Covered in mud and blood, Lin Xun looked a little embarrassed, attired in rags, but few people laughed at him.
Lin Xun became famous completely because of the battle on the volcano days ago. Many people present had heard of it, so they, of course, wouldn't show their sarcasm.
Many trainees even became admirers of Lin Xun. He was nobody when he just entered the Bloodthirsty Camp. But now, he used solid facts to prove his high combat effectiveness, and ordinary people couldn't make it.
Seeing Lin Xun, Zhao Yin was in a daze and then said, "He should come back."
Bai Lingshi said, "You seem a little disappointed."
Zhao Yin said with a smile, "It's far from being disappointed. I just feel that he returned at the last moment, which seemingly doesn't deserve our attention."
Bai Lingshi asked abruptly, "Who do you think can compete for the top three in this war-zone assessment?"
Zhao Yin didn't seem to expect that Bai Lingshi would take the initiative in asking for his opinions. He felt heartened immediately and said eloquently, "It's very easy to guess since you said the top three. Three of Lee Duxing, Zhangsun Heng, you, and me, will take up the top three positions in the ranking!"
He paused for a while and then continued, "If things go smoothly, you'll be the top one. I'm confident that I'll be one of the top three among the rest people. In other words, we don't need to worry about that. It is Lee Duxing and Zhangsun Heng who really need to worry about that."
"Oh," Bai Lingshi replied without saying more.
Seeing this, Zhao Yin couldn't help feeling stunned, "Lingshi, you seem to disagree with me?"
Bai Lingshi looked at Lin Xun from afar with her bright eyes, "You neglect him."
Zhao Yin immediately revealed his disdain for Lin Xun and said with a sneer, "Lin Xun? You seem to think highly of him."
He was unconvinced and uncomfortable because Bai Lingshi set store by Lin Xun.
Bai Lingshi said, "You don't understand."
Hearing this, Zhao Yin wrinkled his brows and said, "Lingshi, I don't understand why you're so confident in him. What on earth does attract you to him?"
His voice contained a trace of jealousy at the end of his talking.
Bai Lingshi seemed to understand his meanings. She then said while shaking her head, "You misunderstood me. I'm not attracted to him. My intuitions tell me that he is qualified enough to deserve my attention."
Zhao Yin said disapprovingly, "He's so lucky that he can obtain you recognition, which quite surprises me. Anyway, I don't believe that he can compete with us for the top three."
Bai Lingshi said, "Let's wait and see the final result."
Lin Xun's return didn't cause a stir but relieved Dong Lu and Song Ling. Looking at Lin's past performances, if anything bad happened to him, they would feel a pity.
Both Shi Yu and Ning Meng could rest assured at the same time.
"Pal, why did you come back at the last moment?" asked Ning Meng discontentedly.
Lin Xun smiled bitterly while shrugging his shoulders, "I was chased by a pack of blood wasps on my way back, so I had to come back by a roundabout route."
Blood Wasps!
After looking at each other, both Shi Yu and Ning Meng burst into laughter.
As a kind of peculiar poisonous insects in the Demon-cloud Ridge, blood wasps moved fast and were good at hiding themselves, so they were difficult to be killed.
Besides, they loved moving in packs and targeting at the butts of practitioners. Once the butt was bitten, it would swell, painful and itchy. It wasn't fatal, but the feeling disgusted the practitioners.
"Come on. Let me see whether you butt is intact," with an eerie smile, Ning Meng stretched out his hand to touch Lin's butt.
Lin Xun felt disgusted and directly kicked him, "Piss off!"
Dang!
The bell rang, indicating the three-month war-zone assessment was over.
On the ground in front of Reshahar Army Camp stood only 42 trainees who had returned from the battlefield.
In other words, 195 of the 237 trainees coming for the assessment were sifted out! Such a high elimination rate was extraordinarily terrifying.
However, all the drillmasters present knew clearly that the result this time was quite good and far exceeded the results in the past.
When the bell stopped ringing, the drillmasters of the Bloodthirsty Camp and generals of the Reshahar Army gathered the trainees up, started to count the military merits up, and ruled on the result.
According to the order of return, Bai Lingshi was the first one to walk forward and hand in her storage ring used for placing the military merits.
Crash~
A great number of Totem Barbarian Tattoos with blood on them were poured out and piled up like a hill, giving off a smell of blood.
All trainees glanced sidelong at her, many of who looked surprised upon seeing so many Totem Barbarian Tattoos.
A Totem Barbarian Tattoo indicated that a Voodoo-Barbarian was killed. Since so many Totem Barbarian Tattoos were piled up, how many Voodoo-Barbarians had Bai Lingshi killed?
Several drillmasters stepped forward and began to count the military merits.
The crowd fell into silence, and all the trainees were waiting for the result. Bai Lingshi was the only one who seemed composed as if she didn't care about the result.
"1,309 military merits."
Eventually, one drillmaster reported a number, which caused an uproar. The trainees looked at her with their eyes full of surprise.
With the talent property of Starshine Eternal, the girl seemed to wear a dazzling halo, totally dwarfing the others.
"As expected, she'll definitely be the top one."
That was the thought of many trainees. They were very clear about their military merits. After a comparison with Bai, they found themselves left far behind her.
Zhao Yin was the second to hand in his military merits. After a careful count, he obtained 1,254 military merits, a little less than Bai's. But such an outstanding result still caused a stir and many discussions.
Zhao Yin revealed a restrained smile about this and walked back to Bai Lingshi, "See, my analysis isn't wrong."
Bai Lingshi was noncommittal.
Lee Duxing was the third one, and he got 1,258 ones.
Zhangsun Heng was the fourth one, and he got 1,243 ones.
So far, Zhao Yin felt proud of himself, because all the signs showed that his analysis wasn't wrong at all.
The only thing beyond his speculation was that Lee's military merits exceeded his, which made him feel a little unhappy. However, he could live with it. After all, the gap of four military merits wasn't a big deal.
"Lingshi, nothing will be changed definitely in the top three this time. You'll be in the first place; Lee Duxing gets the second place, and I rank third," said Zhao Yin with a smile.
Bai Lingshi wrinkled her eyebrows imperceptibly and said, "It's still too early to draw a conclusion since the counting work still continues."
Zhao Yin said with a nod, "You're right. Let's wait and see."
Actually, he was sneering in his heart and guessed that she was waiting for Lin's result, which made him quite uncomfortable. Did she really think Lin Xun would be a variable affecting the ranking of top three?
That was absurd!
During their talk, the counting process still went on.
"Shi Yu, 1,178 ones."
As the drillmaster announced the result, Shi Yu wasn't relaxed at all. By the contrary, he felt quite nervous, because Ning Meng's result would be announced next!
This related to the bet between them, making Shi Yu feel nervous naturally.
Ning Meng felt nervous, too. As if confronted by a formidable enemy, he held his breath and carefully looked at the Totem Barbarian Tattoos that were being counted in case one was missed.
Standing beside them, Lin Xun felt rather speechless upon seeing them in a tit-for-tat situation.
"Ning Meng, 1,179 ones!"
Shi Yu fell into a trance immediately upon hearing the result. He lost the bet to a moron for only one military merit!
Ning Meng burst into laughter and was rather high-spirited, "You toy boy, I'll wait for you to surrender 1,000 imperial golden coins to me and admit that you're inferior to me!"
Shi Yu looked quite sullen, and he really wanted to strangle Ning to death. As Ning Meng shouted it out, how could the others not know he lost the bet?
Suddenly, he noticed Lin Xun and immediately said to Ning Meng with a sneer, "Moron, Lin Xun is also part of the bet. Don't you think it's ridiculous to decide the winner at the moment?"
Ning Meng was in a daze immediately and then said with a bright smile, "Toy boy, it's certain that you have lost the bet. Don't take advantage of the others to conceal your embarrassment. Don't you feel ashamed?"
Without replying to him, Shi Yu turned his head and asked Lin Xun, "Since our results are announced, who do you think is the winner?"
Lin Xun was in a daze for a moment, and then said, "I'm not sure about that."
He wasn't really sure about that. Indeed, he had collected many Totem Barbarian Tattoos. But, to know how many military merits he exactly obtained still depended on what criterion the drillmasters used to categorize the Totem Barbarian Tattoos.
For example, the military merits for killing a Barbarian Slave beneath the eighth level were much less than that for killing a ninth-level Barbarian Slave.
As time went on, the military merits of trainees were accurately counted one after another. Except that several people got more than 1,000 ones, including Bai Lingshi, and Zhao Yin, the military merits of the rest trainees were all not up to 1,000.
Lin Xun was the last one to hand in his military merits.
Seeing Lin Xun stepping forward, Zhao Yin kindly reminded Bai Lingshi, "Well, it's his turn. Let's hope he'll be a variable."
However, his voice contained a trace of scorn.
Having glanced at Zhao, Bai Lingshi didn't say anything.
"You must win Ning Meng who is a moron; otherwise, how can I face the other trainees..."
Shi Yu didn't care whether Lin Xun could make it into the top three. Shi only hoped that Lin Xun could help him save face by winning the bet.
Ning Meng looked rather nervous and said nothing.
"Let's see if he can create a miracle this time," said Dong Lu in a soft voice.
"If he can make it into top five, I'll treat you to my precious Flickering Blue-sky Liquor," said Song Ling directly.
Dong Lu's eyes immediately brightened, Song's words roused Dong's urge to drink. Flickering Blue-sky Liquor was so precious that it couldn't be bought with even a great deal of money.
As all the people were looking forward to Lin's result, there was an accident in the counting work.
All the drillmaster responsible for counting the military merits stopped working and fixed their eyes on a torn and tattered Totem Barbarian Tattoo.
Such a scene attracted the attention of the other people present. Did the torn and tattered Totem Barbarian Tattoo bear some mysteries?