Rapid Elimination

An Jing's exploration of Xuanming Manor ended in failure, and for the first time in a long while, he didn't sleep well.

The roars of beasts, flesh and blood, grinding teeth, and pounding hearts left An Jing inexplicably restless in his dreams. Only the clear ring of a sword could calm him a little.

The strange visions in his dreams, his restless sleep, and the heavy weight on his mind left him looking rather listless during morning practice.

But no one else found it suspicious, because most of the children who had eaten beast meat looked the same—and some looked even worse than An Jing.

Still, it wasn't all bad.

A few days later, everyone realized what the 'Fierce Beast meat' and 'medicinal potion' they'd been eating were doing.

First of all, they were recovering from exhaustion much faster after training, and they really were growing stronger.

The exercises they'd once found difficult and the stamina-draining drills were gradually becoming easier... Of course, the instructors would immediately intensify the training once they noticed. But the children rarely felt as though they were running out of strength or that their bodies were starved of nourishment anymore.

An Jing felt the same way. With the training at Xuanming Manor and its plentiful supply of food and medicine, his body, which had been somewhat depleted from fleeing, had fully recovered.

In fact, because he received far more Fierce Beast meat than the other boys and girls, the muscles and fat he'd built back up through training—which had been somewhat soft—had tightened and grown more compact once again. They clung to his increasingly sturdy bones, leaving him looking no different from the outside.

Only someone who actually touched his body would be astonished by just how strong An Jing's flesh and bones were.

As time passed, the boys and girls grew at an astonishing rate.

But as time passed, more and more of them were eliminated.

Those who consumed more resources but failed to grow as expected were naturally eliminated.

After Zhang Ying, Ye Xiuyuan was next.

One morning, two weeks later, Ye Xiuyuan also left Xuanming Manor.

This had become the norm at Xuanming Manor: people were always going down the mountain, always leaving.

Gu Yeqi wiped away tears over it, while Cang Linzu put on a disdainful, stubborn front. In truth, he secretly cried in the latrine.

Even Zhan Feng was so dispirited that he didn't finish dinner. Ye Xiuyuan had taught him to read and write; without Ye Xiuyuan's guidance, he couldn't even read the Huangtian Sutra fluently.

He'd once been a beggar and had only wanted to eat his fill, but he'd still wanted to learn to read and write, because only people who could read could get better things to eat.

Ye Xiuyuan was always quoting lessons from ancient texts, always reminiscing about his family's glory days, always hesitating and sighing. But he'd also been something like the strategist in An Jing's little group, full of clever ideas that suited everyone's needs. They all liked him very much.

Some time later, Zhan Feng left too. Before going to sleep, the tall, simple-minded beggar boy had still been muttering that he had to last the longest, so he could eat more meat. He wouldn't get any once he went down the mountain.

More and more familiar faces—people whose names they knew—left.

Half of the 'friends' who shared An Jing's dormitory had left, and the more than two hundred children who'd originally lived at Xuanming Manor had dwindled to just over a hundred.

An Jing said nothing. He stayed calm and silent.

Some people privately complained that An Jing was heartless. Others argued that he wasn't heartless at all; he remembered everyone's name. He'd simply known from the start that those people were weak and couldn't keep up, so it was better for them to leave.

Some said An Jing was the one who decided who stayed and who left. Others claimed he was a heartless machine of steel who knew only how to practice martial arts and study, a born champion.

An Jing had no comment on any of it. He wasn't as heartless as they imagined, but he wasn't especially sentimental either.

When the first round of eliminations began, he'd already known it was inevitable. In the end, many 'familiar faces' wouldn't be able to keep up and would be eliminated.

He simply accepted it and remembered them in silence.

At that point, the children's grief was still real and pure.

But as time went by and farewells came again and again, their hearts gradually grew cold and hard.

Little by little, the children at Xuanming Manor began to see it as nothing unusual.

Being allowed to stay was proof of their excellence. It made them feel fortunate and proud. Those who left had all been their friends, but in the end, they'd only spent a few months together.

They missed them, but not enough to grieve too deeply.

Those who valued friendship, and those who had truly become close, looked forward to seeing one another again after they went down the mountain.

But most gradually forgot.

As the intensity of training increased, everyone was busy from morning to night. Each day, they finished drills exhausted, devoured their meals, and sank into sleep with their minds completely blank.

No one could remember everyone who had left.

Except An Jing.

From beginning to end, no matter who left, An Jing watched in silence and committed them to memory.

He never said a word aloud, but inside, a surging tide of questions rose within him.

He alone remembered every face, and so he knew that most of those who left... at least nine out of ten, had been among the ones who'd failed to suppress their urges after eating beast meat and had 'roared' in front of everyone.

They were also the ones who absorbed the beast meat less efficiently and grew more slowly.

"What exactly do the beast meat and medicinal potions do?"

"And who was the voice that warned me not to go near the Medicine Pavilion?"

"Why did it warn me?"

That was the greatest mystery weighing on An Jing lately.

Leaving aside the strange voice, ever since the first time they ate Fierce Beast meat, the boys and girls at the Manor had been given Fierce Beast meat and herbal potions once every ten days.

Fewer and fewer children were unable to resist the heat of the beast meat and the effects of the medicine. But perhaps for that very reason, their personalities had changed somewhat too.

The change wasn't obvious, but it was real: everyone was becoming more composed.

Though perhaps "composed" wasn't quite the right word. Maybe they were becoming more intense and extreme?

The calm grew calmer, the quiet grew quieter, and those who seemed warm on the surface grew cold—but became even warmer toward the friends they were truly close to.

Even An Jing felt this way. He was growing closer to Gu Yeqi and Cang Linzu, while it was becoming harder and harder for other children to earn his genuine regard as friends.

If even he felt that way, how much more so must everyone else?

Was it the effect of the beast meat, or the herbs?

An Jing couldn't be sure. All he knew was that his dreams were becoming increasingly restless.

Several times, he'd jolted awake in the middle of the night, hearing strange sounds: some like savage beasts grinding their teeth, others like blades and swords clanging. Then came the rush of a river of blood, rousing his anger and inexplicably stirring up resentment.

None of that was really important. The real question was, why was Xuanming Manor doing this?

"Maybe it's because they're going through puberty?"

An Jing guessed, "Maybe becoming 'soldiers of death,' or awakening their Heavenly Fate, requires this kind of extreme temperament?"

Given their ages, most of the children gathered at Xuanming Manor were entering puberty and beginning a period of rapid growth.

Fierce Beast meat could promote development and make people stronger, while the potions could suppress their impulses, preventing them from rebelling due to the urges of puberty and disrupting their training, or from missing this period of rapid growth.

Those who couldn't suppress their impulses wouldn't be able to pass through this period of rapid growth properly, so they were abandoned and sent down the mountain.

After all, An Jing was the son of a martial household, so he knew his own body's development quite well. It wasn't strange that Xuanming Manor would consider this and use medicine to suppress it.

As for the changes in everyone's temperament... Life at an isolated Manor, with instructors and tutors constantly teaching by word and example, would naturally make people more extreme.

As for his strange dreams, perhaps they were a side effect of his body growing?