The 83rd day of school.
Seven days remained until Demon Subduing Valley opened!
Xun Hu, Ning Rong, and Su Bai hurried out of the school and headed more than two kilometers south. At last, they reached a training ground built beside a river and met Yang Ning, who had arrived ahead of them.
"This place is way too desolate!" Ning Rong looked over the unmanaged wilderness, overgrown with grass, and the dull gray mountains in the distance. There did not seem to be anything special about it!
Aside from its size, the only unusual thing about the entire training ground was the metal fortress beside it.
"Are we training here?" Su Bai asked. "Did you buy Fierce Beasts and release them here?"
"There probably aren't any Fierce Beasts," Xun Hu said softly.
After nearly three months of elite education, Xun Hu's temperament had changed considerably from when he first boarded the ship. For example, his tone had become somewhat uncertain, and his expression carried a hint of dejection.
Hm, why had he gotten worse instead?
He sniffed the air. It was harmless and nonpoisonous, with none of the peculiar scent of Fierce Beasts.
"We are training here, but there are no Fierce Beasts!" Yang Ning said with a smile. "Living Fierce Beasts are expensive. I already spent a lot of money building weapons, so I can't afford to buy any!"
"Then are we just practicing martial arts?" Su Bai blinked. "If that's all, couldn't we use the school's training ground?"
"The school's training ground is too small, and it isn't secret enough!" Yang Ning said. "My newly built weapon needs to be kept confidential, at least until the trial!"
"Confidential?" Xun Hu asked curiously. "It's only a weapon. Why does it need to be kept secret? Unless..."
Thinking of a possibility, Xun Hu's eyes lit up. "Did you forge a Low-grade Mortal Artifact?"
Su Bai and Ning Rong's eyes also lit up. After three months, Xun Hu had only just entered the Body Tempering Triple Layer, while Su Bai and Ning Rong had both firmly reached the Second Level of Body Tempering.
Although they could not yet make use of their qi and blood, that did not stop them from wanting a Mortal Artifact!
"Not that!" Yang Ning patted the steel fortress behind him. "What I built is this!"
"Hm?" The three of them froze and looked over.
The fortress had been there the whole time. The three had assumed it was something the training ground already possessed. Now that they learned Yang Ning had built it, they were instantly dumbfounded.
The fortress was green, six or seven meters tall, and round, broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. A long tube extended from its roof, though they had no idea what it was for.
Overall, it looked like three stacked pancakes.
Three large white characters had also been painted on its body: Kun-12!
"This is the weapon you forged?" Xun Hu circled the fortress three times in a daze, then asked, "How do we use this? Stand on top and shoot arrows?"
This had cost 400,000 taels, and this was what he had made?
The fortress was indeed sturdy and smooth, but was not the space on top a little too small? It could only fit one person!
"Isn't Ning Rong the only archer on our team?" Ning Rong asked.
Su Bai nodded. This month, the school had started offering courses on defensive archery, but he had been studying a martial art called Indestructible Vajra Body and had not even touched a bow.
"Let me introduce it to you properly!" Seeing their baffled expressions, Yang Ning smiled. He first pushed aside the thick, dense grass, then said, "This isn't a fortress. It's a Kun-12 mobile infantry fighting vehicle. Look underneath—it has wheels!"
"Oh?" Ning Rong crouched down for a look. It really did have wheels: two at each of the front, back, left, and right positions, eight in total!
"A mobile fortress?" Ning Rong asked.
"It can move, and it can also stay still!" Yang Ning pointed at the two pillars beside the wheels. "These can be lowered to brace against the ground. Then the mobile fortress becomes a fixed fortress!"
"This fortress's armor is three fingers thick. Even Fierce Beasts at the Fifth Level of Body Refinement or Eighth Level of Body Refinement can't break through it!" Yang Ning said. "As long as we hide inside, we'll naturally be safe beyond all doubt in Demon Subduing Valley!"
"Huh?" Xun Hu's eyes widened. They could play it like that?
Yet it sounded perfectly reasonable. After all, that was a place only upperclassmen could enter. They were merely first-year students. Even with teachers watching over them, their safety could not be absolutely guaranteed.
But with a fortress, as long as the Fierce Beasts could not break it, would they not be born undefeated?
"But during the Demon Subduing Valley trial, you only earn points by killing Fierce Beasts. If we just hide inside the fortress, wouldn't we get zero points?" Ning Rong asked.
Xun Hu shook his head. "We're only going in to broaden our horizons. Why talk about killing Fierce Beasts? It would already be impressive enough if we didn't die!"
The only problem was that hiding in the fortress the entire time might make it impossible for them to become famous.
But as long as they were alive, would they have to fear never getting a chance to become famous?
"You've got it all wrong!" Yang Ning shook his head, then stood up and gave the fortress's second level a fierce pull. He actually pulled out a terrifying giant sword four meters long and forty centimeters wide!
"This sword!" Xun Hu's eyelids twitched. Such a massive sword was obviously heavy. It would take someone at the Fifth or Sixth Level of Body Tempering to wield it, right?
"This is Kun-12's melee weapon. I call it the Tank Spiral Sword!" Yang Ning said. "It can spin forward or backward. I'll demonstrate it for you. Stand farther away!"
The three hurriedly backed off. Forget cutting someone—even being grazed by such a huge sword could be fatal!
Yang Ning leaped onto the top of the tank, lifted a hatch, and crawled inside.
Then, with two mechanical clacks, two more swords of identical size extended out.
Next, the entire second level holding the three swords began to rotate. It spun faster and faster, faster and faster, until all they could hear was the howling wind whipped up by the giant blades.
Though it struck no actual target, no one doubted the effect of a four-meter-long, forty-centimeter-wide giant sword slashing into a Fierce Beast at a speed of twenty meters per second.
Before long, the Tank Spiral Swords stopped spinning. Yang Ning climbed out from the top and asked, "What do you think? Is it powerful?"
"Amazing!" Xun Hu stared wide-eyed and gave him a thumbs-up. "How did you make this thing? It's incredible!"
He could already imagine driving the tank into Demon Subduing Valley and using the spiral swords to slaughter in all directions!
"It really is impressive!" Ning Rong nodded. She finally understood a little of Yang Ning's design philosophy, then pointed at the cannon barrel. "That should be equipment for long-range attacks, right?"
Since it already had melee weapons, it naturally could not lack ranged ones. Ning Rong believed Yang Ning would have considered everything thoroughly!
"Just as expected of you—you saw through it!" Yang Ning patted the cannon barrel before him. "This is an Arrow Launcher. It can fire a one-and-a-half-meter-long iron arrow with a diameter of eight centimeters at a speed of 280 meters per second. If the loading speed is fast enough, it can fire twenty iron arrows per second!"
After saying that, Yang Ning climbed back into the tank. The three watched as the barrel rumbled and rotated once, then aimed toward the distant slope with a humming sound!
An iron rod shot from the muzzle at a speed too fast for the naked eye to catch. It crossed several kilometers almost instantly, then slammed heavily into the mountainside!
"Whoa!" Even cultivators could not help but be awed by such an exquisite and powerful creation.
Besides, the three of them were still young.
When they discovered that the iron rod had penetrated more than a meter into the hard rock, the light in their eyes grew even brighter!
"Brother Yang, Brother Yang, let me play with it!" Su Bai shouted.
"I should go first, obviously!" Xun Hu instantly forgot the restraint expected of a prince. "I'm the sponsor of this tank. You can have it after I'm done!"
"Don't rush, don't rush!" Yang Ning waved his hand. "The tank can't be operated by one person alone. It takes four people working in perfect coordination. So all four of us need to train inside. I rented this training ground for seven days, and you can come try it whenever you have time during those seven days. Since all four of us are here today, let's practice moving it first, all right?"
"Alright!" The three had long wanted to see what it looked like inside. As soon as Yang Ning finished speaking, they immediately prepared to climb in.
"Wait, wait!" Yang Ning called again. "There are four positions in this tank. While controlling its movement, each person is also responsible for a different function. One person observes the outside and fires iron arrows, one operates the Tank Spiral Swords, one operates the poison water beneath the tank, and one loads iron arrows into the Arrow Launcher. There are also four crossbows mounted on the Tank Spiral Swords, one for each person. Let's assign the positions?"
After hearing that, the three immediately discussed where they wanted to sit and quickly made their choices.
Ning Rong was responsible for operating the Arrow Launcher, Yang Ning for operating the poison water, and Xun Hu for operating the Tank Spiral Swords. As for Su Bai, he had no say in the matter and could only load the iron arrows.
All four entered the training ground, then began practicing how to operate Kun-12.
The weapons were easy enough to handle; they merely had to be switched on and off and aimed in the proper direction. Movement was actually the hardest part.
Four people controlled eight wheels, and each person could turn in circles. Even if they fixed their directions, if each person exerted a different amount of force, the tank could spin in place or travel in circles.
Even though Yang Ning had installed angle gauges and speedometers at every position, actually driving it was still fraught with difficulties.
There was no shortcut for this. They could only use time to grind their coordination into place.
Before you continue