pjbooks Chapter 129 Special Training
Chapter 129 Special Training
In the third week, Qingyun Academy completed its first school-wide live-fire exercise.
The drill was simple—led by Wang Kai and Shen Qingxue, all the students were divided into twelve groups, each defending one of the twelve defensive nodes around the academy, simulating a real-life scenario of an ice storm attack. Jiang Chen did not participate in the drill. He stood behind the window of the dispatch room on the second floor of the factory, holding his now-cold coffee, watching the academy covered in a golden light shield outside the window, watching the students at the edge of the shield frantically circulating their spiritual energy, activating their sword techniques, and gathering their qi and blood, his expression as calm as if he were watching a farce that had nothing to do with him.
But the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
He saw his own reflection from a thousand years ago in those students.
Zhang Ziming stood at the western defense node, his hands pressed to the ground. Earthy-yellow spiritual energy surged from his palms into the earth beneath his feet, condensing into thick earthen walls around the light barrier. These walls were over ten feet thick, their surfaces covered with dense earth-elemental runes, each flashing wildly, peeling away the corrosive power of the ice flowers layer by layer. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, his face was pale, and his lips were slightly purple from exhaustion, but he did not stop.
"Zhang Ziming!" a girl in the group shouted, "Your spiritual energy is almost depleted! It's time for a rotation!"
"Hold on for another ten breaths." Zhang Ziming gritted his teeth, his voice squeezed out from between his teeth. "The density of the ice flowers on the outer edge of the western district's light shield is still increasing. If we switch personnel now, gaps will appear in the defense. Once there are gaps, the power of chaos will seep in."
"you--"
"I said, hold on for ten more breaths!"
He pressed his hands into the soil again, increasing the thickness of the earthen wall from one zhang to one and a half zhang. Ice flowers pelted the earthen wall with a dense, thudding sound, each one carving a fist-sized crater in the surface. However, before the craters were fully formed, they were filled, repaired, and reinforced by the surrounding earth-elemental runes. His spiritual energy was rapidly depleting in his dantian, and the pale yellow light core that had just broken through to the third level of Qi Refining was shrinking at a visible rate.
Seventh breath. Eighth breath. Ninth breath.
The moment the tenth breath ended, Zhang Ziming released his hands, leaned back, and slumped to the ground. The girl in his group immediately took his place, placing her hands on the ground, and a yellowish-brown spiritual energy flowed from her palms into the earth beneath her feet. His lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he simply closed his eyes and gasped for breath.
His dantian was completely empty, his spiritual power utterly exhausted. But the earthen wall of the western district did not collapse. Before he fell, he used his spiritual power to condense a continuously operating earth-elemental rune array at the core of the wall. This array could maintain its defense for at least a quarter of an hour without the injection of spiritual power.
He learned this three days ago in a formation class for the earth-elemental cultivation group. He told the students, "The essence of earth-elemental spiritual power is 'solidification' and 'stability,' which is to condense loose matter into an unshakeable form. But 'solidification' and 'stability' are not achieved by brute force, but by structure. A good structure can withstand the greatest pressure with the least amount of material."
Zhang Ziming was the only one in the class who took those words to heart. He spent three days implanting a self-circulating rune array into the core structure of the earthen wall. The array operated very inefficiently, lasting only a quarter of an hour, but that quarter of an hour was bought with the spiritual power of a third-level Qi Refining cultivator.
Each of the 1,100 students is growing in their own way.
Some, like Zhang Ziming, used formations to buy themselves last time before their spiritual power was exhausted; some, like Zhao Tieshan, used the power of their physical cultivation to withstand the corrosion of the ice flowers, standing at the defensive nodes until the very last moment without retreating; some, like the always taciturn Nordic girl in the group, used water-based spiritual power to condense a flowing water curtain around the light shield, causing the ice flowers to be carried away, diluted, and evaporated by the water flow the moment they fell into the water curtain.
Wang Kai stood at the very center of the array, his hands clasped together, five-colored halos flowing in his palms. His task was not to defend any specific node, but to maintain the balance of the entire Spirit Gathering Array. When all twelve defensive nodes were operating simultaneously, the array's spiritual energy consumption would surge to three times its normal level. If no one at the array's core controlled the flow and concentration of spiritual energy, the array would overload and collapse within a quarter of an hour of all twelve nodes operating at full capacity.
With his eyes closed, his divine sense spread out like a tide, enveloping the entire formation. He could sense the direction of every wisp of spiritual energy flow, the rate at which spiritual power was being consumed at each node, and the golden mark left by the Primordial Sword Intent at the formation's core was trembling at a faint frequency.
"East District: Spiritual energy concentration reduced by 5%. West District: Increased by 3%. South District: Defense strength is excessive; it is recommended to redirect excess spiritual energy to the North District."
His voice, clear, steady, and unquestionable, traveled through the communication runes built into the array to the ears of the person in charge at each node. Three months ago, he was a C-level life skill awakener who couldn't even sense spiritual energy. Three months later, he stood at the core of a spirit-gathering array driven by true essence, using his divine sense to regulate the energy balance of the entire academy.
The exercise lasted for two hours. When the last wave of simulated ice flowers was completely evaporated by the light shield, the spiritual power of eight of the twelve defense nodes had been completely exhausted, the heads of three nodes collapsed to the ground due to spiritual power overdraft, and only one node—the North District—was still barely maintaining the minimum level of defense.
The person in charge of the North District is Zhao Tieshan.
His left prosthetic leg had been corroded through in several places by the ice flowers, exposing the alloy joints and emitting a piercing metallic scraping sound. The flame patterns on his right fist had faded to almost invisible, and the skin on his fist was covered with charred blisters from the residual heat of the burning flames. But he stood straight. His back was ramrod straight, his right fist clenched tightly, and the remains of his left prosthetic leg supported his entire body, like an iron pillar that had not fallen after being burned for three days and three nights.
"North District." Shen Qingxue's voice came through the communicator, this time no longer the cool and composed tone of a teacher, but a suppressed emotion with a very slight tremor, "Defensive stance."
Zhao Tieshan opened his mouth, and a hoarse, almost inaudible sound came from his throat. "The North District... is still there."
Shen Qingxue fell silent. Only the faint hum of electricity and Zhao Tieshan's heavy breathing could be heard from the other end of the communicator.
"Drill over." Jiang Chen's voice came from the second floor of the factory, not loud, but clearly penetrating the entire academy and reaching everyone's eardrums. "Everyone, rest. We'll continue tomorrow."