At the order, tens of thousands of new recruits began to imitate the movements.
Jiang Yue focused, replaying every subtle point of force in the instructor's demonstration.
Following the first form, he slowly brought his arms together, trying to feel his skin vibrate.
But it was hard.
Extremely hard.
His movements were stiff and awkward, and his joints creaked under the strain.
The blood and vitality within him felt like a stubborn mule, refusing to follow the prescribed path toward his skin.
At the edge of his vision, the panel lit up again.
[Action: Body Forging] [Status: Recording...] [Current progress: Accumulating...] [Assessment: Numerous errors in posture. Blood and vitality flow obstructed. Essence of the skin not yet grasped.]
Jiang Yue refused to be discouraged.
He adjusted his breathing again and again. With Smooth Breath, he forced down the ache in his muscles and repeatedly contorted himself into the prescribed pose.
The one-eyed instructor stood on the platform with his hands behind his back.
His single eye swept across the formation like a cold scanner.
He was searching for those with potential.
In martial arts, willpower mattered, but aptitude often determined how far someone could go in those three months.
Not far away, a well-proportioned youth caught his attention.
After only a few attempts, a faint red glow had appeared on the youth's skin. His movements flowed effortlessly; he was clearly well suited to the technique.
The instructor gave a slight nod and memorized his number.
Then his gaze fell on Jiang Yue.
Jiang Yue had performed reasonably well during the earlier twenty-kilometer run.
But now the instructor frowned slightly.
To him, Jiang Yue's movements were far too rigid.
In striving so hard for correct form, he had become stiff, lacking the fluidity of circulating blood and vitality.
His slight frame made the broad, forceful movements of Body Forging look especially difficult.
After three seconds, the instructor looked away. The trace of hope in his eye vanished, replaced by unsurprised indifference.
"Decent willpower, but mediocre physique. As for aptitude... no better than average."
That was his private verdict.
This vast war machine had plenty of mortals with willpower. Those who survived, however, were usually monsters blessed with both willpower and talent.
Jiang Yue noticed none of the instructor's disappointment. Even if he had, he would not have cared.
He kept repeating the movements.
Dull, mechanical repetition.
Whenever his posture strayed, a faint afterimage of the instructor's demonstration appeared in his vision.
He used this clumsy method to force every inch of his body into alignment.
The sky darkened.
The lights above the Floating Land came on, casting a pallid glow over every sweat-covered face.
"Everyone, dismissed."
The instructor's voice rang out with mechanical precision at the very last second of training.
"Get back to your kennels. Anyone late tomorrow at dawn loses half their points for the month."
The crowd dispersed, dragging bodies that felt heavy as mountains.
Jiang Yue returned to the barracks and entered his assigned capsule.
It was barely large enough for one person to lie flat. The moment the lid closed, the surrounding noise vanished, leaving only the faint hiss of ventilation.
His skin burned from being scoured by blood and vitality.
Lying in the darkness, Jiang Yue stared at the metal ceiling just centimeters above him.
By day's end, he had barely begun to grasp the technique.
Once I unlock a trait for Body Forging, things should get much easier.
Perhaps... it could even improve my aptitude?
Either way, if I want to get better at something, the most important thing is to practice it.
So Jiang Yue did not sleep. He got up and began training again.
The cramped compartment resembled a coffin.
It was two meters long, one meter wide, and less than a meter high.
Heavy alloy panels formed its walls. Only the faint sound of ventilation broke the silence.
Jiang Yue sat cross-legged inside.
Anyone else, after the torment of a twenty-kilometer run under heavy gravity and the agony of forcing blood and vitality through their skin, would have fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion.
But Jiang Yue's eyes remained intent.
He knew that for ordinary people, aptitude was a matter of fate, not something they could demand.
Only by practicing can I defy that fate.
Jiang Yue cleared his mind.
With no room for sweeping movements, he adapted the eighteen forms of the Skin Refining Chapter into stationary stances and brief bursts of force.
[Action: Body Forging] [Status: Recording...] [Progress: Slowly accumulating...]
Jiang Yue attempted the first form: Bell Striking.
When the instructor demonstrated it, his body had to reverberate like an ancient bell, his skin vibrating in unison.
Now Jiang Yue crossed his arms. Rather than strike the alloy wall, he tempered his body through sustained tension.
Every muscle tightened. Driven by Food Digestion, blood and vitality streamed steadily from his stomach.
It hurt.
Under the pressure of his internal force, his already burning skin felt as though thousands of steel needles were piercing it at once.
Pain twisted Jiang Yue's face, and cold sweat instantly soaked his gray training uniform.
At the edge of his vision, an afterimage of the instructor's demonstration appeared.
The dark-green figure moved through his mind with perfect form.
Whenever Jiang Yue's application of force strayed, the afterimage glowed faintly red, guiding him to adjust his muscles.
Lower the left elbow a fraction. Raise the spine slightly.
Jiang Yue adjusted his posture in the dark.
Click.
The instant his posture aligned completely with the afterimage, the obstructed flow of blood and vitality eased a little.
That thread of blood and vitality, hot as lava, struck precisely against the skin on his chest.
[Assessment: Posture being corrected. Blood and vitality flow efficiency increased.]
Jiang Yue's spirits lifted.
This was not a sudden awakening of aptitude. It was painstaking precision.
Ordinary geniuses sensed the technique's essence by instinct. With the panel's guidance, Jiang Yue used his body to grind his way toward every perfectly placed point.
He practiced relentlessly inside the cramped capsule.
Warmth stirred in his stomach.
It came from the nutrient paste he had swallowed during the day.
With Food Digestion, he wrung every bit of nourishment from the crude food.
Waste was expelled. Pure energy became faint wisps of vital essence that traveled through his channels and gathered beneath his skin.
[Action: Eating] Progress inched forward. [Action: Breathing] Rhythm remained steady.
Half an hour.
One hour.
Two hours.
Jiang Yue's skin had turned a strange dark red.
It was a sign of blood and vitality concentrating intensely and repeatedly rubbing against his skin.
If an ordinary person tried this, their skin would have split open long ago, leaving them drenched in blood.
But every surge of Jiang Yue's blood and vitality struck precisely where the afterimage indicated.
He was walking a tightrope.
[Action: Body Forging] [Progress: ++]
Deep in his mind, Jiang Yue felt drained.
Hours of intense, relentless effort had taxed his mind far more than he had imagined.
Still, he did not stop.
He was waiting for a threshold.
Skin Tempering had three stages: Seeing Red, when blood and vitality rose to the surface; Cocoon Formation, when the skin thickened; and Ironlike, when the skin began to shine.
Now the dark red faded from Jiang Yue's entire body, leaving him sickly pale.
His blood and vitality had been pushed to their limit in a very short time, seeping deep into his skin.
If I practice every day from now on, I should unlock a trait soon...
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