Chapter 13: The Bond Between Men
The Azurebird Training Camp alarm turned out to be a false alarm.
Even when dawn broke the next morning, no one found any trace of a top-tier zombie.
After a night’s rest, Chen Ning’s body had recovered fairly well thanks to the combined effects of bear blood and the Angel’s Kiss.
However, his left ribs were still broken, and with the medicines’ effects wearing off, every small movement pulled at the stitched wound—each breath a stab of pain.
But in this hellish training camp, there was no room for weakness.
He gritted his teeth, got out of bed, washed up with the others, and joined morning assembly.
This was the Azurebird Training Camp of the Phoenix Legion—the hell that the Butcher spoke of.
Here, there was no sympathy, no mercy—only the strong and the weak.
And the weak were destined to be weeded out.
If you didn’t want to be eliminated, you had to bite down on the pain and fight through it.
During morning wash-up, Chen Ning ran into Bai Yuhao.
Bai Yuhao wore the same olive-green recruit uniform as everyone else, but somehow he carried a quiet confidence, a noble composure that made him stand out even among soldiers.
His sharp gaze flicked briefly toward Chen Ning’s injured side.
“Your wound,” he asked mildly. “Still holding up?”
Chen Ning was genuinely grateful to Bai Yuhao—if it hadn’t been for his earlier advice to apply for self-redemption training, Chen Ning might have wasted away long ago.
He nodded slightly. “It’s fine.”
Bai Yuhao hummed in acknowledgment and walked off first.
When Chen Ning left the washroom, he ran into Liu Xi, Gao Feng, and Xu Qiang.
Neither side spoke—just exchanged a cold look before parting ways.
Their hatred was already irreconcilable. No more words were needed; the next time an opportunity came, one side would make sure the other didn’t walk away alive.
The assembly whistle shrieked.
Chen Ning and his group quickly lined up at the training field.
Instructor Hawk addressed them in his usual crisp tone, announcing that training would now be split into two sessions—physical training in the morning under his supervision, and classroom instruction in the afternoon, taught by Instructor Jian Qing.
The recruits were stunned.
Classes? In a military camp?
But after the first brutal week, the instructors had stopped randomly eliminating recruits.
They’d all begun to transform—bodies hardened, spirits sharpened—starting to look like real soldiers.
It was clear now:
The Azurebird Camp wasn’t just hell—it was also a forge, turning the willing into elite warriors of the Empire.
That morning’s training schedule was simple—at least on paper.
- One hour of running laps around the 1,000-meter field.
- Rest ten minutes.
- Climb up and down a hundred floors within an hour.
- Rest ten minutes.
- Finish with six hundred squats carrying a hundred pounds of weight in two hours.
The run was the easiest part.
By the end of it, Chen Ning was drenched in sweat, but worse—dark red stains had already begun to seep through his uniform under his left arm.
During the short break, Bai Yuhao came over again, glancing briefly at the blood.
“You good?”
Chen Ning nodded. “Yeah.”
Then came the stair climb—far worse than running.
Every step tugged at his wound like a knife sawing through his ribs.
He fell behind the others, blood soaking through his bandages until his camouflage shirt was half-red.
When Liu Xi passed him, he smirked coldly. He would have elbowed Chen Ning’s wound right then if the strict supervision hadn’t prevented him.
But Chen Ning pushed on.
By the end of the hour, he had somehow crawled to the finish line, barely making the requirement.
The final task was the killer—six hundred weighted squats.
Even for elite soldiers, it was monstrous.
Bai Yuhao finished first, as always. Then Liu Xi.
Gradually, others completed their sets and left—until only a handful, including Chen Ning, were still struggling.
Normally, anyone done would head to rest immediately.
But today, no one left.
Because Chen Ning’s uniform was soaked through with blood, and everyone knew he’d fought a bear last night and been badly injured.
So they watched.
Silently.
Even Hawk, standing arms crossed as usual, showed a flicker of something new in his eyes—a quiet admiration.
Instructors always respected those who refused to yield.
Thirty minutes left.
Chen Ning had done four hundred and fifty reps.
Every breath was agony. The barbell on his shoulders felt heavier than a mountain. His vision swam; his legs trembled uncontrollably.
But he refused to stop.
He clenched his jaw, sank down again, and forced himself up—muscles shaking, veins bulging, face pale as ash.
Someone whispered from the sidelines, “Four hundred fifty-one…”
“Four fifty-two…”
“Four fifty-three…”
Each squat looked like it should’ve been his last.
And yet he kept going.
When the others finally collapsed, he was still standing.
“Five ninety-eight…”
“Five ninety-nine…”
Chen Ning’s unyielding resolve—his refusal to give up even at the cost of his life—began resonating with the crowd. One by one, they joined in counting for him, and what started as scattered murmurs quickly swelled into a powerful chorus.
“Six hundred!”
Chen Ning stood upright just as the timer hit five seconds left.
He did it, staggering, half-conscious, but victorious.
A roar of cheers erupted.
Liu Xi’s face twisted.
“Hmph. All that noise for a failure on the edge of elimination. Anyone would think he’d topped the rankings.”
As Liu Xi muttered, Bai Yuhao stepped forward, removed the barbell from Chen Ning’s back, and handed him a towel.
Chen Ning barely managed to thank him before Hawk tossed him a small vial—an Angel’s Kiss—for completing the challenge.
By then, it was lunchtime.
On their way to the mess hall, Bai Yuhao reached into his pocket and, like a magician, pulled ou two vials.
“You’re hurt worse than you think,” he said, handing them over. “One dose won’t cut it. Take these.”
Chen Ning blinked in shock. Two more Angel’s Kiss vials.
“How do you have so many?”
“One’s mine,” Bai Yuhao said casually. “The other’s from him.”
With a deliberate wink toward a spot not far away, Bai Yuhao hinted at his target. Chen Ning’s eyes trailed the gesture and landed on Liu Xi, whose expression had visibly darkened.
Chen Ning hesitated.
He badly needed them, but he didn’t want to owe anyone.
Bai Yuhao raised an eyebrow.
“What’s wrong? Afraid of owing me—or afraid of him? You’re already fighting to stay alive. What’s left to be afraid of?”
He was right.
When you’re living on the knife’s edge between life and death, what’s one more debt?
Chen Ning reached out and accepted the vials.
Including his own, that made three. Enough to see him through recovery.
He drank two on the spot.
Warmth flooded his veins, washing away exhaustion and pain.
He kept the last vial —for emergencies. Besides, consuming too much restorative potion is not good; it can do more harm than good.
Bai Yuhao said nothing more and walked off.
Chen Ning didn’t thank him either.
Some favors were too heavy for words.
After lunch came rest, then afternoon class.
Chen Ning and the other recruits filed into a classroom, sitting neatly without chatter, military discipline already taking root.
At precisely three o’clock, the sound of crisp heels echoed through the hall.
Major Jian Qing entered, right on time.
She wasn’t in her officer’s coat today.
Only a taut military blouse and a pencil skirt hugged her figure, the black heels clicking sharply against the floor.
She stepped onto the podium, sweeping her gaze across the silent room.
“From today onward,” she said coldly, “I will be teaching you theory. There will be regular exams. Anyone who fails will be punished the same as those who fail physical training—five lashes.”
A quiet chill swept the room.
Ten lashes could kill a normal man; even for them, five was brutal—and worse, an injury from the whip could ruin one’s next training session, starting a vicious cycle.
Jian Qing turned to the blackboard, lifted a piece of chalk, and wrote two elegant characters:
— Rank —
“Today’s lesson,” she began, “is about the world’s hierarchy of power. Two systems—one for zombies, and one for us, the human strong.”
She paused, her voice steady and clear.
“Since your main enemies are zombies, we’ll start with their ranks…”
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