Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Ping swiftly dispatched his opponent. Gu Xiong was not that much slower either. In the time it took for Fang Ping to catch his breath, Gu Xiong sent his opponent flying to the ground with a single punch—whether the unfortunate was dead or alive remained to be seen.
Zhao Lei and the few others with him were currently in a bit of a fix.
Li Zhaoxu and Jin Lei, who had just entered Rank-2 not long ago, had been forced to retreat from the battlefield due to injury.
Seeing that Fang Ping and the others had already resolved their fight, Zhao Lei was filled with a sense of urgency. He gave a low roar, his thigh suddenly expanding and striking his opponent’s thigh hard enough to make a loud sound.
“Idiots!” Fang Ping cursed. As Zhao Lei and his opponent betrayed their indignation at the insult, Fang Ping leaped into the air and descended from the heavens. Three loud clangs sounded from his glaive, and Zhao Lei’s opponent met the same fate as the previous three.
“Fang Ping!”
Zhao Lei’s expression was dismal. There he was, about to finish his opponent off, and Fang Ping showed up to steal his thunder!
Fang Ping threw Zhao Lei a glance, saying impatiently, “Have you got water on the brain? Is your leg broken yet? Can you still fight on the battlefield tomorrow?”
Zhao Lei’s protests trailed off. In his brawl with the Rank-3 martial artist earlier, it was obvious that he had gotten the worst of the exchange.
Although he was a twice-honed martial artist, he was only Middle-stage Rank-2 after all. It might not be very far to Upper-stage, but the difference in Vitality was huge.
“3 Early-stage Rank-3s and one Middle-stage.”
As Fang Ping said this, he saw students already dashing over and ordered swiftly, “Collect the loot, these should be considered ours.”
Before the others could take action, Fang Ping was already moving rapidly. Very quickly, he searched the dead martial artists’ bodies and stuffed the items he found into his pocket before picking up their weapons and carrying them.
...
It did not take long for the students to assemble in front of the brightly-lit campsite.
Once they saw the corpses in front of them, everybody went quiet.
Right at this moment, a martial artist from the Military Department suddenly appeared, shouting, “All martial arts universities, please take note of this announcement.
“For this assessment, the base score is 100 points!
“10 points will be deducted from all students of the School of Tactics and Strategy!
“5 points will be deducted from the other Schools.
“Killing a Rank-1 martial artist is worth 5 points in total. The killing of Rank-2 martial artists, Early-, Middle-, Upper-, and Peak-stages will be awarded 10, 15, 20, and 25 points respectively.
“For Rank-3 martial artists, Early-stage Rank-3 is 30 points, Middle-stage is 50 points, Upper-stage is 500 points, and Peak is 1000 points!”
Everyone was a little stunned. Nobody brought up the deductions. Those from the School of Tactics and Strategy had gotten 10 points deducted—this they had to acknowledge. Fang Ping and the others from the School of Weaponry had to acknowledge their own point deductions as well.
The main contention here was not the point deductions, but the awards for killing enemies.
There was too much disparity between Higher-stage Rank-3 and the other ranks!
One Upper-stage Rank-3 enemy was worth 500 points, the equivalent of killing 100 Rank-1 martial artists instantly.
Within the evil sect, were there even 100 Rank-1 martial artists?
After the announcement, the envoy from the Military Department took advantage of the night’s cover and vanished before everyone’s eyes.
Many of the students looked dispirited. They had been penalized!
With 10 points deducted, they only had 90 left.
Furthermore, the evil sect only had around 300 people.
With an average of one per person, the fact that there were no awards for disposing of normal sect members, and that Rank-1 was only worth 5 points, it was entirely possible that they might not achieve even the base score at the end.
Despite not knowing what the assessment scores were for, this was not everyone’s first mission; they knew it definitely was connected to their rewards.
“I have 175 points now?”
On the other hand, Fang Ping was quite happy. Suddenly he recalled something, cursed, and said, “I was on the night watch! Not rewarding me for it is fine, but they still deducted my points!”
Gu Xiong was standing off to the side, and could not be bothered to correct this statement. ‘You were on the night watch? If not for me waking you up, you would still be snoring.’
Fang Ping cursed again. As the crowd was quietly discussing, he looked over and complained, “I’ve saved all your lives this time. There were 4 Rank-3 martial artists and one Middle-stage Rank-3 who had a lethal move. If they met Fang Wenxiang, they could kill him with one blow.
“I’ve saved everyone’s lives, don’t I get any thanks from you for it?”
Fang Wenxiang’s expression darkened, but Fang Ping did not care. He was speaking the truth; did Fang Wenxiang not believe him?
Fang Wenxiang was only Middle-stage Rank-2 and had not yet achieved Higher-stage. If he met a martial artist who was a full rank higher than him, it was not something that could be balanced out by some Combat Skills or Combat Techniques. In a battle with a higher-ranked opponent, an Early-stage Rank-3 was about as much as a Middle-stage Rank-2 could handle.
Even Zhao Lei and the others had spent half a day going against an Early-stage Rank-3.
Nobody paid attention to Fang Ping’s thick-skinned attempt to fish for gratitude. Nobody brought up the matter of the loot either.
They had been ambushed by their opponents, but Fang Ping and the others had already disposed of their enemies, so there was no point saying anything more about it.
Since the matter was not mentioned, Fang Ping did not say anything either and contentedly turned to go.
Just as he was ready to leave, Gu Xiong pulled him back and said, “It’s almost dawn. Let’s stay vigilant a little longer to prevent a second ambush.”
“That won’t happen, will it?”
“It could. In the Catacombs, these things happen very often.”
“Alright then.”
Fang Ping could not do much except turn to exit the campsite.
Just as he came out, somebody suddenly called loudly from the camp’s periphery, “Announcement!
“Another 20 points will be deducted from the School of Tactic and Strategy’s students for repeatedly making mistakes. Others will have 10 points deducted...”
“Sir, what about me?” Fang Ping shouted hurriedly and scrutinized his surroundings. He did not see any surveillance cameras, but continued just as loudly, “I shouldn’t have any points deducted, should I?
“I’ve been on night watch twice! The others deserve to have their points deducted, but deducting points from me is just wrong!”
The Military Department’s martial artist studied Fang Ping. He seemed to be communicating with someone. After listening attentively for a while, he nodded and said, “The few of you will not be penalized!”
After these words, the big man vanished from view once more.
Fang Ping said cheerfully, “If that’s the case, it means the 5 points in the beginning don’t count either.
“Poor things. The School of Tactics and Strategy’s students only have 70 points now...”
As he said this, a few hundred people all ran out of the campsite and stood at the entrance.
Someone said helplessly from the crowd, “We’re not the commanders of the team. Shouldn’t the commanders take responsibility for this matter?”
This might have been the truth but no one paid attention to it.
The so-called commanders of the three teams had all chosen by the students here. Now, naturally, these commanders became scapegoats.
...
“Fang Ping, you have no sense of loyalty!”
Yang Xiaoman felt rather helpless and came over, complaining, “I don’t even know why 15 points were deducted from me, and all of you assigned me to the periphery. I’m just waiting to end this assessment with 85 points.”
Fang Ping said with a severe expression, “You’re overestimating yourself!”
“What?”
“You feel that you’ll end this assessment with 85 points, but I’m guessing you’ll end it with 60...”
“Go to hell!”
Yang Xiaoman was so furious she almost choked. She was already depressed; now she felt even worse.
Fang Ping looked at his surroundings and smiled broadly. “I’m guessing there are surveillance monitors all over the campsite, including Boulder Village.
“Our every move is actually being watched by the instructors. Just watch—in order to shake us up, there will definitely be quite a few people who won’t be able to make the base score.
“Those who don’t fulfill the base score will certainly face penalties after going back to school, I’m afraid.”
“In that case, I have to kill at least a few evil sect martial artists before I can break even.”
Yang Xiaoman and the others exchanged glances. If they did not kill people, that meant they would not pass this assessment.
...
The students at the campsite had gotten their act together. All of them stayed awake till daybreak, then they held a collective discussion before starting to allocate tasks.
Those who cooked, cooked; those who stood guard, stood guard. A patrol was even set up to keep an eye on the route to Boulder Village.
Fang Ping was not allocated any tasks and was consequently so depressed that it would have been better if he had been given some responsibility.
Everybody truly overestimated these female martial artists!
They might have been able to fight, but they certainly could not cook.
For lunch, almost everyone did not eat. All of them were popping pills. Even eating Blood and Qi-replenishing Pills were better than eating what was served up.
After they had finished eating their “meals”, everyone gathered once again.
“Frankly, we’ve been taking too much for granted. Night ambushes might not be very effective now. Our opponents have known about our arrival since early on; we can’t treat them as if they’re deaf or blind anymore.
“I suggest we make our move in the afternoon and go survey the situation at Boulder Village together.
“We’ll decide whether or not to attack after considering the situation there. Staying put here will only cause a delay, and that’s not productive.”
This was Gu Xiong’s suggestion. After everyone gave it some consideration, they had to admit that they were being too optimistic.
Waiting here until dark to do reconnaissance and checking things out before settling on a plan of attack sounded pretty good in theory, but their opponents were several hundred strong and certainly not fools. They could not keep waiting for their enemies to take the initiative and attack.
At these words, Fang Ping said, “I agree. Yesterday, we made an error in our calculations. This is not a group of solo martial artists on the run, this is a group of evil sect martial artists who know they are going to die. If we delay any longer, who knows what sort of nasty plans the sect might have in store for us.”
“Alright, let’s go!”
...
Just as they were about to start out, everyone discovered another problem!
They did not have a car or any other means of transport.
This meant that they had to travel on foot.
15 kilometers was not exactly far, but it was not exactly near either. Even martial artists would have to spend one or two hours walking.
“Let’s go. There are definitely no cars nearby, so there’s no point asking.”
Gu Xiong did not harbor any high hopes. He could tell that this was actually simulating the Catacombs’ battle environment.
In the Catacombs, walking was the most common means of transport.
...
At the makeshift campsite.
Tang Feng exhaled and said, “10 points are deducted from everyone. No announcement!”
Some instructors nodded whereas others did not quite agree.
“There’s nothing to disagree with. There are many ambush points on the way to Boulder Village, yet nobody suggested reconnoitring the road!
“If they really were at the Catacombs, I wouldn’t even know where to store all their corpses.
“It’s not as if it’s never been brought up in regular classes, especially in the School of Tactics and Strategy, where it’s a core class...
“Now, it seems that all the knowledge they’ve obtained from their textbooks has gone right out of their heads.”
A CCMAU instructor offered, “Actually, the main reason is that they’ve underestimated the other party, thinking that the evil sect martial artists are just so-so. This includes the 4 Rank-3 martial artists last night who staged the ambush and were killed; it’s only strengthened this impression they have of them.
“Either the evil sect martial artists will flee or they’ll be on guard, waiting for them to come.
“With close to 300 martial arts university students moving together, it might not be that they didn’t think to check out the road. It’s possible they felt there wasn’t a need for it...”
Tang Feng gently tapped the table, saying after some consideration, “This counts as a lesson then. Next time, I think they won’t make the same mistake again.
“When we get back, we should increase the penalties.
“If they can’t achieve the base score, it means they’re not strong enough. If their abilities aren’t up to par and they haven’t any other strong points, we’ll pressure them for a while!”
Although there were problems in other areas, if they had the ability to kill a few strong opponents, it would be enough to let them achieve the base score.
Having enough strength was an essential skill for survival.
However, those people who lacked both strength and circumspection were those who perished the fastest.
“Yes.”
...
As the instructors reached an agreement, Fang Ping and the others had almost reached Boulder Village.
Because it had been designated a war zone, all the nearby villages were currently abandoned. Along the way, they did not encounter a single living person.
“It’s no small price we’ve paid this time...” Fang Ping lamented. Nanjiang had indeed paid a heavy price to train up their troops.
Such mass evacuation of inhabitants meant that this was no ordinary crisis.
Moreover, when Nanjiang announced at the last minute that military exercises would be carried out inland, the government had been widely denounced.
“Where do you think the other evil sects members are?” Fang Ping asked. This time, it was not just the martial arts university students participating in this exercise, the Military Department was training soldiers too, and Boulder Village was not the only stronghold. Yu Xianghua contemplated this for a moment before saying, “They should all be here. Nanjiang won’t designate too many zones for military exercises; that would cause too much trouble.
“We’re now in the northern rural area in Ashen South. Barring anything untoward, the evil sect martial artists should have all been driven here.
“If we go by another way, perhaps we might be able to reach other surrounded strongholds.”
Fang Ping’s gaze flickered slightly. “What do you all think if, after we finish our own missions, we go assist other surrounded strongholds? Would that give us more benefits?”
Everyone’s brows furrowed slightly. Fang Ping smiled and said, “Let’s revisit this after finishing up here. If the Rank-3 martial artists are tired of doing nothing, you can participate for a while. It’d be good to get more loot too.”
After half a day’s walk, the village could be seen up ahead.
Just as Fang Ping and the others arrived on the scene, they received a very warm welcome!
They were less than 500 meters from Boulder Village when suddenly a pile of boulders dropped from the sky!
None of the group had been in such a situation before; all of them stood there rather stunned. The next moment, somebody bellowed, “Withdraw!”
Everybody scrambled back. Gu Xiong yelled, “Rank-3 martial artists, cover our retreat!”
Fang Ping and the few others with him were also initially as stunned as the rest. As soon as he heard Gu Xiong’s order though, Fang Ping sprang into action. Launching himself off the ground, he swung his glaive at a boulder flying toward the group.
With a loud splitting sound, the boulder crumbled, its threat neutralized.
The other Rank-3 martial artists also launched themselves into the fray, using either their weapons or their fists and legs to block the boulders.
Everybody else hastily retreated out of assault range.
Fang Ping and the others also hurriedly withdrew. Although using blades to destroy boulders was very impressive, it also used up a lot of Vitality and none of them dared to deplete their resources so recklessly.
Just as they retreated, somewhere in the crowd, there was a moan.
Somebody roared, “There are people underground!”
“F*ck, everyone scatter and kill them!” Fang Ping bellowed. He took one step forward and promptly used his weapon to dispatch a martial artist who had just crawled out from under the earth.
“Everybody fight!”
The situation was chaotic as the martial artists launched their counterattack.
...
5 minutes later, the scene calmed down.
Someone said in a low voice, “3 died...”
The evil sect martial artists had prepared their strategy earlier, digging quite a few holes nearby and concealing close to 20 people.
The boulder assault was launched first. While the students were flustered and caught unawares, despite outnumbering their opponents ten to one, 3 still died in the end.
“F*ck!”
Fang Ping was very upset. Everyone there was strong. If they met the evil sect martial artists head-on, even if the entire sect came at them, they might not have had any casualties. However, just as they reached this place, 3 of them died and quite a few were injured.
In the crowd, a female martial artist sobbed quietly; the students who died all had friends and classmates present.
Nobody from MCMAU died, but a few were injured. The deceased were all from other martial arts universities.
Gu Xiong sighed and said in a low voice, “This is what war is. The Catacombs are a lot more dangerous than this...”
“Enough!” Fang Ping interrupted him, “No matter how you put it, it comes down to the fact that we’re not strong enough!
“If we were Grandmasters, it wouldn’t matter if they ambushed us!”
After saying this Fang Ping gritted his teeth. “These people can even make catapults?”
CCMAU’s Han Xu walked over, looking at Boulder Village in the distance. In a somber tone, he said, “Martial artists don’t necessarily need to make something so refined. With a martial artist’s strength, if they made preparations in advance and built a few projectile devices, they would be able to simulate the effect of a catapult using just their own powers.”
After he said this, Han Xu continued. “In this current situation, everyone is disheartened and worried that there may be other traps...”
“Say what you mean, don’t beat about the bush!”
“What we at CCMAU are saying is that we shouldn’t go into battle as one large group anymore. This is actually incompatible with a martial artist’s style.
“We’re not Military Department martial artists, we’re free martial artists.
“Blindly copying the Military Department’s army tactics isn’t a good thing in this case.
“We should split into teams—small teams and individuals!
“The powerhouses can form another team and mount a frontal assault on Boulder Village!
“We can defend against boulders and open a way for the people behind to dash in together for the kill. Our opponents’ strength is not equal to ours. We should be like sharp swords piercing through, not soldiers on the battlefield!”
Han Xu added, “Fierce as a raging fire and swift as the wind, that’s what a martial artist is!
“With a frontal assault, we kill whoever we can kill. The ones we can’t, we can withdraw quickly from. They’re the rats in the trap, not us!
“All of us have just had our first experience of going up against so many people in combat. We need to develop our own battle style, not blindly copy what others do.”
Fang Ping muttered irresolutely, “This has messed up all our previous plans...”
“Earlier on, we were just a bunch of rookies, all talk no action! Now, 3 people are dead, and we haven’t even managed to access our opponents’ lair. Those 3 people died in vain...”
Han Xu asked, “Can MCMAU take the lead in this?”
Fang Ping remained irresolute for a moment until he saw Jin Lei limping forward. Abruptly he said, “Alright. Over here, we’ll send out 3 Rank-3 martial artists and 7 Peak Rank-2s, forming a team of 10.
“Later, we’ll make a frontal assault together!
“All of us have sufficient Vitality at the moment. Even if we meet any strong enemies, we still have the ability to give them a good fight!
“If we keep on delaying, we won’t be able to maintain our current level of strength!”
Han Xu nodded. “CCMAU will do the same. We’ll gather a team of 30 people and split them into three smaller groups. CCMAU will attack the village’s main gate, you attack from both sides, then we’ll go in together and finish them off!”
“Everybody else, surround the three sides of the village. Even if you can force your opponent up the proverbial mountain, you still must boost your morale!”
Fang Ping nodded. He did not say anything else but went toward Yu Xianghua and the others to begin discussing the new strategy.
The previous strategy had been based on the assumption that the other party would be mindlessly waiting for them to attack. Now, it was obvious that they would not be following what had been originally scripted out.
This was also the first time Fang Ping had experienced a large-scale battle between martial artists.
Perhaps a fight involving several hundred people was not large-scale when talking about the Catacombs, but for Fang Ping, there was much to be learned from this—too much almost.
He understood the purpose of the assessment to some degree now.
This was also a chance for everyone to develop their own battle styles and not blindly follow what their predecessors had done.
As for the deaths of those few students, Fang Ping did not know if their sacrifices had been worth it or not.
Perhaps for many people, personally experiencing death was the only way to create a deep enough impression.
No matter how much they normally talked about it, everyone might not necessarily take others’ deaths seriously.
‘Actually, in the end, the weak are still prey to the strong. The weak are eliminated whereas the strong survive. The ones who can adapt survive...’ Fang Ping meditated on this in his heart, ‘In that case, I’d rather be one of the strong ones rather than the weak ones!’
Dying in a trial obliviously was even less worth it than dying in the Catacombs.
‘Even in the Catacombs, the strong have the right to a voice. People as strong as Commander Li Zhen can freely travel in the Catacombs too...’
Fang Ping took a deep breath. Very soon, the other 9 MCMAU people had all arrived.
“Later, we’ll attack from the right! Count your kills as you go. If we can’t kill them, wait for the signal and evacuate together. Don’t flee blindly!
“Everybody else, wait outside! When we let you in, enter and start killing immediately! If we don’t let you in, evacuate swiftly!
“Martial artists are very flexible. We don’t have to be like regular people, blindly risking our lives! It only takes one powerhouse to kill off the entire evil sect—one who is stronger than the most powerful evil sect martial artists!”
Fang Ping had made some vague calculations. After he barked out these orders, everyone started preparing for the assault.
Once Zhao Yang, Gu Xiong and a few others were ready on the left, the three of them exchanged glances. Fang Ping then rapped out in a low voice, “Go!”
As soon as he spoke, the martial artists on all three sides swiftly dashed toward Boulder Village.
The boulders began falling yet again!