# 1022
Chapter 1023: Border Defense Company
Lin Qiye sat atop the sheer cliff, witnessing Su Yuan's leap from the mountaintop with his own eyes. Instead of stopping her, he simply sighed with a helpless smile.
"This pair of siblings... they're quite rare."
He murmured softly, and a gust of wind caught Su Yuan's body, gently lowering her to the ground.
Hearing the last name, Su Zhe, who had been lying on the snow, snapped his eyes open, disbelief filling his gaze.
"Su Yuan? How is that possible?"
As Su Yuan's biological brother, no one understood better than him how formidable his sister was. From the start, he had been convinced that this seven-day training wouldn't be difficult for Su Yuan... even if she couldn't take first place, there was no way she'd be eliminated on the second day.
But her name had simply appeared on the elimination list.
Under the starry night sky, a girl wrapped in a down jacket walked slowly through the wind and snow.
Her boots trudged through the snow and stopped beside him. Su Yuan glanced down at him and extended a hand with an expressionless face.
"Hey, can you get up?"
"I'm not 'hey,' I'm your brother..." Su Zhe couldn't help but quip. He asked in confusion, "Didn't you already cross over? Why did you come back?"
"I got lost." Su Yuan replied calmly.
Su Zhe: ...
Su Yuan grabbed Su Zhe's wrist with one hand and easily pulled him up from the ground.
"I say, sis, you didn't specially come back to keep your brother company, did you?" Su Zhe blinked.
"? Who would specially come back to keep you company, you weirdo." Su Yuan shot him a look. "I told you, I got lost."
"...Then what about the Night Watch? Didn't you always want to become one, to protect others?"
"It's just a title, nothing that important." Su Yuan glanced at Su Zhe, then quickly turned her head away. "Anyway, I've learned everything I needed to these past few months. Even without the cloak and badge, I can protect the people I want to protect.
Besides..."
Su Yuan paused, glancing at the figure quietly sitting cross-legged atop the sheer cliff. "I feel like... there might still be a turning point."
Confusion flickered in Su Zhe's eyes.
On the snow-covered ground in the distance, humming vehicles raced over, their bright headlights shining on the Su siblings, causing them to squint simultaneously.
The vehicles stopped beside them, and an instructor stepped out, holding a list, and spoke calmly:
"Su Zhe and Su Yuan, you've been eliminated. Follow me."
The Su siblings exchanged glances and helplessly followed the instructor into the vehicle.
The door closed. Su Zhe sat by the window, utterly exhausted beyond compare.
He turned, about to say something, only to see Su Yuan gazing through the window at the recruits stumbling forward along the cliff face, lost in thought.
Su Zhe's lips pressed together tightly.
"Instructor, where are we going? Are we being sent back tonight?" Su Zhe couldn't help but ask. "Could we wait until the seven-day training ends? We don't need food or lodging—let us at least watch the Night Watch oath ceremony in person, okay?"
"Sent back?" The instructor raised an eyebrow, smiling. "Who said anything about sending you back?"
Su Zhe and Su Yuan both froze.
"Being eliminated from the tail end only means you're out of this extreme crossing expedition. It doesn't mean the seven days of training are over." The instructor spoke unhurriedly. "Over the next four days, you'll go to a new location to continue your training."
Hearing these words, a gleam appeared in Su Yuan's eyes.
"A new place? Where?"
"On the western border of Great Xia, Kayushi 019 Border Defense Company."
...
The sheer cliff.
Lu Baoyou braced himself and climbed to the highest point of the cliff. White breath misted from his mouth, quickly crystallizing into frost on the night plateau.
He glanced back downward. At this moment, there were no other figures on the cliff face. Those recruits who had fallen behind him had already been eliminated. Below was pitch black and deathly silent, like a hopeless abyss with no bottom.
Beside him, a figure draped in a deep crimson cloak rose slowly.
Lin Qiye brushed the snow off his body, walked up to him, and spoke calmly:
"You shouldn't have been ranked where you are, Lu Baoyou."
Lu Baoyou kept his head lowered, silent.
"If you had listened to my advice before the first climb and stopped to rest for a while, you would have been ahead of everyone now." Lin Qiye paused. "But your pride and arrogance made you miss this opportunity, and it nearly sent you to your doom."
"I..."
"I know you're strong. The power coiled within you and your remarkable willpower give you every reason to be confident and proud... but excessive arrogance and conceit will get you killed.
This time, you managed to climb out of the abyss relying on your own strength and luck, but what about next time?
If you can't control your pride, one day, both you and your companions will die because of it."
Lu Baoyou's mouth, which had been opening, slowly shut. He didn't argue with Lin Qiye. Instead, he stood there in silence for a long moment before walking away alone.
...
Dawn.
A dozen vehicles drove across the barren land. The pale white of dawn tore through the darkness, and on the horizon, the outlines of several buildings emerged faintly.
They were small buildings painted white with red roofs, not particularly new but very neat. The walls outside the buildings rose high, and on the stone monument at the gate, several bright red characters were carved:
— Kayushi 019 Border Defense Company.
The vehicles paused at the gate, and after identity verification, they slowly drove in, bringing the eliminated recruits.
Su Yuan and Su Zhe stepped out of the vehicle and stood in formation under the instructors' guidance. A rugged man in camouflage walked out of the building. After exchanging a few words with the instructors, he turned his gaze to these eighty recruits.
"So these are the temporary border defense volunteers from above?" The man said in surprise. "They're all so young? And they have a military bearing... Hey, which military region are you all from? Why would you want to come to such a remote place as volunteers?"
"Classified." The instructor smiled mysteriously. "For the next few days, they're in your hands. Don't be polite with them—use them however you like."
"Alright, I understand."
Soon, the instructors got into the vehicles and drove away under the confused gazes of the recruits.
The man walked up to them, his gaze sweeping across the group:
"At ease."
"Attention!"
Seeing the recruits form a neat line, the man nodded with satisfaction and spoke:
"For the next four days, you will participate as volunteers in border defense life on the western border of Great Xia. On behalf of Kayushi 019 Border Defense Company, I welcome your arrival."