"Oh? A bit unexpected, they seem to be having a great time."
Lin smiled unexpectedly, standing on the second floor of the death row prison, looking down at the passionate and life-and-death struggles of the soldiers below. To be honest, she hadn't anticipated such a scene. This raw, survival-of-the-fittest, wild atmosphere was exactly what Lin had always wanted to create, so it was a pleasant surprise.
"Unknowingly, Big Sister, your philosophy of 'the strong survive, the weak perish' has already infected everyone in the legion."
Zhi Feng, standing beside Lin, also sighed with emotion. Lin looked at her with interest.
"Don't you think it's too much?"
"It is too much, it completely denies the existence of humanity and reverts to primitive savagery, showing no mercy to the weak. Big Sister, you truly mercilessly tear off all human pretenses, and then use your power to rule and lead a pack of armored, sword-wielding beasts."
Zhi Feng looked at Lin with a meaningful gaze and said:
"Big Sister, this is the effect you wanted, isn't it?"
"Exactly."
Lin admitted candidly:
"In beast packs, the strong always reign supreme, and only the strong who are valuable to the pack can have a place. The weak will be cast aside. Moreover, the mindset of beasts is that the weak submit to the strong, and the strong are always right. As long as I stand at the highest point as the strongest, becoming the goal that everyone looks up to, strives for, and aspires to, then I will never have to worry about their betrayal. Being in a lower position is only due to one's own weakness, thus suppressing human emotions of jealousy and hatred to the lowest level."
Lin sighed softly and continued:
"Only by stripping away all the false pretenses covering the surface, exposing and gathering together a collective of pure, primitive savagery, can it be the purest, most reliable, and most powerful collective, just like wolves howling in the forest. This is the wolf pack system."
The death row prison, filled with shouts and the scent of blood, seemed to be staging a grand play of a pack of wolves tearing apart their prey. The death row inmates, armed with swords and knives, were merely antelopes with sharp horns. While they posed some threat, they couldn't withstand the blood-boiling hungry wolves. One by one, their necks were twisted, their hearts shattered, and they piled up like prey killed by wolves.
Let them be tempered to their fullest. Only those who remain sharp and intact after countless trials can become the fangs and claws I need... "Speaking of which, Big Sister, I'm very curious. Why, no matter how unfavorable the situation, and even though the atmosphere should have long been overwhelmingly oppressive, do those death row inmates still, every single one of them, have red eyes and fight to the death with our soldiers? If it were simply a desire for freedom, they should have been suppressed into despair by the atmosphere long ago."
"Oh, you mean that. Remember what I said? The food given to the death row inmates used for training a week ago was all laced with drugs. But I don't have extra strengthening drugs to give to a bunch of dying people. They were given a latent bloodlust drug. A week of consumption is enough for the drug's effects to penetrate their bones. It doesn't show normally, but once they sense the smell of blood, it becomes uncontrollable. They will start to go mad and become extremely bloodthirsty. From the moment the drug's effects are triggered, they will exhaust their potential and die within twelve hours."
"Then, what about the so-called pardoning of the death row inmates' crimes?"
"Ah, didn't those who defeated our soldiers leave immediately? But after they leave, am I still responsible for their lives or deaths? How could I possibly allow those utterly deserving of death to return to society? Their only value is to burn out here, becoming the whetstones for our legion, until they are completely ground into dust."
Upon hearing this, even Zhi Feng couldn't help but shiver. Lin had absolutely no intention of treating the death row inmates as living beings. In Lin's eyes, these dying people were nothing more than tools and whetstones, the foundational stones at the very bottom of this humanoid beast army, and nothing more... Time always flows invisibly and silently. Soon, two weeks of the new recruits' second phase of training passed, and the third week was already halfway through. The nearly twenty thousand soldiers remaining from the second phase prepared daily, striving to maintain their best possible condition, because everyone knew that the assessment for the second phase was approaching. And before the assessment, Lin would not give any notice or preparation time. For the assessment that would suddenly arrive one day, all the soldiers were nervously preparing for battle.
In these nearly twenty days, the soldiers were not only fighting and killing the death row prisoners who had been drugged. Now, the Danger Beasts that supply the army camp's daily meals have also begun to be hunted by soldiers who organize their own teams into the Forest of Dangerous Species. After all, fighting Danger Beasts is one of the Imperial Army's important duties, and the reason they have been stationed domestically for four years is to defend against possible uprisings of Danger Beasts from the Forest of Dangerous Species.
In these nearly twenty days, the number of soldiers who died, were injured, or became disabled gradually increased. By this time, the number was already less than twenty thousand, which was regrettable.
"Thump thump thump!"
"Come in."
Zhi Feng knocked on Rin's office door and entered after hearing the permission.
"Big Sister, you called for me?"
"Hmm."
At this moment, Rin was sitting in her seat, fiddling with a foot-long, silver-white metal rod. Seeing Zhi Feng enter, she directly threw the object in her hand to Zhi Feng. Zhi Feng watched the lightly flying rod and instinctively raised her right hand to catch it. However, the short, foot-long rod suddenly became heavy in her hand. Zhi Feng quickly raised her left hand and managed to catch it firmly with both hands.
Zhi Feng weighed the metal rod, which Rin had just been fiddling with as if it were a wooden stick. Its weight had to be at least a hundred kilograms. For a metal of this volume, even the densest known orichalcum wouldn't be this heavy.
"Huh? This looks like orichalcum?"
Rin smiled at the confused Zhi Feng and said:
"This is a weapon I specifically designed for you. Because we don't have enough materials and craftsmen here, I sent the design blueprint and a letter to the Imperial Capital, entrusting it to the current God Hand Perfection Teigu User of the Imperial Technology Bureau to forge it. It just arrived today. Although orichalcum is rare, it's not impossible to acquire if you can afford the price."
orichalcum is actually a man-made alloy, and its synthesis formula is still kept in the Empire's top-secret vault. Only the successive God Hand Perfection Teigu Users can understand it, and only he can synthesize it. The annual output is no more than ten kilograms, about the size of a baby's fist.
"Because Alchemy has been lost to the Western Kingdom, we cannot integrate the abilities of Danger Beasts into our equipment. However, if used skillfully, the weapons I design are definitely not inferior to Teigu."
Rin smiled confidently. Zhi Feng repeatedly examined the short rod, which was called a weapon, from all angles. She asked Rin, puzzled:
"Big Sister, this, is it a weapon?"
"Hold one end with one hand and twist it in the opposite direction."
Zhi Feng did as told, twisting both ends of the rod. Immediately, a series of intricate mechanism activation sounds clicked into place. The foot-long orichalcum metal rod rapidly extended section by section to three meters. One end popped out a sharp spear tip and two cold, gleaming crescent blades. The foot-long rod instantly transformed into a brand new, shining heavenly halberd.
Zhi Feng was immediately overjoyed, wielding it twice with delight, exclaiming:
"Thank you, Big Sister! I love it so much!"
"It's good that you like it. But its abilities are not just this. I said that if you master its use, its power will be no less than a Teigu."
Rin smiled confidently, guiding Zhi Feng.
"Try twisting the position you're holding. You don't need to specifically look for it; for ease of use, I designed it so that any position on the halberd shaft can control the weapon's transformation."
Zhi Feng tried twisting the halberd shaft in her hand again. With a crisp'snap' of the spring mechanism, the shape of the heavenly halberd in her hand changed!
"Because the heavenly halberd itself is a versatile, long, heavy weapon, to maximize each of its functions, I designed five forms for it.'Severing': used to destroy the opponent's weapons and armor, maximizing cutting and destructive attacks. 'Thrusting': maximizing piercing thrusts to restrict enemy movement, aiming to pierce through enemies in a line.'Striking': can transform into a large armguard to increase defense, a state that combines offense and defense, withstanding and returning the opponent's attacks. 'Reaping': maximizing the attack range of the heavenly halberd, capable of sweeping away all enemy troops around in one blow, a powerful weapon that is invincible on the battlefield.'Sweeping': a counter-attack mode that repels the opponent's attacks while inflicting damage."
However, Rin still sighed regretfully at the end.
"Actually, I also designed a sixth 'bow-shaped artillery' mode, but unfortunately, without Alchemy to imbue it with the power of a Super Danger Beast, there's no way to charge it. Otherwise, this would be a genuine Teigu."
After speaking, Rin's gaze was full of anticipation for Zhi Feng, saying:
"This is the first time I've designed a weapon for someone else. Consider it my first gift to you. I hope it can unleash a brilliance that surpasses Teigu in your hands."
"Then, Big Sister, does it have a name?"
"Five Weapons of the War God · heavenly halberd."
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