Five Elements Swordplay Perfected! Qi and Blood at 80 Calories!
The principal's office.
The atmosphere was heavy as lead.
After listening to the Old Principal's calm account, Wei Tianlong's face instantly drained of color, leaving him filled with shock and incomprehension.
He hurried a step forward, his voice sharp with urgency.
"Principal, please reconsider! Chen Fan... he's only nine! If we pull up the seedlings to make them grow, what if we damage his foundation or make him arrogant and spoiled? Then we... we'll be sinners of the Jiangnan Region!"
Behind the desk, the Old Principal, who had been resting with his eyes closed the whole time, merely opened them slowly.
His eyes seemed to have seen through the passage of ages and the turning of the stars as they settled calmly on Wei Tianlong.
That single look lodged every further word of protest in Wei Tianlong's throat, and he could not utter another syllable.
"Tianlong, ordinary principles apply to ordinary talents."
The Old Principal's voice was not loud, but it carried an overwhelming, unquestionable force as it echoed through the silent office.
"But Chen Fan... is not ordinary."
He rose from behind the broad Redwood Desk and walked slowly to the enormous floor-to-ceiling window. Standing with his hands behind his back, he gazed as though through the clouds at the grand, austere campus below.
"Geniuses have a path of their own."
"Penning a young eagle up with a flock of chicks isn't protection. It's killing it."
The Old Principal paused, a trace of distant reflection entering his voice.
"We shouldn't restrict his steps. We should do everything we can to pave the road ahead and let him run to his heart's content. We old fellows need only watch from behind and see... just what kind of miracle he can create."
His words struck Wei Tianlong's heart like a great bronze bell.
He understood.
He fully understood the principal's resolve.
It was no passing whim, but a great gamble... staking Jiangnan No. 1 High School's century-old reputation and a lifetime's experience!
The Old Principal turned around. There was no trace of hesitation left in his profound eyes, only unwavering resolve.
"Notify Feng Lie."
"For this month, suspend all assessments and rankings for everyone else in the Prodigy Class. His sole task is to observe, record, and meet all of Chen Fan's cultivation needs."
"Remember, meet every need, and do not interfere in any way!"
In cultivation, time was the cheapest thing of all.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside the Prodigy Class's martial dao training hall, the atmosphere was stifling to the extreme.
The twenty-four gifted youths were like windup madmen, cultivating frantically in their respective areas.
Sweat soaked their training clothes, and their aching muscles and surging qi and blood nearly drove them to faint, but not one of them stopped.
Yet whenever their gazes inadvertently swept over the calm figure in the center of the hall, a profound sense of helplessness and despair would show in their eyes despite themselves.
That gulf had not narrowed in the slightest despite their frantic pursuit.
Instead, it had widened into an impassable chasm... one vast enough to swallow all light.
Over the past month, Chen Fan had transformed into a precision machine that knew nothing but cultivation.
At eighteen bottles a week, he had consumed the enormous resource of seventy-two Primary Qi-Blood Potions in total. With his terrifying absorption rate of eighty percent, he had swallowed them like a whale, steadily converting them into the purest, most condensed Stars Qi and Blood.
His swordplay, too, had undergone an earth-shaking transformation through his tedious, arduous training day after day.
He had gone from the beginner stage to minor mastery in one night.
From minor to major mastery, he had taken ten days.
Within his sword's momentum, the five elements turned with ever greater harmony and ease.
Five utterly distinct Sword Intents intertwined perfectly in his hands, coming to him as readily as a casual gesture, without the slightest hitch.
Today was the final day of the wager.
In the center of the hall, Chen Fan held an Alloy Practice Sword, his eyes half closed as he practiced the five most basic movements over and over.
Suddenly, the ordinary iron longsword in his hand shuddered violently, giving a clear hum as though it could no longer bear the strain!
The sword momentum around him abruptly changed!
The Five Elements Sword Intent, which had been revolving without end, seemed to find a perfect point of balance at that moment. It was no longer a simple cycle, but had reached the Chaos Realm, where the elements generated and overcame one another, and creation and destruction followed his will!
He casually thrust forward.
There was no target, no enemy.
It was just such an ordinary thrust.
At the sword's tip, a barely perceptible glimmer of five-colored light flickered before quietly fading into nothingness, as though that one thrust contained the ultimate truth of the world's creation.
His Five Elements Fist Intent at the pinnacle realm had fused completely with his swordplay.
"Five Elements Swordplay," perfected!
Crack.
A soft sound rang out.
Feng Lie, who had stood guard to the side like a statue, was once again deeply shaken by the sight before him after a month of numbness.
As he watched that perfectly natural thrust, so simple and true, the cigar in his mouth slipped silently free and broke in two.
"That little brat... he actually did it!"
Feng Lie could not help muttering to himself.
He had thought it would be no easy matter for Chen Fan to bring Five Elements Swordplay to perfection in a single month.
After all, the further one progressed in martial arts, the harder they became.
But to his surprise... Chen Fan had done it all the same.
The entire Martial Dao Arena was deathly silent.
The twenty-three so-called Prodigies had even stopped breathing.
They looked at the small, slender figure standing in the center of the hall with his sword lowered, like mortals gazing up at a god walking the mortal world.
The invisible pressure kept them from feeling even a trace of jealousy, leaving only bewilderment and awe that sank into their bones.
"Heh... heh heh..."
Feng Lie recovered from his extreme shock, and a feverish look took its place.
He slowly raised a hand and pointed a thick finger at the massive, intricate Comprehensive Testing System in the center of the hall, his voice hoarse and excited.
"One month, seventy-two Primary Qi-Blood Potions, and a sword art at the level of perfection..."
"Chen Fan!"
"Let me see just what you've become!"
Under the deathly silent gaze of everyone present, Chen Fan's expression did not change in the slightest.
A test?
"Perfect. I want to see how much I've improved this month too!"
Chen Fan smiled faintly. Over the past month, he had spent all his time on Five Elements Swordplay. As for his qi and blood... he could feel that it had improved somewhat.
But Chen Fan himself did not know exactly how much it had improved. He would have to see the testing machine's results.
He calmly returned the practice sword to the weapon rack and then walked, step by step, toward the cold testing machine.
His small, slender figure stood in stark contrast to the mountain-heavy atmosphere around him.
The Prodigies below the platform stared fixedly at Chen Fan's back.
In a corner, Qin Wuyue, who had been sitting cross-legged like an ice sculpture the whole time, slowly opened her eyes.
Her cool gaze passed over the rigid faces and settled precisely on the testing machine's dark screen.
A month ago, they had been evenly matched.
A month later, she wanted to know which of them had advanced faster.
Chen Fan reached the testing machine.
He raised his hand and gently pressed his still somewhat youthful palm against the cold metal testing plate.
The next second.
Hum!
The screen lit up abruptly!
A crimson number began surging upward with unprecedented ferocity!
60.0!
65.0!
70.0!
The number's ascent did not slow in the slightest as it smashed through one barrier after another that the other Prodigies considered nearly insurmountable!
When the number easily surpassed Chen Fan's record of 73.2 calories from a month ago, gasps rang out across the hall.
Yet this was only the beginning.
Without losing any momentum, the number continued its frantic climb at a speed visible to the naked eye.
75.0!
76.0!
77.0!
The instant the number passed 79 calories, Qin Wuyue's pupils abruptly contracted in the corner!
Finally, under the gazes of the nearly suffocating onlookers, the wildly jumping number jolted to a stop and settled into focus.
A scarlet number entered everyone's view.
80!
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
"This... fucking..."
Feng Lie's eyes went round, almost bulging from their sockets.
He had expected it to be high, but he had never imagined it would be this outrageously high!
One month!
From 73.2 calories to 80!
At that moment, the attention of everyone present silently shifted to Qin Wuyue.
She remained seated cross-legged, her face as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice.
But her hand, gripping her sword hilt so tightly that every knuckle had turned white, betrayed the turbulent waves of shock that had long been churning within her.
No one knew that she too had cultivated with frantic intensity over the past month, forcibly raising her qi and blood from 75.2 calories to the terrifying level of 79.1.
She had thought that was already divine speed.
She had thought she was still the frontrunner, riding far ahead of everyone else.
But she had never expected that the figure who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with her had, before she knew it... left her completely behind.
Qin Wuyue slowly rose to her feet.
For the first time, the aloofness that froze the world for a thousand miles was gone from her cool eyes. In its place burned a flame fiercer than any before, blazing like magma.
It was fighting spirit!
"Chen Fan, I want to fight you!"