Metamorphosis

Another three days passed.

Aside from the mandatory base roll call every morning, Jiang Yue turned down all invitations and celebrations, rarely even visiting the mess hall. Like a lone wolf lying in ambush, he threw himself into the training room and shut the door, refusing to come out.

Inside the training room, the air was thick with a suffocating, scorching heat. Even the ventilation system groaned under the strain of overwork, its hum strained and weary.

Jiang Yue sat cross-legged on the cold alloy floor, his upper body bare.

His chest rose and fell in a rhythm that was bizarre, yet seemed to contain some profound truth of heaven and earth.

With each inhale and exhale, a low rumble like thunder rolling through clouds echoed faintly through the silent room!

This wasn't an external sound—it was the tiger-leopard thunder emanating from deep within Jiang Yue's organs and marrow!

Every time he breathed, a visible dark red ripple spread across his skin, a sign of the immense blood energy surging through his subcutaneous blood vessels.

The Exotic Beast Blood Essence, worth 100 military merit points, which he had swallowed three days ago, along with the massive amount of exotic beast meat he had exchanged for with the fortune he won at the Black Boxing Arena, was now fully stored within his body.

The berserk energy that would have caused an ordinary Quasi-Martial Artist to explode was completely extracted by [Gluttony]'s unreasonable digestive power, transformed into the purest life blood energy, and pumped relentlessly into every limb and joint.

And the one responsible for channeling and suppressing this violent blood energy was none other than the Six Harmonies Breathing Method taught by Shen Qing, along with his [Smooth Breath] trait!

Jiang Yue slowly opened his eyes. On the virtual panel deep within his retina, a line of data flickered wildly:

[Action: Breathing ➔ Smooth Breath (White)]

[Current Status: +++]

In just three days, catalyzed by the Six Harmonies Breathing Method—an ancient martial art emphasizing blood energy resonance—his progress had accelerated dramatically.

Now, with his normal breathing, Jiang Yue could match the results he had achieved during training before—a massive leap forward.

"Just a little more... I'm close to a breakthrough!"

Feeling the wondrous resonance between his internal organs and his breath, Jiang Yue curled the corner of his mouth in satisfaction.

He stood up, grabbed a towel draped nearby, and wiped the hot sweat from his body.

Though he hadn't thrown a single punch at the force tester in these three days to measure his current peak explosive power, his control over his own body had reached an astonishing level.

He could clearly sense that the power within him had undergone a terrifying accumulation.

Jiang Yue lowered his head and examined his arms.

He had a strong intuition that now, without using any ancient martial arts techniques, just a casual swing of his hand would bring pure physical destructive power far exceeding his peak state on the ring three days ago!

"I've definitely closed in on the terrifying force of 800 kilograms..."

Jiang Yue clenched his fist, feeling the destructive power in his palm like holding a miniature bomb.

In the military martial arts system of the Great Crusade Era, why was 1000 kilograms set as an absolute threshold before the Skin Tempering Realm?

Because the physiological structure of the mortal body had its limits.

Only by tempering the Skin Membrane to be as tough as armor, perfectly containing all the overflow of power, could one truly step into the first gate of martial arts—the Skin Tempering Realm!

Jiang Yue exhaled a mouthful of turbid air and glanced at the electronic clock on the wall.

"It's about time."

He pulled on a brand-new black training uniform, concealing his beast-like, oppressive physique beneath the fabric, turned, and pushed open the heavy airtight door.

"Woo—!!!"

The piercing assembly alarm, like a sword tearing through the sky, suddenly rang out across the steel firmament of Military Floating Land No. 17.

In the cold morning wind, countless recruits surged from barracks, mess halls, and medical areas, like black torrents converging rapidly toward the central plaza.

A minor exam every ten days, a major exam every thirty.

Today was the twentieth day since their enlistment, and the day of the second life-or-death exam!

As Jiang Yue walked toward the plaza with steady, silent steps, a strange disturbance rippled through the originally crowded and noisy recruit formation.

"It's Brother Jiang..."

"Move! Make way for Brother Jiang!"

Someone lowered their voice and shouted, and then the dense sea of people, so packed it was hard to turn around, parted automatically to both sides, carving out a wide, straight path for Jiang Yue!

Jiang Yue walked straight down the center of the path, his gaze fixed ahead.

The recruits on both sides—whether they were the troublemakers who had mocked his poor foundation during initial training or the mediocrities who had barely passed the Gravity Exam—now looked at him with undisguised fervor and deep reverence.

The military was a pure place that worshipped only the strong.

After the battle three days ago, where he single-handedly brought down the 800-kilogram veteran Scar at the Black Boxing Arena, Jiang Yue had established an invincible authority in the hearts of all recruits through absolute violence.

Half a step behind Jiang Yue walked Shen Qing, his arms still bearing minor injuries.

Walking beside Jiang Yue now, Shen Qing looked at the awe in the recruits' eyes around him, but his own heart trembled even more than theirs.

As a descendant who had cultivated ancient martial arts since childhood, Shen Qing had an extremely keen perception of the blood energy flow within martial artists.

He was horrified to discover that, after just three days apart, the young man walking beside him—without deliberately emitting any hostility, his breathing so faint it nearly stopped—still radiated a heavy, oppressive pressure like an ancient beast lying dormant!

Especially the rhythmic pace and breathing pattern of Jiang Yue's movements...

"What kind of monster is this?!"

Shen Qing sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, his scalp tingling.

"Three days! In just three short days! Not only has he grasped the essence of the Six Harmonies Breathing Method, he's already trained it into muscle memory and subconscious instinct?!"

"Just how terrifying a level has his blood and qi thickness reached now?!"

Shen Qing had thought that by handing over the inheritance, he could at least be half a master to Jiang Yue, but looking at it now, this monster was simply a killing machine born for the martial path!

Just as Jiang Yue and Shen Qing reached the front of the formation.

In the very core area of the plaza stood over a dozen figures that seemed out of place with their surroundings.

Those were Chu Lin, Zhan Feng, Lin Xuan, and a batch of top-tier monsters from the martial families of the capital.

Not only did they occupy the best positions, but a vacuum zone had formed around them—even the elite among the new recruits dared not approach easily.

Hearing the commotion behind them, the group of top geniuses led by Chu Lin turned their heads, their gazes landing on Jiang Yue.

"Is he that Jiang Yue who used striking technique to defeat a veteran in the underground black boxing arena?"

The speaker was a short-haired youth standing beside Chu Lin.

His name was Zhan Feng, born into a warlord family from the Federation's front lines, exuding an extremely overbearing sharpness like a blade.

At this moment, Zhan Feng was sizing up Jiang Yue with a highly aggressive look, a cruel smirk curling at the corner of his mouth:

"Doesn't look like much to me. Such a thin build. That veteran was probably a flashy dud."

Though Zhan Feng said this, his taut muscles betrayed his inner vigilance.

On the other side of Zhan Feng, a young man with a cold expression and eyes as sinister as a viper's—Lin Xuan—narrowed his eyes slightly and evaluated coldly:

"Don't underestimate him. I watched the arena footage. This kid's control over his physical body has reached an utterly freakish level. He can compress one hundred percent of his power into a single point of burst.

"Someone like that, if he's an enemy, must be killed in one blow. Never give him a chance to get in close for hand-to-hand combat."

Standing at the very center, Chu Lin, in his spotless black training uniform.

He didn't provoke like Zhan Feng, nor did he analyze coldly like Lin Xuan. He simply cast a faint, indifferent glance at Jiang Yue with an extremely calm yet condescending gaze.

Chu Lin's look was like an eagle soaring in the nine heavens, looking down on a wild wolf that had just crawled out of a mud pit and barely grown its fangs.

Although Jiang Yue's performance in the black boxing arena was stunning, to a freak like Chu Lin, built up from childhood with top-tier resources, it wasn't worth too much attention.

Because the gap in their foundational power was an essential difference!

At this very moment, if someone could use the military's most cutting-edge microscopic imaging equipment to scan the bodies of Chu Lin, Zhan Feng, and Lin Xuan, they would be horrified to find that the muscle density and bone strength of these three had already reached an inconceivable level!

Before the previous major exam, they had already injected gene agents. At this point, their normal physical strength had already touched the absolute chasm of 1000 kilograms!

Only one final step remained to refine the skin and become a Martial Artist.

Thus, at this stage, simple numerical tests could no longer accurately judge their strength.

If they disregarded damage to their physical bodies, the peak values they could unleash were already exaggerated!

Once the Skin Membrane was formed, they could convert that burst value into a constant state, and the gap would widen even further.

Jiang Yue naturally felt those several probing gazes, as solid as substance, from ahead.

He lifted his head, his deep eyes calmly meeting the stares of Chu Lin and the others.

Just then, from the high platform came a metallic roar like a clap of thunder!

"All troops—Attention!!"

With the blast of the Amplification Matrix, the chief instructor One-Eye, draped in a deep black military overcoat, strode to the very front of the platform.

The twenty thousand new recruits fell into dead silence in an instant, straightening their backs, not daring to breathe loudly.

One-Eye's single remaining biological eye, like a hawk's, looked down upon the thinned-out recruit formation below. His cold, merciless voice rang out across the entire plaza:

"Today marks your twentieth day since this batch of scum enlisted, and it's also the second minor exam that will decide whether you stay in the regular army or get stuffed into a mining cart as consumables!"