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The trainees in the reserve unit were ultimately and thoroughly convinced by the strength Lin Feng had displayed. Not one of them hesitated any longer as they carried out the training plan he had proposed.

“Very well. From this moment on, everyone will enter the basement of Building One. Your special training begins there!”

With a low shout, Lin Feng led the reserve members toward the basement of Building One, which he had already transformed into a special training chamber.

More than a hundred of them discovered only upon reaching the basement that all three underground levels had been completely renovated.

When they arrived at the first underground level, their faces turned green at the sight of more than a hundred execution racks arranged throughout the vast chamber.

“Instructor, what is this? Are you planning to torture us?” one team member asked in confusion.

Lin Feng merely smiled.

“Many of you have no experience cultivating martial arts. If you wish to compete with heirs of aristocratic families who have practiced martial arts since childhood, there is only one way: we will use golden needles to stimulate your acupoints and forcibly activate the meridians in your bodies, enabling you to absorb the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and begin cultivation.

“Rest assured. I specifically asked Gu Feng to bring in a hundred acupuncture masters for you. They will administer the treatment according to my acupuncture plan. The process will be extremely painful, but the results will be remarkable. So, what do you say? Does anyone wish to withdraw?”

Wang Zexi glanced at the silver needles in the hands of the acupuncturist standing nearby.

Before joining the Soaring Dragon Unit, he had already heard that there were so-called martial artists in China—people whose individual strength was extraordinarily powerful. The Soaring Dragon Unit was precisely an organization that trained military martial artists through military methods.

In order to become stronger, he had declined the efforts of his former commanding officer to retain him and resolutely applied to join the Soaring Dragon Unit. Now that his goal was right before him, he would never give up—not even if it meant climbing a mountain of blades or descending into a cauldron of boiling oil.

“Reporting, Commander! Unless I die, I will never withdraw!”

Wang Zexi stepped forward and shouted. He walked directly to the execution rack beside him, bound his limbs in place, and said to the acupuncturist:

“Please begin. I am ready!”

The acupuncturist froze for a moment before turning to look at Lin Feng.

These acupuncturists were all renowned physicians from some of Jinling’s finest traditional Chinese medicine hospitals. Several were even veteran professors at those institutions.

When they heard that they were being recruited to help train special forces for the Chinese military, they had agreed without hesitation.

After receiving Lin Feng’s acupuncture plan, they had studied it for a long time and had even tested it on their own bodies.

The sensation was practically like having someone carve into one’s flesh with a sharp knife, again and again. The pain was utterly unbearable.

These young soldiers were going to endure such agony for the sake of their special training. It was truly no easy thing.

Thus, when Wang Zexi volunteered to begin the golden-needle treatment, the acupuncturist hesitated. Could these young men really withstand such pain?

Lin Feng nodded at him and said quietly, “Do not worry. I am here. I guarantee that not one of them will come to harm. As for whether they can endure the pain, that will depend on them. If they wish to surpass more than a decade of foundational training that others began in childhood, they must pay a price others cannot bear.”

“Very well.”

Seeing how resolute Lin Feng was, the acupuncturist stopped hesitating. He deftly drew out a silver needle and slowly inserted it into one of the major acupoints on Wang Zexi’s body.

“Ugh—”

The moment the needle entered his flesh, this iron-willed man—the military district’s finest soldier—began to sweat coldly from the pain. Even with his teeth clenched, he could barely withstand the agony that seemed to pierce his very bones.

Lin Feng watched him calmly. The young man truly was ruthless.

In essence, this treatment stimulated the body’s major acupoints, creating pain far beyond the normal limits of endurance in order to awaken the body’s potential and open its internal meridians.

The advantage of this method was that it caused the least damage to the body while producing results the fastest. Its drawback was that it placed a tremendous burden on the body, and the process was simply too painful.

The fact that Wang Zexi could grit his teeth and endure until now proved that his willpower was extraordinarily strong.

“All right, everyone. You can see for yourselves that the process is extremely painful. There is no shame in crying out. A true man does not shed tears lightly—unless he has reached the depths of sorrow. I can promise you that the days ahead will be the most sorrowful of your lives.”

A sly, old-fox smile appeared on Lin Feng’s face.

The team members shuddered when they saw that smile, terror rising in their hearts.

Under Lin Feng’s watchful gaze, they climbed onto the execution racks one after another and had their bodies secured. The acupuncturists then began the golden-needle treatment.

For a time, the entire basement echoed with the anguished howls of burly men. Some were in so much pain that they even screamed for their mothers.

To Lin Feng’s surprise, however, not one person asked to withdraw or attempted to escape. Every one of them endured stubbornly, tears streaming down their faces.

Lin Feng had once witnessed the Inferno of Endless Hell. Compared with that, this was nothing.

He slowly sat down, calmly took a sip of tea, and quietly circulated the Three Pure Spirits Scripture, watching the howling team members before him with a faint smile.

Soon, an entire day had passed.

Lin Feng waved his hand and ordered the reserve members to be taken down from the execution racks.

Nearly all of them were completely exhausted. Pools of sweat lay around their feet, and many had screamed until their voices were hoarse.

“All right. Put them in the medicinal baths. We will continue tomorrow morning!”

A group of medics entered. With practiced efficiency, they transferred the hundred-plus men onto mobile hospital beds and sent them directly to the medicinal bath center on the first floor.

The hot water stirred their circulation, while the lingering effects of the golden-needle treatment remained in their bodies. Another wave of agonized cries immediately erupted.

The entire training ground rang with shrieks from Building One, as if countless pigs were being slaughtered.

Even Wu Sansi and the others could not sleep soundly in their dormitory. Every time they were about to drift off, another series of screams rang out. Anyone who did not know better might have thought live pigs were being scalded in boiling water.

“Boss Wu, what is going on? This is supposed to be special training, so why does it sound like a slaughterhouse? The screaming has not stopped once!”

“How would I know? That instructor surnamed Lin is probably up to some new trick. But no matter what they do, those fellows in their twenties have meridians that have long since become blocked. The number who can truly enter the martial path will probably be pitifully small. The Soaring Dragon Unit will still need us to hold up its reputation in the future. As long as that situation does not change, no one will be able to touch us!”

The corners of Wu Sansi’s mouth lifted as he basked in his own triumph.

“Brilliant, Boss Wu!”

His lackeys raised their thumbs one after another and showered him with flattery.

…

This was only the first day of special training, yet the reserve members’ mental states were already on the verge of collapse.

Damn it, how was this any different from hell?

More than ten hours every day, with every passing second filled with unbearable agony. ****.

Even a rugged, hard-bitten man like Xu Peng could not help shedding bitter tears in the middle of the night.