Chapter 18 - Preliminary Competition

　　The airship began to lose altitude significantly at dawn. The destination was about to arrive. 　　A ray of morning sunlight shot in and shone on Chiyo's face. He had actually woken up long ago and lightly jumped out of the cockpit, walking over to the porthole to look out. 　　In front of him was the tilted earth, the steel city that flooded the horizon seemed as if it would fall over at any moment. 　　The most striking thing in view was a tall tower, located in the center of the city, dazzling silver-white, like a thousand-foot peak, with clouds of white steam spewing out from its top. The base of the tower was incomparably wide, covering three or four blocks. 　　That was the first time Qianye saw the heart of a human city, the Tower of Eternal Motion. The cheapest black stone, the cheapest steel, was built to be a miraculous perpetual motion tower that operated day and night, supplying the energy to run the entire city. 　　The cargo pontoon slowly passed from the southwest of the city, and the airspace in front of it was slowly filled with more airships of different styles, among which there were several light boats with delicate and complicated bow reliefs. 　　Sure enough there were so many airships applying to enter the harbor that they had to queue up, and the freighters began to hover in the sky. From the foul mouths and complaints of the pilots, Qianye learned that besides the public passenger stage boats and cargo boats, there were quite a few more private airships today, with family crests embossed on their bows, each one a symbol of monstrous power and vast wealth. 　　Xiangyang was one of the resident places where the Imperial Military Ministry recruited soldiers, and this time of year attracted thousands of young men from all directions. This year, there were especially a lot of people coming, including many sons and daughters of nobles, because there were two more behemoths on the recruiting list: the Folded Angel and the Red Scorpion. 　　The Great Qin Empire placed great importance on military service, and even for the great clans, it was a shortcut for their sons to make a mark in the military. Being able to enter a special army was almost synonymous with flying high. 　　The Winged Angels and the Red Scorpions had never been ranked among the top five of the hundreds of special legions in the empire. It was their recruitment that had alarmed many of the great clans to send their best sons and daughters from thousands of miles to participate in the examination. 　　The pontoon boat that Qianye was carrying had achieved a relatively forward entry position into the harbor because it was affiliated with the military. He waited until he landed to feel the pomp and circumstance of the draft day. 　　The airship base, which was supposed to be just one of the transportation staging areas, was surprisingly already crowded with people of all colors in the morning, most of them young people in their early to mid-twenties, each one confident, energetic, and full of hope. And outside the base, all sorts of land transportation had already formed long lines. 　　Shi Yan unleashed the heavy-duty truck, which was still considered a big guy even among the many vehicles, and roared out from the military passage. Xiangyang was the third-ranked military city in the entire empire, and aside from half of the city's neighborhoods being military-controlled zones, military-specific passages had been set up for both ground roads and airways. 　　Qianye had been looking out the window with his eyes wide open, the route they were traveling was a military zone, compared to the plainness of the Yellow Springs Training Camp which was all about practicality and no aesthetics, the architectural style on both sides added a lot of decoration, but still did not lose its hard majesty. 　　The boot camp was at the end of the road, and from afar, one could see that the long enrollment line had already discharged its arch. 　　In the midst of the noisy crowd, Shi Yan loudly said to the officer in charge of enrollment, "I want to go directly to the review area!" 　　He flashed his proof of identity and led Qianye directly into the camp, where he went through the enrollment procedures for him and then handed Qianye a bronze nameplate representing his identity. The nameplate had the words Lin Qianye mechanically stamped on it. 　　Looking at the word Lin on the nameplate, Qianye had an indescribable feeling in his heart. For the first time in his life, he felt like he belonged. This Lin character was not only branded on the nameplate, but also in his heart. 　　Next, Qianye was brought into the inner camp by a soldier. The inner camp was an assessment area, and Shi Yan was not allowed to enter either. 　　It wasn't until he stepped inside the inner camp that Qianye realized that this military camp was much larger than it looked outside the gate. 　　Thousands of young people who had already passed the initial screening of basic qualities were arranged into various barracks according to the number on the nameplate. Tomorrow was the day of the official examination, and today they would first rest for a day in order to perform at their best level. 　　Many of the young men had come by car or even passenger stagecoach, these public transportation vehicles for the vast majority of civilians were all blackstone steam-powered and shared the common characteristics of noise and bumpiness. Such long journeys were very strenuous and had a great impact on their physical fitness, which naturally affected their exam performance. 　　When it comes to the military's examination, the Empire has always been very fair, and seldom gives special favor to the children of the clan families. 　　This is also the foundation of the empire. Otherwise, if an incompetent dude leads the army to the battlefield, that would be a disaster. The dark race kills, but will never care what status you have. 　　There were three exams for the Empire's recruiting process: the Force, fighting skills, and the use of firearms. 　　The candidates ate their dinner and were herded back to their dormitories to go to bed. Chiyo was used to obeying orders and went to bed as soon as the lights were turned off, quickly drifting off to sleep. But the other candidates in the dormitory, some excited and some nervous, could not sleep. The two young people from the same remote city simply chatted quietly. 　　I don't know how long it had been, but Qianye, who was already asleep, suddenly had a heart palpitation and immediately opened his eyes. His body did not move on the surface, but in reality, all his muscles were already tensed up, ready to rise up and kill at any time, while his eyes were only open a slit, quietly observing his surroundings. 　　Right at this moment, Thousand Night was horrified to realize that a middle-aged man's face had appeared in the small window of the room's door at some point, looking expressionlessly at the people in the room! 　　However, other than Thousand Nights, surprisingly no one else noticed this middle-aged man! There was one candidate who had clearly swept his eyes across the window, but it was as if he had not seen it at all. 　　That middle-aged man suddenly glanced towards Qianye and turned away. 　　It wasn't until after he disappeared that Qianye recovered from his shock. This time, however, he couldn't sleep at all. 　　A few moments later, an unimpressive-looking middle-aged man left this dormitory building and then entered another one. When he finished walking through all the dormitory buildings, on the thick stack of lists in his hand, most of the names had an X next to them, and only a few had numbers labeled next to them, ranging from 1 to 9. 　　And an asterisk was drawn next to Chiyo's name. Only fourteen names in the thick list had this mark noted next to them. 　　Thousand Nights didn't realize that he had unintentionally passed the first level. 　　Early in the morning of the next day, the ear-piercing bell awakened all the candidates from their sleep. Chiyo rushed out of the barracks with the flow of people and stood in formation on the playground. Here the candidates were divided into three groups before taking different exams. 　　Chiyo's group would first take the Force Firearms shooting test. 　　The Force Guns issued to the candidates were specially made for the exam, the power was greatly reduced, and the Force consumption was also reduced. Even a level one combat soldier would be able to fire six or seven shots in a row. Only in this way could they complete all the examination subjects. If they were to switch to a regular Force Gun, even if it was the most basic level one firearm, I'm afraid that even Qianye's thick and condensed Force that far exceeded that of his peers would have difficulty completing all of the shooting subjects. 　　After checking the Force gun, Qianye stood in front of the firing line with the other nine candidates. Ten fixed targets rose up a hundred meters away, all of them images of human-faced arachnids. 　　While familiarizing himself with the weapons and waiting for the order to fire, a young man on Chiyo's left glanced at him, suddenly grabbed his crotch, whistled again, and said, "Kid, ever played with a gun?" 　　Paired with his scowling expression, it was a double entendre, extremely lewd provocation. 　　Qianye glanced toward him and said indifferently, "Haven't played with one, but I've pinched and blown up a few, you want to try?" 　　The young man burst into exaggerated laughter and said, "I'm really scared! Kid, do you know who I am, daring to talk to me like that?" 　　"No matter who you are, it won't increase your score by a single point, will it?" Qianye calmly asked back. 　　The young man's face instantly swelled red and he said angrily, "Arrogant, kid! But don't talk nonsense, the Imperial Family, is not so shameless that it would get its hands dirty in this kind of exam! Since I don't see you in a good light, of course I have to win cleanly and beautifully!" 　　"Win me? You don't stand a chance." Qianye was still the kind of blandness that could drive a person crazy with anger. 　　That young man's face immediately sank, "Then let's have a bet?" 　　Qianye raised an eyebrow and said, "Bet on what? Too small for me to be interested!" 　　The young man reached out and pulled off the necklace from his neck, carrying it and handing it to Qianye. The necklace was silver in color, and at the end hung a thumb-sized square plate with an eagle's head engraved on it. 　　The young man said, "Let's bet on the results of this exam! If I lose, this thing is yours!" 　　Chiyo reached out her hand and curiously twisted the small sign, asking, "How is this thing going to work?" Listening to his tone, it was clear that he had already taken the necklace as a bag of tricks. 　　The young man was instantly infuriated and sneered, "You really think you're going to win?" 　　Qianye nodded seriously, "That's for sure." Then he followed up with another question, "How does this thing work?" 　　The young man hated his teeth and angrily said, "This is my token! If you take this, you can make a request to my clan. As long as it's within the scope of my authority, no matter what the request is, you can be satisfied!" 　　At this time, the other candidates noticed the argument between the two and looked over. They all noticed the eagle's head on the square plaque, and immediately some of them changed their faces, clearly recognizing the emblem. 　　"Surprisingly, it's someone from the Wei family!" Someone whispered. 　　Hearing the whispers of the people around him, the young man immediately perked up in spirit and raised his chin with the bravado of a young rooster. 　　But Qianye didn't have the reaction he expected and just let out an oh, then instead, there was more suspicion in his gaze as he surveyed the young man. The meaning was too obvious: with this bear-like appearance, how much can the so-called authority be? 　　The young man was once again exasperated and bellowed, "To gamble or not to gamble?" 　　Qianye finally nodded: "Bet." 　　The young man didn't say anything more, but instead picked up his Force Gun and quietly waited for the exam to begin. 　　The exam time arrived. After a whistle, all ten candidates picked up their Force guns and began to aim carefully. 　　The shooting accuracy of most Force Guns was not good, it was easy to hit a target that was a hundred meters away, but it was very difficult to hit the bullseye. The bullseye area could get 100 rings, but it was only the size of a fingernail. If you land outside the bullseye, you get 80 rings at most. This is how all types of shooting targets are scored. 　　It didn't take long for a gunshot to ring out. A thin red light hit the target, the metal target shook, and a small hole opened up in the upper center part of the one man high target. This shot was not small in power, but the accuracy was not good, just barely on target. 　　"20 rings!" The examiner loudly reported the target, while another examiner noted down the score. 　　The gunshots rang out in sequence, all eight hit the target, but the highest one only had 50 rings. In the blink of an eye, only the young man and Thousand Nights remained who hadn't shot. 　　The young man had been aiming for a long time, while Qianye had been watching him from the side. Under Thousand Night's gaze, the young man always felt a bit impatient. The moment he pulled the trigger, his heart immediately screamed out bad!