Deng Zhijue flipped through the tablet as he summarized.
"There are three martial academy scholarships suitable for Zhou Leng, two Ru University scholarships, four city scholarships, and five Martial Guard Department scholarships."
"Scholarships of the same type cannot be stacked without special circumstances, so I've selected the following four."
"Outstanding Martial Academy Student Scholarship: 10,000 yuan per year, ten Qi-Nourishing Pills, ten Blood-Replenishing Pills, and ten Great Supplement Pills."
"Ru University Advanced Individual Scholarship: 30,000 yuan per year."
"Ru City Martial Arts Diligence Award: ten Blood-Replenishing Pills and ten Great Supplement Pills."
"Martial Guard Department Elite Freshman Award: one Origin-Replenishing Pill and fifty Great Supplement Pills."
"Of course, those are the rewards for first-tier scholarships. Second-tier and third-tier awards will be lower."
Wang Boxiong said, "The martial academy and Martial Guard Department scholarships are no problem. What do you think about the Ru University and Ru City ones?"
Deng Zhijue said, "The Ru University Advanced Individual Scholarship won't be difficult. He got All-Nine Scores—the Ru University principals will be over the moon and won't let anyone else squeeze him out of that slot. As for the Ru City Martial Arts Diligence Award, there are too many people competing for it. Hard to say."
Wang Boxiong briefly checked the information and said, "Apply for the other three on his behalf. I'll notify the Martial Guard Department. As for the Ru City Martial Arts Diligence Award, there was trouble over it last year, so it won't be easy to compete for. Switch it to the Ru City Martial Arts Rookie Award. It only has five Blood-Replenishing Pills, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
"Yes."
"After he completes Blood-Circulating, have him go to Demon City for some experience. He needs to accumulate 100 battle merits and advance to private before he can meet the final screening requirement for the Martial Guard Department Elite Freshman Award. No rush, though. Finishing within two months will do."
"Yes."
"Has the Demon City Army recently offered any rewards for solo demon hunts?"
"There are some, but the current demon-hunting targets are too dangerous for him. I checked—even the Lower Realm Demonic Beasts are Camelback Demon Hounds and Steel-Skull Goat Demons. The former are somewhat too powerful, while the latter appear in groups. Neither is suitable for a freshman like him."
"Mm, forget it, then."
Deng Zhijue cautiously asked, "Do you think there are any special Martial Guard Department or national scholarships suitable for him?"
Wang Boxiong's eyelids lowered slightly.
Deng Zhijue immediately gave a military salute. "This subordinate will take his leave."
With that, Deng Zhijue left, closed the door, and let out a breath.
Wang Boxiong lightly moved his fingers, and the huge light screen before him shifted continuously before quickly stopping.
A line of text appeared in the center of the large screen.
Martial Guard Department Elite Training Camp (First Year).
Wang Boxiong carefully reviewed the details.
This training camp lasted thirty days. Every day, participants received one Blood-Replenishing Pill, one Qi-Nourishing Pill, and three Meat Medicinal Diet meals.
If they ranked in the top ten during the camp, they would also receive medicinal pill rewards worth approximately 300,000 yuan.
Wang Boxiong knew perfectly well that the most valuable thing about this Elite Training Camp was neither Innate guidance nor medicinal pill rewards, but the connections made after entering it—and the attention from higher-ups.
Still, this Elite Training Camp of the Martial Guard Department could only be considered third-tier.
The first tier was held by Yunhua, Jinjing, or Military University, with Grandmaster guidance.
The second tier was jointly held by major factions. Resources were scarce, with an emphasis on tempering oneself and guidance from Innate Peak experts.
The third tier was ordinary Elite Training Camps, with only ordinary Innate guidance.
"Only top military academy students and those from Yunhua and Jinjing qualify for first-tier camps. The timing of second-tier camps is uncertain. He can only attend the third tier..."
"For him, it would be better to sell the slot at a high price, exchange it for medicinal pills, and make up for his weaknesses..."
Wang Boxiong lightly tapped the table with his index finger, then looked at Zhou Leng's scores.
That long string of scores above ninety would make ordinary students envious, yet it made Wang Boxiong sigh softly.
Among Ru City freshmen alone, more than five hundred had perfect scores of one hundred in the Five Pill Subjects. Zhou Leng's average in those five subjects was not even ninety-five.
He needed medicinal pills too badly to make up for his shortcomings.
Wang Boxiong slightly raised his head, recalling the year he had first entered Yunhua Martial University.
That year, he had obtained a slot in Yunhua's Elite Training Camp. After weighing the pros and cons, he sold it for a full fifty million, then spent the following year frantically consuming medicinal pills to shore up his weaknesses.
Selling the slot was the only choice for commoner students at Yunhua and Jinjing.
If one's foundation was insufficient, connections, Grandmaster guidance, and even one's résumé were all of limited use.
There was even a high chance they would be unable to keep up with the camp's normal pace.
"Since Chen Fenghu is also paying attention to Zhou Leng, perhaps..."
Outside the class Martial Dao room, Zhou Leng, like all his classmates, slowly made his way out one step at a time.
After walking for a while, he merged onto the main path and encountered martial academy freshmen from other classes.
The freshmen from different classes looked at one another, let out long sighs, and trudged onward.
Under the night sky, the "elderly" martial academy students shuffled along, lacking only crutches.
It took Zhou Leng a long time to reach the martial academy gate, and he realized he could not go on like this.
Even if he went home this way, it would be difficult to recover by tomorrow.
He could only eat the Great Supplement Pills stored beneath the Frost Giant Tree, along with a backup serving of Meat Medicinal Diet. It would be best to sleep beneath the Frost Giant Tree to recover quickly.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhou Leng hailed a taxi and rode it to Xiaoru Village.
Big Yellow was not there.
An old man passing by watched Zhou Leng walk and muttered softly, "Why does this kid always look like he's doing frog jumps?"
Late at night, Zhou Leng gritted his teeth and slowly climbed with strange steps, all alone.
Suddenly, rustling sounds came from ahead.
Zhou Leng lowered his stance, held both arms before him, and assumed a defensive posture.
One large and six small black shadows darted out. The wild boars' eyes glowed a dim green in the night.
"It's me, Big Yellow's friend." Zhou Leng waved at the familiar wild boar.
"Snort, snort..."
The large wild boar snorted a few times, turned, and left.
Before turning away, the six little wild boars gave Zhou Leng several puzzled looks.
Zhou Leng exhausted all his strength getting beneath the Frost Giant Tree.
Big Yellow circled Zhou Leng more than ten times. Suddenly, its fangs bared and its ferocious side emerged. A low whimper rumbled from its throat before it began barking wildly.
After barking for a while, Big Yellow stared with slightly reddened eyes, bit Zhou Leng's pant leg, and tried to drag him away.
Zhou Leng said, "I wasn't beaten up. It's impact-resistance training, part of cultivation."
"Whine?" Big Yellow raised its head, its eyes clear.
"It really was caused by cultivation, not an injury. Come on, I need to take some medicine."
"Awoo." Big Yellow let out a soft cry and followed beside Zhou Leng, brow furrowed with worry.
Zhou Leng took a Great Supplement Pill, heated up the cooked frozen Meat Medicinal Diet, and wolfed it down.
He first sat in meditation to circulate his qi, then lay down in his sleeping bag to sleep and recuperate.
After Zhou Leng fell asleep, Big Yellow circled him several times, raised its head toward the canopy, stood upright on its hind legs, and repeatedly pressed its front paws together in prayer.
The Frost Giant Tree did not react at all.
Big Yellow acted cute and rolled around, but the Frost Giant Tree remained unmoved.
In the end, Big Yellow let out a howl, lay down beside Zhou Leng in low spirits, and slowly fell asleep.
Early the next morning, the entrance of Class 01's Martial Dao Hall was packed with students sitting on the ground.
These martial arts students, normally bursting with energy, were all battered black and blue, listless and dispirited.
None of them even wanted to stand.
"Did you take medicine?"
"How could we not? We'd die otherwise."
"When I video-called my mom yesterday, she was scared out of her wits and brought me medicine overnight."
"My dad too. He brought the whole family to find me—they thought demons had stormed the city."
"Hm? Isn't that Zhou Leng? Something's off."
The students all looked toward Zhou Leng.
His steps were relatively steady, his wounds relatively healed, and his bruising relatively faint. In every respect, he was far ahead of all his classmates.
"Did you eat an entire Innate Demon Beast?" Wei Hong widened his eyes in shock.
"No, I just ate a lot of Meat Medicinal Diet and Great Supplement Pills," Zhou Leng said.
Feng Wenhao hurriedly said, "Don't take medicine recklessly. Save some money and gather enough for an Origin-Replenishing Pill."
"Mm." Zhou Leng nodded.
"A beast is a beast no matter when. We aged fifty years overnight, while Zhou Leng only aged ten."
Before long, Instructor Deng Zhijue approached with a smile.
In a kind and friendly tone, he said, "Dear Class 01 students, considering that yesterday's assessment left you injured, today's military training has only one item."
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, Instructor!" Wei Hong said, his face full of gratitude.
Deng Zhijue glanced at Wei Hong and added, "A twenty-kilometer full-gear weighted run."
The entire class was dumbfounded. In every pair of eyes were written two words.
Beasts.
Feng Wenhao said, "Full-gear weighted means thirty kilograms."
Wei Hong said, "Twenty kilometers is a half marathon. It would be one thing normally, but can a human run that now?"
Deng Zhijue checked the time. "You have half an hour to prepare. Go into the Martial Dao Hall and get your weighted backpacks. In half an hour, all four classes will do a twenty-kilometer full-gear weighted run together. Today's top ten will receive three Great Supplement Pills, and first place gets another three."
The many students tightly shut their mouths, afraid they would curse aloud.
Too beastly!
"Instructor, can't you show us some mercy?" Wei Hong felt tears welling in his eyes.
"The sooner you finish, the sooner you go home. See you in half an hour." Deng Zhijue waved a hand and strode away gracefully.
Outside the Martial Dao Hall, cries of despair filled the air.
"I want to go home!" Wei Hong shouted.
"The assessment hurts the body, military training hurts the heart—it's fucking harder than dating."
"I gave my heart to the bright moon, but the bright moon... kicked me straight into a stinking ditch."
Joking and complaining, the students walked into the Martial Dao Hall and picked up their thirty-kilogram backpacks.
"Fine, the instructors are still human after all. Besides the weight blocks, there's water and a Marching Pill inside."
Everyone sat on their backpacks.
Yesterday, they had been fascinated by the demonicized equipment in the Martial Dao Hall. Today, they could not be bothered to spare it a glance.
"The Ru City Freshman Ranking is about to update. What do you all think?" Wei Hong asked.
"That freak Giant Shanhe Yuan will definitely be first. There's no need to even think about it. Do you know how many subjects he scored over the maximum in?"
"No idea."
"Weighted running, weightlifting, punching force, total qi volume, qi intensity, qi-circulated weightlifting, maximum attack intensity, and average attack intensity—he exceeded the maximum in eight subjects. His highest single-subject score reached 209. Do you know how many kilograms he lifted without qi?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"More than 5,000 kilograms."
"Is he even human? Even Force-Generating Stage experts might not be that strong, right?"
"That's not all. He even complained that blocking and impact-resistance tests were aimed at him. He was too big, so he couldn't dodge or block well. But a joke happened during the final impact-resistance stage. Guess what?"
Everyone shook their heads again.
"He hugged his head and squatted on the ground. Those mechanical arms punched until they were smoking, seven or eight out of ten broke down, and he only suffered a few superficial injuries. The West Sea Martial University instructors laughed as they gave him ninety points."
"He really isn't human!"
"This is the kind of dominance Yunhua and Jinjing have. We ordinary Martial University martial academies aim for Half-Nine Scores, the Martial Arts Ten aim for All-Nine Scores, while Yunhua and Jinjing aim to exceed the maximum."
Before you continue