Gene Enhancement Fluid

An hour later, the military's gravity test came to a complete close.

The atmosphere on the square was even more oppressive and brutal than during the morning assembly.

Compared to ten days ago, the originally dense phalanx of thirty thousand men now had nearly a third of its space empty.

All the recruits who hadn't managed to last the ten-minute passing mark had already been loaded onto transport ships. Without even leaving a full name behind, they were stripped of their military status and exiled to the sunless mine pits.

Of the more than twenty thousand who remained, most were injured. The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood and medicinal fluids.

"Silence, everyone!"

On the high platform, the chief instructor One-Eye and the head examiner Iron Wrist stood side by side. One-Eye suddenly waved his hand, and the massive holographic projection above the square lit up again, transforming into a long blood-red ranking list.

"The assessment is over! The Gravity Resistance Exam rankings are now announced!"

"The Empire rewards the brave! In this exam, those ranked in the top thousand are all elite seeds of Floating Continent 17! Gene enhancement fluids and military merit points will be distributed according to rank!"

The numbers on the holographic screen scrolled wildly. The breath of every recruit stopped at that moment, their eyes locked onto the list above.

The ten names at the very top hung prominently, radiating a dazzling golden light.

"First place, Chu Lin. Maximum sustained gravity: 5.0 times. Duration: 21 minutes!"

"Second place..."

Looking at the terrifying data that led by a landslide, a wave of sharp intakes of breath swept across the square.

"5.0 times gravity?! A total duration of 21 minutes?"

A recruit beside him went weak in the legs, his face full of despair. "We can't even hold out for a few seconds at 2.5 times. Are these people's bodies made of alloy?!"

Jiang Yue quietly watched the few names at the top of the list, his expression utterly calm.

There were inherent differences in martial arts talent between people. If you added in their previous foundations, even though they enlisted at the same time, their current strength varied greatly.

However, following the military's training style, the advantages brought by childhood medicinal baths and supplements would eventually be leveled out by natural talent, thus filtering out the soldiers truly worth cultivating.

The list continued to scroll down.

Soon, a murmur mixed with awe and fear erupted from the crowd.

"Look! Number 48! Shen Qing!"

"Damn, that madman actually broke into the top fifty? He doesn't have any family background!"

"I was right next to him. His bones were almost crushed, blood was spraying everywhere, and he stubbornly held on under 4.2 times gravity until he passed out. That's a completely reckless way to fight..."

In the distance, Shen Qing, wrapped head to toe in special bandages like a mummy, was staring fixedly at the list, a fierce, beast-like excitement flickering in his bloodshot eyes.

Next, Jiang Yue's gaze quickly swept through the middle of the list and finally found his own name.

[Rank 876: Jiang Yue. Maximum sustained gravity: 3.5 times.]

Seeing this ranking, the taut expression on Jiang Yue's face relaxed almost imperceptibly.

To break into the top thousand out of thirty thousand people was a perfect result.

Although he had fallen under 3.5 times gravity, in terms of duration, he naturally couldn't compare to those aristocratic children who had tempered their bones and muscles since childhood, or madmen like Shen Qing who burned their lives to hold on.

This ranking was already quite good.

Buzz--

At that moment, hundreds of small logistics drones rose from the armored bays around the square, flying into the phalanx like a swarm of bees.

One drone hovered precisely in front of Jiang Yue. Its mechanical abdomen split open, ejecting a silver metal refrigerated box that emitted wisps of cold air.

At the same time, the military terminal on Jiang Yue's wrist let out a crisp notification sound.

[Jiang Yue. Rank 876.]

[Reward issued: Basic military merit points 100; Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid ×1 portion.]

Jiang Yue reached out and took the cold metal box.

Dozens of envious glances immediately shot over from all around.

One hundred points—that was a huge sum that could be exchanged for a large amount of high-grade exotic beast meat!

Not to mention what was inside the box: a military-controlled product that could directly modify basic genes and accelerate physical evolution—Gene Enhancement Fluid!

For a recruit, this was a divine medicine for a meteoric rise!

Feeling the restless gazes around him, Jiang Yue not only didn't hide it, but slowly turned his head. His eyes, deep and dead as an ancient well, coldly swept across his surroundings.

The terrifying blood energy that had just broken through the 500kg quasi-warrior threshold faintly emanated an extremely dangerous pressure through his dense skin.

The recruits caught in his gaze suddenly recalled the brutal scene from three days ago, when this seemingly unremarkable youth had crushed someone's finger bones with one hand and killed an opponent with a single punch.

Greed was instantly extinguished by fear. The surrounding recruits quickly averted their eyes as if shocked by electricity, and even unconsciously took half a step back, clearing a circle of space around him.

Ignoring these cannon fodder, Jiang Yue gripped the metal refrigerated box tightly in his hand.

Through the gap in the box, he could feel the deadly allure of the blue liquid inside.

"Don't envy too much. If you meet the ranking standards in the future, you'll get enhancement fluid too!"

"The rest of you are dismissed. You can rest early today. Those ranked in the top thousand, follow me."

On the high platform, One-Eye let out a cold snort, announcing the dismissal of the crowd, leaving only those who had obtained the gene enhancement fluid.

"Don't think that just because you've secured a spot, you're already superhumans who've leaped to the heavens overnight."

One-Eye's sharp gaze swept across the thousand people below, ruthlessly shattering many illusions: "Many of you think this [Primary Gene Enhancement Fluid] is a miracle pill—one shot and you'll gain an extra few hundred kilograms of punching power. Wrong! Dead wrong!"

"The human body has its limits! It's like a fixed-size cup—fill it with water, and it overflows. That's the thousand-jin force chasm you'll encounter in the Skin Tempering realm!"

"And the gene fluid is a key!"

"Its sole purpose is to forcibly tear apart and reassemble your originally mediocre, blocked gene chains!"

"To expand your body from a cup into a large bucket, or even a water tank! Only by unlocking this Gene Lock can your future martial path be smooth and unimpeded!"

With that, One-Eye's gaze passed over the crowd and landed on the dozen or so youths in the front row, led by Chu Lin, who came from martial lineages.

"However, for you all, there's no need to inject this."

One-Eye waved his hand, and a logistics robot immediately delivered over a dozen smaller, crimson metal boxes radiating astonishing heat. "Your gene optimization was already completed at home. Injecting you with this would not only be a pure waste but could even trigger gene collapse."

"Therefore, your reward has been changed to—[High-Energy Radiation Fluid]!"

"The same goes for the rest of you. After this injection, if you maintain your rankings, your rewards will be swapped out."

"Go and embrace your growth."

Half an hour later.

Floating Continent 17, Underground Level Three, Special Medical Restricted Zone.

This was a massive biological modification hall, filled with a cold, sci-fi aesthetic.

A full thousand silver-white, egg-shaped medical pods were arranged in a matrix, their faint blue indicator lights twinkling like stars in the dim underground space.

"Everyone, remove your training uniforms and enter the pods!"

A stern-faced military medical officer in a white coat stood on the high platform, delivering a final warning: "Let me reiterate—the process of gene recombination will be excruciatingly painful, as if every bone and organ in your body is being shattered and reset inch by inch!"

"If your will collapses, causing your body's subconscious to give up resistance, you will die directly in the pod, or suffer gene collapse, leaving your martial path with no further progress."

"If you're afraid now, it's not too late to back out."

"As for those who choose to stay—"

"You will either embrace evolution, or sink utterly into mediocrity."