Hidden Enemies

Operations to properly weed out and lure in hidden enemies from the Cleansing Faction among the recruits took place almost every year. In Zhang Dao'an's words, infiltration and sleeper agents were simply unavoidable. Tracing back through history, both the Cleansing Faction and the Self-Preservation Faction had initially sprouted and grown by relying on the Azure Alliance to hatch their own eggs in another's nest. Among them, the first-generation leader of the Cleansing Faction's Snow Lotus organization had even been one of the top two scientists in the Azure Alliance during his era. From the hope of defenders to wielding the destroyer's scepter, no one knew what that silent genius codenamed Ne had truly experienced or thought. Of course, Regiment 425's situation this year was still exceptional, because the lineup deployed this time was simply too luxurious: the regimental commander, chief of staff, chief instructor, a captain... Not to mention Miss Milla, who hadn't hesitated to exploit her feminine charms, putting on a dedicated performance in a bikini. The late-arriving veterans were clutching their heads and wailing in bitter agony—not because they had missed the "airborne chain slashes by the three great masters," but because they hadn't arrived in time before Milla came out of the water. As for right now, Milla had already wrapped herself in an autumn-issue grey trench coat of the Coalition, pulled up the hood, and retreated into a corner with her head down. A large-scale mountain search was currently underway. Normally, follow-up operations like this rarely yielded any further catch, but failing to conduct one would easily look foolish... What if there really was someone else? "What are you thinking about?" Han Qingyu asked, noticing Wen Jifei spacing out. "Replaying those forty seconds of chain slashes by Commander Li, Instructor Zhang, and Captain Lao." Wen Jifei's eyes burned with fervor as he pointed and said, "Forty seconds! The three of them never touched the ground once! You know that?" "Yeah. But honestly, they were just slashing for fun, just indulging themselves. Otherwise, it probably would've been over in a single strike." "I know. It's just... I really want to wear armor. I want to be with you guys, executing millimeter-precise coordination between life and death to slaughter Great Spikes... Qingzi." Han Qingyu fell silent for a moment. Wen Jifei smiled, then sighed again. "Too bad. After watching that display, I also know it's truly time for me to give up on that idea completely." It was precisely because he had witnessed their positioning, coordination, and timing under the most effortless and casual conditions that Plague Chicken understood a person in his situation could never guarantee staying in precise formation. "Then sorry to disappoint, but I'll just have to live to a ripe old age." The very next second, he sprang up with a cheeky laugh, spinning around to taunt and brag in front of the other six from Dormitory 11 who were bound for armor. Lao Jian walked over and said with a smile, "See? Told you he was full of vitality." He brought Regimental Commander Li along with him. "Commander, does this operation count as a merit? I earned another merit, right?" Han Qingyu asked right away. "Will it give me bonus points for rank promotions down the road?" Lao Jian had naturally grown accustomed to this by now. Commander Li was taken aback. "It's recorded, sure... but do you care that much about this?" "Yeah." Han Qingyu nodded without hesitation. "...Hahaha, who knew you had an addiction to climbing the ranks!" Commander Li burst out laughing. Little did he know that Han Qingyu just wanted source energy blocks. By this time, the soldiers had finished scavenging the scrap on land. Han Qingyu had actually thought about this: the fact that the Coalition had scrap to salvage after almost every fight was probably one of the key reasons why they had managed to keep fighting all this time. Otherwise, if every time you risked your neck hacking and slashing away, all you ended up with was a dead giant on the ground... what was the point? Without gains, people lacked drive. Now, there was still one corpse in the water left unlooted. A soldier assigned to salvage materiel began stripping down on the bank when a stir arose among the crowd. It was the recruits. They had undergone grueling training and seen plenty of gruesome footage in historical recordings, but... that didn't mean they could look at severed limbs floating in the water and billowing ripples of bloody water without batting an eye. Milla's straight leap out of the water and waist-level bisection earlier... had been far too brutal. "Hurk." Some female soldiers began vomiting, triggering a chain reaction as more people felt sick. Murmurs laced with disgust spread alongside pained grimaces. The guys from Dormitory 11 looked back. They were standing even closer... Han Qingyu had already witnessed a soldier impaled and swung around on a Great Spike's column sword, and he had killed people before, yet he still frowned in disgust along with the rest. Seeing this, Commander Li frowned, an inexplicable irritation and gloom rising in his chest... Others could act like this, but the future captain of Regiment 425's colored Eraser squad definitely could not. "You don't need to strip," he called out, stopping the soldier about to enter the water. Then he glanced at Milla... "It's safe underwater," Milla said. "Good. Han Qingyu... you go." Commander Li pointed at him, then at the reservoir. Han Qingyu: "..." "Go on! That's an order." The more Commander Li looked at him, the more irritated he became. The commander was mad... Left with no choice, Han Qingyu pulled a bitter face and began stripping off the jacket he had hastily thrown on earlier. "Don't think of it as dead-guy soup," Wen Jifei said. "Then what should I think of it as?" Han Qingyu began taking off his trousers. "Just think of it as Captain Milla's bathwater." "...Hey, now that you mention it, that actually makes it way better." Their quiet exchange turned Milla bright red where she stood right behind them. Then, with a splash, Han Qingyu executed a classic mountain-kid cliff dive, plunging headfirst into the water without hesitation... From Milla's perspective, if she wasn't mistaken, his eyes in that split second had seemed somewhat excited and burning. *Source energy blocks! Source energy blocks!* Han Qingyu had never imagined he would get the chance to touch these things today. And based on what he currently knew, according to the common knowledge of almost everyone—including officers like Commander Li and Lao Jian—no one could directly absorb source energy without the aid of an apparatus... Nor could anyone accurately deduce an enemy's remaining source energy blocks before battle or gauge their exact combat expenditure. The assassin's metal harness had already been severed by Milla, and the three-dimensional apparatus lay at the bottom of the reservoir. Han Qingyu surfaced, took a deep breath, turned, and plunged down once more. His figure vanished from the sight of the people on shore. Reservoir water wasn't stream or seawater; it couldn't be crystal clear down to the bottom. Even if it was clean, once it reached a certain depth, it would inevitably appear grayish blue or dark greenish. So, steal? Of course he'd steal! The more crowded the place, the better it was for thievery... why else did thieves flock to train stations? In the silt at the reservoir bed, Han Qingyu spotted the fallen Generation 7 three-dimensional apparatus almost immediately. How wonderful—even the source energy block had slipped out... Treading water, he picked up the apparatus, feeling the surge of source energy in his palm. One drop, two drops, three drops, four drops... This block was nearly full, but Han Qingyu didn't get greedy; he left three drops. Having done this with oxygen to spare, he held the apparatus and swam upward underwater, heading toward the shore... Then, about three or four meters beneath the patch of grass where their group had been sitting earlier, another faint tug suddenly registered... *Source energy.* There was more source energy here. *But I haven't even touched it. Why can I sense it? Don't I need physical contact? Wait, it seemed to be like that just now as well, only I had seen it with my eyes, so I forgot to pay attention.* *Water?... So, is it because of the water? Can water conduct the sensation across a certain distance?* *In that case, if I pee against the base of the dirt wall at a source energy depot in the future... could I steal from it too?!* Pondering this, Han Qingyu swam closer and began searching among the rocky crevices. It wasn't hard; a three-dimensional apparatus wasn't small... Soon, an entire intact Generation 7 three-dimensional apparatus appeared before Han Qingyu's eyes. What should he do with this one? Leave it here for now and sneak back to retrieve it later? The thought arose, only to be quickly dismissed—if he got caught doing that, what if he was directly treated as a Cleansing Faction infiltrator?! Come to think of it, he really did look a bit like a sleeper agent from the Cleansing Faction—and a high-priority asset at that, the kind planted and nurtured at immense cost with hopes of one day attaining high rank and great power, shifting clouds and rain with the turn of a hand. A "coincidental sighting," an "extraordinarily high fusion degree," and "a great merit earned before enlistment"—and the one he killed just happened to be from the Cleansing Faction... Wow, he really did fit the profile. Could it be that they truly didn't suspect him at all? Han Qingyu had guessed correctly: he was indeed under suspicion. To be precise, this suspicion—or rather, scrutiny—wasn't targeted specifically at him, but at every recruit in Azure deemed worthy of focused development. Thus, even though he had already been categorized into the Sub-Sequence... he still had to undergo a two-year probationary period first. During these two years, Han Qingyu wouldn't receive any clandestine preferential resources or intensive cultivation. As for dying during these two years... then so be it. Far too many Grade As had died in Azure's history; if one couldn't even survive training and entry-level battlefields, it merely proved they lacked what it took to become pillars of the Azure Coalition. His mind made up, he knew he couldn't leave it behind. The built-in source energy block in this apparatus wasn't full either. Han Qingyu attempted to absorb two drops through the water's conduction, leaving most of it behind. Then, he headed up and broke through the surface with a splash. In each hand was an apparatus—one ruined, one intact. "Ptooey... I've earned another merit." ...... "Hahaha... Son of a bitch, there really was another one!" Commander Li looked at the unused Generation 7 three-dimensional apparatus on the ground before him, laughing out of sheer fury. "Clever, knowing not to show your face," he said, turning to everyone present. Though a smile played on his lips, his gaze was dark and menacing. "You'd better keep your head down forever, or I'll tear it clean off your shoulders." No one made a sound. This atmosphere of suspicion certainly made it difficult to build trust among the soldiers, especially the recruits, but... it was better than misplaced trust in a Cleansing Faction infiltrator. True trust and mutual reliance were best forged through future battles between life and death. "I'll give you two choices. One: come find me later on your own. I'll guarantee you won't die—you'll work and eat. Two: forget the past just like this, truly treat yourself as an Azure soldier, and head to the battlefield." With that, Li Wangqiang swept a quiet glance over the crowd and waved his hand. "Dismissed." The next second, he turned and whispered to his subordinates beside him, "When I walk over in a moment, you guys follow. Catch the rest of Dormitory 11 off guard and push them all into the water... Don't rescue them until they're nearly passed out. Since their plan was to don the apparatus underwater, their swimming skills must be plenty good." At the same time, the guys from Dormitory 11 were putting on their clothes and preparing to head up, discussing among themselves. "Hey, do you think this guy from Pure Purgatory could be in our Dormitory 11? Haha." "Get lost! If he were in our room, wouldn't he have offed Qingzi in the middle of the night long ago?" "True... wait, your logic doesn't hold. Before the testing and before that major merit came to light, he had no idea Qingzi was worth killing... The guy went through hell just to infiltrate; he's probably aiming for bigger things." Everyone froze for a second. "Now that you put it that way, it really could be possible." "Yeah, damn it, my hair's standing on end right now." "..." Amid their chatter... "It's me," a voice, somewhat dull and devoid of vitality, came from behind Han Qingyu and the others. "I'm the one from Pure Purgatory... I'm sorry, Qingzi. And everyone."