Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups

Chapter 1290 - 626

Dawn breaks.

The grayish-white daylight gradually pierces through the thick mist enveloping the entire West Mountain.

Black Wind Gully, located in the heart of West Mountain, is the finish line of the Special Search Team’s endurance test.

Several large, army-green tents are set up along the mountain’s slopes, their interiors emitting dim yellow lights.

A communications antenna towers in the center of the camp, while a diesel generator emits a low rumble.

The gravel-strewn ground is littered with early-arriving candidates lying in disarray.

Although the cross-country course is merely five kilometers long, the hidden obstacles and dangers are by no means few.

The majority’s camouflage uniforms have turned into rags, covered in mud, looking utterly bedraggled.

Some wince, clutching their cramping thighs, their bodies adorned with injuries.

Some are simply sprawled out, star-shaped, with only their chests heaving intensely.

The air is a mixture of sweat, earthy odors, and the pungent scent of medical spray.

At the entrance of the camp.

Sporadically, some candidates pass through the warning line, mostly helping each other, limping along, resembling a group of soldiers defeated in battle.

Fang Cheng walks steadily among the crowd, carrying a large, bulging bag in each hand.

Apart from a disheveled hairstyle and mud-stained pant legs, he appears energetic and completely unharmed.

In contrast, Ma Donghe and Hou Peng trailing him look much more miserable.

Both have blood-soaked bandages wrapped around their heads, one using a roughly-hewn tree branch as a crutch.

Also staggering along, they look like two severely injured escapees from a POW camp.

The trio lines up at the enrollment area.

At this point, a long queue has formed in front of the registration tent, the line moving exceedingly slow.

The candidates ahead either nod off heavily or share last night’s experiences with one another.

A few medical staff in white coats weave among the queue, occasionally lifting severely injured, near-fainting candidates onto stretchers.

Fang Cheng quietly follows the line forward, carrying his baggage.

Ma Donghe and Hou Peng gasp in pain, voicing complaints intermittently.

After enduring a grueling half-hour, they finally reach the registration table.

The trio hands their mud-caked number plates to the examiner behind the desk.

The examiner picks up the scanner, with a beep, his gaze scanning over Ma Donghe and Hou Peng’s wretched appearances, casually asking:

"Encounter any danger last night?"

"Sure did, Sir, you wouldn’t believe how risky it was last night!"

Ma Donghe suddenly becomes animated, leaning forward on his crutch, spitting out excitedly:

"We lost our way in the woods and suddenly ran into a mutant boar. Good Lord, its tusks must have been half a meter long, and the size of a van!"

He frees one hand, gesticulating excitedly:

"That boar charged at us in a flash! I reacted without panic, with a right Whip Kick, a left front kick, then a left jab right into its eye socket, completely neutralizing its brute force!"

"Exactly exactly!"

Hou Peng also props himself with the branch, echoing:

"If I hadn’t dodged in time, I’d have been sent flying by that boar right there; even so, I got all sorts of injuries."

"Brother Ma was like War God at that moment, he went all out to cover for me, directly wrestling the beast, fiercely determined..."

The examiner didn’t even lift his eyelids, stamping the qualification mark on the report with a thud, impatiently waving them off:

"Alright alright, you’ve passed, quickly head to the medical area to treat your wounds, don’t block the passage."

"Hey, Sir, I haven’t finished yet!"

Ma Donghe reluctantly cranes his neck, wanting to keep talking:

"That boar eventually was choked out with a naked choke by me..."

"Hey buddy in front, hurry up after blowing your hot air, will you? My thigh’s cramping up, I can’t stand anymore; that’s not how you earn extra points."

A black-faced candidate behind interrupts painfully.

"Exactly, hearing you talk, it’s like you were the one who caused explosions and alarmed the examiners for a mountain search last night."

Another female candidate in the line rolls her eyes and snappily quips.

Upon hearing this, Ma Donghe couldn’t help but glance sneakily at Fang Cheng beside him, retreating into silence with a dejected sigh.

Then, along with Hou Peng, they hobble and follow the others into the camp’s interior.

Fang Cheng walked ahead, tugging at his slightly oversized training uniform, his actions casual and natural.

It’s as if the creature that turned the whole forest into ruins last night wasn’t him at all.

His original camouflage uniform had already turned to tatters during his confrontation with Lu Tianming.

This set of clothes and pants was stripped from the corpse of a Black Market mercenary.

After parting ways with Lu Tianming last night, Fang Cheng managed to clear the battlefield before the Special Search Team’s main force encircled him.

The mercenaries’ bodies, along with their leftover weaponry, he threw them all into the Golden Light Barrier at the ruins’ entrance, like tossing out trash.

As for the turncoat, betrayer Grey Eagle.

When Fang Cheng found him, he had already been crushed by boulders flung by the fight, his legs broken, face bloodied, wailing for help in the mud.

Fang Cheng didn’t listen to a single word of his pleading explanation, snapped his neck to relieve his pain, then casually tossed him into the barrier, permanently eradicating all traces.

He who kills, will be killed.

Anyone daring to betray him, Fang Cheng would never give them a second chance.

After completing all this, the Golden Light Barrier outside the ruins’ entrance had become very dim.