Lin Xun had become more silent than ever since Old Mo left.

After completing daily training, he would return to Old Mo's warehouse and drank a pot of wine silently every day.

Young Man was worried about Lin Xun.

She was keenly aware that something was wrong with Lin Xun, but whenever she wanted to comfort Lin Xun, Lin had begun to cultivate.

Young Man sighed and had to give up the idea of consoling Lin Xun. Some things might be faced alone if he wanted to mature faster.

Thirteen days later.

Early in the morning.

From today on, 237 trainees from eight camps in Bloodthirsty Camp would go to the Demon-cloud Ridge in the northern frontier of the empire by warship for the battlefield assessment.

"Don't worry about Chirps, I'll take care of it. Your task is to return safely with an excellent assessment result."

Before their departure, Young Man exhorted Lin Xun softly.

"I will."

Lin Xun nodded, turned and walked to Camp 39.

Behind him, Young Man gazed at Lin Xun with her starry eyes. She found he had become taller and stronger, and then recalled the scene of their first meeting.

At that time, Lin Xun appeared to be a harmless sunny boy, with a warm smile and a glib tongue all day long. Sometimes, he was absorbed in spiritual tattoos, serious and calm.

But now, he was different from the past. People could hardly guess his thought.

Was this change good or bad for Lin Xun?

Young Man didn't know it for sure. Maybe this was the road of growth. It was never defined only by age, and it depended on experience. The more one went through, the more changes he would suffer.

Chirps crouched in Young Man's bosom, with its round black eyes looking at Lin Xun's receding figure reluctantly and chirping ceaselessly.

...

A few moments later, eight small-sized Ziying Battleships took off and crushed the clouds, roaring, carrying 237 trainees from eight camps, and flying north.

"How many people do you think will be able to come back this time?"

"No more than fifty, I think."

"Fifty? That's about twice as much as before. Bless them!"

"So how many people do you think will die in the end?"

"It's hard to say."

"Assessment in Demon-cloud Ridge is a test of life and death. There are only two results, namely elimination or death, for those who cannot stick it out. Some of them are doomed to die."

"This is the rule. Even they are of extraordinary origins and good talents, they are barely usable if they fail to bear the suffering of war ultimately."

"I'm just worried that the forces behind these trainees are so complicated; if something unexpected happens, they will blame it on our Bloodthirsty Camp."

"You are wrong. In a large clan, there is never a shortage of outstanding descendants. Sometimes, it is not a bad thing for them to lose a useless descendant."

"Indeed, when it comes to cruelty, the competition within the families of those ancient origins is more perverted than that in our Bloodthirsty Camp. For getting more resources and rights, brothers turn against each other and killing relatives has become common things."

"We just need to wait for three months, and then we will know how many of the 237 trainees can hold on to the last and who will be eliminated, or... have died."

Watching eight Ziying Battleships disappear on the northern horizon, a group of Drillmasters had a brief conversation in the Bloodthirsty Camp.

…

In the Camp 39's warship, Lin Xun looked at a storage ring in his hand.

This was the only spiritual instrument given out before the assessment. No trainee was allowed to carry any other spiritual equipment.

This was a rule of assessment.

After arriving at the Demon-cloud Ridge located on the northern border of the empire, the 237 trainees would enter the battlefield as ordinary soldiers of the empire.

What they had to do was, like ordinary soldiers, to use all means to survive in the war zone for three months.

The number of military merits was the result of assessment. Those who died and those who had relatively less military merits would be eliminated. This uniformly provided storage ring was designed to collect military merits.

The so-called military merits were the barbarians' life!

The cabin was not so quiet. Many people were talking in a low voice, all about the assessment in Demon-cloud Ridge.

Demon-cloud Ridge was a complex war zone, located on the northern border of the empire. Across the Demon-cloud Ridge, further north was a turbulent wasteland controlled by Empire of the Dark.

Over the centuries, the flames of war in the Demon-cloud Ridge had never stopped, and both the empire and Empire of the Dark knew that neither of them could occupy the Demon-cloud Ridge completely.

The reason was that the terrain of Demon-could Ridge was too complex. Demon-cloud Ridge, with a range of tens of thousands of miles, was perennially shrouded in dark haze, and was full of danger. Unless the whole Demon-cloud Ridge was levelled, anyone who wanted to occupy this place had to pay a heavy price beyond calculation.

Up to now, the Demon-cloud Ridge had become a buffer zone between Ziyao Empire and Empire of the Dark. Although the fighting continued, its scale was small.

"I heard that the function of Demon-cloud Ridge has changed already. It has become a 'Training Ground' between Ziyao Empire and Empire of the Dark, aiming to let the young generations of both sides know their opponents very well through real bloody warfare. Only through the tempering of blood and fire can they grow into real war talents."

Shi Yu, beside Lin, suddenly lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "This also means that we will be likely to encounter some overmatches of barbarian races in this assessment of Demon-cloud Ridge. I'm afraid that their combat effectiveness will not be inferior to ours."

"This is nonsense," Ning Meng said in a sardonic voice.

"Nonsense?" Shi Yu sneered. "You should first of all understand your enemies and yourself if you don't want to be defeated. Fools like you will die easily when you get into the Demon-cloud Ridge."

"You don't have to worry about it," Ning Meng said with disdain. "You are just an ignorant toy boy; different from you, I grew up in the battlefield. I dare say you are not as good as one-tenth of me on the understanding of war!"

Seeing the two guys arguing again, Lin Xun had a headache and said, "I have an idea for you two. Why not compete against each other and see who could gain a higher result in the assessment of Demon-cloud? The final number of military merits is more convincing, right? You can bet what you want on the result even."

Shi Yu and Ning Meng looked at each other with sparks of anger in their eyes. They nodded in unison, "Fine!"

"Don't you join us?" Shi Yu asked Lin Xun.

"Me?" Lin Xun was surprised.

"Yes, how can this be done without you? Let us three bet on the result!" with his eyes shining, Ning Meng rubbed his hands. "Let's bet a hundred imperial gold coins. There will be only one winner, and each loser should give a hundred imperial gold coins to the winner."

"One hundred imperial gold coins..." Lin Xun took a deep breath. The stake was too high. It was equivalent to 10,000 imperial silver coins or 1,000,000 imperial copper coins.

However, Shi Yu was dissatisfied with this and sneered, "Just one hundred imperial gold coins? You are too mean. I won't gamble with you if the stakes are so low."

Lin Xun was speechless. One hundred imperial gold coins were too few for Shi Yu. Fortune God Shi's youngest son was rich beyond imagination!

"How much do you want to bet?" Ning Ming asked, unhappy.

"At least one thousand imperial gold coins, one condition plus."

Shi Yu laughed, "The condition is very simple. If you lose in assessment, you need to admit that you are inferior to me, confess yourself vanquished and apologize to me!"

Ning Meng's face changed, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Done!"

Shi Yu smiled lightly, "Great!"

Lin Xun couldn't help saying, "Excuse me, I can't afford a thousand imperial gold coins for now."

"On account!"

Shi Yu and Ning Meng cried out with one voice.

Facing their will of finding pickings, Lin Xun was stirred up a touch of anger, but he just kept his head and gently spit out a word, "Fine!"

Suddenly, a sharp sneer came from the other side of the cabin, "Someone is indeed a gambler. Did he think that he honestly won the battle with Shiao Kun the other day?" Lin Xun, Shi Yu and Ning Meng all looked at the direction from which the sound came.

It was a surly teenager named Hu Long with slightly pale skin. He was one of the trainees incorporated into Camp 39 after the quarterly assessment like Lee Duxing.

Hu Long had fully proved his combat effectiveness since he was able to stay after quarterly assessment, and his present middle ranking could prove him also.

But now he was sneering, and the "somebody" in his words was tantamount to pointing at Lin to make a mockery.

A touch of obvious provocation in Hu's words immediately attracted the attention of many trainees in the cabin.

Seeing this, Hu Long did not shut up, but became prouder, said with disdain, "Nowadays in the Bloodthirsty Camp, everyone knows Shiao Kun's defeat is not for his low combat effectiveness. Originally, Lady Bai was too kind to see someone make a fool of himself because of being defeated, so she stopped the battle from going on. Who ever thought that someone was not ashamed, but proudly boasted that he was the winner. His action really humiliates the whole Camp 39!!"

This kind of saying was indeed circulating in the Bloodthirsty Camp, but many people also knew that Lin Xun was absolutely not as poor as Hu Long said. If that battle really went on, it was hard to judge who was the final winner.

However, many people noticed that Hu Long was satirizing Lin Xun intentionally. Many of them and Lin Xun were just casual acquaintances, so no one wanted to be involved in trouble.

Shi Yu and Ning Meng frowned and was about to say something, but Lin Xun stopped them, "When a dog barks crazily, will you go to reason with the dog?"

Hu Long's face changed sharply and he screamed, "Who are you scolding?"

Lin Xun smiled and said, "A dog."

Hu Long snapped, "I'm asking you who is the dog that you scold?"

Lin Xun shrugged and said, "The dog knows it."

Hu Long got angry at once. He got up and pointed at Lin and asked, "Dare you deny you are scolding me?"

Lin Xun answered with a smile, "If you admit that you are a dog, then you are the one that I scold, or do you want to prove that you are a dog now?"

Would Hu Long prove himself a dog?

No, he would not surely!

It was too humiliating!

Who didn't know that Lin Xun scolded him?

Hearing this kind of abuse, many people was amused, and some even laughed out.

Hu Long's face suddenly turned red, he was so angry that he trembled and roared, "Somebody dares to say but dares not to admit own behavior. If I were a dog, somebody would be worse than a dog!"

In his words, it was equivalent to comparing Hu Long himself to a dog and comparing Lin Xun to a lower creature. Hearing this, many people could not help laughing, with tears almost falling.

Such kind of verbal abuse was really silly.

This guy absolutely got muddled for being pissed off.

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