Damn It, Quacks!

Inside the training hall, the children dispersed in awe and confusion. The clamor gradually faded, leaving only echoes in the empty space.

Lin Tao stared straight at Chen Fan.

"Chen Fan." His voice trembled slightly with excitement as he spoke. "How did you do it? Had you... practiced the Five Elements Stance before?"

Chen Fan calmly shook his head.

"No."

Chen Fan spoke evenly.

"I watched you demonstrate it once, Instructor, and remembered it."

Remembered it just like that?

Those simple words made Lin Tao's breathing grow a little more heated.

"Come with me!"

Lin Tao took a deep breath, grabbed Chen Fan by the wrist, and strode toward the top floor of the teaching building.

As Lin Tao pulled him along, Chen Fan felt a little pain in his wrist and frowned slightly, but obediently followed him nonetheless.

The principal's office, East Sea Martial Arts Elementary School.

Li Guangming, an elderly man with gold-rimmed glasses and a refined air, was reviewing the teaching plan for the new school year with a cup of hot tea in hand.

He liked this peace. The world of Martial Dao was full of killing, but education should begin like a spring rain, quietly nourishing all it touched.

Bang!

The office door flew open, and the tremendous noise made the teacup in Li Guangming's hand shake.

He looked up with a frown and saw Lin Tao, the Martial Dao class instructor, standing in the doorway with excitement written all over his face and an expressionless child by the hand.

A trace of surprise flashed across Li Guangming's face.

He had brought a student to see him on the first day of school?

That was unlike Lin Tao.

"Principal Li!"

Lin Tao had even forgotten the basic courtesy of knocking. He rushed to the desk in three strides, his voice brimming with excitement.

"We've got a genius! A real genius has appeared at East Sea Martial Arts Elementary School!"

Li Guangming adjusted his glasses and set his teacup down steadily, a hint of surprise on his face. "Lin Tao, calm down. What genius?"

"Five minutes!" Lin Tao held up five fingers, gesturing excitedly. "He only watched me demonstrate the Five Elements Stance once, and in less than five minutes, he sensed his own qi and blood! He's reached the beginner level in the Five Elements Stance!"

"What?"

Li Guangming's refined face froze instantly. His first reaction was that it was absurd.

"Lin Tao, are you too tired today? Are you seeing things? Sensing qi and blood in five minutes? The last genius in East Sea City with a record like that was the one thirty years ago..."

He broke off abruptly, his gaze finally falling on Chen Fan, who had stood quietly beside Lin Tao from beginning to end.

He remembered.

"I remember this child. I've read his file."

"Chen Fan, right?"

Memories surfaced in Li Guangming's mind.

As the child of frontline martial artists, Chen Fan was somewhat special, so Li Guangming remembered him.

"His file said... his foundational aptitude was rated mediocre, and he also showed signs of autism."

"The file is definitely wrong!" Lin Tao spoke with absolute certainty, leaving no room for doubt. "I suspect there was a problem with his original aptitude test!"

"Think about it, Principal Li. He was only three when his parents took him for the test! A three-year-old's foundational aptitude hasn't fully developed, and their meridians and acupoints are still in a state of chaos. How could a test result from that age count?"

Although technology had now advanced to the point where people could travel across the galaxy, nothing was ever one hundred percent certain. There had been people whose foundational aptitude was judged mediocre when they were tested as children.

But who had later become powerful martial artists.

In Lin Tao's view, Chen Fan was just such a case!

Li Guangming was caught up in Lin Tao's excitement and realized the gravity of the matter.

If what Lin Tao said was true...

Then a genius who should have been held in the palm of their hands had been held back for five whole years by an erroneous diagnosis!

He rose from behind his spacious desk, his expression serious.

"Come here, child."

He walked over to an intricately designed machine in the corner of the office and switched it on.

It was the latest model of foundational aptitude tester, equipment found only in the principal's office. Its accuracy was far beyond that of the machines in ordinary hospitals on the market.

Li Guangming's voice softened. "Put your hand on it. Don't be afraid."

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Fan did as he was told and pressed his small palm against the cold metal plate.

"Bzz!!"

The machine gave a faint hum, and a soft blue beam rose from the metal plate. It swept over Chen Fan's arm like flowing water, traveling upward until it covered his entire body.

Several seconds later, streams of data flickered wildly across the light screen on the side of the machine before finally coming to a stop.

A line of dazzling, eye-catching golden text appeared.

[Overall Martial Dao foundational aptitude rating: A-grade!]

[Potential assessment: Extremely high!]

The office instantly fell deathly silent.

Li Guangming and Lin Tao, two men well accustomed to storms, stared fixedly at the glaring A-grade on the light screen. Even their breathing stopped.

A-grade!

In the Federation's Martial Dao Talent assessment system, a C-grade was enough to qualify someone to enter the Martial Dao, while a B-grade was one in a hundred. As for A-grade...

In a small city like East Sea City, such people were absolutely as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns!

If Li Guangming remembered correctly, even East Sea City's current Guardian Envoy had apparently received only an A-grade foundational aptitude rating back then!

The next second.

Slap!

Li Guangming slammed his palm on the desk, his refined face flushed bright red with intense excitement and anger.

"Quacks! A bunch of good-for-nothings! Quacks!"

He trembled all over with rage, pointing at the A-grade assessment and then at Chen Fan. "A-grade talent! They actually diagnosed a genius with A-grade talent as having poor foundational aptitude? And autism too? Autism my ass!"

"If he'd been discovered a few years later, they would have ruined a future Guardian Envoy!"

Lin Tao, too, clenched both fists, his chest heaving violently.

He looked at Chen Fan, his eyes full of lingering fear and relief.

As the school's principal and Martial Dao class instructor, they naturally didn't want to see a promising young talent go unnoticed.

Fortunately!

Fortunately, he had met him today!

Li Guangming paced back and forth in the office.

"No!" He stopped abruptly and made a decision. "A genius like this absolutely can't waste time in third grade!"

He looked at Lin Tao and spoke seriously.

"Besides... if an A-grade genius attends class with a group of children who've only just started, he'll shatter every other child's confidence. That won't be good for anyone!"

"Lin Tao, go to the academic affairs office and take care of the paperwork at once!"

An unprecedented light shone in Li Guangming's eyes. He pointed at Chen Fan and spoke each word deliberately.

"Have him promoted straight to fourth grade! No! Fourth grade isn't enough either!"

He pondered for a moment and made an even bolder decision.

"Put him straight into Grade Four Class One! Let him cultivate with Teacher Wang's advanced class!"