Equal Footing

Five hundred catties had already reached the limit of his strength.

However, holding it for twenty breaths was still achievable.

After twenty breaths, he set the stone down, panting heavily, fine beads of sweat already forming on his forehead.

The crowd was stunned; Lin Xuan's performance was already the best in the squad leader group, exceeding the second-place finisher by a full two hundred catties!

What kind of talent was this? It seemed the position of squad leader would be his without a doubt.

Commander Zhang silently ruled Lin Xuan out in his heart; his own limit was only five hundred catties, so how could he possibly be the one who killed Xiao Chongyang?

Although Xiao Chongyang was a half-baked practitioner of Breath Circulation with an unstable foundation, far weaker than other practitioners, he still possessed nearly six hundred catties of raw strength.

The Thousand-Household official watched from the high platform in the distance, his eyes narrowed slightly.

After seeing this scene, Lin Jie stopped his previous mocking remarks, secretly rejoicing that he hadn't openly ridiculed Lin Xuan in front of everyone, or he would have made a complete fool of himself in the Garrison.

Lin Xuan stepped off the stage and sat down to take deep breaths, calming his body in preparation for the upcoming archery test.

"Squad Leader Zhang Quan!"

This was the last person to test his strength. Lin Xuan looked at him, eager to see the strength he would display.

This was the martial arts prodigy of the Zhang family that the Qin family had spoken of, someone the Zhang family had been secretly cultivating for a long time, finally willing to reveal him now.

Zhang Quan was seventeen this year; although he didn't have the natural talent of Qin Sheng, he was still far beyond an ordinary person. Coupled with the resources tilted toward him by his family, he was definitely one of the strongest contenders for the position of squad leader.

He had an ordinary appearance with very plain features, but he was quite tall.

After stepping onto the stage, he walked straight toward the five-hundred-and-fifty-catty stone.

Lin Xuan frowned; could this person's strength be greater than his own?

Zhang Quan used all his strength; even from a distance, one could see the veins on his neck bulging. After a roar to bolster his spirit, he lifted the five-hundred-and-fifty-catty stone.

After maintaining it for twenty breaths, he slowly placed the stone on the ground.

At this moment, the entire Garrison erupted.

They had originally thought that Lin Xuan, who could lift five hundred catties, was already the most outstanding among the squad leaders, but they hadn't expected someone to surpass him!

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!"

"When did geniuses start popping up one after another in our Liangcheng Thousand-Household Office?"

Lin Xuan remained silent. His situation was now a bit precarious. Since his opponent's strength test score was higher than his, he could not afford to fall behind in the next two rounds; he even had to outperform his opponent in at least one to secure the squad leader position.

As for whether the Thousand-Household official would add an extra position to compensate for the emergence of two geniuses, he dared not gamble on it.

The Qin family members, who had been quite happy, were now worried about Lin Xuan's predicament. The path to winning the squad leader position today had become somewhat obstructed.

It wasn't that Lin Xuan wasn't excellent, but that his opponent was too strong, and Zhang Quan had a two-year age advantage, which was inherently beneficial.

They could only hope that Lin Xuan would perform even better in other areas.

Commander Zhang was smug at this moment, feeling proud and happy that his descendant had stolen the spotlight.

However, he was also secretly worried, because Lin Xuan was only fifteen years old, came from a poor family with only one male heir, and had few ways to earn money, yet he had displayed strength not far off from the prodigy his family had been pouring all their resources into.

The upper limit of Zhang Quan's strength was only five hundred and fifty catties.

The second round, the archery test, began quickly. This time, people could no longer crowd together to watch; after all, this involved shooting arrows, and standing too close could easily lead to accidental injuries.

The archery competition was simple, taking even less time than the strength test.

The rules were to shoot at targets using three specifications of bows: the Six-Strength Bow, the Nine-Strength Bow, and the Twelve-Strength Bow, with three shots per bow, and the score was calculated based on the hits.

The archery skills of the group of soldiers vying for the squad leader position were almost unwatchable; their accuracy was poor. Most could hit the target, but none could hit the bullseye, and hitting the bullseye once in three shots was considered impressive.

Therefore, there was nothing to see until the squad leader group, where the archery skills were much better because most were slightly older and had been in contact with bows for more than a day or two.

Hitting the bullseye about half the time, with very few missing the target entirely, was already quite good.

Lin Jie hit the target eight times and missed once.

Soon it was Lin Xuan's turn. The scoring for the archery group was rigid; even if one hit the target from beyond the regulated distance, the score remained the same and would not receive extra points.

The difficulty of this test lay in the distance; the shooting position and the target were quite far apart. The Six-Strength Bow did not have enough range to hit directly, requiring the shooter to adjust the angle and use a parabolic shot, which greatly increased the difficulty of hitting the target.

Almost all the points lost were due to this.

Therefore, in this aspect, Lin Xuan only needed to avoid mistakes and hit the bullseye every time.

In his eyes, the archery test was the simplest of all the martial trials; with multiple factors combined, it would be hard for him not to hit the bullseye.

He picked up the lightweight Six-Strength Bow. Once upon a time, he could only pull this specification of bow once before his form became unstable, but now it was no different from a toy; he could easily pull it dozens of times.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three arrows streaked through the air, tracing a beautiful parabola before precisely hitting the bullseye.

Six-Strength Bow, three shots, three hits! All bullseyes.

Lin Xuan immediately picked up the Nine-Strength Bow. He had never actually used the Nine-Strength Bow before, so he pulled it once to test the feel. After finding no issues, he fired three more arrows.

Nine-Strength Bow, three shots, three hits, all bullseyes.

As for the Twelve-Strength Bow, he had been using it for some time, so there was no need to test the feel; he still hit every bullseye.

With his absolute mastery in both the strength and archery trials, Lin Xuan had already become an insurmountable peak in the eyes of the crowd.

Soon, it was Zhang Quan's turn for the archery trial. Having witnessed Lin Xuan's entire performance, he felt immense pressure, yet he dared not slacken in the slightest, performing at his usual standard.

With three types of bows, he fired a total of nine arrows, all nine hitting the bullseye; his results were identical to Lin Xuan's.

Seeing this, Qin Sheng's brows furrowed as he whispered to his father, "I feel like Brother Lin is in a bit of trouble."

Qin Lie remained silent, offering only a slight nod.

What Qin Sheng said was the truth; since no gap had been created in the archery trial, Lin Xuan had to win the actual combat trial to secure the position.

Having already lost in the strength trial, Lin Xuan's physical power was inferior to Zhang Quan's, leaving him at an inherent disadvantage for the final martial trial. Whether he could win would depend entirely on his combat techniques.

Witnessing this scene, the military households could not help but break into heated discussion.

"Interesting, interesting, this is truly spectacular."

"Coming here today was the right choice! Two rare geniuses going head-to-head—I really want to see who ends up winning."