Chapter 280 - 196: Military Exercise 2

Chapter 280: Chapter 196: Military Exercise 2

This Cultivation Technique required repeated cultivation cycles using four types of materials: hard metal, soft jade, soft metal, and hard jade.

The difficulty from the entry-level to minor completion was relatively low, only requiring various common materials, making it less expensive. The difficult part was advancing from minor to major completion, which demanded precious materials and rare minerals from heaven and earth, none of which came cheap.

The Melt Gold Jade Body Skill was based on the concepts of "gold and jade resonating in harmony" and "the perfect balance of hardness and softness." Its goal was to achieve a robust yet contained power, allowing the "gold and jade" aspects to mutually reinforce each other and break through the body’s physical limits.

During cultivation, one would use their advanced blue Yang Fire to extract the properties from the ores and reinforce their body.

In this cultivation, the daily absorption of the Purple Qi from the East to strengthen the Yang Fire remained an essential step. According to the Cultivation Technique’s records, the blue Yang Fire at the perfected stage of the Pure Yang True Body could only extract from common materials. To process transcendent ores, one had to wait for the Yang Fire to advance to the next level.

Yu Fei paid 70,000 contribution points, and Ye Shuping and the university covered another 30,000. With that, Yu Fei acquired over a hundred sets of common ores and jades. Each set was substantial, and they filled a corner of the training ground.

These materials contained no energetic structures. They were common metal ores—gold, silver, copper, iron—and various stones like jadeite and jade, along with some artificially synthesized materials.

He now had 150,000 contribution points remaining.

The common ores were cheap, but the batch included tens of kilograms of gold, a large amount of raw jadeite, and numerous synthetic alloys and Crystal Stones, which were all relatively expensive.

They could only be gathered so quickly because contribution points were highly valued and the world of Martial Artists wielded immense control over the mundane world.

In ancient times, simply collecting the materials for this Cultivation Technique would have consumed immense manpower and resources.

In the early hours of the morning, Yu Fei moved the first large crate. It was filled with hematite, a common and very cheap type of iron ore.

He expertly took out the Golden Crow Radiance Dew, applied a drop to each eye, and waited for the sun to rise. The Purple Qi from the East was the foundation for this entire series of Cultivation Techniques.

The Ice Spirit Flame gifted to him by Ye Shuping had significantly boosted his Yang-attribute talent—by at least thirty percent, comparatively. Combined with the massive increase in his physical tolerance after advancing to the Inner Qi Realm, the amount of Purple Qi he absorbed was simply astonishing.

The illusory silhouette of a Golden Crow was clearly visible against the horizon. A torrent of Purple Qi from the East poured into him through his Baihui Acupoint. Within his internal vision, the azure-blue Yang Fire flared an inch higher.

Yu Fei slowly ceased his cultivation, then picked up a fist-sized piece of hematite. Circulating the principles of the Cultivation Technique, he conjured a formless, azure flame in his palm, which enveloped the ore.

Before long, he sensed a special substance being drawn out and absorbed into his skeleton. Faint, fine red lines appeared on the surface of his golden bones.

In less than five minutes, the piece of hematite crumbled into a pile of fine powder. He took out the next piece of ore and continued the process.

The Melt Gold Jade Body Skill was a peculiar Cultivation Technique. Experiments had shown that there was no difference in an ore’s weight before and after the "absorption," nor did its material composition change. It would simply turn into fine powder. Conventional science could not explain this phenomenon.

In the eyes of a Martial Saint, however, one could clearly see that a certain energetic essence within the material had vanished completely.

The path of Qi Blood still largely adhered to the laws of physics. Upon reaching the Inner Qi level, however, many things became difficult to explain. And after the Grandmaster realm, the world seemed to operate on idealism—mind over matter.

About two hours later, Yu Fei had reduced the entire crate of hematite to a dark brown powder. He then moved to the next crate of materials, which was slightly smaller.

It was a crate of Qingtian stone. Its relatively soft texture meant it was often used for carving seals, placing it in the soft jade category.

For the soft metal, he chose a crate of copper ingots. For the hard jade, he used turquoise.

Thus, in a single morning, Yu Fei completed the first full cycle. Four entire crates of raw materials had been reduced to piles of powder, marking his official entry into the Melt Gold Jade Body Skill.

Cultivating the Pure Yang True Body had been more like laying a foundation; only a fortified physique could accommodate the absorption of so many different material properties. Yu Fei discovered that the process of absorbing the so-called "gold and jade properties" was far from pleasant, causing significant discomfort. However, as his Yang Fire continued to forge and shape them, they gradually integrated into his body.

As his Yang Fire grew stronger, he estimated it would take just over a month to reach the minor completion stage. After that, he would need transcendent ores, at which point the expenses would become terrifying.

After briefly regulating his breathing, Yu Fei began to study three Body Technique Secret Techniques. According to the list Ye Shuping provided, each of the three Secret Techniques had its own specialty. The Shrinking Earth Stepping Technique focused on long-distance travel, the Celestial Star Travel Body prioritized mid-combat maneuvering and evasion, and the last one, Burning Void Escape, was a Secret Technique for short-distance bursts of speed.

Ye Shuping’s choices were comprehensive. In reality, the first two were versatile, all-purpose Body Technique Secret Techniques, but they each pushed a certain aspect to its absolute limit. That was why Ye Shuping required Yu Fei to master them all.

All three Secret Techniques were the most difficult to cultivate but also the most effective of their kind. What Yu Fei held in his hands were, once again, copied manuals of the Cultivation Techniques accompanied by Ye Shuping’s annotations.

With numerous Swordsmanship techniques also waiting to be practiced, Yu Fei plunged into an intense period of cultivation. To accelerate his progress, he followed Ye Shuping’s advice and spent 50,000 contribution points on resources, about half of which were required for the Body Technique Secret Techniques.

Time slipped by, and soon it was November. During this period, Yu Fei and the others conferred and decided to temporarily postpone their duels on the Determination Platform, as the details for the second and third evaluations had just been announced.

The second evaluation was to be a military exercise. The three first-year Celestial Pride Classes, including Yu Fei’s, would confront the upperclassmen from the previous year in a field exercise.

They would be required to wield special-issue weapons and defend three makeshift military bases across a battlefield three hundred kilometers deep, holding them against an offensive by the upperclassmen of the Celestial Pride Class.

The performance of the three classes would be graded based on the number of enemies eliminated and the duration of their defense.

This battle was codenamed "Desperate Fortress."

Then, in December, they would be led by the upperclassmen to the Abyss to face the inhuman races on the battlefield for their third evaluation of the semester.

The news sent the three classes into an uproar. While they were all considered Celestial Prides, their opponents had an entire extra year of cultivation under their belts—a year spent benefiting from the bountiful resources of Shenhan University. The upperclassmen would completely crush them on every level, from their realm and Cultivation Technique mastery to their practical combat experience.

There was only one rule for the military exercise: no deaths and no permanent, irrecoverable injuries.

Their class advisor, Shui Yiqiu, went so far as to post footage from the previous years’ exercises into the class group chat.

Everyone grew anxious as they watched. The current second-year upperclassmen had gone through this same military exercise, but their opponents had been the current third-years.

In the video, the second-year students were utterly routed, beaten black and blue until they were unrecognizable. It seemed like every single one of them ended up with broken limbs. Whether they were S-rank or B-rank, none escaped a miserable fate.

They couldn’t help but be reminded of their treatment during the second stage of the Celestial Pride Positioning Competition, where they had also been beaten senseless by the Warriors of the reinforced regiment.

’Considering what the upperclassmen went through, will they go easy on us, their juniors? The school is even showing us footage of how miserable they looked. You don’t have to be a genius to figure this out. They’re clearly doing this with ill intent, just fanning the flames.’

Under the immense pressure, everyone wished they could give up sleep entirely just to cultivate more.

Yu Fei sent a private message to Ye Shuping, asking what would happen if he failed this unfair competitive exercise.

Ye Shuping simply drew a hard line.

A loss was a loss. There were no reasons, no excuses. Regardless of the disparity between the two sides, as long as the opponents didn’t field a Gang Qi Martial Artist, a failure on Yu Fei’s part would result in him losing his supplementary thirty-percent resource stipend.

He knew Yu Fei had only just advanced to the Inner Qi Realm and hadn’t perfected his techniques yet. But compared to the goal Ye Shuping had in mind for him, this level of difficulty was nothing. A Celestial Pride who was only marginally stronger than his peers was not what Ye Shuping was looking for.

He needed to cultivate a figure on the level of the Grand Ancestor, someone who could perhaps solve humanity’s current predicament.

Yu Fei sighed as he read Ye Shuping’s reply. ’There’s nothing to be done.’

’I’m not an idiot,’ he thought. ’If this were a one-on-one duel, even if my Cultivation Technique isn’t fully developed, I could still take on a fifth-stage upperclassman with my raw strength and various talents. But in a chaotic battlefield melee...’

’If I dare to stand out, I’ll definitely be targeted and beaten to a pulp.’

Yu Fei mulled it over for a long time. ’It seems my only way to turn this around is with advanced firearms.’

Left with no other choice, he spent two days at the Sentong shooting range, familiarizing himself with their Class-2 advanced weaponry and ammunition.