"Bang!"
Another wooden dummy shattered.
Tang Wen silently calculated that after his advancement, his punching speed had increased by about one-third compared to before.
Hmm, with my current punching speed, if I seize an opportunity, like catching an enemy's mistake, I should be able to land a punch in actual combat.
Wait, no.
If the enemy makes a mistake, why not just kill them with a slash or a stone? Why waste energy and focus on delivering a punch?
He looked at the headless wooden dummy, his gaze profound.
I still need to practice my fist techniques.
This is just the beginning.
Once I reach the "Proficient" level, maybe then I can use it in real combat.
After throwing thirty punches, Tang Wen's stamina and mental energy were both depleted.
However, he had managed to consciously accelerate his visualization, and his experience points had increased significantly.
[Skill: Mountain-Cracking Cannon Fist, Beginner (45/1000)]
Returning to his dorm, he collapsed into bed.
The next day, he woke up at five in the morning.
Without getting up, he first practiced the Primal Chaos Stance.
Then, after dressing, he practiced the Eight Section Brocade.
At seven o'clock, he arrived punctually at the square to practice the Earth Fire Stance with everyone, entering a state of stillness.
For an ordinary person, practicing these three cultivation methods would mean they couldn't do anything else in the morning.
Eating, returning to their room, and resting their spirit would be their only options.
But for Tang Wen, this day's training was just the beginning.
It's worth mentioning that, except for the Primal Chaos Stance, which involved more complex movements, he practiced the Eight Section Brocade and the Earth Fire Stance while wearing several hundred pounds of weight.
This led to a situation where, every time he stood in the square entering stillness, others would crowd forward, trying to keep Tang Wen out of their sight.
It was too demoralizing!
Cafeteria.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed.
Without turning around, everyone knew it was Tang Wen.
In the morning, the guards rubbed their hands together, approaching Tang Wen with malicious intent, holding sticks.
"Hehe, Tang Wen, we won't hold back!"
"Go ahead."
"To be honest, there's a line of guards waiting to hit you!"
"Haha."
The sound of thuds filled the air.
Tang Wen held his breath, letting the sticks fall on him.
After dozens of thick wooden sticks were broken, the guards shook their sore wrists, cursing him as a freak, and walked away shaking their heads.
Beating someone without any sense of accomplishment, where's the justice in that?
[Iron Body Skill, Proficient (490/1000)]
After practicing the Iron Body Skill, he put on the Double Layer Scale Armor and his weighted clothes, clattering into the cafeteria.
After lunch, he took a short rest.
In the afternoon, Tang Wen arrived early at the Plum Blossom Poles.
The Plum Blossom Poles varied in height and size.
He leaped onto them, practicing his footwork.
Fortunately, the Plum Blossom Poles were made of metal; if they were wooden, they would probably need to be replaced daily.
"Hu, hu, hu."
After half an hour, Tang Wen came down panting heavily; the weight was too much, and he was struggling.
He took off the five-hundred-pound lead jacket.
Then he switched to a four-hundred-pound lead jacket.
Instantly, he felt a sense of lightness.
Feeling capable again, he went back up!
Another twenty minutes passed.
He came down for a short rest, then switched to a three-hundred-pound lead jacket, followed by two hundred pounds, one hundred pounds, until he wore nothing at all.
He still had two pieces of scale armor and a pair of metal boots on him.
Altogether, they weighed three hundred pounds.
But Tang Wen leaped onto the Plum Blossom Poles, moving as swiftly as the wind.
Through this extreme, exhaustive training method, the experience points for the Traceless Step increased the fastest.
In the evening, he returned to his room to practice the Primal Chaos Stance and Vajra Skill. After dinner, he continued to stand in the stance, and late at night, he practiced the Mountain-Cracking Cannon Fist.
His day was packed with activities.
This was how his day went, and every day was the same.
Zhou Bing's seclusion lasted much longer than Tang Wen had anticipated.
By the seventh day, she still hadn't returned, and Tang Wen finally couldn't help but prepare to go look for her.
However, Zhou Bing had Old Xia deliver a message to Tang Wen.
After she emerged from seclusion, she was immediately taken away by Commander Zhao to participate in actual combat.
"Just after breaking through, how could she go straight into combat?"
Tang Wen was somewhat displeased.
For the entire afternoon, he surprisingly didn't go to train.
This led Zhang Lin and a few familiar Guards to come check on him, thinking he might be sick.
Their interruption slowly calmed Tang Wen down.
Upon careful consideration, it seemed that this was indeed the right course of action.
Zhou Bing had broken through to the level of a Martial Master, and it would be somewhat unreasonable for her to continue hiding in the underground palace.
"Attention everyone, halt your afternoon training and head to the warehouse to move supplies."
"Attention everyone, halt your afternoon training..."
Several Guards shouted in the corridors, knocking on each room's door as they went.
"Move supplies?"
"Why the sudden need to move supplies?"
"Wait, are we moving things into our camp or out of it?"
Given that the area outside the camp was still in a state of war, everyone couldn't help but feel anxious.
Led by the Guards, Tang Wen, Zhang Lin, and the others arrived at the warehouse door beneath the underground palace.
They saw many Guards already busy, carrying heavy sacks down from above.
"It's foxtail millet!"
Tang Tang twitched her little nose, her eyes widening more than anyone else's.
She muttered to herself, seemingly calculating how many years' worth of food this would last.
"If it's being moved in from outside, it seems we've won, or at least haven't lost."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and began helping with renewed vigor.
Tang Wen also climbed up the steps to the surface, the cold wind refreshing his spirits.
"It's been so long since I've seen the sun!" Tang Wen stretched lazily.
Everyone who came up from underground adopted the same posture, spreading their arms to embrace the sun.
Tang Wen smiled. No matter how safe or comfortable the underground environment was, people still needed to bask in the sun and live above ground.
Their location was a large courtyard filled with grain carts.
The Guards, seeing Tang Wen, teased, "Here comes a capable one! Tang Wen, how many sacks are you planning to carry at once?"
The burlap sacks were larger than usual, each weighing over a hundred pounds.
Tang Wen surveyed the area and suddenly pointed to a thick cloth on the ground, asking, "Is this sturdy?"
"Yes, it's waterproof. Why, are you planning to bundle a few sacks and carry them down?"
Tang Wen shook his head: "If it's sturdy, I have a faster method. Come, Zhang Lin, help me."
They gathered four people, with two at the entrance of the underground palace holding the corners of the waterproof cloth and tossing it down the steps. Two others inside the palace also held the corners.
The four of them pulled the cloth taut.
Using the height difference, they created a simple slide.
Sliding the sacks of millet down the "cloth slide" was much faster than carrying them down.
Commander Zhang, seeing this, praised, "Smart move, Tang Wen. Alright, Team One and Team Two, help hold the cloth. Teams Three and Four, stay up here. The rest of the teams, go down and receive the sacks, then move them into the warehouse."
The efficiency suddenly increased significantly.
Commander Zhang pulled Tang Wen aside to chat: "You're from the outer city. After next month's assessment, would you like to come back and help me manage the outer city?"
Tang Wen deeply respected those who had lost their arms on the battlefield while protecting the camp. "If there's an opportunity, of course, I'd be willing. But I'm just an ordinary soldier; I still have to listen to our captain."
"That's easy to arrange. Your captain can come along too!"
Tang Wen nodded repeatedly and asked in a low voice, "Did we win?"
"Hehe, what do you think counts as a win?" Commander Zhang's words carried a hint of testing.
What counts as a win?
Of course, it's when the enemy suffers a crushing defeat, heavy casualties, cedes territory, pays reparations, and kneels in surrender.
But upon careful consideration, he realized it was impossible.
If the enemy couldn't win, wouldn't they just run away?
Black Mountain Camp was a slave camp, and its high-ranking rulers were mostly skilled warriors.
Skilled warriors are hard to kill; if they couldn't win, they would just flee, abandoning the camp if necessary.
Then they would harass you daily, killing your people and burning your camps. Who could endure that?
So, in this brutal environment, what truly counts as a win?
Seeing Tang Wen lost in thought, Commander Zhang's eyes flashed with appreciation. He didn't rush to answer with talk of killing and fighting. This level of composure already surpassed ninety percent of the people in the barracks.
After pondering for a while, by the time half of the hundreds of carts of grain had been moved, Tang Wen finally looked up and said, "I think winning means fewer casualties, gaining resources, and strengthening ourselves!"
The appreciation in Commander Zhang's eyes turned into profound surprise. "Good! Very good! You're quite something
, kid."
He sighed inwardly: If my own son had this talent and insight, even if he lost an arm—or even died in battle—I would have no regrets!
With the grain moved, life in the underground palace returned to normal.
Martial training became the sole focus.
A month later, the day of the assessment arrived as scheduled.
(End of Chapter)