The Naked Angel headed north, and the temperature around it grew colder and colder. Floes had already appeared on the sea. Sheets of ice collided with the Naked Angel's bow armor, producing dull thuds.
After crossing Greenland and entering the Arctic Circle, a vast expanse of snow and ice shrouded in polar night appeared ahead. Captain Joan's summons rang through the cabins.
"Hey! My heroes, the Naked Angel's voyage ends here, but your journey is only just beginning! Everyone, grab your personal belongings and gather on the foredeck—if you have any personal belongings! You have ten minutes to get there. The starting point for you bastards to rise to glory is here!"
For the first time since boarding, Gu Xiechen walked out of his cabin and stepped onto the deck.
The bone-chilling gale of the Arctic Circle welcomed Gu Xiechen with its utmost enthusiasm. When the first blast of cold wind struck his face, he felt as if someone had slashed it viciously with a blade. "At least minus thirty degrees!" Having just emerged from the warm cabin and not yet adapted to the low temperature outside, Gu Xiechen shuddered violently. He hurriedly circulated his True Qi, and only then did his complexion improve somewhat. However, the "heroes" who followed him out of the cabin trembled like plucked quails, their faces frozen pale.
Before they even reached the Naked Angel's foredeck, a dull roar came from the sky.
At least fifty twin-rotor, multi-engine helicopters swooped down from the sky like giant birds from hell in myth and legend. Every helicopter's cabin door stood open, with burly men in black uniforms standing on the platforms outside. All of them radiated killing intent as they stared at the recruits gathering below with the vicious gaze of butchers sizing up lambs.
One helicopter landed directly on the Naked Angel's foredeck. A bald, hulking man with at least thirty crisscrossing scars on his face beckoned viciously at Gu Xiechen. "Get up here, you little bitches! Get your asses up here! We don't have time to play around with rookies like you, got it? Move it! Anyone who wastes time gets a rocket up his ass!" Crude and rude—these were the mercenaries of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group!
Gu Xiechen glanced back in the direction from which he had come, also swallowed by the polar night. Then he resolutely turned around and rushed into the helicopter cabin. Once a helicopter was packed with sixty people, it rose into the air and flew straight toward the depths of the Arctic ice cap, shrouded in darkness. Apart from a few dim indicator lights, there was no light in the cabin at all. He could not even make out the faces of those seated beside him.
Gu Xiechen looked outside through the porthole, but he could see nothing. The Arctic was currently ruled by polar night, and thick clouds blocked the starlight. Even with Gu Xiechen's sharp eyesight, he could only barely see the endless white ice and snow rushing past beneath the helicopter.
Other than the howling wind and snow, there was only the roar of the helicopter engines. Suddenly, an enticing scent of cigars spread through the cabin. A red glow flickered by the cabin door ahead. The bald man who had shouted at Gu Xiechen to hurry aboard had lit a cigar. Raised in luxury since childhood, Gu Xiechen could tell that it was a premium hand-rolled Havana cigar.
The recruits in the cabin swallowed at the same time. These thugs, who had been stifled aboard the Naked Angel for the entire journey, fixed their glowing green eyes on the flickering ember in the darkness.
"Heh heh!"
The bald man puffing away let out a sinister chuckle.
"Bitches, want a cigar too? Heh, authentic copper-band Havana hand-rolled cigars. Top-grade stuff! How long has it been since you little bitches touched one of these?"
Heavy breathing gradually filled the cabin. The bald man's deliberate temptation was quickly evaporating what little reason these recruits possessed.
Gu Xiechen pursed his lips in a smile. Silently, he shifted backward, doing his best to tuck himself into a corner.
The bald man's hoarse voice rang out again. "Hey, I know you started ranking yourselves on the ship. Is there anyone among you bitches who ranks in the top hundred? Beat me later, and you get twelve cigars! Or three smoking-hot women! Heh, how long has it been since you touched a woman?"
All the recruits glanced in Gu Xiechen's direction. The bald man immediately looked sharply toward Gu Xiechen, who was curled up in the darkest corner of the cabin. An even richer cigar fragrance drifted through the cabin. After a moment of silence, the bald man suddenly laughed. "Heh, clever little bastard! Smart people always live a little longer."
Gu Xiechen spoke coldly. "You're not smart enough."
The bald man chuckled a few times. For the rest of the journey, he did not say another word.
A towering snow ridge appeared ahead. The freezing wind crashed against it, scattering snow into the sky. The helicopter's engine let out a strained wheeze as it fought through the gale and crossed the ridge. Suddenly, the scene ahead blazed with lights.
Through the porthole, they could see a massive military camp in a basin several kilometers away.
The square camp measured more than three kilometers on each side, surrounded by a ten-meter-high metal wall. Every hundred meters along the wall stood a watchtower nearly fifty meters tall. Searchlights from the towers swept over from afar, their brilliant beams shining through the portholes into the cabin and painting everyone's faces in alternating patches of black and white.
The helicopter slowly flew over the camp, with two searchlights tracking it all the way. In the glaring white light, Gu Xiechen saw a hundred-meter flagpole in the center of the camp, bearing a huge blood-red flag snapping in the wind. The violent gale occasionally pulled the flag taut, clearly revealing a black skull with six wings on its back.
The bloody skull banner—this was the flag of the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. This was the headquarters of the Federation's second-ranked Hell Angels Mercenary Group!
Helicopters landed one after another in an open area at the center of the barracks. Three thousand recruits were driven from the cabins and arranged into neat formations on the open ground. The helicopter rotors spun rapidly, whipping the snow on the ground dozens of meters into the air. In the gale, the helicopters rose again and gradually vanished into the pitch-black clouds.
The three thousand recruits stood in the open snowfield, battered by the biting wind. Hundreds of searchlights shone upon them from all around. Aside from Gu Xiechen, everyone was shivering uncontrollably. The surrounding barracks were hidden in darkness. It seemed that, in the boundless night, only this patch of snow where the recruits stood had any light.
After being left standing in the snow for at least thirty minutes, all the searchlights suddenly went out at once. Darkness fell before their eyes, and recruits who had long been unable to suppress their anger began cursing furiously.
A sudden, shrill scream drowned out the wind and snow. A searchlight suddenly shot over from a distant watchtower.
Within the beam, a tall man with his upper body bare, wearing black training pants and high-top combat boots, emerged while carrying a struggling bald brute in one hand. The bald man he held was nearly two meters tall, and his powerful muscles showed that he possessed considerable strength. Yet such a fierce-looking man was being held by the throat like a little rabbit in a giant's hand.
Gu Xiechen looked at this tall man, who had made such an imposing entrance, in surprise.
He was at least two meters twenty tall. His dazzling golden hair glowed beneath the powerful spotlight like blazing flames. His skin was whiter than the snow beneath his feet, and faint golden patterns could be seen beneath it, fully revealing his identity.
He was a Roam half-blood.
At least a thousand recruits let out shrill whistles. Many shouted, "Roam half-breed bastards, get back to your home on Mars!"
The half-blood giant coldly swept his gaze across the wildly shouting recruits. He forcefully smashed the struggling, screaming man in his hand onto the ground, then stomped down. The man's head burst like a rotten watermelon. Blood and brain matter sprayed several meters away, and the polar wind quickly froze the still-steaming flesh and blood into ice. The recruits who had been shouting and cursing all fell silent at once, staring in terror at the half-blood giant's boots, stained with blood and brains.
"Heh heh, let me introduce myself! My name is Maha. For the next year, I'll be your Instructor. I'll try to turn you bitch-born little girls into real heroes!"
"But if any of you can't take the hardship, say so now. I'll stuff you right back into that dark, stinking Federation prison!"
The corner of Maha's mouth twitched, perhaps in what was meant to be a smile.
Waving his right hand, Maha said coldly, "But if you choose to stay and then can't endure the special training, if you try to run away like that piece of trash on the ground... then you've already seen what happens."
Raising his right index finger, Maha sneered. "First: obey orders. Those who disobey will be executed."
Raising his right middle finger, Maha continued with a sneer. "Second: complete every training subject. Those who fail will be executed."
Raising his right ring finger, Maha shook his head. "Third: never think of running away. This place is less than a hundred kilometers from the North Pole. Escapees will be executed!"
The three cold and merciless rules intimidated all the recruits. Only Gu Xiechen watched Maha with a relaxed expression. He had seen plenty of this sort of killing-a-chicken-to-scare-the-monkeys routine.
As if sensing Gu Xiechen's gaze, Maha looked toward him in the formation and sneered. "You still have one chance to avoid the year-long special training. Defeat me, or last half an hour under my attacks without being taken down, and you can officially become mercenaries of our Hell Angels Mercenary Group right now! Heaps of cash, fiery liquor, and beautiful women from all over the world—even pure-blooded Roam women—will all be yours to enjoy!"
"Bitch, do you dare?" Maha extended his right hand and curled a finger toward Gu Xiechen.
With a fierce stomp, Gu Xiechen launched himself more than ten meters into the air. Head down and feet up, he blasted toward Maha like a cannonball.
Pale white qi wrapped around his claws. Gu Xiechen clawed down at Maha's head with his left hand, while his right hand shot mercilessly toward Maha's chest.
Maha smiled disdainfully and casually threw a punch at Gu Xiechen.
Gu Xiechen gave a wicked smile. Qi burst from his claws, and a strange tearing sound suddenly rang through the air. Ten visible white streaks slashed through the air. In less than a second, Gu Xiechen's claws flashed like the wind as he unleashed eighteen punches and thirty-six claw strikes at Maha.
Fist winds and claw force exploded against Maha's fist. Maha gave a muffled groan, and his entire body below the waist sank into the snow. From the back of his hand to his elbow, the skin on his right arm was shredded to pieces by the violent qi. Blood poured out, dripping onto the snow and mixing with the brains of the mercenary who had just been killed.
Gu Xiechen's cold claws pressed against Maha's eyeballs. He chuckled softly. "With one light squeeze, your eyeballs will be gone."
Maha stared at Gu Xiechen in shock. Grinding his teeth, he cursed under his breath, "Innate Qi?"
Gu Xiechen slowly nodded. "Innate Qi."
"Fuck!" Maha suddenly spun around and pointed at a snow wall behind the distant barracks as he roared, "You set me up?"
Gu Xiechen vaguely sensed someone watching him from that direction as well. He raised his head and looked at the snow wall, whose surface showed no abnormalities at all.
Inside this snow wall, more than three hundred meters high, was a circular hall covering over two thousand square meters. The hall was packed with various instruments, and at least a hundred uniformed male and female mercenaries were busy before them. On an enormous surveillance screen, footage replayed Gu Xiechen's sudden attack and his swift subdual of Maha.
More than a dozen high-ranking Hell Angels Mercenary Group officers in black uniforms surrounded a mighty, bearded man standing at the center of the hall. The bearded man narrowed his eyes as he watched the footage of qi bursting from Gu Xiechen's claws, a delighted smile appearing on his face as if he had found a treasure.
"An Innate-level expert? Heh, does our rival have an Innate-level expert this young?" The bearded man stroked his thick beard and asked his subordinates behind him with a smile.
"Impossible. We know all the cards our old rivals have. How could they possibly cultivate such a young Innate-level expert?" a middle-aged woman with a wooden expression replied icily.
Another fair-skinned middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses added, "Ordinarily, if he were a spy, no one would be willing to send such a young Innate-level expert as one. We certainly wouldn't."
"Damn! Then we got lucky! Heh, no matter where this kid came from—heh heh, even if he raped the Federation President's granddaughter, by mercenary rules, he belongs to my Hell Angels now! Forge him a résumé. Hmm, for now, give him the rank of a second lieutenant!" The bearded man slapped his thigh hard and made the decision on Gu Xiechen then and there.
Gu Xiechen had gained a foothold in the Hell Angels Mercenary Group. (To be continued.)
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