Chapter 133: Truly Blind to His Talent!

"Ugh..."

After half an hour, someone finally threw up.

Wang Meng, after consuming five portions, couldn't handle the accumulated toxins anymore. He collapsed on the ground, vomiting uncontrollably.

The next moment, his face turned pale, he foamed at the mouth, and his whole body convulsed as he lay on the ground.

"Doctor! Doctor!"

Chen Fang immediately shouted.

"I see it, don't panic, it's a minor issue." The middle-aged doctor walked over to Wang Meng and grabbed him by the collar with one hand.

At that moment, Wang Meng was hunched over, looking like an oversized shrimp.

"Needles!"

The doctor gestured, and a row of silver needles flew out of his medical kit.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The silver needles pierced various points on Wang Meng's body.

As the needles were inserted, Wang Meng's body began to relax.

At the same time, the needles turned a dark purple.

"Spit!"

The middle-aged doctor slapped Wang Meng's abdomen like a ball. After being tossed and slapped several times, Wang Meng finally regained full consciousness.

"All done," the middle-aged doctor said to Liu Yongli.

"Your 'Reviving Nine Needles' is getting stronger," Liu Yongli chuckled. "He's already recovered in no time."

"The issue wasn't that serious," the doctor replied. "He's only at the first level of the Devouring Technique, so the Reviving Nine Needles is more than enough. If he were attempting the transition from the third to fourth level, even the Reviving Nine Needles wouldn't help—he'd need the Thirteen Ghost Gates Needles."

Liu Yongli nodded and turned to Wang Meng, who had just recovered. "You're done eating for today, and your training volume will be reduced accordingly."

Wang Meng was reluctant. "Commander, I want to continue training..."

"Train for what?!" Liu Yongli scolded. "A warrior should push their limits, but not to the point of killing themselves. There's a fine line between striving for breakthroughs and recklessly throwing your life away!"

"Your Devouring Technique is only at the first level. You've already hit your limit for today. If you keep pushing, you'll destroy yourself!"

"Yes, I understand." Wang Meng felt disheartened but stepped aside to rest.

At higher levels of the Devouring Technique, the ability to replenish energy from food is faster, distributing nutrients more efficiently throughout the body, which enhances resistance to various toxins.

But even then, there's still a limit. No matter how safe the food is, when eaten in excess, it eventually becomes toxic!

Since Wang Meng's Devouring Technique was only at the first level, he couldn't consume any more today, and his training would have to be scaled back.

"Ugh..."

Soon, another person couldn't take it anymore.

This time, the symptoms were different from Wang Meng's.

It wasn't poisoning, but the overabsorption of the Horse Fish Fruit's energy, which caused his body to become numb.

Even though his stomach wasn't done digesting, he continued to consume the fruit's energy, causing excess energy to wreak havoc inside his body, making his condition even worse than Wang Meng's.

"Needles!"

Once again, the middle-aged doctor turned another person into a porcupine.

"I can't take it anymore!"

"Needles!"

"Ugh!"

"I'll stick more needles!"

…

One after another, people began experiencing side effects, but with the doctor's intervention, they all recovered fairly quickly.

The only ones still eating were Chen Fang, Hu Bing, Zhang Jie, and Xia Jing.

"Hiss, they're still going?"

"This Horse Fish Fruit... it's terrifying!"

"Stop talking to me. My mouth tastes like dead fish."

"As if you don't smell like it too."

"Doctor, can you get rid of this smell on us?" Wang Meng looked at the middle-aged doctor.

"I'm a doctor, not a janitor," the middle-aged doctor said indifferently. "There's no way to get rid of the smell; it'll fade in a few days."

"You six, go for Extreme Running Training to aid digestion. After a while, you can come back for more rapid-eating training," Liu Yongli ordered the six who had stopped eating.

"Yes, sir." The six lined up and started running toward the rocky mountain terrain.

Meanwhile, the remaining four continued to eat.

Xia Jing, Chen Fang, Hu Bing, and Zhang Jie were all at the eighth grade of martial arts, with Xia Jing already at the later stage of the eighth grade.

Once warriors enter the ranks of martial artists, their appetite becomes enormous, able to consume an entire cow in one meal. These four were among the elite of the Martial Divisions, and their Devouring Technique had reached at least the second level, allowing them to keep consuming the Horse Fish Fruit and gaining points.

However, the Horse Fish Fruit was a third-tier provision, and its energy was abundant. The six who had already gone for a run had only managed to consume about eight or nine servings before reaching their limits.

"Those with only the first level of the Devouring Technique can't digest more than 100 pounds of third-tier provisions, even if they eat slowly," Liu Yongli observed after a while. "It looks like Hu Bing and Chen Fang are nearing their limits as well."

"There's no way they can finish it," the middle-aged doctor added. "The more they eat, the more their body's pathways will become paralyzed by the energy properties of the Horse Fish Fruit, and the accumulated trace toxins will increase. Those four can't possibly finish it in one day."

Hours had already passed, and Wang Meng and the others had spent over two hours eating, with none of them consuming even 100 pounds.

As time went on, it only became harder to digest.

Even if they had twelve hours, the remaining 4,000 pounds couldn't be finished by the four who were still eating.

"They'll have to finish it tomorrow," Liu Yongli nodded. "As long as they consume the food provided by the Shennong Division within three days, it's fine."

The Martial Divisions' rules stated that all provisions grown by the Shennong Division must be consumed!

This was because the area's earth energy was limited!

The Shennong Division couldn't endlessly grow food.

After three days, they would move to a new area.

One Shennong paired with ten warriors, with the earth energy gradually weakening, and yet they couldn't finish the food?

Then they should forget all other training and focus on rapid-eating training—how embarrassing!

"It looks unlikely," the middle-aged doctor said. "That shennong isn't ordinary. Look at the batch of Horse Fish Fruit he produced. There wasn't any dramatic movement, the weather didn't change, and the earth energy barely fluctuated."

"In other words, this kid has judged that the environment is still sustainable."

"There will likely be at least one more batch of provisions."

"Another batch?" Liu Yongli's face showed sympathy. "Let's hope this month's training doesn't leave them traumatized…"

Near the flying boat, Zhao Xing floated into the air with a batch of fourth-tier seeds.

"After growing the third-tier Horse Fish Fruit, the earth energy has already weakened quite a bit."

"It was rated as 'normal' before. After using my Earth Vein Consolidation, it reached 'mild fertility,' but after planting, it's now 'mild depletion.'"

"If left alone, it would take about twenty hours to recover to 'mild fertility.'"

"Planting fourth-tier provisions now would be very difficult."

Zhao Xing surveyed the rocky slope area and finally came to a conclusion.

If he wanted to grow fourth-tier provisions, he'd have to wait.

However, according to the scoring standards, the Shennongs had to produce provisions every day.

If Zhao Xing waited to plant fourth-tier provisions, he would lose points for that day.

If he didn't plant, opting to grow a second batch of second-tier provisions the next day, he wouldn't lose his base points. But that would undoubtedly affect the growth of the fourth-tier seeds.

Balancing a high-intensity challenge wasn't easy.

But Zhao Xing wasn't someone who gave up easily.

"A child makes choices; I want them all! I'll plant both fourth-tier and second-tier provisions!"

"Clouds, come!"

Zhao Xing pointed to the sky.

Using the Devouring Cloud technique, he summoned nine swirling clouds that quickly covered the entire training area.

The Devouring Cloud technique had already reached the ninth transformation!

Even the warriors noticed the change in the sky.

"Whoosh!"

Heavy rain poured down.

"He's making it rain, and such a large storm?" Chen Fang looked up at the clouds, shocked. "What's he doing? He just planted so many third-tier provisions—does this mean he can still plant within three days?!"

"Could it be that the 5,000 pounds of Horse Fish Fruit isn't the limit?" Zhang Jie was equally stunned. They had witnessed the prowess of military shennongs in regional army units.

But Zhao Xing was on another level entirely.

Planting 5,000 pounds of Horse Fish Fruit in just an hour and a half—what military shennong could achieve that?

There were too few, especially given the limited planting area.

"This guy isn't seriously going to plant more, is he…?" Xia Jing's lips turned pale. He had eaten the fastest and consumed the most.

Several hours had passed, and he had already devoured 500 pounds!

But as the rain continued to fall, Xia Jing grew more anxious.

Earlier, he had been confident that the 5,000 pounds, while pushing their limits, was also Zhao Xing's maximum output.

He knew military shennongs well, and the earth energy in this area couldn't sustain endless provision growth.

But now, Xia Jing was starting to have doubts.

Soon—

"The rain has stopped!"

The heavy downpour came quickly and ended just as fast.

"Did he realize it's impossible and give up?"

But before long—

"Whoosh!"

The heavy rain began pouring down again.

And so it went.

Starting and stopping intermittently.

Xia Jing, Chen Fang, Hu Bing, and Zhang Jie were growing more and more unsettled.

After all, it was up to the four of them to consume the provisions. The other six couldn't contribute much.

Those six had barely consumed 500 pounds combined, while the four of them had already eaten 1,800 pounds.

Though their lips were turning black and they were feeling light-headed, they hadn't reached their limits yet.

With three days to go, there was still a chance to finish it all if they paced themselves with the Devouring Technique.

"Brother, please, stop planting… huh? Grandma?" Zhang Jie stood up suddenly after finishing another Horse Fish Fruit, "Grandma, you're still alive? Have you come to see me? I'm so unfilial as a great-grandson."

Liu Yongli was shocked as Zhang Jie clung to him, crying uncontrollably.

This guy was hallucinating from the food?

"Let go, damn it! I'm not your grandma!" Liu Yongli tried shaking him off, but Zhang Jie was gripping him with surprising strength.

"Let me handle it." The middle-aged doctor jabbed a needle into the back of Zhang Jie's head.

"Sniff, sniff…" Even though he was still crying, Zhang Jie's grip gradually loosened.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Thick needles were inserted into different parts of Zhang Jie's body.

Soon, Zhang Jie snapped out of it.

His dear grandma had turned into Commander Liu Yongli.

Liu Yongli was wiping his nose, looking at him with disdain.

"Commander Liu? Is that you?" Zhang Jie asked in disbelief, stepping back, only to feel his legs wobble and almost collapse.

"A grown man, crying like a child. Damn it, you clung to me like glue!" Liu Yongli complained.

"I'm sorry, Commander!" Zhang Jie quickly apologized. "I don't know what came over me…"

"Your Devouring Technique messed up its detoxification. Instead of expelling the toxins, they reached your Jingming and Tianying points."

The middle-aged doctor pulled a needle from the back of Zhang Jie's head, then quickly extracted two more from his eyebrow area with lightning speed.

"Ah? This…" Zhang Jie realized his head was full of needles.

"Stop 'ah'-ing and go for a run."

Military doctors' orders were to be followed, so Zhang Jie started running.

But after just two steps, he tripped and fell.

"What? Why did I trip?" Zhang Jie hit his head on a rock, but not hard enough to hurt himself—he was more confused than injured.

"You can't properly coordinate your body anymore. The toxins are still affecting your nervous system, and your sense of control is off," the middle-aged doctor explained. "But keep running; after a few more falls, the toxins will flush out."

"625 pounds, not bad at all. Once you've recovered, I'll call you back for more rapid-eating training."

"Yes, sir." Zhang Jie got up and stumbled his way back toward Wang Meng and the others.

The heavy rain had stopped, but a light drizzle continued.

Zhao Xing returned to the ground and used his Earth Vein Consolidation technique to sink into the earth and assess the earth energy.

"The earth's energy, after my first batch of planting, shows fire and metal elements dominating, while earth and water are weak, and wood is suppressed. To meet my planting needs, I'll have to use water to moisten the soil and control the fire, with the metal in the earth balancing the fire's spiritual energy. This situation is quite similar to one of the problems on my civil service exam."

The solution Zhao Xing was using now was the same one he had applied during his examination for official rank.

Theory wasn't wasted; now that Zhao Xing was skilled in multiple techniques, his knowledge of different schools allowed him to combine methods and quickly find solutions.

"The pond has dried up, and there's no natural water source here, but I can still collect rainwater from the sky using my cloud technique. The heavy rain resolved the water deficiency, raising it to the same level as metal."

"Five hours—this earth energy has now reached my expectations." After observing for a while, Zhao Xing was satisfied and ended his subterranean journey, returning to the surface.

Watching Zhao Xing emerge from the earth, Zhou Ming's eyes gleamed with approval. As an evaluator, it was also his role to assess the Shennongs.

Zhou Ming was a senior shennong from the Tianshi Academy.

At first, he hadn't known what Zhao Xing was planning, but by the time Zhao Xing was halfway through, he had figured it out.

Now, after five hours of labor, the earth energy had been restored to a level of "mild fertility," and Zhou Ming admired Zhao Xing even more.

"In just five hours, he managed to restore the earth's energy—something that should have taken twenty hours. He has maximized the potential of this entire area. In our Tianshi Academy, only Shi Yong could pull that off."

Sipping his wine, Zhou Ming sighed. "And yet, we let such a talented individual slip through during the fourth selection stage, allowing the Dili Academy to pick him up!"

"Guo Jin Song and Cheng Qingming both gave him a B+ rating. Truly blind to his talent!"