That night, I was tormented by the poison under the horse's face, and it wasn't until dawn that I felt a little better.

His willingness to risk his life to protect Qu Xuelin, even at the cost of the beautiful snake, shows that he is obsessed with the use of poison.

Strangely enough, the poison of the horse-faced demon comes on quickly, but it also goes away quickly. When it hurts, it can be excruciating, but once the effects wear off, you feel nothing at all.

I had just drifted off to sleep when Bullhead burst into the room and roughly pulled me up: "What time is it? Still sleeping here? Get up and train!"

I yelled at Bull Head, still grumpy from waking up, "Big brother, what's the point of training? Isn't it to help people improve? Are you guys going to torture me like this every day until I die of exhaustion?"

"Wrong! The purpose of training is to constantly push human limits. What we want is for you to be constantly exhausted!"

Ox-Head paused for a moment: "I've already been very polite in waking you up. If you're not ready to leave this place within a minute, Horse-Face will come in and invite you in person!"

These past few days, I've been tormented by Ma Mian to the point of almost going insane. Whenever I hear his name, I reflexively jump out of bed.

When I went out, Horse-Face was sitting at the table eating breakfast. When he saw me leave, he smiled at me and said, "Come and eat. After you finish eating, the training will officially begin."

When I heard what Horse-Face said, I immediately perked up and looked at them warily.

"Don't worry, the training officially begins today. You're not at the stage where you need to learn about poisons yet, so I won't poison you."

Horse-faced paused for a moment: "Last time you ran 20 kilometers and it took you four hours. Starting from now, if you can run it in under three and a half hours today, I'll give you a day off to adjust your condition, and you can eat and rest normally."

"Nobody would believe you!"

I recalled the inhuman torture I had endured and glared at him: "I don't believe a word you say now, not even the punctuation!"

"I swear I didn't poison your food, or may I die a horrible death. Do you believe me now?"

Horse-faced paused for a moment, looked at his wristwatch, and said, "I forgot to remind you, the three-and-a-half-hour countdown has already started. You've already experienced the consequences of exceeding the time limit, so I don't need to remind you again, do I?"

When I heard what Horse-Face said, I hesitated for a moment, then walked to the table and began to wolf down my food.

After I finished eating, I pointed to a bottle of water on the table and said, "Can I take one with me?"

"Sure, but I suggest you bring some paper with you."

Horse-faced smiled and said, "I put a laxative in your food. I think you need toilet paper more than water."

"Horse-faced demon! You son of a bitch!"

When I heard him say that, I felt like my lungs were about to explode with anger: "You kept saying that you would never cheat, but you still lied to me. Aren't you afraid of retribution?"

"You can't say that. I'm quite superstitious and I never make oaths lightly!"

Horse-face chuckled: "I only swore I wouldn't poison you, but I never said I wouldn't drug you. Otherwise, why do you think I would be so kind as to agree to give you three and a half hours?"

Standing to the side, Bull Head chimed in, "Don't worry, whether you pass the test today or not, we'll provide you with a new pair of pants out of humanitarian concern! Oh, and just a heads-up, you'd better get going before you get diarrhea, that way you might save some time!"

"asshole!"

I cursed at the two of them, then grabbed a bottle of water from the table and plunged into the woods.

...

One month later.

I ran wildly, bursting out of the woods at incredible speed, and reached the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, panting heavily.

Seeing that I was panting, Horse-Face smiled and handed me a bottle of water: "You've worked hard, here, have some water!"

"Don't even try!"

I didn't take the water from Horse-Face's hand, but asked, "How long did it take me today?"

Niu Tou pressed the timer in his hand and looked at the number: "Ninety minutes and seven seconds, not bad, only seven seconds away from passing."

"You've messed up with your dad again?"

I glared at Horse-face: "If you hadn't given me water to buy me time, I could have easily kept my time under ninety minutes! When are you guys going to stop with this ridiculous and twisted humor?"

"Haha, good, you've passed today, kid!"

Horse-faced laughed: "After a month of training, your physical strength has basically reached the standard. I'll give you a day off today. Starting tomorrow, we'll begin the next phase of training!"

When I heard what Horse-Face said, I plopped down on the ground.

For the past month, all they've done is find ways to torment me. I can't eat or sleep well, and they keep tormenting me. I've even felt like dying.

As per our agreement, as long as I can cover 20 kilometers in under 90 minutes, I will have completed the first phase of training.

Actually, I knew in my heart that this condition was not too demanding. If they had held me to the standards of a marathon runner, the time would probably have been reduced by another twenty minutes.

When Horse-Face saw my appearance, he smiled and said, "Starting tomorrow, we will begin systematic training in your martial arts, so you will no longer need to suffer this so-called torture."

When I heard Horse-Face say that, I asked him, "Can I choose my area of ​​study?"

Horse-faced didn't answer me directly: "Tell me what you want to learn."

"I want to learn your flying needle technique!"

I got straight to the point: "I've considered learning poison techniques from Wang Qing before, and then using hidden weapons to administer poison, just like you do! Compared to a direct confrontation, I think this method is much safer."

"You're oversimplifying things. The flying needle technique is a highly difficult skill that cannot be mastered in a short time. If used improperly, it can backfire."

Horse-face thought for a moment and said, "I can teach you how to throw needles slowly. If you really want to learn hidden weapons, I can teach you how to throw knives first. Starting today, I will give you a private lesson on hidden weapons every night from seven to nine o'clock."

...

Two months later.

"Duh!"

As Ba swung his arm, a finger-length throwing knife flew through the air and embedded itself in a tree stump eight meters away.

"Not bad, the accuracy rate has reached 70%."

Horse-faced nodded in satisfaction as he saw the throwing knife trembling on the tree stump, and handed me the hood: "Your last lesson is over. We can go back to Fengmen Village now."

After three months of training, my palms have developed thick calluses, and I think about leaving this awful place all the time.

But after hearing what Horse-Face said, I felt a sense of loss.

Bull Head glanced at me sideways: "What are you standing there for? You really want to stay here forever?"

I took a deep breath and bowed deeply to the two of them: "Student Duan Shenxing thanks you both for your guidance over the past few days!"