Loan for Schooling

New Era year 187, Great Xia, Dongshan Province, Bocheng.

The sky was as blue as if washed clean, and the sun was scorching. In this early September, just as school had begun, the heat and summer swelter still blanketed the entire city.

At Yan'an Seventh High School, in Martial Arts Class Six of the senior year, the classroom walls were plastered with slogans like "Improve by one point, beat a thousand people!" and "Before the universe is settled, you and I are both dark horses." The countdown board on the right side of the blackboard had already flipped to "271 days."

On the podium, the middle-aged male teacher, wearing black leather sandals, blue socks, gray dress pants, and a polo shirt, took a large gulp of tea. After spitting the tea leaves back into his mug, he continued to lecture with great fervor about the history of the New Era following the Great Cataclysm:

"In the first year of the New Era, a strange tidal phenomenon emerged in the universe, causing the entire Blue Star to undergo drastic changes. The surface area of the earth expanded several times over, plants and animals mutated wildly, and at the same time, spatial rifts connecting to other worlds kept appearing all over the planet."

"Scientists at the time discovered a peculiar energy appearing on Blue Star, which made many ancient martial arts practitioners of that era as incredibly powerful as supermen. The authorities named it Spiritual Power."

"But appearing alongside Spiritual Power were Fishmen capable of whipping up thousand-meter tsunamis, and Crimson Kunpengs with bodies two thousand five hundred meters long soaring through the sky. All sorts of incredible creatures, like those from myths, emerged from the rifts. The powerful ones among them were difficult to kill even with missiles and electromagnetic weapons, directly causing the greatest catastrophe in human history."

"At that time, the human population of Blue Star plummeted, and the entire human civilization fell into crisis. It was precisely then that our country's Flame Sage, the first Martial Saint of humanity, emerged to save the world. In a single day, he slaughtered three Emperor-level mythical creatures, propping up the crumbling edifice of human civilization."

"Since then, the martial arts cultivation methods published by the Flame Sage have laid a solid foundation for the subsequent development of martial arts civilization. Over the one hundred and eighty years of the New Era, the Federation has successively birthed six Sages, and only then has humanity managed to barely maintain a balance with the Mythical World."

Today was the first round of cultural course reviews for the senior year. Most of the students in the Martial Arts Class already knew these points, which they had memorized back in their freshman year or even for the high school entrance exams, by heart. They were somewhat distracted while listening to the lecture, and a few vain girls even took out small mirrors from their desks, secretly checking their reflections underneath.

Only the handsome youth in the last row of the classroom, listening to the bizarre words from the podium, first revealed a look of confusion and surprise, before lowering his head just like the other students, as if he too were zoning out.

After a long while, having fully digested all the memories, Li Xijun confirmed one fact:

He had transmigrated!

Heaven have mercy, before this, he had just made a fortune in the stock market and finally achieved financial freedom. He was just browsing a real estate app in his rental apartment when he inexplicably transmigrated.

And he had transmigrated into this martial arts world, into the body of someone with the same name and surname, a very similar appearance, who was also an orphan and had taken out a loan to attend school!

My thirty million!

My money!

Now, I've become a poor wretch who owes the bank hundreds of thousands!

Thinking of this, Li Xijun couldn't help but sigh inwardly. After all, the situation of the "himself" in this world was truly not great.

Just as the teacher had said earlier, this was a world belonging to martial arts. Because of the threat from the Mythical World, martial artists possessing extraordinary power were the absolute masters of human society.

The original owner, who had hoped to become a martial artist since childhood, was actually quite promising. He first got into the key No.7 Middle School, and when he first came into contact with martial arts in the first month of his freshman year, he was one of the top thirty out of over three thousand students in his grade to develop blood essence, receiving a Blood Essence Potion as a reward.

It was just a pity that while talent for martial arts cultivation was important, resources were even more important!

During the early stages of martial arts cultivation in his freshman year, the original owner was considered top-tier. But as time passed, by the second semester of his freshman year, the disadvantage of him being an orphan was laid bare.

Others could eat two-hundred-yuan high-end Nutritious Meals to replenish their energy after training, improve their cultivation efficiency through Blood Essence Potions, hire private tutors for remedial lessons, go for high-end physical therapy to fully relax their exhausted and injured bodies, and ensure they always had a perfect state for cultivation through Meditation Classes.

But the original owner could do none of these things. He could only wake up early and sleep late every day, practicing martial arts desperately, while working part-time to earn money for Nutritious Meals, trying to maintain his standing at the top of the grade.

The final result, naturally, was a failure without any suspense.

The original owner not only failed to maintain his rate of progress but also fell ill from overexerting himself. He spent several weeks recuperating in the hospital, and the money he earned from his part-time jobs wasn't even enough to cover his medical bills.

Lying on the hospital bed at the time, the original owner watched his martial arts cultivation stagnate due to hidden injuries from overtraining, and his grade ranking slipped to over 1,700th.

Thinking that his sophomore year was approaching, if he couldn't pass the screening assessment for the liberal arts and martial arts streaming at the end of the first semester of his sophomore year, he would have no connection to martial arts for the rest of his life. He would be an ordinary person who lived a mediocre life and could only wait for death when facing sudden disasters. He steeled his heart and applied for a Bet Loan for martial arts from the official bank!

The content of the Bet Loan was actually very simple:

The bank would provide the original owner with a monthly interest-free loan of twenty thousand yuan for his three years of high school, totaling 720,000 yuan.

However, those who took the Bet Loan were required to either become a martial artist or get into one of the thirty-three Martial Arts Universities in the country after three years. Otherwise, they would be forcibly assigned work as frontline personnel to fight against the Mythical World.

Although the frontline personnel here were mostly civil engineering workers at bases near the rifts of the Mythical World, doing electrical construction, maintenance, and logistics, and only a small probability involved being combat support personnel wielding blades.

Even so, as the frontline fighting against the Mythical World, the number of workers who died there every year was not small, and the level of danger was definitely among the highest.

But in order to continue his martial arts cultivation, the original owner still chose to bet everything he had.

After that, he first paid the remaining fees to repair his injuries, signed up for Meditation Classes to restore his mental state, and then bought Nutritious Meals and Blood Essence Potions to study and practice diligently. He successfully passed the liberal arts and martial arts streaming exam in his sophomore year.

By the time his senior year started, he had climbed back to the upper-middle level of 240th place in the No.7 Middle School martial arts grade.

But there was still a distance to go if he wanted to aim for the only thirty-three Martial Arts Universities in the country. After all, even as a key school, No.7 Middle School only sent about 150 to 160 people to Martial Arts Universities each year.

"Overall, if I grasp the time this year and maintain my previous level of diligence, it is quite possible to hit the admission line for a Martial Arts University. Well, as long as nothing unexpected happens!"

After accepting all the memories of the "himself" in this world, Li Xijun encouraged himself and built up his confidence.

Just then, a series of hurried and heavy footsteps suddenly appeared in the corridor. They quickly reached the door of Martial Arts Class Six, and the door was pushed open directly. Before Li Xijun could look up, he heard a voice like a booming bell:

"The math teacher for the next period and the biology teacher for the next two periods are sick, and Teacher Zhang is also sick."

After the tall and sturdy teacher finished speaking, without waiting for the history teacher on the podium to speak, he looked at the somewhat drowsy students in the class and continued:

"Everyone in the Martial Arts Class, go to the Martial Arts Classroom and practice Stance Training for an hour to clear your heads!"

"I'm going to have a quick meeting, and when I come back, I have some earth-shattering good news to tell you all!"