225 Encounter

After a while, Leon seemed to have returned to his normal self and apologized to everyone and offered the palace guards some praise. They had done well in his absence. 

Afterward, he turned his attention to Elder Evergreen and flashed him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, you had to see something unsightly." 

"No matter. On the contrary, I got to see something interesting." Elder Evergreen waved it off with a simple hand gesture. 

In some ways, Elder Evergreen felt the boy was similar to him, except he wasn't as extreme. Perhaps, it was the hot-bloodedness of youths that caused such extremity. 

However, he also followed the principle that a drop of water should be returned with a gushing spring, and blood debts must be repaid a hundredfold. 

Leon smiled wryly while scratching his sideburns. "Something interesting, huh? I suppose to don't usually see such human gore often down here."

"Not that." Elder Evergreen shook his head and corrected him. "I'm talking about your right arm. It's unbelievable how powerful the human flesh can be."

Leon smiled wryly. As he continues to advance his mastery over the [Black Turtle Heavenly Guard] technique, it would only continue to grow stronger. He cannot imagine how they would react then.

"However, it seems like it is only limited to your right arm, right? The rest of your body doesn't seem to be as powerful." Elder Evergreen added.

"For now."

Leon nodded before Lilith attracted his attention when his right was suddenly lifted. She did not dwell on the previous matter and resumed focus on his right arm like she wanted to understand the secret behind its power.

"What are you doing?" Leon asked.

"Hm? Ahem, I was just wondering how your right arm is so powerful." Lilith responded with curiosity. After all, the beasts were known for their powerful bodies, but hers wasn't as powerful as Leon's right arm even though she was training in a body cultivation method.

Realizing something, Leon looked around. The palace guards all had their attention on him. They had not gotten over their initial shock of the scene of him blocking a sword with his arm. It was like the headless corpse on the ground did not exist.

"It seems you are also all curious how I got my right arm to be so powerful," Leon said to the palace guards as they all nodded like pecking ducks. 

"Yes, Your Highness, we are all very curious!"

"Are you going to share your secret?"

"Yeah, I'm also lopsided, but I don't think—"

Everyone responded with anticipation, hoping to find out more, but the last line immediately made Leon's face turn black.

Although the palace guard had immediately kept mum, he had said enough for all the men to understand what he was intending to say. 

There was a trend that says that if a man was lopsided then it meant that he…

The palace guards all nodded heavily at his words, but after their prince was gone, they all began cursing the one that mentioned 'lopsided' while throwing kicks and punches at him.

"Look at what you did, you bastard!"

Pow! Pow! Pow! 

"I didn't mean it that way…" The palace guard wanted to cry. He had called upon an unexpected disaster for himself. Is this what it meant by loose lips sinks ships?

"Then what did you mean exactly?!" 

Pow! Pow!

The palace guards were still angry and continued their barrage.

"Bastard, even if you fap until you are dry, your arm still wouldn't be as strong as the prince's arm!"

Right after that line was said, the palace guard that said it, realized how misleading it was and panicked. 

"I mean…"

He wanted to correct himself, but it was too late.

Leon and the other two with him in the distance still managed to hear it. His face darkened even further and quickened his steps while thinking, 'The hell's that supposed to mean?! That they couldn't fap as much as him!? Dammit, this is one big misunderstanding!'

He didn't want to stick around, lest he continues to become the butt of their jokes. If he tried to explain, he would only appear guilty.

At the same time, he made a mental note to quickly refine the rest of his body to the initial success stage. 

He did not want to be seen as 'lopsided'. It would only invite misunderstands if word spread within the Royal Palace. Those maids did not seem to like him already. He did not want his image to suffer any more blows.

"What does fap mean?" Lilith asked innocently as she faced Leon.

Leon felt his lips twitched as he became depressed.

"Haha…" Elder Evergreen began to chuckle. Clearly, the Old Treant was amused by what was going on.

Lilith was surprised to hear the Old Treant's raspy laugh. Did she say something funny? She looked at Leon quizzically.

"It's… when you play with yourself…" 

Leon tried to explain as vaguely as possible. At the same time, he eyed the elder with a warning look. Elder Evergreen stifled his laughter in response, but he still drew Lilith's suspicion.

Playing by yourself doesn't sound all that fun. What's so funny about it?"

"It's not fun, not fun at all… Don't dwell on it. Let's head back to the elder's dwelling. There's something I want to talk about."

Leon shifted the topic. 

Seeing Leon was unwilling to explain, Lilith reluctantly nodded.

The palace guard that got pummeled black and blue only suffered superficial wounds after his armor was stripped and beaten. 

The other palace guards were not actually serious in trying to harm him. They had all been feeling tensed the past few days and needed something to vent on. He just happened to be that something.

If the pummeled palace guard knew the real reason he was beaten, he would have cried injustice.

…

With the tension between kingdoms at the eastern borders and the unknown beast situation at the western frontier, manpower had been tight. 

As such, the general marquis had begun to make use of the enlisted students. It was unreasonable to through them on the frontline when they had yet to complete their military training, thus he had placed them in charge of logistics, carrying the necessary supplies between the western frontier and eastern borders.

Along the east main road, just west of Azure Verdant Plains, this particular stretch of road was currently being passed by a fleet of military trucks with the loaded supplies. 

There were about 200 student soldiers within this entourage with a few veteran soldiers guiding them. Among the 200 students, some were from Crawford University.

Benjamin Farley has had a very miserable experience while he was in the training camp. Due to his relatively 'thicker' physique, he had always been dead last in physical training and assessments. 

It made him depressed when the more privileged young nobles and misses were allowed to be exempt from military service after their parents pulled some strings to get them out, while he was still stuck here along with the other students from a common background.

To make matters worse, his instructor would pick on him by making him do extra training as punishment for always ending up in the last place. This is to motivate him to work harder but it is nothing short of hell. 

When he is stressed, he would eat and when training is the source of his stress, the harder he trains, the more he would eat. It was a vicious cycle.

But while he was practicing the breathing technique granted to everyone under this vicious cycle, his body had undergone a strange transformation. He had grown fatter, but he was also much stronger, physically. 

When he tenses his muscles, all his fat would contract and transform into a well-toned body with defining lines.

As a result of this change, he had steadily improved from dead last to be the forerunner of his group. 

At this moment, he was driving the leading military truck, while Commander Eugene sat in the passenger seat with his eyes closed.

The road ahead was flat and smooth, but the truck suddenly took a dip and stalled, unable to move forward. Eugene's eyes snapped open due to the sudden bump.

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure. I seemed to have run over a big pothole?" Benjamin said with doubt. He did not see any big pothole.

Commander Eugene was about to call another student on the back of the truck to hop off and check when the truck suddenly sunk deeper into the ground.

When the leading truck had stopped, the following trucks also stopped not far behind it. The added pressure placed the weak ground on the verge of collapse. 

"Stop!" 

Commander Eugene reacted quickly and roared to the back with his head out from the side window. The driver and passenger in the second still truck glanced at each other dumbly. 

'But we've already stopped?'

"Move back!"

Eugene continued to issue his orders.

The road was weak. They had to take a little detour off the road around it. 

Unfortunately, when Eugene gave the order for the rest to follow the second truck around while they free the first truck from the ditch, something bad happened. 

The ground next to the main road was even weaker!

When the second truck drove over that area, not only did the entire ground collapse, the truck fell through the hollow ground underneath.

At the same time, there were sounds of startled cries and surprises underneath.

"Ahh!"

"What the fuck!" 

"What is that?!"

"It's a fucking truck!"