Upon hearing this, Qianye had a rough understanding of the Red Scorpion’s model.
Each warrior had their own score, and each combat battalion also possessed scores at this level. Completing missions would earn points, which could be exchanged for various equipment and supplies. The headquarters of the Red Scorpion Legion only provided the most basic supplies, while any additional benefits had to be earned by the combat battalions themselves through accumulating points.
Within the Red Scorpion Legion, the differences between each combat battalion could be quite significant, just like the difference between the Tiger Scorpion and the Blood Scorpion. This was not just a contest of individual soldier quality but also a comparison of commanders’ abilities.
The Red Scorpion’s model was very popular in the Empire, and many legions, especially special forces, were fond of adopting this management method.
Nan Bati led Qianye into the Tiger Scorpion barracks and showed him to his dormitory. “This will be your place. We don’t have many people here, so it’s quite spacious. If you need anything, go to Lao Bai, who’s in charge of logistics. Get a good rest tonight; tomorrow, your rookie life begins!”
Rookie, Qianye repeated silently in his heart. He now knew what being a rookie truly meant.
In the Red Scorpion Legion, rookies were a special kind of existence.
Although every legion had new recruits or rookies, the Red Scorpion stood out uniquely. In the Red Scorpion, newly joined young warriors spent their first two years as rookies. After those two years, they advanced to Young Scorpions. Only then did they become true members of the Red Scorpion, capable of taking on tasks independently.
Following the Young Scorpions came the Black Scorpions, Red Scorpions, and eventually, the Scorpion King.
On one hand, rookies in the Red Scorpion had almost no status because they were rookies. When facing veterans, they were the ones being scolded and ordered around. But on the other hand, their status was also unique.
There was an unwritten rule in the Red Scorpion Legion: when faced with a certain death situation on the battlefield, rookies were the first to retreat. Next were the veterans, with officers covering the rear. In any situation, the lives of rookies were the highest priority. The Red Scorpion had written this rule in blood, with a historical example where a squad of over a hundred perished, but two rookies successfully escaped.
As Nan Bati said, starting from the next day, Qianye experienced the difference of a rookie’s life.
In the following months, Qianye only participated in a few missions, spending the rest of the time in training. Continuously cultivating the Art of War was the top priority. Additionally, he needed to master dozens of different subjects, including driving almost all models of vehicles and airships in the Empire.
Furthermore, there was specialized training for the use of some special equipment. Qianye also learned many things that the Empire kept secret, including politics, economics, and some true history that had been removed from official records.
For example, the Netherworld Training Camp.
The true backer of the Netherworld Training Camp was the Imperial Military Department. It and three other training camps—Dark Blossom, Sword Rain Spring, and Great Circle—were secretly established training bases by the National Security Division of the Military Department. However, the Netherworld Training Camp far surpassed the other three in both scale and training effectiveness. Even within the entire Empire, it was on par with similar institutions of the deep-rooted aristocratic clans, ranking among the top three.
The Netherworld was a very special existence, its philosophy completely different from that of ordinary military schools. It was dedicated to nurturing top-tier assassins who could survive in extreme environments. At the same time, it served as an experimental ground for a group of radical nobles to practice their theory of natural selection.
Many in the upper echelons of the Empire believed that, based on the initial awakening patterns of human primordial force, true potential could only be unlocked in life-or-death situations, leading to greater strength.
During the era of the dark races ruling the world, hundreds of races were enslaved and suppressed. The human race emerged as the winner because they had been living on the brink of death for generations, with powerful individuals continuously awakening their potential, leading the human race to prosperity.
They believed that the lower and middle classes of the Empire, especially the commoners, were too comfortable and complacent, losing their ambition. Talents were dwindling, and strong abilities were gradually fading. If this continued, the entire Great Qin Empire would decline.
To maintain glory and expand territories, the human race must constantly seek survival and evolve in crises!
This view was widely accepted in the upper echelons of the Empire, especially in the Military Department. The Netherworld Training Camp was the concentrated embodiment of this philosophy. The camp deliberately placed each trainee under the shadow of death from the start, forcing them to struggle for survival, thereby unleashing all their potential in the process.
Although the Netherworld Training Camp had a high attrition and death rate, causing some internal criticism, the trainees it produced were universally recognized as the cream of the crop.
Their actual combat power far exceeded their paper data. A graduate of the Netherworld Training Camp could easily take on three to five elite soldiers of the same level from the Imperial Army. In complex or extreme environments, the combat effectiveness of the graduates was even more astonishing.
It was said that in one practical test, a team of graduates from the three training camps completely annihilated an enhanced mountain company of the Imperial Army in a mountainous area!
After this incident, the funding for the Netherworld Training Camp increased fivefold, and the number of new recruits each year soared from thousands to the limit of twenty thousand.
Moreover, the Netherworld Training Camp would produce a truly outstanding individual every two to three decades. Such a person could single-handedly change the course of events! The existence of just one such individual was enough to justify the camp’s existence, regardless of any criticism. In the past century, four such individuals had already emerged!
Thus, the Netherworld Training Camp not only persisted but also grew stronger. The faction they represented was known as the Iron-Blooded Hawk Faction within the Empire.
Initially, most trainees who entered the Netherworld were commoners and orphans selected from various places. However, after the successful practical test, many aristocratic families began sending their collateral branches to the camp as well.
Compared to commoners and orphans, these individuals had a foundation and resources, making their chances of success much higher. Once they graduated, they could achieve a status far beyond their original position within their families. Inspired by these success stories, many collateral branch members from influential families even voluntarily requested to enter the Netherworld Training Camp.
Over the past three centuries, the Netherworld Training Camp’s reputation grew, and even high-ranking aristocratic families began selecting their direct descendants to join, hoping they would be tempered and become pillars of the family.
The Netherworld Training Camp made some adjustments, providing limited but significant care for these core members. There were two main points: ensuring their safety and exempting girls from the adult ceremony.
On the battlefield against the dark races, privileges were meaningless. The aristocratic families had more resources and conditions to help their offspring awaken their primordial force, making them the fresh forces for the future frontlines. Rights and responsibilities were always equal.
For these children from noble families, once they added the Netherworld graduation experience to their resumes, their future paths would be smooth, whether they pursued a career in the Empire or returned to their families for development.
Qianye never imagined that the Netherworld Training Camp, where he had spent nine years, had such a deep and complex background, nor did he expect its true scale to be so vast.
He was always surrounded by the hundred people in his class, rarely seeing others except during the occasional deadly exams. Even the hundred people in his class were in a constant state of depletion, replacement, and further depletion, with the longest-lasting faces in Qianye’s memory not exceeding fifteen.
That night, Qianye lay on his bed, fiddling with the last piece of “Crimson Face Blood.” Now he knew that this precious medicine was most effective during the initial stage of primordial force foundation. Once the primordial force node was ignited, its effectiveness gradually diminished. This was one of the few items he brought from the Netherworld.
Next, Qianye began learning about the Empire’s various systems. It was only then that he realized that even a rookie in the Red Scorpion Legion had very high authority, allowing them to understand the inner workings of the Netherworld Training Camp.
In the extremely hierarchical Empire, the authority of Red Scorpion warriors was even higher than that of some lower nobles.
Thus, Qianye’s first few months in the Red Scorpion were spent mostly learning and training. His daily schedule was divided into 15-minute segments, with sleep accounting for less than four hours. Even during sleep, half of the time was spent immersed in a muscle-repair solution to accelerate recovery and enhance physical fitness. This solution was a military supply distributed to special elite legionaries.
The era of “Crimson Face Blood” had passed.
Only now did Qianye realize the true scale of the Red Scorpion.
The Red Scorpion Legion officially had only ten thousand members, including over a thousand rookies. The annual dropout rate for rookies was around twenty percent. Of course, dropped-out rookies weren’t dead; they were reassigned to other legions. Even if they were dropped from the Red Scorpion, they were still considered ace-level soldiers in the main legions.
Support personnel for the ten thousand Red Scorpion members numbered as many as two hundred thousand!
This was why Qianye saw a Red Scorpion headquarters as large as a small city.
After several months, Qianye finally had a bit of personal freedom, shedding some of the greenness of a rookie. During this period of study, Qianye’s meticulousness, focus, and patience were widely recognized, with some officers even considering him nearly obsessive. Qianye could concentrate on a single task for days without distraction.
In return, Qianye scored full marks in almost every subject. The only thing holding him back was his speed in primordial force cultivation. On the comprehensive ranking list of all rookies, Qianye consistently ranked around tenth.
Once Qianye’s rookie learning period was over, Nan Bati reappeared before him.
This giant-like figure began personally overseeing Qianye’s combat and physical enhancement training, successfully imprinting the Tiger Scorpion mark on him. Qianye’s physique became increasingly robust, and if one ignored his delicate face, he appeared to be a strong, power-type warrior.
In the fourth month since joining the Red Scorpion, Qianye received a mission that he would remember for a long time.
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