The students had long become utterly beaten. Even though Xia Yanbing’s words produced a feeling of perseverance out of seemingly nothing, after walking for close to an hour, an ah sounded. One of them finally couldn’t stop themselves from crying out in pain.
A thin and weak young lady fell to the ground in pain, hugging her legs. Her small legs clearly cramped.
“Zhu Ling, Tong Minmin, the two of you support her. We are continuing.”
However, Xia Yanbing didn’t reveal the slightest trace of pity, having two female students lend her an arm, and then continue.
This hike towards the empire’s holy land now truly became an experience of suffering and torment.
Lin Xi’s two legs were also aching to the point where they were completely not like his own. There were several areas that produced stabbing pain, the blisters most likely rupturing again.
There were forty-one new students in the Self Defense Department in total, among them five female students. Of the thirty-six men, four of them were born as ‘border barbarians’, but right now, even these four ‘border barbarians’ who were clearly more sturdy and courageous than the other youngsters weren’t feeling that great either. Perhaps due to the border army’s customs, they all had a long blade on them. A tall and skinny youngster who was habitually silent, apart from the long blade, even carried a longbow and quiver.
Endurance exceeding normal youngsters was these border barbarians’ advantage over the other students, but the half a day of trudging around Summer Spirit Lake already completely exhausted this superiority, which was why these four border barbarians’ footsteps were actually even heavier than the others’.
Suddenly, the uncommunicative skinny and tall youngster collapsed, his head covered in cold sweat; his legs both cramped.
“It is important to be able to judge the hour and size up the situation. Carrying a blade is a custom of the border army, but you all have to understand that carrying a blade in the border army is because there is danger. However, in this place, is it because you feel like our Green Luan Academy’s blades are inferior to the border army’s, or is it because you feel that we cannot ensure your safety?” After Xia Yanbing was warned by that black haired man to not spoil them, his expression clearly became much more strict. When he saw this tall and skinny youngster collapse, Xia Yanbing’s voice even more so carried a hint of mockery. “The four of you originally had outstanding endurance amongst everyone here, but because of these burdens, you instead became the first ones to fall. Don’t you feel that this is a bit foolish?”
The other three ‘border barbarians’ immediately threw aside the long blades they carried, but this skinny and tall youngster instead stubbornly stood up from the ground, not abandoning anything he carried.
All of the new students looked at this skinny and tall youngster with a strange expression, even the black-haired man walking at the very front turned around. He sized up this skinny and tall youngster, with an expression of someone about to deliver a beating, he said, “Youngster, what was your name again?”
The tall and skinny youngster hung his head, saying, “I am Tang Ke.”
The black-haired man gave him a look. “Give me the reason why you won’t abandon these burdens.”
The skinny and tall youngster’s voice was shaking a bit. “This blade and this bow were both things my older brother left for me. He… has already died in battle.”
Lin Xi’s eyebrows jumped, immediately remembering this stubborn skinny and tall youngster’s name.
“Excellent.” The black-haired man’s eyes released brilliance once more, also containing a bit of a crazy expression. “Loyal, unyielding, I admire these traits. I’ll give you half a point.”
The group immediately erupted into commotion. By now, everyone knew how hard points were to come by, yet half a point was obtained just like that?
“Professor Qin, during this period, aside from Professor Wang who is teaching along the way, no one else has the authority to reward points.”
“Oh, I forgot. Then forget what I just said. When we return to the academy, I’ll find a reason to add half a point.”
Meanwhile, Xia Yanbing and the black-haired man’s conversation even more so made the group of new students want to immediately fall over.
“Lin Xi!” Mu Shanzi suddenly walked up to Lin Xi’s side.
Lin Xi gave him a fierce look. “What?”
Mu Shanzi gritted his teeth. “Why don’t we have another bet? Whichever one of us can’t hold on anymore first, that person has to shout out the words I shouted before.”
Lin Xi laughed without any feeling of guilt. “Sure.”
Then, he tore off a stick of meat and threw it into his mouth, at the same time tossing a few sticks in Li Kaiyun’s direction.
Mu Shanzi was stupefied. Gulu gulu… his stomach continuously rumbled.
“That’s not fair! I’m not betting!” After staring blankly for a moment, he immediately turned around in dejection, leaving Lin Xi’s side, full of a sense of defeat.
Lin Xi laughed. Meng Bai, that little fatty really was a foodie. Inside this bag he slipped Lin Xi, not only were there many crispy and fragrant marinated deer meat strips, there were also quite a few pastries and fresh fruits. There was even a skewer of Black Ice Grapes Meng Bai told Lin Xi about, but he never had the chance to try yet.
Ah!
Right at this time, a wave of intense pain shot through his left calf, making him couldn’t help but scream out in pain -- his left leg also cramped.
…
The other Self Defense Department new students all carried a longing for future glory and devotion to their empire, but Lin Xi, who knew what kept him going, managed to persist on. After walking for another hour or so, only when more than half of their group couldn’t walk on their own anymore, did the black-haired man and Xia Yanbing have them stop and rest where they were.
“Don’t sleep, and don’t eat yet. Remove your shoes first, break the blisters on your feet with your own hair, and then smear this ointment, or else you all won’t be able to walk tomorrow.” Xia Yanbing started several bonfires while shouting out with a strict voice.
However, no one here could immediately sleep. The unbearable pain was secondary, apart from Lin Xi and Li Kaiyun, the others hadn’t eaten anything from the afternoon until now, their stomachs empty to the point of driving them mad, sour liquid stirring in their throats.
A bamboo tub carrying light green-colored ointment was quickly passed to Lin Xi. Next to the bonfire, Lin Xi shook uncontrollably as the five blisters on his foot were punctured, while the other six were just like he had imagined, already broken. However, the effects of this light green ointment really were astonishing, the instant he smeared it over the blisters, an incredibly cool and refreshing feeling spread, much of the swelling of his legs even immediately eliminated.
“Great winds boundless… advance with spear in hand… endless heads to take… endless enemy blood to drink…” In the distance, a bleak and wild singing voice could vaguely be heard.
The black-haired man walked over from some shrubbery, on his back three yellow antelopes whose bodies were even larger than his own.
Thud!
Under everyone’s shocked gaze, he tossed the three golden antelopes that were more than three times his size in total by the bonfire. “Your performance today is still passable, but you all should still watch carefully. Starting tomorrow, the task of sorting out prey will be handed over to you all.” After saying this in a deemphasized manner, he easily cut through the antelope with a dagger, skinned it, got rid of its inner organs, and then apart from the three antelope heads, the remaining parts were all directly cut into chunks of palm-sized, bone-in meat.
The sturdy bones, under his cuts, gave one the feeling as if they were as soft as tofu.
“This is at least a Soul Master, able to imbue soul force into a weapon. No, the academy’s professors definitely aren’t only at this kind of level.” Li Kaiyun couldn’t help but say beside Lin Xi’s ears.
“You all can roast the meat yourselves, right?” At this time, the black-haired man already lazily said this, starting to mind his own business and roasting the antelope heads.
A meat fragrance began to waft out from the bonfire. The new students whose stomachs were long rumbling like thunder from hunger immediately rushed over.
…
The meat of these three antelopes was extremely fatty, moreover, the most crucial part was that it was extremely fresh. Soon afterwards, sizzling sounds and an even richer meat fragrance began to spread through the entire camp.
While Lin Xi massaged his own legs, he saw that the thin and weak young lady who was the first to fall because of her legs cramping, was sitting next to a bonfire not too far away from him. She looked like she was about to cry, making Lin Xi who wasn’t all that introverted couldn’t help but walk over, calling out and asking, “Why aren’t you roasting any meat? You don’t know how?”
“That’s not it…” When this thin and weak young lady suddenly saw Lin Xi who was still a stranger suddenly speak to her, she was immediately at a loss for what to do, not even knowing what exactly to do with her hands, her expression now looking even more like she was going to cry. “Ever since I was small, I couldn’t eat mutton… I would always have diarrhea.”
“Then you must be allergic to mutton.”
“Allergic?”
“It’s nothing. Then you can have these things.” Lin Xi handed the bag in his hands to this thin and weak young lady.
“No… that’s yours.” This thin and weak young lady stared blankly for a moment, and then immediately began to panic.
“It’s fine, I actually kind of like this type of antelope meat, I can just roast some of it myself.” Lin Xi smiled, pointing towards Li Kaiyun. Right now, Li Kaiyun was already turning a piece of antelope meat over the flame.
“Seems like you aren’t that bad of a person.” A voice sounded from behind Lin Xi.
As soon as Lin Xi turned around, he saw that a somewhat square-faced tall young lady and a round-faced young lady with a fair complexion were looking at him. When they saw him turn around, that somewhat square-faced tall young lady nodded towards the bag he placed by the thin and weak young lady, adding, “I originally thought that you were going to hog it all for yourself.”
Lin Xi felt like this girl was rather outspoken and straightforward. He laughed, and then before he had time to say anything, this tall young lady whose voice was a bit rougher actually introduced herself first. “I’m Hua Jiyue, from North Sprout Province.”
“My name is Wang Xiaoquan, from South Order Province.” The fair skinned, round-faced young lady next to her also nodded friendly towards Lin Xi.
The thin and weak young lady was a bit flustered, saying, “I’m called Bian Linghan, from Qiantang Province.”
“I’m…” Lin Xi was about to introduce himself to these three female students, but he was cut off by Hua Jiyue. “You can go and roast your meat. Heaven’s choice student, I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know you are Lin Xi from Deerwood Town.”
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