Zhang Fengping glanced at Huang Hu and said wanly, “Don’t you know anything about formations?”

　　“I don’t.” Huang Hu shook his head.

　　At his level, he had not heard of things like formations.

　　Zhang Fengping spoke, “It looks simple but you’ll understand how powerful it is when you use it.”

　　“Can it really protect lives?” Huang Hu asked.

　　“Erm, somewhat. It depends on how good the formation is.” Zhang Fengping explained, “Master Zhao is young and he has only joined the Holy Church of Light not long ago. I doubt the formation he’ll be using is anything powerful. Still, knowing a bit of something is better than knowing nothing at all.”

　　“In this case, are we toiling away for nothing?” Huang Hu was annoyed. “Will he be torturing us like that?”

　　“Makes no difference if we don’t work at all,” Zhang Fengping remarked in an indifferent manner.

　　He was completely uninterested in anything. He had lost all hope for life and nothing mattered to him anymore. Moreover, the two painful whips he had to endure during this arduous training had done nothing to motivate him.

　　Huang Hu snorted. “He doesn’t even treat us like humans!”

　　“We’re going to be dead meat soon,” Zhang Fengping muttered.

　　“Old Zhang, are you willing to die just like that?” Huang Hu whispered, “Don’t we have a chance to get out of this?”

　　“Abandon all hope once you enter the Sharp Vigor Battalion,” Zhang Fengping replied dejectedly. “If you don’t die today, you’ll die tomorrow. You’ll never escape death.”

　　“Sigh… You’re such a wet blanket, Old Zhang.” Huang Hu shook his head helplessly.

　　Zhang Fengping looked at him but did not say anything else.

　　Suddenly, footsteps could be heard. A robust, flat-faced young man entered and lowered his voice. “Old Zhang, Old Huang.”

　　The two men turned their heads. Huang Hu grinned. “Xu Daxing, you’re glowing!”

　　Xu Daxing chuckled. “How are you? How’s your condition?”

　　“Still alive,” Huang Hu uttered angrily, “I’m not as smart as you. You didn’t even get whipped.”

　　“Sigh… Sergeant Xu is too cruel!” Xu Daxing remarked, “He’s a maniac and he doesn’t treat the crowd as humans. He likes to torture others and the more he does so, the more excited he gets!”

　　“Yes, yes!” Huang Hu nodded enthusiastically.

　　Zhang Fengping stole a glance at Xu Daxing but did not say a word.

　　Xu Daxing spoke, “I won’t stand for it! The crowd is complaining!”

　　“You don’t say!” Huang Hu said, “If this goes on, we’re going to be smashed to smithereens! We’ll die at the hands of our own people first before dying at the hands of our enemies!”

　　“Therefore, we must do something about it!” Xu Daxing suggested, “We must let Sergeant Xu know that we’re also humans and we should be respected!”

　　“Exactly!” Huang Hu nodded.

　　Zhang Fengping asked, “Old Xu, what do you plan to do?”

　　“We must boycott Sergeant Xu’s training!” Xu Daxing replied, “As long as we’re united, he can’t do anything about it! Unity is strength! I’m just worried that some people aren’t strong enough and they will back down when he threatens them!”

　　“Won’t this…” Huang Hu was stunned and he was momentarily unsure of himself. “Won’t this cause a huge uproar?”

　　“It isn’t huge at all!” Xu Daxing retorted, “This isn’t a mutiny, and we aren’t going to attack him either. We’re just going to ignore him. The crowd won’t attend the training tomorrow morning!”

　　Huang Hu turned to Zhang Fengping. “Will this really work?”

　　“It won’t be a problem!” Xu Daxing laughed. “If anything happens, that will be my fault. The crowd listens to me and I’ll take responsibility!”

　　“…That’s good.” Huang Hu smiled. “We ought to show him what we’re made of. We have emotions too and he shouldn’t mess with us!”

　　“True, true!” Xu Daxing laughed heartily. “That’s set, then. Don’t get up tomorrow morning. No matter how much he threatens us, don’t get up!”

　　“No problem!” Huang Hu promised.

　　Xu Daxing cupped his fists into a fist salute. “I’m going to inform the rest. I shall leave now.”

　　“Go, go,” Huang Hu said excitedly.

　　After Xu Daxing had left, Huang Hu grinned. “Things are going to take an interesting turn, Old Zhang. Do you think Sergeant Xu will give in to us?”

　　“No,” Zhang Fengping answered.

　　Huang Hu said, “He will be wary of us even if he doesn’t give in.”

　　Zhang Fengping replied, “We shall see.”

　　…

　　At dawn the following day, the crowd did not hear Xu Cihang’s cries.

　　Xu Cihang and Fan Yang were chatting while they had breakfast in Chu Li’s tent.

　　“Like I said, twenty beatings for one person and we shall see whether they’ll behave themselves. How brave and daring of them to plot against us secretly!” Xu Cihang bit on a steamed bun angrily and chewed. “They better listen to us after such treatment!”

　　Chu Li said, “Old Xu, don’t be too harsh on them or you might cause them to revolt against us. Under normal circumstances, you may do so, but we are running out of time.”

　　“True, true.” Fan Yang ate a bowl of porridge and chuckled. “We should use both soft and hard approaches. Our end goal is to get them to train wholeheartedly and we can ignore other matters!”

　　“How should we deal with Xu Daxing then?” Xu Cihang asked.

　　Chu Li answered with a question, “What do you think, Old Xu?”

　　“Beat him half to death as a warning to others!” Xu Cihang scoffed. “Brazen fellow! Who does he think he is?”

　　Fan Yang smiled. “No need to do so. If you’re unhappy, a normal punishment will do.”

　　Chu Li added, “Just pretend that you don’t know anything about it. The thing is, the crowd doesn’t have confidence in formations yet. We have to let them know about the might of this set of formations.”

　　He looked at the two men.

　　Xu Cihang and Fan Yang were skeptical as well since they have never seen the might of formations. It was due to Chu Li’s identity as a disciple of the Holy Church of Light and his exceptional martial arts abilities that they were convinced about the effectiveness of formations. Hence, they were willing to put in the effort to train the prisoners.

　　“What should we do?”

　　“Train them for three more days,” Chu Li ordered in a low voice. “After that, get some people to test the might of the formations.”

　　…

　　At dawn, Xu Daxing and the gang perked up their ears as they laid in bed. They listened eagerly for Xu Cihang’s voice to resound across the encampment. Then, they planned to lie still as a sign of protest.

　　However, they were in bed until noon but they still had not heard Xu Cihang’s voice. At this point, their bodies were already aching.

　　They had not had breakfast yet and their stomachs were growling with hunger. They had tried to ignore that feeling but there was still no sign of Xu Cihang in the afternoon. No food was sent to them too.

　　The prisoners could not hold it any longer. So, all of them got up and walked to the martial arts field. Then, all they saw was Xu Cihang walking on the log at an incredible speed.

　　Although he was a Grandmaster, he had secretly practiced it at night. Thus, he was swift and moved at superhuman speed.

　　“Seargent Xu, aren’t we going to have lunch?” someone asked.

　　As he walked, Xu Cihang replied, “No food for you if you don’t train!”

　　“Why won’t we train? You didn’t greet us, Seargent Xu.”

　　“Do you think I don’t know about your tricks?” Xu Cihang smirked. “Alright, if everyone doesn’t want to train, let’s do nothing at all!”

　　“But you can’t let us starve.”

　　“If you have the willingness to refuse training, don’t eat!”

　　Xu Cihang’s cold, penetrating gaze swept through the crowd. “If you want to eat, train properly!”

　　Xu Daxing yelled, “We’d rather starve to death than to be manhandled by you!”

　　“Excellent,” Xu Cihang snorted. He continued his walk as he ignored the crowd.

　　By night time, the crowd was famished. Yet, they gritted their teeth and tolerated their hunger. As a result, they did not have a good night’s sleep.

　　The next morning.

　　“Wake up! Wake up! Come here! Come here!” The sky had just begun to light up when Xu Cihang’s voice echoed across the encampment. “Twenty beatings of my stick if you don’t come here within five seconds!”

　　Apart from Xu Daxing, everyone rushed in front of Xu Cihang within five seconds.

　　Xu Daxing hesitated for a while. However, when he saw the crowd rushed out, he knew he was at the losing end and joined them.