Tuition of One Hundred Thousand! Rapid Mastery Panel!

"Student Diversion Policy!"

"Resources are in short supply! Effective immediately, the policy of free martial arts education is being fully abolished! All martial school students must make up this year's tuition fee of one hundred thousand within eight days!"

"Those unable to afford the tuition will be uniformly diverted to ordinary universities, where they will study cultural knowledge and professional skills, contributing their strength to the construction of the Jin Kingdom!"

"That's right, this is indeed a newly issued regulation from the Jin Kingdom government. It takes effect immediately!"

Instructor Li's words crashed down like thunderclaps.

Lu Jue felt the world spin around him, as though everything before his eyes were swaying.

"Instructor Li, could the school make an exception? The Martial Arts Examination is only a month away. Once it's over, I'll definitely find a way to make up the tuition! I only need a chance to take the Martial Arts Examination! I'm begging you!"

Looking at his flushed face, red with desperation, Instructor Li showed not the slightest hint of sympathy. Instead, there was a faint, condescending contempt in her eyes.

"The Martial Arts Examination? Do you think that just because you scrape together the tuition, you'll pass the Martial Arts Examination? Soar into the heavens in a single leap? How naive!"

"Lu Jue, you have neither outstanding talent nor a family background capable of supporting your martial training. The school has let you study martial arts for free for years already. That is the greatest gift you could ever receive!"

"Face reality! Some fates cannot be changed through hard work alone. Be a proper ordinary person—that is the road you should be taking!"

Lu Jue froze where he stood. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, only to find his throat seemingly clutched tight by an invisible hand. Not a sound came out.

This was a High Martial World, where martial strength reigned supreme.

A hundred years ago, Spatial Rifts suddenly appeared on Blue Star. Calamity Beasts ran rampant, and humanity stood on the brink of extinction.

Fortunately, Spiritual Energy Revival came, and the martial path blazed back to life.

At present, humanity had reclaimed part of its lost territory and rebuilt safe zones.

But the Calamity Beasts wandering the Wasteland, along with the Spatial Rifts still endlessly pouring out Calamity Beasts, remained a gnawing menace close to the heart.

After being reincarnated into this world eighteen years ago, Lu Jue, who had grown up in the slums of Tianhai City in the Jin Kingdom, understood the cruel laws of this world all too well.

Outside the city lay the deathly Wasteland; within it, might made right.

Whether one could become a martial artist almost determined the fate of a person, even an entire family.

For the various resources required for martial training, his family had long since poured out everything they had.

He himself had also given it everything, rising earlier than chickens and sleeping later than dogs.

Every sacrifice, every hardship, pointed toward one single goal: the Martial Arts Examination one month from now, the examination that would decide his fate.

He had to succeed!

He had to rise above the crowd!

He had to move his family out of this slum where sewage flowed through the streets!

And now,

Just as dawn was about to break before his eyes, this sudden Diversion Policy had completely severed even that final narrow bridge!

One hundred thousand!

Even if his family went without food or drink for an entire year, they could not earn that much. How could their utterly penniless household possibly scrape together such a sum now?

Go home first and discuss a solution with Dad.

My talent isn't bad to begin with. Using the cheapest resources, I've still managed to rank in the upper-middle range among more than three thousand students in my year. With these results, once the Martial Arts Examination is over, becoming a disciple of a Third-rate Martial Arts School won't be a problem.

Though his mind was in complete turmoil, Lu Jue forced himself to calm down. Clinging to his last sliver of hope, he hurried back to the rented apartment.

His father, Lu Qiang, was sitting in a chair smoking. He seemed to have expected Lu Jue's return. The sorrow on his face was carefully tucked away in an instant, replaced by his usual gentle expression.

"You're back!"

"Yeah. Today, the Tianhai City government announced—"

Lu Jue was about to bring up the tuition when his father spoke first.

"I saw it all. You don't need to worry about the tuition!"

"I've decided to ask your Grandfather's side first and see if we can borrow some money. If that doesn't work, the Second Exploration Team will be leaving the city in three days. I plan to sign up as a scavenger."

"Dad, you..."

Hearing his father's words, Lu Jue felt as though he had been struck by lightning. For a long while, he could not calm himself.

As far as he knew, when his mother had fallen gravely ill two years ago and eventually passed away, Grandfather—who had always been distant from their family—had refused to lend them even a single cent.

When a human life had hung in the balance, he had acted like that. If they brought up tuition now, the result was easy to imagine.

As for the Exploration Team, it was a force that ventured deep into the Wasteland in search of precious resources.

The scavengers in those teams were paid handsomely, but they often faced nine deaths for every chance at survival.

For his martial training, his father was actually staking his life...

On one side was the fear of losing a loved one forever and seeing his family shattered. On the other was the martial path he had long yearned for, carrying the hopes of his entire family.

There was no choice to be made at all!

So he deliberately put on a relaxed tone. "Dad, what are you thinking? Isn't there a line of fine print beneath the news?"

"You mean the Tuition Exemption Quotas offered by Tianhai City?"

His father suddenly turned around. A faint spark of hope lit up in his eyes, but quickly dimmed again. "Doesn't that require a competition eight days from now? More than three thousand students in the entire grade competing for twenty quotas—such fierce competition. Can you get one?"

"Those are only the exemption quotas provided by Tianhai City. The martial school itself is actually more understanding. A few friends and I just went to ask the instructors, and the school has also set aside some additional Work-Study quotas for impoverished students. The instructor said I have a good chance."

"Is that true? You can keep training in martial arts!?"

Lu Jue talked with his father for quite some time longer. Only after his father left for his night shift did he return to his room.

Bang!

The instant the bedroom door shut, it was as though every bone had been pulled from his body. He collapsed heavily onto the wooden bed, and the facade he had been desperately maintaining utterly crumbled.

Countless days and nights of grueling training, the meager resources bought by scrimping and saving—just as the Martial Arts Examination drew near, all of it had been effortlessly smashed apart by a single government order! It was as if the efforts of people like them, struggling at the bottom, were nothing but a joke!

His father's forced smile, his deliberately straightened back, his willingness to gamble his life for Lu Jue's future—each scene was like a red-hot branding iron, viciously searing his heart and leaving behind marks of humiliation and helplessness.

But even greater than that was the icy despair, surging like a tide and drowning his final trace of wishful hope.

What Work-Study quotas? From beginning to end, every grade had only those pitiful twenty exemption slots!

Even some commoner geniuses had long received sponsorship, and the one hundred thousand tuition fee was still a crushing burden. Countless people were watching those quotas like tigers eyeing their prey!

Only children from wealthy families could afford to dismiss them with disdain.

To secure a quota, he would need to rank at least among the top fifty in his grade!

Eight days!

He only had eight days!

To charge from the upper-middle ranks of his grade into the top fifty? That was simply a fantasy! More than anyone, he knew the gap involved. It was a chasm that could not be bridged merely by staying up all night and working himself to the bone.

Without resources, without renowned teachers, what could he possibly use to compete?

Where exactly was the real way out?

Did poor people truly not deserve a chance to change their fate?!

He refused to accept it!!!

Eighteen years of struggle, eighteen years of endurance—was it all going to amount to nothing in the end?

An incomparably unwilling, resentful fury rampaged through his chest, nearly bursting him apart.

I need time! I need strength!!

I want to become a martial artist and get my family out of the slums!!!

Lu Jue roared madly in his heart, like a beast trapped in desperate straits, making its final struggle.

Boom—!!!

At the peak of those emotions, it felt as though an invisible giant hammer had smashed brutally into his mind. Everything suddenly went blank!

Then, a cold voice rang out, as though it had been branded directly into the depths of his soul:

Cultivation Technique Rapid Mastery Panel activated!

Activating Rapid Mastery Mode will allow a cultivation technique to rapidly reach complete mastery within an extremely short period of time, and grant one talent based on the characteristics of the energy consumed. However, as the price, you must continuously provide all energy required for the cultivation technique to reach complete mastery during the rapid mastery period. If energy is insufficient, rapid mastery will be interrupted!

Activate Rapid Mastery?