Metamorphosis

Another three days passed.

Apart from the mandatory morning roll call, Jiang Yue turned down every invitation and celebration. He rarely even went to the mess hall. Like a lone wolf lying low, he shut himself inside the training room.

The air in the training room was stiflingly hot. Even the ventilation system hummed under the strain of running at full capacity.

Bare-chested, Jiang Yue sat cross-legged on the cold alloy floor.

His chest rose and fell in a strange rhythm that somehow seemed to follow a fundamental law of nature.

With every breath, a low rumble like thunder rolling through clouds sounded in the silent room!

It did not come from outside. It was the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound erupting from deep within Jiang Yue's organs and bone marrow!

Each breath sent a visible dark-red ripple across his skin, a sign of the immense Blood Energy surging through the vessels beneath it.

The Exotic Beast Blood Essence he had swallowed three days ago, worth 100 military Points, and the Exotic Beast meat he had bought with his huge winnings from the Black Boxing Arena had all been stored within his body.

That violent energy would have made an ordinary Quasi-Martial Artist burst apart. But Gluttony's absurd digestive power extracted every last bit of it, turning it into pure life-giving Blood Energy that poured through his entire body.

What regulated and subdued that raging Blood Energy was the Six Harmonies Breathing Method Shen Qing had taught him, together with his Smooth Breath trait!

Jiang Yue slowly opened his eyes. A line of data flashed rapidly on the virtual panel deep in his vision:

[Action: Breathing ➔ Smooth Breath (White)]

[Current status: +++]

In just three days, the Six Harmonies Breathing Method, an Ancient Martial Arts discipline built around Blood Energy resonance, had driven his progress forward at remarkable speed.

Now, the results he got from ordinary breathing matched what he had once achieved through exercise. It was enormous progress.

"Just a little more... Metamorphosis is close!"

Jiang Yue felt the strange resonance between his breathing and his internal organs, and a satisfied smile touched his lips.

He stood and picked up a towel to wipe the hot sweat from his body.

He had not thrown a punch at the strength tester in those three days, so he did not know how high his maximum explosive power had climbed. But his control over his body had reached an astonishing level.

He could clearly feel a terrifying depth settling into his strength.

Jiang Yue lowered his head and studied his arms.

He had a powerful intuition that even without any Ancient Martial Arts technique, the sheer physical force of a casual swing would far surpass his limits in the ring three days ago!

"I'm definitely closing in on a terrifying 800 kilograms of force..."

Jiang Yue clenched his fist, feeling destructive power in his palm as though he held a miniature bomb.

Why had the military's martial arts system, in the interstellar Great Crusade Era, set 1,000 kilograms as the absolute barrier before the Skin Tempering Realm?

Because the human body's structure had limits.

Only when the Skin Membrane had been tempered until it was as tough as armor, able to bear every bit of force released, could one truly enter the first stage of martial arts—the Skin Tempering Realm!

Jiang Yue breathed out and glanced at the electronic clock on the wall.

"It's almost time."

He pulled on a fresh black training uniform, hiding his beastlike, imposing physique beneath the fabric, then turned and pushed open the heavy airtight door.

"Wooo—!!!"

The piercing assembly alarm tore through the steel skies of Military Floating Land No. 17 like a blade.

In the cold morning wind, countless recruits streamed from the barracks, mess halls, and medical area. Like black rivers, they converged on the central plaza.

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

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

As Jiang Yue walked toward the plaza with steady, silent steps, an odd disturbance swept through the crowded, noisy Square Formation of recruits.

"It's Brother Jiang..."

"Move! Make way for Brother Jiang!"

Someone called out in a low voice. The crowd, packed so tightly that turning around had been difficult, parted to either side and opened a broad, straight path for Jiang Yue!

Jiang Yue walked down its center without looking left or right.

On both sides, every recruit watched him with undisguised fervor and deep awe. That included the troublemakers who had mocked his poor foundation when training began and the mediocre recruits who had barely passed the Gravity Exam.

The military was a place that worshipped strength, pure and simple.

Three days ago, Jiang Yue had single-handedly brought down Scar, an 800-kilogram veteran, in the Black Boxing Arena. With overwhelming violence, he had established himself as invincible in the minds of every recruit.

Shen Qing walked half a step behind him, his arms still slightly injured.

Walking beside Jiang Yue now, Shen Qing saw the awe in the other recruits' eyes. But he himself was even more shaken than they were.

Having practiced Ancient Martial Arts since childhood, Shen Qing was exceptionally sensitive to the flow of Blood Energy within a Martial Artist's body.

To his shock, the young man beside him had changed in only three days. Jiang Yue showed no hostility, and his breathing was so faint it had nearly stopped. Yet a heavy pressure emanated from within him, like an ancient beast lying dormant!

And the rhythmic cadence of Jiang Yue's steps and breathing...

What kind of monster is he?!

Shen Qing drew a sharp breath, his scalp prickling.

Three days! It's only been three days! He hasn't just grasped the essence of the Six Harmonies Breathing Method—he's made it muscle memory, an unconscious instinct?!

Just how terrifyingly dense is his Blood Energy now?!

Shen Qing had thought that, having handed over his inherited art, he could at least count as half a teacher to Jiang Yue. Now it seemed this monster was a killing machine born for martial arts!

Just as Jiang Yue and Shen Qing reached the front of the Square Formation, they came upon a dozen or so figures who stood apart from everyone else at the heart of the plaza.

They were Chu Lin, Zhan Feng, Lin Xuan, and the other top talents from the Capital's Martial Arts Families.

They had claimed the best position, with an empty space around them that even the elite recruits did not dare enter.

Hearing the commotion behind them, the group of top talents led by Chu Lin turned and fixed their gazes on Jiang Yue.

"So he's Jiang Yue? The one who used a power technique to beat a veteran in the underground Black Boxing Arena?"

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

His name was Zhan Feng. Born into a Warlord Family on the Federation Frontline, he carried himself with the domineering edge of a drawn blade.

Zhan Feng looked Jiang Yue up and down with an aggressive stare, a bloodthirsty sneer curling his lips.

"He doesn't look like much. He's so scrawny. That veteran was probably all show."

Despite his words, Zhan Feng's taut muscles betrayed his wariness.

On Zhan Feng's other side stood Lin Xuan, a stern-faced young man with cold eyes. He narrowed them slightly and gave his assessment.

"Don't underestimate him. I watched the recording of that fight. His control over his body is freakish. He can compress all his power into a single point before releasing it.

"If someone like him is your enemy, you have to kill him in one strike. Never give him a chance to close in for hand-to-hand combat."

At the center stood Chu Lin, his black training uniform spotless.

He did not taunt Jiang Yue like Zhan Feng or analyze him coldly like Lin Xuan. He merely swept Jiang Yue with a calm, condescending glance.

Chu Lin looked at him as an eagle soaring high above might look down on a wolf that had just crawled from the mud and barely grown its fangs.

Jiang Yue's performance in the Black Boxing Arena had been stunning. But to a prodigy like Chu Lin, raised on the finest resources since childhood, it was hardly worth much attention.

The foundations of their strength were fundamentally different!

If someone had scanned Chu Lin, Zhan Feng, and Lin Xuan with the military's most advanced Microscopic Scanning Device, they would have been shocked to discover the extraordinary density of their muscles and strength of their bones!

They had each been injected with a Gene Potion before the previous major exam. Their ordinary physical strength had already reached the threshold of that absolute 1,000-kilogram barrier!

They were just one step away from completing Skin Refining and becoming Martial Artists.

At this stage, a simple numerical test could no longer accurately gauge their strength.

If they disregarded the damage to their bodies, the maximum force they could unleash would reach astonishing figures!

Once they had tempered their Skin Membrane, they could turn that explosive force into their normal strength. The gap would widen even further.

Jiang Yue naturally felt the gazes assessing him from ahead.

He raised his head and calmly met the eyes of Chu Lin and the others.

Just then, a metallic boom like muffled thunder sounded from the platform!

"Everyone—attention!!"

As the Amplification Matrix blared, Chief Instructor One-Eye strode to the front of the platform in a dark military overcoat.

The more than twenty thousand recruits fell instantly silent. They straightened their backs, hardly daring to breathe.

One-Eye's sole remaining natural eye surveyed the greatly thinned Square Formation below like a hawk's. His cold, merciless voice rang across the plaza.

"Today is the twentieth day since you pieces of trash enlisted. It's also your second minor exam—the one that decides whether you stay in the regular army or get shoved into a mining cart as expendable labor!"