The Beginning of Hell Training!

If Lin Xiao's one-punch KO of Li Tianyi was a bombshell dropped on Cloud Creek Academy's outer court, stirring up a tempestuous storm, then his subsequent leading of Yellow Class Nine to sweep through the Merit Hall and squander 220,000 Merit Points in just two hours was nothing short of detonating a nuclear bomb capable of destroying everything! The resulting shockwave swept through every corner of the outer court with unprecedented intensity, leaving everyone in a state of prolonged, speechless shock!

220,000 Merit Points!

For ninety-nine percent of the outer court's students, this was an astronomical figure they might not even be able to accumulate in three years of arduous training!

Yet, such a colossal fortune, capable of changing the destiny of any ordinary student, was set ablaze by Lin Xiao in the most extravagant, wild, and incomprehensible manner right before everyone's eyes!

What did he use this money to acquire for his team, whose average cultivation was barely at Body Refinement Third Level?

Twenty-nine Profound Grade Spirit Artifacts! Over a thousand bottles of cultivation pills that would make even the elites of the Heaven Class envious! Twenty-nine rhinoceros hide armors capable of withstanding the full might of a Body Refinement Seventh Level cultivator! And over a hundred assorted talismans that could turn the tide of battle at a critical moment!

When this terrifying "shopping list" spread throughout the academy via the students who had witnessed the miracle firsthand, the first reaction of everyone who heard it wasn't shock, but absurdity!

This was no longer describable by the word "extravagant."

It was like arming a group of beggars with a mountain of gold!

"He's gone mad! That Lin Xiao is a complete lunatic! He's trying to force growth by pulling up seedlings! What fraction of the power can a bunch of Body Refinement Third or Fourth Level trash even unleash even if given divine artifacts?!" "What a waste! It's an utter waste! If those resources were given to the senior disciples of the Heaven Class, they could elevate their strength to another level! But now they've all been squandered on a bunch of trash!" "Just you wait and see, I bet within a month, these guys who've been blinded by resources will regress in cultivation due to unstable foundations, or even suffer qi deviation!"

For a time, the entire outer court, beyond the initial shock, was filled with more jealousy and disdainful mockery. Almost no one had high hopes for Lin Xiao and his Yellow Class Nine. In their eyes, this was merely a comical farce, orchestrated by a nouveau riche, destined for a tragic conclusion.

However, oblivious to the external turmoil, Yellow Class Nine, at the center of the storm, seemed to hear nothing.

Under Lin Xiao's command, the Yellow Class Nine dormitory area entered a state of complete lockdown. All students were forbidden from leaving, and all visitors were turned away.

A true hellish training, isolated from the world, quietly commenced in a corner unseen by everyone.

Yellow Class Nine Public Training Ground.

This was the most spacious area in the entire dormitory complex, capable of accommodating over a hundred people practicing simultaneously.

At this moment, twenty-nine Yellow Class Nine students, clad in identical black training attire, stood solemnly in formation in the center of the training ground.

A trace of excitement and elation, not yet fully faded, still lingered on their faces. Within their storage rings lay the top-tier resources they had once only dared to dream of. They were already eager to begin their closed-door cultivation immediately, transforming these resources into the strength they had always yearned for.

However, Lin Xiao's very next command froze everyone in their tracks.

"From now on, hand over all your storage rings."

Lin Xiao's voice was calm and icy, devoid of any emotion.

"What?"

The students exchanged glances, their faces filled with confusion.

"Chief Instructor, this... why?" a student couldn't help but ask. "Aren't we about to start closed-door cultivation?"

"Closed-door cultivation?" Lin Xiao's lips curved into a chilling smile that sent shivers down everyone's spines. "Who told you that you were qualified to enjoy such a leisurely method of cultivation?"

He walked slowly towards them, his sharp gaze like knives, sweeping slowly across each of their faces.

"I gave you the top-tier resources not for you to hide in your rooms like rich idlers, safely popping pills! It's so that you can squeeze out every last drop of their medicinal power through the most brutal, most agonizing methods, integrating it into your muscles, bones, and flesh!"

His voice suddenly rose, booming like thunder in everyone's ears!

"In my place, there is no such thing as 'closed-door cultivation'! There is only 'hell'!"

"For the next three months, your bodies, your wills, your everything will be under my control! I will completely shatter you and then reshape you! This process will be agonizing, so agonizing that you will find death a release!"

"Now, I give you one last chance to choose."

Lin Xiao's eyes turned incredibly cold.

"Those who cannot endure it can leave now. All the resources I distributed earlier will be considered a parting gift, with no strings attached."

"But!" His tone abruptly shifted, and a terrifying killing intent instantly enveloped the entire area! "Once you choose to stay, it means you have placed your very lives in my hands! From then on, if anyone dares to disobey any of my orders, do not blame me for purging my own ranks!"

Dead silence.

The entire training ground fell into a deathly quiet.

The excitement on all the students' faces had long vanished, replaced by an unprecedented solemnity and an uncontrollable hint of fear.

They looked at the Chief Instructor, who seemed to have transformed into an Asura in an instant, and finally understood what kind of terrifying trial awaited them.

Yet, not a single person chose to leave.

Their gazes, initially filled with fear, gradually turned resolute!

Fortune favors the bold! They were all bottom-tier students with nothing. Lin Xiao had given them a chance to fight against fate! Now, the opportunity was right before them, and even if the path ahead was a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, they would not take a single step back!

"We... will follow the Chief Instructor to the death!"

Someone, who knows who, roared hysterically first.

Then came the second, the third...

"We will follow the Chief Instructor to the death!!"

Twenty-nine roars filled with determination and fervor converged into an iron torrent that echoed through the heavens!

Looking at the team members whose fighting spirit had been completely ignited, Lin Xiao finally revealed a satisfied smile.

"Very good."

"So, the Hell Training officially begins now!"

"First item!"

His voice turned icy cold once more.

"Everyone, run one hundred laps around this training ground with weights! No dinner for anyone who doesn't finish!"

With that, he took out a large pile of heavy weighted vests and leggings made of profound iron from his storage ring and tossed them onto the ground.

Each item weighed a hundred pounds!

This was merely the beginning.

When the members of Yellow Class Nine put on the weights that could crush a person and began their first day of training, they truly understood what "hell" meant in Lin Xiao's words.

In the early morning, before dawn, they had to complete a ten-kilometer cross-country run under extreme weight.

In the morning, they underwent the most brutal strength training, repeatedly lifting and dropping giant stones weighing thousands of pounds until they collapsed from exhaustion.

The afternoon was for combat practice. Lin Xiao would personally enter the fray, taking on twenty-nine opponents alone, using the most direct and brutal methods to knock them all down again and again without mercy!

And then at night, when they dragged their dislocated bodies back, thinking they could finally rest, the real nightmare had just begun.

"Plop! Plop!"

Thirty enormous wooden vats had already been placed in the center of the training ground. The vats were filled with a bizarre, inky black medicinal liquid that emitted a pungent odor.

"Get in, all of you." Lin Xiao's voice was like a demon's whisper.

The crowd dared not disobey, and one by one, they gritted their teeth and jumped into the wooden vats.

"Ah--!"

Heart-wrenching screams instantly echoed through the night sky!

This was no medicinal bath to soothe fatigue!

It was the "Ten Thousand Poisons Hell Soup," concocted from dozens of extremely potent Body Tempering spiritual herbs mixed with the blood essence of First Order Demonic Beasts, capable of corroding steel!

The moment their skin touched the liquid, it sizzled like it had been splashed with sulfuric acid, sending waves of bone-piercing pain!

The violent energy within the liquid, like billions of steel needles, crazily drilled into their bodies, brutally tearing their muscle fibers and impacting their meridians and bones!

"Circulate the Body Tempering Art I taught you! Anyone who dares to stop, I'll personally press them back in!"

Lin Xiao's cold voice echoed in everyone's ears like a death-knell curse.

Hearing this, the crowd no longer dared to slack off. Gritting their teeth against the inhuman pain, they frantically circulated the cultivation technique, guiding the violent medicinal power to temper their bodies, which were already overloaded.

During this process, people constantly fainted from the unbearable pain.

But whenever someone fainted, Lin Xiao would unhesitatingly step forward, splash them awake with a bucket of cold well water, and then force them to continue cultivating!

No respite, no retreat!

Either transform through pain, or be destroyed by pain!

By the end of the first day of training, not a single one of the twenty-nine trainees could walk back to their dorms. They were almost all supported or even dragged by their companions, barely managing to return to their rooms.

On the second day, when the assembly bell rang, more than half of them were unable to arrive on time due to soreness all over their bodies.

Lin Xiao's punishment for these individuals was simple and direct.

Training volume doubled!

On the third day, everyone arrived on time.

The fourth, fifth day...

Days passed in this inhumane cycle.

The dormitory area of Yellow Class Nine had completely transformed into an isolated battlefield. Every day, all sorts of shrill screams and pained roars could be heard, making other passing trainees shiver with fear.

Gradually, rumors began to spread throughout the outer court that "Lin Xiao was abusing his fellow disciples, turning Yellow Class Nine into a madhouse."

However, no one knew that in this "madhouse," which everyone treated as a joke, a group of true monsters was quietly taking shape at a terrifying speed!

Half a month later.

Late at night, during the medicinal bath time.

The wooden vats were still filled with the dark medicinal liquid that could cause unbearable pain.

But unlike half a month ago, the twenty-nine youths immersed in the liquid now had faces filled with pain, yet not a single scream was heard.

Their eyes had become as tenacious and fierce as those of hungry wolves!

They had even begun to actively absorb the violent medicinal power that had once terrified them!

"Pfft!"

Just then, a thin young man sitting beside Shi Lei's stone suddenly trembled, and a mouthful of black, clotted blood spurted from his mouth!

Immediately after, an aura far stronger than before erupted from his body!

Body Refinement Fourth Level!

He broke through!

This breakthrough felt like a signal, a switch.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

In the short time it took for a single stick of incense to burn, breakthrough auras erupted from the crowd one after another, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain!

Body Refinement Fourth Level! Mid Body Refinement Fourth Level! Peak Body Refinement Fourth Level!

When the last person's aura stabilized at the Body Refinement Fourth Level realm, the entire training ground fell into a dead silence so profound you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone felt the unprecedented, surging power within their bodies with disbelief, then looked at their companions beside them who had also undergone a transformative change.

An irrepressible ecstasy and excitement gradually welled up in their eyes!

Half a month!

It only took half a month!

Their "trash class," whose average cultivation was no more than Body Refinement Third Level, had actually all broken through to Body Refinement Fourth Level!

What kind of terrifying improvement speed was this?!

"How... do you feel?"

Lin Xiao's calm voice came from the side.

"Feel... couldn't feel any better!" Shi Lei was the first to snap out of his shock. He suddenly stood up from the wooden tub, feeling the explosive strength within him that could seemingly kill a bull with a single punch. His face was flushed red with excitement as he let out a long roar towards the sky!

"Chief Instructor! We... we succeeded!"

"Succeeded?" Lin Xiao slowly shook his head, a inscrutable smile appearing on his face. "No, this... is just the beginning."

He clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention.

"Starting tomorrow, your training will enter the second phase."

"I will divide you into fifteen groups for indiscriminate battles!"

"As long as you don't kill each other, you can use any means – weapons, pills, talismans... to defeat your opponents!"

"The group with the lowest ranking each day will receive the most 'special' care."

Lin Xiao's lips curved again into that devilish smile that made everyone's scalp tingle.

"Believe me, that 'special' care will make you feel like the previous medicinal baths were simply paradise."