"How could there be a Dumbing-down Skill in this world?! Everyone is turning stupid!" Xia Jing shook his head as he looked at the people holding their heads and drooling foolishly.
"I never want to participate in this mandatory training again. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on."
Cao Shuang shook his head as if trying to shake the stupidity out of his skull.
"Zhao Xing, if I start acting like these martial artists and become stupid, just knock me out!"
Cao Shuang said to Zhao Xing beside him.
Xia Jing was displeased, "What do you mean by that, looking down on us martial artists?"
"What’s wrong with that? Yeah, I look down on you. What are you going to do about it?" Cao Shuang huffed angrily.
"Do you want to die? I’ll chop you down right now!" Xia Jing drew his sword.
"Come on then!" Cao Shuang stretched his neck and taunted him, "Chop here. If you don’t, you’re a coward, Xia Jing!"
"Damn you!" Xia Jing’s sword rang out as it was unsheathed, and he slashed it toward Cao Shuang’s neck.
"Snip~" A hand blocked in front of Cao Shuang’s neck, and blood flowed, gripping the sword.
"Brother Xia, calm down." Zhao Xing slowly lifted Xia Jing’s sword. Although the blood was flowing, he managed to move the sword away from Cao Shuang’s neck.
"You actually chopped?! I’ll fight you!" Cao Shuang spewed a line of fire in rage and lunged at Xia Jing.
Zhao Xing’s hand knife was fierce; he knocked Cao Shuang out. The flame he spewed made a loop, merely curling Xia Jing’s hair before Zhao Xing reabsorbed it.
"Bastard! You dare burn my hair? Move aside! I’m going to chop him!" Xia Jing, with his raised sword, was about to swing it down again.
"Slap!" Zhao Xing slapped Xia Jing’s forehead, shaking his mind palace and dispersing a golden aura. "Are you calm now?"
"Ouch..." Rationality returned to Xia Jing’s eyes.
"Slap!" Zhao Xing, thinking Xia Jing was still not himself, slapped him again.
"Stop! That’s enough, Mr. Zhao, I’m clear-headed now!" Xia Jing saw Zhao Xing was about to slap a third time and quickly dropped his sword, indicating he was no longer under the spell’s influence.
"Alright, let’s discuss our strategy." Zhao Xing pointed to the sand table beside him and said, "In this joint exercise of the various departments, our recruit camp’s high-level commanding officers are almost all gone."
"We need to gather these ragtag troops and break out quickly. Otherwise, whether martial artists, agricultural supervisors, or mechanical masters... none of us will get a good result in this training."
Xia Jing rubbed his cheeks and looked outside the tent.
Outside the barracks, some people were fighting, some were lying on the ground, and others were squatting, drooling, and playing with ants.
Among the familiar faces of the four major military departments, Zhang Jie was shamelessly defecating, Chen Fang was watching him, and those who remained rational still looked somewhat confused.
Chen Fang, bandaged, lay on a chair groaning.
This was a large-scale [mandatory training] simulating actual combat, set near the Dao Feng Mountain at the ’Heavenly Gate Peaks.’
The reserves, military departments, Minister of Agriculture Supervision, Heavenly Workshop, and temple participated together from the Ten Suns Cave Heaven.
The four departments totaled more than one hundred fifty thousand people!
Their opponents were only thirty thousand, but these thirty thousand were all elite troops drawn from the nine regular armies within the Ten Suns Cave Heaven.
This mandatory training taught the rookies a hard lesson.
One hundred fifty thousand against thirty thousand, only requiring a breakout.
But after half a month, even the most elite recruit camps, geniuses like Xia Jing, Zhao Xing, Cao Shuang, none of them managed to break out.
Their spirits, just lifted, fell again.
Who knew what they had been through these days?
First, tens of thousands of mountain ghosts attacked the rookies’ camp, ordered by the temple master in a night raid.
Then came the random bombardment by the barbarians’ Five Elements Catapults for seven days.
After five more days, natural disasters struck one after another: floods, earthquakes, scorching sun, bug infestation... All the insects and beasts from the Heavenly Gate Peaks were driven over.
In the past few days, Ritual Repairers cast the Dumbing-down Skill and the Counterintelligence Technique on the rookies.
The Counterintelligence Technique made many rookies lose their combat sequence, rushing madly toward the veteran camp.
The Counterintelligence Technique example was Chen Fang, who was beaten by Zhang Jie, Hu Bing, and ten other martial artists who were under the spell, now still groaning there.
During this period, the Dumbing-down Skill constantly affected them, making them irritable and unable to think calmly.
Even Xia Jing almost killed Cao Shuang with a sword just now.
"How do we fight this?" Xia Jing looked up at the sky in disbelief, "Marching tents and military flags can’t shelter everyone. We, the designated commanders, stay in the Marching Hall, shielded by the emcee’s magic. But once outside, we’re affected by these spells."
Zhao Xing walked out with his hand bandaged, "No choice. We have to create a way to break out. The spell effects do have intervals. Whether it’s Ritual Repairers or ghost-controlling temple masters, large-scale spells like these have intervals."
"Brother Xia, just watch."
Xia Jing looked at the sand table inside the tent as Zhao Xing pointed.
"Heavenly Gate Peaks, the distances between mountains, and the Mechanical School Formations between peaks all have gaps and weak points designed as breakout points for us rookies."
"Guest Welcoming Peak, Bai Shou Peak, Three Pure Mountains, Jade Curtain Waterfall, Carefree Valley, First-tier Sky, Nanqing Garden... These forty-six locations are where we can break out."
"We are following the route of Bai Shou Peak, First-tier Sky, and Jade Curtain Waterfall. According to previous breakout experiences, the spell intervals and ghost barriers on this route start at 1:45 AM and end at 5:00 AM."