清晨深绿色的山顶上，空气中弥漫着浓浓的白雾。训练基地不在山顶或山谷里，而是在山顶下一千多米的一座小山上。这座低矮的山跨越了数万平方米的平坦地形，给人一种站在坚实地面上的错觉。这些自然形成已经被军方扩大，他们在顶部建造了各种四层建筑。

These buildings shared a common characteristic: while not tall vertically, they were exceptionally long horizontally, with each building containing tens of thousands of rooms of various sizes. The high ceilings in these rooms ensured that living and working inside never felt stuffy. Spacious, bright, and clean were Hua Yan's first impressions of these modern buildings concealed within the mountains.

After a night of rest to recuperate her spirits, Hua Yan received a training task to climb and run around the mountain for ten kilometers, carrying a fifty-kilogram load on her back. The task wasn't considered complete until she finished running or climbing the entire ten kilometers. For sustenance and hydration, she only had five compressed beef biscuits and five hundred milliliters of water. There were people following her in the shadows along the way, only revealing themselves if she was in danger. They recorded her training data while also being there as a precaution.

Dressed in dark green soldier's attire and a pair of black high-top boots, standing tall on the vast mountaintop, Hua Yan felt no fear at the prospect of ten kilometers. Wearing this military uniform seemed to set her blood on fire, as she realized that there was an element of excitement running through her veins.

Old Qiao, who was specifically assigned as Hua Yan's trainer, also wore a crisp military uniform. Seeing the excitement sparkling in Hua Yan's eyes made him happy because facing arduous training, even cruel training, required this kind of boiling excitement. Often, in the split second between life and death, this passion could erupt into tremendous potential, turning danger into safety.

"Is Panda ready?" Old Qiao asked forcefully.

Hua Yan straightened her back and earnestly replied, "Panda is ready and waiting for instructions, Trainer!"

"Set off!"

With the command given, Hua Yan, a rookie, ran without hesitation, just like a seasoned veteran. Adjusting her breathing, she followed the map in her mind step by step. At first, Hua Yan had the energy to appreciate the dense variety of trees along the way, the playful small animals frolicking in the woods, the chirping birds, the vibrant grasses, and occasionally, the red flowers amidst the green.

However, after five and a half hours, Hua Yan began to feel a fiery pain in her lungs, as if something was blocking her airway. The lymph nodes in her mouth also swelled, making it difficult to breathe. Her feet and big toes also began to ache, indicating the formation of blisters.

Feeling extremely uncomfortable all over, Hua Yan dared not stop because Old Qiao had said before they set off, "During intense exercise, heart rate increases, muscles and capillaries dilate, blood flow speeds up, and rhythmic muscle contractions squeeze small veins, helping blood flow quickly back to the heart. If you stop to rest immediately, the rhythmic muscle contractions will also stop, and the large amount of blood that originally flowed into the muscles will not be able to flow back to the heart due to the muscle contractions, causing blood pressure to drop and resulting in temporary cerebral ischemia, leading to symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, paleness, and even fainting."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Therefore, Hua Yan could only rely on the voice in her heart: "Cannot collapse, cannot collapse..." She persisted. After several minutes of transitioning from jogging to walking slowly, when her breathing and heart rate were basically normal, Hua Yan collapsed on the ground regardless of whether it was dirty or not.

Several tens of minutes later, Hua Yan drank a small amount of water to quench her thirst, but the road ahead was still long, and the water was scarce! The road was still far, but her feet were too painful to bear... Hua Yan couldn't help but curse, "Damn, it's really tough!"

Biting a fresh blade of grass, Hua Yan stared at her two feet in contemplation. Blisters had definitely formed on the soles of her feet. If she really said she had blisters, she had to puncture them in time, or else it would be extremely painful. When she tried to take off her shoes just now, she felt some of the already burst blisters sticking to the soles of her shoes, and the thought of tearing them off made Hua Yan tremble all over.

"No matter how painful it is, I need to take off my shoes, puncture the blisters, and apply medicine, otherwise the recovery time will be even longer. The training tasks in the future will be intensive and difficult..." She still needed to fight alongside her own feet. At this moment, her body and willpower were all she had to rely on.

Untying her shoelaces and loosening them to the maximum, Hua Yan grabbed the soles of her shoes and slowly pulled them off, biting her lip and holding her breath as she couldn't help but groan in pain. Determined not to slacken, she forcefully removed both shoes, revealing socks stained with blood spots. Removing the socks, she was met with a pair of feet covered in blisters, the sight of which was unbearable.

From her backpack, she retrieved gauze, antiseptic ointment, a long needle, and tissues. Puncturing a blister, she used tissues to absorb the pus, peeled off the skin, and then applied the ointment. Enduring the pain, Hua Yan finally wrapped her feet like mummies. With little time left, she put her shoes back on and resumed her journey.

At first, every step was excruciatingly painful, but after persisting, her feet soon became numb. This solved a major problem for Hua Yan on the rest of the journey. Originally, she was worried that if she couldn't run, she would definitely have to camp in the wilderness for the night. However, this mountainous area was sparsely populated, but the breeding of wild animals and poisonous insects was not scarce.

As the sun began to set, Hua Yan checked the map, her position, and realized there was still half of the journey left. With a sigh, she knew she would have to sleep with the wild beasts tonight. Continuing on, she kept an eye on her surroundings, searching for a place to spend the night safely.

Old Qiao, Old Yang, and several senior military personnel over fifty sat together in a monitoring room, staring at one of the screens. On it appeared the figure of Hua Yan, who was being followed at an optimal distance, ensuring she wasn't detected. The camera captured her every move clearly.

During the segment where they saw Hua Yan puncturing her blisters, several people couldn't bear to watch and turned away. It was truly admirable for a girl who had never undergone such training to do something like this.

Old Qiao's eyes were moist, but he smiled and glanced at the other military personnel, saying, "My chosen one isn't bad, right? So, stop nagging me about that girl carrying so much stuff, and you can't confiscate her belongings either. Later, you'll have someone send her things to her room. If we let go of such a good seedling, I, Old Qiao, won't wear this military uniform anymore." Despite maintaining high standards in their training tasks, Old Qiao unconsciously wanted Hua Yan to live more comfortably.

"Old Qiao is right. There's nothing unusual about the girl's belongings, so why are you guys keeping them? Besides, she's training alone, and it won't affect the training of others at the base."