Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence System Activated

"Xu Zhiming, first place in cultural studies. Reward: three bottles of F-grade potion."

"Xu Zhiming, sorry, the teacher read last year's rewards wrong. First place in cultural studies only gets three bottles of potion."

"Xu Zhiming, the school says your C-grade aptitude makes giving you resources somewhat wasteful. The reward for first place in cultural studies has gone to the student with the highest vitality and blood."

Martial Calendar Year 100, April 4th.

Great Xia, Shu Province.

First High School, Cloud Water City.

The rising sun filtered through gaps in the leaves, passed through the glass, and fell across the young man's profile.

Xu Zhiming lowered his head and tightly gripped the black ballpoint pen in his hand.

His knuckles had turned purplish-red from exerting too much force.

He wrote down two names stroke by stroke, then rapidly crossed them out.

Xu Zhiming raised his head and stared at the mountain of textbooks from every subject, unable to come back to himself for a long while.

The words spoken from the podium today kept replaying in his mind, and his emotions refused to settle.

Rules that had been set in stone were changed at will.

What a fine job they had done.

Quite a few students felt somewhat sympathetic when they saw this.

Last semester, the school had set the rules.

The student who took first place in both cultural studies and the vitality-and-blood test would receive resource rewards worth over a million yuan.

If they took first place in only one subject, they would receive half the resources.

Xu Zhiming had taken first place in cultural studies last semester.

But at today's opening ceremony, it had been announced that Xu Zhiming's reward was three bottles of potion, worth thirty thousand yuan in total.

More than five hundred thousand yuan and thirty thousand yuan were worlds apart.

Many people had assumed that Xu Zhiming would be furious and pour out his grievances in the classroom.

Yet after returning to class, Xu Zhiming merely sat calmly in the corner, remaining in a dazed state for several minutes.

"The school went too far. If they had simply separated the reward for first place in vitality and blood, so that first place in cultural studies got thirty thousand yuan, it wouldn't have been this disgusting."

"Rules they'd agreed on, changed the moment they felt like it. A casual 'the teacher read it wrong' and they just brushed it aside."

"No wonder our school can't compare to Yunshui Second High School. Rotten from the top down."

Listening to his classmates' indignant remarks,

Xu Zhiming gradually calmed down. These classmates might sound as though they were standing up for him,

but most of them were simply here to watch the show.

From the moment the teacher announced that he would only receive three bottles of potion, he had questioned it.

The teacher had asked on his behalf as well, but it was the principal's decision.

Xu Zhiming was furious. With hundreds of thousands in resources gone, his dream of getting into a Martial Arts University had become even more distant.

Those resources worth more than five hundred thousand yuan had been his hope of entering a Martial Arts University.

For the first time, Xu Zhiming felt the malice the High Martial World held toward ordinary people.

He remembered that today marked the one thousand and first day since he had transmigrated into this world.

After a thousand days and nights of bitter cultivation, limited by his aptitude, he had set himself a goal that could be achieved through hard work.

To enter the worst Martial Arts University and see for himself those mighty experts capable of riding the skies.

Now, with a single sentence from the school administrators, his dream had been shattered.

Like flowers in a mirror, like the moon in water.

The feeling of shattered hope was like keeping a broken gallbladder in his mouth, its bitterness constantly spreading.

Xu Zhiming looked at the two names on the paper.

To curry favor with first place, they truly would do anything.

When all was said and done, he was simply too weak.

He was furious, but it also stirred the fighting spirit in his heart all the more.

Sooner or later, he would make these people pay a painful price.

Just then, he felt someone pat his shoulder, and a voice reached him.

"Xu Zhiming, how was it? You tried to fight the student with the highest vitality and blood for something, and got put in your place, didn't you?"

"We're both C-grade aptitude. You work so hard, but the school still doesn't see you. They didn't even let you into a B-grade class."

The speaker was Zeng Hao, the class monitor of Class 10, Grade C.

He was a very loyal person. His only flaw was that he often said hard work was useless.

Xu Zhiming shook his head.

His cultural studies grades were normally solidly second place, competing for first.

When the school had issued the notice last semester, he had worked hard on cultural studies.

Zeng Hao had indeed warned him at the time, saying it was impossible for him to receive the first-place reward. That reward had been prepared for the school's A-grade aptitude student.

Drawing a conclusion before even striving for it

did not fit his character.

"If you don't work hard, how do you know it's impossible?"

Zeng Hao patted Xu Zhiming's shoulder.

He was not mocking Xu Zhiming. He only wanted to prove that what he had said was right.

School was not a utopia; it had its own human ties and worldly ways.

And human ties and worldly ways depended more on aptitude.

He quite admired Xu Zhiming for cultivating diligently every day.

With merely average aptitude, Xu Zhiming had relied on hard work to surpass them by quite a few levels.

Most students with C-grade aptitude were Level Four Martial Artists.

Level Five Martial Artists were few and far between, while only a very small number from wealthy families had reached Level Six.

There were even lazy good-for-nothings with C-grade aptitude who were only Level Three.

Day after day, Xu Zhiming worked hard. Relying solely on the meager resource rewards the school gave to the top ten students in cultural studies, he had reached Level Six Martial Artist.

"You still don't believe me? I already told you, hard work isn't worth a penny before talent."

"The first-place reward was prepared for that person."

Many students nearby nodded.

"Yeah. Before talent, Xu Zhiming's hard work is nothing."

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent sweat, but that one percent inspiration is more important than the ninety-nine percent sweat."

Everyone in Class 10, Grade C had C-grade aptitude, and their aptitudes were more or less the same.

Now that Xu Zhiming had finally suffered a blow, many students did not want Xu Zhiming to keep rolling them into the ground.

Today, they would personally witness the fall of the King of Inner Rolled.

They did not believe Xu Zhiyuan could still muster the will to work hard after suffering such a severe blow.

At school, teachers used Xu Zhiming as an example.

When they returned home, their parents used Xu Zhiming as an example again.

Some of them were even rather pleased at his misfortune.

Their martial arts aptitudes were all about the same, so why did he have to work so hard? Did that not make them look lazy?

He even wanted to become a dark horse and snatch the reward for the school's highest vitality and blood.

Anyone with eyes could see that the reward worth over a million had been specifically set aside for first place.

Xu Zhiming lay facedown on his desk and spoke softly.

"If hard work is useless, then how is my vitality and blood higher than yours?"

Silence.

Endless silence.

Zeng Hao opened his mouth.

Every time he argued with Xu Zhiming, Xu Zhiming finished him with facts.

"You need hard work just to reach Level Six Martial Artist, but in the B-grade classes, the lowest level is Level Seven Martial Artist."

"Doesn't that prove hard work is useless?"

"Among people with C-grade aptitude, only one out of every hundred gets into a Martial Arts Undergraduate University."

Xu Zhiming did not refute him.

Because those were official statistics.

Unlike newborn data from his previous life, such figures were unlikely to be falsified.

Those with good aptitude did indeed improve much faster.

But saying hard work was useless? That was impossible.

If hard work were useless, how could he take first place in the class in every monthly test?

If hard work were useless, how could he, with C-grade aptitude, force his way into the top hundred rankings that only those with B-grade aptitude could enter?

If hard work were useless, how could he receive the school's one-thousand-yuan cash reward for placing in the top three in cultural studies every semester?

He relied on nothing else.

Persistence and hard work.

After transmigrating into the High Martial World and learning about its social structure,

for more than two years,

he had cultivated diligently every day without interruption.

His vitality and blood had exceeded seven points, and his strength had reached Level Six Martial Artist.

Only now did Xu Zhiming truly understand that in the High Martial World, without strength, one could only be bullied.

Not only could today's incident not crush him, it intensified his desire for power.

He lacked dazzling aptitude, so naturally the school would not risk offending first place by giving him part of the reward.

Once he received the three bottles of reward, he had to work even harder.

After taking the three bottles of potion, his vitality and blood should rise by quite a bit. Together with the money he had saved up, he might have a chance to make a push for a Martial Arts Undergraduate University.

Xu Zhiming's gaze fell on the blackboard as he waited for his homeroom teacher to bring him the reward for first place in cultural studies.

Once the reward was in hand, he would go cultivate at the school's Martial Arts Hall.

He would strive to train the E-grade martial skill Wind Thunder Fist to the fourth stage within a month.

The school had indeed gone too far.

They had brazenly changed the rules, thinking they could dismiss him with a trifling profit.

But what could he do? Others were the ones who made the rules.

Xu Zhiming kept consoling himself.

Endure for a moment, and the more he thought about it, the more stifled he felt. A flame slowly began to burn in his heart.

Just then,

Xu Zhiming saw a line of red text emerge on the blackboard.

Detected daily cultivation time exceeding ten hours, sustained for more than one thousand days

Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence System activated

One portion of effort for one portion of reward is too embarrassing

Minimum 10x Critical Hit, maximum 10,000x Critical Hit

The harder you work, the more critical hits you get; the harder you work, the luckier you become

Please cultivate diligently

Xu Zhiming rubbed his eyes.

Was he seeing things?

He looked again.

The lines of red text had not disappeared.

A smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

He would test the system's worth in a moment.

With enough strength, he would take everything back.

More than ten minutes later,

a male student from the neighboring class walked to the doorway and shouted.

"Xu Zhiming, Teacher Zhang wants you. Go to the office."

Quite a few students from Class 10 watched Xu Zhiming's retreating back with envy.

No matter what, three bottles of F-grade potion were still very valuable.

Zeng Hao walked over and lowered his head to glance at the two names written on the desk.

"The names of the principal and the student with the highest vitality and blood are crossed out. Xu Zhiming wants to deal with them? Only natural. I wouldn't be able to swallow it either."

"Unfortunately, we're ordinary people in the end. When we're bullied, we can only swallow it and keep living with all our strength."

Zeng Hao crumpled the sheet into a ball and tossed it into the trash can. It would be bad if someone saw it.

Tonight, he would buy a bottle of F-grade potion and see whether he could break through to Level Six.

The office.

The young teacher with delicate features and black-rimmed glasses stared at the bottle of potion on his desk, his face extremely grim.

When he collected the potions, he had asked why they would not give Xu Zhiming more rewards.

"What reward does C-grade aptitude deserve?"

Even of the three bottles of potion mentioned at the opening ceremony, two had been snatched away.

This was simply bullying people beyond all reason.

"Ah... How am I supposed to explain this to Xu Zhiming later? I wonder what his reaction will be when he sees it."

"The rewards keep getting slashed again and again. When will the school's atmosphere finally improve?"

He thought highly of Xu Zhiming. Whenever the school had any rewards,

such as poverty subsidies, he fought to secure the highest tier for Xu Zhiming.

First, when poverty subsidies were being assessed, Xu Zhiming's orphan background was beyond reproach.

Second, he did not want to chill the hearts of students striving to improve themselves.

Knock, knock, knock...

Please line up to receive Ibaka's talent.