In the Coniferous Forest, the most difficult part was finding a stable footing. One step might be deep and the next shallow; sometimes, stepping down would release a burst of foul odor. It was unclear whether it was excrement or an animal’s carcass.
On the throat wall, an uncomfortable feeling crawled up in waves, and Xia You struggled to discern the dry leaves and the path ahead. Deep within the Coniferous Forest, a layer of thin fog lingered, obstructing one’s view and limiting visibility to a mere ten meters.
Ahead, there were sounds of leaves being trampled and intermittent cursing. This seemingly not-so-broad Coniferous Forest turned into a boundless maze under the feet of the Longzhi students.
Upon entering the Coniferous Forest, those students who hadn’t taken proper precautions soon suffered. The appearance of unknown insects and even leeches made this group of students, who had never truly experienced the cruelties of nature, complain incessantly.
Zhang Fangxiao was somewhat luckier. She leveraged her father’s connections to learn about the military triathlon’s training projects from the past few years. A few days ago, she had sneaked a look at the terrain while Lu Xun and others were attending a school meeting. Before leaving, she had sprayed herself with insect repellent. She had also swapped out her usual Burberry wristwatch for a night vision watch suitable for camping.
With the help of these two items, Zhang Fangxiao quickly made it through the Coniferous Forest. Her greatest challenge was the climbing wall in front of her with a 70 to 80-degree incline.
At the base of the climbing wall, dozens of reinforced tires were piled up. Each tire was fitted with a rope, and the students were required to hang the tire around their waist with the rope and climb over the several tens of meters high cliff.
Zhang Fangxiao looked around and felt she was probably the first one to arrive. While affixing a tire to her waist, Zhang Fangxiao took a few steps.
"Lugging this thing while climbing? What a joke. I won’t be killed from the fall; I’ll be strangled to death," thought Zhang Fangxiao. She untied a rope from a tire, hung it around her waist, and thought that, by the time she reached the end, showing just this rope would be enough.
The wall’s surface was very smooth, and the newly hammered foot pegs were unevenly distributed. Climbing was fraught with danger for Zhang Fangxiao, almost falling down several times. It took her more than an hour to reach the top of the wall. She let out a long sigh and hurried forward when she heard sounds coming from the wall.
"Is someone catching up?" She looked back, made out a swaying head. The three-centimeter short hair, the blindingly white, shimmering skin, "Damn, she made it out too."
Zhang Fangxiao grew anxious. Xia You on the wall was still dangling the tire that weighed tens of kilograms. The weight of the tire, hanging by the rope, pressured her internal organs. She didn’t resort to any shortcuts; after making sure of a foot peg, Xia You climbed towards it, then slowly moved the tire along the wall, hanging it on the peg she had just vacated.
Though this greatly slowed her climbing speed, having the tire as an additional support meant her footing was very stable; she hardly missed a step.
Xia You was unaware of the spiteful and envious gaze from atop the wall.
Zhang Fangxiao, watching Xia You nearing the top, crouched down, picked up a stone, and was about to throw it when she suddenly noticed a camera installed not far off the ground.
"Nearly forgot about the surveillance cameras," Zhang Fangxiao had no choice but to drop the stone. Since she couldn’t take action, she had to hurry; it wouldn’t be worth it if she lost the competition.
"It took about two hours to exit the Coniferous Forest, and approximately forty minutes to climb the rocky wall." Xia You released the tire from around her body, managing to do so thanks to the ’Devil Soldier’s dragging special training.
She had never done tire dragging before. Before joining the military academy, she had only heard that the special forces would adopt this training method, dragging tires or any other heavy objects. The most impressive record, so to speak, was dragging a light truck weighing a ton by hand."
Below the rock wall was a sloping ridge, and Xia You tightened her abdomen and buttocks, moving down quickly with alternating steps in a backwards figure-eight pattern.
At the nine-hundred-meter point on Longzhi Mountain, Lu Xun stood under a towering pine tree. His walkie-talkie was put aside, and a computer was placed on the ground, the same model as the one Xia You had last seen in Lin Yi’s office. The seventeen-inch screen was divided into more than a dozen images, each the size of a block of tofu.
From the Coniferous Forest start to the rock wall climb, to the final obstacle course mud pit, apart from the visibly installed cameras, there were also filming devices hidden underneath the decaying leaves of the Coniferous Forest, inside the tiny holes in the wall, and even within the mud pit itself.