# 834
Chapter 835: Battlefield
The indoor training ground.
Basically all the recruits had woken up from their slumber, standing dazedly together, chattering noisily.
"What's the situation? Why are all the instructors still here? Weren't they all sacrificed?"
"Yeah! We all saw their bodies with our own eyes!"
"Did anyone see that Steel Sky battle? So cool! So shocking!"
"I saw it. That fake [Night Watch] squad leader was really too strong. So humans can actually reach that level?"
"No way? You don't still think that [Night Watch] squad leader is fake, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"This is obviously the instructors' test for us! They pretended the training camp was invaded by Church of the Ancient Gods members, then created a high-pressure, terrifying atmosphere, forcing us to go all out..."
"Is it all fake? But I thought Brother Ding and Brother Shen's analysis made a lot of sense. It seemed very natural, definitely not like a lie."
"Wait, did anyone see Brother Shen?"
"..."
Among the crowd, Ding Chongfeng was surrounded by confused recruits, but no matter how they pressed him, he simply kept his grim face and said nothing.
His gaze was fixed on the second-floor platform, as if searching for something.
"Qiye's back." Leaning against the railing, Cao Yuan saw Lin Qiye return from outside, clutching the empty [White Slash] blade hilt. He turned to look at Yuan Gang.
"Yeah, now we'll trouble you." Yuan Gang glanced at Lin Qiye and smiled, his eyes sweeping across the other [Night Watch] squad members. "Let's go... Let's give our new recruits a proper greeting."
...
On the second floor of the indoor training ground, seven deep crimson figures slowly walked out.
At the sight of those familiar masks, the noisy recruits simultaneously fell silent. The training ground instantly became deathly still.
Their faces held fear, confusion, excitement, calm... At this moment, most of them had already guessed the truth of the matter, but facing these masks, they were still somewhat afraid.
After all, Lin Qiye and the others' acting was too good. Their evil and terrifying image had been deeply carved into the recruits' minds.
At the sight of those masks, the recruits instinctively associated them with the images of dismemberment, dissection, and raising sinister "mysteries."
Lin Qiye looked down at the recruits with varied expressions below, then slowly lowered his head and removed that Sun Wukong mask, using his original face to smile at the many recruits on the platform.
"Let me reintroduce myself. I am the leader of [Night Watch], Lin Qiye, and also the specially invited instructor for this new recruit training camp."
Seeing Lin Qiye's true face, the recruits gasped in shock!
They never would have imagined that beneath that mask was such a young and handsome face... He looked, perhaps just three or four years older than them?
So young, yet he was already a special squad leader?
After Lin Qiye, Baili Pangpang, Cao Yuan, An Qingyu, Jialan, Jiang Er, and Shen Qingzhu also removed their masks in turn.
"卧槽！Brother Shen!"
"That's not Brother Shen?!"
"How is Brother Shen... He's an undercover?"
"This, we had absolutely no idea!"
"That said, the one who first proposed the Church of the Ancient Gods invasion, and later the one who stirred us up to go find the Church of the Ancient Gods for a decisive battle... was all Brother Shen!"
"How are all the [Night Watch] squad members so young?"
"Yeah, they seem just a little older than us."
"..."
The [Night Watch] squad members revealing their young faces, which looked about the same age as the recruits, were quite approachable after all.
"This assessment, you all performed well." Lin Qiye spoke calmly. "But in the end, until time ran out, none of you managed to shatter any mask. What that means, I think you all know clearly..."
The recruits fell silent once more.
Most of them had almost forgotten about this.
After all, when faced with a life-or-death crisis, who would still be thinking about shattering those masks to exchange for direct graduation? They were fighting just to survive.
"This isn't fair!" Among the recruits, someone spoke resentfully. "You people sent infiltrators into the recruits, misleading our thinking, spreading panic. We couldn't possibly seriously go shatter masks..."
"Is that so?" Lin Qiye looked calmly at the speaking recruit. "Your meaning is, enemies you couldn't defeat even risking your lives, you think you could beat them just by 'getting serious'?"
The recruit froze for a moment, still pressing on stubbornly. "No matter what, you did use underhanded methods like infiltrators... This is cheating!"
"Cheating?" Lin Qiye laughed coldly twice. "On a real battlefield, as long as you can achieve victory, who cares what methods you use? Infiltration and penetration are the most common surprise tactics. Do you think enemies will make agreements with you beforehand, promising not to plant infiltrators among you?
On the battlefield, if you're like this time—completely without vigilance, letting others lead you by the nose—you probably won't even know how you died."
"But this isn't a battlefield, this is a training camp! We're still just recruits..."
Hearing these words, Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed slightly, a faint pressure emanating.
"This isn't a battlefield?"
He looked back at An Qingyu, who immediately understood. She threw the heads of the three from Mingliu from the second floor. They rolled and tumbled to the ground in front of all the recruits.
The three sudden heads startled the many recruits.
"From the moment you stepped into this training camp... you were already on the battlefield." Lin Qiye pointed to the three heads, speaking slowly. "Did you think everything Instructor Shen said was fabricated?
Wrong!
Among you, there truly were three genuine members of Church of the Ancient Gods. Their purpose was to kill all of you, causing a断层 in the Night Watch's numbers, thereby dealing a severe blow to Great Xia!
I think some of you have already witnessed my battle with them. Whether it was real or fake, they themselves know clearly in their hearts."
Hearing these words, the recruits erupted into noise once more. They chattered endlessly at each other, and panic and after-the-fact fear appeared on everyone's faces.
The recruit who had been confronting Lin Qiye all along also turned pale, silently lowering his head, no longer speaking.
Lin Qiye observed everyone's reactions, then calmly continued:
"Five years ago, I was just like you, standing in this position. The instructor back then told us that stepping through that door doesn't mean you become Night Watch, because you haven't yet proven that you have the qualifications to become Night Watch...
But now, the situation is different.
Here, I want to tell you: from the moment you stepped through that door... you are Night Watch.
You cannot withdraw, you cannot turn back. Perhaps in the eyes of other Night Watch, you are recruits, are greenhorns, but when war truly comes... you are Night Watch!
And now, the reason you are gathered here is because we hope that when that moment comes, you will possess the skills and strength to survive in a brutal war!
This is the purpose of us special instructors, this is the meaning of this training camp's existence."