Martial Arts Was a Money Pit

Martial Arts Was a Money Pit

"Maybe my talent is actually very high?" Li Yuan's pupils contracted slightly.

He could not help thinking of the final note on the Divine Palace Panel: "Contains some kind of unawakened higher spirituality."

Li Yuan trusted the Divine Palace Panel's detection. It had never been wrong in the past year.

It should be more reliable than Teacher Xu Bo's speculation.

The information Teacher Xu Bo had revealed today had also given Li Yuan more ideas.

Previously, although Li Yuan had searched the Virtual Network many times, his permissions had been insufficient, leaving much information beyond his reach.

"My talent is high? I possess the Mind Divine Palace. Perhaps that is a kind of talent too." Li Yuan silently repeated to himself.

Over the past century, numerous cultivation methods had gradually been opened to the public. As technology advanced, a great number of martial artists had emerged within human civilization.

And among those peerless martial artists who could fly through the skies and burrow through the earth, who could even survive nuclear explosions, whose growth stories were not filled with legend?

Li Yuan did not believe that the Mind Divine Palace he possessed would be an exception.

"Teacher, then what should I do?" Li Yuan took the initiative to ask.

He was very smart. Since Teacher Xu Bo had specifically called him over, it could not have been merely to offer encouragement.

"Persevere." Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan. He had originally intended to say, "Proceed step by step," but changed his wording at the last moment.

Seeing Li Yuan's puzzled expression, Xu Bo continued, "Your rate of progress is already very fast. There's no need to be too anxious over not awakening Martial Arts Spirituality. With your grades, getting into a martial arts university will be easy."

"With normal cultivation, in at most two or three years, your physical fitness should reach Level 10.0."

"Once you become an entry-level martial artist, Advanced Cultivation Methods will no longer be shackles holding you back."

"Perhaps in the future, you'll be able to create a set of Advanced Cultivation Methods uniquely suited to yourself." Xu Bo smiled.

"Create a cultivation method?" Li Yuan could not help asking. "Can I?"

"Haha, what do you mean, can you or can't you?" Xu Bo laughed. "How old are you? When you're young, there are infinite possibilities."

"Even the founders of the Three Martial Halls—when they were young, who knew they would achieve such accomplishments?" Xu Bo smiled at Li Yuan. "The founders of the Three Martial Halls are too distant, but do you not even have the ambition to surpass me?"

"My physical fitness is only Level 19."

Li Yuan held his breath.

Ever since Xu Bo had become his martial arts homeroom teacher, Li Yuan had always regarded him as his goal.

Only now did he learn of the other man's strength. His physical fitness was actually as high as Level 19.

No wonder he was a special-grade martial arts teacher.

"Let's talk about something practical." Xu Bo looked at Li Yuan. "Although you haven't awakened Martial Arts Spirituality, your physical fitness and Martial Arts Technique are both quite good. Considering your family situation as well... I'll apply to the school for a third-tier scholarship for you."

"A third-tier scholarship?" Li Yuan's eyes lit up.

Martial arts cultivation consumed immense resources.

Therefore, for students with outstanding martial arts results, the state began issuing various prizes and subsidies from their first year of high school onward.

As a provincial key high school, Guanshan District No.1 High School received more state funding than ordinary high schools.

In every major standardized examination, students whose martial arts results ranked among the top hundred in their grade received additional rewards.

The top fifty received two thousand Blue Star Coins.

The top thirty received five thousand Blue Star Coins.

The top twenty, on top of the top-thirty reward, received an additional two portions of Basic Vitality Medicine.

The top ten, on top of the top-twenty reward, were also assigned a private martial arts cultivation room.

Those were examination rewards.

Scholarships were more special. They took both grades and family circumstances into account, and students had to be recommended by teachers to have any hope of receiving one.

Very few people received scholarships.

"You've improved a great deal, but your martial arts results are ultimately only in the top thirty of the grade. If you want to apply for a second-tier scholarship or above, the difficulty will be rather high," Xu Bo said. "But there's still hope for a third-tier scholarship. Of course, even if it's approved, the money won't be much—just twenty thousand. Don't think it's too little."

"Thank you for your efforts, Teacher." Li Yuan felt immensely grateful.

Twenty thousand? That was equivalent to two months of his aunt's salary.

All the scholarships he had received since entering high school did not even add up to twenty thousand.

"Does Teacher need me to do anything?" Li Yuan asked after him.

"You don't need to do anything. Just cultivate seriously and get good scores." Xu Bo waved his hand. "Go eat. Once the application is approved, I'll let you know."

"Yes." Li Yuan left. As he exited, he smoothly shut the door behind him.

Xu Bo watched Li Yuan leave.

"That kid, did he think I was after some benefit?" Xu Bo shook his head with a smile.

Then his brow suddenly furrowed.

The man built like an iron tower revealed a trace of pain at that moment.

"Time to take medicine again?" Xu Bo endured the pain and headed toward the Physiotherapy Room.

After leaving the office building.

"Good." Li Yuan could not help clenching his fist, finding it difficult to suppress the joy in his heart.

Before entering the office, he had guessed that something good was coming.

But he had not expected it to be this good.

"Teacher Xu hadn't mentioned these things before because my past results were decent, but he thought I wasn't outstanding enough?" Li Yuan silently wondered. "Did today's performance finally qualify me?"

Li Yuan had read many books.

In some stories, many seniors liked to support juniors.

But the prerequisite was that the juniors were worth supporting.

"If I'm not diligent enough, not outstanding enough, then even if an opportunity comes my way, I'll miss it." Li Yuan silently repeated to himself.

"Should I send a message to the family group?" The thought had barely surfaced in Li Yuan's mind before he immediately suppressed it.

Whoosh!

Just then, a gust of wind swept past, making Li Yuan even calmer.

"No rush."

"Teacher Xu is a special-grade teacher, but he isn't part of the school administration. Even if it works out, the application will probably take some time." Li Yuan thought to himself. "If it doesn't work out, it'll just be joy for nothing."

"I should wait until the scholarship truly comes through before telling Uncle and Auntie."

"Right, I can't tell the other students either." Li Yuan had already thought it through. "Teacher Xu called me over alone and had Wan Xiao leave first. He probably didn't want the others to know."

"If the school wants to publicize it, then I'll wait until the school announces it later."

His experiences over the years, along with the books he had read, had taught Li Yuan that "matters succeed through secrecy and fail through loose tongues."

If something had not yet landed, do not proclaim it everywhere.

"Eat first." Li Yuan regained his composure and ran toward the cafeteria.

Guanshan District No.1 High School had over six thousand students, so its cafeteria was very large.

Li Yuan had just entered through the cafeteria doors.

"Brother Yuan, over here." Zhou Qi was already squatting in the distance and calling out to him. Together with Wan Xiao, Yan Zhou, and more than a dozen other boys, he had occupied two large tables and was eating.

Li Yuan smiled and walked over.

The boys in the class loved eating in groups.

"Brother Yuan, your two nutrition meals." As Zhou Qi ate, he pushed two specially prepared meal boxes toward Li Yuan.

"Whose card paid for them? Yan Zhou's?" Li Yuan asked with a smile as he sat down and began eating.

"I said I was paying you back," Yan Zhou said with a smile.

"The breakfasts I brought you were only hot dry noodles, eggs, and soy milk. All together, they cost less than fifty." Li Yuan shook his head. "My two nutrition meals cost one hundred and fifty."

The prices of the meals eaten by the many boys present varied greatly.

For ordinary meals with two meat dishes and two vegetables, or three meat dishes and two vegetables, one serving cost less than twenty.

That was what Zhou Qi and Yan Zhou were eating.

Because they attended cultural classes at night and would not engage in strenuous exercise afterward, they expended less energy.

But for someone like Li Yuan, who still had to undergo high-intensity martial arts cultivation at night, ordinary food was not enough. Over time, it would leave his body's vitality and blood depleted.

He had to eat the cafeteria's specially prepared nutrition meals, but they were much more expensive.

One serving cost seventy-five, and Li Yuan needed two.

More precisely, Li Yuan's three normal daily meals cost nearly three hundred every day.

That was at least eight thousand Blue Star Coins per month.

And that was still far from enough to support Li Yuan's normal cultivation. From time to time, he also had to consume all kinds of expensive vitality medicines and supplements.

With physiotherapy added in, his monthly expenses reached an astonishing figure.

That was only because Li Yuan was a student and could train in the school's martial arts classrooms all the time. They were fully equipped with training cold weapons, sandbags, spaces for practicing spear techniques, and more.

The results could not compare to a private martial arts cultivation room, but the school's martial arts classrooms had one advantage: they were free.

If he went to a proper martial arts gym in society? The fees were charged by the hour. Ordinary families simply could not afford them.

Martial arts was a money pit that swallowed gold. That was no empty saying.

That was also why Li Yuan longed to get into one of the Five Great Prestigious Schools.

Because by this point in his martial arts cultivation, Uncle and Auntie were already finding it difficult to continue supporting him.

After leaving the cafeteria.

"Brother Yuan, we're heading to the culture building. See you tomorrow." Zhou Qi and Yan Zhou said goodbye to Li Yuan.

"Alright." Li Yuan nodded.

Students of this era began studying cultural courses every morning and practicing martial arts every afternoon from their first year of high school onward.

As for the evenings? Students chose for themselves, depending on which path they wished to take.

There were only twenty-nine martial arts universities in all of Xia Country.

But there were more than a thousand Culture Universities nationwide.

For those applying to martial arts universities, cultural course scores were converted and accounted for 10% of the total.

For those taking the cultural course path, martial arts scores were converted and accounted for 30% of the total.

Although students only decided whether to pursue martial arts or cultural courses when filling out their applications, the vast majority began focusing on one direction from their first year of high school.

Li Yuan returned to the martial arts classroom.

At a glance, fewer than ten people remained in the classroom. It was empty and desolate.

Some students of Class 2, Grade 3 had chosen to focus on cultural courses. That was also the choice of most students.

"Getting into a martial arts university really is difficult." Li Yuan silently thought.

Jiangbei Province had more than a million college entrance examination candidates every year.

Its only martial arts university, Jiangbei Martial Arts University, enrolled no more than ten thousand students annually—less than 1% of all candidates.

Even as a provincial key high school, Guanshan District No.1 High School rarely had more than a hundred students admitted to martial arts universities each year.

The sky had not yet darkened.

Most of the ten or so people in the classroom were chatting with one another.

There was no teacher supervising martial arts cultivation at night. It all depended on self-discipline.

"Li Tianyou." Li Yuan's gaze swept toward the figure in one corner of the classroom.

The boy was about 1.8 meters tall, with a somewhat gaunt face. Wearing a martial arts uniform, he silently and earnestly practiced the Basic Cultivation Method.

He was not affected in the slightest by the conversations around him.

The beads of sweat on his forehead showed that he had been cultivating for quite some time.

"What a grind!" Li Yuan inwardly sighed. "As expected of the class's number one grinder."

Without disturbing the others.

Li Yuan took out his long spear from his weapon locker, chose a bright open space in the classroom, and began practicing his spear technique.

Why did he not practice the Basic Cultivation Method?

Because Li Yuan woke up after three every morning and came to school, where he spent more than two hours cultivating the Basic Cultivation Method alone in the empty martial arts classroom.

Then, close to six, he went to the cafeteria for breakfast before heading to the cultural classroom for self-study.

In the afternoon, he cultivated the method alongside everyone else for another two hours.

For cultivation methods, dividing the daily practice into two or three sessions for a total of four hours was best. This had been proven through repeated experiments by numerous martial arts experts.

The evolution of life, the tempering, recovery, and growth of the body's muscles and bones—all required time.

Too much was as bad as too little.

Li Yuan could use all his remaining time to study spear technique and movement techniques.

Two hours later.

The dismissal bell echoed through the campus. The students in the classroom had long since left one after another. Apart from Li Yuan, who was still practicing spear technique, only Li Tianyou remained, practicing blade technique.

Suddenly.

A message visible only to him popped up in Li Yuan's field of vision.

[Your spear technique realm has increased from Stage Three 36% to Stage Three 37%]

(End of chapter)