Northern Pole Trial

"So, did you manage to find out anything?" Feng Qingmo couldn't help but lower his voice.

"You know those two were from the Boria Mercenary Group. Their base is in the Bering Strait, right between the old U.S. and the old Soviet territories. Although they didn't explicitly say it, I suspect the U.S. was behind the commission—I don't know the specifics beyond that..."

"That's not important. As long as we're on guard, they won't be able to get their hands on us!" Li Ping refilled the teacup in front of Feng Qingmo. "What I really want to talk about is something else..."

"Perhaps out of a desire to survive, Wang Xiangying revealed a piece of information. Their mercenary group is not far from the Arctic and often ventures there to hunt monsters. However, a few years ago, several of their members went missing there for no apparent reason. The communication watches they carried were equipped with positioning functions, yet it was eerily impossible to determine their locations. If they had been killed by monsters, it shouldn't have resulted in a total loss of signal..."

"Their leader searched the Arctic several times but found nothing, which led them to a certain hypothesis..."

Li Ping looked at Feng Qingmo with a smile: "Care to guess what that hypothesis is?"

Feng Qingmo really wanted to roll his eyes at him, but unfortunately, his eyes didn't support that action.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he blurted out: "...An ancient civilization ruin!"

"Snap!" Li Ping clapped his hands and said in a low voice, "Exactly. They suspect there is an undiscovered ancient civilization ruin in the Arctic. The Chief has entered such ruins before, so he agrees with this theory. That is the most important reason why this life-and-death trial was set in the Arctic..."

"But," Feng Qingmo couldn't help but ask, "shouldn't something like this be handled by top-tier combatants? What use is it to send War-General level fighters?"

Li Ping sighed softly: "We did. Not only did the Chief go there personally for over half a month, but we even dispatched over a dozen War-Gods. But after a month of searching—we found nothing!"

"So that's how it is..." Feng Qingmo nodded, then frowned. "What if there isn't a ruin at all?"

"That is why I am only telling you, and not the other students. If there is no ruin, then it is just a normal life-and-death trial... If there is one, then it depends on who has the luck, or perhaps the misfortune, to find it..."

Feng Qingmo felt a stir in his heart: "What was the strength level of those missing mercenary members?"

Li Ping smiled: "Your mind is indeed sharp... That's right, those who went missing were all War-General level!"

"Then our students..." Feng Qingmo hesitated.

"Qingmo," Li Ping's gaze was profound, his voice heavy, "you must understand that everyone's life path is different. There is no such thing as a place of absolute safety. Even an ordinary person living in a Base City could have their head cracked by a flowerpot falling from a height, or be hit by a car running a red light while walking down the street...

If these students go to the Arctic and manage to discover or even enter a ruin, or even just trigger its manifestation, as long as they survive, they are the first to benefit. Even if they hand it over to the state, the state will never treat them unfairly—of course, they must first ensure they can survive...

And if there is no ruin, or if it cannot be found, then this is just a normal life-and-death trial... You must understand why the words 'life-and-death' are added before the trial. This kind of trial is, in itself, a test!"

Feng Qingmo nodded silently.

"Brother Li, didn't that mercenary group try searching the Arctic again later?" Feng Qingmo asked, feeling a bit puzzled.

"No." Li Ping shook his head and smiled. "The leader of that mercenary group is a high-level War-God. After spending nearly half a year walking across almost the entire Arctic, he finally gave up..."

On July 1st, 119 martial artists from the training camp at the mid-level War-General rank or higher, along with Feng Qingmo and the 6 accompanying instructors, took a bus to the airport in Kyoto Base City. The other 118 students at the initial War-General and Fighter levels headed to other designated areas for their trials.

The 126 people boarded a plane chartered by the training camp and flew directly to the Arctic.

The straight-line distance from Kyoto Base City to the Arctic is not very far; at the speed of modern passenger aircraft, it takes only about two hours to arrive.

On the plane, the screens that usually played movies began showing briefings on the Arctic, including maps, polar common knowledge, types of monsters, their distribution, and so on.

These were matters of life and death, so every student watched intently. Some even recorded the footage so they could review it if they forgot anything.

Feng Qingmo also listened to the video briefing carefully. He had collected quite a few types of Arctic maps in the previous few days, ranging from rough sketches to detailed ones, though no ordinary human had set foot on Arctic soil for decades, and the martial artists who came here generally didn't know how to map.

Fortunately, there were satellites, but they were mainly used to monitor powerful monsters like King-Level Monsters. In areas like the Arctic, where no King-Level Monsters had yet been born, the frequency of satellite coverage was much lower.

Many students looked at Feng Qingmo with curiosity. Some hadn't seen him before but had heard of him. However, after the third group that tried to invite him to join their team was rejected, no one else came to ask for a snub.

After the video finished playing, the plane soon reached the edge of the Arctic. After flying deeper for a while, it began to descend.

Once the plane came to a stop, over a hundred people poured out of the cabin.

This was a world of silver and white; not only were there no buildings, but there wasn't even a trace of green. The cold weather had draped everything in a silver shroud.

"Attention, all students!" An instructor jumped onto the wing of the plane and said loudly, "Use your communication watches to lock in the precise coordinates here. It is now July 1st, 12:13 PM. Your mission is to survive for 28 days in the region above 80 degrees latitude. Our plane will return to this exact spot on July 29th at 12:00 PM to pick up all students and take you back to Kyoto Base City."

"Now, your life-and-death trial officially begins!"

The six War-God instructors returned to the plane, which quickly took off and vanished into the horizon as a streak of blue light.

Watching the familiar groups of students gathering together, Feng Qingmo took out a pair of sunglasses, put them on, and was the first to leave alone.

"Look at how arrogant he is. I wonder if he can even last these 28 days..." A student who had been rejected earlier when trying to invite him to a team couldn't help but say sourly to his teammates after Feng Qingmo had walked away.

Although his voice wasn't loud, many heard it. Some students showed agreement, some were indifferent, some looked worried, and most were busy organizing their own weapons and equipment.

Although Feng Qingmo was quite far away and the wind was strong, under the coverage of his spiritual energy, he still witnessed this display of human nature. He was stunned at first, then shook his head with a smile, accelerated, and soon disappeared into the wind and snow.

Walking on the ice and snow-covered ground was a novel experience for him. Although it snowed in Jiangnan Base City every winter, the snow usually didn't last very long.

Taking a deep breath of the icy air, he couldn't help but let out a long whistle.