As he had suspected, the game was chess. Inside the bag, alongside the metal pieces, was a folded sheet of paper which described the rules of the game, as well as some common tactics. It did not go into depth with strategies or particular ways to start, expecting the player to be able to come up with their own.

The introduction of this game as a competition did not surprise many people. Clearly, it was either a well known metric for testing.

The armored guards left after handing out the chess sets, only giving one last instruction: If a drum was played, then the recruits should quickly gather in the direction of the sound.

Then, the children were left to divvy up the tents and practice chess.

Immediately, the children scattered to find a tent. Usually, the people who showed up at the same place ended up claiming the same tents because they would already be familiar with each other, having lived in geographically similar areas before becoming army recruits.

Bao Gang on the other hand, would do everything he could to avoid people who had known the body which he was currently inhabiting, simply to avoid potential suspicions, as he did not have the memories of the child.

While this would not be a problem with the group he had came with, he would not show his face to people in the future if he could help it. When he had been picked up by the instructors, he was far away from where he had found the corpse, and thus did not worry about meeting people the body’s owner had known on the way to the camp, but it was entirely possible that someone from the same village had also come to the camp.

Thus, Bao Gang did not try to find a tentmate who was compatible, he simply chose a tent at random and entered it. Compatible could mean how talkative another person was, as well as having a similar training regime. A talkative tentmate would just make life either a bit less lonely, but choosing one would run the risk of becoming an annoyance.

Inside the tent were 2 bunk beds and a barrel. As he had not seen any of the kids bringing supplies, Bao Gang assumed that they would be provided by the army. But clearly, the army did not consider many things to be necessary for recruits.

Bao Gang looked in the barrel and found that it was full to the brim with water.

Just as he had inspected the water barrel, the canvas flaps of the tent were shifted and Bao Gang turned to look at the entrance.

Mason, the smaller boy, had entered his tent, as well as 2 other children--probably from the same village as Mason.

“Excuse me, but we would like to take 3 bunks of this tent. Is there anyone else who is staying in this tent,” Mason spoke in a soft voice.

A seemingly redundant question, as tents had just been chosen. Why would anyone immediately leave their tent?

The two boys with Mason realized this, and took one of bunk beds, leaving Mason to sleep on the same bunk bed as Bao Gang.

“No one else is staying in this tent, so go ahead,” Bao Gang answered.

All three of the other boys looked very tired. Mason’s face, which had originally been stained with mud, had become streaked from sweat, and the other two had flecks of mud on their faces from the exercise.

Even though they looked like they could use a shower and some sleep, they immediately pulled out books on chess, as well as their chess boards and pieces. The two boys on the other bunk played each other, but Mason just began reading through his book. While playing with his board. All three were practicing the game in order to understand the underlying principles of the game, as well as how to recognize when they can be used in the game. Whenever one of the other two boys made a move, the other would furiously look through the book for a counter to the move. While the book would not have the exact scenario as the chessboard, it might have a similar strategy as the board, such as positioning a piece such that the enemy cannot move a certain one of their own without going into check or losing a more valuable piece.

From what he could see, the other two boys were not at a very high level of play, barely better than the average player on Earth, however, neither of these boys had reached the peak of body tempering. One had was at the peak of tempered marrow, and the other had just entered invigorated blood, so neither had experienced any mental advantages due to cultivation.

If Bao Gang was playing against them, he would destroy them, because he could mentally calculate potential future moves, just like a computer could. Even so, Bao Gang introduced himself and offered to play with Mason in order to get information about the planet.

While they were playing chess on the floor of the tent, Bao Gang began to ask questions about the planet, purposefully leaving them open ended and with neutral tone.

“I’m surprised by the number of peak body tempering realm cultivators.”

By asking in this manner, Bao Gang doesn’t come off as being suspiciously uninformed, therefore giving the impression that he did not know potentially basic information about the planet.

“Bao Gang, not everyone can come from a rich family like you.”

Apparently, people on this planet had a method of raising cultivation quickly, but it required money.

“But for the poorer kids, there are more resources and also opportunity to gain status and money in the army than there are in small cities or towns. Speaking of which, why did you join the military if you come from a rich family? Most of the other rich kids would rather directly join the Angel's Justice sect instead of the military. All of the other peak body tempering children who joined the army are here because they come from military families and want to follow their parent’s path, but clearly you aren’t because you didn’t even know to call the instructors ‘sir.’”

Bao Gang was a little stumped from this question

“I come from a poor family, but I got a little lucky.”

Although he did not know how the people on this planet cultivated so quickly, he would just try to write it off as luck. He then began to look intently at the chessboard for a few minutes before finally making another move.

Mason understood that Bao Gang was a little defensive about his answer and did not ask any more questions.

Obviously, as Mason was at an even lower cultivation than the other two boys, he had not yet increased his cultivation to the point where it would help him think, therefore Bao Gang made some intentional mistakes to prolong the game.

He also asked questions about Mason’s life in order to get a better perspective of the planet. Mason constantly referred to “crimson tempering berries” as a cultivation resource, going so far as to say that body tempering realm actually had no indication of the talent of the cultivator. He also offhandedly said that he took the berries before going to bed. This was in reference to him saying that he had broken through to the next level of cultivation by the next morning.

BONG BONG BONG BONG…

A bell began tolling from somewhere to the east. Remembering the instructions of the armored soldiers, Bao Gang and the three others in the tent rushed out to a scene of chaos. The camp had previously seemed rather empty. Although there were some people walking around, it seemed that most had either been in their tent or yet to arrive at the camp. But now, the entire camp was packed full of children running and stumbling in the direction of the bell tolling. There was shrieking from children who became injured, and the ground shook like a stampede. All four of the boys were immediately squeezed apart by the crowd and had to go with the flow of people otherwise risking being injured by rushing people.

From the looks of it, there were now well into the tens of thousands of children at the camp.

Bao Gang began running towards the side of the mob in order to free himself of the crowd, but the other three boys had no such opportunity--they were constantly, inexorably pushed along with the crowd.

After reaching the fringes of the mob, the density of people was much lower and he could finally have full control over his actions without the worry of accidentally running into others. Bao Gang, remembering that the soldiers had told him to rush to the tolling bell quickly, began sprinting towards the bell as fast as his body could handle it.

He rapidly passed the people in the mob, and many who were running along the sides of the mob as well. These people had similarly high cultivation, but were still outpaced by Bao Gang.

Although the body which Bao Gang was using was not that talented, as it had not been able to handle many reconstructions, he had an advantage over them. Bao Gang did not actually need to use bodily strength to move his body, because it was moved through the God’s blood contained within, not by the muscles. Therefore, the limiting factor for Bao Gang was not muscle strength like it was for the others.

By following the sound of the bell tolls, Bao Gang passed at least 98% of the children. The bell tolls kept growing louder and louder as he got closer, and soon he burst out of foliage into a massive plain. A 50 foot tall bronze bell was levitating while being hit by a 50 foot tall giant man in crystalline armor.

Gold and silver armored men were lined up in front of the bell, and some children were lined up in front of them in an orderly fashion.

Bao Gang copied their actions and lined up as well.

After about 30 seconds, the bell stopped tolling. By this point, it looked like only those at the peak of body tempering had arrived. The mob was still far behind.

The giant man shrunk down to 20 feet and lined up among the soldiers, right in the middle of the line. His crystalline armor made him look special amongst the soldiers.

As he waited for the rest of the children to arrive, his expression went from neutral to slightly angered, and his jaw was clenched tightly.

Little by little, the plains filled up, and eventually, no more children were coming.

The man with crystalline armor began speaking in a voice which echoed out to everyone’s ears,

“Welcome to the Justice Army! You are the most talented children from your families, but this will soon change. Your new family is the Justice army, and with the exception of a few, all of you will no longer be the most talented.

I am sure you all know why you came to join the army. Not only to get more cultivation resources and training, or from a family obligation, but because you will be offered a chance to join the Angel’s Justice Sect. But from here on out, this will not be your goal, because you are no longer individual cultivators, familial cultivators, nor aspiring sect disciples, you are part of the Justice army.

We will give you everything you need to succeed, and all of you will give us back your loyalty, at least until you have left the Justice Army. Anyone who does not live up to this expectation will be punished.

As far as resources go, it will be based on the merit or talent of the individual. One way this is shown is through the army position. Craftmasters will get more resources than soldiers, leaders will get more resources than craftmasters, and even talented soldiers will get more resources than the regular ones. I hope that you will be talented in some way, for your own sake.

To become a craftmaster, you can be tested on your ability to utilize runes, create pills, or forge equipment. To become a leader, you will have to beat an inspector at chess. To become a talented soldier you will have to show that you are better at fighting than those of the same level, usually at tournaments.

Now that the information is out of the way, on to a punishment.

Only about 800 of you made it to the bell on time, so you are exempt from the punishment. The rest of you will be doing pushups. To start, everyone except the 800 will drop down and do 100 pushups.”

The giant waved his hand and 800 golden rings floated above the heads of 800 cultivators, Bao Gang included.

Everyone else began to feel a massive pressure pushing them down into the ground.

The giant began counting, “1, 2, 3, 4…”

The amount of pressure felt by a cultivator depended on cultivation, and was set so that everyone would have an equal difficulty.

All the soldiers left the line and began walking among recruits, placing a boot on the head of someone going too slow, kicking one who did not go down far enough, yelling randomly.

And the recruits just had to take it and keep going.

“99, 100”

The giant man looked even more angry, “200 more pushups!!!”

The soldiers running amongst the lines of recruits never bothered those with golden rings above their head, but glanced at them every now and then.

The treatment got even more brutal. The soldiers began pushing down to make the pushups harder, began to kick without regard for whether the form was correct or not, and gave many more glances at those with the golden rings above their head.

“199, 200. 300 more pushups!”

The treatment got even worse.

Then Bao Gang understood. He got down onto all fours, then began doing pushups. Finally, the man with the crystalline armor looked down at him, and visibly became much less angry. The other 799 children who were awkwardly standing around, looked at The expression change and where the man was looking, and saw a child with the golden ring above his head doing pushups. They too understood what the man wanted.

They also began doing pushups, and immediately, the soldiers ceased their abuse and all that was left was the sound of heavy breathing and exertion. Of course, by now no one would even attempt to cheat on their pushups.

“299, 300.

Well done, and I welcome you to the Justice Army. Here, when a family member is in trouble, we all go to help. A similar message is carried by the pushups. If a fellow soldier won’t even stoop to empathizing with you off the battlefield, how could they do the same on it? If they won’t even do pushups to gain your trust, how could they block a sword coming at you? From today on, every pushup that one of you does, all of you will do. For every achievement, the glory which one has will be shared with all of you. Get a good night’s rest and be prepared for tomorrow.”