Seed Sequence

The instructor's gaze suddenly sharpened.

"But Skin Refining is hard."

"Nutrient Paste and Exotic Beast Meat can only provide you with Blood Energy and fuel."

"To refine your skin, you must actually draw on your Blood Energy and guide it across your body's surface. That takes exceptional control over your body—what ordinary people call talent."

"When martial arts first flourished, academy instructors had students shut themselves away to meditate and sense the flow of Blood Energy."

The instructor let out a scornful snort.

"Utter stupidity. People die on the Federation Frontline every day. The Empire doesn't have ten years to wait for you!"

"The Military's method is crude, simple, and effective."

The instructor raised a hand and pointed straight at the more than twenty thousand Recruits below. "At the edge of death, under extreme pain and pressure, your bodies will instinctively drive Blood Energy to the surface to protect themselves."

"If you lack the talent, the Military will use its fists to make drawing on Blood Energy a bodily instinct!"

"So there will be no endurance training today."

The soldiers of the Supervision Team pulled back their rifle bolts in unison. Cold metal clattered across the square.

The instructor's merciless order came down like a hammer:

"Today, once again, you'll have Combat Sparring."

"The Mainframe has issued a list of matchups based on your test data from the past five days, your performance under pressure, and your recovery from injury."

"You'll fight opponents of similar strength. A life-or-death struggle against an equal is the best way to force the Blood Energy out of you."

"Check your wristbands and go to your assigned areas."

"Don't hold back. Break bones—the medical unit will handle them. Treat the person across from you like a bug from the void and fight with everything you've got. Understood?"

"Yes!"

A deafening roar erupted across the square. After five days of torment, the Recruits understood that backing down meant death.

Jiang Yue stood among the crowd, his expression calm.

The instructor's words confirmed the changes Jiang Yue had felt in his body lately.

No wonder the strain on his bones and muscles had grown heavier as his strength increased.

A thousand kilograms was the limit an ordinary body could bear. Thanks to the [Tough Skin] trait, he was already crossing that threshold of talent by the crudest possible route.

This training is like throwing a basket of eggs at a wall. The ones that don't break are worth keeping...

Jiang Yue sighed inwardly. Who knew how many people had been broken by the training these past few days? Without his panel, even his physique might not have carried him through.

Survival of the fittest was a law of the universe. That did not make it any less cruel.

"Pair up. Begin!"

At the command, the Square Formation scattered.

Compared with the chaos and hesitation of their first Combat Sparring session a few days earlier, the Recruits were fiercely aggressive today.

They all craved the pressure of a fight where every punch landed—anything to break through the barrier of strength and reach the threshold of a Level 1 Martial Artist.

Jiang Yue took a deep breath. His [Smooth Breath] trait quietly went to work.

After last night's infusion of Exotic Beast Blood Essence, his reserves of Blood Energy were no longer what they had been.

The cold wind cut like a blade.

The Mainframe began assigning mandatory matchups to everyone based on the baseline fitness tests from two days earlier.

It paired Recruits of similar strength to wring the most combat potential out of them.

Without wasting a moment, Jiang Yue strode toward his assigned position.

A lean, powerful recruit was already waiting in the sparring area.

Muscle knotted along his arms, and his breathing carried a faint, low rush of air.

Jiang Yue recognized him.

His name was Sun Jie. He had performed well in the Gravity Chamber and in combat over the past few days. His punch-force test yesterday had likely come in around 380 kilograms.

Based on Jiang Yue's recorded figures and recent performance, the Mainframe had matched them for what should have been a hard fight between near equals.

"I know you. The freak who took hits from Shen Qing and that veteran."

Sun Jie rolled his neck, his joints cracking. Open malice shone in his eyes. "But your luck runs out here. Taking a beating doesn't mean you can fight. Those three performance points are mine."

Jiang Yue remained calm and said nothing.

"Begin!" The Supervision Team's electronic whistle rang across the square.

Before it had finished sounding, Sun Jie drove off the ground. His foot struck the Alloy deck with a heavy thud.

He lunged like a Cheetah, swinging a powerful punch straight at Jiang Yue's left temple.

Jiang Yue stepped forward instead of retreating and raised his left arm to block.

Thud!

Flesh struck flesh with a muffled impact.

The two instantly locked into combat. Fists flew, and legs crossed in a blur.

For the first few dozen seconds, they appeared evenly matched.

Sun Jie attacked fiercely, while Jiang Yue methodically parried and countered. Dull thumps of surging Blood Energy sounded whenever their limbs met.

But only Jiang Yue knew he was nowhere near using his full strength.

After [Food Digestion] had wrung every last drop from that vial of high-grade Exotic Beast Blood Essence the night before, he needed a point of reference to gauge his body's current limits.

Too weak.

That was Jiang Yue's verdict after taking three heavy punches in a row.

Sun Jie's blows, each carrying close to four hundred kilograms of force, struck his newly reformed Skin Membrane as though they had hit armor.

By the time the shock passed through it to his bones, it had dwindled to almost nothing.

He felt no pain at all.

Across from him, fine beads of sweat had appeared on Sun Jie's forehead after failing to break through.

The longer Sun Jie fought, the more alarmed he became.

Jiang Yue looked slight, but his body was as hard as a solid block of titanium Alloy.

Every time their fists or feet collided, the force rebounding through Sun Jie's hands left his finger bones aching.

"Die!"

Sun Jie grew impatient.

He abruptly pulled back half a step and inhaled deeply, his chest and abdomen swelling.

He squeezed out every last bit of Blood Energy in his body. His right arm bulged, and he drove a punch at Jiang Yue's chest with a sharp crack through the air.

It was everything he had, meant to settle the fight in one blow.

Faced with that ferocious punch, Jiang Yue did not take up a blocking stance from the Body Forging Technique.

He merely raised his right hand, almost casually.

His fingers spread.

His open palm met the oncoming fist dead center.

A flat, muffled impact sounded.

Sun Jie's expression froze. His pupils contracted sharply, and horror flooded his eyes.

It felt as though his all-out punch had struck not a human hand but an immovable steel dam.

The instant it met Jiang Yue's palm, all its force vanished, swallowed and dispersed without a trace.

Jiang Yue's fingers clamped around Sun Jie's fist like an Ironlike vise and held it perfectly still.

"How is that possible..." Sun Jie forced out hoarsely.

"Your power is too scattered."

Jiang Yue spoke the words calmly.

As soon as he finished, his palm tightened and his fingers closed.

Finger bones cracked with a sickening crunch.

Sun Jie screamed. Before he could pull away, Jiang Yue's left leg swept into his abdomen like a battle-axe, trailing a terrifying blur.

Sun Jie flew seven or eight meters like a rag doll and slammed into the metal railing, unconscious before he hit the ground.

The fight was over.

It had been swift and decisive.

Up on the platform,

One-Eye's finger hovered over the screen of his Data Terminal.

His lone eye was fixed on the feed from Area F-12. A rare crack had appeared in his cold composure.

By his reckoning, Jiang Yue had built a solid foundation over the past few days and performed well. His chances of winning today had been high.

But it should have been a narrow victory after a brutal fight.

Watching the gray-clad figure on the screen stop his opponent's strongest punch with one hand, without even breathing hard, the instructor drew in a sharp breath.

Crack.

Blood Energy leaking from his hand unwittingly split the specially made Alloy stylus he held.

"He caught a four-hundred-kilogram strike barehanded and didn't budge half an inch."

The instructor frantically reassessed Jiang Yue. The thickness of that Skin Membrane, the density of his bones and muscles... His progress is astonishing.

It would be one thing if he had an Ancient Martial Arts Tradition, but his file says nothing about one.

Could he really be a genius?

Shock and confusion churned through One-Eye's mind.

Then came a fierce surge of excitement and anticipation.

What the Military truly needed were monsters who could trample conventional metrics and absorb lethal doses of high-energy resources into their very bones.

The instructor composed himself and swiped across the data screen with mechanical precision.

He erased the "Observation Target" tag beside Jiang Yue's name and entered two words in its place:

[Seed Sequence]