First Steps into Zhaoguang Academy

"Finally."

A faint smile appeared on Li Qi's face as he looked at the admission notice on his communicator's light screen. He had finally taken his first step.

Resolving the ranch crisis facing his family and entering Zhaoguang Academy was the first step—and the most important one.

According to Kuka Planet's advancement training system, those whose talent and strength met the requirements could enter the next stage of training.

Zhaoguang Academy was the most basic training ground. Above it was Kuka Planet's United Training Camp, and finally, the Molten Empire's Stellar Training Camp.

As for whether there were even higher-level training grounds beyond the Stellar Training Camp, he did not know.

Throughout Kuka Planet's history, very few geniuses had entered the Stellar Training Camp, and every one of them had been extraordinary.

Geniuses who entered the Stellar Training Camp would receive privileges, and those privileges carried slightly more authority than even the Lord of Zhaoguang City's privileges.

"Privileges!"

At the thought of privileges, a yearning rose in Li Qi's heart. He longed to enter the Stellar Training Camp and resolve the crisis facing his family.

Two days later, Li Qi arrived at Zhaoguang Academy with his clothes and daily necessities. He moved into Room 2 on the 211th floor of the Central Building, a dormitory with one bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, and a balcony.

Besides a consciousness sensor for logging into the Virtual Universe, the living room also contained some electronic entertainment devices.

After sitting on the living room sofa and reading through the information on Zhaoguang Academy in his communicator, he began to think.

"Zhaoguang Academy follows a hands-off system. The academy only divides students by grade. Other than the annual ranking assessments, there are virtually no restrictions, and students have great freedom. But the competition is extremely fierce.

"There are limited slots for personal guidance from instructors, so they are only responsible for explaining their own courses. They only provide individual guidance when they encounter talented students or those with connections. Other students who want to learn more can only use points to purchase courses.

"This requires students to understand themselves, recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, and improve accordingly. If they cannot even figure out their own strengths and weaknesses, it will be difficult for them to remain at the academy."

With that thought, he rose from his chair, left the room, and took a high-speed elevator toward the East Building.

Along the way, he continued thinking. "I'm a Spirit Reader, so my main area of improvement should still be my Movement Technique. Movement Technique is the foundation that determines how long I can survive in battle.

"Now that I've just entered the academy, the assessments do not involve expulsion. But if my physical fitness fails to reach Apprentice Level Nine Peak, I'll be advised to withdraw. So I need to prioritize raising my physical fitness to Apprentice Level Nine Peak."

After arriving at the East Building, Li Qi passed identity verification and received one month's worth of training resources: three Red Dew Fruits and five bottles of Nutrient Fluid.

In a quiet room, Li Qi sat cross-legged and looked at the training resources before him. "Three Red Dew Fruits and five bottles of Nutrient Fluid for just one month of training resources. No wonder they say that entering Zhaoguang Academy guarantees becoming a Planetary Level powerhouse."

Li Qi had taken Red Dew Fruit after arriving in Zhaoguang City. Its effect was to increase the chance of breaking through to the Planetary Level when consumed at Apprentice Level Nine Peak, though how many fruits one needed to take for it to be effective depended on the individual.

Aside from increasing the chance of a breakthrough, Red Dew Fruit could also improve physical fitness and increase the consumer's Gene Origin Energy cultivation speed for a certain period of time. However, it was only effective for those at the Apprentice Level.

As for Nutrient Fluid, this was his first time seeing it. He had previously heard that it could provide the energy the body needed and seemed able to slightly improve physical fitness as well.

Having obtained the training resources, Li Qi did not begin cultivating immediately. Instead, he opened his communicator, found the Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method he had received earlier, and began reading it carefully.

"According to the description, this Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method is rather special. It is a special cultivation method created by His Majesty the Emperor of the Molten Empire. Used alone, its effects are ordinary, but cultivating with it after consuming Red Dew Fruit produces twice the result with half the effort."

This cultivation method must not be passed on. Those who violate this order shall be killed without mercy!

Upon seeing those final words, Li Qi marveled at the Molten Empire Emperor's power. To bring out the effects of Red Dew Fruit, he had actually created a Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method.

Calming his mind, he began trying to cultivate this Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method. He succeeded on his very first attempt.

Thus, after consuming one Red Dew Fruit and one bottle of Nutrient Fluid, he began cultivating...

On the morning of the third day in the quiet room, Li Qi opened his eyes and let out a long breath. "My physical fitness has successfully broken through to Apprentice Level Eight."

He glanced at the five empty bottles beside his left hand, feeling somewhat puzzled.

According to the staff member who had distributed the Nutrient Fluid, five bottles could sustain the energy needs of an Apprentice Level Nine Peak Martial Artist for five days. Yet he had used them all up in only three days. His energy consumption was even greater than that of an Apprentice Level Nine Peak Martial Artist.

"It isn't just energy consumption. The consumption of training resources is enormous as well," Li Qi thought.

"I ate several Red Dew Fruits a few days ago, so there should still have been a trace of their medicinal effect remaining. Added to the three Red Dew Fruits I've just consumed...

"I only barely broke through to Apprentice Level Eight. And that was with the assistance of this special Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method."

Thinking of this, a bitter smile appeared on his face. "My gene multiplier gives me Mental Force more than ten times stronger than others at the same level, but it also increases the resources I need for cultivation by the same multiple!"

A year on Kuka Planet had Fourteen months, and newly enrolled students at Zhaoguang Academy could obtain Forty-Two Red Dew Fruits each year.

"I can still obtain Thirty-Nine Red Dew Fruits this year. Given my current rate of resource consumption, those Thirty-Nine Red Dew Fruits should be enough to let me break through to Apprentice Level Nine, but they might not be enough to reach Apprentice Level Nine Peak. I need to find a way to obtain additional training resources."

Li Qi considered it carefully. He did not dare gamble on whether those resources would be enough for him to cultivate to Apprentice Level Nine Peak, because if he lost that gamble, he would be directly ordered to leave the academy. That was a price he could not bear!

So he had to find another way to obtain more training resources.

The lack of training resources made Li Qi think of Academy Points.

Zhaoguang Academy's Academy Points had a wide range of uses. Besides being exchanged for training resources, they could also be used to purchase advanced courses from academy instructors and more.

Points could even be used to purchase restricted Mental Force weapons and Origin Force Weapons. However, Mental Force weapons and Origin Force Weapons were expensive. From their pricing, it was clear they had never been intended for students to afford; they were most likely prepared for academy instructors.

He opened his communicator, and a light screen appeared as Li Qi searched for ways to obtain points.

"There are too few ways to obtain Academy Points!"

After reading the academy's methods for obtaining points, he shook his head slightly.

The communicator showed that aside from the fixed annual distribution, Academy Points could only be obtained through trading and matches. In addition, outstanding results in the annual assessments would earn point rewards.

"The fixed distribution of points has already arrived, but it's only enough to exchange for five Red Dew Fruits."

Li Qi checked his points through the communicator. He had one hundred points. After comparing them against the prices of training resources, he found that his points were only enough to exchange for five Red Dew Fruits.

Moreover, he could not exchange all his points for training resources. He needed to reserve some points to purchase advanced courses from academy instructors so that he could improve his Movement Technique.

"Looks like I can only earn points through matches in the Virtual Universe, but I'll need to improve my Movement Technique first."

He understood that his combat skills, which had earned him a first-class result in the Trial Tower assessment, were fairly good among new students.

But it would be difficult to defeat students who had already cultivated at Zhaoguang Academy for some time. Those students who dared to compete in the Virtual Universe naturally were not weak.

Li Qi set a goal for himself. "Ten. I have to obtain an additional ten Red Dew Fruits. Anything fewer than ten won't be safe."

After setting his goal, he tapped his communicator a few times. "First, let's see whether any instructors are giving lectures. Huh..."