Training lasted fifteen days.
After exhausting most of the students, the instructor finally showed some mercy and gave them a day off.
After the break, it would be time for the final wilderness survival assessment.
Bai Maomao was meditating on his dorm bed.
Lang Junxian was reading beside him.
All their roommates were present, each quietly staying in place, secretly glancing at Lang Junxian from the corners of their eyes.
Mo Qin, who was closest with Bai Maomao, received a look from the other two roommates and broke the silence: “Xiao Bai.”
“Hmm?”
Bai Maomao opened his eyes.
Lang Junxian’s ears twitched.
Mo Qin chuckled dryly, then quickly said, “Let’s have a dorm dinner after the military training ends.”
He glanced at Lang Junxian and added vaguely, “You can bring…him along.”
“Sure.”
Bai Maomao nodded and looked at Lang Junxian.
“Shouldn’t you head back? The teacher’s coming for a bed check.”
“Okay, I’ll go.”
Lang Junxian closed his book, gave Bai Maomao a glance, and returned to the neighboring dorm.
The next morning, the students were woken by a piercing bell.
Bai Maomao reluctantly rubbed his pillow before groggily getting up.
Below, Mo Qin urged him: “Master Bai, please hurry, today’s the wilderness assessment.”
“Oh.”
Bai Maomao changed clothes, jumped down from the top bunk, and went to brush his teeth with his cup.
The four quickly packed up and headed to the field for assembly.
The wilderness survival assessment might sound like an ordinary camping project, but the fancy name was merely a modernization ploy by Xuanhuang University.
Aside from the setting — a “Small Cave Heaven” resembling the wild — nothing about it resembled camping.
The ecosystem inside the Small Cave Heaven resembled the prehistoric era, full of unknown beasts and demon plants.
The students had to find wooden plaques hidden inside, each engraved with unique patterns representing different scores.
The assessment was conducted in teams of 5 to 8, self-organized without teacher interference.
Final scores included both team and individual assessments, which encouraged both inter-team and intra-team competition.
After the teacher announced the rules and cleared the field, students — now a few weeks into the semester and settled into social groups — immediately began seeking teammates.
Naturally, Bai Maomao teamed up with Lang Junxian.
Mo Qin glanced around and grinned, following behind: “Maomao, let’s team up.”
After hearing Lang Junxian call Bai Maomao that once, Mo Qin had adopted the nickname too.
Bai Maomao nodded and looked at their other two roommates.
“Do you guys have a team? Want to join us?”
They nodded quickly.
That made five in total.
Bai Maomao tilted his head, scanning the area, and spotted a short boy standing awkwardly in the center of the field.
Everyone else had formed teams, making him especially conspicuous.
“Wanna join us?”
Bai Maomao asked expressionlessly.
Yan Miao timidly replied,
“I don’t know how to do anything.”
“Still want to come?”
Yan Miao nodded shyly, carefully watching Bai Maomao’s expression — but saw no pity or condescension on his face.
“Let’s go.”
Lang Junxian stepped up.
His tall frame cast a shadow over Bai Maomao.
Standing too close, he made Bai Maomao feel pressured.
Bai Maomao pushed him away a bit in annoyance and led the way forward.
The Small Cave Heaven was open.
Students, grouped in teams, stood on teleportation arrays that sent them randomly to locations inside the cave.
Soon it was Bai Maomao’s team’s turn.
He held Lang Junxian’s hand.
A flash of white light — and the six were transported into the cave.
They landed in a dense forest, surrounded by tall unknown trees.
The thick leaves layered together tightly, completely blocking sunlight.
Strong sunlight barely filtered through the gaps in the canopy, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor.
It was very quiet.
Bai Maomao and Lang Junxian exchanged glances.
Feeling no immediate danger, they started leading the team forward.
The ground was soft and covered in rotting leaves.
It felt sticky and uncomfortable underfoot.
Bai Maomao and Lang Junxian, having higher cultivation levels, still walked lightly, but the other four struggled, stumbling and soon panting.
“Hey…,”
Mo Qin said, fanning himself.
He uneasily shifted his feet.
“Don’t you guys think something feels off?”
“Now that you mention it, yeah,” roommate Liu Lei agreed.
“There is something weird…”
Bai Maomao murmured to Lang Junxian.
“Let’s move faster. Something’s wrong here,”
Lang Junxian warned, speeding up.
The others fell silent as soon as Lang Junxian spoke and quickly picked up their pace.
They had all heard of Lang Junxian’s reputation at the Martial Arts Institute — not only was he incredibly strong, but he was also ruthless.
Although the school officially prohibited private fights between students, those from the Martial Arts Institute worshiped brute strength.
Rumor had it that someone had taken a dislike to Lang Junxian on the first day of military training and tried to provoke him.
Lang Junxian initially ignored it, but after being harassed for two days, he finally lost patience and beat the guy to a pulp on the third day.
The student was sent to the campus clinic — but oddly, no injuries could be found.
Since then, Lang Junxian’s name as someone who “hit hard and hit dark” had spread through the Martial Arts Institute.
Mo Qin shrank his neck nervously.
Just looking at Lang Junxian gave him a sense of fear, so he couldn’t help but quietly fall back two steps to walk beside Yan Miao.
Yan Miao carried a hiking backpack and followed silently at the rear.
After a short silence, Mo Qin couldn’t hold back and whispered to him,
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Yan Miao.”
“Which department are you from?”
“Martial Arts Institute,”
Yan Miao replied.
Mo Qin looked him up and down, surprised.
“Whoa, how’d a guy like you get into the Martial Arts Institute? It’s a miracle those violent maniacs didn’t tear you apart.”
Yan Miao lowered his eyes and forced a smile but didn’t answer.
Seeing that, Mo Qin thought the conversation was dull and shut his mouth, walking silently again.
In the distance, there was a rustling sound, and the soft ground beneath their feet began to tremble slightly.
“Run!”
Bai Maomao glanced behind and felt his skin crawl.
Behind them, a massive swarm of bugs was crawling their way — fat, fleshy worms, layered upon one another, forming a half-foot-high tide-like wave surging toward them.
There were so many bugs, and despite their squirming bodies, they moved fast.
Bai Maomao and Lang Junxian could outrun them easily, but the other four were already panting and clearly couldn’t keep up.
Watching them struggle, Bai Maomao grew impatient.
He grabbed one of them, gathered his strength, and flung him forward.
The ground was soft, and the leaves were thickly layered.
A toss from Bai Maomao was better than being swallowed by a sea of flesh-worms.
He acted quickly — one by one, he flung them all ahead like packages, smack-smack-smack, landing safely in front.
The meat worm swarm squirmed closer.
Bai Maomao jabbed Lang Junxian, agitated.
“Quick — burn them all.”
Lang Junxian took one look at his pale face and summoned a flicker of flame to his fingertip.
“You’re afraid of bugs?”
“…”
Bai Maomao didn’t answer and just urged him again.
“Hurry up. They’re disgusting.”
Seeing the flesh worm tide getting closer, Lang Junxian didn’t tease him anymore.
He flicked a fireball out.
The ground was dry, covered in thick leaves.
The fireball ignited the area immediately, crackling and roaring into flames.
Bai Maomao, suppressing his disgust, dragged Lang Junxian away in haste.
The four people he had tossed ahead were unharmed — Bai Maomao had used clever strength.
Since they were cultivators, they could focus their spiritual energy to slow their fall and land gently.
“Maomao’s strength is something else.”
Mo Qin pushed himself up from the ground and reached out to help Yan Miao up.
Yan Miao, pale-faced, pointed at the ground.
“T-the ground…”
“What about it?”
Mo Qin followed his gaze with a smile — then his smile froze.
The decaying leaves had been disturbed, revealing the ground beneath, which was layered with bug corpses — some long dead, others fresh.
These cylindrical bugs had sharp pincers at both ends.
Each one was about the length of a finger and looked like giant maggots.
Due to the lack of human activity in the area, the corpses had remained mostly intact — some shriveled, some still bloated.
Now that they had been stomped and squashed, their rotting organs oozed out, releasing a faint stench.
Among the remains, smaller bugs crawled around, burrowing through the decayed flesh…
“Ughhh!”
Mo Qin covered his mouth and retched on the side.
Yan Miao turned his pale face away and quietly backed off.