Chapter 482
Chapter 482
Only after two days and nights did the screams from the cellar finally cease.
The beggars had fallen into a deep sleep. Muyeol led a dozen female warriors inside to clean their bodies, apply ointments, and feed them ginseng soup.
Even after that, they remained asleep, on and on.
They finally began to wake up, one by one, after a full fifty hours of sleep.
The moment they opened their eyes, they felt a strange sensation, unlike anything they had ever experienced before.
It was as if a wind was blowing within them, as if their bodies were floating.
They felt a powerful energy coursing through them, a sense of health, and a light, liberating feeling, as if they could do anything they pleased.
With a slight exertion of strength, their bodies sprang up and landed on the floor.
In that instant, the beggars were completely dumbfounded.
Before, their bodies had been twisted and bent, no different from cripples.
Standing, and even sitting, had been excruciatingly difficult, so they had spent most of their time lying down.
Walking had been the very peak of their agony.
They had no strength, no balance, and their bodies were crooked; the slightest movement brought unbearable pain.
Though their bodies weighed over a hundred catties, they felt as heavy as a thousand, threatening to collapse after just a few clumsy steps.
But now, their entire bodies felt as light as if they were floating on the wind, ready to take flight.
Gu Duhuan spoke to the dumbfounded men.
“There are mirrors before you. Take a look at your new selves.”
They lifted their heads and saw several mirrors, each taller than a man.
Even a single glance was enough to leave them speechless.
*‘Where did my old, ugly, twisted body go? Where is the half-crippled frame I once had? It’s all gone!’*
Every one of them had been restored to a normal body, standing perfectly straight.
They stood even straighter than a normal person, looking as sharp as long spears.
Moreover, their faces had changed.
Before, their faces had all been deformed in some way, so ugly they were hard to look at.
But now, everything had returned to normal.
In an instant, tears streamed from the eyes of all ten men.
At first, they held back their sobs, but soon they were wailing aloud.
For over a decade.
From their earliest memories, their bodies had been changing abnormally, growing worse and worse until they were finally deformed.
They had thought they would live their entire lives as invalids. A life without hope was bound to lead to depravity.
That was why they had spent their days lying around, boasting and spinning tall tales.
It was the only way they could find some joy, a way to live without having to face reality.
But now, every single one of them had been granted a new life.
Gu Duhuan addressed them.
“From now on, from this very moment, you have been given a new life. Starting today, you are no longer beggars or vagrants, but White Tiger Officers under His Highness, the Fifth Prince. I expect you to forever remember this moment and who it was that gave you this new life. If any of you dare to betray him, to seek comfort and shirk your duties, or to cheat others out of greed, may the heavens strike you down!”
Just then, Shen Lang and Ning Zheng entered the secret cellar.
Gu Duhuan said coldly.
“Before, your bodies made it difficult to kneel, but now you stand before your lord. You will not kneel?”
He then knelt on one knee first, saying.
“Greetings, Your Highness. Greetings, Young Master Shen.”
Following his lead, the ten former beggars knelt in a row and paid their respects.
“Greetings, Your Highness. Greetings, Young Master Shen.”
Shen Lang looked over the ten men one by one before speaking slowly.
“Before, you were beggars and vagrants, so you had no names. From this day forward, you are the White Tiger Officers under His Highness Ning Zheng. In the future, you will become Chiliarchs, Mobile Corps Generals, Assistant Generals, even Regional Commanders or generals granted noble titles. Therefore, you will need names. Madman Lan is your eldest brother, so you will take his surname, Lan. You shall be called Lan One, Lan Two, Lan Three... all the way to Lan Ten.”
Ning Zheng turned his head and glanced at Shen Lang.
*‘Are such simple names really okay? It’s so casual, like naming a puppy or a kitten. But I suppose it’s not bad. Being called by these names will constantly remind them that they are brothers. They will always think of themselves as one and will be less likely to betray each other.’*
Shen Lang continued.
“I won’t waste words. There are twenty-nine days left until the Silver and Military Examinations begin. If you pass, it will be a great achievement, and His Highness Ning Zheng will have the capital to officially contend for the throne. If you fail, His Majesty the King will have you all executed, His Highness Ning Zheng will become a laughingstock, and I will return to the Xuanwu City in disgrace. I do not wish for that to happen. From today, we share life and death, glory and ruin. General Go, I leave the rest to you.”
Gu Duhuan bowed his head.
“Yes, sir!”
“All of you, change your clothes and go eat! Training begins in one hour! The military examination is divided into four parts: weightlifting, archery on foot, archery on horseback, and mounted combat! Others train for over a decade to participate, but you have only twenty-eight days. If you can train and pass in twenty-eight days, you will achieve greatness and bring honor to your ancestors. If you fail, you all die! Get up and get out!”
* * *
And so, the ten former beggars began to train like madmen.
No, they could no longer be called beggars.
They were to be called the Lan brothers, the ones with the Lan bloodline, or the Lan geniuses.
Gu Duhuan trained all ten of them himself, for nine *shichen* every day.
Out of the twelve *shichen* in a day, nine were for training, leaving only six hours for eating, relieving themselves, and sleeping.
It was, without a doubt, a hellish training regimen.
However, the results of their training were something Shen Lang could hardly accept.
Not because they were too poor, but because they were too incredible.
A weakling like Shen Lang could barely face the results; it was enough to make him question his entire life.
The martial arts of this world were truly unfair.
Those with innately superior bloodlines could do whatever they pleased—it was a terrifying reality.
For the first part of the military exam, weightlifting, the ten of them needed no special training.
When Shen Lang used the golden bloodline worms to activate their latent bloodline power, a formidable strength erupted from within them.
The weight each of them lifted in the first trial far exceeded the requirements of the military exam.
Without needing a single moment of practice, they moved straight on to the next trial.
Next was the archery trial.
To Shen Lang, archery didn't seem to have much to do with one's innate bloodline, but that wasn't the case.
Archery depended first on strength, second on a stable stance, third on sight, and fourth on spirit.
Of course, a modern person would need quiet and rely on their senses to shoot a bow.
But for those born with supreme bloodlines, such things were irrelevant.
First of all, their strength was limitless.
The military exam used a standard one-*dan* (60kg) bow, but an expert could aim more precisely with an even stronger bow.
So, for their training, Gu Duhuan immediately had them use one-and-a-half-*dan* (90kg) bows, which was equivalent to a formidable two-hundred-pound longbow in modern terms.
Very few people could draw such a powerful bow.
Even Henry VIII's bow was only 180 pounds.
But for those with strong bloodlines like the Lan brothers, drawing the bow was as easy as pie.
They drew their bows and stood perfectly still in a stable stance.
Of course, holding such a powerful bow at full draw for so long would severely damage it, but with the Heavenly Path Society, it was no big deal.
The Heavenly Path Society had prepared hundreds of one-and-a-half-*dan* bows for the Lan brothers to practice with, so it didn't matter if one person broke ten bows during practice.
This kind of powerful bow could shoot over two hundred and fifty meters at maximum range, but its truly lethal distance was only about a hundred meters.
The distance for the archery-on-foot trial in the military exam was about one hundred and twenty paces, which was probably around eighty-five meters.
But Gu Duhuan's demands for these ten were even higher; he started them at one hundred and fifty paces.
How could one describe their progress?
They made leaps and bounds, truly!
A person with an ordinary bloodline would typically shoot about a hundred arrows a day.
This was because shooting such a powerful bow consumed a great deal of stamina.
But these men drew and fired relentlessly, loosing about five hundred arrows in just half a day.
It was a truly incredible and astonishing number.
If an ordinary person underwent such high-intensity training, their bones and muscles would twist, and their spine would become deformed.
But after shooting so many arrows, they only felt a slight soreness.
After soaking in a medicinal bath at night, they would be completely revitalized the next day.
It was because their bodies and meridians held limitless power.
They practiced archery in the morning and horsemanship in the afternoon.
Archery was a bit of a challenge for them, but riding was a piece of cake.
With their bloodlines activated, their energy became boundless, their limbs overflowed with strength, and their senses grew incredibly sharp, allowing them all to quickly grasp the feeling of becoming one with their horse.
In just two or three days, they could not only ride comfortably and with complete freedom but also mount and dismount while galloping at high speed, and even ride while seated backward.
Could it be that even horsemanship required innate martial talent?
From the third day on, they could effortlessly guide their thousand-*li* steeds using only their feet and legs, without using their hands at all.
With their hands free, they could easily draw and shoot their bows.
Their progress in archery was a bit slower, but it was still astonishingly fast.
On the first day, all their arrows hit the target. On the second, they all scored points. On the third, they could hit the bullseye. By the tenth day, their archery skills seemed to have hit a plateau.
In response, Gu Duhuan reduced their frantic training time and had them focus on cultivating their internal energy.
This so-called internal energy cultivation was the state of honing one's spirit until the mind became as calm and still as water without a single ripple.
After they studied two internal energy manuals, their archery once again improved by leaps and bounds.
Muyeol's female warriors and the Jin Clan warriors under Shen Lang were all dumbfounded watching their skills.
Thirteen, in particular, once again found himself questioning his own existence.
*‘Is there any point in me continuing to practice martial arts? This world is so unfair, isn’t it? With a superior bloodline, you can really do whatever you want. Could geniuses like you, who improve so quickly, ever understand how we with ordinary bloodlines feel?’*
He had felt this same doubt about his life when he saw Big Dummy.
And now, ten geniuses had appeared all at once. Of course, there was still a considerable gap between them and Big Dummy, but compared to ordinary people, they seemed to have transcended the mundane.
If ordinary people rode tortoises to hurry along, those with superior bloodlines rode donkeys.
But these men were galloping madly on thousand-*li* steeds.
Someone like Big Dummy was even more incredible; he was like someone soaring on the back of a great Roc, the mythical bird said to fly ninety thousand *li* in a single day.
*‘With geniuses like you around, there’s no way for ordinary people like us to survive.’*