Xing Kai put the question out of his mind, seeing as he wouldn't get an answer. The two people who had read the question he wrote on the parchment, were still pale and one of them even fainted. The loud bang of the hall door being closed behind him, made him collapse onto the ground, unconscious.

"What the hell is wrong with these two?"

"They couldn't be that scared...they're probably just faking"

A few of the older recruits grumbled and poked fun at the two, but their voices betrayed the fear they felt.

"Why doesn't one of you just right the question down again? That way you'll be fine"

"Are you crazy? There is NO way I'm repeating those words"

The pale faced recruit looked scared for his life and went straight to his bed and pretended to go to asleep. The other recruit had awoken already but he just ignored everyone and twitched randomly as he lay on his bed. The morbid curiosity of the group rose, but the tension and fear was making some of the men visibly sweat.

"Hey kid, write the question down again"

Everyone slowly turned their heads to look at Xing Kai with horror. The man who spoke was burly and tattooed heavily with beasts. He stood with his arms crossed and smirk on his face.

His hulking frame dwarfed all the others and his brazen request made him feel proud; he planned to become a task force leader one day, and lord it over the other recruits, so he felt it was important to appear powerful early on. This arrogant nonchalance for what scared the instructor, would make him more powerful in other's eyes, he thought. Anybody would agree that doing things that other people don't dare, is an easy way of showing superiority.

It's probably better if I didn't say anything...they look like they'd thank me if I didn't

Xing Kai shook his head slowly, unintentionally narrowing his eyes and glaring slightly. He hardly looked imposing with such a small body, but the recruits were relieved inside as well as chilled. The burly recruit shrugged, feeling satisfied with his display of power and bravery. He was too stupid to realise the danger that Xing Kai presented, had he actually wrote his question again. Ignorance was the burly man's bliss indeed.

"Whatever...little brat is probably just acting big because of his looks" scoffed one of the recruits. He had his nose upturned arrogantly to Xing Kai, but one could clearly see the sweat roll down his temple.

"What do you mean probably? The shitty runt obvious thinks he's hot stuff...he's lucky i'm not so interested in that crappy question or I'd beat it out of him"

A few of the recruits chuckled and tried to restore some of their pride.

"Do you remember what the instructor said? The brat apparently beat the entrance test militiaman"

"As if...that militiaman was at early Blood condensing Stage, plus I couldn't beat him; there's no way he could have done"

"Well whatever...all I care about is getting to early Blood condensing Stage. That would be a dream come true for me...life would be so easy, lording it over the town's people"

Some of the other recruits expressed similar desires and filled the air with their plans of abusing their power and acquiring certain benefits with it. But it was an undeniable fact that strong militiaman were like emperors in this town, and many acted as the recruits described.

"You've seen the special treatment the militiamen get from the ladies...and from the drinking inns, haha"

Xing Kai scowled, turned away from the men and went to his wooden bed in the corner. He had not met men like these before in his village, and found them incredibly repellent and grating to his ears and eyes.

How are they happy with such little power? Why stay bottled up in this little town...you might be powerful here but as soon as someone stronger appears you'll have to kneel again

Xing Kai snorted and thought back to the lecture from the old man. It only took him a few moments for him to be swept up by the thought of how large the world was. This town alone was thousands of households greater than his village. Yet cities were unimaginably greater than this town...one could spend a whole day trying to imagine how grand that place would look. And that was just cities in this weak province...Truly it was easy for Xing Kai to get swept up in his imaginings of the wide world.

The recruits spoke for a few more minutes before being interrupted by a militiaman with a small box. He barged through the door and placed it one of the recruit's beds. Inside were a dozen little books suitable for children, judging by size.

"These are the copies of the first layer of Blood condensing Stage. As soon as you complete this you can be considered early Blood condensing Stage cultivators."

The ordinary looking militiaman walked out with no further comment and slammed the door behind him. In a blur of motion, recruits pounced on the box and grabbed a booklet. Xing Kai waited, as did the pale recruits, and picked one up. He tried to pass a booklet to the pale recruits behind him, but they avoided him strongly in all forms of contact.

He returned to the corner of the barrack, on his wooden bed again. He flicked the worn, black cover over and began reading the manual for sanguinary cultivation of the first layer of the Blood condensing Stage.

This...this is...

The booklet really only had a few thin pages, handwritten and slightly worn out and crinkled. It had crude diagrams of the human body and the Jingmai. Even using inner sense, it would be hard to identify the meridians it was indicating.

However, the real issue for Xing Kai was that the diagram was showing a certain pattern. The pattern was showing which channels the Heart's blood had to be circulated around the body. The manual said vaguely that the Heart's blood would permeate into the flesh and transfer the natural talent and potential of the person into his body...

It sounded very vague and much like guesswork. Yet one thing was clear, as Xing Kai flicked through the rest of the pages quickly, and that was that the Heart's blood had to be moved and used to strengthen the body.

I only have a speck of Heart's blood left...How in the world am I meant to do this training?

Xing Kai had hoped that the old instructor was mistaken about the need of Heart's blood for the Blood condensing Stage, or that he might get away with using the speck he had left, in some way. But now it was clear...he was in trouble.

Xing Kai thought back to the discussion, feeling like there was something he was missing...

Suddenly Xing Kai slapped his forehead and gaped in astonishment. His heart beat thundered and veins could be seen bulging on his temples.

I can absorb other people's Heart's blood...could that blood be used instead of my own?

Xing Kai quickly controlled his expression but he couldn't stop his excitement surge in his heart. All sanguinary cultivators could only use their own Heart's blood to strength their bodies for the Blood condensing Stage; that was clear from the manual. They had to rely on the strength and power of their natural talent and potential to become strong bodied cultivators. But Xing Kai could use other people's Heart's blood. He could continue increasing the strength of his body endlessly...

I must truly be a blood cultivator...this must be the monstrous, freakish power that blood cultivators reputedly have. An indestructible body...truly, as long as I have enough Heart's blood my body will so powerful that even an arrow couldn't harm me...

Naturally Xing Kai's comprehension for the scope of his strength was limited to the vague stories he heard of blood cultivators from his village. He had never even seen a cultivator until recently, so he believed blocking arrows was the extremes of a cultivators strength.

But if I'm a blood cultivator...will this manual even be right for me? Blood cultivators seem to be the reason cultivators have a bad name, so it's not like I can ask for help...and even then, could I trust the help given, when I know so little...

Xing Kai felt his excitement deflate slightly, and he was frustrated that his knowledge was now crippling his growth.

Knowledge is also power...without knowledge there can't be growth, and without growth there can't be strength.

Xing Kai closed his eyes and examined his internals. His sense was still vague and difficult to control, but he had taken a few lessons with the village healer to learn how to better control his inner sense. He didn't improve much over the years, but he practised regularly.

Yet Xing Kai could still sense that some of his tissues were denser and stronger than in the past. The grains of his muscles were finer and deeper, with a dark red colour to them. Some of his tendons were a slightly brighter shade of grey, and the connective tissues around his organs thickened in places. But these improvements were in odd places and in patches of his body only.

His constitution was still the same, as the improvements were too irregular and unbalanced. If he was hit, the improvements would not help much at all, as he had too many untrained areas of his body.

Xing Kai sighed and released his inner sense concentration. When he remembered back to the revenge he attempted to get, he faintly recalled the sensation of Heart's blood being refined and cycled around his body. It had happened automatically, and just flowed around his body in general. That would explain the uneven strengthening to his body he reckoned.

Good thing I'm in the militia then...

Xing Kai nodded his head with satisfaction at the unexpected bonus of joining the militia. Apart from the obvious benefits, he was also encouraged and even rewarded to kill people. He had to kill for Heart's blood, but how difficult would that be on his own? He couldn't kill innocents, and he didn't have the strength to challenge random villains in the first place. But the militia covered this problem excellently, by providing support.

Xing Kai pulled out the folded up sheet of parchment and scribbled a few things onto it. This naturally drew the attention of some of the recruits, but they were relieved as their eyes followed his narrow figure to the barrack door, and away from them.

Xing Kai opened the door and stepped out into the hot, sandy camp grounds. He could see the militia training in the camp, and there was also the recruits from previous batches, training in a nearby training ground. They were made to run and lift weights under the afternoon sun; sweat rolled down their faces and the sun baked their backs, but the militiamen were unrelenting in training the recruits.

Xing Kai set off, with an eager look hidden within his cold expression, to the main camp building. It was a large stone building with heavy brick walls and hefty wooden beams supporting the roof. Xing Kai looked at the stone building, with only the word heavy echoing in his mind. His village's homes were not totally rubbish, but with enough effort and time, the walls could be broken with your hands and the roof could be pulled apart. But these walls were very solid and could even resist an angry bull's charge with impunity. The sturdy grey bricks and black tiles on the log-like beams was a eye-opening sight to Xing Kai.

This should work. If I can already beat early Blood condensing stage militiaman...then why wouldn't this work

Xing Kai stepped into the cool building, with excitement bubbling up inside of him again.

"Hey, you're that brat that mushed brother Fa's nose yeah?"

An officer, wearing a single black strip on his shoulder, called out behind one of the desks in the large entrance hall. He appeared very reliable and solidly built. He had soft brown eyes and a familiar face for some reason.

"My name is officer Rong Nianzu. What would recruit Xing Kai be doing here?"

Ohh, he's elder sister Lan's brother...wait, she never mentioned him before? Why didn't she tell me she had a brother in the militia?

Xing Kai nodded his head, but his cold expression turned slightly bizarre with confusion. Xing Kai passed the parchment to him and waited to see what he would say.

Rong Nianzu frowned as he read, and looked over Xing Kai a number of times.

"Sorry, we don't allow recruits to take part in missions until they have undergone the basic training. However...seeing as you managed to get one up on brother Fa, we could let you join the wall defence"

Xing Kai frowned. He thought that since he showed strength equal to the militiamen who took part in missions, he too would be allowed to join the missions. Wasn't he good enough?

"I can see that you disagree, but you can't even talk...do you know how problematic that could be for the rest of the task force? If you try and take an officer's rank by killing one, that could work...but nobody would follow your orders or even now what your orders are for that matter. Again you wouldn't be sent on missions...not until you complete basic training anyways."

Rong Nianzu appeared apologetic, but he returned to his work at his desk as if expecting Xing Kai to walk away now.

What the hell? He basically means that even after I complete my basic training I'll only ever be placed on wall defence...how am I ever going to become strong there?

Rong Nianzu looked up from his papers, and scoured Xing Kai's face, wandering why he was so insistent on joining the next available mission out of the town. He then was surprised to see Xing Kai suddenly smirk, and step forward.

Xing Kai then wrote 4 words on the back of the parchment that made Rong Nianzu's face to twist horribly.

"Why would you want to join the forest wall night watch? Are you looking to die? We only send highly experienced militiamen to defend that wall at night, and criminals are sent there to die"

Xing Kai looked unwaveringly at Rong Nianzu's twisted face. They stared at each other for a dozen heart beats, before Rong Nianzu shook his head and grumbled in submission.

He stood up and went over to one of the draws, and pulled out a bundle of papers. He recorded Xing Kai's details, from the entrance sheet that he also located, and officially entered Xing Kai's name into the forest wall night guards list.

"Although this is highly irregular, people have wanted to join the forest wall before or been forced to defend the forest wall, so you should be allowed to join with my authority alone."

Rong Nianzu finished writing down a few details and then turned to face Xing Kai. There was a barely perceptible gleam in Xing Kai's eyes, during the whole process, that shone quite brightly now.

"How much do you know about the forest wall?"

He asked casually not expecting any answer, but was stunned when Xing Kai shrugged his shoulders.

"...Are you purposely trying to wind me up? Why did you join if you didn't even know what it was?"

Xing Kai wrote a quick response down on the parchment.

"You want to?...you want to go to dangerous places? Do you truly seek death at such a young age?"

Rong Nianzu glared at Xing Kai, but only unwavering determination shone from his eyes and clearly expressed no desire for an early death. Rong Nianzu stopped his hand from removing Xing Kai's name from the guards list, as he about to a moment ago.

"As you wish..."

Rong Nianzu sighed and led him out of the headquarters and out of the training camp. They soon reached the weapons store of the militia. It was a compact, small building made entirely of stone. It looked damaged, with cracks and black stains on the walls.

"If you weren't in such a rush, you would have been trained in how to use a weapon...whatever, go choose one for yourself"

Xing Kai grunted and looked around at the rows of weapons on the racks.

It's better to have a light and fast sword, so I can at least attack how I like, rather than a heavy, powerful one...as for the other weapons...only a bow would be worth considering...

Xing Kai picked up an ordinary looking, slightly bent sword and the necessary gear with it. He was instructed on how to care for the blade edge and what things to avoid that could damage the blade. He had noticed that there were only low quality weapons available, but he thought it was just because he was a recruit and hence he was shown only the poorest weapons. A town's militia would surely have better weapons that the rusted and chipped lot in there right?

They left the battered weapons store, going to distant, darker area of the camp. The walls here were taller by 2 meters, but broken and painted in dark red blood. Even the hot afternoon sun couldn't displace the chill in the air here.

Leading up to the tall, rickety wooden walls, there were numerous narrow paths made of wood and dirt. It was a maze built to confuse and divert the enemy, when they inevitably break through the walls and enter the camp.

Past the narrow and winding maze of death, and the broken wall, was the forest. The forest was the real nightmare about this area of the camp. It was so densely packed with ancient trees, that even a child could jump across from branch to branch without needing to ever step foot on the ground. The forest edge had been pushed back leaving 20 meters between the lonely wall, and the dark forest. 20 meters wide and 100 meters along the wall, of clear land between the wall and the forest.

This clear stretch of land however was covered in flies and crows. The ground was dotted with broken weapons and broken bodies. Beasts of many kinds and men of different clothing could be seen on the ground being feasted on. With the ancient looking tree's great height, this strip of land was covered in a dark shadow that the sun would never reach.

"This place is where we suffer the most attacks. From wild beasts to enemies, we regularly have to do battle here, and many times we have lost. This is why the wall is so broken. The wall is breached by beasts and then funnelled into the narrow paths behind us. There we have to hold the enemy back, from invading the camp entirely."

Rong Nianzu pointed out a few particularly damaged parts of the wall, where there were gaping large holes left unrepaired. The maze of tunnels behind those gaping flaws in the wall, were almost full to the top with strange mangled bodies.

Why isn't this wall defended better? This is ridiculous...

Noticing Xing Kai's scowl, Rong Nianzu explained.

"We leave this place like this because it makes it almost a certainty, where all the attacks will occur. We don't have enough elite troops to defend the whole wall, so they are centralised around this area. Thanks to that, we almost never get surprise attacked elsewhere along the wall"

"Also most of the attacks are from wild beasts from the forest, as you can see. We get a large profit from killing them and selling their valuable parts and plus it keeps the population of beasts in the forest in check. It suits us and the forest to have this common battlefield"

Xing Kai nodded his head slowly, but his eyes still held a trace of disagreement.

This place really is a death trap. But the militia and the beasts intentionally struggle here, to grow stronger

Xing Kai's thinking was a truth that underpinned many of the wars in the world. Both the militia and the beasts of the forest willingly sacrificed lives to strengthen themselves and they welcomed it. Adversity births strong people and on the back of one powerful person, a whole country could be formed!

Xing Kai felt this wall reminded him too much of his own village. It too had a glaring weakness, but was exploited by a stronger force for their own desires. Now a glaring weakness was being created intentionally, so that they could benefit from another's foolish attack. Yet they could also end up welcoming a force they couldn't handle...in which case it was the end of the town.

Xing Kai felt anxious when he thought about how much the town was standing on a knifes edge. Yet this was cultivation. Xing Kai felt far more excitement than fear...he strangely enjoyed this tense feeling.

Xing Kai hummed low in his throat, and felt a chuckle rising up his chest.

Pity there are so few people who raid this wall, and it is mostly beasts. Who knows how long I'll have to wait before I can get more Heart's blood...

"If you want to back out, let one of the officers know. Remember, you still have to take part in your normal training and make sure to appear an hour before nightfall at this wall. Follow what the other's do."

Rong Nianzu had another long look at Xing Kai, and then left. Xing Kai watched him leave, feeling unsure of what to make of him. The man seemed very nice, but yet Rong Lan hadn't mentioned he even existed...perhaps they were cousins, reasoned Xing Kai casually.

Xing Kai left the broken wall and walked down one of the more cramped paths of the maze, to get an idea of what it would be like in the night. He returned to the barrack soon after, with his sword and small cloth bag of things needed to repair and maintain his sword's edge.

Naturally, having been only a few hours since they joined, and Xing Kai already carrying a sword, drew a lot of attention from the recruits. Some of them were even left with gaping mouths and round, unblinking eyes.

"How the hell..."

"Hey kid, why are you messin' around with a sword for? Give it to me"

The same burly tattooed man jumped up off his bed and sauntered over to Xing Kai's bed in the corner of the barrack. To anybody's eyes it appeared that the boy was trapped and was going to be mauled by the bear like man for cocky behaviour.

Xing Kai turned his head and gave the bear like man a quick look and then shook his head. He then placed the small bag beside his bed and then placed his thin sword against the wall by his bed.

"Brat you're asking for a beating, and I won't deny you, your wish if you annoy me again. Give me the sword right now and beg for forgiveness...and I'll consider not slapping the teeth out of your mouth."

The burly man's face was going very red. He could not tolerate the open disrespect he felt he was getting from a crippled brat. How could he ever expect to lord it over the other men, if even a brat could disrespect him? Slapping the cowering boy's teeth out, was the only way the burly man could think of, that would restore his respect and standing among the men.

"Poor kid is finished"

"Who you calling poor kid? He seems heretical to me..."

Some of the recruits whispered amongst themselves, but Xing Kai ignored them. He sat on his bed and crossed his legs, with the manual in his hands.

"I don't know which wretched woman gave bi--"

The man stomped forward to Xing Kai's bed, spiting out vile words in his anger, but Xing Kai suddenly exploded off his bed with a leap and appeared before the bear like man in a blur. The speechless recruits, watched as the young boy grabbed the man's heavy, outstretched hand and clenched.

"ARRGG"

An unmistakable crackling sound rang out.

The burly man roared as his hand was broken. Xing Kai yanked the man on to his bed and under everyone's amazed gaze, he twisted the man's arm into a horrible angle.

With a resounding crack from the man's shoulder, he screamed.

Xing Kai didn't stop there, as he lifted the man by his jaw, and threw the man across the barrack, head first into the wall.

Xing Kai breathed raggedly with a crazed look in his eyes. He was not tired, but rather filled with rage. The insult to his mother, was one he refused to accept in any form. He had failed her once, and allowed her to be killed. Now he would not even allow a bad word about her in his presence.

This was a conviction he had planted into his heart during his time in the hospital, grieving his lost family and friends.

The solid thud reached everyone's ears and they all mutely looked at each other, and then at Xing Kai. Xing Kai had already sat down on his bed, and opened the first layer of Blood condensing Stage manual. He was grinding his teeth and gripped the manual tightly in his hands, as he tried to calm himself down.

"Better to not mess with this kid"

"He's definitely not below early Blood condensing Stage"

These thoughts bounced around the recruit's heads as they watched Xing Kai read the few pages off the booklet. The bear like man had slide down the wall and lay on the floor in a crumpled shape. Some of the men he had befriended carried him out and took him to the infirmary.

300 heart beats later in the silent barrack, another officer came and called them to attention. He did not say anything about the missing recruit, the burly man, as if he never existed in the first place. He did however smirk when he saw the blood stain on the floor, as if he was used to it.

"Your training has been organised and I have brought your routine for the next month with me. You will be living by this plan for the next month, so memorise it"

Without another glance he left the recruits to look at the routine he stuck to the door of their barrack.

The recruits looked over the routine and more or less agreed with it, however when Xing Kai saw it, he frowned with an odd expression.

There really is very few hours of training...but then again the training seems pretty intensive, so the free time is mostly for recovering I think...

The routine for the recruits would be 2 physical training sessions in the day, with 2 sessions of instruction about related information, such as geography of the nearby area, the history of the towns, the militia's codes and fighting tactics etc. Each session was an hour, so only 4 hours was spent doing militia training.

I'll just sneak into the older batch of recruit's training sessions, in my free time...no rule against that huh...