"So Mo Tianyi got in touch with you?"
Out on the school corridor, Zhang Yu listened to Bai Zhenzhen's account and finally gave a slight nod: "Yeah. No need to tell them the truth for now."
Bai Zhenzhen went on: "And that Boss of theirs — I keep getting a strange feeling about him."
"Remember what I told you? I tried to dig into his identity."
"According to Mo Tianyi and his lot, back in Grade One this Boss had also placed in a competition."
"I spent weeks going over it, and finally just studied every freshman competition result from the three great elite schools across the past few years. Only two people who placed could be called poor."
"But as far as I can tell, both of them have already signed contracts with White Dragon High School — there's no way they could ever get into the Top Ten universities."
Zhang Yu said: "So that means Mo Tianyi and his people got scammed?"
Bai Zhenzhen shook her head again, a strange expression on her face: "According to Mo Tianyi, this Boss signed a contract with them under the witness of the Heaven-Contract Great God. He's sworn to get into the Top Ten, and once he has the power, to bring all of them up to Layer Two with him."
"Either way, I don't understand this situation."
As the two spoke, they had already reached the training ground.
...
On the training ground.
The martial-arts teacher Lei Jun had long been waiting for the two to come for their competition crash course. Ever since Zhang Pianpian had come to Songyang High the day before, the martial-arts competition had been reopened to them, and the supplementary lessons had started up again.
Three classes a week, three thousand per week.
As far as the teacher was concerned it was already dirt cheap, but for Zhang Yu it was still a heavy burden. After paying this week's three-thousand tutoring fee, his savings dropped to just over thirty-five thousand.
On the ground now, Lei Jun was wearing a tank top with the words "Martial Arts Bring Great Use" printed across the front, seriously limbering up. Around them, besides Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, there was no other student. Because the only participants in the freshman martial-arts competition were the two of them.
Unlike the Mana Competition, where even if you didn't place you could still go see the world — on the martial-arts stage, there was a real chance a student from the three great elite schools could beat you into a cripple.
Especially for the poor. On that stage, it was entirely possible for them to be beaten into bankruptcy by students from the three great elite schools. After all, all sorts of on-site emergency costs, the hospital bills after a serious injury, and the follow-up treatment... all of it climbed exponentially with how badly you were hurt.
So once they realized they had no hope of a podium finish, the freshmen — rich and poor alike — all chose not to throw their money away on the martial-arts competition.
Right now, seeing Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen arrive, Lei Jun waved them over: "Already signed the two of you up."
Then he sent both of them a website link: "Buy insurance first today."
Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen both understood. In real combat, first principle: buy insurance first.
But after looking at the price list, the two both chose the cheapest plan.
It wasn't that they couldn't afford the premium one — the low-end plan just had better value for money. Because rather than sink money into insurance, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen would rather spend it boosting their strength and climbing higher in the competition.
Lei Jun reminded them from the side: "That plan of yours covers medical costs up to a hundred thousand at most. If you get hurt past that, you're paying out of pocket."
"In a fight, whatever you do, make sure you don't get hurt — take as little damage as possible."
Zhang Yu agreed wholeheartedly. Even first place in this martial-arts competition was only fifty thousand in prize money plus the use of an expert-level martial skill. He wasn't about to suffer a body full of wounds just to win first place, then blow a hundred-odd thousand on treatment.
Lei Jun sighed beside him: "But you two have it easy now, honestly. Back in my day weapons were allowed in these competitions. There was a referee watching, sure, but every year some student either died on the stage or dropped out drowning in debt."
"In the end one year only seven people signed up, and the old bastards finally changed the rules — no weapons."
"Now the martial-arts competition is all bare-handed. Whether you can afford the medical bills afterward is something you have to manage yourselves."
"All right, that's enough. After you buy insurance, warm up."
Once the two had finished warming up, Lei Jun beckoned them over: "The three great elite schools have immortal-arts technology we don't possess, and the money they sink in is something you can't even compare to."
"Things like Heaven Spiritual Root cultivation, the newest laboratory drugs, even augmentation surgery — all of that is just routine for them."
"I pulled some data on the top students they send to the martial-arts competition. Average physical strength grade 2 or above, average mana over 25. Add in the drugs and combat-type spiritual roots they might use during a match..."
"Their numbers will all be far above yours."
"Stronger than you, faster than you, with deeper mana reserves than you."
Just as Lei Jun was saying all this, a question suddenly rose in Zhang Yu's mind: "If the three great elite schools have such a huge advantage, how does Songyang actually score any wins in the sports competitions? What's the trick? How is Wang Hai so impressive?"
On the other side, Lei Jun went on: "...but real combat is never about the one with the bigger numbers winning — otherwise there'd be no point in practical exams."
Lei Jun said, dead serious: "So for the rest of this time, you need to get used to fighting people stronger than you, and learn how to do everything you can to avoid getting hurt."
With that, a vast, imposing aura slowly welled up from Lei Jun and surged at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen.
"To give you more practical training time, from today onward the two of you will come at me together."
"I'll keep my strength and speed at the level of a grade-2 body, and my mana at 25 units, and fight you with that."
A moment later, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had darted left and right, and with a whoosh charged at Lei Jun.
Bang!
With a sound of impact, Lei Jun's two hands split left and right to block Bai Zhenzhen's kick and Zhang Yu's palm.
The next instant the three figures wove and crisscrossed, bursting into a high-speed battle across the training ground.
But Zhang Yu could not feel as though he and Bai Zhenzhen were jointly attacking Lei Jun at all. Lei Jun's real combat experience was already unfathomable, and with the strength and speed he held right now far greater than theirs, he could always effortlessly dissolve their offenses, strike their openings, even cut the connection between him and Bai Zhenzhen.
This made Zhang Yu feel as though he were facing Lei Jun's pressure all alone.
Zhang Yu couldn't help sighing inwardly: "In the martial-arts competition, am I going to be fighting opponents with numbers higher than mine like this?"
Zhang Yu realized he'd been a little arrogant before. With a trump card like the level-10 Boundless Cloud Hands needing to stay hidden, the difficulties he'd face in the martial-arts competition were far greater than he'd originally estimated.
A moment later, with a boom, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen were sent flying off one after another.
And compared to the two gasping for air, Lei Jun at this moment was neither red in the face nor out of breath, looking as though he'd merely gone for a stroll.
Lei Jun said: "Rest five minutes, then we continue."
Bai Zhenzhen thought to herself: "Old Lei really is strong. He saw through every move I made. Just how many martial skills does he know?"
Zhang Yu thought: "Old Lei seems to be Dao Heart level 10, mana 100 points, physical strength grade 10 too, and he's cultivated at least a dozen or so martial skills to level 10. He's topped out his Qi Refining."
"Then why hasn't he formed his foundation?"
Right away he asked one of the questions burning in him: "Teacher Lei, you're still in Qi Refining — you haven't built a foundation?"
At that, Lei Jun's face went dark: "Foundation Building isn't that easy."
Seeing the curious looks on the two, Lei Jun sighed, then said casually: "Building a foundation requires an Foundation-Building Qualification Certificate. Golden Core needs a Golden Core certificate, Nascent Soul has its own certification too. Realm breakthrough — you think that's something you can just do whenever you feel like it?"
"Building a foundation without a certificate is a criminal offense. The Eight Great Gods and the Ten Great Sects hand down the death penalty for it, and the Ten Great Sects have always policed it strictly."
"You can only sit for the Foundation-Building Qualification Certificate once you're in university."
"If you haven't gotten the certificate by the time you graduate, you're out of chances for life."
Recalling his own university days, a shadow crept into Lei Jun's eyes.
He thought of the years he'd spent trying for the Foundation certificate, which happened to line up exactly with the period when the planned admission quota for the Foundation-Building Qualification Certificate was being cut.
He remembered that in just those few short years, even on the spiritual-root front alone, successful applicants had been viciously bid from 'Human Spiritual Root' all the way up to 'Heaven Spiritual Root' — grinding until he'd been driven to complete despair.
Instead, back home in Songyang on Layer One, as long as he worked and cultivated twenty-four hours a day, the days where he could pay down his loan... he actually found that much easier.
Lei Jun spoke from the heart: "Whether you pass the Foundation Building certificate — the difference is enormous."
"Without a foundation, ten years of university life is just a dream. You can't stay up there, and in the end you have to come back to Layer One of Kunxu."
Turning his head to look at Bai Zhenzhen and Zhang Yu, he thought to himself: "Treasure the easy days of high school now. By the time you get into university, you'll look back and miss just how relaxed this was."
A few minutes later, Lei Jun said: "Enough rest. Up you go."
The next instant the three figures clashed together once more.
After today's lesson ended, Zhang Yu returned to the unfinished building to keep cultivating the Heavenly Martial Heart-Tempering Art.
This art could both raise his Dao Heart and train his physical strength. Its effect on him was comprehensive, and it was his key cultivation focus this period.
Especially because the Heavenly Martial Heart-Tempering Art encompassed nine martial skills — fist, leg, palm, and so on — giving him a deeper grasp of both the fundamentals and real combat of all kinds of martial arts.
And so in the days that followed, Zhang Yu studied and cultivated during the day, and took Lei Jun's crash course together with Bai Zhenzhen.
Before he knew it, eleven days had passed.
...
That night, in the unfinished building.
As Zhang Yu finished the final form of the Heavenly Martial Heart-Tempering Art, he finally pushed the technique to level 10.
At that moment, not only did the nine martial skills — fist, leg, palm — seem to sink into his heart by instinct, but the combat reasoning contained in that Heavenly Martial Will came and went as he pleased, filling him with endless fighting spirit and courage while keeping him calm and collected, never slipping into blind hot-bloodedness or impulse.
"No wonder this is a heart method made for battle — especially this level-10 heart-method effect..."
As Zhang Yu's gaze sharpened, everything around him seemed to slow down by a beat.
Even the motion of raising his own hand looked as though it had fallen into slow motion.
It wasn't that everything had truly become slower — it was the level-10 effect of the Heavenly Martial Heart-Tempering Art, sending his focus and concentration skyrocketing in an instant, so that whatever he looked at gave the illusion of being in slow motion.