Crushing Defeat! Injuries!

"Again!"

Lin Yuan had no idea what Su Qingxue was thinking.

He only knew that he had finally found a bit of rhythm in battle.

Though he was still getting hit.

Though he was still being knocked back again and again.

The number of attacks he could evade was increasing at a visible rate.

From being unable to dodge even one out of ten attacks, he gradually became able to dodge one out of five.

This terrifying rate of improvement not only secretly shocked Su Qingxue.

It also left the soldier kings at the edge of the field dumbfounded.

"This kid..."

"Is he stealing techniques in actual combat?"

Xiao Zhan sucked in a sharp breath.

He felt like his common sense had been ground into the dirt.

Song Qingyin watched Lin Yuan's bruised body, still unwilling to yield, and an unusual light flickered in her eyes.

Inside the monitoring room.

Old Li had stopped shouting.

He stared at Lin Yuan's constantly improving movements on the screen as though he were looking at a monster.

"A genius..."

"No, a monster!"

Old Li muttered with a stammer.

The taut muscles on Nie Dingguo's face finally relaxed slightly.

He had made the right bet.

This kid was a peerless piece of steel that needed to be hammered hard with iron.

On the training ground.

The battle had entered its most intense stage.

Lin Yuan's stamina was draining wildly, and his true qi was nearly depleted.

Yet the light in his eyes was terrifyingly bright.

Su Qingxue spun and threw another roundhouse kick straight at Lin Yuan's head.

If that kick landed.

Lin Yuan would definitely suffer a concussion and pass out.

At that critical moment.

Lin Yuan did not retreat to evade it as he had before.

He suddenly stepped forward, his body dipping strangely low as he slipped directly beneath the force of Su Qingxue's leg.

Wandering Dragon Step!

He succeeded!

The instant he evaded the attack.

Lin Yuan's right fist had already gathered the last trace of his true qi.

"Broken Rock Fist!"

He let out a beast-like roar and drove his fist brutally into Su Qingxue's side.

The punch was fast, precise, and ruthless.

It perfectly seized the gap between Su Qingxue exhausting her old momentum and generating new force.

More than eight thousand kilograms of force erupted without restraint.

At the edge of the field, Ye Qingshan even clenched his fists in excitement.

He counterattacked!

Against this devil of an instructor, this kid had actually landed an effective counterattack!

However.

Su Qingxue was an old monster who had returned from eighty years in the future.

Even if her strength and speed were inferior to Lin Yuan's now.

Her battle instincts had long since reached their peak.

At the instant Lin Yuan's fist was about to touch her waist.

Su Qingxue's palm appeared there as if she had foreseen it.

She borrowed his force against him.

Not only did she catch Lin Yuan's violent punch, she also guided it aside and directly destroyed his balance.

Then.

A powerful knee strike slammed viciously into Lin Yuan's jaw.

Bang!

Lin Yuan only felt a thunderous buzz explode inside his head.

The entire world instantly lost its sound and color.

He was launched into the air, tracing an arc before smashing into an alloy wall more than ten meters away.

He slid down.

He fell to the ground.

He did not move.

The training ground was deathly silent.

Even the sound of a needle falling to the floor could have been heard.

Everyone held their breath and stared blankly at the fallen figure in the corner.

Su Qingxue stood where she was and did not pursue him further.

She shook her slightly numb right hand, immense shock hidden deep in her eyes.

Lin Yuan's final punch had truly exceeded her expectations.

Not only had he seized the timing perfectly, but the concentration of his force had also improved by a huge margin.

This was his first real combat experience.

After merely a dozen minutes of brutal beating.

He had been able to forcibly combine the theoretical knowledge he had learned with his half-mastered martial techniques to launch a counterattack.

This could no longer be explained by talent alone.

He was a born God of War.

"Medical team, enter the field."

Su Qingxue reined in the killing intent around her.

She turned toward the surveillance cameras.

Accompanied by a piercing alarm.

The medical team that had long been waiting outside rushed in, pushing an emergency cart.

A group of doctors and nurses in white coats carefully lifted Lin Yuan onto a stretcher.

"Three ribs on the left side are broken!"

"Fractured jaw!"

"Severe soft-tissue contusions in multiple places!"

The attending physician examined him while reporting rapidly, his voice filled with alarm.

With injuries like these, an ordinary person would have been dead already.

But when he saw Lin Yuan's still-steady heart rate on the instruments, his eyes nearly popped out.

What kind of freakish recovery ability was this?

Old Li led the people from the research department and rushed down from the command room as well.

"Careful!"

"Be careful!"

Old Li trembled with heartache.

He first looked at Lin Yuan, covered in blood, then turned and glared at Su Qingxue.

But he did not dare curse at her.

Because the strength Su Qingxue had displayed just now was completely beyond the realm of humanity.

It had been a crushing advantage from an entirely higher level.

Su Qingxue ignored Old Li's glare.

She walked to the stretcher and looked down at the unconscious Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan's eyes were tightly shut, his brows furrowed painfully.

Yet his hands remained clenched into fists, refusing to loosen.

A faintly complicated emotion finally appeared on Su Qingxue's ice-cold face.

"In my previous life, you had to find your own way among the common people."

"In this life, I will personally forge you into the sharpest blade."

Su Qingxue silently murmured to herself.

The surrounding soldier kings gathered around.

They watched Lin Yuan being wheeled away, each of their expressions incomparably vivid.

Shock, reverence, unwillingness.

"Is this what a true martial artist is?"

Chu Tiankuo muttered quietly.

He looked at the muscles he had always been so proud of and suddenly found them somewhat laughable.

Before absolute strength and skill, those muscles were practically made of paper.

Ye Qingshan took several deep breaths, and his gaze gradually sharpened.

He strode up to Su Qingxue and snapped into a military salute.

"Instructor Su!"

"Please train us the way you trained Lin Yuan!"

Ye Qingshan's voice rang out like a bell.

His words were like a boulder thrown into a tranquil lake.

Xiao Zhan, Song Qingyin, Chu Tiankuo...

More than a hundred soldier kings stepped forward in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized.

"Please train us, Instructor!"

Their deafening roar echoed through the underground base.

They were Dragon Country's sharpest swords.

They would never allow themselves to become useless scrap iron in the coming upheaval.

"You want to learn real combat?"

Su Qingxue turned around and looked at the soldiers whose blood was surging with fighting spirit.

She folded her arms across her chest, a cruel curve rising at the corner of her mouth.

"As long as you aren't afraid of dying."

"Every one of you will experience the beating Lin Yuan just took."

"The medical team has empty beds."

"Who wants to go first?"

The soldier kings looked at one another.

The image of Lin Yuan being sent flying and coughing up blood was still vivid in their minds.

"I'll go first!"

But after only a few seconds of hesitation.

Ye Qingshan tore off his shirt, revealing his sturdy, well-defined muscles.

With reddened eyes, he charged toward the center of the field.

Three minutes later.

Ye Qingshan was carried out on a stretcher.

Chu Tiankuo came next.

Another three minutes later.

Chu Tiankuo was also dragged away on a stretcher.

That entire afternoon.

The underground training ground of the Northwest Military Region became a slaughterhouse in every sense of the word.

Screams rose and fell without end.

However.

Su Qingxue knew exactly how far to go.

She broke Lin Yuan's bones, but she held back against everyone else.

Because Lin Yuan was a true martial artist with powerful natural recovery abilities.

As long as he received the best medical resources, Lin Yuan would soon recover completely.

But Ye Qingshan and the others were different.

They were not yet true martial artists.

Therefore, although Su Qingxue taught them a lesson, she did not inflict any fatal injuries.

Inside the surveillance room.

Watching the King Soldiers being carried out one after another,

Nie Dingguo showed no distress. Instead, a smile appeared on his face.

He turned to Old Li.

"That's what a soldier of Dragon Country should be."

"Notify the logistics department and transfer the highest-grade nutrient solution to the medical area."

"As long as they're not dead, keep pumping them full of the best medicine!"

"..."

Old Li agreed with a miserable expression.

But his heart was bleeding.

Those top-grade nutrient solutions were incredibly expensive!

Night fell.

Inside the military district's special care ward.

Lin Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

A wave of intense pain instantly surged through every part of his body, making him suck in a sharp breath.

He tried to sit up, only to find himself wrapped up like a mummy.

"Don't move."

A cool voice sounded beside Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan turned his head with difficulty.

Su Qingxue was leaning against the window, holding a glass of water.

"Instructor Su..."

The moment Lin Yuan spoke, pain shot through his jaw and made him bare his teeth.

"You've broken three bones."

"Although you protected your vital areas with true qi, you'll still need to stay in bed for two days."

"Do you hate me?"

Su Qingxue set the glass on the bedside table and asked.

Lin Yuan froze for a moment.

He looked into Su Qingxue's eyes and gently shook his head.

"I don't."

"You're right."

"If I don't learn how to kill, I'll be eaten by ferocious beasts someday."

"I just... think my reactions were too slow."

Hearing Lin Yuan's words,

a trace of surprise flashed through Su Qingxue's eyes.

This guy's temperament was even tougher than she had imagined.

She had beaten him senseless for more than ten minutes.

Yet not only had he not been crushed, he had begun reflecting on himself.

"If you can see how weak you are, then there's still hope."

"Your timing on that final punch today was good."

"But your technique for exerting force was completely wrong."

"Broken Rock Fist emphasizes instantaneous explosive power, not stretching out your strength."

After that,

Su Qingxue began reviewing today's battle with Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan immediately pricked up his ears, throwing even the pain in his body to the back of his mind.

One explained while the other listened.

The atmosphere in the ward strangely became harmonious.