Federal Basic Body Tempering Technique

Twenty kilometers.

For an ordinary person from Earth in his past life, that was a half-marathon distance that would break your legs—most people couldn't possibly finish it.

But on this gravity-multiplied floating land of Cloud Mountain Star, it was the first passing line between life and death.

Even though Federation youths deliberately trained before enlistment, and medical advances had improved physical fitness, this intensity was still considered extremely high.

Hurk—

The moment the formation stopped, retching sounds rose and fell, drowning the edge of the plaza.

Thousands of new recruits, as if their souls had been drained, collapsed in disarray on the cold alloy ground.

The air was thick with the sour stench of sweat, and even a few faint traces of blood—the fine mist coughed up from alveoli unable to withstand the high-pressure air.

Several floating spherical medical robots glided silently past, extending mechanical arms to quickly drag away a few recruits who had already gone into shock and passed out.

Their fate was sealed: upon waking, they would be stuffed directly into transport ships headed for the logistics zone.

At the front of the formation, recruits with slightly better physiques were also flushed red, their chests heaving violently, but most could still barely stand.

Some even pulled out vials of faintly glowing blue reagents from their pockets, tilting their heads back to down them.

A few seconds later, their originally ragged breathing calmed considerably.

Jiang Yue was mixed in the crowd, hands braced firmly on his knees. Sweat dripped from the tip of his nose onto the pitch-black deck, evaporating instantly.

Pain.

His lungs felt like they were on fire, his legs heavy as if filled with lead.

But he hadn't fallen.

Inhale—exhale—

That strange breathing rhythm still held steady.

At the edge of his retina, the line of gray-white text flickered faintly.

[Entry: Smooth Breath (White) Active... Physical Recovery Speed Increased... Lactic Acid Accumulation Alleviating...]

Half an hour later, the recruit barracks.

They were arranged in a honeycomb pattern, built primarily for occupancy efficiency.

Inside the massive gray building, tens of thousands of single-soldier capsule pods, two meters long and one meter wide, were densely packed.

There was no privacy here, only efficiency.

The one-eyed instructor stood on the cafeteria platform, slamming his alloy pointer against the table with a deafening crack.

"That's your doghouse, that's the latrine, and this—"

The instructor pointed behind him at two massive metal windows, a cruel grin tugging at the corner of his mouth:

"—is where you find out if you'll survive these three months."

Jiang Yue followed the instructor's finger.

The left window had a green light above it, labeled [Sector A: Basic Rations].

There, piled like a mountain, were countless gray toothpaste-like tubes—most people weren't unfamiliar with this; nutrient paste.

The right window had a red light above it, labeled [Sector B: High-Energy Meals].

Even from over ten meters away, the smell of meat that drove saliva into a frenzy was unmistakable.

That wasn't ordinary livestock; it was the flesh of true cosmic beasts, brimming with universal energy!

"Window A, Federation-standard high-energy nutrient paste, free, all you can eat."

The instructor said coldly, "The nutrition is enough to meet daily needs, and it'll keep you from training yourself to death."

"Window B, Dragon-Elephant Pig ribs, special fierce-beast bone soup, gene-enhancement fluid."

At this, the instructor paused, his single eye sweeping across the faces of the recruits, greedy with hunger:

"Want meat? Trade in points!"

"Every ten days, a minor exam. Every thirty days, a major exam. The bottom 10% of the rankings? Straight to logistics work! The top 10% of geniuses? Only they get to eat meat! As for the ones in the middle..."

The instructor sneered: "Live on grass."

The crowd immediately stirred with restlessness.

Jiang Yue rubbed his hollow stomach, a fierce hunger surging up.

Relying only on eating that toothpaste-like nutrient paste—while it wouldn't starve him to death—wanting to surge his blood and qi and break through to the martial realm was nothing but a fool's dream.

To get stronger, he had to eat meat.

And to eat meat, he had to compete with everyone.

After the twenty-kilometer forced march, once they'd recovered a little, everyone was already ravenous.

The cafeteria had no tables or chairs, only long alloy countertops stretching from east to west.

Tens of thousands of new recruits stood in formation, each with only two grooves before them to hold their military rations.

Jiang Yue stood in the ranks, the burning sensation in his lungs slowly easing as the [Smooth Breath] tag cycled through him.

He had received his two tubes of nutrient paste.

They were the color of iron ash, cold to the touch, carrying a faint industrial plastic smell.

At this moment, whether from wealthy families or not, on this Floating Continent 17, everyone swallowed the same gray.

Jiang Yue twisted off the seal, squeezed it into the groove, then silently lowered his head to swallow.

The instant it hit his throat, a slightly fishy and bitter taste exploded on his taste buds.

This product, crafted for maximum energy efficiency, clearly hadn't considered flavor.

The viscous paste slid down his esophagus into his stomach, like a heavy lump of lead.

Hum.

At the edge of his vision, the panel sensed the energy intake, and words silently appeared:

[Action: Eating]

[Status: In Progress]

[Current Tag: Food Digestion (White)]

[Description: Stomach churns faster, able to extract the faint essence hidden in coarse rations, reducing waste buildup, increasing stamina recovery efficiency.]

[Accumulation Progress: Growing...]

Jiang Yue felt his stomach's reaction.

With the [Food Digestion] tag in motion, that heavy, pressing sensation was lightening.

The originally cold nutrient paste was broken down in his stomach, turning into threads of warm light that spread toward his weary limbs and bones.

Beside him, a young man gagged on the paste's taste, tears welling at the corners of his eyes, yet he could only force the mess back down.

Jiang Yue expressionlessly quickened his swallowing pace.

Being able to eat was itself a form of screening—without enough nutrition, training was out of the question.

Half an hour later, the square reassembled.

The one-eyed instructor had shed his black Federal long coat, revealing a tight red vest.

His arms were extremely thick, his skin a dull, dark cyan, and under the lights, it faintly showed a heavy, aged-iron texture.

"Full bellies—time to move."

The instructor's voice echoed across the empty square, carrying a teeth-grinding tremor.

<Federal Basic Body Tempering Technique, Ninth Edition>.

"This is the strongest foundation-building technique, compiled by the Federation from three Martial Gods and twelve thousand Martial Arts Grandmasters, using the 'Deep Blue' supercomputer."

"Today, I'll teach you the first stage—[Skin Tempering]."

He stepped into the arena, his form suddenly sinking.

"Watch closely!"

With a low shout, his muscles knotted like ancient tree roots. His movements were extremely slow, yet carried a mountain-crushing pressure.

This was the eighteen forms of the Skin Tempering chapter.

The first form was called "Bell Striking."

The instructor brought his arms together, his body slightly hunched, as if he had become an ancient bell.

Under the drive of his blood energy, that dark-cyan skin began to vibrate at high frequency.

A dull roar echoed through the air—an anomaly caused by the skin membrane rubbing against the atmosphere.

"The key to Skin Tempering isn't force—it's grinding."

"Use your blood energy to grind this layer of skin. Grind until calluses fall away, grind until the flesh is like iron—that's the threshold."

The instructor's figure moved like a living steel statue, unfolding those eighteen bizarre and twisted postures before the tens of thousands of recruits.

Each form defied normal human anatomy—some demanded the spine coil like a dragon, others required limbs to twist like vines.

As the instructor demonstrated, the entire square was shrouded in a wave of scorching blood energy.

"Move!"