Flying Snow

Outside the temple.

Jiang Ding did not take the main road. He found a thicket and burrowed into it.

Though nearly a hundred people was a large number, they were insignificant within an enormous area spanning five kilometers. After walking a short distance at random, he had already crossed paths with them.

Their encirclement route did not change.

"The target isn't me!"

Jiang Ding felt a weight lift from his heart, but still decided to keep moving farther away.

He noticed that these people were divided into eight or nine squads, each with a vicious hunting dog. They seemed to be tracking something, so it was best not to approach and cause a misunderstanding.

Whoosh—whoosh...

The mountain wind howled, accompanied by faint sounds of something slicing through the air.

"Who's there?"

Jiang Ding barked.

His sword left its sheath, carving a precise arc on the diagonal, only to be intercepted midway by a snow-white blade with a shrill clang.

The snow-white sword recoiled the instant it struck, attempting to flee, but it was far too late. Jiang Ding condensed the strength of his entire body into a single point, and his sword chopped onto the snowy blade, knocking it aside.

This was the Sword Unfurling Form!

Jiang Ding felt a numbing force travel into him. The arm holding his sword trembled slightly, but the force was swiftly dispersed through the fully tempered muscles all over his body, leaving him unharmed for the moment.

His opponent was an Internal Force Realm martial artist!

Yet compared to his classmates, the opponent's internal force was very weak, less than one-third as powerful.

A figure in a white dress was sent flying backward, blood spilling from her mouth and blooming into plum blossoms across the clothing over her towering chest.

"How is that possible? You clearly aren't an Internal Force Realm martial artist!"

Blood dripped from her lips as she spoke in disbelief.

She had crumbled at the first clash!

Though she was injured, with internal force protecting her, even a body-tempering martial artist born with divine strength should have been able to escape. This defied common sense.

"Why did you attack me?"

Jiang Ding gripped his sword and advanced slowly. His tailbone shuddered again and again as threads of killing intent spread beyond his control.

Civilian drones were far too unreliable!

He had never encountered anything like this before.

From childhood to adulthood, teachers had guided him and classmates had sparred with him. Even when there was unpleasantness in daily life, at most they would want to deliberately beat each other up. He had never known this kind of icy coldness, where a meeting meant life or death.

"Young master, I'm sorry."

"I mistook you for someone else. I realized it just now and tried to run, but I couldn't escape you."

The woman pressed her hands together apologetically. "Young master, this was my fault."

Jiang Ding continued approaching step by step, utterly unwilling to believe such nonsense.

Anyone who actively attacked him and placed his life in danger ought to pay the price!

"Young master!"

"It was this servant's fault! I mistook you for the people pursuing and trying to kill me!"

The woman's skin was snow-white, her cheeks still plump with baby fat, and her features were adorable. She stood at around one and a half meters tall.

Her dress was filthy, but her face and hair were clean. She appeared to be someone accustomed to being pampered, utterly out of place in this wild mountain forest.

"My name is Gong Caiyu, a disciple of the Seven Profound Sect. The Golden Saber Sect destroyed my sect and slaughtered my whole family. I overreacted in the heat of the moment. I beg you to forgive me, young master!"

Tears glimmered in her eyes as she held her hands together in supplication.

Jiang Ding halted.

Not because of her words.

In the drone's view—

The routes of the black-clad men with golden sabers embroidered on their chests shifted once more, converging to encircle this direction as their hunting dogs barked furiously.

"Since it was a misunderstanding, then let it go."

Jiang Ding's expression changed.

He was certain these black-clad men were targeting this woman. Moreover, she was an Internal Force Realm martial artist, and he might not be able to finish her in one or two moves. Unwilling to get entangled and invite disaster, he immediately turned and left.

"Thank you, young master!"

Gong Caiyu said gratefully, staggering away.

She did not suspect him. The strange man before her was almost overwhelmingly stronger than she was at present. If he had been an enemy, why would he go through such needless trouble?

Jiang Ding ran continuously for several kilometers, crossing mountains and ridges before finally hiding in the canopy of a large tree.

"So they really were chasing her."

"That's good. I wasn't exposed."

Jiang Ding breathed a sigh of relief.

The routes of the black-clad men changed again and again, essentially following the woman's path. Soon, amid their pursuit, they vanished from the drone's field of observation.

He had no intention of sending the drone after them. This had nothing to do with him. The grudges and feuds of another world should not involve him, much less bring disaster down upon him, because he owed no one favors or karmic debts.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes in his room.

The furnishings were simple. Outside, traffic flowed in an unbroken stream, and neon lights flickered.

The heart he had kept taut finally relaxed.

He practiced swordsmanship for a while, waited for his mother and Jiang Yuan to return, and chatted with his family for a time. At eleven that night, Jiang Ding went to sleep on schedule.

By the time he arrived at the classroom, the metal lockers had already been unlocked, and many students were changing into army-green camouflage uniforms.

The same model could be bought online. They were bulletproof, could change color, and could transform, but these were public school teaching aids and could not be taken out of school. They had to be returned upon graduation.

"The first two periods are firearms?" Jiang Ding asked casually as he set down his backpack.

"Yeah. The last two are about the same." Li Junhao changed into a well-fitting camouflage uniform and put on a bulletproof panoramic helmet. His slight body suddenly gained a touch of heroic vigor. "Zhang Dingjun retired from the military. Being one second late has serious consequences."

The dark circles around his eyes and his pale face made it obvious that he had studied until at least two or three in the morning last night.

Jiang Ding changed at lightning speed.

Ring-ring...

After a short wait, the pre-class bell rang at 7:50.

"Attention!"

At the podium, class monitor Hua Bing stood valiant and spirited as she called out loudly.

Swish!

Thirty-two senior-year students rose in unison, straight as nails.

"First squad, move out."

"Yes, Class Monitor!"

Sun Xiao, an Inner Qi Realm student, saluted and jogged out of the classroom first. Others followed one after another from all corners of the room. There were six of them in total, arranged in a perfectly straight line.

"Second squad..."

"Third squad..."

Jiang Ding and Li Junhao hurriedly followed, running behind Li Hu, another Inner Qi Realm student.

The three squads were like three lines. From following one another, they moved side by side, then finally formed a neat square formation. Every student had the same stride length and arm swing. From afar, dozens of people looked like a single person.

Students on their way to class automatically moved aside.

After jogging out of the teaching district, where tall buildings stood clustered together, the ground became dotted with wild grass, scrub, and sand. There were fewer people on both sides. Live-ammunition shooting was common here; it was a semi-military exercise zone.

"One, two, one..."

Several other classes were jogging nearby as well, but they were not headed in the same direction and soon branched off elsewhere.

"Speed up! Twenty kilometers!"

Li Hu, the third squad leader, roared in the squad channel.

"Yes!"

The formation accelerated from a jog into a run. The wind howled in their ears, and the orderly square gradually scattered into a loose oval.

Whoosh—

Jiang Ding exhaled softly, easing his muscles. A twenty-kilometer run was nothing to him, but sprinting twenty kilometers at this pace was still an enormous burden.

Li Junhao's running form beside him had already fallen apart.

A light breeze swept past.

Jiang Ding looked back. Hua Bing had led two squads of pure Qi Refinement Realm students, fourteen people in total, and effortlessly caught up with them.

Their steps were not quick, nor was their pace high. They looked as though they were taking a stroll, without shedding a single drop of sweat.

Yet they were fast—far faster than him. In no time, they overtook Jiang Ding's group and soon vanished from everyone's sight.

"A first-tier military formation—the Gale Formation."

Li Junhao connected to Jiang Ding's comms. Breathing slightly hard, he said enviously, "These people really aren't human."

"You should think about your health." Jiang Ding could not help saying, "You stay up every night, and neither rest nor exercise enough. How can your martial cultivation possibly improve if this goes on?"

"You don't understand. My martial talent is too poor. My only path lies in academic subjects."

Li Junhao shook his head.

As long as he could get into the cultivation department, high-level cultivators would specifically refine rare spirit pills for students like him who were lopsided in their abilities. It might not turn him into a genius in one step, but his martial talent would at least become better than most people's.

Besides, any student with such uneven strengths who could enter the cultivation department had real skill. Once their aptitude problem was resolved, they could grow at breakneck speed.

More than ten minutes later, the formation began to break apart.

Li Hu and the other three Inner Qi Realm students quickly vanished from the students behind them. Then came Jiang Ding and the other peak Bone Tempering Realm martial artists, followed last by the Flesh Tempering Realm martial artists.

Li Junhao was, without question, at the very back.

Jiang Ding panted heavily. He did not know how long he had been sprinting when, ahead of him, rows of students stood in formation, straight as nails.

Before them stood a middle-aged man built like a bear. Merely standing there, he exuded an invisible authority.

"Reporting in!"

"Enter."

Zhang Dingjun's voice was low.

Jiang Ding joined the formation, still behind Li Hu. The third squad was the sequence their teacher had assigned them.

Students continued joining the ranks behind him.

Ring!

At 8:10, the alarm in Zhang Dingjun's hand rang.

Jiang Ding looked around. Li Junhao had not arrived yet.

Five or six minutes later, Li Junhao finally showed up, panting and weakly calling out, "Reporting in!"

Zhang Dingjun gave him a cold look. "Forty kilometers after class. I don't care what plans or intentions you have. If you fail my standard, then you fail!"

"Yes!"

Li Junhao's face fell.

There would be no real danger. The Immortal Sect had spells and professional treatments, but swollen and bleeding knee joints—and spending several days on crutches—would be unavoidable.

"You may move freely for now." Zhang Dingjun looked toward Hua Bing and the other Qi Refinement Realm cultivators.

"Yes, Instructor!"

Rustle!

Zhang Dingjun pulled away a thick sheet of camouflage cloth.

Sunlight glinted off metal. Heavy machine guns over two meters long stood on the ground, with heaps of ammunition crates beside them as a heavy smell of gun oil spread through the air.

"On the battlefield, there are no pistols or submachine guns. Those toys can't even break a cultivator's defenses!"

Zhang Dingjun casually picked up a heavy machine gun weighing more than two hundred jin with one hand and worked the bolt. "When you enlist or take the college entrance examination, this is the only companion you can rely on."

"Type 89 Heavy Machine Gun, made from N2702 Spell-Breaking Alloy. The barrel is inscribed with semi-artifact runes, fitted with a Falcon-1 scope. Caliber: 12.5 millimeters. Overall length: 2,140 millimeters. Theoretical rate of fire: 600 rounds per minute. Theoretical range: five kilometers. At that distance, it can pierce the standard shield of a ninth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator."

"If it hits a Foundation Establishment cultivator's shield, it can also consume a small amount of their magic power."

Jiang Ding knew it was not that simple.

Unless a ninth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator was stupid as a pig, they would evade, conceal themselves, and hide. Shooting one with divine sense from five kilometers away was extremely difficult.

Forget ninth-layer Qi Refinement cultivators—even first- or second-layer cultivators could learn an optical invisibility spell, rush in, and casually wipe out swathes of martial artists with a Fireball Spell.

The heavy machine gun's true use was on a large-scale battlefield!

Infantry Spirit-Particle Radar located the enemy, heavy artillery bombarded them in advance, and dense barrages of bullets followed. That was how one fought cultivators.

"Firearms are simple to use, but accurate shooting within five thousand meters is not easy. That exceeds the limits of ordinary human vision." Zhang Dingjun pointed to the small boxes beside the ammunition crates. "You'll need drones. You will be issued military-grade Swallow-1 units."

"Beyond that, you must practice the martial techniques Vajra Seal and Thousand-Thread Guidance. The former ensures the stability of your shooting. Even while firing on the run, your upper body remains as unmoving as Mount Tai. The latter ensures your precision. A single force can be divided into a thousand strands, allowing you to accurately hit a squirrel even from five thousand meters away."

"Master those two martial techniques to the minor success stage, and you will be a qualified Immortal Sect soldier. It's that simple."

Zhang Dingjun paused.

"Now, take your guns. One per person, two ammunition belts, and one drone."

"Yes, Instructor!"

Jiang Ding strode forward, slung a Type 89 Heavy Machine Gun over his back, and felt his steps sink under its 125-kilogram weight. Then he picked up two ammunition belts and crossed them over his chest, each holding one hundred rounds.

The Swallow-1, box included, was the size of a basketball. It had a hook that fastened at his waist. He returned to the formation and stood at attention. The entire process took seven seconds.

He secretly glanced around. Everyone carried heavy machine guns and ammunition, standing ramrod straight in utter silence.

"Spread out. Raise your guns," Zhang Dingjun said again.

"Yes!"

The students quickly separated, each more than ten meters apart. They raised their guns with both hands, pointing diagonally toward the sky, their legs set in a bow stance.

Jiang Ding silently visualized a mountain falling from the heavens into a giant's embrace. Immense weight descended, dispersed throughout the giant's limbs, then flowed through his legs into the earth, taking root there.

The giant in his mind split into countless lines. How force was dispersed and gathered within them, how much force each muscle bore, how much force it needed to exert—all of it was calculated to let the entire body neutralize external force to the greatest extent possible.

"Twenty minutes."

Zhang Dingjun left those words behind and walked over to Hua Bing and the other Qi Refinement Realm students. Faintly, his voice carried over.

"The three fundamental spells of the Qi Refinement Realm: the Electromagnetic Wave Sensing Method, spell attachment, and Spirit Control Technique. You..."

Before long came the thunderous roar of tank engines as Type 59 tanks drove into the distance.