Qingfeng Camp is where elite Spirit Energy User soldiers are forged. It's run with military discipline, yet the Trainees govern themselves.
The Discipline Inspection Department is the unit that keeps order among the camp's students.
Every member must be at least an Intermediate-level Trainee.
Arms folded, the girl whose gaze cut like a knife swept the scene with a voice as cold as frost, her words ringing clearly in every Trial Participant's ear.
"And you call yourselves products of semi-military education? You're nothing but a rabble—no discipline at all! I despair for Qingfeng Camp's future; if this batch is the best we have, the camp is finished!"
Everyone here is a gifted Awakened Spirit Energy User.
Until now they'd been proud, convinced they were heaven's chosen.
Hearing the girl's scathing rebuke, many clenched their fists in secret humiliation.
Bai Meimei, deputy head of the Discipline Inspection Department, caught their resentment and sneered.
"Unconvinced? Fine—your chance starts now."
"Step up and challenge any of us. Win, and I'll let you take his place in Qingfeng Camp on the spot."
"Or face me, the deputy head—any takers?"
The defiant Trial Participants instantly dropped their gazes.
None were stupid: even the weakest Discipline cadet was high-tier Private, Combat Level 10–99.
Approach them and you'd be crushed like a chick.
"Hah, a bunch of pumpkins!"
Bai Meimei snorted, sparing no one.
Zhao Mu felt nothing.
Lesson one in the army: erase the New Recruit's ego, build obedience.
Knowing the routine, Zhao Mu stayed unruffled.
Once silence fell, a City Beauty stepped from behind them—gold-rimmed glasses, hair coiled high.
One of the Elementary-level instructors: Instructor Xie Yingxue.
She adjusted her glasses. "Trial time is up; Qingfeng Camp's gate is closed. Latecomers forfeit."
"First event of this year's trial—the Written Exam!"
A faint smile flickered across Zhao Mu's eyes.
Exactly as he'd expected.
Qingfeng Camp cultivates elites, not brawlers; mere fighters belong on the front line where killing machines are mass-produced.
Better to ship them straight to battle than waste resources here.
And a written test? Child's play for Zhao Mu.
Instructor Xie pushed up her glasses. "This year: Written 30 points, Combat 70. Pass mark is 60 total."
"However—" her eyes glinted—"top scorers in each section gain ten bonus points."
"So Written max is 40, Combat max 80."
"Questions now—once inside the hall, silence! Understood?"
At once Golden Elephant City raised his hand.
"Instructor, I have a question."
Instructor Xie nodded. "Speak."
Golden Elephant City grinned. "They say 'writing has no fixed first.' If several top the test, who gets the bonus?"
Instructor Xie studied him, a hidden meaning in her gaze.
"A perfect score?"
"Then whoever hands it in first wins," she answered drily.
"Any more questions?"
None. She closed her folder. "Ten minutes to reach your seats. Room numbers are on your electronic wristband—find them and sit. Fail—" her smile turned cruel—"and you're out."
Zhao Mu glanced at his left electronic wristband.
A message popped up: Lecture Hall 1-3, Seat 32.
Instantly the square thundered as two thousand candidates spun to check their rooms.
The ring-shaped Lecture Halls circled the plaza; crossing the crowd was no small feat.
Unlucky ones had to shove through two thousand rivals.
Zhao Mu was one of the unlucky.
He spotted his hall at once, but chaos reigned as bodies collided and saboteurs struck.
Soon screams rose—victims tripped and were trampled underfoot.
Discipline cadets and the City Beauty instructor watched impassively; anyone who couldn't handle this simple test was wasting time.
Zhao Mu rose. Beside him Li Zixuan and Zhou Haoyu were already sweating.
He glanced at them. "Know your rooms?"
They latched onto him like a lifeline. "F-found them!"
Both halls were distant, past the seething swarm.
"Channel Qi, armor your bodies," Zhao Mu said calmly.
Thinking he'd lead them through, they drew Qi from their Spirit Sea and cloaked their skin—seven days' crude training had at least taught that.
"Ready. What next?" Li Zixuan asked.
Before he finished, his feet left the ground.
Zhao Mu grabbed each boy by the collar, spun like a monk carrying water, and hurled them skyward.
"Go!"
Two grown men—over a hundred kilos each—went flying.
"Aaaargh!!"
While the rest scrambled below, two silhouettes soared the hundred-metre span of the plaza.
They crashed—thud, thud—at their hall doors, dusty but intact.
The entire square stared in stunned silence.
Even Instructor Xie adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses.
"Zhao Mu from No. 2 High? Concentrating Qi in the arms for strength—yet tossing two adults a hundred metres shows fine control."
She praised the feat, unaware Zhao Mu hadn't used a shred of Qi.
Advance Chapters avilable on patreon (Obito_uchiha)