Favor

Back home, Chu Kuang and Chu Yu trained martial arts together for another two hours.

When they were exhausted, he entered the Tian Heng Star Realm and played ten ranked matches before going to sleep.

The next morning, Chu Kuang arrived at the classroom early, only to hear his classmates discussing something animatedly.

Before he could ask what was happening, Zhang Ming walked over, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "Did you see the news? There was a fight last night."

Chu Kuang naturally knew what he was talking about and immediately asked, "Is it about the alien attack?"

"Yeah, last night our Tian Yuan C Star was attacked over a hundred times simultaneously. One of them was right here in our Tian Heng City. Do you know who was attacked?"

Zhang Ming spoke rapidly, his face filled with shock. "It was Ye Qingfeng from our Third Middle School! They say Ye Qingfeng has already mastered Intermediate Internal and External Martial Arts and was about to cultivate the Adamantine Body."

"Many graduates from Third-Tier Martial Universities wouldn't necessarily be able to beat him in a real fight. No wonder he became a thorn in the side of the aliens."

As he said this, Zhang Ming showed a hint of envy.

His talent for martial arts wasn't high, but luckily his family was well-off, and he was already preparing to pursue the path of Gene Evolution.

However, even if he broke through the Mortal Transformation Realm on this path, he would only be a weak, blank slate Mortal Transformation Realm cultivator, with an extremely low chance of breaking through to the Transcendent Realm in the future.

In comparison, Ye Qingfeng had an unlimited future. He would likely cultivate to the Transcendent Realm, and perhaps even have a small chance of breaking through to the Divine Treasury Realm. Those were truly peerless powerhouses.

Chu Kuang's focus, however, was not on this. He had already guessed that Ye Qingfeng was the one attacked.

He wore a solemn expression and couldn't help but ask, "Over a hundred precise decapitation strikes simultaneously. The aliens really went all out. Were any of them successfully assassinated?"

Hearing this, Zhang Ming's expression turned serious. "One person died, and three were severely injured. The one who died had an exceptional root bone from Tian Xing City. At the time, most of his Sky Patrol Guard were reassigned to protect someone else."

"As a result, the other person wasn't attacked, but he was ambushed and killed by an alien powerhouse. They say the Security Department Director of Tian Xing City has already been dismissed."

Chu Kuang's brow furrowed. The fact that this person was suddenly attacked and killed meant either the aliens changed their plan at the last minute, or there was an intelligence failure.

Whichever it was, it indicated that humanity's defenses were not truly flawless.

After all, a thief can break in for a thousand days, but a guard can't be vigilant for a thousand days.

"Losing only one person is already quite good."

Zhang Ming wasn't too concerned about this. He continued, "According to the news, the Transcendent alien lifeforms on our Tian Yuan C Star suffered heavy losses. Things should calm down for a while."

"And with the aliens suffering such great losses, perhaps we can seize the opportunity to completely sweep away the Dark Domain."

Chu Kuang shook his head, not agreeing with this assessment.

A difference of one Life Level was almost an absolute crushing blow.

In the Dark Domain, the outcome of battles was always determined by the highest-tier powerhouses.

In the Dark Domain of Tian Yuan C Star, even if countless Transcendent alien lifeforms died, as long as those alien Divine Treasury Realm powerhouses were still alive, humanity could never completely clear out this Level 2 Dark Domain.

Chu Kuang estimated that it would be difficult to determine a winner in the Dark Domain of Tian Yuan C Star in the short term.

This kind of Level 2 Dark Domain was awkward. It was a small Level 2 Dark Domain, and humanity's true prodigies were unwilling to break through to the Divine Treasury Realm within it. Because once they broke through, they could never leave.

Those who were willing to break through in this Level 2 Dark Domain were basically Divine Treasury Realm cultivators whose potential was exhausted, and most of them were Pseudo Divine Treasury Realm cultivators who had barely broken through.

Anyone with the hope of progressing further in the Divine Treasury Realm would definitely enter a medium or large Level 2 Dark Domain, or directly go to a Stellar Level Level 3 Dark Domain to break through.

After all, Divine Treasury Realm powerhouses were still Tier 3 lifeforms and could freely enter and exit Level 3 Dark Domains, not being trapped in Level 2 Dark Domains.

But relying solely on Pseudo Divine Treasury Realm cultivators, only two or three would be needed to contend with alien Divine Treasury Realm cultivators. However, to kill them, more than ten times the number would be required.

Trapping ten times the number of Pseudo Divine Treasury Realm cultivators in a Level 2 Dark Domain was not a worthwhile trade.

In fact, the best way to clear out a Level 2 Dark Domain was to have a Transcendent Young Human King. Such a prodigy with Human King potential could fight against Divine Treasury Realm cultivators and safely come out after the fight.

However, such prodigies were too rare. The human race in the Tian Yuan Galaxy had only been developing for a short hundred years, and there hadn't been any prodigies of this level yet.

In fact, let alone Young Human Kings who could fight against Divine Treasury Realm cultivators, even Transcendent prodigies who could barely contend with Pseudo Divine Treasury Realm cultivators were not common in the Tian Yuan Galaxy.

But these were still far from Chu Kuang. What he needed to do now was to cultivate the Iron Armor Technique to Great Accomplishment as quickly as possible.

Not long after, the homeroom teacher, Xu Yue, arrived at the office. He also mentioned the attack, reminding the students to be careful, and then called Chu Kuang into the office alone.

"I heard you entered the top three thousand?"

"Yes, I entered the three-thousandth spot the day before yesterday."

Chu Kuang nodded, not surprised that Xu Yue knew this.

The Tian Heng ranked matches were originally prepared for high school students in Tian Heng City, so Xu Yue, as his homeroom teacher, naturally received firsthand information.

Seeing this, Xu Yue's face showed a hint of anticipation. "Then you took leave yesterday. Did you use that 100,000 Federal Coin to go into seclusion and break through your realm?"

Chu Kuang did not hide anything and directly replied, "I bought a Source Energy Potion and perfected my Basic Spear Technique."

"You've got some nerve. Are you planning to aim for the top one thousand?"

Xu Yue said, unable to suppress a smile.

He knew Chu Kuang's intentions. Generally, precious items like Source Energy Potions were best saved for perfecting Basic Internal Martial Arts or for when breaking through to perfect an advanced external martial art.

Using it on the Basic Spear Technique was actually a bit wasteful. Chu Kuang's actions were most likely aimed at rapidly increasing his strength to break into the top one thousand in the ranked matches, and then obtaining the prize money and a higher loan.

This was a bit risky, but if successful, it could create a snowball effect, rapidly improving Chu Kuang's strength.

With this thought, Xu Yue took out an application form and handed it to Chu Kuang. "Since you have aspirations, then sign this application."

Chu Kuang took the application and glanced at it, a look of pleasant surprise appearing on his face. It turned out to be an application for a Third-Class Scholarship.

Even just a Third-Class Scholarship was astonishing to Chu Kuang.

The standard for a Third-Class Scholarship for first-year students was three thousand Federal Coins per month.

This amount might not seem like much, but it added up to thirty-six thousand Federal Coins annually. While it wasn't enough to buy Source Energy Potions, it was more than sufficient to cover the basic cultivation needs of an ordinary high school student.

In fact, Lin Shuyao and Jiang Feng from his class only received Third-Class Scholarships.

The top students in other classes, those ranked in the top ten, received bursaries, only one thousand Federal Coins per month. In the eyes of the Federation's higher-ups, these individuals lacked the potential to warrant a reward, merely deserving of some assistance.

"Logically speaking, one cannot apply for a Third-Class Scholarship if they haven't mastered their internal and external martial arts in their first year."

"However, your situation is special. The difficulty of perfecting basic cultivation techniques is significantly higher than mastering beginner-level techniques."

After having Chu Kuang sign the application form, Xu Yue smiled and said, "I'll apply for you, but whether it gets approved still depends on the school leadership's nod."

Chu Kuang smiled slightly, knowing that since Xu Yue had spoken, there shouldn't be any problem getting the Third-Class Scholarship approved.

He then stood up and saluted Xu Yue, saying, "Teacher Xu, I won't forget your kindness."

"Don't be so sentimental."

Xu Yue chuckled, put away the application form, and then said, "There's only a little over a month left until the final exams. Everyone is in the final sprint phase now, with almost daily breakthroughs in external martial arts."

"You don't have much time left. You need to seize this window and quickly break into the top one thousand. If you delay too long, the difficulty of entering the top one thousand will likely increase significantly."

"I understand, but breaking into the top one thousand in the Tian Heng rankings won't be too difficult for me."

Chu Kuang nodded. Not to mention other classes and schools, within their own Class Seven of the first year, several people were already nearing the limit of their external martial arts mastery.

Within a month at the latest, at least three more students in the class would achieve mastery in external martial arts, and the competition for the top one thousand spots in the rankings would definitely become much fiercer.

However, Chu Kuang wasn't worried. After perfecting his Basic Spear Technique and external martial arts, his Gold-Splitting Spear and Iron Armor Technique were in a rapid development phase. Within ten days at the latest, both advanced martial arts would be mastered.

Coupled with the attribute bonuses, it would be ridiculous if he still couldn't break into the top one thousand.

"It's good that you're confident."

Xu Yue smiled and patted his shoulder, saying, "Try not to go out during this period. The alien races have suffered a great loss recently and might seek revenge."

"I understand."

Chu Kuang nodded, then stood up and left the office.

The school's process was quick. In just half a day, Chu Kuang's scholarship for the month was disbursed. The full three thousand in scholarship money significantly replenished his wallet.

"With a three thousand monthly scholarship, plus the six hundred per day from tutoring, I'll have a fixed income of twenty-one thousand per month from now on."

Chu Kuang calculated his future income, his martial arts movements becoming lighter and more energetic.

Twenty-one thousand Federal Coins per month might not be much for the scions of martial artist families, but for a commoner like Chu Kuang, it was a considerable sum.

After all, the combined annual income of Father Chu and Mother Chu was only a little over twenty thousand Federal Coins.

"I owe Xu Yue and Lin Shuyao a debt of gratitude."

A thought flashed through Chu Kuang's mind, knowing that Lin Shuyao had helped him a lot.

Most students only charged a hundred Federal Coins per class for tutoring, but she had offered three times that rate.

This was definitely not because he was a good teacher; after all, in this era, it wasn't difficult to find a good tutor if one was willing to pay.

If it weren't for Lin Shuyao, even if he taught two classes a day, he would only earn six thousand a month, and other parents would surely have made him teach the full two sessions.

Thinking of this, Chu Kuang's gaze drifted towards Lin Shuyao, who was practicing internal martial arts in the distance, before slowly returning.

"Never mind, I'll repay this kindness when I have the chance in the future."