Immortal Light Beneath the Earth

When he reached the outskirts of Nandu City, Jiang Chuan had originally thought that Nandu City would have towering city walls.

Perhaps formations would even be inscribed upon them.

After all, in this era, formations were actually quite common.

But when they reached the outskirts of Nandu City, Jiang Chuan looked out from the back of the truck and saw bunker after bunker built from reinforced concrete.

The densely packed bunkers were like enormous mushrooms, arranged in a neat yet staggered pattern around the outskirts of Nandu City.

"Students, what you are looking at now is Nandu City's Bunker Group. You will also study it in Practical Coordination of Thermal Weapons and Cultivators."

Sitting in the truck, Hu Haoqiang shouted through a loudspeaker, "The firepower network formed by bunkers of varying heights, combined with artillery, can kill these demon beasts even when facing the charge of tens of thousands—or even a hundred thousand—Third Realm demon beasts."

Looking at the heavy machine gun barrels protruding from the small openings in the bunkers, Jiang Chuan felt that Hu Haoqiang had probably been conservative.

A 12.7-millimeter heavy machine gun, paired with armor-piercing rounds, could even penetrate light armor.

Even the scale armor of many Fourth Realm demon beasts could be pierced.

Twenty minutes later, the truck slowly came to a stop, and Jiang Chuan and the others climbed down one after another.

"Why are there so many mountains?"

Jiang Chuan looked around. As far as the eye could see, mountain peaks stood tall like a forest of swords.

He remembered that in another world, the area around Nandu had been all plains.

"Jiang Chuan, did that crash really damage your brain?"

Wei Dong pointed at the lofty mountains in the distance. "Did you forget? Five years ago, immortal light descended from the heavens, illuminating Nandu. After it flew into the earth, the ground shook and mountains rose, bursting out of the ground like bamboo shoots after spring rain."

"So the immortal light caused it." Jiang Chuan was somewhat surprised.

"Students, the short mountain before you has an elevation of roughly over four hundred meters."

Wei Beishan clapped his hands, signaling everyone to look over.

"Principal Bai specifically came to clear this mountain out this morning, so there should not be any demon beasts here. Today, I'll lead everyone in practical instruction for the Contemporary Cultivator Training Manual on this mountain."

"The Contemporary Cultivator Training Manual covers four major categories: melee weapon training, wilderness survival, emergency responses in the wild, and tactical analysis."

"Today, we will mainly cover wilderness survival. Now, follow me into the mountain."

Wei Beishan took the lead and headed toward the short mountain.

Trees stood thick throughout the mountain, while waist-high weeds rose like walls of green amid the peaks.

Since it was an uninhabited wilderness, Jiang Chuan and the others could only follow closely behind Wei Beishan, step for step.

After climbing for five minutes, Wei Beishan stopped and turned to look at the students of First Year Class 42.

"Students, we are moving as one large group, and we have not left anyone behind to guard our base camp."

"As everyone knows, the stronger a demon beast is, the greater its intelligence. If, at this moment, more than a dozen demon beasts under the command of a Fourth Realm demon beast secretly slipped behind us, preparing to outflank us..."

"What do you think we should do to discover those demon beasts that have infiltrated behind us?"

Jiang Chuan frowned slightly and began to think.

What should they do to discover the demon beasts that had infiltrated behind them?

"Teacher, I think if we stop every so often and observe with binoculars, we should be able to spot the demon beasts," a male student answered.

"That method would work on flat terrain, but what about in mountains and forests?"

Wei Beishan grabbed a clump of waist-high weeds. "The trees and grass in the forest will block your vision. Under those circumstances, your observations are meaningless."

"Teacher, we can use thermal imagers," Meng Nanxi said.

"This student's method is better than the previous student's, but it still has problems."

Wei Beishan took a thermal imager shaped like a monocular from his pocket.

"This is the Eagle Eye 100 thermal imager, currently standard equipment for the military. It can detect living creatures within one thousand meters. But that one thousand meters is only theoretical."

"In actual use, weather can reduce the detection range of a thermal imager. When the temperature difference in the environment is small—in other words, when the temperature of living creatures does not differ much from the surroundings—it becomes more difficult for the thermal imager to search for demon beasts."

After Wei Beishan rejected the suggestion once more, all of First Year Class 42 fell silent.

Seeing that no one spoke, Wei Beishan shook the weeds in his hand.

"Since none of you know, I'll give you a hint: adapt measures to local conditions."

"Adapt measures to local conditions..."

An answer suddenly came to Jiang Chuan. "Teacher, do we set up traps along the way, like sharpened bamboo stake traps?"

A sharpened bamboo stake trap involved carving bamboo into spikes, fixing them into the ground, and concealing them in grass, fallen leaves, or shallow pits.

Once someone stepped on one, it could easily pierce through the sole of their foot.

"This student is partly correct, but we will not use sharpened bamboo stake traps. We will use landmines, or tripwire grenade traps."

Wei Beishan showed his approval, then took out a grenade and held it up for everyone to see.

"In dense forests, with trees and weeds providing cover, it can sometimes be difficult for us to use drones, thermal imagers, or binoculars to search for demon beasts."

"At such times, we need to set up landmines or tripwire grenade traps at intervals, so that our retreat route is not cut off and we are not surrounded without realizing it."

"As for how to set up landmines and tripwire grenade traps, I'll teach you after I finish the mission assigned by the City Lord's Mansion. For now, let's keep moving."

With that, Wei Beishan turned and continued climbing.

Jiang Chuan and the others hurriedly followed.

Because it was an uninhabited wilderness, Jiang Chuan and the others encountered many problems while climbing.

For instance, the weeds were too dense, and leaves cut their arms.

They nearly came under attack from wild snakes.

The steep mountain paths caused them to slip and fall.

In the end, after more than an hour of arduous trekking, Jiang Chuan and the others finally reached the mountaintop.

Other than Jiang Chuan, every student in First Year Class 42, including Meng Nanxi, was drenched in sweat.

"Jiang Chuan, when did your stamina get... get this good?"

Wei Dong was so exhausted and thirsty that even his words were weak.

"If you get the Great Sun Slaughtering God Technique past the beginner stage, your stamina can improve too." As a Third Realm cultivator, Jiang Chuan's physical abilities could only be described as terrifying compared to ordinary people.

"First, I want to praise everyone. Not a single person fell behind during this wilderness climb."

Wei Beishan, Wu Jing, and Hu Haoqiang all applauded the students.

"But the key to wilderness survival is survival itself. Not only must we overcome the dangers that may arise, we must also find food and obtain the nutrients that will keep us alive."

Wei Beishan looked down from the mountaintop. "From now until noon, everyone has only one task: find food and water. Of course, if any student finds an unexpected treasure, then I'll have to congratulate you on hitting the jackpot!"

Kang Bo raised his hand and asked, "Teacher, what unexpected treasure are you talking about?"

"You should all know how these mountain peaks were formed, right?"

Rather than answer Kang Bo's question, Wei Beishan asked another.

"Legend has it that immortal light entered the underground, fused with the iron ore and rocks beneath the earth, and transformed iron ore into jade iron, crystal stones, and even more precious treasures!"

"The mountain you are standing on may very well contain treasures worth a fortune, treasures that can be used to refine magical artifacts!"

Upon hearing Wei Beishan's words, the exhaustion on everyone's faces scattered away, replaced by excitement.

Jiang Chuan rubbed his chin. He highly suspected that Wei Beishan was just stringing them along.

If treasures like jade iron and crystal stones, which had to be sold by the gram, really existed, the mountains outside Nandu City would probably have long been flattened by Great Xia's cultivators.

"Everyone, set off!"

As Wei Beishan's words fell, everyone from First Year Class 42 turned and headed down the mountain.