Tempering 4

Rain pattered through the night, turning the final stretch of the cross-country route into a muddy slog. Xu Lingqu trudged through it like she was wading through a swamp, drenched to the bone and caked in grime. Branches had scraped her face and hands, drawing blood that the rain quickly washed away. She ran, sneezing on occasion, looking for all the world like a stray dog.

Instructor Chen followed behind her the entire way. By the time they neared the training base, it was almost curfew for the cadets. His smart assistant buzzed with a message from the base instructors, asking about his and Xu Lingqu's status.

"Everything's fine," Instructor Chen replied. "Almost there."

He had watched every step of her journey. There had been moments when he'd thought she might give up, yet she'd gritted her teeth and pushed through each one.

He found it hard to articulate what he felt about this student right now.

Xu Lingqu didn't have the luxury of overthinking. Her body had hit its absolute limit; the fact that she hadn't simply blacked out was a mercy. She mechanically followed the route plotted by her smart assistant, relying purely on willpower to keep running through the darkness.

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed ahead, forcing her to stop and shield her eyes.

Two figures approached, clad in military-grade smart waterproof suits that clung to their bodies, repelling the rain. The light from their gear illuminated the road like daylight.

Xu Lingqu recognized one of them: Shen Shouli.

"What are you two doing here?" Instructor Chen said, turning on his vehicle's headlights only then. He'd deliberately kept them off earlier to ensure fairness in today's training. Since Xu Lingqu had dragged this out so long, navigating the dark was part of the challenge.

The accompanying instructor sighed in exasperation. "This student insisted he left something on the road during today's training and had to come out to look for it."

Shen Shouli's special status made it nearly impossible to refuse his request. No one wanted to offend the grandson of General Shen—the Empire's future star of the Military Department with S+ psychic power.

Having heard the full explanation, Xu Lingqu wiped the rain from her face and continued running. But as she passed Shen Shouli, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

If she'd had the strength, she'd have thrown him over her shoulder.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Your face... your hands..." Shen Shouli stared at the faint pink droplets trailing from her—blood mixed with rainwater, diluted to a pale red. "You're hurt. A lot."

"Yeah," she replied, more than a little puzzled by his sudden move. "So can you let go so I can get back and get treatment sooner?"

Shen Shouli stiffened for a moment, then released his grip. Xu Lingqu immediately ran past him.

The remaining distance was truly short. Ten minutes later, the training base's gate appeared before her, and Xu Lingqu crossed it, completing today's training.

The moment the gate slid open, she looked up to find a crowd craning their necks toward the entrance—it looked like nearly half the base had turned out to await her return.

A transparent dome protected the base from the rain, which beaded on her hair and dripped onto the grass.

The girl was pallid, her face bloodless, wounds still seeping red. She looked utterly disheveled, at her absolute lowest—but her back remained straight, her chin lifted slightly as she swept her gaze over the onlookers, then tossed her weighted gear and supply pack to the ground.

It was the posture of a victor, pure and simple.

No one spoke at first. Then someone started clapping—Lin Xiao and Tang Muwen. With them taking the lead, the other students who'd come to "watch the show" joined in one after another.

Xu Lingqu's performance had drawn intense attention since that day.

Her lone fifth-tier ranking and solid first place overall had made her a hot topic among the students. Today's training had sparked even more debate over whether she could finish it—the difficulty had been genuinely brutal, and even combat-track students had dropped out. Most people had initially doubted she'd make it.

"Her? That sickly little thing? She should just stick to commanding—her rescue operation the other day was decent enough."

"Keep calling her sickly, and what does that make the ones she took down seven-to-one? Paralyzed?"

Wang Qihu and his crew kept catching strays even when just passing by. They'd have to reiterate again: there was absolutely no match-fixing involved. Xu Lingqu's combat skill was just that strong.

The whole thing even made Wang Qihu wonder whether the supposed direct correlation between physique and combat ability had ceased to exist—but in the end, he reached the same conclusion.

Not everyone was a freak like Xu Lingqu.

Even so, he hadn't really believed she could finish today's training. But as her name kept advancing on the map, inch by inch, everyone's attitude gradually shifted.

"Is Xu Lingqu faking us out? Why hasn't she quit yet?"

"Maybe she just has the grit and persistence to see it through, yeah?"

"Well, let's see if she can actually keep going."

"Damn, she actually did it?"

"Our glorious commander has returned to base."

Instructor Chen's vehicle pulled in right behind her. He hopped out and announced to everyone: "Today's training is officially over. All who completed it earn 2 points, top five get an extra point, and those who quit midway lose a point."

He pulled off his gloves and cast one more deep look at her. "Get to the infirmary now."

With that, he turned and headed back to his quarters.

The crowd began to disperse, but the gate soon opened again. Xu Lingqu turned to look—it was Shen Shouli and the accompanying instructor, the one who'd supposedly gone out to find his lost item.

He peeled off his rain suit, strode straight forward, and stopped beside Xu Lingqu.

"Did you find your thing?" she asked, heading toward the infirmary as she spoke.

"No. Not looking anymore." Shen Shouli's voice was low, carrying a hint of sulk she couldn't quite parse.

Xu Lingqu, in her current physical and mental state, simply couldn't spare the bandwidth to wonder what the young master was brooding about. She nodded and kept walking toward the infirmary.

Tang Muwen stepped out from the crowd and moved to support her, but she sidestepped him so subtly he barely noticed. He quickly adjusted, picked up the weighted gear and supply pack she'd dropped, and fell in step behind her.

"Xu Xiqin and Jin kicked Sun Liao into the water," he reported, having naturally settled into the role of her personal secretary. "They've been confined for it, but they should be released shortly."

"Mm." Xu Lingqu entered the infirmary, and Tang Muwen took the gear over to hand it to the instructor in charge of storage.

Third time meeting, and this time she wasn't alone in the infirmary. She recognized quite a few faces.

Sun Liao, nursing a bad leg, stared at Xu Lingqu as she finally returned in one piece—and ground his teeth so hard he could've cracked them.