Ninety-Fifth Section: The Enemy

Seeing the eighteen bronze men before him, and hearing the soldiers describe them in ever more terrifying terms, Tang Tian only grew more eager to try.

His eyes roved over the bronze figures as if he were sizing up meat in a slaughterhouse. The eighteen bronze men seemed utterly unaware of his gaze. They stood in silence, their cold bronze sheen solemn and forbidding. There were only eighteen of them, and yet they gave Tang Tian an indescribable sense of murderous pressure.

Bit by bit, Tang Tian’s expression turned serious. He set his face, widened his eyes, and stared at the bronze men before him.

With wary caution, he stepped forward.

Click.

One of the bronze men opposite him seemed to wake suddenly from a deep sleep. Its joints shifted, and then it raised its head. In its empty sockets, two points of light blazed like stars. This bronze man had a well-proportioned build, its arms hanging down past its knees, its hands broad and massive. Its head was smooth and bare, like a square bronze ball. Its features were crude and rough; it was obvious that its maker had not cared much for fine detail. Yet because of that, it carried a primitive, rugged charm.

A number, one, was marked on its chest.

Only then did Tang Tian notice that every bronze man had a number on its chest. He curled his lip.

Bang!

The numbered bronze man kicked off the ground and, like an arrow loosed from a bow, suddenly lunged at Tang Tian.

“Ha!”

Tang Tian exhaled sharply and threw a punch. Invisible ripples struck the bronze man squarely.

A tremendous force came surging back through his fist. Tang Tian grunted, and with a hiss he was sent sliding backward several meters as though he were skimming across ice.

Clack-clack-clack!

A rapid burst of joint noises drilled into Tang Tian’s ears. He hurriedly looked up, only to see that all the other bronze men had awakened from their slumber.

Tang Tian’s scalp tingled. He no longer had time to think. Shouting at the top of his lungs, he cried, “Hey, you old man, this is too shameless—”

Before he could finish, more than a dozen bronze silhouettes came charging from every direction like vicious tigers pouncing on prey.

In an instant he was surrounded so tightly that not even a gap remained. Front, back, left, right, above, below—all he could see were bronze figures. Tang Tian’s face changed color, and he raised his arms to shield his head, preparing to force his way out. But through the gap between his own arms, he caught sight of a figure ahead of him like a steel tower, no, like a bronze tower: the bronze man numbered nine!

His gaze dropped to the thick bronze legs of Number Nine, each one even broader than his waist. At that very moment, Number Nine stamped a foot down, and with a thunderous boom the ground trembled violently.

Tang Tian froze. My heavens.

Without another word, he spun around and bolted backward.

Swish, swish, swish!

Three bronze shadows appeared before him like phantoms.

The three bronze men, numbers four, five, and six, stood in a horn formation, but...

Tang Tian stared again, stunned.

The three bronze men looked like three bronze hedgehogs, their bodies covered in arms, packed densely from top to bottom. What made Tang Tian swallow hard was that every one of those arms held a different weapon. The three bronze hedgehogs just stood there, and even the light seemed unable to pass through.

This way won’t do either...

Without hesitation, Tang Tian charged left.

Fortunately, the bronze men on the left looked a little more normal. Their builds and shapes were not much different from Tang Tian’s. The young man’s courage surged. Letting out a loud shout, he charged straight at them.

He had to break out of the encirclement!

That bastard soldier was far too shameless! Tang Tian had assumed that in this bronze-man chamber, the bronze men would come one at a time. He had never expected all eighteen to rush him at once.

Too despicable... too outrageous...

From the single exchange with Number One, Tang Tian had already known these bronze men were absolutely formidable. In a one-on-one fight, he might not even be able to win. Let alone all eighteen charging together—there would be no chance of victory at all.

Though Tang Tian liked a good fight, he had no interest in taking part in something doomed to end in a beating.

“The first rule of the eighteen bronze-man chamber, painstakingly learned through blood and tears by every recruit: never run.”

The soldier floated in the air, his voice dark and sinister.

Bang, bang, bang!

Tang Tian felt as if he were being assailed by fists from every direction.

Before he could make any response, darkness swallowed his vision.

For ten straight days of grueling cultivation, Tang Tian struggled in the stormy onslaught of the eighteen bronze men.

“Move, idiot! Don’t stand there like a dummy!”

“Your sticky-clothes throw? Idiot! Don’t you know how to use it?”

“Watch the force! Pay attention to your opponent’s force! Faster, you slowpoke! Haven’t you eaten?”

...

The soldier’s roars never ceased, mingling with the sound of Tang Tian’s flesh being hammered by the bronze men’s fists. The soldier looked utterly exhilarated. A passion for training that had lain dormant for a long time erupted like a volcano, and poor Tang Tian became the only target to bear the brunt of it.

Day after day, through ten days of bitter training, Tang Tian struggled desperately within the bronze men’s violent storm.

“Trash! Back in the day, the highest record for a recruit in the corps was breaking through the bronze-man chamber on the second entry. And how many days has it been for you?”

“Counterattack! Counterattack! What are your arms for? Just to guard yourself? I absolutely cannot tolerate one of my recruits being nothing but a turtle that only knows how to defend. A real man uses his fists to greet the enemy!”

“How many times do I have to remind you? Sticky-clothes throw!”

...

After a furious barrage of curses, the soldier seemed to feel a touch of weariness and finally fell silent.

Floating in the air, he looked quietly down at Tang Tian, who was still struggling below. His stern, expressionless face returned to calm as he watched the boy’s battered figure. Though Tang Tian’s performance could not be called brilliant, the soldier was filled with expectation.

Any recruit who entered the eighteen bronze-man chamber would normally already be at least at the sixth rank.

Tang Tian was the first to enter at the fourth rank.

Boy, do your best.

When Jing Hao woke, the first thing he saw was Tang Tian’s bruised and swollen face. He was shocked. “Brother Tang, what happened to you?”

Tang Tian’s eye twitched, though unfortunately his eye was also so swollen that it was impossible to tell. He forced a smile. “Ah, I used too much force during training by accident.”

During the ten days in the eighteen bronze-man chamber, he had long since lost count of how many times he had been beaten senseless. He felt that still being alive was nothing short of a miracle. Because the bruises all over his body had accumulated so badly, even bamboo-wasp king gel could not erase them completely, so when Tang Tian appeared before Jing Hao, he was in a thoroughly battered state.

“Too much force?” Jing Hao looked puzzled. He could not imagine just how much force it would take to end up like this. But Jing Hao was a rough-and-ready man who did not enjoy prying into other people’s affairs, so he did not ask further. Instead, he probed, “So, Brother Tang, do you want another spar?”

Tang Tian gritted his teeth. “Yes!”

In this bout, Jing Hao immediately sensed that something was different about Tang Tian.

In their previous sparring matches, although Jing Hao had found Tang Tian’s defense somewhat troublesome, he had always kept him suppressed. Their exchanges were like an attack-and-defense drill: Jing Hao was the attacker, Tang Tian the defender. Throughout the entire process, Tang Tian had focused almost entirely on defense, powerless to counterattack.

But today’s Tang Tian was entirely different. He was still on the defensive, yet his defense carried a strong intent to strike back. Though Tang Tian’s counterattacks were often interrupted before they could fully form, the progress he had made still surprised Jing Hao deeply.

In just one night, Tang Tian had improved so much!

Jing Hao grew curious and, without realizing it, brought out his full strength.

Tang Tian only felt the pressure suddenly multiply, yet compared to the eighteen bronze-man chamber, this was a world apart. There, he had struggled without ever seeing hope. But facing Jing Hao, even as Jing Hao’s sword light surged, Tang Tian still did not collapse.

After ten days of brutal training and abuse, Tang Tian had begun to develop the habit of counterattacking. Though he was still far from enough, it was already enough to make Jing Hao wary of underestimating him.

This spar lasted longer than any before. Tang Tian barely held on for twenty minutes before finally losing.

Jing Hao’s breathing was slightly uneven, and he was deeply astonished. In previous sparring sessions, he had also felt tired, but never as tired as he did this time.

This guy... you can’t tell how deep he really is at all...

Tang Tian was still baring his teeth in pain, yet he looked full of energy.

Noticing Tang Tian’s gaze on him, Jing Hao crisply spat out two words, instantly cutting off Tang Tian’s intention to fight again: “Meditate.”

Then he saw Tang Tian begin meditating, somewhat unwillingly, and Jing Hao let out a quiet sigh of relief. He still had lingering fears about Tang Tian’s dogged persistence. This guy was practically a physical monster, as if he never knew what fatigue was.

The two of them meditated side by side to recover. An hour later, Tang Tian, now fully restored, jumped to his feet first.

He was just about to ask for another match when he suddenly heard faint voices nearby. He gave a surprised sound. “Someone’s coming!”

At that very moment, Jing Hao also opened his eyes and stood up. His expression changed slightly, and strands of killing intent surfaced on his face. Lowering his voice, he said, “Prepare for battle.”

“Battle?” Tang Tian’s eyes widened.

“Not our people. The camp’s people may have...” Jing Hao did not finish. The killing intent on his face only grew thicker as he silently darted toward the crack.

Tang Tian froze. Then, understanding dawned. His face darkened, and without hesitation he followed closely behind Jing Hao.

Those people in the camp...

Voices drifted in from beyond the crack.

“I thought the guys from the Order of Light would be something special. Turns out they’re pathetic!”

“Only that bald one had any backbone.”

“No matter how tough the backbone, Boss Strong still broke it apart!”

“Haha!”

...

Jing Hao, hidden behind the crack, showed murder in his eyes.

Those words also entered Tang Tian’s ears without missing a single syllable.

He had little real connection with the young men from the camp. He could not even remember most of their names. The only one he knew well was the bald, fierce Brother Biao, whom he had once beaten badly. Even then, Tang Tian had not had much interaction with him. The only moment that had left a deep impression on Tang Tian was the incident with the green sandalwood arm ape. Though fear filled the bald man’s heart, he still trembled over to him, intending to collect his body.

That had surprised Tang Tian, but it had also made him feel that Brother Biao was, in fact, not a bad person.

But now...

The bald man’s calm face, with a trace of contentment as he said, “It’s hard work being here, but at least I can enjoy the treatment of an iron-black warrior, and my family will be looked after. My talent was never any good anyway, and I don’t have much future. Earning some benefits for my family is enough to make it worthwhile...” surfaced in Tang Tian’s mind.

Tang Tian’s fist clenched at once.