He even said he would do his best on the exams and try to get into the same university as Zhao Rui.

His brother was so well-behaved it made Zhao Rui wonder if Tian Yaru had been mistaken.

But he was in the Great Northwest, too far away to do anything directly. He could only find time to call his brother more often and remind him of a few things.

After hanging up, Zhao Rui looked at the sun. It was gradually getting warmer; spring had arrived.

More than ten days of the allotted month had already passed.

The soldiers under his command were training extremely hard.

However, not many of them were exceptionally talented.

However, Zhao Rui had achieved Mastery in the Hundred Schools Martial Arts. His insight was incredibly sharp and his understanding of Martial Arts profound. In this day and age, perhaps no one could compare to him, save for a master like Elder Ge, for whom to know one art was to know them all.

Therefore, he had specifically tailored a unique Cultivation regimen for each person, based on everything from their physical condition to their comprehension.

This allowed every one of them to practice this particular Martial Art in the most optimal way.

In just half a month, more than a third of them had already achieved initial success.

His interest piqued, Zhao Rui once had ten soldiers who had reached initial success in the All-Encompassing Thunder Technique form a Combined Attack Formation to spar with him.

He discovered that when the ten-man squad attacked together, each individual could exert five times their normal strength.

This was far more powerful than simply adding their strengths together.

’I’ll have to pass this on to the Qingcheng Disciples later!’

The thought had already formed in Zhao Rui’s mind. This was a great Martial Art for guarding one’s home and sect.

The only drawback was that the battlefield’s belligerent aura was too strong, deviating from the Daoist School’s principles of serenity and inaction.

The soldiers were progressing at a divine speed, and Zhao Rui was quite pleased.

For the next ten days or so, in addition to guiding the soldiers in improving their individual combat power, Zhao Rui also had them train in the Combined Attack Skill.

This was the fundamental reason this Martial Art had been chosen by the military.

Of course, besides his official duties, Zhao Rui also took the opportunity to benefit himself. He used the rest periods to copy the soldiers’ original Martial Arts.

From the several hundred men, although most of what he copied were standard military Martial Arts he already had, he still managed to sift out five minor, privately-held Martial Arts.

It was a small but welcome gain.

A month isn’t a long time, and it passed in a flash.

Soon, the day of the military camp’s Martial Dao grand competition arrived.

This was a competition organized by the military command specifically to assess the results of the training.

"Instructor, rest assured! We, the Assault Battalion, will defend our honor!"

The soldiers’ morale was high. In just one short month, half of them had achieved initial success, and most of the rest had at least mastered the basics. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

These results were definitely something to be proud of.

Zhao Rui wasn’t obsessed with winning or losing this kind of competition; as long as the soldiers’ Martial Arts improved, that was all that mattered.

On the day of the competition, Zhao Rui, dressed in his military uniform, stood at the very front of the formation with the other Grandmasters.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

Behind them, the massive throng of soldiers stood in solemn formation. Perhaps because they all cultivated the same Cultivation Technique, the moment they shouted the slogan, the army’s Evil Qi instantly became incredibly dense.

Its intensity was so great that even the Grandmasters standing at the front felt a strange pressure.

"What an imposing air!"

On the high platform, the various military leaders were all surprised and delighted.

They hadn’t expected a mere few thousand men to possess such a formidable presence.

If there were tens of thousands, how incredible would that be?

"Soldiers, I’ve seen your morale, and it is excellent! ...

In the upcoming competition, I hope you can all maintain this spirit and perfectly showcase the results of your recent training."

The army commander scanned the soldiers and officers below the platform, gave a rousing opening speech, and then declared the start of the competition.

Having been an officer for several months, Zhao Rui now played the part convincingly. As soon as the commander finished speaking, he ordered his soldiers to run off the field and await orders at their designated positions.

Once the soldiers were in position, Xu Shaolei went on stage to announce the rules of the competition.

The competition was simple, testing three aspects. The first was small-group combat power, with squads of five.

The second was large-group combat power, with companies of one hundred men fighting against a Grandmaster to test their overall combat effectiveness.

The third was Support combat power. This also involved a group of one hundred men, but this time they had to support their instructor—a Grandmaster—in a fight against the Chief Instructor, Xu Wenlei.

This final test was designed to see if, under extreme circumstances, they could use the Combined Attack Skill to support an expert and defeat a superior high-level opponent.

The competition events were announced on the spot; none of the battalions had received any advance notice.

After hearing the events, the instructors were all dumbfounded.

Why, after all this, did they have to get in the ring too?

And against a Dharma Realm expert, no less! What was there to test? They’d just get instantly defeated the moment they stepped up!

Unfortunately, what was done was done. An order from a superior couldn’t be changed, so they could only hurry and think about how to assign personnel for the three events.

Although they had taught these soldiers for a month, it had *only* been a month. How could they possibly have a deep understanding of them?

They had mostly just taught the material and left it at that—giving a little extra guidance to the talented ones and simply urging the less talented to practice harder.

That was all.

Being asked to select people now was truly putting them in a difficult spot. After some thought, they had no choice but to let the battalion commanders, who were familiar with the troops, do the picking.

That certainly saved them a lot of trouble.

On the platform, the military command officials watched the Grandmasters’ actions below and couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

They had organized this event not only to have the soldiers learn the All-Encompassing Thunder Technique ahead of schedule, but also for another purpose: to select supervising instructors for the other divisions.

These instructors would lead the other Grandmasters and be responsible for training an entire division of soldiers.

But seeing the Grandmasters below acting like ’hands-off managers,’ they couldn’t help but shake their heads.

Just as everyone was feeling disappointed, a deputy commander pointed to a battalion camp on the east side and said, "What’s that Xiaozhao up to?"

His words instantly drew everyone’s attention.