My Three Stars Aren't Three Stars

Early morning, Chengtian Martial Arts School.

"Junior Brother, you came pretty early. At this hour, plenty of apprentices still haven't gotten up yet."

Li Changqing chatted with Huang Xuan as he followed the latter into the training hall.

He had not originally planned to come to the martial arts school to train, but Coach Kang had mentioned on the phone yesterday that training here would also give him a chance to comprehend the stone stele.

When it came to the Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian, Li Changqing had no choice but to be proactive.

Huang Xuan led Li Changqing all the way to the physical training area behind the training hall.

The row of sealed rooms lining one side caught Li Changqing's attention.

His ears twitched slightly as intense crashing sounds came from within the rooms.

"Senior Brother, what's that place?"

"Oh, you mean the testing rooms?" Huang Xuan's lips curled upward.

Coach Kang had long told him that this junior brother of his was even more talented than he was.

The only reason Li Changqing had failed the physical fitness test was because the school director had raised the standards this year. He had only missed it by a few seconds, and he had even mastered the Chengtian Tai Chi Fist after seeing it once.

Huang Xuan had considerable faith in Kang Tianchen's judgment.

He suspected that within a year, Junior Brother Li would enter the Transformation Stage. Once he became a martial artist, he might even catch up to him soon enough.

No, he had to take this opportunity to show off first.

With that thought, Huang Xuan pulled Li Changqing toward the testing rooms.

"Junior Brother Li, you may not know this. Although Lower-Rank Martial Artists are generally judged by their vitality and blood, their actual performance is equally important. These testing rooms are used for exactly that."

Huang Xuan found an empty room. He gestured for Li Changqing to watch from outside, then entered alone and switched the glass to transparent on both sides.

This allowed Li Changqing to see directly into the room.

"Junior Brother Li, let your senior brother demonstrate for you." Huang Xuan turned on the touchscreen panel.

"This room tests three things: strength, speed, and neural reflexes—or agility."

"Watch closely."

As he spoke, Huang Xuan pressed the start button.

The first test was strength.

The ceiling above Huang Xuan split open.

A massive metal block dropped from above.

"Hah!"

Huang Xuan had been prepared. He stood in a bow stance, the muscles in his arms bulging as he braced the falling metal block above his head.

It was clear that the weight of the thing was nearly Huang Xuan's limit. As his vitality and blood erupted, even his face turned red.

Yet Huang Xuan did not let go immediately. Instead, he put on an unconcerned expression and looked toward Li Changqing.

"Junior Brother, your senior brother's standard strength is around 400 kilograms. You should take me as your goal and must not slack off."

"I understand, Senior Brother Huang." Li Changqing nodded modestly.

"The next test is speed. This one is very simple."

Huang Xuan hurriedly tossed the metal block into the opening that had split in the floor, then stretched his legs and walked onto the hundred-meter track.

The three-second countdown ended.

Bang!

The electronic gun fired.

Huang Xuan shot forward like a cheetah. A body that surpassed human limits always displayed the most primal beauty of life in motion.

He continued accelerating throughout the entire run. For a martial artist, a hundred meters was far too short a distance for explosive speed.

Ding—

He crossed the line!

This time, Huang Xuan looked much better. Even the rhythm of his breathing had not changed.

The timer displayed the result.

5.5s

Just over five seconds for one hundred meters—nearly twenty meters per second.

Compared to the world record of the old era, it was nearly a fifty percent improvement.

Huang Xuan turned to look at Li Changqing, who stood calmly outside the glass.

He nodded to himself.

"Junior Brother Li must have been stunned by my heroic bearing. Makes sense—I should let him broaden his horizons and see just how strong a real martial artist is. Pressure creates motivation, after all."

Huang Xuan gave himself a thumbs-up inwardly, but then the third test arrived.

For once, he put away his playful grin and turned serious.

"Junior Brother Li, I won't explain too much for now."

The wall panels began to shift. The wall facing Huang Xuan revealed a dense array of gun barrels.

If he did not take the next test seriously—

It would hurt!

Huang Xuan readied himself. As the countdown on the screen reached zero—

Bang!

Rubber bullets came shooting out.

His pupils contracted.

His gaze caught the bullets' trajectories. His muscles tensed, and his body quickly shifted slightly to the side. While dodging the bullets, he swiftly adjusted his center of gravity, preparing for the second shot.

Getting hit by a bullet once would deduct ten points.

On the ground, a laser-drawn circle enclosed Huang Xuan. Crossing the boundary would likewise deduct ten points.

Once his score fell below 60, the test would stop.

At this moment, Huang Xuan did not even dare glance at Li Changqing. With each volley, the firing frequency continued to rise.

Unable to dodge in time, he was hit once.

His score dropped to 90.

He had three chances left.

After being hit, Huang Xuan became even more focused. But soon, as the firing frequency increased, he grew increasingly disheveled.

Bang!

He was hit again.

At the same time, because he had been too absorbed in dodging, his left foot accidentally stepped outside the circle.

Only 70 points remained.

Just then, the panel on the left wall also began to split open, revealing another dense array of gun barrels.

It made his scalp tingle.

Huang Xuan's face turned green.

"Stop!"

All the testing equipment came to a halt, and the walls slowly closed.

The electronic screen overhead flickered for a moment.

Then it turned into a blue pattern.

"Your overall rating for this test is: Lower-Rank Two-Star."

Huang Xuan let out a sigh of relief. Blue—did that mean good?

Not bad!

"Junior Brother, what do you think?" Huang Xuan opened the door, and Li Changqing cooperatively gave him a thumbs-up.

"Senior Brother, amazing!"

"When you become a martial artist in the future, you'll definitely be even more amazing." After bragging a little to Li Changqing, Huang Xuan glanced at the wristwatch on his hand.

"Junior Brother Li, I have something to take care of, so I won't keep you company."

"Senior Brother, go ahead. Don't worry about me."

"Call me if you need anything!"

After seeing Huang Xuan off—

Li Changqing rubbed his chin and looked around. It was still early, and there were not many people in the martial arts gym yet.

He pushed the door open, then closed the glass panel behind him and selected one-way visibility mode.

"The test begins," the electronic screen displayed.

"Please select your starting weight."

Li Changqing rubbed his chin.

"Let's start with two tons."

"Two-ton standard weight confirmed."

The electronic announcement sounded, and the ceiling above Li Changqing split open.

A metal block several times larger than the one Huang Xuan had lifted earlier dropped straight down toward him.

Bang!

Li Changqing raised both hands as though lifting a cauldron. His breathing remained steady as he firmly caught the two-ton behemoth.

His qi and blood were brimming; this was not his limit.

"Increase the weight."

"Confirmed."

This time, another 100 kilograms were added to the metal block, yet Li Changqing still held it steady.

After his breakthrough in qi and blood last night, Li Changqing urgently needed an accurate understanding of his own limits.

"Again!"

The weight continued to rise, but Li Changqing still lifted it with ease. Even at the three-ton mark, it was unable to burden him.

He simply raised the weight directly to four tons.

Double!

This time, the room took noticeably longer to prepare.

The ceiling split open, and the enormous metal block came crashing down.

What did four tons mean?

That was roughly the weight of an adult Asian elephant.

Li Changqing was lifting an elephant!

Boom!

The metal block slammed down. The doubled weight finally pushed him to his limit, and Li Changqing's eyes lit up. This was the feeling.

His knees bent. At his Dantian, his qi and blood divided into yin and yang, then suddenly collided.

"Up!"

A powerful burst of force erupted from his Dantian. His muscles swelled, and Li Changqing abruptly rose to his feet. With tremendous strength, he supported the metal block and violently hurled it forward.

Shakyamuni Throwing Elephant.

In ancient times, someone like Li Changqing would have been a living god or Buddha.

Four tons.

Without using intent, this was his limit.

As Li Changqing regulated his breathing, he walked onto the track.

The hundred-meter sprint.

3, 2, 1...

The electronic gun fired, and thunder rumbled through Li Changqing's Dantian.

Taiji, Thunder Division.

His fist led his body, his momentum like racing thunder!

In walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, he could pounce thirty-six steps.

He crossed the hundred-meter distance in an instant, striking the infrared line at a speed far beyond Huang Xuan's.

Ding!

The timer updated.

Three seconds!

At over thirty meters per second, he truly deserved the name Racing Thunder.

Even the cheetahs of the grasslands could not compare to Li Changqing going all out at this moment.

Only the final test remained.

Even Li Changqing's expression turned serious now. He assumed a fighting stance and entered the Heaven-Man Resonance state with a breath.

The wall before him split apart first, revealing rows upon rows of densely packed gun barrels.

Rubber bullets hurt too.

The red light lit up. The test began.

Bang!

Almost at the same instant as the gunshot, Li Changqing remained where he was and tilted his head slightly.

Whoosh—

The rubber bullet that streaked past lifted a strand of hair by his ear.

Bang!

This time, two gunshots rang out simultaneously.

Yet Li Changqing still stood in place. With a slight shift of his body, he evaded the bullets.

Mastery-level Listening to Strength, combined with the Heaven-Man Resonance state.

At this kind of speed, to him...

Too slow.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire rang out in an unbroken stream, yet even such a dense barrage failed to make Li Changqing speed up. He still moved at an unhurried pace, like an elderly man taking a stroll.

Before long, the second wall cracked open as well.

From two directions, a pincer attack.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—

Both sides opened fire at once. This was far more difficult than simply one plus one equaling two.

At last, he moved his feet from where they had been rooted, using the motion to evade bullets from the side.

Simply standing still was no longer enough to handle a barrage of this level.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—

The firing rate from the second wall also rose to its maximum, yet Li Changqing's score remained at 100.

Crack.

A third wall.

And this time, the wall that split open was behind him.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—

The moment the third wall cracked open, it gave him no time to adjust.

The instant it activated, the bullets were already firing at maximum frequency.

Attacked from both front and back, Li Changqing could no longer rely on his eyes. He had to devote more attention to the sound of the wind around him.

Finally, he was hit by a bullet from behind for the first time.

It was not that he had failed to notice it. In Li Changqing's mind, he had anticipated the bullet's approach.

But the problem was that his body could not keep up with such rapid, small-range movements.

It was not an issue of neural reflexes—or rather, not an issue of agility.

His body was starting to fall behind.

Once there was one, there would be a second.

His body was limited.

Li Changqing began getting hit by bullets one after another.

Every time, it was the same. He sensed the bullets, but his body could not dodge in time, leaving him no choice but to take the hits.

Finally, when the fifth bullet struck him and his score fell below 60—

The test stopped.

"Whew—"

After concentrating so intensely, Li Changqing hurriedly shook his head.

"It's been a long time since I've been this serious. That was satisfying!"

He raised his head to look at the electronic screen. "I lasted that long against the third wall. At the very least, I should get a top Three-Star evaluation, right? If not red, then at least gold."

According to the explanation he had seen on the wall earlier—

The results were ranked white, blue, purple, gold, and red.

Huang Xuan's result had been blue, meaning he was at the normal level of a Lower-Rank Two-Star.

The electronic screen flickered, reflecting a noble purple glow.

"Purple?" Li Changqing frowned tightly.

"Only excellent?"

That did not seem right. No matter what, he should count as a genius.

Were Three-Star Martial Artists really this monstrous?

Just as he was utterly baffled by his result, an electronic voice echoed through the room.

"Hello. Your overall evaluation for this test is Lower-Rank Five-Star."

Wait!

Five-Star?

Li Changqing abruptly looked up. Me... Five-Star?

How was that possible?!

My blood and vitality were clearly only Lower-Rank Three-Star!