Victory! Racking Up Points!

Bam.

The moment the verdict rang out, among the veteran camp below the stage, Red Hair and Baldy both felt their legs go weak, as if their spines had been yanked out, collapsing directly to the ground in a heap.

Their faces were pale as paper, their eyes filled with the despair of total ruin.

That was a full two hundred points of military merit!

It was all the savings they had scraped together through frugality and risking their lives—every last bit of their belongings. Now, it was all gone! Completely lost!

As the referee's final judgment echoed through the boxing ring, the entire underground armored warehouse seemed to split into two worlds of joy and sorrow.

On the veterans' side, wails of grief filled the air.

Especially those who, at the last moment, had frantically bet their entire fortunes on Scar, hoping to secure a guaranteed payout—they now regretted it so deeply their guts ached.

Some tore at their own hair, cursing loudly; others went weak in the knees, slumping onto the cold metal floor, their faces ashen.

Red Hair and Baldy's faces twitched, as if their souls had been drained.

They hadn't just lost everything down to their last scrap; they had also, in front of the entire battalion of recruits, utterly lost the dignity and prestige of being veterans!

On the other side, the recruit camp had turned into a sea of celebration.

"Brother Jiang is a beast! Shen Qing is a beast!!"

Countless recruits shouted at the top of their lungs, waving their arms, their faces flushed with excitement.

This was far more than just a victory in an underground arena match. Jiang Yue's stunning Inch Power strike had, in one blow, shattered the veterans' long-standing aura of invincibility on Floating Land No. 17!

Every recruit knew it as clearly as a mirror—after tonight's bloody display of dominance, their say in the Grey Zone of this floating land would leap forward in quality!

If the veterans ever tried to push them around again, setting up those shameless slaughterhouse betting schemes, they'd first have to weigh whether their bones were as tough as Scar's!

The battle scene tonight was destined to become a hot topic among the recruits for a long time to come.

"Silence."

From the second-floor viewing platform, Butcher's deep voice, laced with the pressure of a high-level martial artist, cut through the noise of the crowd through the loudspeaker.

He waved his hand, and one of his trusted subordinates immediately carried a military merit terminal with the highest allocation authority onto the stage, ready to settle the massive gambling funds on the spot.

"According to the rules of my Black Boxing Arena, the winner takes all!"

Butcher looked down at the crowd from his elevated position, calmly announcing the distribution of points: "Shen Qing's side gets back their full two-hundred-point principal! At the same time, they take the veterans' lost two-hundred-point base bet!"

Hearing this, Red Hair and Baldy closed their eyes in pain.

Butcher paused, a merchant's smile curling at the corner of his mouth, and continued, "Also, since tonight's entire venue only had this one life-or-death five-round streak, with heavy betting, I've taken a nice cut myself.

"So, as an appearance fee for the winning side..."

"On top of those four hundred points, I'll throw in an extra two hundred points!"

At these words, the entire crowd gasped.

Two hundred points as an appearance fee!

Added to the base bet they'd won, this small stage had directly generated a pure profit of four hundred points of military merit!

It was a fortune massive enough to make any Quasi-Martial Artist's eyes burn with envy!

While everyone was still marveling, Shen Qing, supported by two recruits, dragged his already completely twisted and broken arms, staggering step by step to stand before Jiang Yue.

His entire body was soaked in blood, his face pale as paper, but his bloodshot eyes were unusually clear.

"Help me operate the terminal."

Shen Qing tilted his head, signaling the recruit supporting him. The recruit fumbled hastily to pull up Shen Qing's military merit account.

"Transfer the full two hundred points from the veterans' base bet we won to Jiang Yue."

Shen Qing gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain of broken bones, but his voice was crisp and decisive. "Also, split the two-hundred-point appearance fee from Boss Butcher evenly. Transfer a hundred points over."

Ding—

As the operation completed, the terminal on Jiang Yue's wrist let out a crisp notification. He looked down and saw his account balance instantly surge by a full three hundred points of military merit!

A few of the surrounding recruits couldn't help but be surprised.

After all, in tonight's five life-or-death rounds, Shen Qing had risked his life for the first four, even crippling his arms.

They had expected some dispute over the profit distribution, but Shen Qing, without hesitation, had handed over the vast majority of tonight's earnings to Jiang Yue!

"You gave half your life for the first four rounds."

Jiang Yue lifted his eyes, looking at the battered Shen Qing before him, his tone calm. "You're giving me the lion's share. With your returned principal, you're only netting a hundred points in appearance fees. You're taking a loss."

"I'm not taking a loss."

Shen Qing let out a bitter laugh, meeting Jiang Yue's gaze without flinching. "If you hadn't turned the tide in the fifth round, I wouldn't just have lost my two-hundred-point principal—I'd be drowning in medical debt."

"Worse, without points to exchange for resources, these broken arms of mine would take at least dozens of days to heal! For martial arts, that would completely ruin my upcoming development period."

Shen Qing took a deep breath and said earnestly, "That punch of yours saved not just my principal, but my entire martial path. Those three hundred points are yours, fair and square."

Jiang Yue looked at Shen Qing's stubborn eyes and felt a slight stir in his heart.

The two of them, though not entirely the same kind of person, were similar—both equally poor with words.

Shen Qing was relatively more stubborn, sticking rigidly to his principles.

Dealing with someone like him, any insincere refusal or polite formality was an insult.

Moreover, Jiang Yue understood that he truly was in dire need of this massive amount of resources.

"Thanks."

Jiang Yue didn't waste another word of nonsense, cleanly accepting this huge sum of points. "I owe you one."

Shen Qing grinned, which pulled at his wounds, making him hiss in pain, but supported by those two new recruits, his eyes were brighter than ever before.

Jiang Yue didn't linger long in the noisy, boiling underground boxing ring.

He bent down, picked up the black training uniform, casually draped it over his solid shoulders, and under the awed, fanatical gazes of all the new recruits—as if they were looking at a monster—he turned and walked into the passage leading to the surface.

The dim sensor lights in the corridor lit up one after another.

As he walked, Jiang Yue gently rubbed the military terminal on his wrist.

Three hundred points!

If he exchanged all of it for Exotic Beast meat, this huge sum would undoubtedly become his strongest aid on the path of martial arts ahead.

"At least for a long time to come, I won't have to worry about resources."

"I must make greater progress before the next assessment... at least, I have to move faster than the others."