roads and air routes had military-only channels.

Qianye kept looking out the window, captivated. The route they were on was in the military zone, where the architectural style was more decorative compared to the plain and practical style of the Huangquan Training Camp, but still maintained a stern and imposing presence.

The new recruit camp was at the end of the road, and the long registration queue could be seen from a distance, extending out of the archway.

In the noisy crowd, Shi Yan loudly said to the officer in charge of registration, "I need to go directly to the verification area!"

He showed his identification and took Qianye directly into the camp, processed his registration, and then handed him a copper nameplate with "Lin Qianye" mechanically stamped on it.

Looking at the "Lin" on the nameplate, Qianye felt an indescribable sensation. For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of belonging. The "Lin" was not only imprinted on the nameplate but also in his heart.

Next, Qianye was led into the inner camp by a soldier. The inner camp was the assessment area, and Shi Yan could not enter.

Only after entering the inner camp did Qianye realize that the military camp was much larger than it appeared from outside.

Thousands of young people who had passed the initial screening were assigned to various barracks according to the numbers on their nameplates. The formal assessment would begin the next day, and today they would rest to perform at their best.

Many young people had come by car or even passenger airships. These public transportation tools, used by most civilians, were all powered by black stone steam, characterized by noise and jolts. Such long journeys were very tiring and had a significant impact on their physical condition, naturally affecting their exam performance.

In military assessments, the empire was always very fair, rarely giving special treatment to the offspring of aristocratic families.

This was the foundation of the empire. Otherwise, an incompetent and spoiled son leading troops into battle would be a disaster. The dark races would not care about one's status or position when they killed.

The recruitment exam had three parts: elemental force, combat skills, and firearms use.

After dinner, the candidates were rushed back to their dorms to sleep. Qianye was already used to following orders, so he went to bed as soon as the lights were turned off and quickly fell into a deep sleep. However, some of the other candidates in the dorm were either excited or nervous and couldn't fall asleep. Two young men from a remote city even started chatting quietly.

After an unknown amount of time, Qianye, who was already sound asleep, suddenly felt a chill and immediately opened his eyes. His body showed no movement, but all his muscles were tense, ready to attack at any moment. His eyes were only slightly open, quietly observing the surroundings.

At that moment, Qianye was shocked to see a middle-aged man's face appear in the small window of the door, staring expressionlessly at everyone in the room!

However, no one else except Qianye noticed the middle-aged man! One candidate's gaze had clearly swept past the window, but it was as if he hadn't seen anything.

The middle-aged man suddenly glanced at Qianye and then turned and left.

Only after he disappeared did Qianye recover from his shock. However, he couldn't fall back asleep this time.

A moment later, an unremarkable middle-aged man left the dormitory building and entered another one. After he had gone through all the dormitories, the thick list in his hand had most names marked with an "X," with only a few names marked with numbers from 1 to 9.

Next to Qianye's name was a star. Among the thick list, only fourteen names had this mark.

Qianye didn't know that he had unintentionally passed the first round.

The next morning, a shrill bell woke all the candidates from their sleep. Qianye followed the crowd out of the barracks and lined up on the parade ground. Here, the candidates were divided into three groups and then took different exams.

Qianye's group would first take the elemental force and firearms shooting exam.

The candidates were given specially made exam guns, with significantly reduced power and energy consumption. Even a first-level soldier could fire six to seven shots in a row. This was necessary for them to complete all the exam subjects. If they used regular elemental force guns, even the most basic ones, Qianye's far superior and condensed elemental force would struggle to complete all the shooting subjects.

After checking the elemental force guns, Qianye and nine other candidates stood at the shooting line. A hundred meters away, ten fixed targets rose, all in the shape of human-faced spider demons.

While familiarizing themselves with the weapons and waiting for the shooting command, a young man to Qianye's left glanced at him, scratched his crotch, whistled, and said, "Kid, have you ever played with a gun?"

Accompanied by his lecherous expression, it was a double entendre, an extremely vulgar provocation.

Qianye glanced at him and said calmly, "I haven't, but I've crushed a few. Want to try?"

The young man burst into exaggerated laughter, saying, "I'm really scared! Kid, do you know who I am, to talk to me like that?"

"Whoever you are, it won't add a single point to your score, right?" Qianye asked calmly.

The young man's face turned red with anger, and he said, "Arrogant, kid! But don't talk nonsense. The imperial aristocracy isn't so shameless as to rig such an exam! Since I don't like you, I'll win fair and square!"

"Win me? You have no chance." Qianye's calmness was infuriating.

The young man's face darkened, "Then let's make a bet?"

Qianye raised an eyebrow, "What do we bet? Too small, I'm not interested!"

The young man reached for the necklace around his neck and held it out to Qianye. The necklace was silver, with a thumb-sized square plate at the end, engraved with an eagle's head.

The young man said, "Let's bet on the results of this exam! If I lose, this thing is yours!"

Qianye reached out and curiously touched the small plate, asking, "How do you use this?" His tone clearly indicated he already considered the necklace his.

The young man was greatly offended and sneered, "Do you really think you'll win?"

Qianye nodded seriously, "Of course." Then he asked again, "How do you use this?"

The young man was so angry he gritted his teeth, "This is my token! With this, you can make a request to my family. As long as it's within my authority, any request can be fulfilled!"

At this point, the other candidates also noticed the argument and looked over. They all noticed the eagle's head on the plate and immediately changed their expressions, clearly recognizing the emblem.

"It's actually someone from the Wei family!" someone whispered.

Hearing the whispers, the young man immediately perked up, raising his chin in arrogance.

But Qianye didn't react as he expected, just saying, "Oh," and then looking at the young man with suspicion. The meaning was clear: with your attitude, how much authority could you possibly have?

The young man was angered again and shouted, "Do you bet or not?"

Qianye finally nodded, "I bet."

The young man didn't say anything more but picked up the elemental force gun and waited quietly for the exam to begin.

The exam time arrived. After a whistle, the ten candidates all picked up their elemental force guns and began to aim carefully.

Most of the elemental force guns had poor shooting accuracy. Hitting the target at a hundred meters was easy, but hitting the bullseye was very difficult. The bullseye area was worth 100 points, but it was only the size of a fingernail. If the shot landed outside the bullseye, the maximum score was 80 points. This scoring system applied to all types of targets.

Soon, gunshots rang out. A thin red beam hit the target, and the metal target shook, a small hole appearing in the upper part of the target. The shot was powerful but not very accurate, barely hitting the target.

"20 points!" the examiner called out, and another examiner recorded the score.

The gunshots followed in sequence, and eight candidates all hit the target, but the highest score was only 50 points. In a moment, only the young man and Qianye were left without firing.

The young man had been aiming for a long time, and Qianye had been watching him the whole time. Under Qianye's gaze, the young man felt increasingly restless. The moment he pulled the trigger, he immediately knew it was a disaster!