First Steps into Zhaoguang Academy

"Finally."

Looking at the admission notice on his communicator's light screen, Li Qi smiled faintly. He had finally taken the first step.

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

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

Zhaoguang Academy was the most basic training ground. Above Zhaoguang Academy was the Kuka Planet United Training Camp, and finally came 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.

In 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 surge of desire 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 an 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 about Zhaoguang Academy on his communicator, he began to think.

"Zhaoguang Academy follows a hands-off system. The academy only separates students by grade. Aside from the annual ranking assessments, there are practically no restrictions, and students are very free. But the competition is extremely fierce.

"There are limited spots for individual guidance from instructors, so they are only responsible for explaining their own courses. They only give individual guidance when they encounter students with good talent or connections. Other students who want to learn more can only spend points to purchase courses.

"This requires students to understand themselves, recognize their 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."

Thinking of this, he rose from his chair, left the room, and took the high-speed elevator toward the East Building.

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

"Since I've only just entered the academy, the assessments don't involve elimination yet. But anyone whose physical fitness fails to reach the peak of Apprentice Level Nine will be advised to withdraw. So I need to prioritize raising my physical fitness to the peak of Apprentice Level Nine."

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

Entering a quiet room, Li Qi sat cross-legged. Looking at the cultivation resources before him, he said softly, "One month's cultivation resources include three Red Dew Fruits and five bottles of Nutrient Fluid. No wonder they say that entering Zhaoguang Academy guarantees becoming a Planetary Level powerhouse."

Li Qi had consumed Red Dew Fruits after arriving in Zhaoguang City. When taken at the peak of Apprentice Level Nine, they increased the chance of breaking through to the Planetary Level. However, how many Red Dew Fruits one needed to consume before they became effective depended on the individual.

Besides increasing the chance of a breakthrough, Red Dew Fruits could also improve physical fitness and increase the consumer's Gene Origin Energy cultivation speed for a period of time. However, they were only effective for 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 capable of slightly improving physical fitness as well.

After obtaining the cultivation 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 was a special cultivation method created by His Majesty the Emperor of the Molten Empire. Used alone, its effects are ordinary, but cultivating with it while consuming Red Dew Fruits yields twice the result with half the effort."

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

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

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

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

In the quiet room, on the morning of his third day of cultivation, 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 a warrior at the peak of Apprentice Level Nine for five days. Yet he had used them all up in just three days. His energy consumption was even greater than that of a warrior at the peak of Apprentice Level Nine.

"It's not just energy consumption. The consumption of cultivation 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, on top of the three Red Dew Fruits I just consumed.

"Yet they only barely raised my physical fitness to Apprentice Level Eight, and that was with the aid of this special Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method."

Thinking of this, a wry 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 amount!"

A year on Kuka Planet had Fourteen months. Newly enrolled students at Zhaoguang Academy could obtain Forty-Two Red Dew Fruits per year.

"I can still obtain Thirty-Nine Red Dew Fruits this year. Judging by my current resource consumption, those Thirty-Nine Red Dew Fruits should be enough to let me break through to Apprentice Level Nine, but they may not be enough to reach the peak of Apprentice Level Nine. I need to find a way to obtain additional cultivation resources."

Li Qi pondered this inwardly. He did not dare gamble on whether those resources would be enough to cultivate to the peak of Apprentice Level Nine, 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 a way to obtain more cultivation resources through other channels.

The lack of cultivation resources made Li Qi think of academy points.

Zhaoguang Academy's academy points had a wide range of uses. Besides being exchanged for cultivation 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 and Origin Force weapons. However, Mental Force and Origin Force weapons were expensive. Judging from their prices, the academy had never expected students to afford them; they were most likely prepared for the academy's instructors.

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

"There are far too few ways to obtain academy points!"

After reading through the academy's methods of earning points, he shook his head slightly.

The communicator showed that besides the fixed annual distribution, academy points could only be obtained through trading and matches. Outstanding results in the annual assessments could also earn point rewards.

"The fixed points have already been credited, but they're only enough to exchange for five Red Dew Fruits."

Li Qi checked his points through the communicator. He had one hundred points. After comparing that against the exchange prices for cultivation 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 cultivation resources. He needed to reserve some points to purchase advanced courses from academy instructors and improve his movement technique realm.

"It seems I can only earn points through matches in the Virtual Universe, but first I need to improve my movement technique realm."

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

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

Li Qi set a goal for himself. "Ten. I must obtain ten additional Red Dew Fruits. Anything less than ten isn't safe."

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