Struggle

Struggle

Inside the venue.

As drones carried them in, box after box of boxed meals was delivered.

By the time the first and second rounds of the Magic Competition had ended, it was already lunchtime.

Yet as the contestants ate their boxed meals, they were still discussing the thrilling moments of the previous two matches, occasionally glancing at the rankings on the giant screen.

However, the name that had originally ranked fourth had already vanished. The current top ten were still divided among the Three Great Famous Schools: White Dragon High School, Ziyun High School, and Red Pagoda High School.

That was because, with the first and second rounds completely over, the top ten displayed on the giant screen had changed into the overall top ten.

Only those who entered the final top ten in the overall Magic Competition rankings would receive prize money, earn a true placing, obtain results recognized by universities, and have those results help them during university interviews.

And the name that had torn open a gap and forcibly squeezed into fourth place during the second round had now vanished like a phantom.

Like a small bird trying to break through the firmament, it had been slapped back down by the great hand formed by the Three Great Famous Schools.

Teacher Yan sighed inwardly. "Zhang Yu's score in the first flying sword competition was ultimately too low. It dragged him down, which is why his total score couldn't squeeze into the top ten."

But what could be done about it?

The rich held an absolute advantage when it came to controlling flying swords. Teacher Yan could not blame Zhang Yu's family for failing to buy him a magical-power flying sword.

"If anyone is to blame, it can only be bad luck. He just happened to run into sponsorship from a flying sword manufacturer."

On the other side, Zhang Yu looked at the boxed meal in his hands and complained as he ate, "One boxed meal costs eighty? Why doesn't Red Pagoda High School just rob people?"

Just as Zhang Yu was grumbling, someone stuffed another boxed meal in front of him.

Zhang Yu looked up and saw that Teacher Yan had brought him a boxed meal.

Teacher Yan smiled kindly. "You've been exhausted all morning. I knew you must be hungry, so you can have this one too."

Beside them, Bai Zhenzhen secretly curled her lip. Could anyone be hungrier than me? Yu Zi dissolved the Special Magical Power in a minute and a half. I had to grit my teeth and hold out for more than eight minutes before I was done. It nearly killed me.

Watching Zhang Yu eat two portions in a row, Teacher Yan grew more and more satisfied. Such a huge appetite—he was obviously a good student.

Bai Zhenzhen, Qian Shen, and He Dayou had huge appetites too? Hah. Contestants with no chance of placing in this Magical Power Competition ate so much—weren't they just rice buckets?

Teacher Yan encouraged him, "You did very well this morning. Just do your best this afternoon. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Although Teacher Yan wished Zhang Yu would fight with four hundred percent concentration, she knew magical power circulation could not be rushed. One had to keep a calm mindset, or it could backfire.

Afraid that Zhang Yu would feel too much psychological pressure after placing in the second round that morning, she immediately came over to comfort him, hoping he could relax as much as possible during the competition.

Teacher Yan could not help calculating Zhang Yu's score in her heart.

"Eighty points in the first round, ninety-three in the second. One hundred seventy-three points total."

She raised her head and looked at the giant screen, sweeping her gaze from the first-place score of one hundred ninety-five down to the tenth-place score of one hundred seventy-six.

"If Zhang Yu can make up four points in the next round, he'll enter the top ten."

Four points did not sound like much, but Teacher Yan knew that in a high-difficulty, high-competition event like the Magic Competition, the higher the score, the harder every single point was to earn.

Especially when all thirty top students from the Three Great Famous Schools were fighting over those ten spots.

Thinking of that four-point gap, Teacher Yan could not help feeling slightly nervous. "It depends on what this final round tests."

Lunchtime soon ended, and the final round of the afternoon Magic Competition officially began.

The host stepped onto the stage and announced, "Learn Martial Arts, learn Dao Arts—come to Immortal Charm. Three hundred laboratories, one hundred masters of cultivation methods, focused on Immortal Dao education for one hundred years. We thank Immortal Charm Education Group for sponsoring this Magic Competition..."

Xianyun Corporation. Zhang Yu remembered that this company belonged to the Myriad Laws Sect. It was the very major corporation where he had taken trial cultivation work and obtained the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method.

He also remembered seeing Xianyun Corporation's Songyang City director at Li Xuelian's art exhibition.

A moment later, a complex Energy Circulation Diagram was handed to every competing student.

This was the content of the final round of the Magic Competition: following the routes in the Energy Circulation Diagram, transform one's own magical power into Special Magical Power.

At the same time, the Soul Cultivators' cameras had already covered the entire venue, ready to judge every contestant's condition at any moment and conveniently record the order in which they completed the assessment.

As the timer officially began, students had already started circulating their magical power according to the paths on the Energy Circulation Diagram.

Zhang Yu frowned slightly as he studied the routes on the diagram.

"This thing... seems to be a kind of Special Magical Power meant for combat."

Thanks to having the Level 10 Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method, Zhang Yu's control over magical power was extremely strong.

But the paths on the Energy Circulation Diagram before him were vastly different from the magical power cycle of the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method.

If the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method was an inward cycle, a method of improving oneself,

then the circulation paths on this diagram were a method of applying magical power outwardly, for combat.

He could tell that in terms of complexity, this circulation route was inferior to the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method.

Yet whether it was the circulation route itself or the techniques contained within it, everything differed enormously from the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method Zhang Yu knew so well.

Especially one technique of oscillation refinement—he had never encountered anything like it before.

"This Magic Competition has gone way too far beyond the syllabus."

And yet...

Zhang Yu looked at the Feather Scroll floating beside him and found that it had not changed in the slightest.

"Isn't this a cultivation method?"

"Then I can only force myself to practice it and see."

Zhang Yu drew upon the magical power in his dantian and began cautiously circulating it according to the Energy Circulation Diagram.

At the same time.

In Ziyun High School's section.

Lian Tianji looked toward Le Mulan in the distance. Seeing her confident appearance, he thought, The sacred first place in the grade will definitely achieve an outstanding result. All I need to do is avoid dragging her down and prop up our school's total score...

Le Mulan looked at the Energy Circulation Diagram before her and suddenly tilted her head. "I feel like I've done a similar question before."

"Let me think... this is the Body Protecting Qi from a Martial Dao cultivation method, isn't it?"

She circulated the magical power within her body, and sure enough, she began converting strands of magical power into the Special Magical Power shown on the Energy Circulation Diagram with practiced ease.

Body Protecting Qi was transformed from magical power. Within the Immortal Dao system established by the Ten Great Sects, it was considered a type of Special Magical Power belonging to the Martial Dao branch.

Le Mulan remembered that to transform magical power into Body Protecting Qi, one needed the step of Magical Power Oscillation. The stronger the quality of the Body Protecting Qi, the more oscillations were required.

"Every Magical Power Oscillation raises the quality of the astral qi formed from magical power, but it also makes it harder to control."

"Based on the instructions in this diagram, it should require seven Magical Power Oscillations before circulating it along the route..."

Suddenly, her brows knit slightly.

Listening to the muffled groans and cries of pain coming from nearby, she felt irritated by the noise. Some students had been injured while dissolving magical power in the previous round, and their injuries had yet to improve. The moment they began circulating their power, they aggravated those injuries.

"Can't these ordinary high school students take better healing medicine?"

"Even if they can't afford better healing medicine, can't they even afford decent painkillers?"

Then Le Mulan suddenly realized that the poor people from those ordinary High Schools might truly be unable to afford expensive painkillers.

This was the sound of poverty.

"It's affecting my exam."

But Le Mulan knew that the power of money could shut out the sound of poverty.

With a reach of her hand, she put on a pair of soundproof earmuffs worth tens of thousands. Feeling the surroundings finally fall quiet, a faint smile rose on her lips as she continued converting her magical power.

Over at White Dragon High School, Song Hailong stared at the Energy Circulation Diagram in his hands while the magical power throughout his body began circulating naturally, moving with his thoughts as though it were second nature and gradually aligning itself with the diagram's instructions.

Years of practicing magical power circulation while wearing a Heavenly Spiritual Root had made controlling magical power after taking it off feel as effortless as moving his fingers.

The problem before him was also one he had practiced many similar versions of, making his movements more skilled and his speed several points faster.

Boom!

A mass of magical power within his dantian suddenly scattered under intense oscillation, then Song Hailong slowly gathered it back together.

"First Magical Power Oscillation, complete!"

"Easy! Easy! Easy! Too easy!"

My parents possessed the finest genes, selected from thousands upon thousands.

I stopped sleeping from the age of five.

Now I'm eighteen. Every year since then, I've had the best performance, the highest scores, and the strongest physique among my Song Family peers! I'm also the only one among my peers who has never committed suicide, never grown sick of studying, and never suffered depression! I am the Song Family's ace son!

"You trash in this arena, what right do you have to fight me?"

At this moment, he was wholly focused, without the slightest Distracting Thought or distraction. All he wanted was to master the method in the diagram as quickly as possible and trample all the top students from the other two famous schools beneath his feet.

Meanwhile, at Red Pagoda High School, Xiong Bufan was sprawled before the Energy Circulation Diagram. His eyes were tightly shut, and his fluffy tail twitched faintly, as though his energy circulation had reached a critical moment.

Watching this, the competition coach thought, When Bufan's batch was still in the Breeding Base, they were given drugs from the womb. Before they entered high school, his physique had already proven the best among them.

When the school brought him over from the Breeding Base in the Protected Area, the toughness of the meridians in his body was already more than ten times that of ordinary students. No matter how hard he pushed his energy circulation, there was no need to worry about injury.

Ever since he enrolled, I've had him constantly train his magical power circulation speed.

He has also practiced Body Protecting Qi many times already.

This time, he will definitely be the first to master the Energy Circulation Diagram.

Mm, as expected, the Principal should naturalize more demons... no, I mean plan for more Demon Descendant students.

How could one possibly be enough? I think adding another four to the Competition Team would be no problem. Those leaders who insist on all-human teams are still too conservative. I heard the neighboring city already has an all-demon... all-Demon Descendant lineup.

Zhang Yu had to admit that without relevant training or prior preparation, winning a place in this round seemed very difficult to achieve.

Competition was not merely a contest of talent and ability. It was also a contest of the wealth, influence, and foundations standing behind them.

Damn it!

Was my competition journey ending here?

Zhang Yu! Are you about to lose to money?

Not far away, Teacher Yan saw Zhang Yu's troubled expression and sighed inwardly as well.

Then she swept her gaze over the other Songyang High School students. Seeing them drenched in sweat, pale-faced, or looking as if they were desperately trying to hold in a shit, Teacher Yan helplessly shook her head.

Songyang High School's students were already inferior to the top students of the Three Great Famous Schools. After failing to achieve results in the Magic Competition for a long time, the school had simply stopped investing in this area.

Without the school's investment, their Magic Competition results grew worse and worse. Naturally, the school became even less willing to invest. It was a vicious cycle.

Teacher Yan understood that without the school's full support and without relevant teaching or training, the two sides had never started from the same starting line.

Just then, a student suddenly raised his hand. "I need to use the bathroom."

Teacher Yan cursed inwardly. So you really did need to take a shit.

"Go, quickly!"

Just then, Teacher Yan suddenly heard the sound of sinews and bones ringing in unison beside her.

She turned around and discovered that Bai Zhenzhen was doing punches.

Had she already given up on herself? This was a contest of circulating magical power. What was she doing punching?

Zhang Yu was also drawn over by the sound of her punches. After one glance, he sighed inwardly. Sigh, A-Zhen has been driven mad.

Hm?

Suddenly, Zhang Yu felt that Bai Zhenzhen's punches seemed strangely familiar, as though they could combine with something.

This set of Martial Arts was simple, repeated back and forth, and consisted of only six moves. After watching it once, he suddenly realized something.

This set of Martial Arts seemed capable of working together with the Energy Circulation Diagram?

Seeing Limitless Cloud Hand Level 0 appear on the Feather Scroll, Zhang Yu wanted nothing more than to pick Bai Zhenzhen up and spin her in a circle.

"A-Zhen!"

"You're a saint!"

"You're Songyang High School's saintly savior!"

The Energy Circulation Diagram contained a method for circulating magical power, while Bai Zhenzhen's punches were external martial arts moves.

When the two were combined, they formed a complete combat martial art—Limitless Cloud Hand.

This was an Advanced Level Martial Dao cultivation method.

However, this cultivation method emphasized internal cultivation and downplayed external moves. Its key lay in applying magical power and transforming magical power into Body Protecting Qi. The six external moves were less moves than six examples of application.

This time, the Magic Competition had taken the Energy Circulation Diagram from it and used it alone as the test question.

For ordinary people, whether they had the external moves or not would not affect their learning of the Body Protecting Qi transformation method within it.

But for Zhang Yu, whether it was a complete cultivation method and whether it could appear on the Feather Scroll were worlds apart, as different as heaven and earth.

Zhang Yu did not know how Bai Zhenzhen had comprehended the external moves. He could only seize the time, immediately switch the Feather Scroll's Specialization to Limitless Cloud Hand, and begin practicing.

Limitless Cloud Hand Level 0 (0/1, 15.4/5 magical power)

Once!

Just let him practice it once! Even if it was riddled with mistakes, even if he practiced it in a complete mess, he would still be able to completely master this Limitless Cloud Hand!