Three days before the Military Service Department arrived.
After one year, eleven months, and twenty-nine days of day-and-night slaughter.
With the students fighting until they were utterly exhausted, until their minds were dazed, until some of them barely even knew who they were anymore.
They finally heard a summons from heaven!
"From this moment onward, for the next three days, no fighting and no cultivation. You may do anything you want. Gather early on the fourth day."
As the elders' order fell, more than eight thousand students seemed to have their spines yanked out in an instant. With a splat, every last one collapsed to the ground—not even the disciples of the three sects mixed among them were spared.
There was no helping it. These days were simply not fit for human beings—worse than the life of oxen and horses.
In just three short years, it felt as though they had swallowed a century's worth of suffering.
"Is this why the ancients were so powerful? No wonder cultivators in ancient times were all so terrifying. Is this what true cultivation is?" A disciple of the three sects spoke up. He was already muddleheaded, mentally worn down, and had mistaken this bitter training for the reason ancient people had been so powerful.
At this moment, even peerless Yang Soul-level figures like their senior sister had collapsed.
Life had been too bitter. Too bitter.
The forced marches had already been hard enough, but the slaughter that followed had simply shattered everything they thought they knew.
Especially the bloody hunts led by Elder Jin three times a week—they had been outright nightmares. The moment they closed their eyes, they saw themselves being torn to pieces by swarms of golden crocodiles.
Of course, thanks to all that—
Their progress had been terrifying.
They had