Enrollment

Enrollment

Zhou Leng and Xu Qingjin were running when suddenly, a high-speed demonized badminton flew straight toward the back of Xu Qingjin's head.

"Watch out!" Zhou Leng shifted sideways, reached out, and caught the demonized badminton.

"Huh?" Xu Qingjin only then tilted her head to dodge.

A child of about twelve or thirteen ran over and blurted out anxiously, "Sorry, sorry, this demonized badminton is broken, otherwise it couldn't fly this far."

"It's fine," Xu Qingjin said.

"Try to stay away from the road next time." Zhou Leng threw the badminton back.

"Thanks, big brother, thanks, big sister." The child hurried away.

Xu Qingjin curiously looked at Zhou Leng's upper arm, where his biceps stretched his short sleeves taut.

"You seem to have gotten stronger."

"I made a little money in Demon City, and I've been eating meat medicinal diet these past few days to build my body back up. I also took an origin-replenishing pill. What about you?"

"I've taken two now. One my family bought, and one I saved up from the school's qi-nourishing pill reward and exchanged for an origin-replenishing pill."

"Not bad, no wonder you got into a martial university."

Xu Qingjin looked toward the front right, where Ru City Martial University and the martial arts halls sat.

The young girl's eyes reflected the cyan-white Ruge Mountain.

"What are you going to do next? I'm a bit lost. In the past, it was always studying, practicing martial arts, everything for the college entrance examination. But now that the exams are over, suddenly I don't know what to do."

"Don't you want to advance to the Innate realm?"

"Of course I do, who wouldn't want to become a top expert. Still, I feel like I'm not really cut out to be an expert. You know my temperament; I don't even like fighting. But later the school is going to have the opening-semester martial test, monthly exams, and we have to go to the Eighteen Bronze Men Formation... I can't quite explain it."

"I can't make decisions for you, but just do what you like."

"What about you? What do you want to do?"

Zhou Leng's soft gaze slowly turned resolute.

"I want to become a powerful martial artist step by step. From beginning to end, that hasn't changed."

Xu Qingjin said, "That's wonderful. Your gaze when you were little was just like this, not changed at all."

"You're the same, haven't changed much."

"Really? I always feel like I've changed a lot. I used to be so clumsy."

"Don't say that about yourself, you still are." Zhou Leng's lips curved upward.

"Still... huh? You jerk." Xu Qingjin realized halfway through her sentence, though her face remained smiling.

Zhou Leng asked, "When you were in Demon City, you didn't run into any demonic beasts, did you?"

"No, we had good luck and came back smoothly. You guys didn't run into any, did you?"

"We really did, and one of our team members ran away."

"Ah? Tell me about it."

Zhou Leng vividly recounted the process of the battle against the Ice Crystal Demon Lion. Xu Qingjin's eyes went wide, and she let out soft gasps from time to time, the ponytail at the back of her head bouncing with fright.

When Zhou Leng finished telling the story, Xu Qingjin let out a breath of relief and said, "A blessing in disguise, that's great. By the way, what tier of great accomplishment are you at? I feel like your true qi is probably a lot stronger than mine."

"Seventh Heaven."

"As expected. At this rate, you'll reach perfection by the monthly exams, and then you can do blood-circulating. It'll probably take me three or four months to reach perfection."

"Weren't you at great accomplishment long ago?"

"I'm just naturally talented in movement techniques; my inner cultivation was purely muddled through and practiced up. After advancing to great accomplishment, my speed slowed right down. Do you have any tips for practicing inner cultivation?"

"I wouldn't dare call them tips, but I have indeed accumulated some experience recently."

"Then teach me!"

"Alright, let's find a time for the two of us to practice together. Saying it so directly doesn't make it clear," Zhou Leng said.

"Then come over to my house when the time comes. My mom has just been asking about you, wondering why you haven't visited."

"Okay!"

The young girl's steps grew lighter, the sky reflected in her eyes grew a deeper blue, and the morning light grew brighter.

Zhou Leng's gaze returned to its softness.

After running for a while, the two of them looked toward the front right together.

That was No. 59 Middle School, the junior high alma mater of them both.

Xu Qingjin said, "Oh, right, Rao Mingxian didn't get into West Sea Martial University, and he came to Ru University too."

Zhou Leng said, "I thought he could get into West Sea Martial University. His scores surged in the later stages, and he was even in the same examination room as me."

"Still, he really is inspiring. I heard that when he was in junior high, his grandfather beat him so hard in the principal's office that he wailed to the heavens, and several girls in his class even cried for him back then."

"Yeah, he really had it rough in junior high. He used to complain about it when we played basketball together."

"I heard..."

The two of them began to chat in low voices about classmates' gossip.

Behind them, Feng Wenhao ran over from the corner. Seeing the figures of the boy and girl ahead, his eyes lit up. He was about to reach out and shout, but with a mysterious smile on his face, he closed his mouth.

Feng Wenhao followed closely behind with a smile from over twenty meters away.

I want to see just when the two of you notice me.

Then, Feng Wenhao watched helplessly as the two ran and chatted all the way, finally parting at the main gate of Ru University, with one heading to the main campus and the other walking toward the affiliated martial academy campus beside it.

Feng Wenhao blinked. How was this different from what he had imagined? Shouldn't the two of them suddenly notice him and then he would jokingly tease them?

He had even prepared his lines in advance, yet the two of them genuinely didn't notice?

"Zhou Leng!" Feng Wenhao called out listlessly.

"Huh? Feng Wenhao? Are your injuries still not healed?"

Zhou Leng looked at Feng Wenhao in puzzlement. It had already been over ten days, and there were still some faint scars on Feng Wenhao's face.

Feng Wenhao stared closely at Zhou Leng's face, saying, "You're truly a freak. There's not a trace of the old wounds left. Huh? How come I haven't seen you in a few days and you've gotten so much bulkier? Tsk tsk, this muscle—the lines are too smooth."

"I've been eating more meat medicinal diets lately." Zhou Leng looked Feng Wenhao over carefully.

Feng Wenhao smiled and said, "Thanks to Young Master Xue's money, I've eaten quite a bit of meat medicinal diet these past few days too. The feeling of eating a meat medicinal diet every day is really different. My motivation for cultivation is exceptionally strong right now."

"Me too," Zhou Leng said.

Feng Wenhao glanced at the main gate of Ru University and said, "Ru University ranks third in Ru City. Xu Qingjin's score wouldn't make the cut for West Sea Martial University, but it's more than enough for East China Martial University, which ranks second. Why would she apply to Ru University?"

"Probably because it's close to home. Someone said in the class chat yesterday that Xu Kang'an, the top-ranked martial academy student of our cohort, didn't enter West Sea Martial University's special recruitment or supplementary admissions, and went straight to take the exam for the Ru City Martial Academy, also because it's close to home."

"You probably didn't read it all. Xu Kang'an's family has a background in the Martial Guard Bureau and everything is already planned out. He probably has connections in Ru City Martial Academy and doesn't want to fight for resources with those aristocratic families at West Sea Martial University."

The two of them chatted as they walked into the Class 01 indoor martial dao hall.

Every class in the martial academy had its own independent indoor martial dao hall, equivalent in size to two indoor basketball courts.

Unlike high school, a large amount of demonized equipment was placed here for students to use at will.

The vibrant martial academy students were using various pieces of demonized equipment.

Feng Wenhao said excitedly, "It's still better at the martial academy."

"It's said that the treatment at the martial academies used to be very poor, but after the Martial Guard Department took over, it immediately changed completely," Zhou Leng said.

"Let's go, let's practice. Want to play high-speed badminton?"

"There are a bit too many people, playing high-speed badminton isn't convenient. Let's play high-speed table tennis, there's an empty table."

"Let's go!"

The two walked to the table tennis area, which was surrounded by a cage.

Holding demonized table tennis bats, they looked at each other.

"Watch closely!" Feng Wenhao tossed the demonized table tennis ball with his left hand and swung his bat with his right.

Swish!

Bang!

The demonized table tennis ball flew at three times its usual speed, landed on this half of the table, bounced off, and the exact moment it landed on the opposite table, the demonized table tennis ball accelerated once more, reaching five times speed.

Zhou Leng's eyes were like a hawk's as he stepped using the Eight Trigrams Step, adjusted his position, and unleashed a fierce smash with a wave of his arm.

Bang!

The sound of the table tennis ball colliding with the table was extremely loud, as if sparks were flying.

"Good grief..." Feng Wenhao stretched his arm to the utmost to reach it, but was still a step slow.

The table tennis ball shot out with a swish, and the moment it flew out of the area, it decelerated abruptly, gently bumping against the iron cage.

"Can't even handle five times speed?" Zhou Leng said.

"It's only 1 to 1!"

Feng Wenhao's mouth was harder than the iron cage. He picked up the table tennis ball and served again.

The two of them went back and forth, footwork and body movement coming out in full force.

The table tennis ball bounced back and forth like lightning, emitting banging sounds.

Several students approached, looking toward the two, and finally, their gazes concentrated on Zhou Leng.

One particularly chubby and bald student crossed his arms and said in a low voice, "The classmate on the left has very well-rounded abilities. You can't see any shortcomings at all."

"Footwork, body movement, reaction, visual tracking, breathing, and all other aspects are quite formidable. This level is no worse than my classmates who got into West Sea Martial University."

"There are hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the martial academy too."

"They played 21 to 5. The gap is a bit big, smells a bit like throwing the game."

Feng Wenhao put down his bat, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right hand, and said, "My balls hurt. With this score, I look like I came through supplementary admissions, while you look like you got in through the direct exam."

"Huh? He came through supplementary admissions?" a student asked.

"Yeah, not only was he a supplementary admission, but he also climbed sixty thousand spots in a single subject of the martial examination."

A few classmates blinked, finding it hard to imagine what climbing sixty thousand spots even meant.

"Shall I have a go?" asked the stout, bald classmate.

"Please," Zhou Leng said.

Martial arts sports also counted as a form of sparring.

At the beginning, they traded wins and losses, but starting from the 10-point mark, Zhou Leng pulled ahead all the way.

In the end, it was 21 to 8.

"Awesome, classmate! Only by getting on the court yourself can you feel that true oppressive force," the guy said, giving a thumbs-up. "I'm Wei Hong, and you?"

"Zhou Leng."

"Another round?"

"Alright."

It ended quickly, 21 to 6.

Wei Hong looked Zhou Leng over carefully and said, "You're definitely at the level of the Martial Arts Ten. How'd you end up testing for this place?"

Feng Wenhao said, "Don't bring it up. He got hurt by a demonic beast before the national college entrance examination, then applied for the West Sea Martial University supplementary admissions. His martial examination score was 276, but he got cut because of poor physical conditioning—he didn't even get supplementary qualification. Otherwise, how could he possibly be here?"

"A martial examination score of 276 cut because of poor physical conditioning? No way, obviously..." Wei Hong shut his mouth, looking at Zhou Leng with sympathy.

Hearing Wei Hong put it that way, the other few classmates vaguely understood.

"What a pity."

Since they were all classmates, coupled with the fact that Wei Hong was easygoing, they grew familiar within just a few sentences.

Before long, Chang Luan and Tao Bing walked over.

"Chang Luan!" The surrounding classmates actually all recognized Chang Luan, including Feng Wenhao.

Zhou Leng said not a word; after reporting yesterday he went straight home, and hadn't contacted any classmates.

After chatting for a while, Chang Luan walked over to Zhou Leng's side and said in a low voice, "I have a matter I'd like to consult you about. Shall we head outside for a chat?"

Zhou Leng frowned.

Xue Chengsong had said that Chang Luan's family had trade ties with the Demon-Worshiping Cult, so it was best to keep a distance.