After using cheats, I became the strongest Beast Tamer

"According to intelligence, the target is going to attend military training."

"During this military training, they will embark on a long-distance expedition in the wilderness."

Bits of intelligence were delivered to this room through various channels.

Under the chandelier, a group of intelligence officers sat in place.

On the other side of the room, in three rows of kneeling cushions, Beast Tamers knelt, dressed in black robes and wearing red and white striped masks.

In the central seat of honor, Chi Xue lounged in his chair and casually asked, "Have you found out their military training route yet?"

"We have. These people of Great Xia hid it very well and even prepared three different routes, setting up decoy paths. But according to our investigation, one route has frequent clearing signs – it should be the one through Red Rock Forest."

Chi Xue frowned, but soon his features relaxed, "Prepare for all three routes, but focus on Red Rock Forest.

These targets are all students from Jiuzhou University, with high assassination values.

But the most valuable of all is Chen Xing; the higher-ups have specifically instructed that he must be killed."

"I don't care how you do it, but I can decide that whoever brings me his head will get to keep all the rewards for the deed. I won't take a single dime."

Hearing this, the Beast Tamers seated in the room were visibly excited.

Suddenly, a thunderous explosion resounded overhead, and the ceiling was blown off.

Blinding sunlight poured into the hall.

Many in the room raised their hands to shield their eyes from the light.

Laughter came from the sky, "Who would have thought that we'd flush out a rat's nest."

Almost simultaneously with the voice, a fierce wind roared from above, and intense red light descended like the sun falling down.

The violent wind howled, instantly sweeping hot waves across the entire room.

Looking up at the figure in red robes in the sky, Chi Xue's face turned pale, and without another word, he summoned a Beast Taming creature to shield him, while his body rapidly blurred...

Boom!!!

An intense explosion rang in his ears, lingering for a long time.

Chi Xue sat on the ground with a thud, sensing that the ace Beast Taming creature he had summoned was dead.

Luckily, he had managed to save his own life, thanks to learning an "Innate Skill" for fatal transference.

It allowed him to swap places with any one of his Beast Taming creatures at the moment he suffered a fatal injury.

Though limited by distance, a hundred kilometers were enough to transport him into the wild.

He had already hidden another Beast Taming creature in the wilderness, ready for the switch. The other creature used for the switch must also be gone now.

Thinking this, Chi Xue's face twisted in anger,

Which incompetent fool led the Jin Ye Guard of Great Xia here, and with a Red-Clothed Commander no less?

Damnit... Will the Dark Fire branch I've toiled over for over a decade in Longbei City be wiped out just like that?

After this incident, his own family would no longer trust him upon his return.

Resources were limited within the family, and everyone was competing.

Once you lose favor, rising again is extraordinarily difficult; everyone would trample you further down.

No, he must find a way... to cover up this mistake.

The higher-ups value this genius of Great Xia greatly; perhaps he could redeem himself with a successful assassination.

...

"One rat escaped; I'll give chase," someone said.

"No need, let that rat stay. If it weren't for his rise to power, it wouldn't have been so easy to catch so many rats all at once," a person on the left said with a light laugh.

"Oh?"

The person on the right pondered for a moment and then understood.

A light chuckle was emitted as well.

A soldier flourishes, a general prospers.

Placing the right person in the right position can sometimes have a more significant impact than one might imagine.

"Commandant, we have found some documents," a member of the Jin Ye Guard gathered the scattered documents, some of which were destroyed, but some survived.

To the left stood the Red-Clothed Commander, dressed in a red cloak with gold dragon and phoenix patterns on the sleeves and collar, a blue belt around his waist, and an iron helmet on his head said indifferently, "Pack them all and bring them back for safekeeping."

"Sir, there are some orders here... they were preparing to attack this year's military training team from Jiuzhou University."

"Oh? It seems that we have also solved a problem for Principal Yan. Pack up the stuff and let's go to Jiuzhou University for a cup of tea."

...

Early the next morning, Chen Xing and Chen Lingya hurried to the school's drill ground after a quick breakfast.

The area around the field was packed with upperclassmen who came to enjoy the show.

This military training was also very novel to them; they didn't have such a thing during their freshman year.

Ah, truly envious of the current juniors who get to enjoy what we missed out on.

On the field, each class was divided into squads.

Chen Xing found his own class.

He stood in line with his classmates.

On the stage was the president of Jiuzhou University delivering a speech. This was actually the first time Chen Xing had seen the president of Jiuzhou University. The president's name was Li Yunfeng, and rumors said he had been firmly in his position for a full hundred years.

There have been a total of eight presidents in the history of Jiuzhou University, and Li Yunfeng's tenure was the longest.

In the center of the rostrum, wearing a white Sun Yat-sen suit, with silver-gray hair combed neatly, he spoke with a calm and forceful voice, enunciating every word with clarity.

After ten minutes, the brief speech ended.

Li Yunfeng declared the first military training officially underway.

One by one, the military trucks that were pre-arranged started to open their rear compartments in an orderly fashion.

Under the guidance of the counselors, each class got in line to board the trucks.

There was limited space in the back, with seats only available along the outer edge against the vehicle's sides; inside, people had to sit on the floor.

Through gaps in the railings, it was possible to see buildings growing more sparse until only an endless plain was visible in the distance.

The red-brown plain with sandy soil was dotted with sparse vegetation, which gradually increased.

They passed through a foggy area where thick fog reduced visibility to a mere few feet.

After emerging from the fog, another two hours passed and finally, the trucks stopped in front of a forested area.

Calling it a forest might be a stretch; it was actually a grove of withered trees.

The trees were sparsely distributed, with many of them wilted.

The arrival of the vehicles inevitably disturbed the original inhabitants of the forest—the Scorched Tail Monkeys.

A troop of N30 Fire Attribute communal creatures.

These Scorched Tail Monkeys were about one and a half meters tall, with long arms and tails, swinging rapidly through the branches.

It seemed they might have seen humans before and knew humans were dangerous, so after distancing themselves, they hung far away, vigilantly watching the newcomers.

Chen Xing and the others slowly got off the trucks.

It took two trucks to transport all the students of Chen Xing's class.

At this point, some people noticed that only their class had arrived here; the other classes' trucks had split off along the way to other starting points.

Zhao Guangming, who had disembarked from the co-driver's seat, clapped his hands to ensure everyone's attention was on him before he spoke, "Students, from here on, you'll have to walk the path yourselves."

"You have maps in your backpacks, and every so often on the route, there will be conspicuous signs. How you proceed is up to you. This military training has a time limit, at most half a month.

If you haven't reached the endpoint in half a month, you'll be considered to have failed, and you'll have to retake the training next year with the incoming freshmen. You wouldn't want to retake it with the new students, right?"

After finishing, Zhao Guangming got back on the truck, and the two military vehicles returned the way they came, leaving behind ninety-eight students.