Chapter 287: Shocking Training Results, the Peeping Observer

The second year of Does Da Xia, June 25th

Snowy night, within the Longshan foothills north of Wu Shuang

Boom…………

At a depth of roughly seven to eight kilometers, right between three large trees, a massive bonfire suddenly erupted, standing five to six meters tall.

The moment the bonfire ignited, the snow forest seemed to awaken instantly.

Subtle, eerie movements began to ripple across a radius of several kilometers.

Crack……

First came the sound of ice shards falling from tree branches.

Huff…… huff…… huff……

Then came dozens, even hundreds, of faint, icy beast breaths.

If one observed closely, they would notice that beneath the darkness, dozens of eyes had suddenly lit up around the bonfire.

These were clearly icy beasts awakened from sleep.

Their gazes all fixed on the bonfire; their previously drowsy eyes snapped sharp, bloodshot with intense excitement, turning crimson.

"Roar!"

One icy beast, apparently lacking patience, was the first to lose control and let out a furious roar as it charged toward the bonfire;

A chorus of roars followed, and the icy beasts resting on the trees all leapt down, surging toward the bonfire.

Blue wolf packs moved like lightning, arriving in an instant;

Several black snow-maned beasts charged side by side, their momentum like a thousand tons;

A few larger demonic sheep lowered their heads and barreled straight ahead, smashing through trees along the way without slowing at all;

And over a dozen coiling dragons twisted among the treetops, using the branches to leap and glide, closing the distance to the bonfire to less than four or five hundred meters.

…………

The once-silent dense forest erupted into chaos.

The icy beasts charged toward the bonfire like mad, their vertical, bloodthirsty pupils locked onto the flames, brimming with fierce desire and craving.

Boom boom boom…………

Over a hundred icy beasts—perhaps more—rushed from all directions toward the bonfire, instantly forming a small beast tide; snow mist surged dozens of meters high, and the earth trembled violently.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Even worse, heavy footsteps echoed from the outer edge of the tide—over ten icy beasts, each seven to ten meters long, were drawing near.

Anyone with even a little hunting experience would know: these were mid-tier icy beasts.

The human standard for measuring cold resistance power is the mid-tier snow-maned beast: one Snow Snow Mane equals one hundred thousand jin of force. Most mid-tier icy beasts reached this standard; some had even surpassed it.

Even beasts not known for brute strength, like the Blue Moon Spirits and Frost Wolves, possessed around seventy to eighty thousand jin of force.

The combined charge of over a dozen mid-tier icy beasts created an even more terrifying disturbance than the hundred low-tier beasts.

Icy beasts had their own food chain: under normal circumstances, low-tier beasts would never dare approach something targeted by a dozen mid-tier ones.

But the situation now was unusual.

The hundred low-tier beasts, staring at the bonfire in the center, had wild, frenzied eyes—far from stopping, they grew even more violent, their sprinting speed surging.

The bonfire's allure was simply too strong.

So strong that even at the cost of their lives, they pressed forward.

In an instant, the front row of over a dozen low-tier beasts leapt forward, closing the distance to under a hundred meters, then soared into the air, diving straight for the bonfire.

"Fire!"

At that moment, a thunderous shout rang out from above.

Whoosh…… whoosh…… whoosh…………

From the three large trees surrounding the bonfire, countless iron arrows shot out—targeting the first wave of a dozen icy beasts.

The number of black arrows was overwhelming; with all targets aligned, "arrow rain" was too weak a term—they formed a solid black wall, rapidly pushing outward.

Pfft…… pfft…… pfft…………

The first volley struck—the dozen low-tier beasts mid-air were pierced into sieves.

But the arrow rain wasn't over.

The second volley followed instantly; thousands of iron arrows converged, their terrifying force hurling the still-airborne beasts backward, smashing into those behind them.

Thud!

A low-tier snow-maned beast, riddled with arrows, was flung backward by the second volley—its body slammed into a Frost Wolf, sending it reeling over ten meters.

"Roar!"

The Frost Wolf, dazed and disoriented, stood upright, shook its head, roared, then charged forward again toward the bonfire.

The Frost Wolf was just one example; more icy beasts, once knocked back, reacted the same way—every one pressed on toward the bonfire.

Of course, a few smarter icy beasts lifted their gaze slightly, staring upward at the tops of the three trees surrounding the bonfire—their pupils shrank sharply.

The tops of those three trees were densely packed with humans.

All wore iron armor, gripped powerful bows, and fired iron arrows continuously in all directions.

"Clear all iron arrows in fifteen breaths—hurry!"

Another commanding shout rang out; the men on the three trees accelerated their firing—nearly three to four arrows per breath. Almost ninety percent of the men emptied their back quivers of dozens of arrows each within fifteen breaths.

The thirteen waves of arrow volleys remained devastating: over thirty percent of the hundred low-tier beasts fell instantly. Crucially, this first wave of slaughter had made the remaining beasts far more alert.

Still, their eyes burned with greed for the bonfire—but now, more icy beasts had clearly seen the humans on the trees.

"Roar!"

The remaining seventy-plus icy beasts still charged toward the bonfire—but no longer blindly. They realized the arrows were spent, and now surged straight toward the three trees beside the bonfire.

This applied to the low-tier beasts; the dozen or so mid-tier beasts nearby were utterly unfazed by the arrows—coiling dragons wound through treetops, Frost Wolves burrowed beneath the snow, snow-maned demonic sheep charged head-on, relying on their thick hides…

In an instant, the icy beasts closed the final distance, surrounding all three trees—the closest wave now less than ten meters from the trunks.

"Mo Dao Camp, dismount and form formation!"

Again came that commanding voice. From each of the three trees, a hundred-man unit leapt down—each clad in pale gold armor, wielding a double-edged long-hafted blade, blade over ten centimeters wide, blade length over three meters.

The three hundred-man units landed and swiftly formed three lines, thrusting their blades straight forward into a wall of sharp points, facing the charging beasts.

"Roar!"

Human weapons did not frighten icy beasts.

And icy beasts were extremely cunning—they knew how to use their bodies intelligently.

Even with so many blade tips aimed at them, they pressed forward, relying on their toughest body parts.

Snow-maned beasts used their spiny backs; Frost Wolves used the bony spikes along their necks; demonic sheep used their hardened hexagonal skulls; Lei Kui used their toughest skull bones…………

"Mo Dao Camp, hold firm! Heng Dao Camp, dismount—all prepare!"

Again came the command. The three Mo Dao units, watching the charging beasts, grimaced, fists clenched, tendons bulging—no retreat.

From each tree, another two hundred men leapt down—all wielding Does Da Xia short-hafted crossblades. They stood behind the Mo Dao units, eyes locked on the beasts, feet slightly forward, poised to strike.

Thud!

At last, the icy beasts charged.

At least twenty to thirty beasts slammed their hardest body parts into the three Mo Dao walls of raised blades.

Icy beasts were far larger than humans; even twenty-plus of them covered the entire front of the three Mo Dao units.

Crack…… crack…… crack……

Amid the thunderous impacts came the sound of snapping bones—some from beasts, some from humans.

The circle formed by the three Mo Dao units did indeed shrink inward.

The sheer mass and terrifying power of twenty-plus beasts charging at such speed created an impact too immense for ordinary minds to grasp.

Huh…………

Just the wind from their charge snapped every ice shard from the three trees.

The three Mo Dao units held!

Pfft…… pfft…… pfft……

Not only held—they began to counterattack.

The icy beasts were clever—they used their toughest parts to strike the Mo Dao blade wall;

Humans were no fools either!

After the first impact, they immediately swung their blades, slashing at the beasts before them.

"Heng Dao Camp, charge and kill!"

Six hundred-man Heng Dao units surged forward like a tide, passing through the Mo Dao lines and plunging into the stalled beast tide.

Heng Dao blades were inherently agile; once among the beasts, they split into units of twenty, each group locking onto a single icy beast.

Their movements were practiced, roles clear: one attacked, another assisted, others distracted or restrained. The fastest killed a beast in under ten breaths; the slowest took no more than twenty.

Compared to the Heng Dao units, the three Mo Dao squads killed far slower—but their goal wasn't slaughter, but defense.

Once the Heng Dao units engaged the beasts, the Mo Dao units advanced to fill the gaps, suppressing any beasts left unattended, preventing them from interfering with the Heng Dao's kills.

The entire beast tide numbered only a hundred or so; thirteen arrow volleys eliminated over thirty percent; the initial collision with the Mo Dao units killed another dozen; now, after the Heng Dao slaughter, over thirty more fell.

In under twenty breaths, the entire tide was reduced to barely thirty beasts.

And with the six Heng Dao units now free, the fate of these final thirty was obvious.

"Roar…………"

The problem was, all these hundred beasts were merely low-tier.

When the six Crossblade Camps surrounded the last thirty-plus Cold Beasts, the dozen or so mid-grade Cold Beasts on the perimeter just then charged forward.

Compared to low-grade Cold Beasts, they were far larger in size, and their impact force was naturally even more staggering.

A mid-grade Cai Cai Yunwu Tengjiao, slithering along the treetops, spotted an opening in the Mo Dao Camp, bared its fangs, and plunged down from above.

At that moment, a black blade slashed upward, decapitating it; dozens of white threads shot out from beneath the trees, piercing through its pupils.

Roar…………

The excruciating pain sent the Cai Cai Yunwu Tengjiao into a frenzy of roars, but the threads did not pause—they passed through the pupils, exited the back of its skull, coiled tightly around its head, then snapped taut with sudden force.

Boom!

The Cai Cai Yunwu Tengjiao's head was yanked violently downward, slamming hard into the ground. Xia Chuan leapt from the tree, black blade held vertically, driving its tip straight through the beast's skull.

Simultaneously, Xia Chuan issued his final command.

"Recon Camp, move!"

Liu Liu Liu Yuan led a hundred elite Recon Camp soldiers leaping down from the trees. Unlike the other nine camps, armed only with Mo Dao and Crossblades, these hundred elites carried an array of weapons—swords, spears, blades, staves… clearly each wielding their preferred armament.

They leapt down not in twenty-man squads like the other nine camps, but surged directly toward the dozen or so remaining mid-grade Cold Beasts, all attacking as one.

Stabbing eyes, piercing bodies, seizing the weak points of the dozen mid-grade Cold Beasts, the hundred elites moved with precision, speed, and brutality—within moments, they had pinned the beasts firmly in place.

Though they didn't kill them outright, the suppression these hundred elites exerted on the Cold Beasts was far greater than that of the other nine camps.

In this brief window, the other nine camps had already eliminated the final thirty-odd low-grade Cold Beasts.

Now freed, they needed no further orders from Xia Chuan—they surged forward and encircled the dozen mid-grade Cold Beasts.

The nine camps, combined with the hundred elites, slaughtered the final dozen mid-grade Cold Beasts in less than fifty breaths.

Boom!

As the last mid-grade Frost Wolf collapsed while trying to flee, this minor Beast Tide was officially over.

"126 low-grade, 16 mid-grade—total 142 Cold Beasts. The smallest three-digit Beast Tide, completed in 289 breaths—thirty breaths faster than last time. Excellent!"

Dressed in pale golden armor, Xia Chuan turned to face the thousand soldiers behind him, a smile crossing his face.

Hearing his report, Liu Liu Liu Yuan, closest to him, and the thousand-plus soldiers behind all brightened with excitement.

"Getting faster and faster. If this keeps up, maybe someday we'll handle a minor Beast Tide in under two hundred breaths."

"Two hundred breaths? Didn't the Deputy Director say our goal is under one hundred? I bet we'll hit that in a few more runs."

"Don't call him that—military protocol demands you say 'Commandant.'"

"Right, right, sorry, forgot."

………………

Hearing their banter, Xia Chuan's eyes flickered with quiet triumph.

The Yunjiao Army arrived in Wu Shuang on the night of the ninth day of the sixth month; the next day, Xia Chuan led the entire force into Longshan to begin training.

In half a month, they started by handling just a few beasts at a time; it took three nights to train them to lure over ten Cold Beasts using small torches;

it took another four nights to ignite the large bonfires like tonight's, deliberately triggering minor Beast Tides;

for the following eight days, Xia Chuan made the Yunjiao Army face two such minor Beast Tides every night.

From early losses and battles lasting minutes to hours, then down to minutes, then to hundreds of breaths—the Yunjiao soldiers grew stronger day by day.

Today, they had compressed the time to under three hundred breaths.

The results of this half-month training far exceeded his expectations.

"This is the power of an elite army. I once worried that pulling the best hunters from the hunting squads would hurt the camp's meat supply—but now I realize how absurd that was. With an army like this, their hunting capability is terrifying. If we could form a few more such units, the camp will never lack meat or beast blood again!"

Xia Chuan sighed softly, then gazed at the soldiers of the ten camps, his eyes gleaming.

"Brother was right: focusing on distinguishing the Mo Dao Camp, Crossblade Camp, and Elite Recon Camp—and mastering their battlefield timing—is more important than boosting individual strength.

The specialization of these troop types must continue. When we reach the real battlefield, their combined power will be even more devastating."

"Who's there? Come out, you coward!"

As Xia Chuan reflected, Liu Liu Liu Yuan, who was organizing the battlefield on the other side, suddenly spotted something—he roared and charged toward a large tree on the left edge of the battlefield.

"Someone's spying!"

Xia Chuan's brow snapped tight. He turned toward Liu Liu Liu Yuan's direction.

The Yunjiao Army arrived in Wu Shuang on the ninth day of the sixth month; on the tenth, Xia Chuan rushed them into Longshan. Training was, of course, the primary goal.

But there was another purpose: he didn't want the Yunjiao Army to be discovered too soon by Longshan or Zhaoyang.

Being spied upon was a grave mistake!

Liu Liu Liu Yuan had already dragged a man over.

Xia Chuan looked at the man, a flash of killing intent in his eyes.

(End of Chapter)