Chapter 8: Training Days

“According to chip analysis, after using Level 1 Gene Enhancement Serum, there remains some residual evolutionary energy within your body. While the Eight Body Tempering Forms train your physique, they also promote the absorption of this residual energy, which is why your physical attributes have improved so significantly.”

After Zhang Ran posed his question, the chip’s prompt sounded in his mind, analyzing the reason for the substantial effect of the Eight Body Tempering Forms.

“So that's how it is,” Zhang Ran nodded in sudden realization after hearing the chip’s explanation and began calculating silently.

—To complete a full session of the Eight Body Tempering Forms takes about ten minutes. To accumulate three hundred sessions would require at least fifty hours of training, and that’s not counting the necessary rest periods between sessions, which means the actual time required will be even longer.

“Let’s continue.”

After relaxing for about five minutes and feeling his body largely recovered, Zhang Ran began his second training session.

That night, Zhang Ran completed three rounds of the Eight Body Tempering Forms. As midnight approached, a sharp whistle sounded, prompting him to rush back to the dormitory and settle into his bunk.

“Chip, activate sleep-assist function.”

Closing his eyes, Zhang Ran gave the command to the chip, immediately clearing his mind of stray thoughts. In sequence, he relaxed every muscle in his body, falling asleep in less than ten seconds.

At the same time, the chip in his mind emitted gentle waves, and with its aid, Zhang Ran slipped into deep sleep within ten minutes. His hormonal secretion increased, muscle fatigue quickly dissipated, and his physical condition began to improve steadily.

Compared to ordinary sleep, deep sleep puts the body into an extraordinarily harmonious and unique state, as though returning to the womb. This is vital for eliminating fatigue, restoring energy, and promoting physical development.

For most people, only about twenty-five percent of their sleep is deep sleep. But in Zhang Ran’s era, the secrets of deep sleep had been unlocked. With the chip’s assistance, Zhang Ran’s proportion of deep sleep could be raised to ninety-five percent, allowing his body to recover and grow with remarkable speed.

......

Six hours later.

A piercing assembly whistle jolted Zhang Ran and the other trainees from their slumber. Instantly, all the trainees sprang from their beds, put on their training uniforms, and raced toward the training ground.

From wake-up to assembly, the trainees had only five minutes. Anyone late faced the instructor’s rod as punishment.

Six hours of sleep was hardly sufficient for most trainees, so many still looked groggy. Zhang Ran, however, was different. After six hours of deep sleep, all traces of fatigue from the previous day’s training had vanished, and his energy was at its peak.

Upon rising, the trainees were greeted by another five-kilometer run and a set of strength exercises, followed by breakfast.

Like lunch and dinner, breakfast at the training camp was plentiful. As Zhang Ran filled his stomach, the chip’s database recorded several new ingredients.

After breakfast, grueling training resumed and continued through the morning and afternoon. Aside from meals and brief breaks, the trainees were subjected to a variety of exercises, all focused on strength, endurance, and speed.

Compared to the first day, which had no morning training, the second day's schedule was undeniably more demanding.

During the training, two trainees who repeatedly failed to meet their targets suffered several blows from the instructors and ultimately collapsed, unable to stand on their own.

As those two unmoving trainees lay on the ground, an instructor remarked indifferently, “Take them away.” A few attendants stepped forward and dragged them from the field. They were never seen again.

As the endless training dragged on, evening fell, and the trainees were herded back to the pool from the previous day, once more immersing themselves in the diluted Level 1 Enhancement Serum.

“The Eight Body Tempering Forms can enhance the absorption of evolutionary energy. If I practice them here, it should be even more effective!”

As he entered the warm pool and felt the gentle currents of warmth entering his body, Zhang Ran was struck by a realization. He silently began performing the Eight Body Tempering Forms.

“It works!”

After just the first movement, Zhang Ran sensed a thirty percent increase in the influx of evolutionary energy. As he continued, the effect intensified, rising from thirty percent to nearly fifty percent.

“Body has been remodeled by evolutionary energy: Strength +0.006, Constitution +0.007, Agility +0.005, Spirit +0.005.”

Half an hour later, at the command of the instructors, the trainees reluctantly climbed out of the pool. Dinner, more training, and literacy classes followed in succession. During the brief window of free time, Zhang Ran persisted with his practice of the Eight Body Tempering Forms.

Thus, as days went by in relentless training, time seemed to fly, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed since Zhang Ran joined the Black Hawk Training Camp.

By then, there were only ninety trainees left in Zhang Ran’s company. More than ten had already been eliminated from the original hundred-plus during that month.

After enduring the bloody first lesson, all the trainees had learned obedience, treading carefully to avoid violating any camp regulations, let alone the prohibitions.

Those who broke the rules were punished only by the rod, not by death. As for those who disappeared, most had been eliminated by the merciless training. The survivors, however, had all improved significantly in physical fitness, Zhang Ran included.

Strength 0.9, Constitution 0.8, Agility 0.9, Spirit 0.9—thanks to the Level 1 Gene Enhancement Serum, deep sleep, ample nutrition, and the Eight Body Tempering Forms, each of Zhang Ran’s attributes had increased by about 0.3 points, approaching adult levels. Where hunger had once left his body thin and frail, he was now growing sturdier.

When he first entered the Black Hawk Youth Training Camp, Zhang Ran’s physical attributes had been below average. Now, he was among the top twenty in his cohort.

Though the other trainees had improved as well, Zhang Ran’s progress, aided by the chip and the Eight Body Tempering Forms, far outstripped most of them. For most, the differences in their physical attributes amounted to no more than 0.1 points.

Of course, there were exceptions; the strongest trainee in the camp already had attributes exceeding 1.0, with strength reaching 1.2—far surpassing the others.

Even with the chip’s assistance, Zhang Ran still lagged behind him. Yet, Zhang Ran remained confident that one day he would surpass him.