CMWKSD -Chapter 229 Bottom Line

Night fell.

Bucket after bucket of pitch-black medicinal decoction was carried into the trainees’ tents.

Everyone was utterly exhausted in both body and mind, yet each was gripped by fear.

Honestly, at times like this, the more exhausted you were, the harder it was to fall asleep.

Now, seeing that dark, murky medicine…

The darkness of night seemed especially good at breeding negative emotions.

Someone on the verge of a breakdown cried out, “A-again?! What is this again?!”

An instructor held a specially made iron ladle the size of a head. “One ladle per person. Mouths over here!”

You could tell at once—this was straight out of Jiu Yue’s playbook.

There weren’t even bowls.

Just bring your mouth over.

Dignity? Gone.

“I’m not drinking! I’d rather die—ugh, glug glug glug…”

The instructors had suffered through the entire day as well.

Exhausted, sleepy—completely drained in body and spirit.

They really didn’t have the time or patience anymore.

Not to mention the trainees—the instructors themselves had been specially trained in advance for more than half a month.

Completely useless.

Jiu Yue always did things on a whim.

None of this had been in their advance training.

What they saw today was all new.

So the guards were far more sensible than the trainees.

They had already figured it out—once you entered this special training camp, everyone became a tiny ant in Jiu Yue’s hands.

No one could outplay Jiu Yue.

Refuse to drink?

Then force it down.

Who had the time to coax and persuade people one by one?

You come here and still think you’re the precious darling of your household?

There could only be one treasure here.

And that was Jiu Yue.

Soon after, dozens of tents—regardless of men or women—were processed like an assembly line.

Like bandits bursting into houses: several guards grabbed people, two were responsible for feeding them.

With so many tents, it didn’t take long to finish.

The efficiency was astonishing—exactly like Jiu Yue.

And then, barely a quarter of an hour later, all that remained inside the tents were rising and falling snores.

Shen Zongsheng: …

What kind of calming medicine worked this well?

Oh. Jiu Yue’s.

Only Jiu Yue’s could pull off something like this.

He turned his head to look at the few trainees inside the tent who were stuck full of needles like hedgehogs.

Shen Zongsheng could hardly believe these were the same people who used to idle about in the capital all day, teasing cats and walking dogs—the suave, debauched young lords.

Now there were only pairs of watery, glistening eyes looking at him.

And then, for some reason, Shen Zongsheng recalled how he himself had once looked at Jiu Yue with watery eyes that day.

That same tear-filled expression.

Really—whoever you looked at, you’d look deeply affectionate.

Zongsheng struggled to avert his gaze.

He shuddered, goosebumps breaking out all over.

Don’t look at him like that—seriously, it was creepy.

So he could only make idle conversation with Jiu Yue.

“Why did you needle them?”

Jiu Yue casually stuck in the last needle.

With utter nonchalance, she said, “Afraid they’ll go crazy.”

Shen Zongsheng’s face turned pale in horror.

N-no…

It couldn’t be that serious, right?

But Jiu Yue nodded firmly.

Yes. Those who could endure existed—but so did those who couldn’t.

Some people, with fragile minds, after being tormented by Jiu Yue for a few days, their chances of going mad would increase drastically.

So…

Jiu Yue had to ensure that no one went mad.

Everyone had to stay lucid while suffering her torment.

The calming medicine served the same purpose.

When people didn’t sleep well, their nerves weakened easily, illnesses became more likely—and the probability of going mad increased too.

That was why Jiu Yue instructed the instructors: after each day ended, carefully check every trainee.

Anyone who looked obviously off—send them here and let her needle them a bit.

Of course, the instructors were no exception.

Shen Zongsheng: …

Jiu Yue pinched a silver needle between her fingers and suddenly waved it in front of Shen Zongsheng.

“I think you need a needle too.”

Shen Zongsheng: !!!

He shifted his gaze, turned his head, lifted his foot, and started moving—

A crippled Shen Zongsheng used the fastest speed a cripple could possibly muster.

He practically flew out of the tent.

Why did Jiu Yue always act on sudden impulses?!

How could he possibly go mad?

He’d been on the battlefield in his teens.

He’d fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood—if he couldn’t endure this little bit of torment, how could he ever inherit his father’s grand ambition?

Jiu Yue snorted softly.

Just wait a few more days.

Later on…

From instructors to trainees, there wouldn’t be a single one who didn’t need needles.

…

“Eat!”

Basins of blood-soaked raw meat were placed on the ground.

The trainees lay sprawled on the muddy earth.

They had just been driven down from the mountains by that female demon Jiu Yue.

They’d hunted a great deal of prey.

Jiu Yue said she was letting them improve their meals.

Every one of them had been excited beyond measure.

Although the food in camp wasn’t bad, it was always the same few dishes every day.

Everyone felt their mouths had gone so bland birds could fly out of them.

Hearing they could hunt their own game to eat—they had gone all out.

Piles of prey were processed on the spot, each person impatiently bleeding and snapping necks…

No one was like they had been ten days ago when they’d first arrived.

But who would have thought—the moment the bloodletting was done, before washing, before cooking, the meat would be placed before them raw, basin by basin.

Jiu Yue grabbed a trainee by the back of the neck.

“This is the treat you hunted yourselves. Eat!”

As she spoke, she didn’t care how rank and bloody the raw meat was.

Her hand, like iron pincers, clamped onto the trainee’s neck.

She shoved his face straight into the basin.

In an instant, raw meat and blood splashed all over his face.

Seeing he wouldn’t open his mouth,

Jiu Yue clicked her tongue, reached in, grabbed a handful, pinched his jaw, lifted his head, and stuffed it straight into his mouth.

“Eat!!!”

Tears burst out instantly.

Big lads and young girls who hadn’t cried since they were seven or eight years old—

Jiu Yue treated everyone equally, without favoring anyone.

In just over ten days, big, burly men—were crying day after day.

Crying even more miserably than if their parents had died.

Jiu Yue wasn’t that bothered by blood on her hands.

But the moment she saw tears, she disgustedly flung the person’s chin away, then grabbed their clothes and wiped her hands.

Those unhurried, elegant movements—were truly pleasing to the eye.

Of course, that was only if you imagined she was just wiping her hands, and not wiping blood.

“One basin per person. If you don’t finish it, you go to the punishment chamber.”

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone moved in perfect unison.

Suppressing their nausea, they grabbed the raw meat directly from the basins.

They didn’t care if it was bloody or hairy—stuffing it desperately into their mouths.

Those who choked—just drank the raw blood beside them.

No one dared to lag even half a step behind.

Going into the punishment chamber once—was like losing half your life.

Jiu Yue was intimately familiar with every acupoint, every muscle fiber, every bone…

For a full hour, she would meticulously explain which acupoints paired with which others, what changes the body would undergo, the direction of every muscle…

What it felt like when bones were dislocated.

Once you entered the punishment chamber, everyone became nothing more than a doll in Jiu Yue’s daily life.

You could only let her arrange you at will.

Star-shaped. Human-shaped. Straight-line-shaped…

They sounded simple enough.

But more often than not, it meant your bones were dislocated, acupoints pierced with needles, and then you were forcibly bent into that shape.

You wouldn’t die, of course.

Once Jiu Yue had finished admiring her work, she would perfectly restore you.

Opposite the punishment chamber was a bronze mirror.

Whenever Jiu Yue had nothing to do, she would take that mirror out and polish it in the open space.

Polishing it while giving you a sinister smile.

So when the bronze mirror was polished to a bright sheen, you could see with perfect clarity what you had become.

Not dying, and not going mad—that was Jiu Yue’s only bottom line.