"Maybe I have a high talent?" Li Yuan's pupils shrank slightly.
He couldn't help but think of the last note on the Divine Palace data panel: "Contains a certain unawakened high-level spirit."
Li Yuan believed in the detection of the Divine Palace panel; it had never been wrong in the past year. It should be more reliable than Teacher Xu's guess.
Today, the information that Teacher Xu shared gave Li Yuan more ideas.
Previously, Li Yuan had searched many times on the virtual network but struggled due to insufficient permissions, making it hard to find much information.
"I have high talent? I possess a Spiritual Palace, maybe that's a form of talent too," Li Yuan thought quietly.
Over the past hundred years, many cultivation methods had gradually opened up. With the development of technology, a large number of martial artists had emerged in human civilization.
And those extraordinary martial artists who could fly, escape danger, and even survive nuclear explosions—who among them didn’t have a legendary growth experience?
Li Yuan didn’t think his possession of a Spiritual Palace was an exception.
"Teacher, what should I do?" Li Yuan asked proactively.
He was smart; since Teacher Xu had called him in, it surely wasn’t just for encouragement.
"Persevere," Teacher Xu said, looking at Li Yuan. He had intended to say "follow the steps" but changed his words at the last moment.
Seeing Li Yuan's surprised expression, Teacher Xu continued, "Your progress has been fast. Don’t worry too much about your unawakened martial spirit. With your grades, getting into a martial arts university will be easy."
"With normal training, in two or three years at most, your physical constitution should reach level 10. Once you become a ranked martial artist, high-level cultivation methods will no longer be a limitation for you."
"Who knows, in the future, you might create a high-level cultivation method that belongs solely to you," Teacher Xu said with a smile.
"Create a cultivation method?" Li Yuan couldn't help but ask, "Can I really do that?"
"Haha, why not?" Teacher Xu laughed. "How old are you? Being young means you have infinite possibilities."
"Even the founders of the Three Major Martial Halls, who knew they would achieve such greatness when they were young?" Teacher Xu smiled at Li Yuan. "The founders of the Three Major Martial Halls seem far away, but don’t you even have the ambition to surpass me?"
"My physical constitution is only level 19."
Li Yuan held his breath.
Ever since Teacher Xu became his martial arts class supervisor, he had always aimed to match him.
Now he realized that Teacher Xu's strength and physical constitution were as high as level 19. No wonder he was a special-grade martial arts teacher.
"Let’s talk about something practical," Teacher Xu said, looking at Li Yuan. "Although you haven’t awakened your martial spirit, your physical constitution and martial skills are quite good. Considering your family situation... I will apply to the school for a third-class scholarship for you."
"A third-class scholarship?" Li Yuan's eyes lit up.
Martial arts training requires a lot of resources.
Therefore, for students with outstanding martial arts results, the government provides various bonuses and subsidies starting from high school.
As a key provincial high school, Guanshan District First High School receives more national funding than ordinary schools.
Every time there is a large-scale unified exam, students who rank in the top hundred for martial arts results receive extra rewards.
The top fifty receive two thousand Blue Star Coins.
The top thirty receive five thousand Blue Star Coins.
The top twenty receive two additional Basic Vital Blood Elixirs on top of the previous rewards.
The top ten receive a separate martial arts training room in addition to the previous rewards.
These are the exam rewards.
Scholarships are more special; they depend on both grades and family background, and a teacher's recommendation is also needed for a chance to receive one.
Very few people get scholarships.
"You've made significant progress, but your martial arts results are still only in the top thirty. It will be quite difficult to apply for a second-class scholarship or higher," Teacher Xu said. "But there is still hope for a third-class scholarship. Of course, even if it gets approved, the amount isn’t much—only twenty thousand. Don’t think it’s too little."
"Thank you for your concern, Teacher." Li Yuan felt immensely grateful.
Twenty thousand? That’s equivalent to his aunt’s two months' salary.
The total amount of scholarships he had received since high school didn’t even add up to twenty thousand.
"Is there anything else you want me to do, Teacher?" Li Yuan asked.
"You don’t need to do anything. Just focus on your training and aim for good scores," Teacher Xu waved his hand. "Go eat. Once the application is approved, I will let you know."
"Understood." Li Yuan left, closing the door behind him as he exited.
Watching Li Yuan leave, Teacher Xu thought, "Does this kid really think I want something in return?" He shook his head with a smile.
Suddenly, his brow furrowed slightly.
The sturdy man, like an iron tower, now showed a hint of pain on his face.
"Time for more medicine?" Teacher Xu forced himself to endure the pain and walked toward the therapy room.
...
After leaving the office building.
"Great!" Li Yuan couldn't help but clench his fists, struggling to contain his joy.
Before entering the office, he had guessed something good was coming.
But he didn’t expect it to be this good.
"Did Teacher Xu not mention these things before because he thought my past performance was good but not excellent enough?" Li Yuan thought to himself. "Did my performance today meet the standards?"
Li Yuan had read many books.
In some stories, many seniors liked to promote their juniors.
But the premise was that the juniors had to be worthy of promotion.
"If one doesn’t work hard enough or isn’t excellent enough, even if an opportunity arises, they will miss it," Li Yuan silently reminded himself.
"Should I send a message in the family group?" The thought crossed Li Yuan's mind, but he quickly suppressed it.
Whoosh!
Just then, a gust of wind blew by, making Li Yuan feel even calmer.
"There's no rush."
"Teacher Xu is a special-grade teacher, but he isn’t part of the school management. Even if it gets approved, it will probably take some time," Li Yuan thought. "If it doesn’t work out, it would just be a false alarm."
"I’ll wait until the scholarship is truly approved before telling my uncle and aunt."
"Yeah, I shouldn’t mention this to other classmates either." Li Yuan had thought it through: "Teacher Xu called me in privately and let Wan Xiao leave first, so he probably doesn’t want others to know."
"If the school wants to promote it, they can do so later."
His experiences and the books he had read made Li Yuan understand that "keeping things secret leads to success, while speaking too soon leads to failure."
If something hasn’t materialized, don’t go around spreading it.
"I’ll go eat first." Li Yuan calmed himself and ran toward the cafeteria.
...
Guanshan District First High School has over six thousand students, so the cafeteria is quite large.
As soon as Li Yuan entered the cafeteria.
"Brother Yuan, over here!" Zhou Qi was already sitting at a distance, waving him over. He was with Wan Xiao, Yan Zhou, and more than ten other boys, occupying two large tables for their meal.
Seeing this, Li Yuan smiled and walked over.
The boys in the class liked to gather for meals.
"Brother Yuan, here are your two special nutrient meals." Zhou Qi pushed two specially prepared meal boxes in front of Li Yuan while eating.
"Who swiped the card? Was it Yan Zhou?" Li Yuan asked with a smile as he sat down to eat.
"I told you I’d pay you back," Yan Zhou laughed.
"The breakfasts I brought you were just hot dry noodles and egg soy milk, totaling less than fifty," Li Yuan shook his head. "These two nutrient meals cost one hundred and fifty."
Among so many boys present, the price differences in their meals were quite large.
Ordinary meals, like two meat and two vegetables or three meat and two vegetables, cost less than twenty.
Zhou Qi and Yan Zhou were eating such meals.
Because they had cultural classes in the evening and wouldn’t do intense exercise, their physical consumption was less.
But for someone like Li Yuan, who needed to do high-intensity martial arts training in the evening, ordinary meals were not enough. Over time, it would lead to a depletion of his vital energy.
He had to eat the specially prepared nutrient meals from the cafeteria, which were much more expensive.
One meal cost seventy-five, and Li Yuan needed two.
To be precise, Li Yuan’s normal daily meals cost nearly three hundred in total.
That’s at least eight thousand Blue Star Coins a month.
This still wasn’t enough to support Li Yuan’s normal training; he occasionally needed to buy various expensive vitality elixirs and supplements.
When adding in therapy costs, his monthly expenses were staggering.
This was still because Li Yuan was a student and could train in the school’s martial arts classroom. The training equipment, like cold weapons, sandbags, and practice areas for spear techniques, were all quite complete.
The results might not match those of a private martial arts training room, but the school’s martial arts classroom was free.
If he went to a regular martial arts hall in society? The rental cost was calculated by the hour, which ordinary families couldn’t afford.
Martial arts truly is a gold mine, and that’s not just talk.
This was also why Li Yuan was eager to get into one of the Five Major Martial Arts Academies.
Because, as he continued his martial arts training, it had become increasingly difficult for his uncle and aunt to support him.
...
After leaving the cafeteria.
"Brother Yuan, we’re heading to the cultural building. See you tomorrow," Zhou Qi and Yan Zhou said to Li Yuan.
"Okay." Li Yuan nodded.
In this era, students had cultural classes every morning starting from the first year of high school and practiced martial arts in the afternoon.
As for the evening? Students could choose based on the path they wanted to take.
There are only twenty-nine martial arts universities in the entire Xia Country.
In contrast, there are over a thousand cultural universities nationwide.
If one wants to enter a martial arts university, the cultural scores are factored in, accounting for 10% of the total.
If one chooses the cultural path, martial arts scores are factored in, accounting for 30% of the total.
While the decision to pursue martial arts or cultural studies is made when filling out applications, most students start to focus on one path from the first year.
Li Yuan returned to the martial arts classroom.
Looking around, there were only about ten students left in the classroom; it felt empty.
Some students from Class Three (2) chose to focus on cultural studies, which was the choice for the majority.
"Getting into a martial arts university is indeed difficult," Li Yuan thought.
Every year, there are over a million high school graduates in Jiangbei Province.
The only martial arts university, Jiangbei Martial Arts University, enrolls no more than ten thousand students each year, making up less than 1% of all examinees.
As a key provincial high school, Guanshan District First High School rarely has more than a hundred students getting into martial arts universities each year.
The sky had not yet darkened.
Most of the ten or so students in the classroom were chatting with each other.
Evening martial arts training, without a teacher’s supervision, relies entirely on self-discipline.
"Li Tianyou." Li Yuan glanced at a figure in the corner of the classroom.
The boy, about 1.8 meters tall, had a somewhat thin face and was wearing martial arts attire, quietly practicing the Basic Cultivation Method with great focus, unaffected by the chatter around him.
From the sweat dripping from his forehead, it was clear he had been practicing for a while.
"Really diligent!" Li Yuan sighed inwardly. "No wonder he’s known as the top scholar in the class."
Not wanting to disturb anyone, Li Yuan took out his spear from the weapon cabinet and chose a bright spot in the classroom to begin his spear training.
Why not practice the Basic Cultivation Method?
Because Li Yuan woke up early every day, arriving at school around three in the morning to practice the Basic Cultivation Method alone in the empty martial arts classroom for over two hours.
Then, around six, he would go to the cafeteria for breakfast before heading to the cultural classroom for self-study.
In the afternoon, he would train with everyone for another two hours.
His training was split into two to three sessions, lasting four hours, which was the best approach according to many martial arts experts.
Life evolution, the honing, recovery, and growth of the body’s bones and muscles, all take time.
Too much or too little is not good.
Li Yuan used the remaining time to focus on spear techniques and movement techniques.
Two hours later.
The school bell rang, echoing through the campus. Most of the students in the classroom had already left, and only Li Yuan continued practicing his spear techniques, with Li Tianyou still training his sword techniques.
Suddenly.
In Li Yuan’s field of vision, a message popped up that only he could see.
[Your spear technique level has increased from 36% to 37%.]
(End of Chapter)