The training ground outside the city had originally been where the garrison conducted drills. Now, with the Imperial Military Examination approaching, an area had been specially set aside for candidates from all walks of life to familiarize themselves with the grounds.
Chen Ping blended into the bustling crowd, deliberately hunching his back. He had rubbed some turmeric juice on his face to make himself look more like a destitute man suffering from malnutrition.
His blue cotton robe had been washed until it was faded white. Amid the dust swirling over the training ground, it looked shabby and inconspicuous.
"So this is the threshold for the Imperial Military Examination..."
He narrowed his eyes and surveyed his surroundings.
The training ground was paved with hard yellow earth, trampled by countless footprints until it was as hard as iron.
The air was thick with the stench of sweat, the smell of raw iron, and an undercurrent of restless desire.
Suddenly, the crowd parted as if cleaved by an invisible blade. A commotion rose from the entrance to the training ground.
"Look! It's the eldest young master of the Jin Family!"
"Jin Shijie? I heard he's a favorite to take first place in this Imperial Military Examination!"
Chen Ping followed everyone's gaze and saw a group of people escorting a brocade-clad young man toward them, as if he were the moon surrounded by stars.
The young man looked to be about twenty. His face was as handsome as jade, and his expression arrogant. He wore a soft armor that shimmered with a dark golden sheen in the sunlight.
Golden Silk Armor was impervious to blades and spears. Just one suit was worth a decade's livelihood for ten middle-class households in Qinghe County.
Even more eye-catching was the sheathed long saber in his hand. Its scabbard was inlaid with seven-colored gems, and though the blade remained sheathed, its chilling aura was unmistakable.
Chen Ping instinctively touched the half-length dagger, worn down by grinding, hidden in his sleeve. His heart turned cold.
This was the wealth of the Aristocratic Clan's heirs. They had already won half the battle with their equipment before a single blow was struck.
Jin Shijie clearly relished being the center of attention. He walked to the middle of the practice area and casually tossed his scabbard to a servant beside him. With a metallic ring, he drew his saber.
Its blade flashed like snow, radiating a bone-chilling cold.
"Hah!"
Jin Shijie gave a low shout and twisted his wrist, unleashing a flurry of the Golden Crow Saber Technique.
In an instant, saber energy crisscrossed, stirring the air around him until it shrieked sharply.
As he finished his flourish, he slashed at a wooden post set up for testing techniques. The hardwood post, as thick as a bowl, was sliced cleanly in two like tofu, its cut surface smooth as a mirror.
"Excellent!"
"Young Master Jin is mighty!"
A wave of cheers rose from the crowd. The idlers who relied on the Jin Family clapped so loudly their applause shook the heavens.
Standing in a corner, Chen Ping lowered his eyelids slightly, concealing the keen glint in his eyes.
With the sharp senses granted by the Longevity of Pine and Crane, he saw more than the spectacle on the surface.
"His internal energy is deep, and every slash carries a gust of force... But his breathing is unsteady, and his steps land with uneven weight."
Chen Ping secretly shook his head. "He reached this level by stuffing himself with potent pills. His foundation isn't even firm, and he's already in a hurry to show off. In a fight to the death, I'd only need to catch him in the instant he changes his breathing to slit his throat."
Gleaming on the surface, but strong on the outside and weak within.
Chen Ping withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the other side of the training ground.
Candidates from the slums and countryside had gathered there.
Most were sallow and thin, their clothes patched all over.
Some held sharpened wooden sticks, some gripped chipped woodcutting knives, and others carried weapons fashioned from the hoes at home.
They looked toward Jin Shijie with eyes full of fear, envy, and deep despair.
"Poor in letters, rich in martial arts. The ancients never lied."
Chen Ping sighed inwardly.
Without meat to nourish their blood and qi, without a renowned master to guide them, without divine weapons in hand, what could these people at the bottom possibly use to contend with the heirs of the Aristocratic Clans?
On the surface, the Imperial Military Examination gave everyone a chance. In reality, its threshold stood so high it was enough to drive people to despair.
He stopped looking and walked toward the area in the corner where stone locks had been laid out.
Since he was here, he might as well test the waters.
Stone locks of all sizes lay scattered on the ground, ranging from fifty to five hundred pounds.
Chen Ping went to a three-hundred-pound stone lock.
With his current physique, hardened through the Shattered Stone Palm at Great Accomplishment and the bone-and-tendon tempering of the Longevity of Pine and Crane, lifting the three-hundred-pound stone lock with one hand was hardly any more difficult than picking up a basket of eggs.
But he couldn't let it show.
Chen Ping crouched down and gripped the stone lock's handle with his right hand. The muscles in his arm suddenly tensed. He deliberately forced his blood and qi to surge, making his face flush red.
"Up!"
He gritted his teeth and let out a muffled growl. His arm trembled violently as he unsteadily raised the three-hundred-pound stone lock half a foot off the ground.
After holding it for about three breaths, he seemed to run out of strength and slammed it onto the ground with a crash. He staggered backward, gasping for breath, looking utterly spent.
"Hey, brother, you've got a decent amount of strength!"
A hearty voice came from beside him. Chen Ping turned and saw a burly, dark-skinned man.
The man wore a coarse-cloth shirt and trousers, his muscles knotted. He looked like a black bear walking upright.
"Name's Tie Niu. I'm here to take the examination too."
Tie Niu grinned, showing a row of white teeth, and offered some friendly advice.
"I saw you lifting that stone lock just now. You were relying entirely on the dead strength in your arms. You need to use your waist—keep your waist and legs working as one, and draw your power up from the ground. That'll take a lot less effort."
As he spoke, Tie Niu stepped up to the stone lock. He lowered his waist and, without any obvious windup, lifted the three-hundred-pound stone lock steadily with one hand. He even bounced it up and down twice.
Chen Ping was a little surprised. The man had no discernible internal energy, but his natural strength was truly rare.
He quickly cupped his hands, putting on a humble, eager-to-learn expression. "Thank you for the pointers, Brother Tie Niu. I'm Chen Ping, from the countryside. I haven't seen much of the world. I must look like a fool to you."
"Aw, it's nothing. We poor folk have a hard time learning martial arts. We ought to help each other out."
Tie Niu waved a hand cheerfully and was about to offer a few more tips on how to apply force.
Just then, several brocade-clad heirs of Aristocratic Clans sauntered over.
"Move, move! Where'd you country bumpkins come from? You're blocking my way!"
The oily, powdered-faced young master leading them waved a folding fan. He looked at Tie Niu and Chen Ping with disgust, as if they were two piles of garbage.
Tie Niu was straightforward by nature. He frowned and replied in a rumbling voice, "The Imperial Court opened this training ground. Why can't we stand here?"
"Oh? You dare talk back?" The young master sneered and signaled to his guards.
Two burly guards stepped forward and, without a word, reached out to shove Tie Niu.
Tie Niu instinctively gathered his strength to brace himself, but Chen Ping saw what was happening clearly.
Though the two guards were only servants, their hands were calloused. They had clearly practiced martial arts for years. If Tie Niu met them head-on, he'd surely be at a disadvantage and might even get injured before the examination.
In the blink of an eye, Chen Ping tilted sideways, pretending that the gust of force from the guard's shove had struck him.
"Whoa!"
Chen Ping cried out and fell backward, dragging Tie Niu along with him in a "panicked" tug.
The pull threw Tie Niu off balance, and he stumbled back with Chen Ping, neatly avoiding the guards' shoves, which concealed dirty tricks.
The two tumbled into a heap, looking thoroughly disheveled.
"Hahaha! What a bunch of weaklings! You can't even stand up straight!"
Seeing this, the young master burst into triumphant laughter. He couldn't be bothered to lay a hand on them and left with his entourage.
Only after they were gone did Chen Ping climb to his feet, covered in dust. He casually brushed himself off, wearing the same obsequious, bitter smile as before.
"Brother, are you all right?"
Tie Niu got up and glared angrily at the men's retreating backs.
"I could've—"
"Brother Tie Niu."
Chen Ping cut him off, lowering his voice.
"Better to avoid trouble than invite it. We're here to take the Imperial Military Examination, not make enemies. What'll happen to the exam in a few days if we get hurt?"
Tie Niu paused, then scratched his head and sighed. "You're right, brother. I got carried away."
Chen Ping smiled and said no more.
With that fall, he had not only defused the conflict but also cemented his image as a weakling in front of everyone.
In a place as chaotic as this training ground, the more harmless you seemed, the safer you were.
The sun slanted westward. Chen Ping said goodbye to Tie Niu and left the training ground alone.
On the road back to the city, he silently weighed what he had seen and heard that day.
"Someone like Jin Shijie, propped up by pills—if it were a fight to the death, I'd kill him in ten moves. As for someone like Tie Niu, with his natural strength, he'd be a little troublesome. But as long as I kept moving and wore him out, beating him wouldn't be difficult."
Chen Ping had formed a clear measure of his own strength.
"With my current abilities, if I went all out, making the top three would be as easy as reaching into a pocket. But that would draw too much attention. I'd surely attract the notice of local powers like the Jin Family, and they might even investigate my background."
"The bird that sticks its head out gets shot; the tallest tree catches the wind."
Chen Ping touched the Letter of Recommendation inside his robe, his expression gradually growing calm.
"I only need a title to protect myself. What place I take doesn't matter. I have to control my score. In the ring, I'll make it look like I barely win—or win by a hair's breadth. As long as I scrape into the top ten and earn the title of military juren, that's enough."
Once he became a military juren and had official standing, whether it was the Lin Family or his old enemies, they would have to weigh the consequences of defying the laws of the Imperial Court before making a move against him.
This was the first protective charm on his road to immortality.
At some point, Chen Ping had reached the city gate.
The setting sun fell across the mottled city walls, stretching his shadow long behind him.
He stopped and looked past the overlapping rooftops toward Lin Manor in the eastern part of the city.
By his count, it had been half a month since he bought his freedom and moved out. He hadn't seen Yun Niang in all that time.
For those two weeks, he had been busy renting a place, getting settled, and preparing for the examination. Every day had been tense and full.
But whenever the night grew deep and quiet, after he finished cultivating the Longevity of Pine and Crane, the empty, ramshackle room always left him feeling hollow, as if something were missing.
The steaming bowl of osmanthus soup was missing. So was the figure sewing his clothes by lamplight.
"Sister Yun..."
Chen Ping murmured to himself. His normally steely gaze softened with rare warmth and longing.
In this merciless world, she was the only flame that could make him feel warm.
"Nice night tonight."
Chen Ping tightened his collar and turned, disappearing into the falling dusk.
"Perfect time to see how my future bride is doing."
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