Xiao Ke and two hundred other cadets, handpicked from bases across the territories, rode a floating airship toward the metropolis of Qilin City.
The apocalypse had wiped out most modern technology. With electronic communications long dead, society had fallen back on the brute force of diesel and steam. High-tech marvels like airplanes were relics—too expensive to build, fly, or maintain. In their place, the lumbering but reliable floating airships now ruled the skies.
The one they were on, a Juggernaut-class transport, was built to carry 300 fully armed soldiers. Its only drawback was its glacial pace.
After a grueling seven-day journey, the Juggernaut finally drifted into Qilin City's airspace. Guided by signal towers, the airship navigated carefully over the city's anti-aircraft defenses before settling into its designated landing zone. It was just one of thousands of such zones, yet the sky was a chaotic ballet of arriving and departing ships.
Once on the ground, Xiao Ke and the other cadets were hustled off the airship and barked at by an officer until they formed a neat grid. They had barely snapped to attention when the roar of engines filled the air. Several large trucks were bearing down on them.
The lead truck wasn't slowing down. It thundered toward their formation, looking for all the world like it was out of control and about to plow right through them.
Panic erupted. The color drained from cadets' faces as they shouted and scrambled out of the way. Xiao Ke felt a jolt of fear and was about to bolt himself when he noticed the cadet next to him—a strikingly handsome young man who hadn't moved a muscle. In fact, a faint smirk was playing on his lips.
Xiao Ke followed his gaze back to the roaring truck. His vision was sharp, and he could make out two figures in the cab: a soldier at the wheel, and in the passenger seat, a mountain of a man. The man was shirtless, his chest a canvas of rippling muscle dominated by a massive tattoo of the war god Di Shi Tian. A look of pure contempt was etched on his face, a cold sneer for the cowards scattering before him.
This is a test, Xiao Ke realized. He's trying to scare us.
The thought solidified his resolve. The instinct to flee vanished, and he planted his feet, refusing to budge.
As predicted, the truck screeched to a halt just as it was about to hit them, its tires screaming as it skidded sideways, stopping less than two feet from Xiao Ke. The other trucks stopped in its wake.
The man with the Di Shi Tian tattoo launched himself from the passenger seat, landing on the tarmac with a thud. He wore nothing but a pair of military-green trousers and heavy combat boots, every muscle on his frame coiled with power.
Their group leader jogged over, bowing his head respectfully. "Chief Instructor Di Shi Tian! We weren't expecting you in person, sir."
So this was the legend himself—the Chief Instructor of the prestigious Glory Military Academy.
Di Shi Tian's eyes scanned the hundred or so cadets who had broken rank. "Pathetic," he snarled. "I heard this batch was full of decorated elites from the battlefield. For a second, I actually got my hopes up. Thought I might finally get some real soldiers. Instead, I get a pack of gutless worms. You call yourselves 'outstanding cadets'? You don't even know the first rule of the military: you don't move a damn muscle until you're told to."
A wave of shame washed over the scattered cadets as they realized who he was and what he'd done. To be humiliated by the Chief Instructor of Glory the moment they arrived—it was a disgrace.
Di Shi Tian then turned his attention to the dozen or so cadets, including Xiao Ke, who had held their ground. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. "Well, not a total loss. This group here is at least passable."
His gaze swept over each of them, as if memorizing the faces of the few who hadn't disappointed him. But when his eyes landed on the handsome cadet next to Xiao Ke, he paused. "You're from one of the High Houses, aren't you? The Ling family?"
All eyes turned to the young man, who answered with unshakable calm, "Yes. I am Ling Feng."
"Third-Rank Earl, Cangwu Bo, Ling Tian," Di Shi Tian pressed. "What is he to you?"
After a brief silence, Ling Feng replied, "He is my father."
Di Shi Tian's interest deepened. "A young master from a High House. Joining the army for glory, I get that. But coming to my academy? That makes me curious."
The other cadets, Xiao Ke included, were just as bewildered. Glory Academy was backed by the Imperial House, a faction that typically recruited from commoners and the lower gentry. The powerful High Houses, like the Ling family, aligned themselves with the Cabinet, the Empire's other major political power. For a highborn son with a guaranteed path to power to show up at an Imperial military academy was unheard of. It was practically treason against his own class.
Ling Feng bit his lip. "Do I have to answer that?"
"That's not an option," Di Shi Tian said, his voice flat and hard. "I am the Chief Instructor of Glory. My cadets don't keep secrets from me." He needed to be sure Ling Feng wasn't a spy sent by the Cabinet.
Ling Feng's composure finally cracked. After a tense silence, he spoke, his voice barely a whisper. "Though I am a son of the Ling family… I am a bastard."
A wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. A shuzi. A son born of a concubine. In their society, such children were born into shame. They had no rights, no inheritance, and no status. They were a permanent stain on the family's honor.
Hearing this, Di Shi Tian's suspicion vanished, replaced by a grim understanding. He said no more on the matter, instead barking out a new order. "You dozen, on the trucks! As for the rest of you cowards, you're not worthy of a ride. You will run behind the convoy all the way to the academy."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Xiao Ke, Ling Feng, and the other ten boarded the truck. Behind them, over a hundred cadets began the grueling run, a stark and immediate lesson in the brutal meritocracy of their new home.
Before he'd even set foot inside the school, Xiao Ke had learned two critical lessons.
First: follow orders without question or hesitation. Your body does what it's told, nothing more, nothing less.
Second: at Glory, the exceptional are rewarded, and the weak are punished. There is no in-between.
Glory Academy wasn't in the city. It was carved into the peak of Mount Tianzhu, a fortress surrounded by sheer cliffs. The only way up was a massive, dedicated elevator shaft drilled through the heart of the mountain.
At the mountain's base, a sprawling plaza was crowded with eight hundred young men, all dressed in the fine silks of the lower gentry. They were the other half of the incoming class, and they were lining up to take the elevator to the summit.
Xiao Ke and the battlefield cadets now understood the breakdown: two hundred of them had earned their spots through combat, while eight hundred had bought their way in with family connections.
Di Shi Tian's truck bypassed the queue, driving straight onto the colossal elevator platform. The ascent was smooth and silent, and ten minutes later, they emerged onto the summit five hundred meters above the plains. The mountaintop had been leveled into a vast plateau. Before them stood the academy's main gate, and emblazoned above it in a fierce, elegant script were two characters: GLORY.
Once again, Di Shi Tian ordered them into formation, including the exhausted runners who had just arrived, gasping for air. He stood before them, feet planted shoulder-width apart, his bare, tattooed chest seeming to radiate power.
"Welcome to Glory," he boomed, his voice echoing off the stone. "Some of you got here by sheer luck, and I'll tell you right now, your luck has run out. You won't accomplish a thing here. At Glory, only one thing matters: strength."
Just then, the last of the eight hundred gentry cadets arrived on the summit and began to form their own sloppy ranks, their discipline a stark contrast to the soldiers. They shuffled, whispered, and paid little attention.
A few academy staffers hurried over to the Chief Instructor. "Sir," one said respectfully, "the eight hundred cadets from the gentry houses have all arrived. Should you give them a welcoming speech as well?"
Di Shi Tian shot a disgusted look at the unruly crowd. "They treat this place like a goddamn landfill," he sneered. "I know the higher-ups want to court these lesser families, hoping to find a diamond in the rough. But they just dump a pile of trash on my doorstep and expect me to work miracles. A welcome? Heh. I don't welcome trash."
The staffers exchanged uneasy glances. The gentry cadets, overhearing him, bristled with indignation. They may have been low on the aristocratic ladder, but they were still nobles, used to a certain level of respect. To be openly called garbage by the head of the academy was a stinging insult.
"So, what are your orders, sir?" a staffer asked timidly.
"The trial," Di Shi Tian commanded with a wave of his hand. "Test their abilities and sort them into classes. The top one hundred performers go into Class One. I don't care what you do with the rest."
The message was clear to every cadet on the mountain. This trial was everything. Make the top hundred, and you become part of the elite, the focus of the academy's resources. Fail, and you were already forgotten, left to languish with the rest of the rejects. A fire lit in the eyes of nearly a thousand young men. They would not be left behind.
The trial itself seemed deceptively simple. In a clearing near the gate, stacks of hard, millstone-sized bluestone slabs were arranged. Next to them lay a single, standard-issue combat saber.
The test: channel your Martial Vein Origin Power into the saber and cleave the stone in two. The cleaner the cut, the higher your score.
"Who's first?" Di Shi Tian's voice cut through the silence.
No one moved. The stones were thick, and few were confident enough in their power to volunteer.
A cold smile touched Di Shi Tian's lips. "So no one has the guts to step up? You want me to pick you out one by one?"
"I'll go."
It was Ling Feng. He stepped forward from beside Xiao Ke.
"Alright, Ling Feng," Di Shi Tian nodded. "You're first."
Ling Feng walked to the testing area, drew the saber, and centered himself. He activated the Martial Vein nodes in his body, and a visible shimmer of energy ran down the blade, making the air around it hum. It wasn't a true lightsaber—the metal didn't glow—but it was the clear sign of a Battle General. To have reached that level at his age was a remarkable feat.
With a sharp exhale, he brought the saber down in a clean, powerful arc. The stone split in two as if it were a log, the two halves falling away with perfectly smooth surfaces.
A flicker of genuine admiration showed in Di Shi Tian's eyes. "Impressive. Clean, decisive. A-Grade."
Ling Feng allowed himself a flicker of pride before his face returned to a mask of calm, and he stepped back into line.
One by one, the others followed. The next cadet managed to break the stone, but the cut was jagged. "Forced, but you got it done," Di Shi Tian grunted. "B-Grade."
The third swung with all his might, but his saber only left a deep gash in the stone. "Failure. C-Grade."
As the line slowly dwindled, Xiao Ke felt a knot of dread tightening in his stomach. He had spent months using the precious Origin Power fluid from his Tiger Charge cultivation, not to unlock new Martial Vein nodes, but to temper his own bones. He had successfully reinforced nineteen of them, granting him the monstrous punching strength of over 2,000 pounds.
But that came at a cost. He had neglected his energy cultivation. He was still just a Level 1 Battle Soldier.
His innate potential was high—he could generate 150 Kahe of Origin Power, half again as much as a typical soldier at his level. But that was nothing here. These cadets were almost all Battle Generals, wielding 1,000 Kahe or more. Ling Feng, likely a Level 5 General, was probably pushing 2,000.
In this test, Xiao Ke was hopelessly outclassed. He stayed at the very back, hoping to be forgotten.
But eventually, there was no one left.
"You," Di Shi Tian said, his eyes locking on Xiao Ke. "It's your turn."
Trapped, Xiao Ke walked forward. He picked up the saber and forced his body's single active node to pour its meager energy into the blade. The metal didn't even flicker. He took a deep breath and swung.
CRACK!
The saber shattered on impact.
A stunned silence fell over the crowd. Di Shi Tian stared, speechless. Nearly a thousand cadets gaped in disbelief. Was he really that weak?
One of the academy staffers exploded. "Are you kidding me? How in the hell did this kid even get in? He's just a Level 1 Battle Soldier! You can't break bluestone without massive Origin Power reinforcement! D-Grade! Failure! That is the single most pathetic attempt I have ever seen!"
Di Shi Tian remembered this kid. He was one of the ones who hadn't flinched from the truck. He couldn't be this weak. The Chief Instructor sighed, about to dismiss him, when Xiao Ke, his face burning with humiliation, finally found his voice.
"Chief Instructor, that's not my real strength! I request one more try!"
The staffer scoffed. "Try a hundred times, you'll still be trash. A Level 1 pipsqueak trying to play with the big boys. Get out of here."
But Di Shi Tian held up a hand. He remembered the kid's courage. "Fine," he said. "You get one more try."
A staffer grudgingly handed Xiao Ke a new saber but added, "You use this one. No personal weapons." He had clearly noticed the custom-forged blade, Fierce General, at Xiao Ke's hip.
Xiao Ke took the standard-issue saber and looked directly at Di Shi Tian. "As long as the stone breaks, I pass, right?"
The Chief Instructor frowned, puzzled by the question, but nodded. "That's right."
A strange smile touched Xiao Ke's lips. He turned and plunged the saber into the dirt beside him. Then, to the astonishment of every person present, he walked up to the thick bluestone, raised his right fist, and threw a punch.
BOOM!
The sound was like a thunderclap. The solid bluestone didn't crack or split. It exploded into a cloud of dust and rubble.
The entire mountain peak fell silent.
For the first time in their lives, they had seen a man punch a rock into oblivion.
Di Shi Tian and his staff stood frozen for a long moment, then slowly turned to look at each other, their faces a mask of pure shock.
What in the hell do you even call that? An S-Grade?