The Great Crusade Era Cannot Tolerate Mediocrity

Bam! Thud! Clang!

Over the next few hours, this training room became a monotonous, agonizing hell.

Jiang Yue was trapped in a death loop he couldn't seem to break.

Either he dodged Shen Qing's attacks by instinct, but his lower body loosened, the Stake Stance's intent collapsed, and Shen Qing harshly called a halt;

Or he forcibly locked his center of gravity, causing his body movements to severely deform and slow, only to have Shen Qing's Inch Power-laden fists land solidly on his shoulders, chest, abdomen, and even his back.

Even though Shen Qing only used thirty percent of his strength, the cumulative effect of hundreds of Inch Power strikes penetrating his body was terrifyingly damaging.

After just three hours, Jiang Yue's originally bronze-tinged, tough physique was covered in shocking, large and small blue-purple bruise patches.

Even with every breath, he could feel the stabbing pain from ruptured capillaries, and a trace of blood from internal organ shock uncontrollably seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Any normal recruit facing this dual torture of body and mind would have long since broken down and given up, or needed to lie in a high-grade Medical Pod to recuperate for ten days or half a month.

But not Jiang Yue.

His bloodshot eyes held not a shred of retreat or fear, but instead burned with a nearly pathological excitement and fervor!

His damaged internal organs, under the thunderous resonance of his breathing, not only failed to worsen but, nourished by the faint, free-floating energy, grew tougher and more resilient.

He didn't need to worry about lingering injuries or completely exhausting his stamina.

"Bam!"

Another dull impact. Jiang Yue took a punch to his left shoulder, sliding half a step back, his right leg bracing firmly against the ground as another mouthful of blood spilled from his lips.

"Keep going!" Jiang Yue spat out the bloody froth, not even pausing before resuming the All-Rounder Stance.

Shen Qing watched Jiang Yue, battered but seemingly feeling no pain, and his eye twitched violently again.

"What an utter madman..." Shen Qing gritted his teeth, then lunged forward again.

"If this were the dawn of martial arts, with your perseverance and talent, you might have earned the title of Grandmaster!"

Jiang Yue shook his head, though. The notion of talent didn't hold; his martial arts aptitude was merely average, nothing remarkable.

It was precisely because of the panel, which made effort yield results and clear feedback, that Jiang Yue was even more motivated.

Every action changed himself—eating and drinking, let alone training. How could there be any reason not to work hard?

Besides...

"Even if not for pursuing excellence, at least for survival's sake."

"In the Great Crusade Era, there's no room for mediocrity..."

Jiang Yue sighed and continued practicing.

Four hours... five hours...

The high-intensity mental strain and monotonous physical torment finally pushed Jiang Yue to a breaking point.

It felt like after three straight all-nighters, his brain suddenly went completely blank for an instant.

No commands, no thoughts, no perception of pain.

In that extremely brief moment of mental stasis.

Shh!

Shen Qing's final thirty-percent-strength strike, like a venomous snake, suddenly tore through the air, straight for Jiang Yue's face. The angle of this punch was extremely tricky, almost sealing off all of Jiang Yue's conventional retreat paths.

And at this moment, Jiang Yue's brain, due to that instant of blankness, for once issued no forced commands to "dodge" or "maintain center of gravity."

But his body moved.

In those hours, the hundreds of muscle memories hammered into him by Shen Qing's fists, now free from the suppression of the brain as the supreme commander, completely took over this tough shell.

Jiang Yue's eyes were vacant.

His foot slid a single inch to the left on the alloy floor at an angle no ordinary person could understand.

Then, his spine, drawn taut like a fully bent bow, didn't lock up stiffly as before, but instead, like a truly awakened roaming dragon, completed an incredibly smooth, tiny undulation with the lumbar vertebrae as the axis.

Whoosh—

Shen Qing's fist wind, carrying a piercing chill, brushed past Jiang Yue's cheek again by a hair's breadth.

But this time, the situation was completely different!

In Shen Qing's suddenly constricted pupils, he saw with utter shock that although Jiang Yue had executed a nearly perfect dodge, his entire being's heavy center of gravity, rooted deep like an iron tower, hadn't floated even a trace!

His posture, with arms loosely embracing, moved with the wind. The blood and qi within his body hadn't scattered due to the step, but instead, following the spine's undulation, perfectly flowed to a new point of power!

Embracing the One, unmoving as a mountain.

Motion and stillness complementing, void and substance interweaving.

This wasn't deliberate imitation, but the true essence of martial arts naturally revealed by the body under extreme pressure!

To be precise, this was the true [Roaming Dragon Stance] state!

"D-Done?!"

Shen Qing froze in place, maintaining his punching posture, his eyes full of disbelief. Though it was only a fleeting glimpse of a prototype, that intent was unmistakable.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yue...

As that perilous dodge came to an end, the brief blank in his mind instantly receded. A strong sense of self-awareness came back online, immediately seizing control of his body.

"That feeling just now..."

A flash of ecstasy and enlightenment had just surfaced in Jiang Yue's eyes. He wanted to savor that Roaming Dragon state, which had felt like a stroke of divine inspiration.

Yet, in the next second, a sudden change occurred.

When Jiang Yue's brain subconsciously tried to straighten him up.

He was horrified to discover that the ingrained habits of his brain seemed to be clashing with the set of force-delivery logic his muscles had just learned on their own—the logic belonging to the [Roaming Dragon Stance].

Simply put, his brain and his muscles had, at this very moment, completely crashed over the question of "how to stand."

"Huh?"

The ecstasy on Jiang Yue's face froze instantly.

Thump!

Under Shen Qing's stunned, wide-eyed gaze.

Jiang Yue, who had just displayed a remarkable martial arts insight, couldn't even let out a cry of surprise. His entire body collapsed in an extremely comical and awkward posture, falling straight onto the cold alloy floor. He even twitched uncontrollably a couple of times on the ground.

The Extra Training Room fell into a deathly silence.

Shen Qing was dumbfounded for a full half-minute before cautiously stepping closer. He nudged Jiang Yue's thigh with the tip of his foot. "Hey... did that Inch Power give you internal injuries?"

Jiang Yue lay sprawled on the ground, his eyes vacant as he stared at the dome of the training room.

He tried to wiggle his toes, but the muscles in his thigh gave a completely opposite, twisted feedback.

"That's not it."

"It's just that I seem to have... forgotten how to stand on two legs."