Chapter 25

By the time he heard this, Qianye had already gained a general understanding of the Red Scorpion model.

In the Red Scorpions, each warrior had their own score, and each combat battalion had a score at their level. Completing missions earned points, and these points could be exchanged for various equipment and supplies. The Red Scorpion headquarters only provided the most basic supplies, and all other additional benefits had to be earned by the combat battalions themselves.

Even within the Red Scorpion Legion, the gap between each combat battalion could be significant, just like between the Tiger Scorpion and Blood Scorpion. This was not only a competition of individual soldier quality but also a test of the commanders' abilities.

The Red Scorpion model was very popular in the Empire, and many legions, especially the special forces, favored this management style.

Nan Bati led Qianye into the Tiger Scorpion camp, took him to the dormitory, and said, "This is where you'll be staying. We don't have many people here, so it's quite spacious. If you need anything, go to Old Bai, who handles logistics. Rest well tonight, and tomorrow you'll start your rookie life!"

Rookie, Qianye silently repeated in his mind. He now understood what being a rookie meant.

Rookies were a special kind of creature in the Red Scorpion Legion.

While every legion had new recruits, the Red Scorpions were unique. In the Red Scorpions, new young warriors were considered rookies for the first two years. After two years, they would be promoted to young scorpions. Only then would they be considered true members of the Red Scorpions, capable of independently undertaking missions.

After the young scorpions came the black scorpions, red scorpions, and even the scorpion kings.

Rookies in the Red Scorpions had almost no status, simply because they were rookies. When facing veterans, rookies were the ones to be scolded and ordered around. However, their status was also unique.

The Red Scorpion Legion had an unwritten rule: when a fatal situation arose on the battlefield, rookies would withdraw first, followed by veterans, with officers bringing up the rear. In any situation, the lives of rookies were the top priority. The Red Scorpions had written this rule in blood, with a historical example of a squad of over a hundred being completely wiped out while two rookies successfully escaped.

As Nan Bati said, from the second day onward, Qianye experienced the difference in his rookie life.

In the following months, Qianye only went on a few missions, spending the rest of his time in training. Continuing to cultivate the Military Conquest Technique was the top priority, but he also needed to master dozens of different courses, including driving almost all types of vehicles and airships in the Empire.

Additionally, there was specialized training for the use of certain special equipment. Qianye also learned many things the Empire kept secret, including politics, economics, and the true history that had been omitted from historical records.

For example, the Netherworld Training Camp.

The true backers of the Netherworld Training Camp were the Imperial Military. It, along with three other training camps—Dark Blossom, Sword Rain Spring, and Great Way Square—were secret training bases established by the Military's National Security Department. However, the Netherworld Training Camp, in terms of both scale and training effectiveness, far surpassed the other three camps. Even when compared to similar institutions of the powerful noble families in the entire Empire, it consistently ranked in the top three.

The Netherworld was a very special existence, with a philosophy entirely different from ordinary military academies. It was dedicated to cultivating top-tier assassins capable of surviving in extreme environments. At the same time, it served as a testing ground for a group of radical nobles who believed in the theory of natural selection.

Many in the upper echelons of the Empire believed that, from the initial awakening of elemental power in humans, true potential could only be unleashed in life-and-death situations, leading to greater strength.

During the era when the dark races ruled the world, hundreds of enslaved and oppressed races existed. The human race stood out because it constantly walked the line between life and death, with powerful individuals continuously awakening their potential, leading generation after generation to greater prosperity.

They believed that the lower and middle classes of the Empire, especially the common people, were living too comfortably, indulging in a stable life, losing their drive, and seeing fewer talents emerge, with powerful abilities gradually fading. If this continued, the entire Great Qin Empire would decline.

To maintain its glory and expand its territory, the human race must always seek survival in crisis and evolve in life-and-death situations!

This view was prevalent in the upper echelons of the Empire, especially in the military. The Netherworld was the concentrated practice ground for this school of thought. The training camp deliberately placed each trainee under the shadow of death from the start, forcing them to fight for survival, thereby developing all their potential.

Although the Netherworld Training Camp's high elimination and death rates were terrifying and drew some internal criticism, the trainees it produced were widely recognized as the top talent.

Their true combat strength far exceeded their paper data. A graduate of the Netherworld Training Camp could easily take on three to five elite soldiers of the same level from the Imperial Army. In complex or extreme environments, the combat strength of the graduates was even more astonishing.

It was said that in a certain practical test, three graduates of the Netherworld Training Camp formed a small team and completely annihilated an enhanced mountain battalion of the Imperial Army in a mountainous environment!

After this battle, the funding for the Netherworld Training Camp increased fivefold, and the number of new recruits each year soared from a few thousand to the camp's maximum capacity of 20,000.

Moreover, every two to three decades, the Netherworld Training Camp produced a truly outstanding individual capable of single-handedly changing the tide of a situation! As long as one such individual emerged, the Netherworld Training Camp could ignore all criticism and continue to exist. In the past hundred years, such individuals had already appeared four times!

Thus, the Netherworld Training Camp not only continued to exist but also grew stronger. The faction it represented was known as the Iron-Blooded Hawks in the Empire.

Initially, most of the trainees entering the Netherworld were commoners and orphans selected from various regions. However, after the successful practical test, many noble families began sending their collateral descendants.

Compared to commoners and orphans, they had a foundation and resources, making their chances of success greater. If they graduated smoothly, they could achieve a status far surpassing their origins within their families. Encouraged by successful examples, many collateral descendants of noble families even volunteered to enter the Netherworld Training Camp.

Over the past three hundred years, the Netherworld's reputation grew, and even high-ranking noble families began sending their direct descendants to be trained, hoping to hone them into pillars of the family.

The Netherworld Training Camp made some adjustments, providing limited but specific care for these core descendants. The main points were two: ensuring their survival and exempting girls from the coming-of-age ceremony.

In the face of the dark races on the battlefield, privileges were meaningless. Noble families had more resources and conditions to help their descendants awaken elemental power, making them the future frontline forces. Rights and responsibilities were always equal.

For these descendants of major families, once they added the experience of graduating from the Netherworld to their resumes, their future would be smooth sailing, whether pursuing a career in the Empire or developing within their families.

Qianye had never imagined that the Netherworld Training Camp, where he had spent nine years, had such a deep and complex background, nor had he realized its true scale.

He had always been with only a hundred people from his class, and except for a few life-and-death exams between trainees, he rarely saw people from other classes. Even among those hundred, the longest familiar faces in Qianye's memory did not exceed fifteen.

That night, Qianye lay in bed, fiddling with the last piece of 'Zhu Yan Xue.' Now he knew that this precious drug was most effective only during the initial stage of elemental power foundation. After igniting the elemental nodes, its effectiveness began to diminish. This was one of the few items he had brought out from the Netherworld.

Next, Qianye began to study the various systems of the Empire. Only then did he understand that even a rookie in the Red Scorpion Legion had extremely high authority, which was why he could learn about the secrets of the Netherworld Training Camp.

In the Empire, with its extremely complex and strict hierarchy, the authority of Red Scorpion warriors was higher than that of some lower nobles.

Thus, in the first few months after joining the Red Scorpions, Qianye spent most of his time learning and training. His daily schedule was divided into 15-minute intervals, with less than four hours allocated for sleep. Even during sleep, half the time was spent immersed in muscle repair fluid to accelerate recovery and enhance physical strength. This medicinal fluid was a military resource issued to elite special forces.

The era of 'Zhu Yan Xue' had passed.

Only now did Qianye understand the true scale of the Red Scorpions.

The Red Scorpion Legion had only 10,000 official members, including over a thousand rookies. The annual elimination rate for rookies was around 20%. Of course, eliminated rookies did not die; they were transferred to other legions. Even those eliminated from the Red Scorpions were considered ace-level in the main legions.

To support these 10,000 Red Scorpions, there were 200,000 logistics and support personnel!

This was why Qianye had seen a Red Scorpion headquarters that resembled a small city.

After several months, Qianye finally began to have a bit of human rights and shed some of his rookie naivety. During this period of study, Qianye's attention to detail, focus, and patience were consistently recognized, with some officers even considering him borderline obsessive. Qianye could concentrate on a task for several days without distraction.

In return, Qianye almost always scored full marks in all subjects. The only thing holding him back was the speed of his elemental power cultivation. In the overall ranking of all rookies, Qianye consistently ranked around tenth.

When the rookie training period was over, Nan Bati appeared before Qianye again.

This giant-like figure began personally overseeing Qianye's combat and physical enhancement training, successfully imprinting the Tiger Scorpion mark on him: Qianye's physique became increasingly robust. Ignoring his delicate face, he was a powerful, muscular warrior.

Thus, in the fourth month after joining the Red Scorpions, Qianye received a mission that he would remember for a long time.

PS: To support the new book event, the guaranteed update times for the next week will be 16:00 and 21:00, with additional updates to be determined.

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