Coarse Grains and Cultivation Methods

The food in the Death Squad Camp was coarse: bowls of grain gruel that barely filled the stomach and steamed buns so hard they could crack a skull.

Li Jinshui squatted under a drafty straw shed, laboriously swallowing the rough grains. His stomach was full, but inside, a fire of frustration burned hollowly.

All around him were men swallowing with the same numbness, their eyes vacant, like a herd of cattle waiting for the slaughter.

Three months since he transmigrated, he had spent his time hauling corpses to save money, only to see his dream of joining a martial arts school shattered before being sold into this man-eating cannon fodder camp.

He swallowed the last mouthful of throat-choking grain. His stomach felt heavy, yet that inner fire only burned colder.

"Clang—!"

A copper gong exploded, and everyone was driven out to the drill ground.

Instructor Zhao, his face scarred, stood in the slush, his gaze scraping over every face like a blade: "One month. You will learn two things: how to take a beating, and how to kill."

He drew a dull, unsharpened saber, his movements as crisp as chopping firewood.

"Army-Breaking Saber Technique."

The wooden saber tore through the air, whistling. The movements were simple and direct, each style aimed at a lethal point.

"Iron Shirt, a hard qigong. When you take a hit, circulate your qi and tense your muscles; it will let you endure one more strike."

He demonstrated the breathing rhythm and the trick to tensing muscles, without a single wasted motion.

[Martial arts instruction detected... Recording...]

[Recording successful: Iron Shirt]

[Recording successful: Three Army-Breaking Styles]

A panel flickered into view:

[Technique: Iron Shirt (Uninitiated 0/10), Army-Breaking Saber Technique (Uninitiated 0/10)]

Ten points of proficiency were needed, but the words "Ordinary Person" under the realm column stung like needles.

The training began.

Each man was issued a dull saber to practice chopping against straw dummies.

Li Jinshui gripped the hilt, dropped his shoulders, stepped forward, and swung with all his might, imitating the instructor's stance. It felt awkward at first, then gradually smoothed out.

"Keep your center of gravity low, and strike fast," Instructor Zhao threw out as he walked past.

Li Jinshui adjusted immediately and continued to swing.

Ten times, twenty times; his arms swelled with soreness, and sweat soaked through his thin tunic.

He didn't make a sound, staring fixedly at the mark drawn in charcoal on the dummy's neck, refining the angle and adjusting his force with every repetition.

[Army-Breaking Saber Technique proficiency +1]

[Current: 1/10]

After a morning of practice, his proficiency finally ticked up by one.

After lunch came Iron Shirt training. They paired up, taking turns striking each other's chests, abdomens, and backs with wooden staves.

His partner, Hunter Han, had immense strength. With one strike, Li Jinshui let out a muffled groan, his ribs aching as if they were about to snap.

He gritted his teeth, following the mnemonic to circulate his breath, trying to disperse the force, but the effect was minimal.

He took nearly a hundred strikes that afternoon, his body covered in black and blue bruises. When he crawled back to the communal bunk that night, he was so exhausted he could barely move.

At least there was progress.

[Iron Shirt proficiency +1]

[Current: 1/10]

An old soldier tossed him a small piece of inferior ointment; it burned like fire when applied.

"With your poor aptitude, you'll train until you die and still be nothing," the old soldier muttered, rolling over.

Li Jinshui didn't respond, silently rubbing the ointment over his injuries. The day's training had drained every ounce of his strength.

Every day thereafter was a repetition: rising before dawn, gnawing on buns, practicing the saber, taking beatings, and dragging his falling-apart body back at night, collapsing into a death-like sleep the moment he touched the bed.

Li Jinshui became the most silent and the most desperate man in the camp.

While others rested after one round, he practiced two. While others grimaced and groaned while being beaten, he tensed his entire body, feeling the flow of force in every strike and adjusting his breathing rhythm.

On the ninth day, the Army-Breaking Saber Technique broke through first.

[Army-Breaking Saber Technique proficiency full]

[Breakthrough: Uninitiated → Initiated]

A surge of heat rushed from his arms throughout his entire body, and the soreness vanished significantly. Countless experiences and memories of using the saber flooded his mind like a torrent. Li Jinshui swung his blade, the whistling sound of the air clearly sharper and more vicious.

Instructor Zhao happened to pass by and glanced over. He didn't stop, only tossing out a single sentence: "Not bad, but still far from enough."

Progress in Iron Shirt was much slower. Aptitude was too great a constraint for hard qigong; no matter how he adjusted his breathing or tensed his muscles, that invisible barrier refused to break. When the staves hit him, the pain was still bone-deep.

Hunter Han sometimes joined him for extra practice late at night. The two of them would swing their sabers in the clearing behind the barracks, under the pale moonlight.

"Aptitude determines life and death," Hunter Han wiped away his sweat. "I have average mortal aptitude. Back in the mountains, I once chased a wolf for three days and three nights. You have low-grade aptitude; even if you put in ten times the effort, you might not catch up to someone else's one part."

Li Jinshui did not respond. He did not understand what "root bone" meant. He only believed that the system would lead him to crush everything.

[Army-Breaking Saber Technique proficiency +1]

[Iron Shirt proficiency +1]

The numbers on the panel ticked upward bit by bit.

On the eleventh day of training, the Iron Shirt proficiency became stuck at 9/10, refusing to budge no matter what.

Instructor Zhao gathered everyone for a briefing: "Eighteen days remain. After eighteen days, you go to the wall."

The crowd fell into a deathly silence. Some began to sob in low voices, while others had vacant, soul-lost expressions.

Li Jinshui looked down at his hands; thick calluses had formed on the webs of his thumbs, and the cracks had yet to heal. He pulled up his panel:

[Techniques: Iron Shirt (9/10), Army-Breaking Saber Technique (Entry)]

Only one point away.

That night, he found Hunter Han: "Hit me with all your strength."

Hunter Han frowned: "You will get hurt."

"Hit me."

A wooden staff whistled through the air, slamming fiercely into his back. Li Jinshui did not dodge or evade; his muscles tensed to their limit in an instant, and his breathing suddenly adjusted to the peak of the Iron Shirt mantra—

"Bang!"

A sharp pain exploded, and a metallic, sweet taste surged into his throat. But at that very moment, the stagnant energy within his body roared, breaking through a barrier and flooding his limbs and bones like a torrent!

[Iron Shirt proficiency +1]

[Proficiency maxed]

[Breakthrough: Uninitiated → Entry]

A faint, metallic luster flickered across the surface of his skin before vanishing. The pain remained, but it felt as if... he could endure it.

[Current Realm: Body Forging First Layer]

It was done!

A solid sense of power surged throughout his entire body. Finally, on this man-eating battlefield, he had a sliver of capital to stand his ground.

Time flew like a shuttle.

During the final three days of training, the atmosphere changed completely. The instructors no longer barked orders, watching coldly as they practiced their saber drills. Everyone was fighting for their lives, as if swinging the blade one more time would allow them to breathe for one more moment on the city wall.

On the final day, Instructor Zhao gave his last instructions: "Once you are on the wall, stay close to the person in front of you. The Di People are made of flesh and blood too; they die just the same if you cut their necks. Every moment you stay alive, the city holds for one more moment."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over faces that were young, old, and numb.

"Don't think about living. Think about how to make the Di People die."

That night, no one could sleep.

Li Jinshui lay on the communal bunk, listening to the stifled breathing and low sobs around him. He pulled up his panel for one final confirmation:

[Techniques: Iron Shirt (First Layer 7/10), Army-Breaking Saber Technique (Entry 8/10)]

[Realm: Body Forging First Layer]

[Points: 0]

Outside the window, the faint sound of war drums approached from the distance, rolling in like muffled thunder.

The sky was about to brighten.