Chapter 23 Tempering 3

Sweat dripped down his neck into the cracks in the rocks. Panting, Xu Lingqu arrived at the first rest point set by the instructors. By then, half of the day had passed.

She opened her supply pack, sat down, and drank a tube of nutrient solution in silence. Then she looked at the movement route of the main force. The people in the first echelon were almost reaching the second rest point.

"The first section is the easiest, the third section is the most difficult." Instructor Chen looked at Xu Lingqu leisurely from his floating car. "You've been left far behind."

This nutritional supplement didn't taste good. The peach flavor was a bit too sweet, making him choke. Xu Lingqu took a sip of water to wash away the peach saccharine in his mouth: "My mission today is to complete it, not to compete."

"If Kaiong were here, he would definitely add five kilometers to the mileage because of your tone." Instructor Chen raised his eyebrows.

Xu Lingqu nodded expressionlessly: "Then I have to thank you for not being so authoritarian." It was time to rest, she stood up and put the weight on her back again.

An artificial sun hung overhead, its rays burning my skin. The road was narrow, with a pile of gravel beneath my feet. I walked forward holding onto the stone wall on the left, which was also scorched by the sun.

Instructor Chen sat on the hovercraft and watched her struggle through. "If you want to give up, you can choose to deduct points. I can just take you back."

Xu Lingqu did not answer. She really did not have the strength to answer. Two cuts had been made on her ankles at some point and they were bleeding. She ran across the gravel road and reached the grass. She paused, took out some hemostatic medicine and poured it on the grass, then continued running.

They never thought of giving up, and never intended to give up. They continued to march forward for two hours without stopping, finally reaching the second rest stop. Xu Lingqu spat out a mouthful of blood foam on the muddy ground. Instructor Chen finally jumped down from his hovercraft and stretched out his hand to her, "How's your foot?"

"It's not a big deal." Xu Lingqu waved his hand, his voice hoarse.

"Several students ahead have given up on boarding the instructor's aircraft and are on their way back. Many of them have injured their feet." Instructor Chen's hint was very clear.

Kion was called back for a lecture this time because of the objective danger of a sudden river flood. Although they acted as if it didn't matter if they killed the students, they were actually still very afraid that something might happen to them.

There was a high probability of something happening if he walked on this road while injured. In addition, Xu Lingqu's speed was visibly slow, and it was getting dark. It would only be more difficult to travel cross-country with a heavy load in the dark.

Xu Lingqu certainly understood what Instructor Chen meant. She sat for a long time, and when her throat finally stopped hurting, she spoke: "Instructor Chen, I cherish my life very much."

After yesterday's continuous training, Xu Lingqu really felt that her life was hanging by a thread, so she applied for a temporary rest. Her body needed a period of adaptation. She had been working at overload in the past few days.

Although today's weighted cross-country race sounds scary, she had a good rest yesterday and she was able to adjust the overall rhythm by herself. She completed today's training at her limit and did not exceed Xu Lingqu's psychological expectations.

Seeing that she said so, Instructor Chen said nothing more and returned to the hovercraft.

Night gradually fell, and Xu Lingqu walked forward in the dark. The water was gurgling, and there was a river to cross. He had to wade through the water. The stones were very slippery. With the tacit consent of Instructor Chen, he could cross slowly here.

"Is this where you drained the water the night before last?" The running water rushed over the wound, and the coldness and pain passed through her mind like an electric current. Now she was extremely clear-headed.

Instructor Chen watched her wade across the river. He was silent for two seconds before he spoke: "A little lower."

He glanced at the intelligent computer. Those who were capable of completing today's training tasks had already returned to the training base, and those who were injured and unable to complete the task were also sent back one by one. Only Xu Lingqu was still moving slowly forward on the map.

This was the final leg of the journey. The decision to set out in separate batches today was based on their assessment of the students' physical condition. In his mind, Xu Lingqu was someone who would have given up midway through the first leg, so she was assigned to the fifth, separate batch.

But she was now halfway through the third leg.

Instructor Chen suddenly remembered a joke with a long history that he had seen on Skynet a long time ago.

If a very determined and persevering snail is determined to hunt down a human, the probability of its failure is definitely not 100%.

Inside the confinement room at the training base, Xu Xizhen was clinging to the room's only small window, straining to peer outside. Jin, who was sitting in a chair, couldn't help but say, "You can't see anything in there. What's there to see?"

The two people whose computers had been confiscated and who had been put in solitary confinement and forced to write a handwritten self-reflection were now completely in the dark. Xu Xizhen felt angry just thinking about it: "It's all your fault, okay? Your actions were too obvious, and you directly exposed us both."

"Tsk, how could I have known that instructor would be looking over here?" Jin Sheng said helplessly as he slumped over the table, writing his self-criticism. "Your actions were obvious, too."

Unfortunately, the person who was kicked into the water by the two men was Sun Liao, who always caused trouble for Xu Lingqu. Xu Xizhen adhered to the principle of doing what he said. He was originally in the first echelon, but after hesitating for a long time, he ran to the third echelon just to fulfill his wish of kicking Sun Liao into the water.

Unexpectedly, Jin also knew her plan and strongly demanded to join her. She kicked the other person's butt and he kicked his legs. The two of them hit it off and caused a big disaster in front of the instructor.

Seeing him leaning over the table and writing diligently, Xu Xizhen came over to take a look and said: "Your handwriting... is quite nice." It was obvious that he had practiced it professionally since he was a child, and it looked inexplicably familiar.

Xu Xizhen nodded: "The educational resources in the Three Star System are quite good."

The empire has a total of four star systems, and the wealth level decreases as the number increases. Jin's birthplace is shown as three star systems in the intelligent computer.

With the advancement of intelligent computing and artificial intelligence, few families now let their children learn calligraphy. The continuous loss of talent and the scarcity of professional calligraphy teachers have made calligraphy a mere aristocratic pursuit.

It is rare to see children from ordinary families specifically learning calligraphy.

Jin paused, twirling the pen in his hand. "You'd better go to the window and lie down to watch. Be careful not to miss the precious footage of the commander returning."

After hearing this, Xu Xizhen actually ran to the window and stood there again, but he didn't stop talking: "By the way, how did you know Shen Shouli? You are from the Three Star System, so how can you be familiar with the light of our future military department of the empire?"

She raised her eyebrows and tucked a strand of her golden hair behind her ear. In the past few days, everyone had realized that Jin's identity was not ordinary, but Xu Xizhen couldn't remember any big shots in the Three Star System no matter how hard she tried.

Jin Pen kept writing: “Shen Shouli is not a difficult person to get to know.”

"Forget it. Those dukes, barons, young ladies and young masters love to flatter Shen Shouli the most. They can use anything they say to him as capital to show off." Xu Xizhen felt a chill when he thought of the fawning looks those people had shown towards Shen Shouli before.

Before they had any specific contact, she always thought that Shen Shouli was a pretentious person. Now after they had any specific contact, Xu Xizhen felt that Shen Shouli was a mysophobia, a fussy and pretentious person.