Myriad Rivers to the Sea

Chapter 910: The Purpose of Pain

Li Yu stood in the center of his premium courtyard as he breathed in the cool morning air and held Gilded Calamity in his hands. The familiar weight grounded his mind and cleared away the lingering doubts from the previous night. He swung the blade a final time before storing it away. Li Yu walked out of the courtyard gates and joined the flow of recruits heading toward the central gathering plaza.

The atmosphere among the five hundred young cultivators was grim. Many of them walked with stiff and awkward strides. Their bodies were still recovering from the brutal gravity array and the relentless beating from the iron dummies yesterday. Despite the restorative food and a night of rest, the physical toll was heavily apparent.

Li Yu took his place near the back of the massive formation. He kept his expression neutral and waited for the instructors to appear.

Lei Gang stepped onto the raised stone platform as he had done the day before. The chief instructor looked down at the assembled recruits with a deep scowl. He crossed his massive arms and his heavy gaze swept across the crowd. He paused for a fraction of a second when he saw Li Yu standing quietly in the back.

Lei Gang had spent the entire night agonizing over the training schedule. He needed to push Li Yu to the absolute limit to temper his monstrous vessel. However, he could not make it obvious that he was targeting the boy or risk drawing the attention of the camp commanders. His solution was simple but brutal. He decided to change the entire curriculum for everyone to fulfill his own desires.

He justified it internally by noting that the other recruits were entirely too soft anyway. An army like theirs needed unbreakable bodies. The extra conditioning would do them all a favor in the long run.

"Listen up." Lei Gang said. His gravelly voice echoed across the packed dirt. "I reviewed your performance from yesterday. I watched you all collapse under the weight array and I watched you step out of the endurance circles with broken bones. The conclusion is obvious. You are all much too weak. Too pathetic to continue as we would have before."

A collective groan rippled silently through the minds of the recruits. They stood at attention but their faces tightened in apprehension.

"Your foundations are lacking." Lei Gang continued loudly. "Because of this pathetic display, the schedule is changing. Starting today, there will be thirty days of pure physical body tempering. We will break your vessels down and rebuild them until they are worthy of this army."

The announcement struck the recruits like a physical blow. The agony of the previous day was still fresh in their minds. The thought of enduring that exact same torment every single day for a month was a terrifying prospect. It was never this bad before, not even close.

Many eyes subtly shifted toward the back of the formation. They looked at Li Yu.

The timing of this sudden schedule change was incredibly suspicious. The camp had been running a standard curriculum before the mysterious late arrival appeared. Now they were suddenly subjected to an entire month of bodily abuse. Many recruits suspected that the instructors had changed the plan specifically because of Li Yu.

However, they could not prove it. They also possessed the self awareness to admit that their bodies truly were not strong enough but they did not really know where the bar actually was. They swallowed their complaints and prepared for the worst, many of them already knew what they were getting themselves in for when joining.

"There are no iron dummies today." Lei Gang announced. He gestured to the side of the plaza.

A large contingent of veteran soldiers marched into the open space. They wore heavy dark armor and carried the scars of countless cosmic battles as they radiated a dense and terrifying blood vitality. These were active duty soldiers pulled straight from a garrison.

"You will endure their attacks." Lei Gang explained while pointing a massive finger at the soldiers. "You cannot dodge. You cannot use external Qi shields. You will stand your ground and you will block with your limbs, much like yesterday. There is no ranking today. There are no winners and no losers. You will simply endure until your body gives out. Spread out!"

The recruits quickly scattered across the vast dirt plaza. The veteran soldiers stepped up to them and paired off. The soldiers were highly trained and knew how to control their strength to match the cultivation level of the recruit in front of them. Their goal was to push the youth to the absolute limit without causing permanent or crippling damage.

They had been in the shoes of the recruits before and they were still enduring the same training where they were garrisoned. The troops knew what to do and how to do it already. Li Yu stood in his spot and waited for a soldier to approach him.

Heavy boots crunched against the dirt and the crowd parted slightly. Lei Gang walked directly toward the back of the formation and the chief instructor stopped directly in front of Li Yu.

"I will take this one." Lei Gang said to a nearby soldier. The soldier nodded and quickly moved to find another partner.

Li Yu looked up at the mountain of a man. The sheer physical density radiating from Lei Gang was suffocating. Li Yu thought he understood what was happening.

‘The chief instructor most likely saw what I did yesterday and is personally stepping in to ensure that I did not quit early like yesterday.’ Li Yu thought to himself.

"Activate your internal Qi." Lei Gang ordered as he rolled his broad shoulders.

Li Yu sank into a solid martial stance. He cycled his energy through his meridians and reinforced his bones and muscle as he locked his eyes onto the instructor. Lei Gang stepped forward and unleashed a heavy palm strike aimed directly at Li Yu's chest.

Li Yu brought his forearms up and crossed them to block the blow. Even blocked, the impact was monumental. A shockwave of kinetic force rippled through the air. Li Yu felt his boots slide backward in the dirt at the strike. His bones rattled and a sharp ache bloomed instantly across his arms.

Lei Gang did not pause. He followed up with a brutal sweeping kick aimed at Li Yu's ribs. Li Yu shifted his weight and dropped his elbow to intercept the heavy boot. Another massive thud echoed in the space.

The training session erupted all across the plaza. Five hundred recruits were instantly subjected to a systematic and brutal beating by seasoned veterans just as they had done at the hands of the dummies yesterday. The sounds of impact and grunts of pain filled the morning air.

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Li Yu absorbed a rapid combination of punches from Lei Gang. His physical vessel was incredibly tough but the blunt force was jarring. His internal annoyance began to flare up almost immediately.

He questioned this training method in his mind once again. He hated standing still and more importantly taking hits. It felt incredibly counterproductive. He wanted to use his footwork or deflect the force and strike back. Allowing himself to be a stationary punching bag felt like too much suffering.

He absorbed another heavy punch to the shoulder and staggered slightly. He looked at the edge of the plaza and considered stepping out just like he had the day before.

Lei Gang possessed a terrifying amount of battle experience and he read the subtle shift in Li Yu's eyes. He saw the exact moment the boy considered quitting and Lei Gang realized he could not just beat the boy into submission. He needed to change tactics a bit.

"You are thinking about walking away." Lei Gang stated plainly. He threw a slow but incredibly heavy punch that Li Yu blocked with both hands. "You think this is a waste of time. You think enduring is useless for a more agile fighter."

Li Yu gritted his teeth and pushed back against the strike. "It goes against every instinct I have."

"Then your instincts are flawed." Lei Gang replied coldly. He unleashed a rapid barrage of strikes that forced Li Yu to focus entirely on his defense. "This drill is not about turning you into a stationary shield. It is about refining the foundation of your existence."

Lei Gang delivered a knee strike to Li Yu's thigh. Li Yu grimaced but held his ground.

"A stronger physical vessel allows your body to hold more Qi." Lei Gang explained while keeping a steady rhythm of attacks. "A resilient body houses a stronger soul. If your flesh is weak, your maximum potential is capped regardless of your techniques. We break the body down so they grow back denser. We fracture the bones so they heal like iron."

Li Yu blocked a heavy hook to his jaw but he listened to the words. The mechanical explanation made sense.

"But that is only half the reason." Lei Gang continued. His voice dropped to a low and intense rumble. "The true purpose of this drill is the mind. You must learn to process pain without losing focus."

Lei Gang stepped in close and slammed his palm against Li Yu's sternum. The blow was perfectly measured to cause maximum agony without breaking the ribs. Li Yu gasped and his vision blurred for a fraction of a second.

"In a real fight against an expert, you will get hit." Lei Gang stated. "Your footwork will fail. Your evasions will be outmatched. When that fist connects, it will hurt. If you are not accustomed to that level of agony, your mind will stall. You will be stunned by the pain for a single heartbeat. And in that heartbeat, the enemy will sever your head."

Li Yu widened his stance and absorbed another strike. The words reached him and he couldn’t think of a counter to them.

"If you can endure this agony right now while standing completely still, you will never be stunned in a real fight. If you endure a level of pain higher than you would ever face in combat, you will be successful." Lei Gang said. "The pain becomes negligible. It becomes background noise. You maintain your focus while your body is being torn apart. That is what separates a talented fighter from a cosmic survivor."

Li Yu processed the explanation and his internal resistance to the idea of just getting beaten slowly began to vanish.

He finally had a reason for this. He understood the purpose behind the abuse before but until it was put into actual words it didn’t truly click. It was not just mindless torture. It was a calculated method to forge an unbreakable body and mindset. He needed to familiarize himself with severe pain so it could never be used as a weapon against him.

Li Yu bought into the philosophy Lei Gang was sharing.

Lei Gang watched the transformation happen in real time. He saw the annoyance fade from Li Yu's eyes. The boy's aura firmed up and became incredibly dense. His stance rooted into the dirt with conviction. Li Yu was no longer a reluctant participant. He was fully committed to enduring for as long as he could and to push now so that he could survive later.

Lei Gang felt a surge of relief. He finally understood the boy's psychology. Li Yu was tough but he was pragmatic. He would not suffer for the sake of suffering. He needed to understand why he was doing something, to be told bluntly. Once the logic was sound, the boy would endure and do what was needed.

"Good." Lei Gang grunted. "Now let us see what that vessel can actually take."

The chief instructor increased his speed and power. The impacts grew significantly heavier. Time crawled forward in the dusty plaza. The veteran soldiers showed no mercy to the recruits but they controlled their strength to the cultivator’s level and slowly increased it from there.

Cultivators pushed their limits until their internal Qi reserves shattered and their muscles gave out. One by one they collapsed into the dirt and were carried away by the camp medics if they didn’t give up beforehand. The numbers dwindled rapidly and hive hundred became two hundred. Two hundred became fifty.

Eventually there were only thirty people left standing in the plaza.

Vennia was covered in dirt and bruises. The top ranked female recruit blocked a brutal strike from her assigned veteran and hissed in pain. She turned her head slightly to scan the remaining survivors for the first time. She fully expected Li Yu to be gone. He had quit early yesterday when facing a simple machine.

To her shock, Li Yu was still standing.

He was holding his ground against the chief instructor himself. Lei Gang was delivering blows that looked heavy enough to shatter Li Yu’s body. Li Yu was bruised and battered but he was not retreating a single inch. His eyes were clear and focused entirely on the incoming strikes.

"How?" Vennia whispered to herself. She nearly missed a block and took a heavy blow to the shoulder for her distraction.

Zhan Mingyu was standing a short distance away. The promising talent of the main clan was bleeding from his lip but his posture remained upright. He watched Li Yu endure the chief instructor's assault and Mingyu nodded slowly to himself. He realized the boy had simply lacked motivation yesterday. Today, the true foundation was on display.

The beating continued for another agonizing hour. The top thirty was reduced to the top ten.

Li Yu was reaching his physical limits. His arms felt like they were forged from lead. Every movement sent a spike of hot agony through his body but his mind remained calm. He tried to process the pain exactly as Lei Gang had instructed. It was just noise. It did not affect his decision making or his focus.

Lei Gang watched the boy hold on. He realized Li Yu could probably endure for another hour if he truly pushed his internal reserves. But Lei Gang also noticed the stares. The other remaining recruits and the veteran soldiers were beginning to cast glances toward Li Yu.

A random youth enduring a prolonged beating from the chief instructor was drawing entirely too much attention even if he was controlling his strength well. He would have to keep such things in mind for the future and not draw too much attention to the boy. If Li Yu stayed until the very end, people would start asking dangerous questions about his origins.

Lei Gang needed to protect the boy's profile so he needed him to fail naturally in the eyes of the camp.

‘Brace yourself.’ Lei Gang murmured internally.

The chief instructor channeled a massive surge of Qi into his right arm. The air around his fist distorted violently as he stepped forward and unleashed a palm strike that vastly exceeded the established limit for Li Yu's cultivation level.

Li Yu crossed his arms to block but the force was overwhelming.

The impact sounded like a thunderclap. The kinetic energy shattered Li Yu's stance instantly as he was lifted entirely off his feet and sent flying backward through the air. He soared over the dirt plaza and crashed heavily near the edge of the medical pavilion.

He rolled across the dirt and came to a stop. He let out a sharp groan as his muscles finally seized up. He was completely spent. Lei Gang lowered his hand and let out a loud breath. He looked around the plaza at the remaining nine recruits who were staring in shock.

"Keep your eyes on your own opponents!" Lei Gang roared.

The veteran soldiers immediately resumed their attacks. The medical staff rushed over to Li Yu and began feeding him restorative pills. Li Yu laid in the dirt and stared up at the pale sky. His body was entirely broken down but a small smile touched his lips. He understood the path forward now, at least in this training camp, this was the way they trained.

The morning practice finally came to an end.