Chapter 545
Chapter 545
Northern Garden Hunting Ground.
Every day, this place consumed an astronomical amount of grain and meat.
After this group of zero-bloodline men underwent bloodline modification, their appetites grew larger and larger.
There was no helping it.
Their daily training volume was simply too astonishing, nearly five times greater than that of an ordinary army.
Each man ate two jin of grain, three jin of meat, and five jin of vegetables and fruit every day.
And after all that food went into their stomachs, almost none of it turned into fat.
They had been thin before, and they still looked thin now.
But the moment one touched them, it was clear that every man's muscles were like blocks of iron.
The long-handled war saber in each man's hands now weighed more than two hundred and sixty jin.
Most soldiers would not even be able to lift it, let alone swing it. No normal person would be so absurd as to use such a heavy blade.
Yet these bloodline-transformed men swung them twenty thousand times every day.
Of course, they had finally changed the form.
Originally, it had always been a straight downward chop from top to bottom. Now, diagonal cuts and upward slashes had been added as well.
Not only did they train during the day, they also trained for three and a half double-hours at night.
The night training was even simpler.
Mountain climbing under load.
Carrying three hundred and fifty jin, they marched back and forth for one hundred and fifty li within three and a half double-hours.
That averaged twelve kilometers per hour.
This trained their endurance.
The intensity of this training was simply unprecedented.
What they were training could hardly be called soldiers anymore. They were training devils.
Without absolute willpower, it would have been impossible to complete.
But…
Among these more than two thousand three hundred men, not a single one fell behind.
In a manner almost like self-harm, they completed one weight-bearing drill after another.
And Shen Lang was not merely consuming grain and meat. He was also consuming countless medicinal herbs.
After every day of training, they had to soak in medicinal decoctions for half a double-hour to restore their tendons and meridians.
Therefore, this army had essentially been forged out of gold.
This group of men did not ask for military pay, but over these days of frantic training, Shen Lang's average daily expenditure exceeded two thousand gold coins.
Over three months, training just these two thousand-plus men had cost nearly two hundred thousand gold coins.
Then there was the equipment on their bodies. Whether it was the super Mo Dao or the heavy armor, all of it was forged from the finest steel, and each piece carried an extremely high cost.
This was not only the strongest army, but also certainly the most expensive army.
Even with Shen Lang's astonishing wealth, he could at most afford to maintain only a few thousand of them.
……
Wang Da, one of the bloodline-transformed men, could barely sleep every night.
Not because he was too tired, but because he was too excited.
No matter what he did, he was extremely focused, and practicing with the saber was the same.
There were only three moves in total, but he had already practiced them more than a million times.
Yet it felt as though every single repetition brought him a new insight.
A new insight into power, speed, and angle.
Even inside his mind, he could form the arc of the blade's light, along with the strength and speed of the saber at every point along that path.
Not only that!
He and all his brothers studied human anatomy every day. They studied the density and hardness of various metals, the structure of warhorses, the hardness of bones, and all manner of other things.
Everything they studied had only one purpose.
How to cleave the enemy in two with the greatest speed and the least effort.
How to cleave the enemy's warhorse in two.
Their training time now exceeded nine double-hours every day.
By all rights, he should have been utterly exhausted.
But when he lay down to sleep, he still could not help practicing again and again inside his mind.
If it had been anyone else, such monotonous training would have become unbearable long ago, let alone trying to comprehend the essence of combat from such simple moves.
But these bloodline-transformed men could do it.
Before this, they had been able to stare at the shifting clouds in the sky for an entire day.
Practicing saber forms was far more interesting than that!
Alas!
If only people did not need to sleep.
Then I could train every moment of every day. I am simply too stupid. My results are simply too poor.
……
In truth, their results were excellent.
They had truly advanced by leaps and bounds.
Compared to the time immediately after their bloodline transformation, every single one of them had made enormous progress.
And unlike the Lan brothers' genius-like leaps forward, this progress was extremely solid.
Step by step, soaked in blood and sweat.
The ten Lan brothers only trained with everything they had under Gao Duhuan's whip.
But these more than two thousand three hundred bloodline-transformed men were completely competing against themselves, driving themselves to the limit.
Gao Duhuan had to keep restraining them at all times.
Otherwise, this group would train desperately without sleeping, continuing on endlessly.
In the eyes of others, they were like fools. They could practice a single diagonal cut hundreds of thousands of times without ever getting bored.
Although only three months had passed, their total training volume had already surpassed two years of training for an ordinary army.
Even after bloodline transformation, they still were not geniuses, but they were absolutely the most desperate group of people in the world.
……
Time flowed like water, and the months slipped by like shuttles on a loom.
Days when one could not show off always passed especially quickly.
Three months had passed.
Only a few days remained before the border hunt.
The training of these two thousand-plus bloodline-transformed men at the Northern Garden Hunting Ground was about to end.
Today was the final day!
Everyone would face the last assessment.
The content of the assessment was simple.
Each man would use a hundred-jin super Mo Dao to chop down a tree.
A tree about one chi in diameter.
They had to cut diagonally and sever it in one strike.
Each person had only one chance.
“For this border hunt, we will only send two thousand men to participate. More than three hundred of you will be eliminated and will not be able to win glory for the state.”
“Each of you has only one strike. If you fail to cut through a tree one chi in diameter, you fail and will be eliminated.”
This assessment could be considered extremely strict.
To cut through a tree one chi in diameter with a single slash?
How difficult was that?
It demanded the highest standards in strength, speed, and angle.
And if they could sever a large tree with one cut, then no matter what enemy or warhorse stood before them, they would definitely be able to cleave it in two.
For three months, these men had swung two-hundred-jin super sabers more than a million times.
Now it was time to test the results.
Wang Da was the first to be assessed.
He raised the great saber and took a deep breath.
“Hah!”
He slashed down fiercely.
The motion flowed like moving clouds and running water.
One strike, two pieces!
The tree, one chi in diameter, was directly split into two sections.
The second to step forward was Li Gouzi.
“Hah!”
One strike, two pieces!
The third, the fourth, the fifth…
Several double-hours later!
Shen Lang was completely stunned.
More than two thousand three hundred men had all succeeded. Every single one had severed the tree in one strike.
I… damn!
This group was too heaven-defying!
In this border hunt, they really could win with their eyes closed!
……
When the number was large enough, accidents were inevitable. Among a hundred people, it was entirely normal for one to make a mistake.
But among more than two thousand three hundred men, not a single accident or mistake had occurred. Every one of them had passed.
That was terrifying.
Yet at the same time, it seemed perfectly reasonable.
It was like an exam in a class of geniuses. It was difficult for dozens of students to all score a perfect hundred, but it was easy for all of them to score above eighty.
The army before him might not qualify as a group of geniuses, but they were absolutely top-tier elites.
Next, Shen Lang and Gao Duhuan found themselves in a difficult position.
What should they do?
Only two thousand people could take part in this border hunt.
There was no other way. They could only draw lots!
There would be two thousand long lots and three hundred-plus short lots. Those who drew short lots could only serve as reserves.
Looking at the several hundred trees that had been cut down in front of him—each tree could be cut several times—Shen Lang suddenly asked, “It wasn't easy for these trees to grow this large, was it?”
The old eunuch beside Ning Zheng said, “This forest should have been planted in the generation of His Majesty's grandfather. A few dozen were even planted by the late king himself. It counts as part of the imperial grove.”
Shen Lang said, “Then should we report this to His Majesty?”
The old eunuch was speechless. You have already finished cutting down several hundred trees, and only now you think of reporting it? Isn't that a little late?
Only you could get away with this. If anyone else dared to cut down trees planted by the late king himself, they would be waiting to lose their head.
……
The final assessment of the more than two thousand three hundred men was over.
Yet this group still clutched the super Mo Dao in their hands with incomparable fascination.
The feeling of splitting something in two with a single slash was truly addictive.
Before this, they had always used lead sabers to slash at empty air, practicing more than a million times. The desire to truly cut something had accumulated in their hearts to the extreme.
Now they had finally split something apart with a single slash. It was simply too satisfying.
What a pity.
Each person had only been allowed to cut once.
That was exactly right!
An invincible army must always be hungry for real battle, even addicted to it.
Their hearts had to be filled with anticipation for the feeling of a blade descending and splitting everything before them.
If it had been any other army, Shen Lang would have said that from this day onward, these would be their weapons, their second lives.
But with this army, there was no need at all.
Every super Mo Dao was engraved with the name of its bloodline-transformed owner.
After this group finished using their Mo Dao to cut the trees, they immediately wiped them down carefully and applied oil.
Then they took extremely fine whetstones and sharpened the blades bit by bit.
They had not only begun studying the grain of these super Mo Dao, but had even started studying the color of the blade edges.
Shen Lang was genuinely worried they might act on impulse and use their own heads to test how sharp the blades were.
Those who researched even more deeply had begun using small hammers to tap every inch of the super Mo Dao, checking whether there were hidden flaws or uneven spots in the material.
Some went even further, placing the Mo Dao into a water trough and calculating its density from the volume of water displaced.
Shen Lang, Gao Duhuan, and Ning Zheng were all stunned.
Who said this group of people was stupid?
Shen Lang had not taught them much knowledge, and most other people had shown no interest in it at all. Only this group had completely listened, learned it, and even begun researching and pondering on their own.
……