605: Chapter 605 Physical Fitness Test, Guiding Light

The early summer Xishan was filled with a muggy humidity.

At five in the afternoon, the sun was already hanging obliquely on the rolling ridge line on the west side.

That orange-red fireball was slowly sinking behind the mountains.

The sunlight shone on the circles of barbed wire on the periphery, casting long and short distorted shadows.

Although the sun was in the west, the heat accumulated from the afternoon exposure was still firmly locked in this uneven cement playground of the B3 Garrison Zone.

At the edge of the playground, several rows of dark green military trucks were parked.

Fang Cheng bent his legs and sat on a cement pier beside the truck.

He was wearing a camouflage uniform, leaning his back against a field marching pack weighing twenty kilograms, his hands resting casually on his knees.

His gaze crossed the moving crowd in front and looked towards the distant deep mountains sealed off by the iron curtain.

The crowns of towering ancient trees intertwined under the dim sky light, merging into a bottomless dark green wave.

Like a behemoth dormant in the twilight, it quietly opened its huge mouth, waiting for prey to deliver themselves to its door.

In the nearby dense forest, the chirping of cicadas merged into one, annoying people's minds.

"Bah! Are they fucking going to test or not?"

A loud complaint suddenly came from beside.

Ma Donghe pulled open the collar of his field combat uniform and fanned the wind vigorously.

His huge head was covered in sweat, and his face was flushed red from the muggy weather.

He reached out to grab the military kettle on the ground, unscrewed the cap, and chugged half the kettle with gulps of glug, glug.

Then he raised his arm, wiping the water stains on his chin indiscriminately, and cursed:

"At two o'clock in the afternoon, everyone was dragged to this lousy playground like driving ducks. Just checking equipment, verifying identities, and signing liability waiver agreements took a full three hours."

"It's almost five o'clock now, and the examiner hasn't said a peep, just making us wait here idly, feeding mosquitoes?"

He lowered his head and glanced at a few red bumps bitten by poisonous mosquitoes on the mountain, scratching them irritably twice.

"What's the rush."

Fang Cheng withdrew his gaze from looking into the distance, and turned to look at Ma Donghe:

"Since the issued equipment includes tactical flashlights and signal flares, this is enough to show that the Special Investigation Team originally intended to set the exam time at night."

"Brother Fang puts it thoroughly!"

A scrawny figure crawled out from the blind spot behind Ma Donghe's vision, and squatted down in an open space between the two.

It was the man with protruding ears met during yesterday's interview, Hou Peng.

Ever since they got to know each other, this fellow completely attached himself to Fang Cheng and Ma Donghe.

Relying on his sociable personality, in less than half a day, he and the two became sworn brothers.

Hou Peng rubbed his sweat-stained hands and looked around.

Confirming that the fully armed guards around were relatively far away, he lowered his voice and leaned over mysteriously:

"Two brothers, just now while taking advantage of going to the temporary restroom to relieve myself, I handed a pack of Huazi to the examiner in charge of headcount ahead, and fished out some insider news."

"Guess what? The route these examiners set for us has its destination at Heifenggou in the hinterland of Xishan. The total length, all things considered, is just a little over five kilometers."

"Five kilometers?"

Ma Donghe was stunned, then sneered.

His cattail-fan-like big hand slapped heavily on his thigh, making a dull thud:

"I thought what kind of dragon pool and tiger den it was? A five-kilometer cross-country, even carrying a twenty-kilogram pack and walking mountain roads, I can handle it with my eyes closed in an hour."

"The Special Investigation Team went to such great lengths to drag us to a military restricted area, and they're using this minor-league stuff to fool people?"

"Brother Ma, don't rush to conclusions."

Hou Peng waved his hands repeatedly, his protruding ears shaking twice, and then lowered his voice to emphasize:

"The distance is not long, but do you know what the passing time set by the examiner for us is?"

"It's six o'clock tomorrow morning! As long as you can reach the destination before dawn, you pass!"

As soon as these words came out, the disdain on Ma Donghe's face instantly froze.

Although he usually seemed rough around the edges, after all, he came from the underworld and spent years mingling amidst flashing swords and drawn daggers, so his sensitivity to danger was not low.

Now it was five o'clock in the evening, and there were a full thirteen hours until six o'clock tomorrow morning!

Thirteen hours to walk five kilometers?

At this speed, even an old grandfather strolling down the street with a crutch would have crawled there.

For robust, skilled martial artists, retired veterans, and police academy students like them.

This much time was so generous that it practically oozed something demonic.

"This time span..."

Ma Donghe's brows knitted into a knot, and the irritability on his face instantly faded.

Then he replaced it with a solemn expression, turning to look at Fang Cheng:

"A-Cheng, what do you think?"

Fang Cheng did not reply immediately.

His gaze calmly swept across the examinees on the playground who were also whispering and showing suspicious expressions.

Then, he reached out to pull the marching pack beside him, skillfully unbuckling the nylon buckle and flipping open the top waterproof flap.

Inside, besides high-calorie compressed biscuits, water purification tablets, tactical flashlights, signal flares, and first-aid kits, there was also a sharpened cold-weapon standard short knife.

Fang Cheng pulled out the short knife, his thumb slowly scraping across the back of the blade, feeling the cold texture unique to metal.

"The focus is not 'cross-country running' at all, but 'survival in the wild'."

He raised his eyes, casting his gaze once again toward the distant deep forest where miasma was gradually rising with the sunset.

"Thirteen hours, a five-kilometer journey."

"The examiner is unmistakably telling everyone that as long as it gets dark, on this five-kilometer road, there will definitely be something holding back our steps."

"Even, it might make us unable to tell directions, unable to move an inch, and spinning around inside."

Combined with the mysterious massive explosion that occurred previously in Xishan, and the rumors about the military's research on ancient civilization relics.

Fang Cheng's internal vigilance had been raised to the highest point.

This test was definitely more perilous than the previous illusion test.

Perhaps, accidents and casualties might even occur.

Hou Peng swallowed his saliva, his scrawny cheeks twitching slightly:

"Brother Fang, don't scare me. This is a military restricted area. Not even a fly can fly into the periphery. It couldn't be that there are a few man-eating big bears hiding in the forest, right?"

Ma Donghe instead perked up, grabbed the marching pack on the ground, his eyes flashing with excitement:

"Hey! Whatever, if a couple of bears really pop out, we'll have an extra meal tonight and make roasted bear paws to nourish our bodies!"

Fang Cheng shook his head and sheathed the dagger back into its scabbard.

His gaze crossed around the playground, and finally landed on an observatory towering out of the tree canopy.

In this grim barracks, the atmosphere over there seemed somewhat unusual.

On the top floor of the observatory, the view was wide.

The evening mountain wind blew past, slightly taking away some of the daytime heat.

A black folding table was placed right in the center.

Qin Wenxuan leaned against the cold iron guardrail, his body leaning slightly forward.

He was holding a high-magnification tactical telescope, overlooking the examinees on the playground from a commanding height.

The lens slowly panned, and suddenly froze on that young figure sitting on the cement pier, lowering his head to check the standard short knife.

Qin Wenxuan's lips pressed together slightly, pondering to himself.

This is the Fang Cheng forced in by the old leader.

Although this kid's performance in the Black Rain World was indeed dazzling, obtaining an excellent score.

But after all, the interview test was about mental willpower.

Under the protection of the Soul-Suppressing Bell, the harm of those anomalies to the examinees was actually very limited.

Now that they had reached the solid Xishan restricted area, facing mutant monsters and unknown dangers.

Wanting to get a high score was not that easy.

All he could do was let him successfully pass the background check.

As for whether he could truly enter the Special Investigation Team and become a colleague, it all depended on his own fortune.

"I say Lao Qin, you've been staring at that bunch of greenhorns down there for a long time, can you look out any flowers?"

Beside the folding table, a bearded man with a Physique as burly as an iron tower pulled out a chair and sat down imposingly.

The man was called Lei Zhen, and he was the director of the Reconnaissance Division of the Intelligence Department of the Special Investigation Team.

His face was full of flesh, and there was a fierce scar from the left corner of his eye to his chin, like a medal flaunting his battle achievements.

At this moment, he picked up an enamel teacup, blowing heavily at the tea froth floating on the water surface.

Standing next to Lei Zhen was a cold and glamorous woman wearing a white suit skirt and gold-rimmed glasses.

She was the chief researcher of the Research Department of the Special Investigation Team, Shen Zhiwei.

"Director Qin, you can lay your cards on the table to us now, right?"

Shen Zhiwei held a military tablet terminal in her hands, sliding the data model on the screen, and spoke coldly:

"There are still thirteen minutes until the scheduled exam time, the sun is about to set, and the Yin Qi and spatial fluctuations of Xishan are about to reach their peak."

"Director Ling specifically changed the physical fitness test originally scheduled at the headquarters to this perilous Xishan B3 Zone. What on earth is this for?"

Qin Wenxuan put down the telescope in his hand, slowly turned around, and his expression became a bit more solemn.

He walked to the folding table, supported his hands on the tabletop, and his gaze swept across Lei Zhen and Shen Zhiwei.

"Since the two of you are the joint proctors for this exam and have signed a confidentiality agreement, I'll speak frankly without beating around the bush."

Qin Wenxuan's voice sounded exceptionally low and serious:

"Regarding the super-ancient civilization relics hidden deep within Xishan, the two of you should have heard of it, right?"

Lei Zhen's tea-drinking action paused, he slammed the teacup heavily onto the tabletop, snorted coldly, and his rugged voice was full of resentment:

"How could I not have heard of it? Those military bastards sealed Xishan like an iron bucket. Relying on the ready-made passage of the Yu Dynasty underground palace from a thousand years ago in their hands, they hogged all the benefits until their mouths were oily, and didn't even leave a sip of soup for our Special Investigation Team."

"Our people have been sleeping in the open and guarding the restricted area on the periphery for several months, yet we haven't even touched a single hair of the relics."

"Just thinking about it makes me angry now. We are simply working for them for free!"

"Director Lei is right, the crux of the matter lies right here."

Qin Wenxuan nodded, his tone solemn:

"Director Ling is definitely not willing to watch the military become the sole dominant power. If we cannot find a new passage belonging to the Special Investigation Team to enter the relics, in the future allocation of extraordinary resources, the Special Investigation Team will be controlled by others everywhere, which is extremely unfavorable to our future development."

Shen Zhiwei pushed the glasses on the bridge of her nose, a cold flash crossing her lenses:

"So, what does this have to do with the group of examinees down there who haven't awakened any abilities and the vast majority of whom are still ordinary people?"

"Could it be that we're counting on them to use the soles of their feet to trample out a new path in the mountains?"

Lei Zhen also sneered in agreement, obviously feeling that this plan was whimsical.

Qin Wenxuan's expression was calm, his gaze resolute:

"You may find it absurd, but this is precisely the brilliance of the Director's layout."

"Researcher Shen, regarding the repulsion theory between the Other Shore World and the reality dimension, you are an expert and must be very clear about it."

"The military can stably enter and exit from the Yu Dynasty underground palace by relying on the remaining Formation in the Ancient Tomb and cracked incantations, which offset the repulsive force."

"If we want to find a new entrance outside the blockade circle, we can only find another way!"

He paused for a moment, walked to the folding table, operated Shen Zhiwei's tablet a couple of times, and brought up a global topographic map of Xishan.

Circles of light blue ripples lit up at a certain coordinate point on the map.

It was precisely the cross-country running target of the group of examinees below—Heifenggou.

Qin Wenxuan crossed his arms in front of his chest and continued to explain:

"According to the data obtained from Director Ling's first two secret exploration teams, the spatial fissure of this new entrance is drifting within this wilderness survival area."

"However, due to the existence of the high-dimensional repulsion phenomenon, that fissure is like a mirage, always flickering in and out of sight, close at hand yet far away at the horizon."

"If we want to send heavy troops to forcefully break in, it definitely won't work; that would only result in being torn apart by spatial turbulence."

Qin Wenxuan looked at Shen Zhiwei's thoughtful expression and continued:

"Hasn't the Research Department been testing various instruments capturing spatial frequencies before? You discovered long ago that this repulsive phenomenon actually has great randomness."

"A very small number of people seem to naturally carry a kind of 'high-dimensional affinity Physique'. When facing spatial fissures, not only will they not be repelled, but they can clearly see it, and can even safely approach it, just like being summoned from the nether."

Shen Zhiwei nodded, a trace of fanaticism flashing in the depths of her eyes.

As a researcher, she naturally knew the rarity of this affinity Physique.

"So..."

Qin Wenxuan spread his hands, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes:

"Since we currently still cannot use technological means to completely master the underlying principles of spatial repulsion, let's simply take the opportunity of this large-scale physical fitness test to scatter these eight hundred or so hot-blooded examinees into Xishan."

He pointed to the densely packed crowd below:

"There is bound to be someone whose mental fluctuation can resonate with that flickering fissure."

"As long as they act as 'guiding beacons' and trigger the appearance of the entrance, our purpose will be achieved."

Qin Wenxuan picked up the teacup on the table to moisten his throat, the corners of his mouth curving into a meaningful arc:

"At the same time, this operation also has a justified cause. Even if the military's satellite monitors large-scale personnel movements and comes to question, we have sufficient reasons to prevaricate."

"After all, the Special Investigation Team is conducting normal special recruitment selections, and by the way, taking the mutated beasts in this restricted area to give the newcomers courage, why not?"